Aspects Of Public Policy Research Articles

Project PROGRESS

Project PROGRESS (Promoting Renewable energy research On the Grid to create Responsible STEM workforce in Solar Sustainability) is a unique first-time multidisciplinary program that provides an ideal opportunity for all participants, including students, faculty, and the workforce in the state to learn through experience and research. Students in this course are charged to develop innovative ideas to grow and sustain renewable energy research in the commonwealth of Virginia through a hands-on, experiential, and project-based approach. This project has helped to promote the much needed awareness of the importance of community-based solar energy by engaging various stake-holders in studying its impact and assessing its benefits, while supporting and encouraging solar energy growth in Virginia. The Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Dominion Power (Virginia), funded this experimental STEM course.The two principle outcomes of this project include: (a) Engaging students in a new hands-on course that will be developed called “STEM for Solar” and; (b) Engaging the students in self-directed research on a variety of projects involving Solar including Virginia energy issues, critical energy infrastructure, smart-grid technology, and sustainability.Project PROGRESS includes a multi-disciplinary team of faculty and experts from various disciplines and industry. Student research projects include developing new designs of technologies to make solar energy economical to storing solar energy and beyond. This course stands a model of collaboration between a local philanthropic organization and GMU. Many aspects of STEM and public policy, applicable to the entire student body of COS, and Engineering are reviewed.

The Right Balance

Problems in public, ethical and judicial decision-making often concern important but conflicting or incompletely compatible human values and interests. In many cases this seems to require us to balance the relevant options against each other. Philosophers generally regard the weighing up of competing human interests, goods and normative principles as an important aspect of ethics and public policy. Also in theories and conceptions of justice and in judicial decisions weighing may play a

Mestrado Profissional em Administração Universitária: desafios e perspectivas no processo da gestão universitária

This article seeks to understand the historical and social development of the Professional Master´s Degree in University Administration aiming at the training process of the managers. This study is characterized by a case study with qualitative nature, having as information source professors of the Professional Master´s Degree in University Administration, through questionnaires. The research identified that there is consensus among professors interviewed about the role and purpose of the Master´s Degree in University Administration as : training and professionalization of university management; of the university as a social institution, producer, creator and form of socializing of knowledge; and of University Management, in a broad sense, as administrative action that should consider the specific aims of universities as social institutions. The research showed the professors´ perceptions of the financial aspect of public policies as an element that imposes limitations and prevents the development actions of the university itself. In this context, given the challenges and perspectives experienced by the Master´s Degree in University Administration, the evident contradiction is that, while training is the essence of the management process, this training is denied by the concept existing of management.

Políticas públicas desde las crisis económicas y sociales en el marco de los Estados y territorios emergentes

The present article approaches two aspects of public policy. On the one hand, we have social emergence, the institutional and economic crisis in some Latin American countries, as well as its complex and systematic structure. On the other, it looks at the formulation and implementation of public policies, considered within the framework of the international crises of the states of emergency. Through a multi-criteria analysis, arguments related to the management capacity, and the results or work in different sectors are established. Then, using a process of design, the problem will be explained through a review of the economic, legal, political, and social arenas. Finally, the virtues of the public policies in transcendental or difficult situations that require their appearance or full presence will be evaluated.

What Do Diploma Theses Unveil about Academic Public Policy in the Czech Republic?

Abstract Although textbooks, conference papers, scientific journals and monographs deal with the research aspects of public policy, only little attention is paid to the way it is taught at universities. In this article we aim to explore academic public policy in the Czech Republic - specifically in terms of teaching outputs - using a unique method: an analysis of diploma theses. In the sample there were diploma theses defended within all the full-time Master’s study programmes having “public policy” in their names in the Czech Republic between 1995 and 2013. We conclude that there are two traditions of academic public policy in the Czech Republic, which enriches previous findings in the area and makes them more accurate. The research design and thoroughly described methodology invite other researchers to conduct international comparison of the features of academic public policy. The findings may also illustrate the trajectory made by the newly established discipline of public policy in the past twenty years in the Czech Republic, which may be of great interest to the newly formed international public policy community.

Comparative Analyses of Infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships

Infrastructure public–private partnerships, also known as PPPs or P3s, continue to be a fascinating aspect of public policy around the globe. It has been more than two decades since John Major’s go...

The political economy of passing climate change legislation: Evidence from a survey

Climate change is now a major aspect of public policy. There are almost 500 identified climate change laws in the world’s leading economies. This paper reviews the main domestic factors that drive this legislation. The analysis is based on a unique dataset of climate legislation in 66 national jurisdictions for the period 1990–2013. We find that the passage of new climate laws is influenced by several factors. One important factor is the quantity and quality of previous legislation: the propensity to pass more laws decreases non-linearly with the stock of existing legislation, but increases in the presence of a strategic “flagship law” that sets an overall framework for climate policy. Contrary to widespread belief, political orientation is not a decisive factor. We find no significant difference in the number of laws passed by left-wing and right-wing governments, except perhaps in Anglo-Saxon countries. However, left-leaning governments are more inclined to pass laws in difficult economic times. Despite these elements of bipartisanship, political economy factors still matter: In democracies climate laws are less likely to be passed immediately before an election and legislation is aided by a strong executive that can take on vested interests.

Resilience: paradoxical insight or conceptual poverty?

Purpose – This paper aims to look at some of the evidence that supports the construct of resilience and the operationalisation of the “phenomena” of resilience within contemporary society. The concept of resilience has become an influential and society-wide construct, embraced by the positive psychology movement and impacting on educational, health and social policy significantly and demonstrably. Importantly, the concept of resilience has a substantial historical heritage and legacy and the permeation of the construct within the collective social consciousness is rarely considered or queried, but generally accepted and embraced. Moreover, the construct of resilience within itself is invariably couched within contemporary discourse as a universal good and highly desirable attribute and further still, considered by many as a fundamental component contributing to the fabric of an individual’s character. Design/methodology/approach – The design of this paper is a short review of selective evidence of key conceptual issues. Findings – Resilience as a concept, is defuse, generally ill-defined and highly subjective. The concept of resilience, though popular and intrinsic to a number of aspects of public and educational policy, remains controversial, provides an explanatory account of differential outcomes which may not always be positive and, importantly, may potentially disenfranchise the individual. Originality/value – The synthesis of the brief and selective appraisal of evidence in this area suggests that the concept of resilience, if it exists at all, is highly mercurial, ambiguous in definition and despite its omnipresence as a representation of a positive and internalised attribution to the individual, has a significant negative side which is seldom considered. Querying the concept of resilience against the overwhelming backdrop of positive belief and opinion regarding the concept may represent a social heresy, however, the balance of evidence would suggest a debate about the concept is long overdue and, moreover, the concept itself provides a useful fulcrum to consider where beliefs, attitudes and opinions about abstract concepts stop and science, evidence and fact-based reflection begin.

Selecting a location to install a plastic processing center: Network of recycling cooperatives

Cooperatives of recyclable material scavengers make the tasks of scavenging, storage, processing, and marketing recyclable solid waste economically viable for their associates. However, the residues collected by these cooperatives are sold to middlemen, who process the material and resell it to the transformation industry. Thus, the lack of processing of the material collected by the cooperatives, such as grinding of plastics, results in the loss of up to 75% of the aggregated value of the recycled products. A solution to add value to recycled material is the implementation of a plastic processing center (PPC). Subsequently, the use of cooperative networks is necessary because the minimum daily flow of plastic material required to operate a PPC makes investment for implementation by a single cooperative infeasible. To aid cooperatives and the representatives of government programs that support cooperatives in choosing a city to implement a PPC, this study proposes a method for selecting the installation location of a PPC based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach using social, economic, environmental, and public policy aspects. The method was applied to a network of cooperatives participating in a federal government program located in cities in the western region of the state of Parana, Brazil. Various scenarios were explored regarding preferences/weights assigned by the decision-maker to the criteria and sub-criteria for decision-making. The sub-criteria with the greatest roles in decision-making were payment for the service provided and restrictive municipal legislation; according to the decision-maker, this legislation represents the view of the municipal government regarding cooperatives. The secretariat of social action is responsible for monitoring cooperatives, and there is no compensation for scavenging performed in the city; this scenario does not apply to companies responsible for the selective collection of solid waste, which are accompanied by the secretary of the environment.

Strained relations: US foreign-exchange operations and monetary policy in the twentieth century

Drawing on a trove of previously confidential data, Strained Relations reveals the evolution of US policy regarding currency market intervention, and its interaction with monetary policy. The authors consider how foreign-exchange intervention was affected by changing economic and institutional circumstances - most notably the abandonment of the international gold standard - and how political and bureaucratic factors affected this aspect of public policy.

Challenges in Evaluating Single-Sex Education

As a conclusion to the two-part special issue on single-sex education in Sex Roles (Signorella and Bigler 2011, 2013a), this Feminist Forum opens with a concluding commentary by Liben (2015), followed by commentaries on Liben’s paper from three different perspectives. Liben provides an historical overview of gender and education in the U.S. to the present and identifies different approaches to the role of gender in cognition and behavior (essentialist, environmentalist, constructivist). She also reviews evidence on the impact of single-sex education in the U.S. in the context of these and other differing perspectives. She concludes by examining the role of values in drawing conclusions about single-sex education. Three comments on the matters raised by Liben explore the biological (Fine and Duke 2015), legal (Sherwin 2015), and public policy (Huston 2015) aspects of the single-sex education controversy, with the latter two focusing on U.S. laws and public policy issues. I use a recent news article concerning legal changes in the U.S. to exemplify the ongoing disputes in this arena. The papers in this collection provide important directions for future research, as well as guidelines for researchers who wish to communicate their findings effectively to the public and to policymakers.

Networks and Communal Autonomy as Practice: Health, Education, and Social Welfare in Lebanon

Building on ideas of networked governance and non-territorial autonomy, this article uses aspects of Lebanese public policy to show that significant functional communal autonomy can be achieved in the absence of coherent institutions designed to support it. In this way, the article argues that norms, notions of legitimacy, and behavioral practices are as important as institutional design in understanding communal autonomy. An overview of the Lebanese education, health, and welfare systems provides an understanding of how communal governance operates and interacts with the state across several policy areas. These policy areas are also used to explore issues of individual autonomy and state strength.

Studying local climate adaptation: A heuristic research framework for comparative policy analysis

Climate change poses a significant risk for communities, and local governments around the world have begun responding by developing climate adaptation policies. Scholarship on local adaptation policy has proliferated in recent years, but insufficient attention has been paid to operationalization of the unit of analysis, and methods employed are typically inadequate to draw inferences about variation across cases. This article seeks to contribute to the conceptual and methodological foundations of a research agenda for comparative analysis of local adaptation policies and policy-making. Synthesizing insights from policy studies literature and existing adaptation research, the article identifies and operationalizes two aspects of public policy—policy content and policy process—which are salient objects of comparative analysis that typically vary from one community to another. The article also addresses research design, outlining a comparative case study methodology that incorporates various qualitative analytical techniques as the vehicle to examine these policy elements in empirical settings.

Greenko Plc1

Greenko, a renewable power generating company investing in biomass, small and medium hydro power and wind power projects, had projected to achieve 1GW (Giga Watt = 1000 Mega Watt) of installed capacity by March 2015. The company had been financing its projects with debt from Indian banks and financial institutions on a project finance basis and it had to now decide whether to refinance the project finance debt with an international bond issue of USD 550 million. The case provides an opportunity to discuss the public policy and financing aspects of renewable energy in India.

THE MISSING AS A SPECIFIC ASPECT OF ENSURING THE SECURITY OF SOCIETY DEMOGRAPHIC

In recent years, many countries of the world are payingincreasing attention to the problems of ensuring the safetypopulation. In this regard, a comprehensive analysis ofvarious aspects of this important public policies, includingreducing the number of people missing, according to the Lawis of great scientific and practical interest.

Global Ruling. Intellectual Property and Development in the United Nations Knowledge Economy

This paper firstly provides an ethnographic account of the dynamic of events in Geneva in 2004, when meetings of various multilateral agencies and global civil society organizations were held simultaneously to discuss the proposal to include the Development Agenda as a key element of intellectual property rights (IPR), seeking to insert some public policy aspects into the existing legal frameworks on IPR. Secondly we describe the historical context for the emergence of the intellectual property system as global legislation, explaining how it came into being and the ways in which it intertwines with international trade, examining the extent of its impact and its interfaces with various domains of social life, including culture and knowledge. Finally, based on interviews, documents and minutes from international agency meetings, we reconstruct the three-year process of negotiating the Development Agenda at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), describing the role of its main actors. Since Brazil, a member state of the organization, assumed a lead role in promoting the Agenda, we examine the disputes that occurred during this process as political actors veered back and forth in their support for the international system to protect and enforce intellectual property rights, and the tensions generated as IPRs become barriers to the trade and development of developing nations.

Engagement, Resistance and Restructuring: A Legal Challenge

The raft of neoliberal and new public management policies and discourses that have risen to prominence in universities in the last few decades, combined with steep decreases in public funding, have resulted in profound changes to all aspects of university functions across not just Australia and New Zealand, but many countries with comparable public university sectors. These changes have impacted on strategic priorities, faculty and administrative structures, terms and conditions of academic and administrative staff employment, academic freedom and the role that universities play in a democracy. Scholarship on the impact of neoliberal economic and new public management policies in universities has blossomed in recent years. This scholarship has included some discussion of the extent to which individual and collective resistance to these changes, by academics and others, is possible, and the potential challenges of such resistance. This article considers a legal challenge to a restructuring, or ‘organisational change’, proposal at a New Zealand university. It begins by analysing the legal challenge in the context of neoliberal economic and new public management policies in universities in Australia and New Zealand, with a focus on the implications of the changing governance policies and structures in universities, and academic engagement with, and resistance to, those policies. It then discusses the case, considering the issue raised in light of recent scholarship. It argues that the case is relevant today as an example of a form of collective resistance to problematic aspects of new public management policies in universities.

Legal Issues in the Cloud

Ensuring a secure cloud system (and ecosystem) is a highly specialized and interdisciplinary field. It requires a deep understanding of the underlying technical, social, public policy, regulatory, and legal and law enforcement aspects, as well as intimate knowledge of temporal trends (historical, recent, and emerging). Although security, privacy, public policy, legal, and forensic challenges associated with cloud computing have attracted academic attention-particularly the issues relating to data sovereignty and confidentiality and to the inadequacy of our existing legislative and regulatory frameworks to protect data from prying eyes-research on the topic is still in its infancy.

Few U.S. public health schools offer courses on palliative and end-of-life care policy.

Palliative care has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a critical policy element for the relief of suffering, yet palliative care policy receives minimal attention in mainstream U.S. public health journals, conferences, or textbooks. In the '90s, documentation of the lack of attention to end-of-life and palliative care in medical and nursing curricula led to concerted efforts to improve medical and nursing education in palliative care. No such educational effort has yet been directed toward public health professionals. This study's objective was to quantify current course offerings covering palliative and end-of-life care from a public health and health policy perspective at accredited schools of public health. Using a list of keywords about palliative and end-of-life care, the research team searched publicly accessible websites of all CEPH accredited and affiliated U.S. schools of public health to identify courses that included relevant content about palliative care. For academic years 2011/12 and 2012/13, 3 (6%) of the 49 accredited U.S. schools of public health offered a full course covering public health issues in palliative care. Six schools (12%) included some palliative care content in related courses such as gerontology policy. Schools of public health are not preparing future policy experts with a basic knowledge of the components and systems of palliative care and hospice. Development and dissemination of appropriate curricular material to address the public health and policy aspects of palliative care is needed to address this gap.

Atenção básica e saúde mental: experiência e práticas do Centro de Saúde Escola Samuel B. Pessoa

This paper presents and analyzes findings from an ethnographic study conducted inside the Health Center School Samuel B. Pessoa, focusing on the relationship between mental health and primary health care. It is divided intothree main sections covering the history of these relations in that institution, current aspects of public health policies related to this area and the practice of supervision for community mental health workers as a privileged space for training and dialogue on the designing of care practices. The study showed that the experience and practices of CSEB, linking mental health and primary care and basic health, preserve the historical memory of this relationship in Sao Paulo, trying at the same time, the new proposals for the area, from a critical perspective.