International Comparative Studies Research Articles

Politics in Space: Methodological Considerations for Taking Space Seriously in Subnational Comparative Research

Over the past two decades, a rich research program has emerged in which scholars draw on the subnational approach to better understand phenomena such as state formation, democratization, and development. Despite its undisputed potential, however, the subnational approach also creates specific challenges for researchers throughout the research cycle that have yet to be resolved. This paper explores how insights from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis can help us work through some of these challenges. Furthermore, we highlight how a spatial perspective can increase the potential of the subnational approach by opening up new opportunities for theory development and analysis. “Taking space seriously” has key conceptual as well as theoretical implications. A major implication is the need for a more thorough recognition of the structural dependence that exists among units of observation. To be sure, this recognition is also important in international relations and cross-national comparative studies, but the analytic shift is perhaps most important at the subnational level where units of analysis have boundaries that are more porous than international borders. More importantly, however, the value added of spatial analysis for subnational research does not only lie in getting “right” answers to existing questions, but rather in bringing to the table exciting methods for (a) seeing existing questions in new light, and (b) identifying new and interesting questions that might otherwise go unnoticed. Taking space seriously thus also implies considering how this spatial dependence structures outcomes and relationships of interest. This paper is intended as a contribution to a conversation about how to go about studying subnational politics in a more disciplined and self-conscious way by examining the implications of spatial thinking across three stages of research design: (1) conceptualization, (2) theorizing, and (3) analysis. Within each of these phases there are lessons to be learned from taking space more seriously and there are important costs analytically of not doing so.

The international summer school experience: a worthwhile challenge

Summer schools in law are a common feature of Irish legal education today. Originating in the US, summer schools are now an international phenomenon. In 2005, the eLaw Summer Institute (or ELSI), was established at University College Cork as a four-week international summer school. In this article, we reflect on the design and development of ELSI, with reference to three key aspects of this summer school. First, we address issues arising from the intensive teaching aspect of ELSI, including the use of technology as part of a blended learning experience. Second, we explore the challenges posed by the international audience in ELSI. Lastly, we critically examine the comparative elements of the school in terms of curriculum design and delivery of the programme. Our analysis builds upon existing literature in the areas of curriculum design and delivery, intensive teaching, the international classroom and comparative legal studies; and is informed by empirical data in the form of anonymous student questionnaires. The aim of the article is to engage with others involved in summer programmes, to share our experiences and critical analysis and to provide an insight for those not involved in summer school programmes into the challenges and the rewards for students, staff and the institutions involved.

Further Democratizing Latin America: Broadening Access to Higher Education and Promoting Science Policies Focused on the Advanced Training of Human Resources

We focus this paper on the conditions to build reliable science, technology and higher education systems in Latin America, based on international comparative studies, fi eldwork and interviews conducted over the last three years. The analysis shows that science can have a major role in furthering the democratization of society through public policies that foster opportunities to access knowledge and the advanced training of human resources. Broadening the social basis for higher education promotes the quali fi cation of the labour force and contributes decisively to social and economic development. The need to guarantee higher education diversity, strengthening scienti fi c institutions and investing in a strong science base, is deemed as critical, but goes far beyond policies centred on innovation and industry-science relationships. It requires adequate training and attraction of skilled people, as well as promoting scienti fi c and technological culture among society.

Toward 21st Century Learning: An Analysis of Top Performing Asian Education Systems’ Reforms

This special issue discusses how top Asian education systems (namely, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai) continue to reform themselves toward 21st century learning. The papers delve into issues such as systemic structures and mechanisms, leadership, curriculum and assessment, and teachers’ professionalism in transforming students’ learning dispositions, skills, and knowledge. International comparative studies, for example the 2007 and 2010 McKinsey reports, identified factors associated with high quality teaching and learning, and a good education system. These factors relate to students, teachers, classrooms, schools, and systemic issues. Students need to be equipped with 21st century skills, which go beyond knowledge to include values and dispositions (Barber and Mourshed 2009). Quality teachers are essential to enact 21st century learning (McKinsey and Company 2007, 2010; Mourshed et al. 2010). Classroom practices emphasize knowledge building, adapting, and applying knowledge to real-life problems (Barber and Mourshed 2009). Moreover, well-informed school leaders provide teachers with resources and autonomy to design and adapt curricular, teaching, and learning for students (Mourshed et al. 2010). Effective systems continuously adapt to change. Systems are aware of its context as it moves from policies to implementations to achieve quality learners (Barber and Mourshed 2009). This special issue draws attention to policies and strategies that Asian systems have attempted to remain relevant both presently and for the uncharted territories of the future. It examines how education systems are impacted by interrelating contexts of school, societal demands, and history. It tries to understand how enacted reforms have aligned education systems to 21st century education goals. Papers here discuss each system and (in some instances) compare with other systems by tracing specific or combination of issues relating to the:

Gifted Education and Talent Support in Germany

While the focus in Germany was initially on disabled children only, the promotion of gifted and talented children has become increasingly important. Different organisations and institutions, ranging from parents’ associations to foundations, offer a large variety of measures catering for the special demands of gifted and talented children, enabling the exchange of information on giftedness and the cooperation of different institutions. Talented children are also provided with access to scholarships as well as to special academies and competitions on different topics. Furthermore, educators and researches involved in the promotion of giftedness can attend conferences as well as gaining qualifications as specialists in gifted education and talent support. In addition to these nationwide, extracurricular measures, the individual federal states offer various acceleration and enrichment activities for children with high abilities at school. Overall, this leads to a diverse system of gifted education and talent support in Germany. It does, however, mean that Germany lacks a common national strategy of gifted education and talent support due to the lack of networking of the individual federal states. By exchanging ideas and information on their applied concepts of ability promotion, the federal states could benefit from each other’s expertise and experiences. Further improvement could be achieved if concepts of gifted education and talent support were to become an integral part of various discussions, such as those on inclusive education or on the results of international comparative studies (e.g., PISA, PIRLS or TIMSS).

What matters for knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures? Empirical evidence from China

Purpose– The purpose of this study is to identify key factors that facilitate knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures and further help better understand knowledge management in the international context.Design/methodology/approach– Using a survey method, this study collected data from over 200 managerial employees in knowledge management-based project teams from China. Regression analysis was then conducted to analyze the impact of individual differences and environmental factors on the willingness to share knowledge among team members to identify key factors for successful knowledge retention in the constantly changing organizational environment in a collectivistic context.Findings– The results show that incentives are very important in individual’s decision to share knowledge in project teams even in a collectivistic culture like China and both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated individuals tend to share more knowledge with their team members. Individuals with high altruism are also found more likely to share knowledge with others. Moreover, a trusting environment and explicit knowledge will facilitate knowledge sharing for better retention.Research limitations/implications– More studies should be conducted in other collectivistic cultures to explore cultural barriers in knowledge management in the international context and comparative studies using samples from different cultural backgrounds are also encouraged to help extend the theories on knowledge management.Originality/value– While it is well-known that knowledge sharing is essential for organization to maintain competitive advantage, relatively few studies have examined knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures, and even fewer have done so in China. This study adds values to the literature by identifying key factors for knowledge sharing in China, and thus helps refine the knowledge management theories and provides insights for multinationals on knowledge management in the Chinese market.

Comparative Value Relevance Studies: Country Differences Versus Specification Effects

This paper sheds light on the sensitivity of findings in comparative international value relevance studies regarding two fundamental methodological choices. We hypothesize and find that, first, using the regression vs. the portfolio returns specification and, second, the choice of the return window, is not arbitrary. Both choices will have an impact on country rankings and the significance of cross-country differences in comparative designs. This makes us conclude that findings in previous comparative international value relevance studies are partly driven by differences in market characteristics across countries. Extending the findings of Francis and Schipper (1999) and Collins and Kothari (1989), our results suggest that previous comparative studies might thus have overstated value relevance differences and institutional variables' power to explain these differences across countries. Findings are based on a treatment sample of 56,000 firm-year observations from 12 countries and from 12 matched U.S. control samples, with observations from 1988 to 2007.

Estimation of sodium and potassium intakes assessed by two 24 h urine collections in healthy Japanese adults: a nationwide study.

Excess Na intake and insufficient K intake are well-known risk factors for CVD. International comparative studies have reported that Japan has the highest intake of Na and the lowest intake of K in the world. However, no recent study has precisely assessed Na and K intakes in Japanese adults. In the present study, Na and K intakes were estimated from two 24h urine collections implemented in twenty-three out of forty-seven prefectures in Japan. Apparently healthy men (n 384) and women (n 376), aged 20 to 69 years, who had been working in welfare facilities were recruited, with data collection conducted in February and March 2013. The mean Na excretion was 206·0mmol/d in men and 173·9mmol/d in women. The respective values of K excretion were 51·6 and 47·2mmol/d. The excretion of both Na and K varied considerably among the prefectures, and was higher in subjects with a higher BMI. In contrast, only K excretion was associated with age. After estimating the usual intakes of Na and K, it was found that none of the male subjects met the recommended Na intake values of the WHO, and that only 3·2% met those of the Japanese government. The respective values for females were 0·1 and 5·0%. For K intake, 7·5% of the total subjects met the recommended values of the WHO and 21·7% met those of the Japanese government. These findings suggest that there is an urgent need for the development of an effective intervention programme to reduce Na intake and promote K intake in the Japanese population.

Market Size: The Unheralded Driver of Value Relevance Differences in Cross-Country Studies?

This paper sheds light on the sensitivity of findings in comparative (international) value relevance studies in regards to two fundamental methodological choices: We argue (and find) that both model choice (the regression vs. the portfolio returns specification) and return window choice are not arbitrary. They have an impact on country rankings and the significance of cross-country differences in comparative designs. Findings with respect to return window choice are likely to be explained by comparative international value relevance studies not only testing for the relevance and reliability of accounting information, but also jointly testing the hypothesis that accounting information is processed similarly across countries. Our results indicate that this joint hypothesis does not always hold and that, thus, previous comparative studies might have overstated accounting quality differences across countries. The findings are based on a treatment sample of 56,000 firm-year observations from 12 countries and from 12 matched U.S. control samples, with observations from 1988 and 2007, respectively.

URBANIZATION: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO A COMPLEX PHENOMENON

On account of the complexity and universal character of the urbanisation process, many academic disciplines, including Social Work, focus on this phenomenon. Accordingly, definitions tend to diverge, while the key concepts and research methodologies of the various disciplines are typically at variance with one another. Such a situation makes interdisciplinary and comparative international studies on urbanisation challenging to execute. One such comparative study has been initiated by the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and Bordeaux, France, promoting both interdisciplinary as well as intercontinental co-operation. The potential success of this interdisciplinary analysis arises mainly from the openness of concepts and methodologies as well as the judicious choice of cities. In addition, the selection of central questions and of shared themes appears to be important This paper will reflect on these issues by considering aspects of a recently launched interdisciplinary and international research programme. Some perspective, however, is needed beforehand on the two relevant concepts of interdisciplinarity and urbanisation

Chinese Australians’ Chineseness and their mathematics achievement: the role of habitus

Large-scale international comparative studies and cross-ethnic studies have revealed that Chinese students, living either in China or overseas, consistently outperform their counterparts in mathematics. Empirical research has discussed psychological, educational, and cultural reasons behind Chinese students’ better mathematics performance. However, there is scant sociological investigation of this phenomenon. The current mixed methods study aims to make a contribution in this regard. The study conceptualises Chineseness through Bourdieu’s sociological notion of habitus and considers this habitus of Chineseness generating, but not determining, mechanism that underpins commitment to mathematics learning. The study firstly analyses the responses of 230 Chinese Australian participants to a set of questionnaire items. Results indicate that the habitus of Chineseness significantly mediates the relationship between participants’ commitment to mathematics learning and their mathematics achievement. The study then reports on the interviews with five participants to add nuances and dynamics to the mediating role of habitus of Chineseness. The study complements the existing literature by providing sociological insight into the better mathematics achievement of Chinese students.

Abstract 123: A Comparison of In-Hospital Acute Myocardial Infarction Management Between Portugal and the United States: 2000 - 2010

Objectives: Because inter- and intra-country variations in the adoption of medical technologies exist, international comparative studies provide an opportunity to infer technology effectiveness. Few studies have characterized recent trends in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) management between countries. Methods: Repeated cross-sectional observational cohorts of hospitalized adults aged ≥20 years discharged between January 2000 and December 2010. We identified new AMI hospitalizations using a US national 20% inpatient sample and a 100% inpatient sample in all Portuguese public sector hospitals. Age, sex, comorbidities, and median length of stay (interquartile range [IQR]) were determined. Annual age-sex adjusted hospitalization rates (HR) for AMI, in-hospital procedures, and in-hospital mortality were directly standardized to the 2010 US population. Intra-country (2010 relative to 2000) and inter-country in 2010 (Portugal [PT] relative to US) rate ratios [RR] were estimated. Findings: We identified 1476808 AMI US hospitalizations and 126314 Portugal hospitalizations between 2000 and 2010. Portuguese patients were more male, younger, and had fewer comorbidities compared to US patients (Table). The age-sex adjusted AMI HR decreased from 21 per 1000 person-years to 15 in the US (RR=0.70; 95% CI = [0.70, 0.71]) but increased in PT (14 to 15 per 1000, RR = 1.17 [1.14, 1.21]). While crude procedure rates were uniformly lower in PT, only CABG rates differed after standardization (2010: RR=0.19 [0.14, 0.26]). PCI use increased annually in both countries and decreased for CABG in the US only (102 to 79, RR=0.77 [0.73, 0.81]). Standardized in-hospital mortality decreased within-country (US: 44 to 29 per 1000, RR= 0.65 [0.60, 0.72]; PT: 93 to 62 per 1000, RR= 0.67 [0.44, 1.00]). In 2010, PT mortality was twice that in the US. Conclusions: AMI hospitalization rates and use of medical technologies are higher in the US compared to Portugal. However, standardized rates reveal only CABG surgery rates differ significantly between the two countries. Outcomes, measured by hospital mortality and LOS, are generally better in the U.S. Inter-country disparities may be a consequence of differential use of technologies, differences in AMI epidemiology, patient risk, or quality of hospital billing data.

Validation of the Hebrew version of the Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief questionnaire

BackgroundThe Burns Specific Health Scale-Brief (BSHS-B) questionnaire is a suitable measurement tool for the assessment of general, physical, mental, and social health aspects of the burn survivor. AimTo translate, culturally adapt and validate the BSHS-B to Hebrew (BSHS-H), and to investigate its psychometric properties. MethodsEighty-six Hebrew speaking burn survivors filled out the BSHS-B and SF-36 questionnaires. Ten of them (11.63%) completed a retest. The psychometric properties of the scale were evaluated. Internal consistency, criterion validity, and construct validity were assessed using interclass correlation coefficient, Cronbach's alpha statistic, Spearman rank test, and Mann–Whitney U test respectively. ResultsBSHS-H Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.97. Test–retest interclass coefficients were between 0.81 and 0.98. BSHS-H was able to discriminate between facial burns, hand burns and burns >10% body surface area (p<0.05). BSHS-H and SF-36 were positively correlated (r2=0.667, p<0.01). ConclusionsBSHS-H is a reliable and valid instrument for use in the Israeli burn survivor population. The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of this disease specific scale allows future comparative international studies.

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Goals of the International program on learning outcomes assessment � Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) � are discussed,&#x0D; outcomes of PISA-2012 are provided, which reveals that Russian school students are behind their European peers in the skill to put the acquired knowledge&#x0D; into practice. As is expected, implementation of the Russian Federation Government Program on �The Advancement of Education� for 2013�2020&#x0D; would improve performance indicators of the RF school-level students regarding the results of further international comparative studies of basic education&#x0D; quality. To achieve the said goal transferring commonly recognized European education values and goals to the realities of this country could be of&#x0D; considerable use. Regulatory documents of the European Union on school education are analyzed and translated in Russian; priority tasks of European&#x0D; states in the area of school-level education improvement are outlined as aimed at developing core competencies of school-level students. Eight core&#x0D; competences as identified by the EU educational authorities are mentioned. To improve the RF school-level students core competences it is necessary to&#x0D; re-arrange educational processes in such a way, that active personal communications come to play the crucial part. Importance of competency-building&#x0D; approach in school education is outlined.

Comparing Citizens’ Trust in the Police Across European Countries

International comparative studies on citizens’ trust in the police have become more common. However, they generally tend to ignore the fundamental question of whether comparisons between countries are actually valid. We address this knowledge gap by conducting measurement equivalence tests on trust in the police within the framework of legal and political trust, arguing that a deviant position of trust in the police within this framework in a certain country indicates comparability issues. We analyze data from the European Social Survey in 26 European nations, finding that both trust in the police and trust in other institutions are empirically comparable within most, but not all, of Europe. We also note substantial variation across countries in levels of trust, especially in terms of differences between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. We conclude that future cross-national comparisons of citizens’ trust in institutions, and especially the police, should systematically account for equivalence issues to prevent invalid conclusions and should exercise constraint in including culturally very diverse countries.

Cultivating the Colonies: Colonial States and Their Environmental Legacies ed. by Christina Folke Ax et al. (review)

Reviewed by: Cultivating the Colonies: Colonial States and Their Environmental Legacies ed. by Christina Folke Ax et al. Alison Bashford Christina Folke Ax, Niels Brimnes, Niklas Thode Jensen, and Karen Oslund, eds. Cultivating the Colonies: Colonial States and Their Environmental Legacies. Ohio University Research in International Studies, Global and Comparative Studies Series, no. 12. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2011. xiv + 337 pp. $29.95 (978-0-89680-282-7). This is a book for historians of colonial government and for environmental historians. But there is clearly enough crossover among the state, the environment, and health to engage and perhaps stretch medical historians too. With a colonial historian’s hat on, one of the delights of this collection’s eleven chapters is the reach beyond familiar and much-studied sites. Instead of the more typical Anglophone dominance, here we have German Africa, Indochina, the Russian north, Mozambique, and the rich mix in Christopher Morris’s chapter of Louisiana, Guangzhou, Pondicherry, and Senegal. Morris has successfully brought together these multiple “wetland colonies,” river deltas under French rule. I suspect this idiosyncratic collection of places—along with colonial India, Oxford, and the British settler colonies—has a provenance with the collection of four editors, located in Iceland, Denmark, Italy, and the United States and brought together by the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. If this was the first book to bring “environment,” “government,” and “colonialism” together, the selection would make little sense. But since this is an addition to a long-established field (the editors appropriately dedicate the book to Richard Grove), readers can consume and appreciate the diversity quite easily, and make the relevant links themselves. It is refreshing, if eclectic. With an environmental historian’s hat on, I would say there is much here to celebrate. What lies within Cultivating the Colonies for historians of medicine? Andrew Wear will be well known to readers of this journal, and this chapter signals his recent shift from early modern medicine to a study of environment, health, and settler colonialism. Wear pursues the connection among people, place, health, and climate, explored in a recent issue of this journal and elsewhere. This is an early modern topic if ever there was one, and naturally Wear brings his very considerable expertise to the problem. But this was equally, of course, a colonial complex, with a rather larger preexisting historiography than Wear here signals. [End Page 202] He is correct to see Hippocratic ideas span the centuries of British colonialism from the seventeenth to the twentieth, although this does rather elide distinctions of place and time: Virginia and Van Diemen’s Land can be brought together into a single frame, but this needs a very sure hand and a deep knowledge of their differences and particularities before drawing the connections. That said, other authors within this volume could have done much more to introduce Wear’s colonial state–health framework into their chapters. This might have integrated the whole rather better. The other specifically medical chapter is by Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, equally well known to modern historians of health. Her chapter details indigenous medical practitioners’ response to plague at the turn of the twentieth century, in urban Punjab. This global plague episode has been scrutinized many ways. Sivaramakrishnan concludes here that there was no “popular” indigenous response to plague or its management: certainly there was no plainly oppositional “indigenous” response to state management. It is an excellent study of urban space, curiously located in a collection linked, if anything, by rural considerations, by “cultivation” and soil-based environments (“Getting Our Hands Dirty” is the editorial introduction). As a whole, this is a collection of essays about nature, government, and colonialism. What was the impact of colonial rule for “nature”? The book is about perceptions of the environment, and how this translated or materialized into management of the environment (and in some instances into conversation or preservation). In exploring this broad topic, the studies collectively sidestep histories of agrarian political economy, including of colonial states. This is the kind of link between colonial government and the environment that economic historians would automatically make, and rightly so, but that environmental historians are increasingly viewing as critical as well...

Taking path dependence seriously: an historical institutionalist research agenda in planning history

This paper outlines an historical institutionalist (HI) research agenda for planning history. HI approaches to the understanding of institutions, path dependence, positive feedback effects in public policy, and patterned processes of institutional change offer a robust theoretical framework and a valuable set of conceptual and analytic tools for the analysis of continuity and change in public policy. Yet, to date, there has been no systematic effort to incorporate historical institutionalism into planning history research. The body of the paper proposes planning history relevant definitions of institutions, path dependence, critical junctures, and incremental change processes, outlines recent HI literature applying and extending these concepts, and frames a number of research questions for planning history that these approaches suggest. A concluding section explores the potential application and leverage of HI approaches to the study of planning history and international comparative planning studies and outlines a research agenda.

Ranking health between countries in international comparisons

Cross-national comparisons and ranking of summary measures of population health sometimes give rise to inconsistent and diverging conclusions. In order to minimise confusion, international comparative studies ought to be based on well-harmonised data with common standards of definitions and documentation. Calculation methods and results should be communicated clearly and exactly.

Factors associated with quality of services for marginalized groups with mental health problems in 14 European countries.

BackgroundDifferent service characteristics are known to influence mental health care delivery. Much less is known about the impact of contextual factors, such as the socioeconomic circumstances, on the provision of care to socially marginalized groups.The objectives of this work were to assess the organisational characteristics of services providing mental health care for marginalized groups in 14 European capital cities and to explore the associations between organisational quality, service features and country-level characteristics.Methods617 services were assessed in two highly deprived areas in 14 European capital cities. A Quality Index of Service Organisation (QISO) was developed and applied across all sites. Service characteristics and country level socioeconomic indicators were tested and related with the Index using linear regressions and random intercept linear models.ResultsThe mean (standard deviation) of the QISO score (minimum = 0; maximum = 15) varied from 8.63 (2.23) in Ireland to 12.40 (2.07) in Hungary. The number of different programmes provided was the only service characteristic significantly correlated with the QISO (p < 0.05). The national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was inversely associated with the QISO. Nearly 15% of the variance of the QISO was attributed to country-level variables, with GDP explaining 12% of this variance.ConclusionsSocioeconomic contextual factors, in particular the national GDP are likely to influence the organisational quality of services providing mental health care for marginalized groups. Such factors should be considered in international comparative studies. Their significance for different types of services should be explored in further research.

Sedentary behaviour and health: mapping environmental and social contexts to underpin chronic disease prevention

The time that children and adults spend sedentary–put simply, doing too much sitting as distinct from doing too little physical activity—has recently been proposed as a population-wide, ubiquitous influence on...