Contradictory Policies Research Articles

A multiscale analysis of land use dynamics in the buffer zone of Rio Doce State Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil

This article uses a multiscale approach for assessing landscape changes in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots in Brazil, the Rio Doce State Park (PERD). In this article, we assess land use changes over a 30 year period. Our results show that, while inside the park landscape changes were minimal, in the park buffer zone human induced changes are steadily rising due to an increase in eucalyptus plantations and urban sprawl that grew by 4% and 1.9%, respectively. Agricultural land has been reduced by 6.35%, but there are trends that a form of welcome forest transition has been occurring. We report an increase in native forests from 40,588 ha in 1985 to 45,690 ha in 2015. The analysis of human impacts in the study area delivers very different results when varying the pixel size from 25 ha to 900 m2. The former shows a very high level of human influence while the latter reveals small but vital patches of native forest offering hopeful opportunities for sustainable natural resource management in this critical biome. Our work stresses the importance of better targeted policy making and sympathetic land use management of buffer zones of protected areas. Currently, such zones suffer from many development pressures and often experience contradictory policy frameworks which encourage a clash between biodiversity conservation and intensive agro husbandry production.Highlights:• We characterize land use transitions in a hotspot of biodiversity in Brazil.• Analysis at finer resolution show that there is still hope for forest recovery.• For instilling sustainable forest transitions there is the need for fresh governance.

Caged Bodies and Women’s Citizenship in (Post-) Colonial Jordan: An Analysis of Civic Studies Textbooks

This paper focuses on female political socialisation in postcolonial Jordan, exploring the role of religion and patriarchy in shaping women’s citizenship identity and the manner in which school civic and national studies curriculum portrays women’s rights and their citizenship status. Based on the analysis, there are three types of social class citizens, one for the rulers, one for men, and one for women. Further, the findings suggest that the emphasis in these school textbooks is on loyalty to the monarchy and attachment to the nation. Women’s rights as citizens remain overwhelmed by patriarchy, religion, and by contradictory state policies and laws, partially drawn from the universal principles of citizenship. Theoretically, this study adds another facet to the understanding of the complex forces which contribute to the formation of contemporary citizenship identity in the nation-state system. Postcolonial states, in particular, are interesting cases due to the impact of their colonial heritage, tradition, and their attempts to advance partial modernisation amenable with universal human rights.

Implementing a Targeted, Nationwide Intervention to Promote Upper Secondary School Completion: Does it Have the Potential to Strengthen Students’ Achievement?

ABSTRACT Despite great attention and numerous efforts across countries to reduce school dropout, it remains a persistent challenge. One such initiative, named New Possibilities, launched by the Norwegian Ministry in 2010, was a nationwide, flexible program aimed at providing intensive training to poor achievers during the last months of 10th grade, before they started upper secondary school. Differentiated analyses of grade development indicate that participating students with the very lowest grades improved, while those with moderate grades did worse than nonparticipating peers. The heterogeneity of the participating students is discussed with attention to the flexibility of the intervention and local discretion. Differences in local interpretations of the purpose of the initiative include responses to ambiguities, conflicting values, contradictory policy demands, and a lack of identification of core elements pertaining to the initiative.

Is it possible to incentivise and capture local wealth? The business rate challenge

How can Government and the Treasury reconcile two often contradictory aspects of the commercial property tax model in England? On the one hand, commercial property tax is required to be responsive to economic conditions, promoting investment in property and business. On the other hand, local commercial property tax, in part, is required to fund local public services. This situation reveals a contradiction in government tax policy that has a direct impact upon local, regional and national economic activity. This Viewpoint article considers the nature of commercial property tax in England, the business rate system, the competing pressures upon the business rate system before considering the main alternative on offer in England, land value tax. Despite the undoubted economic elegance of this instrument, any move towards land value tax should be approached with caution. Any solution to the current business rates impasse should not be led by a pragmatic focus on tax collection. Nor should prevalent issues, the high street, the need for digital tax or public finance demands be considered in isolation – they should be tackled together because they are part of the same complex situation.

Grain Self-Sufficiency Capacity in China’s Metropolitan Areas under Rapid Urbanization: Trends and Regional Differences from 1990 to 2015

Urbanization brings significant changes to the urban food system. There is growing attention to food self-sufficiency in metropolitan areas for the concern of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation in food transportation. In China, grain self-sufficiency in metropolitan areas is also an important issue for grain security and involves coordination among contradictory policy goals. Based upon a comprehensive statistical analysis of 70 metropolitan areas in mainland China, we investigated the regional differences in the trends of grain self-sufficiency capacity in these areas from 1990 to 2015. The findings show a trend of decline in 3/4 of metropolitan areas, mainly located in the rapidly urbanizing eastern coastal areas and in the West. The increase of self-sufficiency mainly occurred in the North, in areas either specialized in grain production or originally low in grain self-sufficiency. The enlarging contradiction of decreasing supply and rising demand explained the sharp decrease in self-sufficiency, while the increase in self-sufficiency was due to the increase in supply. Land productivity contributed more significantly than land availability to supply change. There was a tradeoff between urban expansion (rather than economic growth) and grain production in metropolitan areas. Our results provide implications to future research and policy-making for grain production management in China’s metropolitan areas.

Narrating China's belt and road initiative

AbstractThis article studies the formation process of China's belt and road initiative (BRI) – the most important Chinese foreign policy initiative under Xi Jinping. It argues that the BRI was put forward as a broad policy idea that was subsequently developed with relatively concrete content. During this process, the shifting international landscapes have gradually driven the BRI from a periphery strategy into a global initiative. By examining the case of Jiangsu Province, this article also shows how Chinese local governments have actively deployed their preferred narratives to influence and (re‐)interpret the BRI guidelines of the central government in order to advance their own interests. As a result, this produces a variety of competing, ambiguous and contradictory policy narratives of the BRI within China, which undermines the Chinese central government's monopoly on the BRI narratives. This leaves the BRI as a very vague and broad policy slogan that is subject to change and open to interpretation. In this regard, the existing analyses – that consider the BRI as Beijing's masterplan to achieve its geopolitical goals – pay insufficient attention to the BRI's domestic contestation and overstate the BRI's geopolitical implications.

Deinstitutionalization of the State and Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Contribution to the Critique of the Neoinstitutionalist Analysis of Development

In recent years, a euphoric shift has taken place, typified by the narrative of “Africa rising,” which attempts to promote the idea of an economically emerging continent. In the Afro-optimist discourse, the idea is implicit that the neoliberal narrative has triumphed. However, critical voices argue that the discourse ignores the political environment under which African growth has been produced. This article critically reflects on the explanations of the neoinstitutionalist approach to development, the historical process of state formation and colonization in Africa. Following the proposal of postcolonial theory, sovereignty, tax, and violence are analyzed. Finally, the contradictory policies of the neoliberal experiment are demonstrated, which are leading to the deinstitutionalization of the State and to violence.JEL Classification: F54, F63, E02, N17

The public plate in the transnational city: Tensions among food procurement, global trade and local legislation

Local food systems are crucial to sustainability, and one of the most effective ways to develop them is to harness the buying power of large public institutions, such as hospitals and universities. Steering public funds toward local food systems, however, is not as easy as it might appear. Institutions must navigate a maze of regulations that can become significant barriers to effecting change. In Ontario, for example, public institutions are squeezed between two contradictory policies: the Broader Public Sector Directive, which mandates a level playing field and prohibits preferential buying based on geography, and the Local Food Act, which aims to increase the consumption of local food (with a specific focus on procurement in Ontario public institutions) and to foster successful and resilient local food economies and systems. Adding to this tension, global trade treaties are drilling down to the local level, proscribing preferential procurement of local food as “protectionist” and a barrier to trade. 
 
 Public institutions are caught in the middle, wanting to purchase more local products but unwilling to risk reprisals. This paper investigates these tensions by reporting on a recent study of institutional buyers and government officials in the Toronto area to understand more thoroughly these barriers to operationalizing a local food system, while recognizing that sustainable food systems require a judicious combination of ‘local and green’ and ‘global and fair’ (Morgan 2008).

Unaccompanied Afghan Minors’ Rights when Restrictive Transnational Migration Policies are in Force – The Case of Sweden

Abstract This article highlights how migrant childrens’ rights to, and within, education can be negotiated at the national level. The aim is to underline and discuss the discourses that appear in selected Swedish legal and political documents relating to unaccompanied Afghan minors. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (cda), this research shows the co-existence of two different discourses on unaccompanied Afghan minors. The first discourse is based on the concept of unaccompanied Afghan minors as global rights holders and considers all children without exception as having the right to receive human assistance, education and appropriate protection against violence. The second discourse relates to the concept of unaccompanied Afghan minors as foreign citizens, which counteracts the work of Swedish authorities to deal with contradictions in policies assuring the rights of migrant children. This could also be a risk when the Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes Swedish law in 2020.

Policies tackling the “web of constraints” on resource efficient practices: the case of mobility

In practice, environmental policy is only moving slowly from a focus on promoting environmental technologies to a focus on greening socio-technical systems. Policy measures to stimulate resource efficiency (RE) typically address the national, sectoral, or company level. This article shows how an analysis addressing practices that citizens engage in, such as eating or mobility, can contribute to more effective RE policy. It is instrumental to highlight policy contradictions in the current mix of policies and offer suggestions for stronger policy synergies. We offer a conceptual and empirical analysis based on the results of a large-scale survey (1200+ respondents) in three countries (Austria, Hungary, and The Netherlands), focusing on one of the most resource intensive consumption domains: mobility. We apply a framework that includes the social context of resource consumption, addressing how practices that citizens engage in are shaped by both “collective” physical infrastructures, the business models of products, social meanings, and regulatory incentives, and also by “individual” knowledge and skills, values, and financial capabilities. Our “web of constraints” perspective on RE highlights the interrelatedness of individual actor and collective factors. It is instrumental for an integrative policy discussion, addressing a range of factors hindering RE, anticipating policy contradictions, to capitalize on synergies.

Emancipatory drug practices: building projects with Primary Healthcare workers.

To build projects for implementing emancipatory drug practices with Primary Healthcare workers. An emancipatory action research based on historical-dialectical materialism developed at the Vila Prudente/Sapopemba Health Technical Supervision of the city of São Paulo with the participation of Primary Healthcare workers (care providers and management). Seventeen (17) health workers participated in sharing 13 workshops. The workshops discussed the following topics: the health needs of residents of the territories in which they operate; social dimension of drug use; limitations and contradictions of public healthcare policies and practices in the area of drugs; purpose of working in Primary Healthcare; and implementing drug evidence. Four intersectoral implementation projects were designed based on critical policy discussions. The emancipatory workshops enabled workers to position themselves in the health production process and capture the contradictions of this process, thereby strengthening their ability to develop and implement tools in response to health needs based on the social processes that involve the production, circulation and consumption of drugs.

A Maritime History of East Asia ed. by Masashi Haneda and Mihoko Oka

Reviewed by: A Maritime History of East Asia ed. by Masashi Haneda and Mihoko Oka Adam Clulow A Maritime History of East Asia. Edited by Masashi Haneda and Mihoko Oka. Kyoto University Press/Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2019. 392 pages. Hardcover, ¥4,700/A$59.95. A Maritime History of East Asia is an important and groundbreaking book that combines three distinct achievements. First, it offers an innovative model for collaborative scholarship that showcases the research of a pioneering cohort of maritime historians now working in Japan. Second, it articulates a valuable framework for understanding and categorizing trade and maritime interaction across a long period, from 1250 to 1800. And third, it presents a remarkably ambitious and rich survey of maritime activity stretching across an expansive region centered on the East and South China Seas. [End Page 261] Even as collaborative work has become the norm in many fields, historians have traditionally been reluctant to depart from either the standard single-author monograph or the edited volume, in which connections between individual chapters may be limited at best. Although Haneda Masashi and Oka Mihoko, both highly distinguished historians in their own right, are the only named editors, the volume is in fact the collective work of a much larger group of scholars including Fujita Akiyoshi, Morihara Masahiko, Nakajima Gakushō, Hashimoto Yū, Sugiyama Kiyohiko, and Watanabe Miki, and some thirty additional participants in the Maritime East Asia History Research Group. All collaborated over numerous meetings and hundreds of email exchanges to draw up the original Japanese version of this work, Umi kara mita rekishi (History Viewed from the Sea), which was later refined and then translated into English as the book under review.1 The book's genesis as the product of extended discussions, and not merely a single conference, is evident throughout. Although each of the three parts bears the imprint of different voices, the editors have developed a seamless and integrated narrative. Given the number of contributors, this means that a single volume of around three hundred pages opens an expansive window onto recent trends in scholarship. While the collaborative nature of the project is important, so too is the manner by which it came to appear in English. In past decades, it has been common for overseas scholars to translate the work of prominent Japanese historians as a way of showcasing remarkable research in Japanese that does not always find as wide an audience as it should. Although this is a valuable model, it often depends on the impetus coming from outside the country. By contrast, the organizing force of this volume originates from within Japan, and its aim of setting up a direct, unmediated conduit between the worlds of Japanese-and English-language scholarship makes it a particularly exciting development that will surely be followed by others. The broad goal of the volume is to produce "a new history of East Asia" viewed from the "perspective of those living on the sea" (p. 9). The focus is on a single maritime region, which the authors define as stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk down through the East China Sea to the South China Sea. As such it encompasses China, Japan, and Korea, and the book draws examples from each. Its three parts explore the periods from 1250 to 1350, 1500 to 1600, and 1700 to 1800, which are broadly characterized, respectively, as eras of openness, competition, and, finally, compartmentalization. Part 1 discusses the period from the mid-thirteenth to mid-fourteenth centuries, which was distinguished, the authors argue, by an unprecedentedly "flexible" and "lenient" approach on the part of states toward maritime interaction (p. 72). There was little attempt to monopolize or channel trade in clearly defined ways, with merchants and officials engaging instead in "symbiotic collaboration" (p. 81). The focus of study is the Yuan court, which pursued two apparently contradictory policies—the first an aggressive campaign of military expansion that resulted, for example, in two attempted invasions of Japan, and the second the active promotion of maritime trade. This dual approach meant that commercial circuits proved resilient, rapidly reforming and expanding even in the wake of expansionist ventures. [End Page 262] Part 2 examines the...

Restitution versus Populism: Revisiting the Dominant Tropes of the Land Question in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s land revolution at the turn of the millennia cast the country on the international spotlight for a myriad of reasons, ranging from laudatory admiration to negative criticism and bad publicity. Narratives and doomsday predictions of economic disaster, social upheaval and ultimately internal implosion were awash and not off the mark given the manner in which the political economic status quo was shaken and restructured. The Fast Track Land Reform (FTLRP) was hailed in some quarters as the long overdue corrective measure against historical injustices while other sections castigated it as chauvinistic and fascist machinations of a capricious regime battling for political survival. These ensuing contestations around land expropriation are not an aberration in that they form part of a repertoire of the languages of life and/or the teleology in the history and transition of post colonies with settler heritage. Land reform continues to gain policy traction in much of the developing South with a colonial history where the economic logic of settlerism was the dominant mode of exploitation, expropriation and accumulation. Widening inequality in much of the developing South particularly in post settler economies in southern Africa has heightened demands for greater access to land and other productive sectors putting land as another new frontier of conflict. Therefore the question remains, is land reform being driven by a genuine desire for restitution and a progressive redress of colonial wrongs or whether it is just another pretext for populist demagoguery and patronage politics? This paper posits that these two dominant tropes are deeply interwoven within Zimbabwe’s political economics fabric within its transition as a post colony and the matter is much more complex and cannot be reduced to such binary terms of reference. The paper therefore traces the trajectory of land reform in Zimbabwe since independence until the turn of the millennia and the attendant policy contradictions, constraints and rationalities that undergird land expropriation and redistribution.

THE PROBLEM OF NAVAL WEAPONS’ LIMITATION IN FOREIGN POLICY OF THE USA IN THE EARLY 20-IES OF XX CENTURY

The article researches the position of the United States on the issue of naval arms restriction in the early 20-ies of the XX century. There are outlined causes, the course and the consequences of the intensification of Washington’s naval activity during the investigated period. It is explored the process of formation and implementation of the US initiatives to limit naval weapons before and during the Washington Peace Conference of 1921–1922. The role of the USA in the settlement of foreign policy contradictions between the leading countries of the world in the early 20-ies of the XX century is analyzed. In the early 20’s of the XX century there have been some changes in the international relations system and the role of the USA in it. Despite the isolation stance taken by Washington, the White House continues its policy of «open doors» and «equal opportunities», promoting the elimination of unequal agreements between foreign countries with China, and attempts to influence the position of European countries and Japan in the naval contest issues and limitation of naval weapons. Taking full advantages, which were giving the United States’ the richest country and world creditor status, the US Department of State has stepped up its US impact in the Asia-Pacific region. The new Republican administration succeeded in offsetting the failures of the Paris Decisions of 1919–1920 and began to СУМСЬКА СТАРОВИНА 2019 №LIV 75 construct a new model of international relations in which the United States would occupy a leading position. The success of US diplomacy at the Washington Peace Conference of 1921– 1922 contributed to this. However, the conflict between the former allies within the Entente was only smoothed out and not settled. The latter has led to increasing US capital expansion into Europe due to the significant economic growth in the country. Despite the fact that the Republicans’ achievements in US foreign policy on local issues have been much more specific than trying to solve the problem of a new system of international relations globally, these achievements have been rather relative. Leading countries in the world were still making concessions to the White House on separate issues, but in principle they were not ready to accept the scheme of relations offered by the States. That is why American foreign policy achievements have been impermanent. Key words: the

Iran-Saudi Relations: From Rivalry to Nowhere

Iran and Saudi Arabia are the two main powers of the Middle East. Since Islamic revolution (1979) the competition for power, security and regional dominance has resulted in proxy wars in the region, especially, Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Saudi and Iranian rivalry revolves around some key issues such as; their contradictory ideologies (Sunni vs Shiite) PanArab issues like Palestine issue, Saudi inclination towards West, their contradictory policies about energy and desire to become dominant power of entire region. Iran's wants regional hegemony, rolling back US influence in the Middle East, empowerment of Shiite in the Middle East through sectarianism. Sectarianism has always been a major focus in the Persian Gulf and beyond for the Iranian regional policy formulation. Peace and stability in Middle East would not be possible till Riyadh and Tehran end rivalry.

Forest management in Bolivia under Evo Morales: The challenges of post-neoliberalism

Based on a study of the forest sector in the northern Amazon region of Bolivia, this paper addresses the reasons why the Bolivian so-called “postneoliberal” project is an adjustment of neoliberalism rather than a departure from it. First, Bolivia has aimed not so much at breaking away radically from neoliberal frameworks as at reasserting the importance of the state and of the national scale in regulatory actions. Second, the neoliberal period has left behind the insuperable legacy of a neoliberal approach to nature: by allowing local stakeholders to access forest resources, it has reinforced a commercial relationship with the non-human world. Third, it is not easy to reverse the internationalization of forest governance. All in all, the Bolivian state's reterritorialization of the country's margins through the control of forest resources has perpetuated processes that were initiated during the hybrid neoliberal period (1993–2005), though the focus has shifted from commoditizing the forest for the benefit of local stakeholders to facilitating the redistribution of this resource on a national scale. Since 2006 Evo Morales's forest governance has tried to integrate this multiscale dimension to create a pragmatic management model that combines agrarian colonization, conservation and extractivism. This explains both the apparent contradictions of the new Bolivian forest policy and the difficulties in creating a radically new form of governance. The case of Bolivian forests shows the extent to which neoliberalism has shaped spaces and scales in a way that guarantees its own resilience.

Trends in the Development of Extremism Among Youth in Modern Russian Society: Internal and External Challenges to National Security

Neutralization of the risks of extremism among youth and the integration of at-risk groups of young people in various spheres of public life – a problem that is of particular importance for Russian national security. The successful solution of the problem, while the "fluid" social reality is changing, is only possible if we take into account the recent trends in the development of extremist formations with due regard for network communities, flash mobilization groups. The article is dedicated to the analysis of the trends of youth extremism reconfiguration that occur in modern Russian society, and the contradictions of reactive counteraction policy, the principles of which are not always integrated in a new social reality. The authors substantiate the application of the potential of the activity-activist approach, including the tendency to the definition of youth extremism as a volatile social phenomenon with a highly adaptive potential. Based on the results of the research, the authors describe the new internal and external development challenges of extremist groups in Russia: the creation of new topics for manipulating mass consciousness (socio-ecological, social identity-related , culturally-oriented); "dispersion" of extremist structures; inclusion in legal social actions; positioning as open to young people without "preconditions"; inclusion of conventional relations within the framework of the exchange of ideas and "projects". In conclusion, the authors note that recognition of the internal and external challenges of youth extremism requires reformatting its perception and evaluation as a new movement which produces new risks for Russian society.

La contratación temporal de trabajadores altamente calificados H-1B en Estados Unidos: surgimiento, evolución y condiciones actuales

The aim of this article is to examine the H-1B visa program: how it came to be, its transformations over time, its diversity, its present characteristics, and the threats it has posed for diverse population sectors, along with president Trump’s contradictory policy regarding the hire of qualified foreign workers, mainly through H-1B visas, which have been especially criticized since their creation in 1990.

Policy mixes against oil dependence: Resource nationalism, layering and contradictions in Ecuador’s energy transition

Most recent research on energy policy is interested in how policy mixes —the combination of instruments to attend a policy problem— can explain policy outcomes. This policy design framework is utilized here to explain and avoid possible implementation gaps in oil-rich countries engaged in the low-carbon energy transition. Ecuador is used as an typical case for a ten-year policy which headed at a post-oil era after three decades of oil dependence but failed eventually. A causal mechanism linking the adoption of policy aims with the implementation gap is tested against a typology of expected empirical observations based on policy instruments. The main findings indicate how the adoption of contradictory policy aims produces institutional change by layering, which helps actors resisting the policy change to influence the incumbent, eventually undermining the political interplays and the policy outcome.

Market-orienting reforms in rural health care in Sweden: how can equity in access be preserved?

BackgroundHealth care provision in rural and urban areas faces different challenges. In Sweden, health care provision has been predominantly public and equitable access to care has been pursued mainly through public planning and coordination. This is to ensure that health needs are met in the same manner in all parts of the country, including rural or less affluent areas. However, a marketization of the health care system has taken place during recent decades and the publicly planned system has been partially replaced by a new market logic, where private providers guided by financial concerns can decide independently where to establish their practices. In this paper, we explore the effects of marketization policies on rural health care provision by asking how policy makers in rural counties have managed to combine two seemingly contradictory health policy goals: to create conditions for market competition among health care providers and to ensure equal access to health care for all patients, including those living in rural and remote areas.MethodsA qualitative case study within three counties in the northern part of Sweden, characterized by vast rural areas, was carried out. Legal documents, the “accreditation documents” regulating the health care quasi-markets in the three counties were analyzed. In addition, interviews with policy makers in the three county councils, representing the political majority, the opposition, and the political administration were conducted in April and May 2013.ResultsThe findings demonstrate the difficulties involved in introducing market dynamics in health care provision in rural areas, as these reforms not only undermined existing resource allocation systems based on health needs but also undercut attempts by local policy makers to arrange for care provision in remote locations through planning and coordination.ConclusionProvision of health care in rural areas is not well suited for market reforms introducing competition, as this may undermine the goal of equity in access to health care, even in a publicly financed health care system.