Are National Platforms Appropriate Vehicles To Tackle Match-fixing? A Process Tracing Study in Six Countries

China's investment in the Global VET Teaching Resource Library is advancing pedagogical modernization through digital resources. The demand for digital skills, such as short-video production, has increased in journalism and communication as a result of media convergence. Nevertheless, an 'availability-applicability gap' persists: the presence of high-quality digital resources does not automatically translate into improved teaching tailored to local media contexts. This research employs process tracing, utilizing policy documents, platform data, 24 interviews, and 40 classroom observation hours across four Chongqing VET schools to demonstrate how these Libraries facilitate substantive curriculum reform. The process comprises four phases: (1) policy-driven provision, (2) teacher mediation, (3) pedagogical transformation, and (4) feedback and optimization. Teacher agency, defined as the capacity to adapt resources to local industry needs, emerges as a critical factor. This agency is strengthened by targeted professional development and robust feedback mechanisms. The study moves beyond a technology-centric perspective and proposes strategies for VET systems worldwide to bridge the gap between resource provision and effective implementation in media education.

The role for empirical research in management accounting

We all had papers and research proposals rejected invoking standards that, at least to the qualitative researcher, were clearly not applicable: no external validity; difficult to replicate; mere description; selection on the dependent variable(!). We know the list. As Small and Calarco point out, qualitative research’s purview is growing but “qualitative literacy” is not keeping pace. That is, the competency of “others” to assess the quality of qualitative research is often insufficient.

Process tracing method in the social sciences seek to assess hypothesized causal mechanisms in individual cases, but practitioners face a problem: How to use within-case evidence to evaluate singular causal relationships within hypothesized mechanism. This paper presents a partial solution to this problem by treating detailed features of the outcomes as observable consequences of the hypothesized causal relationships, given suitable auxiliary assumptions. This approach is then illustrated through analysis of a process-tracing study by Vesla Weaver. The paper concludes by examining how the feature-based approach relates to other frameworks for assessing singular causal claims.

Investigating the Political Economy of Social Protection Expansion in Africa: At the Intersection of Transnational Ideas and Domestic Politics

What explains sub-national variation in maternal mortality rates within developing countries? A political economy explanation.

This paper reports on analysis of data gathered in a multi-site, multi-researcher retrospective process tracing (RPT) study first described in Gumul and Herring (2022). A group of student interpreters in Poland and a group of experienced medical interpreters in the USA carried out a consecutive interpreting task followed by RPT. The RPT sessions were analyzed for evidence of online-self regulation, following the definition and analytical framework employed by Herring (2018). The paper discusses evidence of online monitoring of affect, behavior—note-taking technique, cognition—comprehension, and cognition—language transfer, and of online employment of control mechanisms—linguistic/interpreting strategies. It also discusses individual differences in retrospection style and the presence of introspective/ evaluative comments in RPT data.

The article offers a single case study of emergency governance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Using Interpretative Process Tracing, the paper studies how it became possible for decision makers to drastically change their interpretation concerning restrictions to mobility. The sources contain official documents, political speeches, and twenty-eight expert interviews. The paper concludes that in March 2020 the main mechanism manifested in the decision makers’ interpretations of the emergency was the securitisation of all human mobility, while in November 2021 this was replaced with state ignorance in pursuit of legitimacy through instrumental exploitation of uncertainty and intentional lack of knowledge.

The study robustly examines the role of the United Nations in South Sudanese state-building and failure. In South Sudanese state building, the United Nations family of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have been viewed to have built South Sudanese state through support to peace building and mediations, support to the states programmes and national programmes such as Governors forums and reconstruction activities of South Sudanese state. However, UNDP and UNMISS have failed South Sudanese state through associated regime change agenda. UNDP capacity sucking out in-lieu of capacity building demonstrated the UN desire to fail South Sudanese state. UNMISS’s biased role during 2013 political conflicts is seen as state failure strategy. This was revealed in 2014 when the UN marked Container Truck carrying goods to Bentiu was impounded by the SPLA and later found to be carrying ammunition. UNMISS failure to protect civilians during 2013 and 2016 conflicts was viewed as an act of state failure of South Sudan. On methodology, the study used primary and secondary sources in understanding the role played by UN in South Sudanese state-building and failure. Primary data include the use of questionnaires and interviews in tapping the understanding of the role played by UNDP and UNMISS in state building and failure of South Sudan. Secondary sources include the use of empirical literature review in deeply understanding the UN’s hand in South Sudanese state-building and failure. The study used a sample size of 200 respondents with sample types of persuasive and cluster sampling combined. The study also combines process tracing and case study methods to contextualize and validate causal chains and empirical casual processes of the UN role in South Sudanese state-building and failure The results of the study indicate that the United Nations and particularly, the UNMISS negligently contributed to South Sudanese state failure than building through its strategy to stay neutral and above all, its failure to protect civilians in the 2013 and 2016 political conflicts. Finally, the study concludes on the need of South Sudanese Government to take its constitutional role in providing development services and protect its citizens in the eventuality of political violence and civil war in South Sudan. The study recommends future research on how the UN family (UNDP and UNMISS) and Government of South Sudan can improve their working relationships for sustainable state building and prosperity of South Sudanese citizens.

The purpose of this thesis was to address the issue of non-compliance with international child labor standards in the Indian case. In order to do this I took a social constructivist approach to analyzing and explaining human behavior, utilizing methods of process tracing and secondary case study analysis. I first looked at why states ratifY treaties embodying international child labor standards but fail to comply with them. I then evaluated the viability of the popular legal positivist proposal to bring about compliance by linking non-compliance with economic sanctions. My findings demonstrated that the reason for non-compliance is that there are strong norms within the Indian social structure which support the practice of child labor, in direct contrast to the international treaties prohibiting child labor. Thus, I concluded that the linkage of non-compliance and economic sanctions would be ineffective because sanctions would do little to address the cause of the non-compliance.