Official Goals Research Articles

Framing South Africa’s Soft Power through Non-State Sources

South Africa arguably stands well above its regional counterparts in terms of soft power resources. This is not entirely unconnected with the uncalculated attempts by non-state actors to extend the reach of the country’s soft power status across the world. This article probes the contributions of the informal drivers of South Africa’s soft power. These ‘soft powered’ institutions and individuals (with no definite state affiliation) are critical contributors to South Africa’s soft power diplomacy. The country’s soft power is in part driven by the unintended outcome of the actions of a wide variety of non-state actors including civil society, the media, iconic individual personalities and multinational corporate entities. The article argues that South Africa can realise its greater foreign policy ambition and cement a benevolent hegemonic profile in Africa by focusing on specific roles that its informal soft power sources can play. Therefore, as an emerging power, South Africa is well placed to harness the substance inherent in its soft power instruments and resources by paying attention to these unofficial soft power sources but also strategically fine-tuning the same with official policy goals in subtly achieving Pretoria’s ambitions as a key player in international political discourse.

O problemie cenzury społecznej na przykładzie recepcji twórczości Józefa Mackiewicza

Artistic work is subject to a series of external pressures that constitute and structure the field of artistic licentia poetica . Apart from the phenomenon of official censorship, which is widely recognized and typical for some political groups, the phenomenon of social (unofficial) censorship should be distinguished. Censorship in the official sense is defined as, preventive or offensive, control of the content of acts of communication made by specialized state institutions within the framework of the government’s information policy. Social censorship also constitutes a fragment of the social control apparatus and focuses on the regulation of the communication process, but its disponent is not the government but the specific social circles. For this reason, its actions, although they may be the fulfillment of the official censorship goals, are not delegated by it on the basis of institutional coercion. The author deals with the functioning of social censorship on examples drawn from literary life, especially the turmoil around the person and the work of Jozef Mackiewicz.

What Do Clients Achieve in Drug/DUI Court? Examining Intended and Unintended Outcomes

ABSTRACTCompared to a growing number of quantitative studies that focus on evaluating drug/DUI court process (e.g., retention) and outcomes (e.g., reducing recidivism), very few studies qualitatively and systematically examine clients' perceptions and experiences in these programs. Based on content analysis of 229 letters written by clients to Tulsa County DUI and drug programs in Oklahoma, this study examines the potential (mis)match between the stated official goals of the program and major achievements and progress self-reported by clients. Our analysis shows that in addition to abstinence, compliance, and techniques for success, a significant portion of clients' achievements went beyond the administrative expectations. Rather, the program transformed clients' lives in a holistic way and affected diverse aspects of their lives. These findings should encourage the legislature and practitioners to look beyond drug/DUI court supervision/discipline in evaluating clients' progress and to incorporate elements reported by clients in building a more successful program.

“Skep julle kommando’s in reddingslaers om! Een vir almal, almal vir elkeen!”: Die Ossewa-Brandwag se maatskaplike beleid van Sosiale Volksorg, 1943-1952

Established as an organisation with the aim to influence all aspects of Afrikaner life, the Ossewa-Brandwag (OB) made an impact on the lives of thousands of Afrikaners between 1939 and 1954. At the very start the movement set out to be solely a male enterprise. However, because of the intense emotional feelings and nationalist sentiments created by the 1938 Centenary Celebrations of the Great Trek, women showed great enthusiasm for the OB. This compelled leadership to ensure them a place in the organisation. Thousands of women would eventually take part in all the activities of the movement – from fundraising to political resistance. One of the activities where women excelled was in taking the lead in the many charitable endeavours of the OB referred to as “volksorg” (social care of the nation). No published study exists on the role of women in “volksorg” after the reorganisation of the OB in 1943. This article aims to describe the place and role of women in OB-centred charitable work encapsulated in the concept “volksorg”. Attention is given to the official goals and activities of the “Ossewa-Brandwag Vroue Volksorg Vertakking” (Women’s “Volksorg” Branch) and the movement’s singular interpretation of the “social”. Contemporaries’ understanding of sexual difference is explained through emphasising the distribution of labour according to the norms of gender. In this way the article aims to shed light on how the gender order was shaped by contemporaries’ determinist interpretation of sex.

Estimating bicycle parking demand with limited data availability

One of the official goals of the Viennese transport policy is to double the share of cycling. Besides cycling paths and lanes, appropriate parking facilities are seen as a key to success. These are needed at primary (home) as well as secondary locations (work, shopping, leisure, etc.). In this work, citywide data about the location of public bicycle stands were analysed. The spatial distribution of future levels of cycling were estimated using three different methods, based on origin–destination matrices from a transport model and commuter data from the 2001 census with a uniform modal share and a modal share differentiated by five city areas. According to the results of this research, up to 56 000 additional public bicycle spaces are needed to accommodate the intended increase in cycling. The highest demand was identified in the central business district and districts 3 and 10, and the lowest demand was found in districts 8, 6 and 5.

Nursing Administration Degree as the Foundation of Practice for Future Nurse Managers

Throughout this article, the terms nurse leader and nurse manager refer specifically to a manager at the micro level consistent with the notion that Nursing administration roles focus on the management of fiscal and human resources. Managers are the first- and middle-level administrators responsible for a specific clinical service or unit at the micro-system level. 1(p.154) Thus, management includes the motivation, organization, and evaluation of human and material resources needed to attain goals. Formal leadership is the process of influencing others to achieve official goals within an organization. Finally, administration focuses on achieving the mission, vision, and values of an organization through delegated responsibility. 2

Application of theory-based evaluation for the critical analysis of national biofuel policy: A case study in Malaysia

Theory-based evaluation (TBE) is an effectiveness assessment technique that critically analyses the theory underlying an intervention. Whilst its use has been widely reported in the area of social programmes, it is less applied in the field of energy and climate change policy evaluations. This paper reports a recent study that has evaluated the effectiveness of the national biofuel policy (NBP) for the transport sector in Malaysia by adapting a TBE approach. Three evaluation criteria were derived from the official goals of the NBP, those are (i) improve sustainability and environmental friendliness, (ii) reduce fossil fuel dependency, and (iii) enhance stakeholders’ welfare. The policy theory underlying the NBP has been reconstructed through critical examination of the policy and regulatory documents followed by a rigorous appraisal of the causal link within the policy theory through the application of scientific knowledge. This study has identified several weaknesses in the policy framework that may engender the policy to be ineffective. Experiences with the use of a TBE approach for policy evaluations are also shared in this report.

SOVIETINIS REŽIMAS IR KULTŪRINĖS NOMENKLATŪROS KAITA VĖLYVUOJU SOVIETMEČIU LIETUVOJE. RAŠYTOJŲ APLINKOS ATVEJIS

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamas kultūrinės nomenklatūros santykis su sovietine sistema, pabrėžiant šių kultūrininkų orientacijos ir elgsenos pokyčius septintajame–aštuntajame dešimtmečiuose ir didėjančią paramą nacionalinei ideologijai. Remiantis kokybine analize ir tarpdalykine prieiga, straipsnyje dėmesys skiriamas sovietmečio kultūrininkų susisluoksniavimui, neformalių tinklų įtakai, dalyvavimui komunistinės indoktrinacijos veikloje ir mobilizuojant nacionalinį tapatumą. Remiantis rašytojų atvejo analize parodoma, kad vėlyvajame sovietmetyje gana akivaizdžiai išryškėja rašytojų konservacininkų (nomenklatūros dalis) vietininkiškumo laikysena, sovietmečio sąlygomis demonstruojanti paramą etniniams bei lokaliniams interesams ir atskleidžianti įsivyravusį oficialaus kultūrinio elito abejingumą sistemai. Analizės rezultatai leidžia teigti, kad ši pozicija buvo ypač svarbi gilinant sovietinės sistemos eroziją ir prisidedant prie nacionalinių procesų stiprėjimo devintajame dešimtmetyje.

LIUSTRACIJOS POLITIKOS LIETUVOJE VERTINIMAS

In comparative studies of transitional justice in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, Lithuania is ranked among the countries which have taken the strictest lustration measures. In contrast, a very negative perception of the issue dominates the Lithuanian public discourse. Lustration is often described as impotent or failed in the media. Despite its high political importance, there has been no systemic analysis evaluating the results of Lithuania’s lustration policy (LLP). This article aims at analyzing the effectiveness of LLP. The effectiveness is defined through achieving the official goals set by the policy-makers, which leads to the main research question: has the lustration policy in Lithuania achieved its goals?The main object of this article is the LLP which consists of three sets of laws: 1998 laws aimed at restricting the former KGB employees, 1999 law aimed at KGB’s secret collaborators, and 2010 law allowing publishing remaining KGB documents.Analysis is primarily based on semi-structured interviews with the key officials, who formed and implemented Lithuania’s lustration policy. Besides, the content analysis of press coverage, legislative acts, and transcripts of Parliamentary sessions were employed.LLP was expected to achieve three main objectives: (1) to ensure state security by banning supposedly disloyal persons from strategically important institutions; (2) to ensure state security by protecting former secret collaborators from blackmailing and manipulation by foreign secret services; (3) to inform the society about the system and practices of the former KGB. While analyzing these goals, two aspects were taken into consideration: (a) whether the legislation has created favorable conditions for their implementation; (b) whether the expected results were achieved by implementing the lustration measures.The first goal was achieved only partly. Although the former KGB employees were successfully banned from selected positions for the following ten years, the secret collaborators were mostly unaffected by the law. Moreover, one group formerly associated with KGB – the reserve officers – was not included in the legislation and therefore was not affected by the LLP.Ensuring protection from blackmailing was aimed at the former secret collaborators only, because many of their files were missing and accessible to either the government of the Russian Federation or private persons. This goal has been achieved rather effectively. More than 1500 people confessed having collaborated with the KGB. Their identities were classified ensuring their protection in case of blackmailing. As a result, the use of the entire former KGB network was impeded, because the identities of those, who confessed, were concealed and the risks associated with contacting former collaborators were significantly enhanced.The last goal – to inform society – was achieved as well, although its implementation was overdue and slow. The first efforts to achieve publicity failed due to the ineffective work of the Lustration Commission and the insufficient KGB archive. However, legislation adapted in 2010 enabled the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania to publish all accessible KGB documents. This initiative helped the society learn about the former KGB; however, its implementation started only in 2011 and is still ongoing.This article corresponds with the last wave of transitional justice studies, in which the results and/or impact of transitional justice measures is evaluated. Besides offering an evaluation of Lithuania’s lustration policy, the analysis provides ground for further research. Firstly, it allows comparing Lithuania with other post-communist countries, which have chosen similar transitional justice measures. Secondly, the material analyzed in this paper can be used for a wider theoretical assessment of lustration’s goals, factors, determining its effectiveness, etc. Finally, this study can serve for the further research of Lithuania’s lustration policy. The findings of this article suggest a rather positive evaluation of LLP, further contradicting the opinion dominant in the local media. This could encourage future studies to explore the reasons of this inconsistency.

Development through paper deals: space and politics of value in peri-urban India

The article looks at contestations over space in peri-urban India. It studies the acrimonious responses in defense of a local marketplace that occupied public land against the sovereign project of highway expansion in peri-urban West Bengal. It posits an opposition between two aspects of state governance—rational–legal and magical—that shape the contentions. In the rational–legal mode, the expansion of the highways represents the official development goals of progress. The magical aspects of the state engender the circulation of officially approved illegal chits that give occupying migrant villagers’ claim to the space around the highway. The ethnography looks at the affective economy of illegal chits that political parties and local bureaucracies use to bring migrating villagers within their ambit. It explores how illegal chits embody the state’s legible presence in the villagers’ everyday lives, their kinnetworks, communities and transform individual affective orientations toward space. In these new modes of simultaneous “space” and “place” making, public land is understood less as commons, but more as a stretch that could be divided among individuals and households aspiring to be “developed” or upwardly mobile by excluding others. The essay contends that emergence of the “right to the city” as a collective right requires a double-edged critique. A simple celebration of the subversive potential of the magical aspect of the state vis-a-vis its rational–legal mode may not be helpful for a politics of value that seeks to challenge the idea of value (or what makes life worth living) embedded in the wider neoliberal development discourse.

‘Engineers of the Human Spirit’ During Late Socialism: The Lithuanian Union of Writers Between Soviet Duties and Local Interests

Writers were among the most publicly recognised intellectuals in the USSR. They actively participated in indoctrination practices that reflected strict mechanisms of control and censorship and provided prestige and authority in society. This article analyses how local writers in Lithuania who were part of the establishment during late socialism developed a multi-faceted relationship with the system. The perspective of different generations reveals the rise of ethnic (local) interests and the disconnection of everyday life from official goals. It also shows that writers who worked in official channels reduced their participation in indoctrination processes and significantly influenced the mobilisation of national identity.

Skuteczność polityki przemysłowej w XXI wieku? Przypadek Brazylii

Summary: The article aims to identify the key factors that undermine the efficiency of industrial policy in Brazil. It also draws attention to the importance of academic research into the nature and implications of industrial policy in the modern economy. The analysis starts with a systematization of industrial policy-related terms and a literature review. Because discussions on the topic are usually ideologically-biased, the author says, most of the existing studies are heavily polarized. Some economists strongly advocate governmental industrial programs, others express definite disapproval. The article contributes to the existing research by outlining key theoretical problems related to industrial policy and by highlighting the different approaches to the subject that have emerged in response to the changing paradigm of state interventionism. In light of the theoretical framework, Brazilian industrial policy is studied. Brazil warrants special attention, Czarnecka-Gallas says, because a historical analysis of government intervention in that economy confirms the importance of industrial policy – despite substantial policy changes and different methods used by the authorities over the years. After a brief summary of how industrial policy was applied in Brazil in the postwar era, the author looks at some vital components of the country’s current industrial strategy and confronts it with empirical data that point to a disparity between official goals and practice. As a consequence, in contrast to the strategy of Brazil’s economic development, which is based on industrial growth and innovation enhancement, the structure of the country’s economy and its trade patterns show that it is commodities and low-tech industries rather than innovative sectors that are driving the expansion of Brazil’s trade, the author says.

Decolonization without a disconnection? Teaching the vernaculars in New Caledonia today

The use of the notion of ‘decolonization’, applied to indigenous people's schooling, is somehow misleading. It refers to a certain period, namely the colonial period, which officially ended in New Caledonia in 1946, then a French colony and now a French overseas territory. It also refers to contemporary efforts to address the colonial legacy. It thus minimizes the fact that post-coloniality shaped a radically different education from its colonial counterparts. The paper aims to question this ‘problematic temporality’: though the recognition of indigenous languages and culture is an important aspect of ‘decolonization’, it might not encompass it. The paper addresses some ongoing reforms, which witness the implementation of Kanak languages in formal education and ipso facto recognize linguistic diversity as a key element for the decolonization of the New Caledonian school system: do they actually lead to a recovery of sovereignty, and what kind of sovereignty are we then talking about? The announced purposes of what constitutes a radical shift in the former French monolingual dogma are threefold: it is intended to facilitate, together with the efforts made by families, the transmission of the linguistic and cultural heritage; it is expected to improve the academic performance of those whose mother tongue is the vernacular language, by promoting their emotional and intellectual development and strengthening their linguistic skills; it is expected to favor the emergence of a renewed social bond between communities. In the light of the persistent local resistances to the recognition of Kanak languages as languages of education, the paper demonstrates that instead of being congruent, these official goals assigned to the reforms are contradictory, revealing what is really at stake when the notion of ‘decolonization’ is taken seriously.

Nobler Womanhood: An Exploration of Sororities and Scripted Femininity

How did an organization founded to empower women in institutions of higher learning end up as a place where the most narrowly conservative female gender roles are encourage and performed? By looking at Kappa Alpha Theta, the first Greek letter fraternity known among women, a tale of secrecy gone awry comes into view. Theta's traditions and rituals, kept from the public, tell an entirely different story about the purpose of this institution than a Google search of the sorority's moniker does. I posit that this is due to the fact that these rituals and traditions are relics of another time, frozen in the past, while the secrecy behind this heritage has enabled an alternate tradition to arise where aesthetics, popularity, and heterosexuality replace official goals of scholarship, sisterhood, and loyalty. Using only the secret material that others have chosen to reveal along with my own embodied experience as a Theta sister, I look at the complex ways in which college sisters negotiate the difference between the scripted tenants of life behind closed doors and the expected stereotpye of a sorority - like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde . Using theories from sources as diverse as Judith Butler, Sigmund Freud, and various authors writing about life, I try to work through the theoretical implications that are produced in the space between an embodied experience and the mythical girl stereotype that arises out of the ignorance bred by secrecy.

Nationalism, Patriarchy, and Moralism: The Government-Led Food Reform in Contemporary Japan

Government-led food reforms are increasingly prevalent and they are often seen as a welcome corrective to the neoliberalization of the agrofood system. Yet Japanese government's food reform initiatives demonstrates that government food reform does not necessarily increase oversight and regulation or address fundamental problems of the food system. Although the official goals of reform are food safety and public health, the Japanese government juxtaposes food reform with notions of the “traditional family” and women's domestic roles as well as with the nationalistic idealization of “Japanese food” and national branding. The strategy of responsibilization, where the government constructs the food problem as an individual problem rooted in insufficient awareness and irresponsible behaviors is salient. Government food reform needs active monitoring by citizens to resist such pressure to construct food reform as a matter of moral and personal betterment.

Israeli students’ perceptions of geography instruction goals

This research compares the official Israeli Ministry of Education's curriculum goals of studying geography with the perceptions of Israeli Jewish and Arab junior high school students who study the subject. In addition, the perceptions of Jewish and Arab students about the importance of studying geography are compared. In the first stage of research, 500 students from northern Israel were asked open questions about how they perceived the goals of geography education. In the second stage of research, 280 middle grade students (ages 14–16 years) in northern Israel participated. Of these, 129 students were Jewish and 151 students were Arab. These students were given a questionnaire to fill out which included 17 statements about geography that were formulated from stage one of the research. These statements related to the importance of studying geography as a curriculum topic and as a subject that is interrelated to wider economic and political processes. The results of the research indicate that there is a significant difference between the students’ perceptions of the importance of studying geography and the official curriculum goals for studying geography, which view its importance for the transmission of important societal values. Moreover, the research has also found that there is a significant difference between Jewish and Arab students in their perceptions of the importance of studying geography. While the Arab students perceive environmental values as being very important, the Jewish students perceive political and security issues as most important.

The Realities of Aid Harmonisation and Aid Effectiveness: Views from Bangladesh

Aid harmonisation, both as a concept and an operational practice, has come to the forefront of discussions by aid donors and recipient countries. The Paris Declaration adopted a blueprint for donor harmonisation in order to increase aid effectiveness. In the context of the strikingly limited research on the subject, this article examines the progress of aid harmonisation in Bangladesh vis-à-vis the spirit of the relevant international conventions – especially the Paris Declaration and other stated official goals. The article offers some thoughts on improved harmonisation practices, and argues that effective donor harmonisation largely depends on a genuine commitment and collective effort between donors and the governments of recipient countries.

Magic from social networks that talk to management: four cases

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand how social networks can help to produce the “magic” of extraordinary results for organizations.Design/methodology/approachIn this exploratory study four cases (from published reports) are compared in order to illustrate different management approaches to utilizing the power of networks.FindingsSocial networks can be central to a strategy for organizational transformation (OT), as in three of these cases. They can also be fundamental to a firm's mode of organizing from its inception business and permanently, as in the second case (W.L. Gore). The three cases illustrate several approaches to connecting social networking with management's OT strategies. An important difference exists between informal, autonomous networks and networks that “talk” to management.Research limitations/implicationsThese cases illustrate what is possible, not what is typical. All four cases involve social networks already aligned to official goals. This exploration of networking in the service of OT suggests some hypotheses but cannot rigorously test them.Practical implicationsSocial networks can create, contain, and convey much of a company's intellectual capital and can control much of its potential for “magical” improvement. The basic principles of OT (developing a learning organization) apply here.Originality/valueThe comparative study of four cases is fruitful but rare. Network literature mostly consists of single cases and surveys at a distance.

Too Much Trust: Regional Party Leaders and Local Political Networks under Brezhnev

Why did the campaign for “trust in cadres” (doverie k kadram) come to be so emblematic of the Brezhnev era? In this article, Yoram Gorlizki argues that following the failure of Nikita Khrushchev's institutional experiments, Leonid Brezhnev turned to “trust”—ties grounded in ongoing personal relationships—as a means of lowering the Soviet system's high transaction costs. Focusing on in-depth studies of three regions, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kirov, and Krasnodar, Gorlizki suggests that the leadership system in each shifted towards a pattern marked by modest but stable institutional constraints on regional leaders, a carefully calibrated system of seniority, and a set of order-enhancing norms that are referred to as ”hierarchical ethics.“ Mirroring the new leadership arrangements in Moscow, this combination of regional institutional constraints and political norms was the most compatible with a pattern of informal devices for cooperation that would come under the label of “trust” (doverie). Gorlizki contends that while Soviet officials had always resorted to personal relationships in order to attain their official goals, the campaign for “trust in cadres” gave cover to such practices by in effect elevating them into a component part of the regime's ideology. Gorlizki concludes by describing the variety of dangers these arrangements carried with them.

Motives, experiences and strategies of next of kin helping older relatives in the Swedish welfare context: a qualitative study

Dunér A. Motives, experiences and strategies of next of kin helping older relatives in the Swedish welfare context: a qualitative studyInt J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 54–62 © 2008 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare.Next of kin provide the major part of the help given to older people in Sweden, a country where the official goals of formal eldercare are universality and extensive coverage. This qualitative interview study investigates the thoughts and actions of next of kin who provide informal help to older relatives who also receive formal help from the municipal eldercare. Informal help‐giving, in the context of Swedish social policy, was connected with a multiplicity of motives, experiences and strategies. The motives for help‐giving were moral considerations, emotional attachment and ‘out of necessity’. The experiences of next of kin support the idea of ambivalence as a significant feature of informal help‐giving. Different strategies were employed, both active and passive in nature, to manage their situation. The study points out the importance of outlining working forms and methods of collaboration for older persons and their informal and formal networks to lessen the ambivalence experienced by help‐giving next of kin.