Public Policy Agenda Research Articles

‘Oil complex’ and social responsibility theory of the media: Shaping Nigeria’s environmental discourse with social media

Abstract The aim of this article is to explore how social media can be used to effectively bring behavioural change and rational opinion about ‘oil complex’ in Nigeria’s Niger delta region for a more sustainable future. Second, this article argues that social media can also be used as a medium to shape public opinion, pluralistic views and policy agenda about challenges posed by ‘oil complex’. This process resonates with the social responsibility function of the media. While mainstream or traditional media perceptibly steer clear of reporting issues that highly challenge corporate interests, which have strong links with these media outlets, social media can be a platform for critical and balanced reportage of social and environmental issues for diversity of views to be aired. The media’s role in this sense will help manage problems associated with ‘oil complex’ for a more sustainable future in the region.

The spaces that smart growth makes: sustainability, segregation, and residential change across Greater Seattle

Sometimes interwoven in metropolitan practice, the discourses of sustainability, smart growth, and New Urbanism (NU) share a number of policy assumptions about the appropriate geographical anatomy of regulatory regimes and infrastructure investments. An important research question is how these policy assumptions relate empirically to extant geographies of racial and economic segregation within specific metropolitan regions. This paper addresses this question with empirical reference to Greater Seattle, one of the country’s most important “containment” regimes in which sustainability, smart growth, and NU are each valorized public policy agendas. Using residential permit data in the 1990s and 2000s, the analysis highlights the heterogeneous nature of the emergent landscapes of smart growth. In the new morphology of smart growth landscapes, density, (de)segregation, class, race, land recycling, regional-scale compactness, and other key dynamics appear to be combining in complex and at times surprising ways.

Health literacy among university students in Greece: determinants and association with self-perceived health, health behaviours and health risks.

BackgroundHealth literacy is widely considered as a key determinant of health and a priority in the public health policy agenda. Low health literacy has been associated with poorer health states, broader inequalities and higher health systems’ costs. In the present study we bring into focus the functional health literacy among university students in Greece, researching and assessing mainly their ability to apply basic knowledge in a health context.MethodsThe study was carried out during the period 15–30 April 2013, among a random sample of 1,526 students of 14 Higher Tertiary Public universities and Technological Educational Institutes in Greece. The objective of the study was to assess the functional health literacy among university students in Greece, adopting the short four-item comprehension test of Bostock and Steptoe. Summary statistics, correlations and regressions were used to assess the determinants of health literacy and the association with self-perceived health, health behaviours and health risks.ResultsEconomic factors, such as family income, demographic factors, such as gender, and health behaviours and risks, namely consumption of alcohol, smoking and physical workout are associated with the level of health literacy and health status of the participant. While the results of the study are consistent with previous work in this area, several findings worth further research.ConclusionsThough, health promotion interventions in Greece include health literacy as one of the basic pillars of the public health policy agenda, it is clear, that health literacy needs to become a key policy issue in Greece, mainly focusing in young ages, where healthy (or unhealthy) behaviours are established affecting the health through the life span.

Diffusion and usage of public e-services in Europe: An assessment of country level indicators and drivers

We analyze the state of the art of indicators on e-government, e-health, e-procurement and e-participation. We survey the main methodological properties of these indicators, and highlight their heuristic potential. Further, we address empirically the issue of the explanation of the availability scores, i.e. how the supply of the various e-services in each country is affected by political, institutional and socio-economic differences, and is followed by actual usage. The econometric analysis uncovers the importance of broadband penetration and higher education as drivers for most of the types of e-services and users (citizens and businesses). Moreover, a corruption-free and agile public sector proves to be an important pre-condition for more effective supply and usage. Despite data limitations and the complexity of the underlying diffusion phenomena, our study is the first truly longitudinal contribution aimed at disentangling the common drivers of such an important phenomenon – the e-services availability and usage across European countries. As such, this work appears useful to inform the policy debate and practice, in a phase characterized by a prospective reorientation of the public e-services provision and policy agenda.

PHP123 - Perspective Of Social Participation In The Evaluation Process Of Incorporating Technology In Health Care

The Brazilian Public Health System (SUS) was established in 1988, thereby ensuring that the citizen universal right to health, having as one of its principles to the participation or social control. The performance of the SUS in the field of evaluation and incorporation of new technologies represents the public interest as defined by universal policies are committed to the equity and based on scientific knowledge consistent. The year of 2011 represented a breakthrough in transparency and social participation in the process of incorporating technology with the publication of Law no. 12,401, of 28/04/2011, which has set up a National Commission for the Incorporation of Technology in the SUS/CONITEC. The aim of this study was to identify in the participation of public consultations of CONITEC, the civil society participation, public and private institutions. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study, which was developed from the analysis of technical reports of Conitec which related to public consultation by the committee were extracted data to support decision-making on technology incorporation in SUS. In the years 2012 and 2013, 78 public consultations and more than 4,182 contributions were examined by CONITEC published arising from health care institutions, patient association, educational institutions, medical societies, etc, that recommended to incorporate 64 new technologies in the SUS. The Ministry of Health, responsible for enforcement of the law n. 12.401, use systematically the public consultations as the instrument to gather contributions from segments of society in their process work. To the extent that such participation is intended to subsidize the decision about incorporating technology in the SUS, there are significant gains in building the public policy agenda, adding legitimacy and transparency in government decision-making.

Faith-based social action below the radar: a study of the UK charismatic-evangelical urban church

This article presents the findings of a study of an under-researched type of faith group whose activities in socially and economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods have often fallen ‘below the radar’ in previous studies of faith-based social action. UK charismatic-evangelical churches are presented as a type of church that, while historically suburban, has begun to significantly engage with deprived urban areas over the past two decades. Drawing on a recent qualitative study, the article suggests that the experience of charismatic-evangelical churches challenges established understandings of faith-based social action in two significant regards. The first concerns the coexistence of two contrasting modes of operation – ‘service provider’ and ‘intentional community’. The second concerns the evangelistic or conversion-oriented intentions that charismatic-evangelical churches bring to social action. These findings cast fresh light on the changing face of UK faith-based social action and raise challenging questions for faith groups’ engagement with wider public policy agendas.

Australia’s Digital Policy Agenda

Children’s engagement with online technologies may seem second nature, yet the impact that the Internet has on their lives is shaped by a powerful public policy agenda that largely overlooks children’s interests. Australia’s digital policy framework is dominated by discourses of safety and risk on the one hand and, on the other, neoliberal arguments about the possibilities for economic growth offered by e-commerce. In the midst of such powerful discourses it is difficult for children’s voices to be heard. This paper offers a close textual analysis of the Australian public policy context for regulating cyberspace. Finding a discursive duopoly that overlooks children’s interests, the author identifies two key features of a rights-based approach to challenge the dominant narratives currently serving the interests of the private sector and the State.

In their own words: What bothers children online?

In an open-ended survey question to European 9- to 16-year-olds, some 10,000 children reported a range of risks that concern them on the internet. Pornography (named by 22% of children who mentioned risks), conduct risk such as cyber-bullying (19%) and violent content (18%) were at the top of children’s concerns. The priority given to violent content is noteworthy insofar as this receives less attention than sexual content or bullying in awareness-raising initiatives. Many children express shock and disgust on witnessing violent, aggressive or gory online content, especially that which graphically depicts realistic violence against vulnerable victims, including from the news. Video-sharing websites such as YouTube were primary sources of violent and pornographic content. The findings discussed in relation to children’s fear responses to screen media and the implications for the public policy agenda on internet safety are identified.

The progressive future of evaluation

In this article I will speculate about the future of evaluation. But before doing so I will look in the rear view mirror and look at the road we have already travelled. Recollecting in tranquillity is an occupational disease: as evaluators we are mandated to evaluate evaluation. We do so for formative as well as summative reasons. As the world changes evaluation policy directions must be reconsidered. Adaptation of paradigms, processes and practices has been a constant throughout evaluation history. For example over the past decade, international development evaluation emphases were completely transformed to reflect a comprehensive public policy agenda focused on human well being in line with the global aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals1. Greater rigour in impact assessment is being emphasized once constraints on aid budgets became more strict and demanding2. But the world does not stand still and the ground under us is again shifting. We are about to enter a new evaluation age. Where are we going and where are we coming from?

The emergence of a global right to health norm--the unresolved case of universal access to quality emergency obstetric care.

BackgroundThe global response to HIV suggests the potential of an emergent global right to health norm, embracing shared global responsibility for health, to assist policy communities in framing the obligations of the domestic state and the international community. Our research explores the extent to which this global right to health norm has influenced the global policy process around maternal health rights, with a focus on universal access to emergency obstetric care.MethodsIn examining the extent to which arguments stemming from a global right to health norm have been successful in advancing international policy on universal access to emergency obstetric care, we looked at the period from 1985 to 2013 period. We adopted a qualitative case study approach applying a process-tracing methodology using multiple data sources, including an extensive literature review and limited key informant interviews to analyse the international policy agenda setting process surrounding maternal health rights, focusing on emergency obstetric care. We applied John Kingdon's public policy agenda setting streams model to analyse our data.ResultsKingdon’s model suggests that to succeed as a mobilising norm, the right to health could work if it can help bring the problem, policy and political streams together, as it did with access to AIDS treatment. Our analysis suggests that despite a normative grounding in the right to health, prioritisation of the specific maternal health entitlements remains fragmented.ConclusionsDespite United Nations recognition of maternal mortality as a human rights issue, the relevant policy communities have not yet managed to shift the policy agenda to prioritise the global right to health norm of shared responsibility for realising access to emergency obstetric care. The experience of HIV advocates in pushing for global solutions based on right to health principles, including participation, solidarity and accountability; suggest potential avenues for utilising right to health based arguments to push for policy priority for universal access to emergency obstetric care in the post-2015 global agenda.

System Failures, Knowledge Bases and Regional Innovation Policies

Regional innovation strategies rank at the top of public policy agendas today. There is a widespread consensus in both academic and policy circles that standardized “best practice” innovation policy models suffer from severe limitations and major shortcomings. The recent literature is replete with claims that regional innovation policies should be placebased and context-sensitive, taking into consideration the specificities of regions and their distinctive preconditions and capacities for innovation. Various conceptual approaches and theories support such a view. This paper discusses two concepts that have a particularly strong potential for informing customized regional innovation policies: the regional innovation system (RIS) approach and the knowledge base concept. The RIS literature highlights the importance of the organizational and institutional setting of a region and suggests that system deficiencies or failures should constitute the starting point for designing regional innovation policies. The differentiated knowledge base approach stresses that regional industries can differ strongly in their underlying knowledge bases and, as a consequence, in their policy needs. We elaborate on the policy implications that originate from these concepts and argue that tailor-made regional innovation policies should consider both region-specific institutional set-ups and knowledge bases. Focusing on peripheral regions, we outline how such an integrated framework can inform customized regional innovation policies.

Out on the street: A public health and policy agenda for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth who are homeless.

A disproportionate number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth experience homelessness each year in the United States. LGBT youth who are homeless have particularly high rates of mental health and substance use problems, suicidal acts, violent victimization, and a range of HIV risk behaviors. Given the intense needs of LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, it is imperative to understand their unique experiences and develop responsive practices and policies. The range and severity of health risks vary across subgroups of all homeless LGBT youth, and because the population is nonhomogeneous, their particular needs must be identified and addressed. Thus, the purpose of this article is to review the causes of homelessness among LGBT youth, discuss the mental health and victimization risks faced by this population, address differences among homeless LGBT subgoups, and recommend effective interventions and best practices. The authors conclude by discussing promising future research and public policy directions.

Natural Monopoly, Public Trust and Vested Interests: Case of Power Sector in Pakistan

The advent of neo-liberalism in the last quarter of 20th century was a landmark development in the modern history of economic activity. One of the major features of the neo-liberalist counter-revolution, as opposed to the Keynesian interventionist revolution, was privatization of public utilities which were globally operating as natural monopolies in the state sector. The biggest of the latter universally existed in the power sector. Notwithstanding the global wave of power sector reforms and persistent deficit of financial resources and public trust in the corresponding sector of Pakistan, reforms of GENCOs and privatization of DISCOs in the country remain an unfulfilled promise and a wishful thinking respectively. This paper looks into the factors justifying the privatization of state monopolies in the power sector world over and attempts to make a similar case for Pakistan, advocating a consistent, gradual and sustainable process of reforms to protect societal welfare, save on public resources and help boost up industrial production. It is argued that vested interests are having formidable strongholds in the power sector of Pakistan, while economic theory and universal empirical evidence no longer favor the monopoly in electricity generation and distribution. The findings of study lead to the conclusion that world of 21st century is being led by enterprising investors with bags full of money and a preparedness to welcome risk wherever the niche exists in the market. It is recommended that tangibly concrete efforts should be made to build up the confidence of domestic and foreign investors in the profitability potential of large scale industry of Pakistan; specifically, power sector reforms ought to be the frontline item of public policy agenda, given the current state of affairs regarding electricity supply to domestic and commercial users.

Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology: The Magic of Our Connection

Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology: The Magic of Our Connection

The Impact of Companion Animals on Social Capital and Community Violence: Setting Research, Policy and Program Agendas

The term social capital has been used to describe the networks and other forces that build social cohesion, personal investment, reciprocity, civic engagement, and interpersonal trust among residents in a community. With the exception of three Australian reports describing positive associations between companion animal ownership and social capital, the literature has neglected to include the presence or absence of companion animal residents of communities as factors that could potentially affect social capital and serve as protective factors for community well-being. Companion animals are present in significantly large numbers in most communities, where they have considerable economic impact and provide emotional and physiologic health benefits and social support to their owners. Companion animals may mitigate the stresses of urban living and counteract what has been called “nature-deficit disorder.” Conversely, they may also be the victims of cruelty, abuse and neglect which can adversely affect the quality of life and social capital of a community. Efforts to measure the impact of companion animals on social capital are constrained by a lack of accurate data on companion animal populations and by gaps in our knowledge of attitudes toward companion animal ownership, particularly in communities of color. An agenda for research, public policy and programmatic activities to address these gaps is proposed to help determine whether the resilience and protective factors which companion animals can offer individuals extend to community populations as well.

A Strategy for Scaling-Up Intensive Silvopastoral Systems in Colombia

Silvopastoral systems (SPS) enhance milk and meat production and are instrumental for the productive rehabilitation of degraded lands. Intensive silvopastoral systems (ISPS) combine fodder shrubs planted at high densities (>10,000 plants ha−1), trees and pastures. Scaling-up such systems requires incentives to address financial and knowledge barriers. In Colombia, the strategy for scaling-up SPS has combined five elements. First, participatory research on real farms contributed to optimize SPS in different agroecosystems and strengthened a network of pilot farms open to research and peer-to-peer technology transfer. Second, capacity building, training, and outreach activities spread the principles of SPS among farmers, field workers, researchers, extension workers, and policy makers. Third, pilot projects explored the role of incentives such as Payment for Environmental Services (PES), technical assistance, soft loans and bonus prices, in spreading SPS. Fourth, successful pilot projects were instrumental in influencing the livestock sector as well as the public policy agenda. Fifth, currently, large-scale projects aimed at mainstreaming SPS are applying the lessons learned in order to achieve landscape-scale benefits, enhance climate change adaptation and mitigation, and introduce SPS products to green markets. Recently, innovation networks have contributed to speed up the adaptation of SPS in different environmental and socioeconomic contexts.

Environmental gerontology: making meaningful places in old age

The environments in which people live out their later lives have a strong impact on their identity and opportunities for nourishing social interactions. This volume synthesizes contemporary research on residential environments and public spaces that enhance well being, and provides practical recommendations for the design of such beneficial community environments that encompass private and public spaces. With contributions from researchers in North America, Europe, and Asia, the text bridges the worlds of research and practice by translating the expanding body of environmental gerontology research into applied contexts. It is grounded in conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of current research on place attachment, environmental meaning, and community living in later life. Emphasis is on how to design residential spaces that facilitate the development of a sense of place or home, and investigation into the kinds of lifestyles such spaces foster and support. A major theme pervading the text is the juxtaposition of private and public space. The book also considers how emerging public policy agendas affect the development and management of environments for the elderly. With its strong interdisciplinary focus, Environmental Gerontology will be of interest to senior undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers in environmental gerontology, community planning, occupational therapy, architecture and the design professions, social policy, and public health.

Coalition portfolios and interest group influence over the policy process

An interest group coalition exists whenever two or more interest groups collaborate in advocating their public policy agendas. Working together in coalition is one of the most common tactics that interest groups use to advance their interests in the policy process. The extant literature on coalitions emphasizes interest group decisions to participate or not in one coalition, or their strategy toward coalitions in general, but gives insufficient attention to interest group participation in multiple coalitions. To rectify this deficit, this article examines the implications of groups’ participation in multiple coalitions for their ability to influence the policy process. In order to account for interest group involvement in multiple coalitions, we introduce the concept of the coalition portfolio, which is the set of all coalitions within a given area of public policy in which an interest group participates at a particular point in time. The portfolio concept recognizes that interest groups may have a wide variety of coalition strategies depending on the mix of coalitions that they join. Variations in the structure of these portfolios matter both to interest groups and to policymakers. Moreover, coalition portfolios evolve over time as coalitions form and dissolve, and as political conditions adjust over the course of the policy process. We develop and test hypotheses that the change in the composition of coalition portfolios increases the influence of interest groups over public policy when: (i) the number of coalitions in a group’s portfolio gets larger; (ii) the average size of the coalitions in a group’s portfolio gets larger or smaller; and (iii) a group’s portfolio improves its position within the overall network of coalitions. Network position is measured based on the betweenness of interest groups in coalition networks, which gives higher scores to groups that lie on the shortest paths between other groups. We test these hypotheses while accounting for other explanations for interest group influence, including: (i) the group’s position in communication networks; (ii) the group’s number of registered lobbyists working on Medicare; (iii) whether or not the group has a Political Action Committee; (iv) the extent to which a group’s lobbying contacts lean toward one political party; (v) whether or not the group endorsed the legislation in question; (vi) the organization’s age in years; and (vii) whether the group is a citizens advocacy organization, a business advocacy organization or some other organizational type. We evaluate these hypotheses using a study of 115 interest groups involved in the enactment and implementation of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. This legislation established an outpatient prescription drug benefit in Medicare – a government health insurance program for the elderly and disabled in the United States – and made other significant changes to the program. We conducted personal interviews with representatives of 102 of these groups. We analyzed data resulting from these interviews using negative binomial and ordinary least squares regression models. The results support Hypothesis (iii); groups gain influence over the policy process when their coalition portfolios increase the extent to which they are situated between other groups in the coalition network. However, interest groups are limited in the extent to which they can create portfolios that have desirable levels of betweenness because network position is also a function of membership decisions made by all other groups in the network. These results provide insight into how the composition of coalition portfolios affects the ability of interest groups to exert influence over the policy process. This analysis is most directly applicable to policy debates over complex pieces of legislation.

Resistance, Engagement, and Heritage Conservation by Voluntary Sector: The Case of Penang in Malaysia

AbstractAn enduring question with regard to the voluntary sector is how it can nurture civic engagement and provide public goods. A World Heritage listing for Penang highlights this question by revealing a vibrant civil society network that has made heritage conservation an issue for public discourse and policy agenda. This paper discusses how the marginalized trajectory of Penang is related to the development of its civic realm, social cohesion and local identity, which are sources of Penang's voluntarism. It then examines the engagement pattern of the Penang Heritage Trust, a leading association, which has mounted resistance against the state's failure in heritage provision. This bottom-up approach has preserved Penang's cultural heritage and associated identity, and reveals the distinct nature and capacity of Penang's voluntary sector that goes against the general pattern in Malaysia.

<b> O discurso expansivo-punitivo dos meios de comunicação e sua influência na formação da agenda de políticas públicas de combate à criminalidade de crianças e adolescentes no Brasil </b> - doi: 10.5102/rbpp.v3i1.2162

The research aims to demonstrate the connections between the punitive-expansive discourse, used by the media as a possible factor influencing public policies to combat criminality, focused on restriction of children and adolescents, the opportunity for a critique of the posture adopted in Brazil regarding the treatment of some social demands. The study performs a de epening of connections between fundamental rights and the media, and the Constitution is the central matrix; presents the new vision for support the rights of children and adolescents, abandoning the repressive optical and passing to a social-educational bias, allied with its implementation by public policy; Finally, intend do a critical or reproach on the responsibilities of the media (abuse of discourse of fear / risk) or the irresponsibility of affectation of public policy, in particular, connecting different legal perspectives, how the criminal sphere and childhood. It was used the deductive approach method, based on parameters (general) of the constitutional dictates, exposed to problematic (specific) contained in the national media; it was also used the monographic procedure method and the research technique of indirect documentation. As a result it was found affectation of formation of the public policy agenda with speech punitive, damaging the demands of child and adolescent, front of alleged “child criminality”. This conclusion demonstrates the need for filtering information by public managers, in order to reduce the damage from expansive-punitive influence on public policies focused on childhood, and to do that the critical and careful eyes of doctrine is indispensable, justifying the effort employed here.