Policy Agenda Research Articles

Why inclusive education falters: a Bernsteinian analysis

ABSTRACT The inclusive education policy agenda has not made a significant impact on the global problem of educational exclusion. Explanations for this lack of impact include inadequate teacher education, lack of resources, negative attitudes, and a policy-practice gap. This paper takes a different turn and, using the concept of classification, argues that the challenge to achieve more inclusive education is more fundamental than has been previously articulated. Key tenets of the inclusive education agenda demand a weakening of the insulation between categories that are sustained and advanced by current marketised and standards-driven education systems. Inclusive schooling weakens spatial insulation, collaboration weakens professional insulation, transformability weakens ability insulation, intersectionality weakens identity insulation, and inclusive pedagogy weakens pedagogical insulation. When inclusive education is mapped onto strongly classified education systems, limited instantiations of inclusive education are inevitable, and difference and exclusion are re-inscribed. Change is possible if 1. Those advancing the inclusive education agenda acknowledge the identities and defences that classification constructs. 2. The workings of power that sustain insulation between categories in education are identified. 3. Counter-hegemonic action that weakens insulation and blurs boundaries is encouraged.

The Policy Agenda Setting in Angolan Education Policies: Analysis of the Project for the Creation of Reference Schools

This study analyzes the policy agenda-setting process of the Project for the Creation of Reference Schools in Angola, based on analytical models from the Political Science field referring to agenda-setting, seeking to understand the elements considered for the formulation of this project and identify the visible and invisible participants that intervened or influenced the process. With a qualitative bias, supported by documents and bibliographic references, the study fits into the field of research on policies and programs, based on the analysis of the policy-making process. The political analysis of the project indicates that the modality adopted for defining the policy agenda was top-down, that is, having the State as the main component, as visible participants through politicians, namely, the President of the Republic and his auxiliary bodies, with emphasis on the Office of the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, which signals some deviation in the pattern of public policies formulation of the Angolan government, given that this responsibility lies with the Ministry of Education, in interaction with its social partners. On the other hand, it was found that for the formulation of the project, the government considered elements related to the need for democratization access to schools and improvement of education quality in the country, to respond to international agendas by itself subscribed.

Fixing the meaning of floating signifier: Discourses and network analysis in the bioeconomy policy processes in Argentina and Uruguay

The concept of bioeconomy has spread globally as a floating signifier leading to multiple policies and strategies. As an ambiguous concept, bioeconomy policy agendas at national levels draw on a variety of discourses and visions later reshaped by the particular political and social contexts of each country or region. From the broad boundaries of the overarching bioeconomy meta-discourse, local dominant discourses emerge, created and transformed by international and national social actors in the frame of power relations displaying discursive struggles. Analyzing this body of social dimensions, particularly from less studied Global South countries, can contribute to a critical comprehension of ongoing bioeconomy policy processes and the relationship between international regimes and domestic policies. In recent years, efforts to develop bioeconomy and forest-based bioeconomy strategies and related policy-making were observed in Argentina and Uruguay, two neighbouring countries with analogous forest sector development. Against this background, our study aims to explore these ongoing forest-based bioeconomy policy processes. In order to do so, discourse analysis tools were used to identify current dominant visions regarding bioeconomy. Additionally, the main social agents dealing with and promoting forest-based bioeconomy as well as discourse coalitions were identified with social network analysis techniques. Our findings revealed generally scarce activity of bioeconomy policy debate in media, conducted by a narrow number of legitimatized actors, namely the private sector and interest groups in Argentina and government agencies and TNCs in Uruguay. Local promoters and dominant visions mirror pre-existing narratives and experiences excluding alternative visions. Uruguay's forest-based bioeconomy aims to mirror European experiences, while the Argentinian is embedded in the national agricultural bioeconomy discourse. As bioeconomy operates as a floating signifier, political demands are articulated to a particular meaningful configuration partially fixing bioeconomy's meaning. In this process, central actors exert structural power, indicated by their discourse network centrality as a parameter of their social capital, but also hegemonize bioeconomy excluding alternative actors and their visions.

Marine plastic management policy agenda-setting in China (1985–2021): The Multi-stage Streams Framework

Although numerous policies for mitigating marine plastic are now widely developing in the international community, describing and understanding the generation and implementation of policies is still a challenge. To illustrate the development of marine plastic management agenda-setting in China, this study modified the Multi-stage Streams Framework and used comprehensive operational variables to quantitate the problem, politics and policy streams in the policy evolution of marine plastic management in China from 1985 to 2021. The result shows that there is a significant gap of policy configuration between the central government and local governments on the policy field of prohibiting plastic usage and cleaning coastal areas, and the implementation discrepancy of local governments defeats the evolution of policy agenda on marine plastic management. Further analysis by the Multi-stage Streams Framework reveals that the government's attention to marine plastic has not been fully attracted because of inconspicuous conflicts and policy entrepreneurs' poor sensitivity to problems. This study indicates a necessity for further consideration of the adaptability of policy implementation by local governments, in order to mitigate the inconsistency of governance goals from intergovernmental conflicts in the evolution of the marine plastic policy agenda. The future promotion of ambitious marine plastic policies should diversify the identity of policy entrepreneurs to generate comprehensive policy recommendations supported by sufficient interdisciplinary researches. In general, this study provides the rationale for a comprehensive understanding of the plastic policy development in China and is beneficial for guiding policymakers to invest management resources to get the desired policy evolution.

Politics by other means: an analysis of the discourses of Italian technocratic Prime Ministers

AbstractTechnocracy is becoming increasingly relevant in Western democracies and particularly in Italy, a country characterised by four technocratic governments in three decades. Despite the growing number of dedicated studies, there is a persistent gap in the existing literature concerning the discursive dimension of technocracy – namely, how technocrats frame the historical context, legitimise their policy agendas and, more broadly, the establishment of their governments. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the speeches given by four Italian technocratic Prime Ministers to the parliament when asking for the vote of confidence. Methodologically, we perform first the content analysis to map the themes addressed in the speeches, their quantitative relevance and variation over time. Then, we turn to critical discourse analysis to understand the specific argumentative strategies that legitimise policy action in five key and interrelated dimensions: context, legitimation, the state, European Union and political economy. The analysis seeks to answer three research questions: What are the main discursive strategies of legitimation used by technocrats? Do they change significantly between governments and over time? Do partisan policy options and worldviews emerge clearly, or do they remain under the surface? The paper aims to contribute to the theoretical conceptualisation and empirical analysis of technocracy by highlighting the subjective, performative and overall political dimensions of the phenomenon.

Factors influencing social prescribing initiatives: a systematic review of qualitative evidence.

Social prescribing is a growing health policy agenda to improve the quality and effectiveness of health systems. However, systematically collected knowledge on factors influencing the effective implementation of SP is scarce. A systematic review was conducted to identify and categorize factors influencing social prescribing initiatives. A search of three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and ISI Web of Knowledge) was carried out to retrieve studies from inception to May 2022, supplemented by grey literature searching and snowballing of the relevant references. The inclusion criteria were original empirical research, qualitative data collection, and a description of factors affecting social prescribing initiatives. Study quality was evaluated using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. We categorized the results of individual studies using a narrative approach. A total of 23 studies were included for analysis. Along with patient-related factors (patient-centeredness, clinical complexity, perception, knowledge), three main settings of social prescribing initiatives (including healthcare providers, link workers, and voluntary and community sectors) are affected by (1) individual characteristics (knowledge, perception, skill mix); (2) interpersonal relations (collaboration, trust, feedback, supportive climate, follow-up, sustained connection, peer support within and across sectors); (3) organizational contingencies (resource adequacy, staffing, training, role description, continuity of support, caseload management, monitoring, affordability, accessibility, referral criteria, and tailored support); and (4) political context (national policy and guidance, stewardship, planning, cocreation, bureaucracy, economic condition, and the number of support organizations). Many factors influencing social prescribing initiatives were identified. The results of this review can be applied by different stakeholders of social prescribing to guide development, implementation, description, and evaluation.

Illuminating the craft of policy: an anthropological approach to policy ethnography

The ‘task to come’ in anthropological fieldwork is rarely discussed explicitly as a set of underpinning methodological, analytical, conceptual, and theoretical precepts and practices. Drawing on learnings from a study of policymakers in the Australian Public Service – a non-conventional fieldwork location – this paper presents an account of how the anthropologist instituted direction and purpose or ‘fruitful ways of looking’ as an orientation to policy ethnography and the sense-making journey that follows. This paper progresses three interrelated aims: (1) to argue that, through ethnographic fieldwork, anthropology adds value to understanding the policy setting and its actors as engaged in purposeful and meaningful work underpinned by policy knowledge and expertise; (2) provocate that anthropology should contribute to research agendas outside of critical normative disciplinary interests in power and control; (3) illustrate that preparation is useful to tailor the production of anthropological knowledge to its context. An ‘interpretive framework’ is described as the culmination of this approach to collecting and interpreting ethnographic field data, demonstrating how this attends to the policy setting as socio-cultural domain with actors engaged in shared practices, routines and rituals, steeped in policy-practitioner skills, knowledge and expertise – or policy ‘craft’. Together, this conditioned the anthropological gaze to take in everyday activities involved in policy work and enabled the study of meetings and documents to discern what happens during these structured conversations to better understand how policy staff engage with academic research in meeting their policy responsibilities under the expectations of the evidence-based policy agenda.

The Gig city: Tech-based revitalization and contingent labor across classes in Chattanooga, TN

In Chattanooga, TN, the construction of a fiber optic telecommunications network has led to a tech-based revitalization strategy, and the promotion of entrepreneurial and technical positions within the Downtown. Rather than being a solution for a better labor future, this paper demonstrates how revitalization has served to perpetuate contingent hiring practice across classes and sectors and create contingency in new ones. In focusing on the types of work valorized in public discourse (an educated yet contingent tech sector) and those that remain devalorized (the many ancillary sectors which support tech-based growth) this paper argues for the need for a policy agenda which takes varied labor forms and livelihood strategies into account. The experience of contingency is examined across classes to demonstrate how revitalization discourses and historical discourses perpetuate social disparities despite the connectedness of workers via workforce restructuring.

Shaping smart cities: problem framing, vertical selection and governance in UK smart cities

ABSTRACT As urban governments adopt smart city strategies for delivering services, the need to understand how – and in whose interests – these strategies are formed is imperative. The selection of smart city verticals (or areas of focus for smart city programs) within processes of urban governance has implications for which aspects of the urban agenda become prioritized. Through a study of seven UK smart cities, the paper investigates the framing of city problems, selection of smart verticals, and decision-making logics. The findings highlight that the selection of smart city verticals within the case study cities is rooted in four key considerations: challenges in service delivery, pragmatism, entrepreneurialism, and broader national and global events and policy agendas. These considerations transcend different spatial scales and governance arrangements, raising questions around democratic accountability and transparency. The study concludes that caution is warranted when framing smart cities as a solution to city problems.

Anticipations of practice-near school research in Sweden

ABSTRACT Practice-near research has been on the agenda in education policy during the last few years in Sweden. The research is supposed to make the academy and school collaborate and the expectations are high. This article aims to give an account of different kinds of expectations of practice-near research, and the underlying perceived problems it is supposed to solve, in the Swedish educational context. Drawing from theories from the research field sociology of expectations and Carol Bacchi’s discourse analytic WPR approach (What’s the problem represented to be?), different kinds of documents on practice-near research were analysed. Five anticipatory narratives about practice-near research were identified: practice-near research for ensuring a school based on ‘scientific knowledge and proven experience’, as a cure of educational research of little relevance, for increasing teaching efficiency, for making teacher education research-based, and for increasing attractiveness of the teaching profession. The article concludes with a discussion of the anticipatory narratives related to discourses of change and education crisis.

Literatur Review: Agenda Kebijakan setelah Permendikbudristek No 30 Tahun 2021

Permendikbud No 30 of 2021 is not a point for sexual violence in the higher education environment. Socialization is carried out in limited circles. Information regarding the number of complaints could not be found. This research aims to develop the PPKS agenda after the Permendikbud. Descriptive qualitative method is used to explain the formulation of the problem with the research source being secondary data, namely the study of journal articles and regulations related to this research. Validation of the validity of the data in this study using triangulation. This study uses the theory of setting the policy agenda, namely problem currents, policy currents and political currents. The results of this study are that the target of socialization is not comprehensive both in number and group (problem), the flow of reporting on survivors is available but the facilities are not yet (policy) and the leader determines how a policy is implemented (politics)

Indonesian Policy Choices on Salt

Indonesia is one of the salt importing countries in Asia. This study aims to review the root causes of the salt import policy chosen by the government. Meanwhile, on the other hand, domestic salt farmers are in a subordinate position. This research is a type of qualitative research that uses a literature study approach. The source of the data in this study therefore comes from previous studies in the form of journals and books. Data collection techniques in this study used observation and documentation techniques. Data analysis was carried out through three stages; reducing data, presented, and drawing conclusions. The examination uses a research approach and previous research. This research is a starting point for further review and future policy agendas.

Nutrition policy reforms to address the double burden of malnutrition in Zambia: A prospective policy analysis.

The evolution of nutrition patterns in Zambia has resulted in the coexistence of undernutrition and overnutrition in the same population, the double burden of malnutrition. While Zambia has strong policies addressing undernutrition and stunting, these do not adequately address food environment drivers of the double burden of malnutrition and the adolescent age group, hence the need for nutrition policy reforms. We conducted a theory-based qualitative prospective policy analysis involving in-depth interviews with nutrition policy stakeholders and policy documents review to examine the feasibility of introducing nutrition policy options that address the double burden of malnutrition among adolescents to identify barriers and facilitators to such policy reforms. Using the multiple streams theory, we categorized the barriers and facilitators to prospective policy reforms into those related to the problem, policy solutions, and politics stream. Using a life course approach in nutrition programming could facilitate policy reforms as adolescence is one of the critical invention points in a person's lifecycle. Another key facilitator of policy reform was the availability of institutional infrastructure that could be leveraged to deliver adolescent-focused policies. However, the lack of evidence on the burden and long-term impacts of adolescent nutrition problems, the food industry's strong influence over governments' policy agenda setting, and the lack of public awareness to demand better nutrition were perceived as critical barriers to policy reforms. In addition, the use of the individual responsibility framing for nutrition problems was dominant among stakeholders. As a result, stakeholders did not perceive legislative nutrition policy options that effectively address food environment drivers of the double burden of malnutrition to be feasible for the Zambian context. Policy entrepreneurs are required to broker policy reforms that will get legislative policy options on the government's agenda as they can help raise public support and re-engineer the framing of nutrition problems and their solutions in Zambia.

Failure Privilege in Policymaking: Exploitation, (In)visibilization, and Future Projection in Abortion Policy in Poland

Who gets to benefit from failure is a hot topic in recent research on science and innovation. This article articulates the phenomenon of failure privilege on the terrain of public policy, that is, circumstantial and institutionally ingrained dispositions to use policy downfalls, derailments, and crises as resources of policy action, tools of integration, and dynamism. Building on analyses of policy failures, the article advances a typology of three forms of privilege: exploitation, (in)visibilization, and projection of policy futures. It brings illustrations from abortion policymaking in Poland. Here, failure privilege interacts with a bio-political and culturally polarized setting that further blends neoliberal mechanisms of failing with post-Communist transformation of cultures of failure. This leads to the argument that exploitation and controversial interventions in public policy demand legitimacy that is today constructed by advancing imaginaries and models of failure that allow actors to both visibilize new futures and advance a policy stalemate. Failure is a powerful resource of integration and even surveillance, as well as a factor furthering the politics of waiting. Redefining it is a crucial policy win and entails complex and implicit mechanisms impacting policy agendas.

“Our Way of Life is not up for Negotiation!”: Climate Interventions in the Shadow of ‘Societal Security’

Abstract ‘Climate security’ conventionally refers to climate change being a multiplier of threats to national security, international peace and stability, or human security. Here we identify a hitherto overlooked inverted climate security discourse in which climate responses (rather than climate impacts) are held to pose an existential threat to dominant fossil fuel-dependent ‘ways of life’, justifying extraordinary measures—societal climate security. In doing so, we seek to make three novel contributions. First, we set out how societal securitization applies beyond a national frame and in relation to transnational threats like climate change, arguing it promotes not just exceptional measures but also palliative ones that avoid challenging incumbent identities. Second, we draw on recent evidence and extant literatures to show that 'societal climate security' already has substantial material emanations in the form of exceptional measures, deployed domestically against climate protestors and externally against climate migrants, in the name of societal order and cohesion. Third, we turn to wider climate policy implications, arguing that societal securitization tilts policy agendas further away from rapid mitigation pathways and toward promissory measures such as ‘geoengineering’—schemes for future, large-scale technological interventions in the climate system—that may appear less threatening to established societal identities. While there are sound ecological and humanitarian rationales to research such technologies, in the context of societal securitization these can be appropriated to defend dominant ‘ways of life’ instead. To conclude, we reflect on how, were it attempted, deployment of solar geoengineering for societal security would affect security politics more widely.

Looking for integrated elderly care in practice

PurposeThe goal of integrated, multidisciplinary and person-centered care is on the welfare policy agenda in many countries, but how about integrated service delivery in action? This paper describes a three-year service journey of an elderly person from home to a nursing home through home care, specialized hospital and inpatient care. The aim of this viewpoint paper is to consider how customer orientation and integration are realized when an older lady living an active life becomes seriously ill and loses the ability to conduct daily functions.Design/methodology/approachThe service path will be described from the perspective of a relative.FindingsThe paper raises questions related to governance as well as multidisciplinary and customer orientation in integrated care.Originality/valueThe paper discusses a real-life experience of an elderly care journey from active senior life to a nursing home in Finland. When making visible an elderly care journey, this gives real-life information about the challenges and the needs for development. Better practical understanding helps to remove inter-organizational barriers toward more integrated and patient safe care.

The Politics of Health Policy Agenda Setting in India: The Case of the PMJAY Program

ABSTRACT In 2018, India’s Prime Minister announced a new health insurance program, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), aiming to cover over 500 million people. This paper seeks to document and explain the emergence of PMJAY on India’s political and policy agendas. We analyze media, election manifestos, legislative debates, and health budgets to compare PMJAY’s presence on India’s policy agenda to previous health programs. We then apply Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework to explain the program’s emergence and adoption, validating our data and interpretations through consultations with Indian health policy experts. Comparing respective launch years, PMJAY was covered in national newspapers 37 to 212 times more than previous flagship health programs, although it was not more prominent in parliamentary debates or in the health budget. Events in the problem, politics, and policy streams converged to enable its prominence. Health policy elites who favored insurance as a policy to address out-of-pocket health expenditures gained influence after the 2014 election victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). PMJAY’s naming and branding, scale, timing, implementation style, and design aligned with both the BJP’s ideology and political strategy. PMJAY represents the increased prominence of health programs in Indian politics, although primarily on the political and media agenda, rather than on the budgetary and legislative agenda during this period. The political forces that facilitated its emergence also shaped its design in ways that are likely to affect the Indian health system’s ability to provide comprehensive financial protection in the future.

In the Shadow of Administrative Decentralization: The Impact of Devolution on Subnational Service Provision

Decentralization is often regarded as a panacea for achieving good governance. Yet few studies have explored how devolution (to subnational governments) affects policy agendas. In this article, we investigate how devolution affects two aspects of public service provision—economic growth and environmental protection based on the experience of China. The results show that the devolution simultaneously promotes local economic development and damages the environment. These mixed effects can be attributed to the administrative mechanism of the interaction between devolution and the distribution of government attention, which is more concerned with outcomes that can be observed in the short run rather than the long run. Our results highlight the complexity of governance and demonstrate the architecture for an effective policy framework design.

Teacher assessment literacy: a systematic review

Teacher assessment literacy, generally defined as a set of knowledge and skills a teacher needs to effectively enact assessment in the classroom, has been a priority in the educational policy and educational research agenda for decades. For a long time, it has been identified with standardized measurement and classroom testing. The interest in this topic is related not only to the accountability pressures and the identification of assessment as a lever for school and system reform but also to the need for teachers to support student learning by developing and implementing responsive assessments within their classrooms. Considerable efforts have been made to prepare novice and expert teachers in understanding how to deal with aspects of assessment practice and how to use the assessment results. Although the research on teacher assessment literacy is quite wide, it continues to demonstrate how teachers struggle with assessment, especially when they are required to transfer new approaches and theories into the actual classroom context. This systematic review synthetizes the literature on teacher assessment literacy considering how it has been defined and studied over the last 10 years (2013–2022). Documenting and comparing the different expressions and definitions of assessment literacy used in the 42 selected studies, this systematic review offers a detailed overview of the changes that occurred in the conceptualizations of assessment literacy. Along with the analysis of the theoretical/conceptual frameworks and research methods used to investigate teacher assessment literacy, the scrutiny of its foundational components represents a useful base to orient pre- and in-service teacher education. Against the backdrop of strengths and weaknesses of this review, research priorities and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Crisis-Assisted Policy Advocacy in Water Environment Governance: The Policy Game Mechanism of Grassroots Organizations

In grassroots water environment governance, political–community dialog is an unavoidable issue. Traditional policy analysis tools emphasize top-down stages and sequences, often ignoring the essential role of social factors (organizations, resources, or individuals)—outside the policy subsystem—in policy advocacy. The Advocacy Alliance Framework (ACF) provides a perspective on the role of social factors in policy changes and the interaction mechanism driving the relevant stages and alliances. In this study, we re-examine the key elements of the ACF and extract the grassroots logic of policy advocacy by discussing how actors act from policy divergence to policy learning, constructing an action framework to explain grassroots social policy advocacy in China. We find that policy advocacy depends on the joint influence of multiple elements such as the alliance members, alliance belief system and alliance resources. Therefore, social forces can better intervene in the policy agenda and achieve effective political–community dialog by identifying the relevant elements.