Issues In Area Research Articles

Local Leaflets: Constituency Issue Messaging at the 2024 General Election

AbstractThe 2024 general election brought about a significant change in the parliamentary balance of power. There has already been much attention devoted to the issues that dominated the national campaign. Using original leaflet data from the OpenElections project, this study extends the focus to explore the issues emphasised in local electoral communications put forward by parties and candidates in their constituency campaigns. The article reveals that the top issues featured in election leaflets were health, the economy and the environment. There is also evidence of considerable variation across parties in terms of the issues emphasised, as well as in the focus of the discussion within issue areas and the keywords they tended to prioritise. These findings suggest that, while political elites recognise the need to engage with the key issues of the campaign, how they engage with an issue depends on many factors, including their own record and/or the perceived shortcomings of their opponent(s).

Public opinion toward Russia’s war against Ukraine: investigating wartime attitudes in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT How have Central Asian publics reacted to Russia’s war against Ukraine? This study assesses overall attitudes toward the war in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic using survey data from the early days of the war. We find that respondents in Kyrgyzstan are more likely to hold pro-Russian attitudes regarding the war than their counterparts in Kazakhstan. We then examine the relationship between political attitudes and correlates commonly linked to geopolitical preferences generally and pro-Russian attitudes specifically: ethnolinguistic identity, remittances, and media use. Results suggest that ethnic identity holds the strongest and most consistent link to wartime sentiments, with ethnic Kyrgyz and Kazakhs showing less pro-Russian attitudes compared to ethnic Russians. Further results indicate that language and media use are somewhat associated with pro-Russian wartime attitudes, though this relationship varies by context and issue area. Finally, we find limited support for the argument that receiving remittances is associated with political preferences.

Integrated Assessment of Security Risk Considering Police Resources

The existing research on security risk often focuses on specific types of crime, overlooking an integrated assessment of security risk by leveraging existing police resources. Thus, we draw on crime geography theories, integrating public security business data, socioeconomic data, and spatial analysis techniques, to identify integrated risk points and areas by examining the distribution of police resources and related factors and their influence on security risk. The findings indicate that security risk areas encompass high-incidence areas of public security issues, locations with concentrations of dangerous individuals and key facilities, and regions with a limited police presence, characterized by dense populations, diverse urban functions, high crime probabilities, and inadequate supervision. While both police resources and security risk are concentrated in urban areas, the latter exhibits a more scattered distribution on the urban periphery, suggesting opportunities to optimize resource allocation by extending police coverage to risk hotspots lacking patrol stations. Notably, Level 1 security risk areas often coincide with areas lacking a police presence, underscoring the need for strategic resource allocation. By comprehensively assessing the impact of police resources and public security data on spatial risk distribution, this study provides valuable insights for public security management and police operations.

Socioeconomic reforms in times of political transformation: Conflicts over the political economy in Egypt and Tunisia post-2011

While ample research on the political economy of the MENA has pointed to the underlying causes of the Arab uprisings, little analysis has been done on the political economies after this massive rupture. To fill this gap, the contributions in this themed section use in-depth case studies from Egypt and Tunisia post-2011, and look at how socioeconomic challenges were addressed once political institutions – in very different regime contexts – were back in place. Given the fairly similar political economies, the case studies offer intriguing insights into obstacles that both a democracy and an autocracy face in tackling socioeconomic problems in issue areas such as fiscal policy, labour laws and decentralisation reforms. Studying these conflicts helps us to identify the relevant actors and their relative power at a given moment. The analysis also provides an opportunity to identify how formal and informal institutions are used and if the new institutional setting allows for effective conflict management. The results uncover a mixed depiction of capacities to implement reforms, which cannot be explained by the regime variable or absolute state capacity alone. Instead, explanatory power is found in a dynamic, relational, agency-oriented approach to analyzing state and social actors in issue-specific socioeconomic reform conflicts.

Status Hierarchies and Stigma Shifting in International Relations

Abstract How do states as social actors cope with stigma-induced status anxiety? I propose the concept of “stigma shifting” as a way in which status-anxious states overcompensate for their stigma-induced inferiority and reaffirm their place in the world: by seeking identification with higher-status states and differentiation from lower-status states. In identifying with the desired group of states, stigmatized states engage in approval-seeking behavior and reaffirm their in-group status in areas where they feel discredited. In differentiating themselves from the undesired group, stigmatized states engage in distinction-seeking behavior, claiming their superiority over this “lesser” group in areas that gave rise to their status anxiety in the first place. Stigma shifting, in other words, allows a stigmatized state to take the role of a stigmatizer. To demonstrate the concept's depth and analytical utility, I draw on the case of East Asia in three disparate issue areas: colonial redress, nuclear disaster, and international order making. Japan, stigmatized in all three areas, has reaffirmed its status by shifting the stigma onto its significant but “lesser” others: China and Korea. Ultimately, stigma shifting solidifies status hierarchies in the world—not just the hierarchy as represented by the “Western” dominance of international society but also the regional hierarchies of the non-Western world.

A METHOD OF VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS IN WIRELESS INTERNET OF THINGS NETWORKS FOR SMART CITY INFRASTRUCTURES

The article proposes an approach to information security vulnerability analysis and threat modeling in wireless Internet of Things networks for Smart City infrastructures. Currently, such infrastructures are becoming increasingly widespread in a variety of Smart City application areas, including industrial life support systems, pipelines, communication networks, and transportation systems. The wide coverage of end users, the critical nature of such infrastructures and the value of their inherent assets determine the increasing importance of solving problems of determining the security level of such infrastructures and the timely application of protective measures. The ultimate goal of the proposed approach is to assess the security of the infrastructure. This article analyses articles at the intersection of the subject area of vulnerability and attack analysis in information systems and networks and the area of Smart City infrastructure issues. The proposed approach includes the use of an analytical model of an intruder which, together with the analysis of the specification of a specific Smart City infrastructure, allows us to determine the current types of attacks. In order to obtain infrastructure security assessments, the CAPEC database of wireless network vulnerabilities and attack patterns is analysed. In this case, the main attributes of the attacks are identified, unified and transformed into a single format using the numerical values of the considered attributes. The feasibility of the proposed approach is also analysed and its main advantages and disadvantages are considered. In addition, the main areas of further activity and tasks related to testing and improving the proposed approach in practice are identified.

Battery electric vehicles in underground mines: Insights from industry

The implementation of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in underground mining is relatively recent. BEVs offer several advantages over diesel machines, including enhanced working conditions through reduced noise and heat and the lack of toxic exhaust gases or diesel particulate matter. In addition to reducing greenhouse gases, they have the potential to reduce ventilation and air conditioning costs. Nevertheless, there are certain concerns about BEVs, in areas of productivity, fire safety, economic viability, user-friendliness, and potential electrical-related issues. To address these, two surveys were conducted, one among underground mine management and the other among mine personnel to ascertain their opinions and experiences of BEVs. The results indicated the primary motivators for mines to adopt BEVs were to create a healthier working environment and reduce carbon emissions. The factors hindering the implementation were high costs and the lack of proven reliability. Mine personnel appreciated BEVs for their quietness and reduced fluids and components; however, they had concerns about fire safety and limited battery duration. This study presents the extent of BEV use in underground mining and associated fire incidents and a summary of the survey results.

Beyond party and the pocketbook: racial resentment, hostile sexism, and perceptions of corporate political activity

Abstract Recent controversies over “woke” businesses have challenged traditional partisan political alignments, leading to increased criticism on the right of corporate political activity. This paper explores how the public evaluates corporate political activity, focusing specifically on whether individuals believe corporations are doing too much (or too little) to advance social and political goals. We are especially interested in how social identities and pocketbook considerations shape perceptions of corporate political activities not explicitly tied to social issues. Does racial resentment, for example, influence perceptions of corporate political activity designed to increase worker wages or improve health care? Or are the effects limited to efforts to achieve racial equality? We find that racial resentment and hostile sexism have spillover effects, affecting perceptions of corporate political activity across issue areas. Partisan affiliation, political ideology, and personal pocketbook considerations, in contrast, play a more limited role. Previous research has demonstrated the effect of racial resentment and sexism on support for welfare policies. We add to this literature by showing that racist and sexist opposition extends to corporate political activities that might not be explicitly identified as socially progressive.

City of New York’s Cabinet for Older New Yorkers is a Model for Age-Inclusive Policy Design and Implementation

The global population is aging with adults living longer and declining birth rates creating major implications for policy and infrastructure. The City of New York is cultivating an “Age-Inclusive” model that considers the needs of older adults today while laying the groundwork for tomorrow. Focused on cross-agency collaboration that approaches problem solving and design through the multi-dimensionality of every-day life, New York City Mayor Eric Adams introduced the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers (“Cabinet”) as a novel approach to imagining, designing and implementing policy, structural and systemic changes. Dozens of reforms have been developed and rolled out through the Cabinet, impacting the lives of thousands of New Yorkers across generations. The Cabinet is a model for policy design that can be replicated across cities and issue areas.

Governance fragmentation and agency of miners in Ghana’s artisanal mining sector

Artisanal mining in Ghana was established by law as a legitimate indigenous economic activity in 1989, but the sector still lacks a designated formalized governance architecture. Artisanal mining in Ghana borrows from a governance architecture that is designed for large-scale corporate mining. Aspects of artisanal mining fall under governance of various issue areas. Mechanisms that are exclusive to artisanal mining are mostly temporary, including such ad hoc measures as moratoria and paramilitary operations. Also, non-state actors adopt measures to address specific needs in the sector. Hence, Ghana’s artisanal mining governance architecture includes duplicate, overlapping, uncoordinated, and competitive formal and informal measures. This creates confusion and uncertainty, complicates and derails governance, and disrupts legal mining activity. Miners manage to navigate the environment, often through illegal operations. Sometimes, miners also craft independent governance architectures in the mining sites. Literature on governance of artisanal mining in Ghana addresses various empirical and theoretical questions, without highlighting the sector’s fragmented governance architectures and miners’ agency in that context. Redirecting attention to the trend, this paper examines the following questions: 1) In what ways does governance fragmentation manifest in Ghana’s artisanal mining sector? How do miners navigate the environment and how does miner agency impact the fragmented governance? The paper applies a global governance concept to shed new light on governance of artisanal mining, an informal domestic sector, in relation to miner agency in the fragmented governance environment in Ghana. Focusing on environmental issues, the paper uses data from field research in Ghana and relevant secondary sources. Although miners’ independent governance effort extends the governance fragmentation, it is an important guide on formalizing artisanal mining in the Ghanaian context. The paper makes novel empirical and theoretical contributions to discussions on governance fragmentation and governance of artisanal mining.

NATO after the invasion of Ukraine: how the shock changed alliance cohesion

AbstractFollowing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, experts predicted a NATO revival. The record on alliance cohesion, however, is mixed. Allies achieved consensus on some issues but not others. While some Alliance politics scholars and NATO experts assert that cohesion improved, new scholarship is needed to explain the nature of and changes in cohesion across NATO’s many issue areas. Leveraging organizational change scholarship, I argue that the extent to which an exogenous shock—here, the invasion of Ukraine—aligns with NATO’s mission can explain differences in cohesion on issue areas across three realms. To test the argument, I employ discourse analysis of high-level NATO documents, leader statements, relevant quotes from allied and NATO officials and public opinion polls (2010–2024). Findings reveal the importance of an alliance’s mission for the reconfiguration of cohesion after shock, and the study offers an alternative means for explaining the ebbs and flow of alliance cohesion.

Political identity and risk politics: Evidence from a pandemic.

The way political identity serves as a foundation for political polarization in the United States permits elites to extend conflict rapidly to new issue areas. Further, the types of cognitive mechanisms and shortcuts used in the politically polarized information environment are similar to some of those used in risk perception. Consequently, political elites may easily create partisan risk positions, largely through politically focused social amplification of risk. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a natural experiment for testing predictions about such risk politics. We asked questions about pandemic-related views, behaviors, and policies at the outset of the pandemic in April 2020 and again in September 2020 via public opinion surveys. Our data and analyses focus primarily on a single state, with some analysis extended to four states. We begin by demonstrating strong linkages between political partisan identification on the one hand and support for co-partisan elites, use of partisan information sources, and support for co-partisan policies on the other hand. We then find evidence that pandemic risk positions correspond with partisan information sources and find support for a mechanism involving partisan-tinted evaluation of elite cues. Partisan risk positions quickly became part of the larger polarized structure of political support and views. Finally, our evidence shows on the balance that partisan risk positions related to the pandemic coalesced and strengthened over time. Overall, while self-identified Democrats consistently viewed the coronavirus as the primary threat, self-identified Republicans quickly pivoted toward threats to their freedoms and to the economy.

Bibliometric Computational Mapping Analysis of Publications of Marine and Fisheries Education using VOSviewer

This study investigates the research development in marine and fisheries engineering education employing a bibliometric approach with VOSviewer analysis. The article data was obtained from the Google Scholar database using the Publish or Perish Reference Manager application. The search method is guided by the title and abstract of the publication, which refer to the terms "Mechanical Marine and Fisheries in Education". A total of 800 relevant papers, indexed by Google Scholar, were discovered throughout a 10-year period from 2012 to 2022. The results show that marine and fishery engineering research in the field of education is categorized into eight clusters. The first cluster, focused on marine engineering education, has a total link strength of 748 terms. The second cluster, centred around management marine fishing, has a total link strength of 872 terms. The third cluster, related to mechanical damage, has a total link strength of 81 terms. The fourth cluster, concerning mechanical properties, has a total link strength of 275 terms. The fifth cluster, dedicated to marine ecosystems, has a total link strength of 711 terms. The sixth cluster, focused on fishing grounds, has a total link strength of 444 terms. The seventh cluster, centred around national marine fisheries, has a total link strength of 195 terms. Lastly, the eighth cluster, related to fishing resources, has a total link strength of 200 terms. The number of publications from 2012 to 2016 exhibited an upward trend, with the values being 46, 55, 58, 75, and 77, respectively. In 2017 the number of publications decreased to 66. From 2018 to 2021, it increased again (67, 87, 97, 100). By mid-2022, there were 59 publications. We conducted an extensive analysis of numerous published articles on marine and fisheries engineering in education, focusing specifically on issue areas, using VOSviewer. This research serves as a foundation for future investigations.

Gender, Issue Stereotypes, and the Electoral Returns to Distributive Politics in the United States

Elected officials can often successfully increase voter support in their district by “bringing home the bacon,” yet theory suggests that the electoral effects of such efforts may depend on the legislator’s gender and whether the legislator delivered benefits in a stereotypically feminine (e.g., healthcare) or masculine (e.g., agriculture) issue area. Using both observational and experimental data in the United States, we find weak, limited evidence that issue area conditions the electoral impact of credit claiming for legislators of either gender. In addition, we show that men and women are rewarded comparably when they secure benefits for their district, regardless of issue area. Our findings suggest that women legislators — typically more effective than men at securing these benefits — can use distributive politics and credit claiming as an effective electoral strategy without concern that issue-based gender biases in the electorate will get in the way.

India’s Security and Climate Policy: Navigating the China Challenge

In a world rich in climate knowledge but short on climate action, it is important to understand the political reasons behind the apparent failure of states to address this planetary crisis. One underexplored dimension of this phenomenon is the impact of broader geopolitics and rivalry, in specific the ability and willingness of potential and actual security and economic rivals to leave their contention at the gates of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This article focuses on India’s multifaceted approach to its ‘China challenge’ with and outside the climate regime. While conventional scholarship focuses on the security and economic dimensions of this rivalry, this study offers a distinct perspective that examines whether this rivalry might lead to a breakdown of cooperation and an increased potential for conflict and weaponisation of seemingly disconnected issue areas. Drawing on a comprehensive triangulation of policy documents, government statements and scholarly literature, this article evaluates the domestic and international factors shaping India’s climate-related China policies, including the countries’ unique economic ambitions, development imperatives, energy needs and global climate commitments. Furthermore, the article examines Sino-Indian interactions in international arenas such as the UNFCCC and Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS), and how these interactions influence global climate governance.

Contesting clusters: a study of norm weaving in Pacific climate mobilities policies

Abstract This article identifies a sub-category of norm contestation I've termed ‘norm weaving’, where actors contest the constitution of norm clusters, instead of the validity of individual norms. This occurs through processes of stretching or reproducing individual strands of existing norm clusters before weaving them together to create behaviour guides in undergoverned issue areas that are greater than the sum of their individual parts. I identify two examples of weaving in the world-leading actions of Fiji and Vanuatu around domestic climate mobilities. Using these two cases, we can see that existing models of norm dynamics need to be developed to better explain and understand weaving-like processes of norm contestation. There are two areas where norm weaving extends our understanding – in how clusters of norms emerge and change, and in how contestation applies to groupings of norms. Clarifying what norm weaving looks like in these cases could open the door to further examples being identified in other contexts and a more complete understanding of how norms operate in global politics.

Beyond authority: governing migration and asylum through practice on the ground

How do international organizations (IOs) govern transnational challenges? Most theories maintain that IOs exercise authority to govern. What these authority-focused accounts tend to overlook, however, are instances of de facto governance. Especially in emerging, contested, and crisis-ridden issue areas, authority has often not been established or become unsettled. Yet, IOs govern here, too. Take the example of migration and asylum: This policy field is characterized by institutional and policy gaps. During the crisis at Europe’s border in 2015–2016, IOs governed mixed movements nonetheless. Through organizing collective action on the ground, they not only created direct regulative impacts on the lives of people on the move (the final addressees of international politics) but also defined what mixed migration means as a global policy concern. I draw on practice theory and fieldwork at the European external border in Greece to draw attention to governing modes that operate at a very low institutional threshold. I propose a minimal conception of governance that shifts attention from authority sources to governing effects to account for such governance forms. This re-conceptualization makes the study of how IOs govern outside their established authority, in concrete geographical places, possible.

Cybersecurity and Italian critical infrastructures: the return of the state?

ABSTRACT Security strategies have increasingly come to include references to critical infrastructures, seen as security assets to be preserved. In the Italian case, the rise in cyberattacks against critical infrastructures has been associated with a perception of their increasing relevance as potential threats. This has led to renewed attention towards the governance model adopted in this issue area and, in particular, towards the role of private actors and public-private partnerships, the actual owners of the infrastructures, now called upon to contribute to the provision of security as a public good, but with limited capabilities and a limited interest in doing so. Looking at the Italian case, the article shows that the traditional cybersecurity governance model, involving private actors in an equal relationship with public actors, has seen a subtle and gradual shift towards an increasing strengthening of the authority of public actors (verticalization).

Cross-Disciplinary Rapid Scoping Review of Structural Racial and Caste Discrimination Associated with Population Health Disparities in the 21st Century

A cross-disciplinary rapid scoping review was carried out, generally following the PRISMA-SCR protocol to examine historical racial and caste-based discrimination as structural determinants of health disparities in the 21st century. We selected 48 peer-reviewed full-text articles available from the University of Memphis Libraries database search, focusing on three selected case-study countries: the United States (US), Canada, and Nepal. The authors read each article, extracted highlights, and tabulated the thematic contents on structural health disparities attributed to racism or casteism. The results link historical racism/casteism to health disparities occurring in Black and African American, Native American, and other ethnic groups in the US; in Indigenous peoples and other visible minorities in Canada; and in the Dalits of Nepal, a population racialized by caste, grounded on at least four foundational theories explaining structural determinants of health disparities. The evidence from the literature indicates that genetic variations and biological differences (e.g., disease prevalence) occur within and between races/castes for various reasons (e.g., random gene mutations, geographic isolation, and endogamy). However, historical races/castes as socio-cultural constructs have no inherently exclusive basis of biological differences. Disregarding genetic discrimination based on pseudo-scientific theories, genetic testing is a valuable scientific means to achieve the better health of the populations. Epigenetic changes (e.g., weathering—the early aging of racialized women) due to the DNA methylation of genes among racialized populations are markers of intergenerational trauma due to racial/caste discrimination. Likewise, chronic stresses resulting from intergenerational racial/caste discrimination cause an “allostatic load”, characterized by an imbalance of neuronal and hormonal dysfunction, leading to occurrences of chronic diseases (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, and mental health) at disproportionate rates among racialized populations. Major areas identified for reparative policy changes and interventions for eliminating the health impacts of racism/casteism include areas of issues on health disparity research, organizational structures, programs and processes, racial justice in population health, cultural trauma, equitable healthcare system, and genetic discrimination.

Analyzing deep textual facial patterns for human pain sentiment recognition system in smart healthcare framework

BACKGROUND: Patient sentiment analysis aids in identifying issue areas, timely remediation, and improved patient care by the healthcare professional. The relationship between pain management and patient sentiment analysis is crucial to providing patients with high-quality medical care. Therefore, a self-reported pain level assessment is required for the smart healthcare framework to determine the best course of treatment. OBJECTIVE: An efficient method for a pain sentiment recognition system has been proposed based on the analysis of human facial emotion patterns of patients in the smart healthcare framework. METHODS: The proposed system has been implemented in four phases: (i) in the first phase, the facial regions of the observation patient have been detected using the computer vision-based face detection technique; (ii) in the second phase, the extracted facial regions are analyzed using deep learning based feature representation techniques to extract discriminant and crucial facial features to analyze the level of pain emotion of patient; (iii) the level of pain emotions belongs from macro to micro facial expressions, so, some advanced feature tunning and representation techniques are built along with deep learning based features such as to distinguish low to high pain emotions among the patients in the third phase of the implementation, (iv) finally, the performance of the proposed system is enhanced using the score fusion techniques applied on the obtained deep pain recognition models for the smart healthcare framework. RESULTS: The performance of the proposed system has been tested using two standard facial pain benchmark databases, the UNBC-McMaster shoulder pain expression archive dataset and the BioVid Heat Pain Dataset, and the results are compared with some existing state-of-the-art methods employed in this research area. CONCLUSIONS: From extensive experiments and comparative studies, it has been concluded that the proposed pain sentiment recognition system performs remarkably well compared to the other pain recognition systems for the smart healthcare framework.