ABSTRACT Urban experimentation has become central to sustainability transitions, evolving from grassroots initiatives toward mainstream adoption in European Union policy programs. While this shift expands resources and visibility, it also embeds experiments within managerial politics that demand standardized proposals aligned with EU priorities and evaluation templates. Within this context, the proposal-writing stage becomes a formative yet overlooked moment where experimental trajectories are fixed before implementation begins. This paper develops and illustrates a heuristic framework for analyzing how (de)politicization shapes EU-funded urban experiments during the proposal phase. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe's distinction between politics and the Political, the framework identifies four domains – representation, agenda-setting, legitimation, and distribution – where institutional embedding intersects with political contestation. The framework is illustrated through expert interviews with EU funding practitioners and a case study of the ATELIER Horizon 2020 project on Positive Energy Districts. The analysis illustrates how proposal frameworks may privilege established actors and measurable outputs while marginalizing uncertain or radical ambitions, even as internal debates reveal traces of contestation that rarely stabilize in final texts. The paper closes with implications for urban experimentation scholarship and recommendations for designing more politically reflexive EU funding architectures.

ABSTRACT This study aimed to analyze how the constructive-collaborative methodology, adopted in a Pedagogical Residency Program (PRP) in Physical Education at a public university, contributes to the professional development of undergraduate students and to the understanding of Teaching as a Profession of Human Interactions (TPHI). Multiple data sources were used for the analysis: (a) documents produced during the PRP (portfolios, reports, and teaching cases); and (b) semi-structured interviews conducted two years after the program's completion. Six residents, two preceptors, and one area coordinator participated in the study. The data processing followed thematic analysis procedures. The results show that the residents transitioned from peripheral participation to more active participation in the community of practice, consolidating experiential knowledge and expanding their professional identity. Constructive-Collaborative Work acted as a formative device by supporting processes of co-learning, co-responsibility, and negotiation of meaning. The interviews indicate that the learning constructed in the program was incorporated into teaching practice, especially in classroom management, in the articulation between theory and practice, and in the understanding of teaching as a relational practice. The combination of formative devices and collaborative practices configured an environment conducive to situated learning and the progressive construction of teaching professionalism, understood as a way of acting, interacting, and attributing meaning to the work of teaching. It is concluded that the articulation between the PRP and the constructive-collaborative methodology favored formative processes based on immersion, collaboration, and reflection on practice. These findings reinforce the TPHI and indicate the potential of integrated training models for Teacher Professional Development, in dialogue with national and international debates on Supervised Internship and residency programs.

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and related services are legally available in a number of countries under specific conditions and continue to be the subject of ongoing international debate. In Canada, MAiD has been legally available since 2016, with eligibility expanded in 2021 to include individuals whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable (Track 2), in addition to those whose death is reasonably foreseeable (Track 1). MAiD is federally regulated, but services are organized and delivered at the provincial and territorial levels, resulting in substantial variation in staffing, funding, oversight, and training. To date, most research has focused on the experiences of individual professional groups, such as physicians, or on single jurisdictions. Less is known about how the service delivery process functions as a whole and how its organizational and operational features shape the experiences of the healthcare professionals (HCPs), administrators, and policymakers involved. This study examines the barriers to and facilitators of MAiD service delivery from the perspectives of professionals across the service delivery process throughout Canada and identifies key system-level and operational factors that may inform MAiD policy and program planning both domestically and internationally. Participants were recruited through professional networks, provincial and territorial MAiD working groups, and MAiD-related non-profit organizations. Participants included healthcare professionals (HCPs), program administrators, and policymakers involved in MAiD service delivery. Interviews were held virtually and were recorded and transcribed. Data was analyzed using a qualitative descriptive design with a structured, five-phase inductive thematic analysis approach and constant comparison to identify barriers to and facilitators of MAiD service delivery. A total of 46 semi-structured interviews were conducted between July 2024 and January 2025 with participants from seven provinces and one territory. Ten themes and 25 sub-themes were identified. Barriers included high workloads, limited collaboration with other health services, limited coordination, and inadequate training and financial support. Emerging issues included misinformation about MAiD eligibility criteria, limited bereavement support services for patients' families, and acquiring and transporting MAiD-related medications. Facilitators included centralized coordination systems, standardized documentation and reporting, interprofessional collaboration, and supportive leadership. These findings offer a process-level view of how MAiD services have been operationalized in Canada a decade after its legalization. They highlight persistent and emerging challenges in MAiD service delivery as well as promising innovations used to address them. As Canada prepares for the March 2027 expansion of MAiD to persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, and as other jurisdictions continue to develop assisted dying legislation, these findings map the system-, operational-, and support-level factors needed to sustain and strengthen MAiD service delivery.

Abstract For the third time in a century, the concept of critical minerals has become a central theme in international trade and security debates. Materials criticality discourse first arose in the late 1930s and 1940s. It was taken up again from the mid-1970s through to mid-1980s and has become ubiquitous in post-pandemic debates concerning the global energy transition in a context of escalating geopolitical volatility. This article examines the evolution of critical minerals discourse over a century, with a focus on these three periods. It seeks to identify the contexts in which criticality claims have emerged and to examine the politics of critical minerals discourse in this third wave. It argues that critical minerals discourse has evolved in response to geopolitical instability understood by the US to threaten its hegemony; and that critical minerals discourse in its third wave has thus far served four major political functions. First, critical minerals discourse has served as a rhetorical device for asserting that the security of the US and its allies lies in the defence of US hegemony, and not in the defence of international institutions and trade norms. Second, critical minerals discourse has served as an effective means of leveraging geopolitical instability in favour of extractive interests. Third, critical minerals discourse has worked to re-mystify the economics of market speculation and the predictability of state intervention in markets. Finally, critical minerals discourse has been used to leverage the existential urgency of the climate crisis in favour of elite and extractive interests and against local communities and ecosystems.

To analyze the Brazilian National Prescription Control System (SNCR) for controlled medications in light of international electronic prescription monitoring models and to identify opportunities for regulatory and clinical improvement in the control of psychostimulants, benzodiazepines, and Z-drugs. A comparative narrative review of international prescription monitoring systems was conducted. Case studies were selected according to predefined criteria, including implementation of electronic monitoring systems for controlled medications, availability of official documentation and scientific literature, relevance to international regulatory debates, and diversity of healthcare systems. Models from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom were analyzed and compared with the Brazilian SNCR established under RDC No. 873/2024. The Brazilian SNCR represents an important administrative advance by centralizing prescription numbering nationwide, enabling digital prescriptions, and improving document traceability. However, the system remains primarily focused on sanitary surveillance and administrative oversight, without providing clinicians access to patients' dispensing histories or tools to identify potentially inappropriate prescribing patterns. In contrast, international models incorporate real-time clinical access, prescription monitoring, automated alerts, audit mechanisms, and prescriber feedback. Evidence from international experiences suggests these systems are associated with reductions in duplicate prescribing, medication misuse, prescribing errors, and adverse drug events. Although Brazil has advanced in the digitalization of controlled prescriptions, strengthening the SNCR will require a transition toward integrated clinical pharmacovigilance systems. International experiences support the incorporation of interoperability, real-time monitoring, and structured prescriber feedback to improve patient safety and promote the rational use of psychotropic medications.

ABSTRACT Background Over the past two decades, school physical education (PE) in South Korea has evolved from a curriculum-based subject into a cross-sectoral policy platform. This transformation has been driven less by coherent pedagogical planning and more by crisis-responsive governance, shaped by political contingencies, media-amplified crises, and global discourses linking PE to public health, student rights, and social regulation. Purpose This study investigates the governance of school PE policy in South Korea through discursive technologies within historically specific regimes of truth. Adopting a Foucauldian archaeological approach, it examines how dominant policy discourses are constituted, legitimised, and reconfigured, and considers their implications for pedagogical coherence and educational meaning. The study also situates the Korean experience within international debates on surveillance-oriented governance in PE. Methods The analysis draws on 20 annual School PE Promotion Plans (2005–2024) and three National Master Plans for Promoting School PE (2014, 2018, and 2023) issued by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Using Kendall and Wickham’s (1999) three-stage framework for archaeological discourse analysis, informed by discourse-historical methods, the study identifies dominant discourses, traces their legitimisation through discursive technologies, and situates them within broader political contingencies. Findings Three policy periods were identified: Introduction (2000–2010), Diffusion (2011–2020), and Transformation (2021–present). Across these phases, discourses surrounding health, citizenship, performance, and student rights were rearticulated through technologies such as the Physical Activity Promotion System (PAPS), student-athlete rights regulations, and fitness monitoring regimes. These technologies constructed differentiated subject positions, including the ‘studying student-athlete’ and the ‘active general student’, thereby normalising surveillance-based governance. Epistemic ruptures, most notably the 2003 Cheonan dormitory fire and the COVID-19 pandemic, enabled policy shifts but largely reinforced short-term, crisis-responsive interventions rather than sustained pedagogical reform. This process gradually displaced pedagogical values such as inclusion and creativity, while intensifying regulatory oversight and constraining teacher agency. Conclusion School PE in South Korea has been reconfigured as a regulatory apparatus rather than a pedagogically rich learning environment. Reclaiming its educational purpose requires governance aligned with long-term pedagogical goals, meaningful teacher involvement in policy making, and critical engagement with surveillance-based discourses. Impact statement This study contributes to physical education and sport pedagogy by demonstrating how school PE policy operates as a form of governance rather than a coherent pedagogical project. It offers internationally relevant insights into how surveillance-oriented policy logics shape educational meaning, professional practice, and democratic possibilities in school PE.

Institutional infrastructure for social innovation: The case of Mexico

In January 2026, the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released, generating substantial international debate. Unlike previous editions, these guidelines were not primarily based on the report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee but on an independent scientific review, a process that raised concerns regarding transparency and potential conflicts of interest. This article critically examines the main recommendations of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, with particular emphasis on their implications for metabolic, cardiovascular, and kidney health. While the guidelines appropriately emphasize the reduction of ultra-processed food consumption and the promotion of minimally processed foods, several inconsistencies with contemporary scientific evidence are identified. Key concerns include the use of an outdated inverted food pyramid, a strong emphasis on high-protein intake (1.2–1.6 g/kg/day) predominantly from animal sources, and an internal contradiction between recommended protein intake and limits on saturated fat consumption. The proposed dietary pattern may also inadequately support gut microbiota health due to relatively low recommendations for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These issues may also be relevant to nephrology, given the growing popularity of high-protein diets and their potential renal implications. Overall, while the guidelines contain positive elements, their scientific coherence and alignment with established evidence-based dietary patterns remain questionable, potentially limiting their effectiveness as a public health tool.

In January 2026, the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released, generating substantial international debate. Unlike previous editions, these guidelines were not primarily based on the report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee but on an independent scientific review, a process that raised concerns regarding transparency and potential conflicts of interest. This article critically examines the main recommendations of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, with particular emphasis on their implications for metabolic, cardiovascular, and kidney health. While the guidelines appropriately emphasize the reduction of ultra-processed food consumption and the promotion of minimally processed foods, several inconsistencies with contemporary scientific evidence are identified. Key concerns include the use of an outdated inverted food pyramid, a strong emphasis on high-protein intake (1.2-1.6 g/kg/day) predominantly from animal sources, and an internal contradiction between recommended protein intake and limits on saturated fat consumption. The proposed dietary pattern may also inadequately support gut microbiota health due to relatively low recommendations for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These issues may also be relevant to nephrology, given the growing popularity of high-protein diets and their potential renal implications. Overall, while the guidelines contain positive elements, their scientific coherence and alignment with established evidence-based dietary patterns remain questionable, potentially limiting their effectiveness as a public health tool.

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the Australian Capital Territory’s Literacy and Numeracy Education Expert Panel Final Report and its implementation through the Strong Foundations reform package. Using Bacchi’s (2009) What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) framework, we show how the Report constructs inequity as a problem of system inconsistency, variability and teacher inadequacy, while silencing the social and structural determinants of student outcomes. Drawing on discourse and citation analysis, we demonstrate how institutional actors such as the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) and Australian Council of Education Research (ACER), together with the language of ‘evidence’ and ‘what works,’ reinforce a closed circuit of authority privileging neuroscientific and technocratic solutions. These representations depoliticise inequality, legitimise recentralisation and position teachers and schools as deficient actors in need of reform. We argue that appeals to curriculum ‘consistency’ and ‘coherence’ operate as governing technologies that advance surface-level consistency while risking the entrenchment of deeper socio-economic and cultural inequities. Although grounded in a sub-national Australian context, the analysis speaks to broader international debates on evidence-based reform, intermediary influence and the politics of education governance. WPR offers a valuable lens for exposing these dynamics and interrogating the politics of evidence in contemporary education policy.

During coronavirus, India, South Africa, and others proposed a moratorium on specific provisions of the TRIPs agreement on the vaccine intellectual properties to address COVID-19 prevention, deterrence, and treatment. This paper scrutinized international debates on COVID-19 vaccine IP, delving into security discourse politics from a critical geopolitical standpoint, policy and institutional conflicts from a non-geopolitical lens, and cyber diplomacy for solidarity from a de-geopolitical angle. Firstly, the competition for COVID- 19 vaccine IP seems to manifest as a hegemonic struggle among nations. Secondly, direct correlations remain elusive as COVID-19 vaccine IP as a virtual realm. Throughout the pandemic, one lesson has been unequivocal: we must prepare for future public health challenges and position IP to facilitate vaccine distribution and manufacturing rather than hinder them.

ABSTRACT Assessment, as part of the tested curriculum, plays an important role internationally in certifying student achievement in secondary education. Following global trends, a recent reform of Junior Cycle curricula (lower secondary level) in Ireland introduced school-based assessments (SBAs) alongside traditional state examinations. Known locally as Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs), they are part of a ‘dual assessment’ system, combining centralized examinations with non-certified assessments conducted by teachers. This study examines the perspectives of mathematics teachers towards these changes in their subject. An online survey, using a non-probability sampling method, collected 196 responses. While certain advantages were identified, including the promotion of independent learning and the incorporation of real-life applications, the findings also reveal persistent concerns among mathematics teachers regarding the introduction of CBAs. Key challenges include the significant amount of class time required, limited student engagement, and the potential to exacerbate existing student inequities. These concerns raise important questions about the ongoing implementation of CBAs in their current format within the Junior Cycle Mathematics Specification (JCMS). The findings are also considered in relation to broader international debates on curriculum and assessment reform, highlighting common challenges and enhancing understanding of how policy initiatives are interpreted, mediated, and contested across educational contexts.

ABSTRACT This study explores the career progression challenges faced by racially minoritised (RM) academics in UK higher education, with a focus on a School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health. Using a qualitative approach, this study draws on semi-structured interviews to examine institutional and social barriers to promotion. Grounded in Institutional Logics theory and Social Closure Theory, the analysis identified five interconnected themes: perceived lack of readiness for promotion, unclear and opaque progression pathways, inequitable access to mentoring and networks, systemic bias in evaluation and decision-making, and emotional and psychological burden. The study contributes to Human Resource Development (HRD) by situating these findings within international and intersectional debates on equity and inclusion and by offering practical and policy-level recommendations aligned with HRD principles of inclusive leadership, organisational learning, and wellbeing. The findings highlight the importance of transparent development pathways and culturally responsive support mechanisms to enhance RM representation in senior academic roles and advance equity in higher education.

Is capacity to consent to healthcare a uniformly defined concept? Insights from a document analysis of laws and national guidelines across six European countries.

ABSTRACT Climate-induced Loss and Damage (L&D) is becoming a defining challenge for global climate governance, especially in West Africa, where adaptation limits are increasingly surpassed. Yet, the literature has largely overlooked how national governments in Africa conceptualize, operationalize, and govern L&D. Existing studies tend to focus on international finance debates or localized impacts, leaving a gap in understanding the national policy frameworks shaping L&D responses. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of five West African countries, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, structured around four thematic dimensions: conceptual clarity, scope and depth of losses, policy integration, and institutional readiness. Drawing on more than 60 official policy documents, including National Adaptation Plans, disaster frameworks, and climate legislation, the study applies an interpretive scoring framework and proposes a three-stage typology of L&D policy engagement (Nascent, Emerging, Integrated). The results show that Senegal and Ghana fall into the Emerging category, with partial recognition of L&D concepts but limited institutionalization in formal policy architecture. Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Sierra Leone remain Nascent, where L&D is either subsumed under adaptation and humanitarian action or only referenced anecdotally. No country has yet reached the Integrated stage. Across all five cases, economic losses in agriculture and infrastructure are frequently reported, while non-economic losses such as displacement, cultural erosion, and psychological harm remain weakly specified. Institutional arrangements for L&D are fragmented in national frameworks, suggesting uneven preparedness for engagement with emerging international L&D governance mechanisms, including the Santiago Network and the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage. The findings suggest that the absence of formal L&D strategies in many national policy documents may limit the visibility of irreversible climate impacts and complicate future claims-making in international arenas. By advancing a systematic baseline of how L&D is framed in national policies and introducing a heuristic typology for cross-country comparison, this study contributes conceptually, empirically, and policy-relevantly to debates on climate justice and the evolving governance of L&D in the Global South.

Recent Andes virus outbreaks have reignited international debate regarding Public Health preparedness for hantaviruses with documented interpersonal transmission capacity. Unlike other orthohantaviruses, Andes virus has demonstrated person-to-person transmission in specific epidemiological settings, including household and nosocomial environments. The recent emergence of cases linked to multinational outbreaks has prompted renewed assessments and recommendations from international public health organizations. This manuscript presents an epidemiological reflection on current surveillance challenges associated with emerging hantaviruses following the experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also reviews aspects related to zoonotic surveillance, molecular monitoring, early detection, and integrated One Health approaches applied to preparedness against future emerging threats. Available evidence highlights the need to strengthen multidisciplinary surveillance systems capable of integrating human, environmental, and zoonotic information in order to improve responses to complex epidemiological scenarios associated with emerging hantaviruses.

ABSTRACT Support courses have been a cornerstone of Swiss vocational education and training since 1978. This article analyses their historical development and their significance for inclusive vocational education and training, educational equity and participation, and progression (SDG 4). Based on a historical-analytical document analysis of 44 laws, education policy texts, evaluation reports and scientific literature (1978–2025), target groups, functions, legal frameworks, didactics, governance and effects were analysed using deductive and inductive approaches. The analysis identifies three phases, namely introduction and establishment (1978–2003), legal realignment (2004–2019) and pandemic-related responses together with future-oriented developments (from 2020 onwards). Over time, there has been a paradigm shift from deficit-oriented tutoring to resource-oriented, inclusive support, with an expanded focus on interdisciplinary skills, language learning and psychosocial dimensions. Support courses are now a core element of inclusive vocational education and training and contribute significantly to equal opportunities, educational participation and progression. Although international transfer is possible, it requires adaptation to administrative structures, teacher training and cultural contexts. This Swiss case study offers insights for international debates on educational equity, inclusion and educational participation, as well as progression. Future research should evaluate effectiveness, promote destigmatisation and develop sustainable administrative models.

This article examines how the purpose of career guidance is articulated and embedded in professional identity. Drawing on professional identity theory and John Dewey’s philosophy of education, it analyses contemporary articulations of purpose with particular attention to historical Danish policy texts. The analysis shows that contemporary formulations of purpose are often indirect, whereas earlier texts framed guidance as a democratic and educative practice. Although based on Danish material, the discussion speaks to wider international debates about the societal role and purpose of career guidance. The article argues that purpose should be understood as an immanent normative orientation embedded in professional practice.

ABSTRACT Inviolate areas represent a physical and conceptual manifestation of an approach to conservation based on protecting nature from people. Debates over inviolate areas in Antarctica offer useful insights into the values that underpin conservation in the Anthropocene. Antarctica is governed by an international treaty system that declares the continent to be a ‘natural reserve, devoted to peace and science’ and which requires consensus decision-making among a wide range of cultural and political views. Drawing on Antarctic governance and conservation scholarship, as well as the wider geographical and humanities literature, this article examines the contested interpretations and framings of inviolate areas in Antarctica. Starting with international debates over ‘Prohibited Zones’ in Belgium’s 2023 proposal for a new protected area, we trace historical and contemporary perspectives on inviolate areas in the Antarctic. We then propose four frames through which stakeholders might engage inviolate areas, each of which reflects a set of assumptions and values about how Antarctic conservation should be approached, ranging from increasing human presence to re-imagining the region as an autonomous, rights-bearing entity. We offer these frames as a heuristic device for those seeking new ways of navigating disagreement and achieving better conservation outcomes in Antarctica and beyond.

ABSTRACT This study analyzes rural development governance in the Shouf El-Souayjani Union of Municipalities, a historically rich yet institutionally neglected region in Lebanon. It focuses on local institutions, policy, and stakeholder dynamics and their impact on how tourism contributes to inclusive communities. The research is based on 41 semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders, including municipality and ministry representatives, NGOs, guesthouse owners, syndicates, private sector actors, and environmental associations. The results identify key features of the setting, including institutional fragmentation, political interference, and legal gaps. However, grassroots initiatives, decentralized tourist destination management, community resilience, and capacity building are promising avenues for integrating tourism into development policymaking. Drawing upon discourses of governance and sustainability, this study validates calls for participatory planning, continuity among policymakers, and inter-sector collaboration. Moreover, it contributes to the international debate concerning rural development through tourism. It supports the UN SDGs, particularly those for 8, 11, 12, and 17.