Policy Studies

Incidental exposure to no-smoking signs primes craving for cigarettes

by Brian Earp

Earp, B. D., Dill, B., Harris, J., Ackerman, J., and Bargh, J. (2011). Incidental exposure to no-smoking signs primes craving for cigarettes: An ironic effect of unconscious semantic processing? Yale Review of Undergraduate Research in Psychology, Vol 2, No 1, 12-23.

The present study tests whether incidental exposure to no-smoking signs may ironically boost craving for cigarettes in... more The present study tests whether incidental exposure to no-smoking signs may ironically boost craving for cigarettes in smokers. Smokers viewed photographs in which no-smoking signs were either incon- spicuously embedded (prime) or edited out (control). Participants then used a joystick to make quick approach vs. avoid motions while viewing smoking-related and neutral stimuli on a computer screen (Chen & Bargh, 1999). We hypothesized that primed smokers, but not controls, would show an automatic reach bias toward the smoking-related stimuli. The data supported our prediction. Possible mechanisms for the effect are discussed, as well as implications for public health policy, negation-based social campaigns in general, and our understanding of the unconscious processing of semantic information.

Threats Without Threateners? Exploring Intersections of Threats to the Global Commons and National Security

by Erik Nemeth

Co-authored with Gregory F. Treverton and Sinduja Srinivasan

View abstract at:  View abstract at:  http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP360

Policy Towards Gender Equality in Science and Research

by Jörg Müller

Müller, J., Castaño, C., Gonzalez, A., Palmén, R. (2011). Policy Towards Gender Equality in Science and Research. Brussels Economic Review, 54/2-3), pp.295-316

The following article summarizes the meta-analysis of policies towards gender equality in science and research across... more The following article summarizes the meta-analysis of policies towards gender equality in science and research across Europe spanning the years 1980 to 2008. Observed overarching trends in the research literature are summarized, including the impact of higher education restructuring on gender equality in science and research and measures for advancing women's science careers. The article closes by stressing three key challenges: first, the integration of gender policy assessment with theories of social change; second, the gendering of innovation policy; and third, re-addressing the question of power and political struggle in relation to policy.

Governing the present

by Jack Bratich

Co-authored with Jeremy Packer, and Cameron McCarthy.

Introduction to the collection:
Foucault, Cultural Studies, and Governmentality
Editors: Jack Z. Bratich, Jeremy Packer, and Cameron McCarthy.
(SUNY Press, 2003, pp. 3-21)

The science and policy behind proposed sea turtle conservation measures

by Lekelia "Kiki" Jenkins

published in 'Endangered Species Update', 2002

In recent months, two major actions have been initiated that may change the landscape of sea turtle conservation... more
In recent months, two major actions have been initiated that may change the landscape of sea turtle conservation and potentially ignite controversy. The first action involves an October 2001 proposal by the National Marine Fisheries Service to substantially amend Turtle Excluder Device regula-tions. The extended public comment period for this proposal concluded on February 15, 2002. In the other action, two environmental groups jointly filed a petition on January 10, 2002, to list certain subpopulations of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) as endangered. Both the petition and the proposal result from public concern and scientific evidence that current conservation mea-sures are not sufficient to allow recovery of some sea turtle populations, mostly likely loggerhead and perhaps leatherback and green turtles as well.

Being around and knowing the players: Networks of influence in health policy

by Jenny Lewis

Published in Social Science and Medicine 2006, 62, 2125-2136.

Why does cultural policy change? Policy discourse and policy subsystem: a case study of the evolution of cultural policy in Catalonia

by Nicolás Barbieri

Barbieri, N. (2012), Why does cultural policy change? Policy discourse and policy subsystem: a case study of the evolution of cultural policy in Catalonia, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 18 (1), 13-30

Culture has come to play a fundamental strategic role in the territorial development that seeks to integrate knowledge... more Culture has come to play a fundamental strategic role in the territorial development that seeks to integrate knowledge economy with social cohesion, governance and sustainability. However, cultural policies have been unable to respond to the dilemmas and expectations that this new order presents. In order to appreciate the consequences of this process, it is essential to gain a better understanding of cultural policy change dynamics. This article develops a framework for analysing cultural policy stability and change and applies it to the evolution of cultural policy in Catalonia. Both policy continuity and change are conditioned by the evolution of policy discourse on culture and the characteristics of the cultural policy subsystem. Within this framework, this article also takes into account the role of factors that are exogenous to the cultural domain. Lastly, this article addresses particular characteristics of cultural policy change in regions or stateless nations.

Shifting Paradigms?: Mapping Policy Change in the Wake of the Financial Crisis

by Matthew Wood

To be presented at the ECPR General Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, 'After the Crisis, After the Market?' Panel 486, 27th August 2011

In Europe, the financial crisis heralded only temporary state intervention followed by a backlash of ‘austerity’... more In Europe, the financial crisis heralded only temporary state intervention followed by a backlash of ‘austerity’ policies. This surprising policy ‘stasis’ raises the question of how academics and reformists can conceptualise how more wholesale change may occur. This paper hence sets out a conceptual model of wholesale policy change using the concepts of policy paradigms, (de)politicisation, and ‘macro’, ‘meso’ and ‘micro’ politicisation. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section frames the problem of stasis and wholesale change using Hall’s concept of ‘policy paradigms’, arguing that its roots in Historical Institutionalism make it especially apt in light of the financial crisis. The second section uses the concepts of (de)politicisation to conceptualise how a policy paradigm change may occur. It draws from scholars such as Gamble, Hay and Jenkins to create a multidimensional concept, which, it is suggested, allows us to analyse the ‘political’ drivers of paradigm shifts as opposed to dominant ‘social learning’ accounts. Section three drills deeper into specific politicisation strategies, distinguishing between ‘macro’, meso’ and ‘micro’ politicisation strategies at different societal ‘levels’. It is argued that this helps explicate how political actors inside and outside the state may affect paradigm shifts. Section four demonstrates the utility of the framework using the example of wholesale policy change in Britain from ‘welfare’ to ‘workfare’ state. The article concludes that this framework is useful both for scholars to plot and analyse the political dynamics of wholesale policy change and for reformists as a map to guide political action.

School choice and diversity: What the evidence says

by Janelle Scott

Click on download to see all publications

by Jude Walker

Soft Sell: Translating the Affective and the Personal through Libertarian Paternalism

by Andrew Wilkins

Under Review.

Following the financial collapse in 2008-09 many commentators went onto pronounce the end of neoliberalism as a... more Following the financial collapse in 2008-09 many commentators went onto pronounce the end of neoliberalism as a credible system for managing welfare state capitalism. The narrow economic belief in individuals as rational utility maximizers (the linchpin of neoliberal governmentality) was also proved to be less than accurate. Instead humans need to be understood as ‘predictably irrational’, according to behavioural psychologists. Responding to these claims, the British coalition government commissioned the publication of key research and policy documents promoting the use of soft forms of state power to nudge citizens into behaving more responsibly and rationally. Through an analysis of key policy documents and academic texts, the first section of this paper traces the repertoires and formulations shaping this emerging governmental rationality, otherwise known as libertarian paternalism. Particular attention is paid to the conceptual and analytical frameworks informing libertarian paternalism, namely neuroeconomics, cognitive psychology and social marketing. In the second section I draw together these ideas to discuss their effects in terms of framing popular and policy understandings of the personal and the affective. I conclude the paper by utilizing Wetherell’s (2012) notion of ‘affective practice’ to rethink policy understandings of emotion as automated and unreflexive, and instead explore a view of emotion as a figuration whose performance is inextricably linked to the productive power of semiotic, discursive and material resources.

Embodiment, citizenship and social policy in contemporary Japan

by Vera Mackie

Roger Goodman (ed.) Family and Social Policy in Japan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002

Musulmani e finanza in Europa

by Ermete Mariani

Politica Internazionale, N. 1-2/3, gennaio – giugno 2005, pag. 49-52, Ipalmo, Roma

La finanza islamica è un fenomeno internazionale la cui valenza economica, politica e sociale non è più trascurabile.... more La finanza islamica è un fenomeno internazionale la cui valenza economica, politica e sociale non è più trascurabile. Nata quarant’anni fa con una piccola cassa di risparmio rurale nel Delta del Nilo, dagli anni ’90 i più grandi gruppi finanziari arabi e occidentali, fra cui HSBC e Citigroup, investono ampiamente secondo i principi islamici. Dopo essersi consolidata nel mondo arabo e musulmano, adesso è il mercato europeo che sembra attirare l’interesse degli istituti di credito e servizi finanziari islamici, per le sue potenzialità di crescita.

Al fine di capire le cause dell’emergenza della finanza islamica in Europa e le sue possibili conseguenze politiche ci sembra necessario insistere su diversi elementi: i fattori politici e sociali interni alla Comunità europea, gli eventi internazionali, così come i limiti strutturali e le potenzialità di questo settore.

From Morality to Risk and ‘Nudge’: Changing Languages of Contemporary Policy from ‘Extreme Pornography’, to Alcohol and Violent Video Games

by Adam Burgess

A preliminary draft - to be very substantially revised in June 2011

This article reflects on the complaint from UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, that moral language has been displaced... more This article reflects on the complaint from UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, that moral language has been displaced by one framed by risk and harm minimization, an emphasis that discourages the assumption of individual responsibility. The pervasive language of risk in public life remains unexplored and is situated here in the trajectory towards ‘causalist’ argument more generally, and a discrediting of moral language that is particularly marked in the UK. Risk framing is not more liberal, however, and is better understood as a recasting of moralization more appropriate to an individualistic and science-based culture, the foundations for which were laid by the last Conservative government. Examination of recent policy discourse in controversial areas of ‘extreme’ pornography, alcohol control and violent computer games affirms the predominance of risk language and its formal effectiveness. But the lack of public impact made by such initiatives also indicates the problem that instrumental language doesn’t address the problem of engagement or responsibility. The Conservatives embracing of the behavioural economics of ‘nudge’ suggests an acceptance that moral constraint is ineffective and behaviour can only be encouraged through manipulation rather than public discourse. Whilst examining the language of risk and morality issue in the British context, implications are not confined to the UK.

Assumptions of global beneficence: Health-care disparity, the WHO and the outcomes of integrative health-care policy at local levels in the Philippines

by Paul Kadetz

Traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (or heterodox health care) functions as the primary source of... more Traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (or heterodox health care) functions as the primary source of health care for a majority of populations in low-income countries. The World Health Organization has promoted the integration of heterodox health-care practices and practitioners into formal state and local biomedical health-care systems. Heretofore, the literature has assumed the beneficence of this policy in reducing health-care disparity, without assessing the outcomes of this policy’s implementation. This research examines the impact of health-care integration policy on local health care in communities in four municipalities in the Philippines. Communities in two municipalities that implemented health-care integration (top-down and bottom-up) were compared with two municipalities that did not implement health-care integration. A qualitative design of data collection was utilised. Convenience samples (n=500) of community members, community leaders, health-care providers and key policy actors participated in semi-structured interviews and focus groups to assess the changes in community health-care systems and in community health-care access following health-care integration. The assumptions of beneficence of health-care integration are not supported by this research. Furthermore, this research suggests that health-care integration may not be beneficial to communities if implemented in a manner that ignores the particular needs of a given local context.


Keywords:

global health-care policy; integrative medicine; traditional, complementary and alternative medicine; traditional birth attendants; the World Health Organization; the Philippines

“Uluslar Arası Politika Yakınsaması: Kavramsal Çerçeve”, Ankara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi, 63 (3), 2008, s. 145-159.

by zahid sobaci

“Yönetişim ve Politika Transferi: Koşulsallık Bağlamında Bir Analiz” [Governance and Policy Transfer: An Analysis Within the Framework of Conditionality], Yönetişim: Kuram, Boyutlar, Uygulama (Ed. Mehmet Akif Çukurçayır, Hülya Ekşi Uğuz ve H. Tuğba Eroğlu), Konya: Çizgi Kitabevi, 2010, s. 311-339.

by zahid sobaci

Centre for Multilevel Federalism

by Balveer Arora

Introducing the Centre for Multilevel Federalism

Diversity and Unity in the Republic of India

by Balveer Arora

Chapter in the Forum of Federations Global Dialogue Series on 'Diversity and Unity in Federal Countries', McGill University Press, 2010

Involving policymakers in research partnership: The MOTILL project experience

by Robert Farrow

Co-authored with Giovanni Fulantelli

We discuss the experience of working with policymakers to disseminate the research findings of the MOTILL project, an... more We discuss the experience of working with policymakers to disseminate the research findings of the MOTILL project, an EU funded project for research into mobile lifelong learning.  We explain the rationale for the research, outline the challenges involved and describe our strategies for effective dissemination to policymakers.