Lesson Drawing Research Articles

Establishing an ECA for a Vibrant Economy in Mongolia: Lessons Drawn from the Korean Experience

Establishing an ECA for a Vibrant Economy in Mongolia: Lessons Drawn from the Korean Experience

Powerless science?: science and politics in a toxic world

List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Greatness and Misery of Science in a Toxic World Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas PART I : KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE AND THE TRANSFORMATIONS IN REGULATORY SYSTEMS Chapter 1. Precaution and the History of Endocrine Disruptors Nancy Langston Chapter 2. The Political Life of Mutagens: A History of the Ames Test Angela N. H. Creager Chapter 3. DES, Cancer and Endocrine Perturbation: Ways of Regulating, Chemical Risks and Public Expertise in the United States Jean-Paul Gaudilliere Chapter 4. Managing Scientific and Political Uncertainty. Environmental Risk Assessment in an Historical Perspective Soraya Boudia PART II : ACTIVISM AND NON-ACTIVISM: ALTERNATIVE USES OF KNOWLEDGE Chapter 5. Work, Bodies, Militancy: the Ecology Debate in 1970s Italy Stefania Barca Chapter 6. What Kind of Knowledge is Needed about Toxicant- Related Health Issues? Some Lessons Drawn from the Seveso Dioxin Laura Centemeri Chapter 7. From Suspicious Illness to Policy Change in Petrochemical Regions: Popular Epidemiology, Science and the Law in the U.S. and Italy Barbara Allen Chapter 8. Guinea Pigs go to Court. Epidemiology and Class Actions in Taiwan Paul Jobin and Yu-Hwei Tseng PART III: PUTTING KNOWLEDGE, IGNORANCE, AND REGULATIONN INTO PERSPECTIVE Chapter 9. Reckless Laws, Contaminated People: Science Reveals Legal Shortcomings in Public Health Protections Carl Cranor Chapter 10. Untangling Ignorance in Environmental Risk Assessment Scott Frickel and Michelle Edwards Chapter 11. Low Dose Toxicology: Narratives from the Science-Transcience Interface Sheldon Krimsky Chapter 12. Unruly Technologies and Fractured Oversight: Towards a Model for Chemical Control for the Twenty First Century Jody A. Roberts List of Contributors Index

Developing sustainable urban transportation

Purpose – Shedding light on urban transportation and, more specifically, the contemporary development of “smart” bikesharing systems (i.e. short-term bicycle rental services), the purpose of this paper is to focus on Montreal's bikesharing experiment. Known as BIXI (a contraction of the words BIcycle and taXI) since its inception in 2009, this system has been exported to other cities around the world, making it especially relevant for the analysis of this innovative and sustainable form of urban mobility. Design/methodology/approach – By tracing the policy history of BIXI and the current political debate about its future while using a framework focusing on the role of ideas in public policy, the paper directly contributes to the literature on the growing role of bicycles in sustainable urban transportation. The qualitative analysis is based on a systematic review of government documents and BIXI-related articles published in the Montreal French- and English-language press. To complement this analysis and provide information about behind-the-lesson drawing processes leading to the creation of BIXI, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with officials in charge of bikesharing policy in Montreal, as well as in Boston and London, England, two cities that have adopted (and adapted) the BIXI model. Findings – This analysis stresses the role of lesson drawing and framing processes in the development of Montreal's bikesharing system. While it is clear that the technological and policy developments of BIXI illustrate systematic and positive lesson drawing, on the framing and public relations side, the Montreal experiment suggests it is politically risky to boost public expectations about the potential costs of bikesharing systems for taxpayers. In addition to their innovative and sustainable contributions to urban transportation and pro-bike strategies, bikesharing systems are public investments that are not necessary free of costs for taxpayers. Framing these systems as public investments rather than a “free ride” for taxpayers would be a more accurate, and potentially effective, way to promote their development in the context of the current push for sustainable transportation policy in cities around the world. Originality/value – What this paper offers is a sociological perspective on an emerging and important policy issue, through an original combination of lesson drawing and framing perspectives on policy development. Montreal's BIXI is one of the most discussed (and exported) bikesharing systems around the world, and this is the first detailed policy analysis devoted to its genesis and politics.

Lessons from urban risk assessments in Latin American and Caribbean cities

This paper draws on the results from a recent World Bank-funded project designed to inform policy-making and climate change adaptation planning in small and medium-sized cities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The focus was on floods and landslides, which are the two most common climate-related risks in cities across the region. The project allowed the application of the Urban Risk Assessment (URA) tool developed by the World Bank and the drawing of valuable lessons which may also be applicable to the many methods and tools available for climate change adaptation planning in the rapidly urbanising cities of developing countries.

EU structural funding in Ireland's capital city: Europeanization and regeneration in Dublin, 1989-2003

Fifteen years of European Structural Funding have profoundly impacted the built environment, community-based regeneration programmes and governance norms in Ireland's capital. This article argues that a process of Europeanization catalysed by the Structural Funds has altered the way that local actors approach physical and socio-economic urban regeneration projects. At the same time, however, the article notes that European adaptational pressures have not resulted in large-scale local governance change. After laying out examples of Europeanization in the Dublin conurbation, the article engages in a lesson drawing exercise to determine how Dublin's experience with the Structural Funds can point the way forward for beneficiary city-regions in new EU Member-States.

Reinforcement of multilevel governance dynamics: creating momentum for increasing ambitions in international climate negotiations

Compared to the disappointment of the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, the results of the recent Conferences of the Parties can be regarded as positive progress. This was made possible due to lesson drawing and learning among states. Recent evidence from the UNFCCC negotiations suggests that countries began to reflect on the “Copenhagen experience.” They are setting up domestic climate legislation in the form of low carbon development plans and share their knowledge and experiences in the international climate change negotiations. Country representatives engage in workshops and roundtables to showcase their mitigation plans and low carbon development initiatives, thereby raising ambitions and creating group pressure on other countries. This article examines how the diffusion of policies across countries is motivated and facilitated by knowledge transfer and learning within multilevel-reinforcing governance dynamics between the domestic level and international negotiations. It analyzes how changes in the negotiation setting from confrontational formal negotiations to a more open forum and bottom-up pledge-and-review process, in combination with a positively framed win–win low carbon economic development narrative resulted in the diffusion of climate policies across developed and developing countries. Communicating these climate initiatives on the national level has shifted the debate. Countries emphasize less the win–lose perspective of economic costs and sacrifice. Thus, they focus less on the question of who should reduce emissions’, but identify co-benefits instead. The institutionalized knowledge sharing within the UNFCCC is also creating positive competitive dynamics among countries to increase their ambition and to take on a leadership role. This shift in the negotiations carries potential for a more ambitious aggregate negotiation outcome and opens up a window of opportunity.

Cross-national policy borrowing: understanding reception and translation

The article examines two key concepts in research on policy borrowing and lending that are often used to explain why and how educational reforms travel across national boundaries: reception and translation. The studies on reception analyse the political, economic, and cultural reasons that account for the attractiveness of a reform from elsewhere. Translation, in turn, captures the act of local adaptation, modification, or re-framing of an imported reform. Strikingly, in most cases the act of policy borrowing is deterritorialized and draws on broadly defined international standards or “best practices”. The exceptions are references to the league leaders in international student achievement tests such as, most recently, Singapore, Finland, and Shanghai. The article makes the argument that policy analysts in other countries only emulate the system features of league leaders if it fits their own domestic policy agenda. Furthermore, there is a new body of research emerging in comparative education that investigates the country-specific projections into the educational systems of the league leaders. Finally, the article points to the “yes, but …” phenomenon in cases where there is resistance to learn, adopt or borrow from league leaders. It is in such moments of resistance to change that policy makers tend to highlight fundamental differences by insisting that the contexts are not sufficiently comparable to learn a useful lesson: Finland is too monocultural, Shanghai too urban, and Singapore relies too much on private tutoring to be relevant for lesson drawing.

Capturing lessons learned from evidence-to-policy initiatives through structured reflection

BackgroundKnowledge translation platforms (KTPs), which are partnerships between policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers, are being established in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to enhance evidence-informed health policymaking (EIHP). This study aims to gain a better understanding of the i) activities conducted by KTPs, ii) the way in which KTP leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders perceive these activities and their outputs, iii) facilitators that support KTP work and challenges, and the lessons learned for overcoming such challenges, and iv) factors that can help to ensure the sustainability of KTPs.MethodsThis paper triangulated qualitative data from: i) 17 semi-structured interviews with 47 key informants including KTP leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders from 10 KTPs; ii) document reviews, and iii) observation of deliberations at the International Forum on EIHP in LMICs held in Addis Ababa in August 2012. Purposive sampling was used and data were analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsDeliberative dialogues informed by evidence briefs were identified as the most commendable tools by interviewees for enhancing EIHP. KTPs reported that they have contributed to increased awareness of the importance of EIHP and strengthened relationships among policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers. Support from policymakers and international funders facilitated KTP activities, while the lack of skilled human resources to conduct EIHP activities impeded KTPs. Ensuring the sustainability of EIHP initiatives after the end of funding was a major challenge for KTPs. KTPs reported that institutionalization within the government has helped to retain human resources and secure funding, whereas KTPs hosted by universities highlighted the advantage of autonomy from political interests.ConclusionsThe establishment of KTPs is a promising development in supporting EIHP. Real-time lesson drawing from the experiences of KTPs can support improvements in the functioning of KTPs in the short term, while making the case for sustaining their work in the long term. Lessons learned can help to promote similar EIHP initiatives in other countries.

Talking policy into practice: probing the debates around the effective teaching of early reading

This article examines the debates around the teaching of early reading and explores the possible consequences of policy recommendations for teachers' knowledge and understanding of effective pedagogic practices. These include teachers' abilities to adapt patterns of talk (pedagogic discourses) to respond to individual needs and the aims of instruction at any point in a lesson. The case study reported here involves a group of eight struggling readers, aged six to seven years, as they learn to decode text and comprehend meaning in an episode of shared reading. Integration of these dual purposes challenges current recommendations for discrete teaching of phonic skills prior to the development of comprehension strategies. Using lesson transcripts and drawing on notions of dialogic teaching, I argue that instruction at sub-word and text levels might be effectively integrated through appropriately judged changes of discourse that match different pedagogic purposes. Attention to the development of teachers' repertoire of talk forms would, I argue, eliminate the need for pedagogic prescription.

Energy justice and ethical consumption: comparison, synthesis and lesson drawing

This paper takes a first step in comparing and synthesising the emerging concept of energy justice with extant ethical consumption literatures as two complementary theoretical approaches to ethics and consumption. To date, theories of ethical consumption and energy justice remain somewhat disconnected, so while they have some areas of potential comparability, these have not yet been fleshed out or developed. To address this lacuna, this paper explores areas where research into ethical consumption might be useful for furthering concepts of energy justice. More specifically the discussion draws on the philosophical foundations, the relationship between consumption and development, and the role of transparency and visibility in reconnecting consumption and production practices as the main areas of overlap in these literatures. The conclusion points to some lessons for emerging energy justice literatures that can be drawn from this task of comparison and synthesis.

The Changing Landscape of Higher Education: An Analysis of Bologna Policy and Ireland's Engagement with the Process

In 1999 the Irish state agreed to participate voluntarily in an international policy process, more commonly known as Bologna. The process aimed to reform higher education in a ten-year period, and to establish the European Higher Education Area. Policy implementation in Bologna was facilitated through the open method of co-ordination. This mode of governance sidestepped many of the cumbersome hard law and treaty-based issues normally associated with the European Union. This article considers how Bologna utilised the open method of co-ordination, by examining the policy instruments used to facilitate lesson drawing and the sharing of best practice. The paper categorises Bologna instruments as mainly suasive, and examines policy convergence with respect to one policy instrument and one element of policy content. Ireland is identified internationally as having played a pivotal role in the development of qualification frameworks within Bologna. Qualification frameworks based on learning outcomes provided a means to progress quality and recognition action lines with Bologna. The paper moves from the supra-national policy environment to consider the national implementation of the Irish National Framework for Qualifications. This analysis reveals institutional and sectoral level issues concerning Irish universities, which are associated with policy implementation and the adoption of the learning outcomes paradigm. The paper concludes by considering challenges for the co-ordination and implementation of this policy instrument at the supra-national level and ultimately the establishment of the European Higher Education Area based on the Irish universities' experience. Author's e-mail: mairead.nicgiollamhichil@dcu.ie Irish Studies in International Affairs , Vol. 24 (2013), 331-345. doi: 10.33 18/ISIA.201 3.24. 18 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.124 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 05:13:16 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 332 Irish Studies in International Affairs INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO BOLOGNA The Bologna process has been described as a mechanism that enabled policy convergence through transnational problem solving.1 This paper supports this contention and considers that the problem to be solved can be described as the reform of higher education to realise and facilitate the so-called knowledge society. Mary Henkel argues that the 'changing conceptions of knowledge' have led governments and their publics to expand and to adapt their higher-education systems.2 Theoretical knowledge is seen by Daniel Bell as a fundamental characteristic of innovation a cornerstone of the knowledge society: And the university, research organizations and intellectual institutions, where theoretical knowledge is codified and enriched, become the axial structures of the emergent society.3 Scientific knowledge has become an increasingly productive force in society in the twentieth century allowing for the continued development, manipulation and control of social constructs.4 Globalisation is a key factor driving the knowledge society and economy.5 Berit Askling, Mary Henkel and Barbara Kehm assert that the implicit knowledge and skills previously 'inseparable from the human actor' have become progressively explicit, codified and available to all through education.6 Ivar Bleiklie describes this interpretation of knowledge as an outcome as opposed to a procedure.7 Education is seen as a tool to develop human resources first, for the ultimate benefit of society and second, to meet the demands of the marketplace.8 Thomas Davenport and Lawrence Prusak outline succinctly the prevailing paradigm: People search for knowledge because they expect it to help them succeed... Knowledge is the most sought-after remedy to uncertainty. . .When we supply knowledge we expect to benefit too.9 Higher education had been tasked to play a central role to realise the benefits of

The Changing Landscape of Higher Education: An Analysis of Bologna Policy and Ireland's Engagement with the Process

In 1999 the Irish state agreed to participate voluntarily in an international policy process, more commonly known as Bologna. The process aimed to reform higher education in a ten-year period, and to establish the European Higher Education Area. Policy implementation in Bologna was facilitated through the open method of co-ordination. This mode of governance sidestepped many of the cumbersome hard law and treaty-based issues normally associated with the European Union. This article considers how Bologna utilised the open method of co-ordination, by examining the policy instruments used to facilitate lesson drawing and the sharing of best practice. The paper categorises Bologna instruments as mainly suasive, and examines policy convergence with respect to one policy instrument and one element of policy content. Ireland is identified internationally as having played a pivotal role in the development of qualification frameworks within Bologna. Qualification frameworks based on learning outcomes provided a means to progress quality and recognition action lines with Bologna. The paper moves from the supra-national policy environment to consider the national implementation of the Irish National Framework for Qualifications. This analysis reveals institutional and sectoral level issues concerning Irish universities, which are associated with policy implementation and the adoption of the learning outcomes paradigm. The paper concludes by considering challenges for the co-ordination and implementation of this policy instrument at the supra-national level and ultimately the establishment of the European Higher Education Area based on the Irish universities' experience.

Time and punishment: a comparison of UK and US time bank use in criminal justice systems

Time banking, a form of community currency facilitating time-based exchanges, developed in the United States during the 1980s before transferring to the United Kingdom in the late 1990s. Whilst now operating in over 30 countries, this paper explores the US–UK link, focusing on time bank practices within criminal justice. Examining time bank theory and the UK/US policy contexts, this paper provides an account of the Time Dollar Youth Court and the UK time bank prisons initiative, to facilitate a discussion of policy transfer and lesson drawing. Such an approach provides a fresh insight into time bank development, opening up a previously unexplored aspect of time bank policy experimentation.

Risk Zones: Comparative Lesson Drawing and Policy Learning from Flood Insurance Programs

Risk insurance mechanisms have been proposed as proactive policy options to enhance the resilience of communities for coping with extreme events. Many risk insurance mechanisms require designation of “risk zones” to legalize governmental interventions. After a three-day workshop and ensuing interviews, “wicked” challenges were identified in the designation of risk zones: risk thresholds; land value; damage-reduction; land-use planning; forecast uncertainty; map accuracy; modifiable-areal-unit problem; winners and losers; single versus multiple hazards; and cross-jurisdictional administrative boundaries. A total of 56 peer-reviewed studies are synthesized that evaluate these “wicked” challenges in flood insurance programs and derive deliberative heuristics for designating risk zones in publicly sponsored insurance mechanisms.

The Lessons of “Lesson Drawing”: How the Obama Administration Attempted to Learn from Failure of the Clinton Health Plan

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Policy transfer and lesson drawing. The case of the pension system reform in Mexico

The article's objective is to analyze the development and evolution of the Mexican pension reform not only as such but also of two main bodies: on the one hand, the regulator (the National Saving for Retirement) and the other, from the pension fund manager designed as a public-private partnership (PPP Manager Retirement Funds, Afore XXI). This article finds firstly, the existence of a horizontal degree of specialization and a potential lack of accountability and transparency in organizations responsible for regulating the pension system, and secondly that the presence of values that may compete in public officials in developing their roles have affected the development of a new pension system in Mexico and the performance of the regulator.

Involving the Public in Catchment Management: An Analysis of the Scope for Learning Lessons from Abroad

ABSTRACTScholars have tended to treat the European Union (EU) as an environmental ‘leader’. Yet significant potential nonetheless exists for it to learn lessons in areas such as water policy where it has a long and successful history of involvement. The EU's Water Framework Directive (2000) imposes potentially far reaching requirements on its Member States to enhance public participation in the process of catchment management. However, to date, its implementation has been highly variable across and even within individual states. As the EU starts to revise the original Directive, thoughts will turn to how the current situation could be improved. One potentially productive avenue, which has not yet been fully explored, is to draw lessons on public participation from comparable multi‐levelled governance contexts such as in the USA and Australia, where public engagement has arguably been more advanced. Drawing on theoretical accounts of the most likely facilitators and obstacles to lesson drawing, this paper assesses the scope for transfer. It finds that while the EU could potentially learn from these jurisdictions, there are likely to be significant obstacles in practice. These should be born in mind by would‐be policy learners. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

'Every stone tells a story': the uses of classical texts by seventeenth-century English visitors to Greece and Asia Minor

This article analyses the uses made by seventeenth-century travellers to the Greek world of their knowledge of classical texts. It refers to a range of travellers—in particular, Levant Company employees and individual adventurers or gentlemen travellers—and describes their educational background. It discusses the various purposes for which they incorporated quotations from and references to classical literature in the texts which resulted from their visits to Greece. Among these purposes are: the provision of aids to the identification of ancient sites, literary embellishment, and the drawing of moral lessons. It is clear from reading travel accounts that given the lack of contemporary guide books, authors such as Strabo and Pausanias were also an invaluable help on the ground. At the same time, by their use of classical texts, authors of travel narratives invited their readers to participate in an intellectual network of educated men (women are largely absent from the picture). These author-travellers saw themselves, rather than contemporary Greeks, as inheritors of classical culture. The paper refers in particular to George Sandys, John Covel, George Wheler, and Paul Rycaut.

Lessons drawn from recent HIV vaccine efficacy trials.

A safe and effective HIV vaccine is needed to curtail the US and global epidemics. However, the search for one has been elusive despite more than 25 years of focused research. Results from the RV144 Thai efficacy trial have renewed hope that a vaccine may protect against HIV acquisition. We can draw several scientific and operational lessons from RV144 and other recent tests-of-concept efficacy trials. Here we describe how trial results, some unexpected, highlight the fundamental role these clinical studies play in HIV vaccine discovery. These trials also teach us that transparency in data analysis and results dissemination can yield substantial rewards and that efforts to engage communities, particularly those most heavily affected by the epidemic, are needed to augment research literacy and trial recruitment. Future efficacy trial designs may incorporate novel, partially effective prevention strategies. Although greater in size and complexity, these trials may offer unique opportunities to explore synergies with vaccines under study.

Fiscal Developments in the Euro Area Beyond the Crisis: Some Lessons Drawn from Fiscal Reaction Functions

In this paper, we examine whether the fact that governments incorporate an objective of sustainability in their budgetary decisions is an element likely to increase the likelihood of a decrease in their deficit and debt ratios beyond the crisis (over the years from 2010 to 2015). We estimate a fiscal reaction function for the Euro area countries and demonstrate that the discretionary policies seem to be pro cyclical in average, thereby influencing the budget balance in the opposite direction than the automatic stabilizers. Our simulations of these rules over the next five years lead us to conclude that two groups of countries could emerge as regards their respective budgetary situations. On the one hand, some “virtuous” countries whose structural deficits will diminish whatever the “exit crisis” scenario envisaged, whereas on the other side, others will not succeed in stabilizing their national debt ratio, because their discretionary fiscal policy is less pro cyclical.