Policy Intentions Research Articles

Urban informality as regulatory ambiguity: a case study of urban village redevelopment in Shenzhen

Housing demolition in urban villages is a contentious subject. Examining the state-informality nexus, this study argues that informality enters the tensions between interpretations of regulations as text or intent. By utilizing the two analytical categories, this paper argues that higher-level government strategically provides an ambiguous regulatory framework that enables district governments utilized informality as a strategy in the urban village redevelopment in Shenzhen. Three specific strategies were identified: finding alternatives, conceding the use value, and reinterpret ambiguous terms in the context of regulatory framework. Thus, the district government has been able to successfully promote the demolition of houses. As demonstrated in the case study, local officials should understand the intent of regulations and policies in addition to enforcing the text of them. If the intent of a regulation is not contradicted, its enforcement is feasible even if it deviates from the text. This study contributes to international debates on informal settlements and housing governance.

INNOVATING URBAN CHINA: The Rise of the Local Venture State and the Making of New Entrepreneurial Spaces

AbstractIn this article we centralize the analytic of the local venture state (LVS) to offer a novel framework for investigating China's new urban entrepreneurialism, which emerged after the 2008 global financial crisis. As a spatiotemporally specific response to the crisis, the LVS goes beyond GDP‐driven developmentalism, seeking to simultaneously promote economic development, indigenous innovation and social equity using a variety of financialized policy instruments. Ethnographic case studies of new entrepreneurial spaces in Beijing's Zhongguancun area situate the LVS at the interface between Zhongguancun's urban space and China's innovation system. They reveal the rationalities behind the rise of the LVS and discrepancies among policy intentions, the implementation thereof and actual local results. Underlying the mixed results of the LVS, we argue, is the complicated power dynamics within the LVS and a fundamental contradiction between the dynamics of technological innovation and those of wealth redistribution. In our examination of China's LVS vis‐à‐vis global struggles to tackle the protracted economic crisis and achieve a more socially inclusive model of urban development, we stress the need to theorize urban entrepreneurialism from the global East with the aim of enriching the literature of urban China and of variegated urban entrepreneurialism.

Evaluating the Impact of Government Policies on Circular Economy Adoption in the Construction Sector

The construction sector is both essential for global economic progress and one of the largest contributors to pollution, resource depletion, and energy consumption. Given the urgent need to adopt more sustainable practices, governments in developed countries have introduced policies aimed at fostering a circular economy in this sector. These policies emphasize the use of green materials to reduce resource consumption, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions, aligning with global sustainability goals. The waste hierarchy further governs these policies, prioritizing waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. This study analyzes the effectiveness of these government policies in promoting circular economy principles, particularly the adoption of green materials in the construction industry. Our findings reveal that while these policies have led to measurable reductions in energy consumption and emissions, the extent of green material adoption varies significantly across countries. Key factors influencing this variation include economic incentives, regulatory enforcement, and the level of industry acceptance of green technologies. One of the most important results of this study is the identification of significant gaps between policy intent and actual industry practices. In many cases, green materials, despite their favorable characteristics, have not been widely implemented due to economic, technical, and market barriers. These findings underscore the need for stronger government incentives and more consistent policy enforcement to drive broader adoption of sustainable practices. Future studies should focus on overcoming these barriers, exploring the long-term economic impacts of green material adoption, and evaluating how policy frameworks can be optimized to ensure more widespread.

“I Don’t Know Whether It’s Priority, or Capacity, or Both”: Implementation Gaps in Employment Policies Targeting People with Disabilities in Kenya and Bangladesh

Disabled people are often excluded from employment, particularly in accessing waged employment. This exclusion persists despite enabling policies and legislature, indicating a need to address gaps in implementation. To improve policy implementation, it is crucial to better understand the gap between policy intention (what was planned) and effect (what happens), including reasons that widen this gap (what explains what happened). This study explores this in the context of Kenya and Bangladesh, drawing on key informant interviews and analysis of policies and programmes related to employment, social protection, and disability. Using the policy triangle framework, we analysed the policy context, process, actors, and content of relevant policies and programmes. The study identified key policy provisions on employment quota, social assistance, job placement services, tax incentives, and training opportunities, all of which were designed to promote employment for disabled people. However, implementation is limited in both countries, for reasons including ambiguity in policies, unavailability of data for monitoring, and lack of transparency among implementers. The data suggest that addressing these aspects would promote accountability among duty-bearers, advocacy power among rights-holders, and ultimately improve implementation and inclusion of disabled people in employment.

Education policy intentions and principals’ and teachers’ conceptualizations of curriculum differentiation in Ethiopian secondary education

This study examined the intentions of education policy documents and the conceptualizations of secondary school principals and teachers regarding curriculum differentiation. Regular and special day schools were selected using purposive sampling based on their experiences with different types of curriculum differentiation. Two school principals and 17 subject teachers were selected using purposive and convenience samplings, respectively. The study analyzed national education policy documents (e.g., education and training policy and curriculum framework) and collected interview data from school principals and teachers. The two main national education policy documents conceptualize curriculum differentiation in terms of various tracks, like fields of study, streams, and school types. The other national document, the guideline for curriculum differentiation, emphasizes the differentiation of curriculum components—contents, instructional processes, assessment strategies, and learning environments—and highlights the importance of inclusive classrooms. Principals’ and teachers’ conceptualizations of curriculum differentiation vary across three levels: lacking awareness, holding divergent views, and aligning with policy intentions. The absence of a coherent policy guide and the lack of engagement of principals and teachers in reform ideas have contributed to these diverse conceptualizations. Additionally, the policy intentions seem inadequately addressed through curriculum differentiation practice by school types, such as regular, special day, and boarding schools, which do not correspond to variations in the types and levels of difficulty of the school subjects taught.

The Weight of Numbers: Counting Border Crossing Deaths and Policy Intent

Executive Summary This article explores how undocumented border crosser (UBC) deaths are counted as well as mis- and under-counted across the US southwest, and proposes a suite of policy remediations to standardize this process. An accurate count of UBC recovered remains is vital to understanding the scope of fatalities associated with border crossing, providing evidence accounting for the reciprocal relationship between US border enforcement and the incidence of migration-related death. To meaningfully intervene, it is insufficient to advocate only for more robust individual death investigations, though this is pivotal to forensically identify UBC decedents and unite them with their loved ones. Though identification and reunification of UBCs are the elements of forensic care most commonly attributed as humanitarian, the relationship between forensic investigation and international humanitarian principles is equally about accumulating primary evidence for policy intervention and justice claims on behalf of those who wrongfully die. Even if existing counting mechanisms do not provide the means for establishing this attribution between border-crossing deaths and border enforcement policy, this article lays out an argument for why they must do so and it makes recommendations for how this can take place. Necessarily, this article begins with a critique of existing mechanisms for counting UBC deaths, from the federal observation of such deaths by Customs and Border Protection, to the bureaucratic mechanisms for the collection of vital statistics authored at the local level. It then suggests means for improving accurate counting using the US Standard Certificate of Death. It particularly explores two aspects of the certificate, Manner of Death reporting and a section that asks death filers to describe how the death occurred, sections 37 and 43 respectively. Finally, it explores historical precedent for altering the standard death form at local and then national levels, positing that select amendments to the existing death certificate would be useful for standardizing how medicolegal death filers across the border and beyond can more accurately enumerate and characterize UBC deaths. Policy recommendations include the following, in order of immediacy: ● Jurisdictions across the US southwest must adopt standardized criteria for counting fatalities believed to be associated with undocumented border crossing. ● Despite some local formalization of UBC counting, current means of representing UBC status in vital records remains ad hoc across the US southwest and existing mechanisms for counting elude wider scale national recognition in vital statistics. The most straightforward and reliable method of standardization to ensure systematic representation of UBC deaths across the borderlands would be a UBC checkbox on the death certificate. This would require cooperation with state-level public health departments and legislatures. Precedent exists for changing the death form at the state level, facilitating, in some cases, for eventual inclusion of new components of the death certificate to be adopted on the US Standard Certificate of Death. This is recommended as a longer-term goal. ● Finally, there must be a means to characterize the deadly relationship between UBC fatalities and US border enforcement policy and practice in vital records where UBC Manners of Death are most often characterized as “Natural” or “Accidental.” Both are inaccurate. Unilaterally ensuring an accurate count leaves room for a trend already well underway in which agencies associated with border enforcement have cast UBC deaths as simply due to unfortunate heat-related accidents, resulting in legislation aimed to mitigate deaths that fails to address the role of border policy in causing deaths. This paper recommends that a new Manner of Death category could be useful beyond the border to represent non-capital crimes enforced by leveraging bodily harm.

The Rate of Corruption in Local Municipalities Harshly Offsets Revenue Enhancement Strategies on Property Clearances and Transfers of Properties: A Case of Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality

Corruption within local municipalities remains a significant obstacle to economic development and public trust, particularly in the context of property clearances and transfers. This study examines the extent to which corruption within the Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality undermines revenue enhancement strategies designed to streamline property clearances and transfers. By employing a mixed-methods approach, this research highlights the discrepancies between policy intentions and actual practices. The findings suggest that corruption significantly hampers the effectiveness of these revenue enhancement strategies, leading to inefficiencies and public dissatisfaction. The study draws on primary data collected from municipal employees, property owners, and real estate professionals. Interviews and surveys reveal a pervasive culture of bribery and nepotism that undermines formal procedures. Additionally, an analysis of municipal records uncovers irregularities in property clearance and transfer processes, suggesting systemic issues that require urgent attention. Addressing corruption in the Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality is crucial for restoring public trust and enhancing revenue from property transactions. The study proposes several policy recommendations, including stricter enforcement of anti-corruption measures, enhanced transparency, and improved accountability mechanisms. These strategies are essential for ensuring that property clearances and transfers are conducted fairly and efficiently, ultimately benefiting the local economy and community.

Can a Policy Mix Achieve a Collaborative Effect? Exploring the Nested Implementation Process of Urban Carbon Emission Reduction Policies

China’s government has adopted several carbon emission reduction policies to strive to achieve the dual carbon goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”. In practice, various multi-objective policy instruments are implemented in a staggered manner, which might lead to the overestimation or underestimation of single-policy effect evaluation. This paper evaluates the combined effect of the Low-carbon City Pilot (LCP) and Comprehensive Demonstration City of Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Fiscal Policy (CCEEFP), investigating whether their carbon emission reduction effects are complementary and achieve collaborative outcomes. The empirical results indicate that the LCP, the CCEEFP, and their nested implementation could all promote carbon emission reduction. Their collaborative policy effects are sustained, being more obvious in higher-grade cities. Furthermore, there is a greater adoption of the source treatment technology for carbon emissions. And the implementing order of these policies could affect governance performance because of the “path dependence” of local government’s attention towards multi-objective policy intentions. The empirical evidence demonstrates that policymakers should carefully design policy mix particulars towards a common purpose and carefully co-ordinate their implementation process.

Studying Chinese, studying in Chinese and studying with the Chinese: international students’ experiences and identity construction in Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) programs

ABSTRACT While extensive studies have been devoted to English-medium instruction (EMI) in the internationalisation of higher education, only a few studies have investigated the language-related experiences and perceptions of international students in non-Anglophone contexts where the local/national language(s) serve as a medium of instruction for academic purposes. Given that Chinese universities have adopted a strong Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) initiative for international students in the past decade, this article makes a critical analysis of interviews with 48 African students to uncover CMI implementation in Chinese universities. The findings reveal that the students generally held positive attitudes towards the top-down CMI policy being implemented, despite the challenges encountered. However, the uncritical curriculum ‘Sinicisation’ also raised concerns about Chinese-only practices, the absence of appropriate learning materials and testing regimes, a lack of institutional support for using Chinese as an academic lingua franca, epistemic and social marginalisation of international students. As such, the article presents a complex interplay of language attitudes, language practices and identity construction in CMI programs, highlighting a hiatus between policy intentions and actual practices in classrooms. I conclude the article with recommendations for policymakers and future research on CMI policies and practices in China.

Bumps and detours of the domestic pathway of money laundering legislation

Aim: The aim of the paper is a brief review of the past 30 years of domestic legislation concerning the criminal act of money laundering, also to summarise the lessons learned from the modifications and to outline some aspects of legal-interpretation. Methodology: The paper analyses the periodical changes of the phrasing of the act and the legal policy intentions in connection with these changes. It takes a position on the academic debates concerning the application of the offence and critically assesses legal practice. Findings: The current legislation and practice of money laundering is still not without inconsistencies. Qualification of specific acts as money laundering could often contradict fundamental legal principles, the proper interpretation of actual or pseudo multiple-offence theory, the concurring aspects of aiding and abetting versus subsidiary or collateral offences, and the necessity to justify culpability or mens rea. While not disputing the legitimate purpose of the offence, nevertheless with an expectation of a more critical attitude regarding its application, effective investigation of the preliminary offences shall not be de-emphasised, as its effectiveness is still the most effective way to the prevention of money laundering. Value: The conclusions may contribute to a better founded jurisprudence concerning money laundering, as well as it may provide guidance for future codification considerations.

Multilingual Classroom Assistants as Nonauthorized Policy Actors: Understanding and Enacting a Swedish School Policy

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to explore how national-level Swedish policy intentions concerning multilingual classroom assistance are being enacted at the local level. The article is based on semi-structured interviews with 12 newly arrived students and 30 interviews with teachers, multilingual classroom assistants, school leaders, and other school staff, conducted in 2018/2019 at two compulsory schools in the Stockholm region, during one year of fieldwork. The data were analysed using the conceptual bases of critical policy analysis. The findings reveal that the structural conditions for enacting national policy concerning multilingual classroom assistance are characterized by collectivizing strategies. The schools build their support measure strategies on selective appropriations of collective solutions to achieve their own organizational strategies and goals. Engagement in policy enactment by constructing local strategies is not an option for all actors in these two schools, but only for authorized policy actors. The study further demonstrates the need to reorganize multilingual classroom assistance by grounding it in students’ individual educational needs.

Beyond the forests: ecotourism and sustainable livelihoods in Karnataka’s protected landscapes

ABSTRACT The paper is situated within the context of two prominent tiger reserves, namely the Kali Tiger Reserve and Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, located in Karnataka, India. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the pivotal role played by ecotourism in shaping rural livelihoods and to evaluate the outcomes that result from the integration of ecotourism into pre-existing livelihood strategies. Employing a sustainable livelihoods approach, the study engaged 214 participants from 25 adjoining villages of the tiger reserves, service providers, and government officials at various administrative levels. The findings of the study suggest that although ecotourism has not supplanted traditional livelihoods, it has effectively contributed to income augmentation for residents in the study areas. This research also illuminates a notable disparity between policy intent and on-ground implementation due to the inherent ambiguity present in tourism policies, which tends to generate and exacerbate a plethora of issues that impede the effective integration of ecotourism into existing livelihood strategies. The paper sets the stage for further deeper exploration of the intersection between ecotourism and rural livelihoods, aimed at fostering more inclusive and sustainable tourism practices within ecologically sensitive areas.

Universal Refugee Social Protection Guidelines: A Discussion into the Challenges to Their Successful Adoption

AbstractThis paper discusses some of the impediments to the realization of refugee-specific conventions and the international bill of human rights content, i.e., the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UDHR. The discrepancy highlights a broader failure in the diffusion of the global refugee regime and underscores the disparity between the intentions of global policy and its real-world impact. Challenges to global social policy diffusion (and the resultant implementation gaps in Africa) are examined through the use of secondary data on refugees in South Africa and the region. Also examined is the content of human rights conventions and their adoption. The challenges noted include (i) compulsory forms of power within the global governance system and constraints on the global refugee regime; (ii) protracted social conflict situations, funding gaps, geopolitical reordering and an ensuing lack of cohesion amongst stakeholders in the transference of global social policy and (iii) limitations in the content of refugee rights and a poor alignment of the said content at the national and local contexts.

INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DYNAMICS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF INDIA’S PRE- AND POST-NATIONAL MANUFACTURING POLICY 2011

This paper investigates the impact of India's National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) 2011 on international business dynamics, comparing trends in trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and global partnerships before and after the policy's implementation. “The NMP was introduced to transform India into a global manufacturing hub by fostering growth in the sector through improved infrastructure, policy incentives, and a streamlined regulatory framework. This study examines whether these provisions led to significant changes in India’s international trade patterns and investment inflows. A comparative analysis reveals mixed results, showing modest increases in FDI and partnerships in certain sectors but limited effects on import dynamics, contradicting expectations. While the NMP aimed to attract global businesses and reduce import dependency, data suggests that domestic structural challenges, including inadequate infrastructure and inconsistent policy implementation, hindered these outcomes. The findings indicate that, while the NMP contributed to incremental growth in specific areas, it fell short of substantially reshaping India’s position in the global market or significantly impacting import volumes. This analysis offers critical insights into the practical challenges of industrial policy execution in emerging economies, highlighting the gap between policy intent and economic impact. Additionally, it underscores the need for comprehensive policy frameworks that address underlying structural issues to achieve substantial trade and investment transformations. This study concludes by suggesting that India’s future industrial policies could benefit from a more integrated approach, incorporating targeted infrastructure development, streamlined regulatory processes, and robust implementation mechanisms to achieve sustainable industrial growth and enhance global competitiveness.

Vocational teachers as policy actors

Linguistic diversity has become a focus in the Norwegian National Curriculum (LK20), which establishes students experiencing “multilingualism as a resource” as a policy intention. This study explores if and how this policy intention corresponds with teachers’ experiences and practices in mainstream vocational education and training (VET). Using the concept of policy enactment developed by Ball et al. (2012) as a theoretical and analytical framework, I analyze the curricular aims set by the LK20 Core Curriculum and a subject-specific VET curriculum, comparing them to the teaching practices reflected in interview data gathered through linguistic ethnographic fieldwork in mainstream Norwegian VET programs in 2020 and 2021. My findings show that (a) the National Curriculum positions vocational teachers as subject-specific, mainly Norwegian-oriented language teachers held to ensure the enactment of “multilingualism as a resource”, even though most vocational teachers are not trained in language education, and that (b) vocational teachers act as interpreters, translators, and relatively passive receivers of language-related policies, also frequently assuming critical positions towards these policies and some organizational features of the educational institution. The study highlights the ambiguous and challenging positions vocational teachers find themselves in, emphasize the necessity of more multilingually-oriented approaches to mainstream vocational education, and show that for language-related policy intentions like “multilingualism as a resource” to be enacted, it is imperative to provide policy actors like vocational teachers with sufficient suitable resources.

Participative rights in Welsh primary schools: Unpicking the policy rhetoric

This paper presents the findings from the initial stage of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project which examines the pedagogic practices that embed young children’s participative rights in lower primary classrooms in Wales. An evaluation of relevant legislation and policy in Wales from 2000 to 2022 was undertaken to explicate the positioning of teachers and their responsibilities regarding children’s participative rights. Data analysis detailed here sets out the legislative and statutory context within which teachers work, as well as the curricular and pedagogic framework which steers classroom activity. The Welsh Government has, for two decades, been explicitly sympathetic to embedding children’s rights in policy development, yet there is limited research evidencing the changes in educational curricula and practice. The gap between policy intention and implementation is not unique to Wales and therefore of universal interest. We report that although there is evidence of the increased inclusion of children’s participative rights in more recent legislation and policy, the move to education about, through and for human rights is only significantly pronounced in recent reforms such as the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021. We advocate that the commitment to human rights education made in the Curriculum for Wales is perpetuated and ongoing critical appraisal of legislation and policy is needed, alongside further research to understand how that commitment is being interpreted in Welsh education settings.

Studying gender and sexuality in school health education: an exploration of the intersection between the official curriculum and student-led activism

ABSTRACT In response to their experiences of heteronormative and cisnormative cultures in school contexts, some young people undertake various forms of action within their schools with the intention of changing practices, school environments, or school policies. This student-led action can be understood as a form of activism but it may also be seen as the enactment of sexual citizenship. Both activism and sexual citizenship usually sit outside of the formal curriculum in schools. So, what happens when activism and sexual citizenship are recognised in official curriculum policy and are formally studied as part of school programmes in senior high school? In this article, we draw on findings from two ethnographic projects conducted in two different school sites in Aotearoa New Zealand to explore the intersection between official curriculum practices in relationships and sexuality education (RSE) and student-led activism. We wonder what emerges at the intersection of activist approaches and sexual citizenship when these are domesticated by official technologies for curriculum design and assessment.

Examining the Access, Quality, and Relevance Gaps in Liberia’s Educational Policy Environment

Examining the Access, Quality, and Relevance Gaps in Liberia’s Educational Policy Environment

COVID-19 vaccination strategies in Africa: A scoping review of the use of mathematical models to inform policy.

Mathematical models are vital tools to understand transmission dynamics and assess the impact of interventions to mitigate COVID-19. However, historically, their use in Africa has been limited. In this scoping review, we assess how mathematical models were used to study COVID-19 vaccination to potentially inform pandemic planning and response in Africa. We searched six electronic databases: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, Global Health, MathSciNet and Africa-Wide NiPAD, using keywords to identify articles focused on the use of mathematical modelling studies of COVID-19 vaccination in Africa that were published as of October 2022. We extracted the details on the country, author affiliation, characteristics of models, policy intent and heterogeneity factors. We assessed quality using 21-point scale criteria on model characteristics and content of the studies. The literature search yielded 462 articles, of which 32 were included based on the eligibility criteria. Nineteen (59%) studies had a first author affiliated with an African country. Of the 32 included studies, 30 (94%) were compartmental models. By country, most studies were about or included South Africa (n = 12, 37%), followed by Morocco (n = 6, 19%) and Ethiopia (n = 5, 16%). Most studies (n = 19, 59%) assessed the impact of increasing vaccination coverage on COVID-19 burden. Half (n = 16, 50%) had policy intent: prioritising or selecting interventions, pandemic planning and response, vaccine distribution and optimisation strategies and understanding transmission dynamics of COVID-19. Fourteen studies (44%) were of medium quality and eight (25%) were of high quality. While decision-makers could draw vital insights from the evidence generated from mathematical modelling to inform policy, we found that there was limited use of such models exploring vaccination impacts for COVID-19 in Africa. The disparity can be addressed by scaling up mathematical modelling training, increasing collaborative opportunities between modellers and policymakers, and increasing access to funding.

Using policy codesign to achieve multi-sector alignment in adolescent behavioral health: a study protocol

BackgroundPolicymaking is quickly gaining focus in the field of implementation science as a potential opportunity for aligning cross-sector systems and introducing incentives to promote population health, including substance use disorders (SUD) and their prevention in adolescents. Policymakers are seen as holding the necessary levers for realigning service infrastructure to more rapidly and effectively address adolescent behavioral health across the continuum of need (prevention through crisis care, mental health, and SUD) and in multiple locations (schools, primary care, community settings). The difficulty of aligning policy intent, policy design, and successful policy implementation is a well-known challenge in the broader public policy and public administration literature that also affects local behavioral health policymaking. This study will examine a blended approach of coproduction and codesign (i.e., Policy Codesign), iteratively developed over multiple years to address problems in policy formation that often lead to poor implementation outcomes. The current study evaluates this scalable approach using reproducible measures to grow the knowledge base in this field of study.MethodsThis is a single-arm, longitudinal, staggered implementation study to examine the acceptability and short-term impacts of Policy Codesign in resolving critical challenges in behavioral health policy formation. The aims are to (1) examine the acceptability, feasibility, and reach of Policy Codesign within two geographically distinct counties in Washington state, USA; (2) examine the impact of Policy Codesign on multisector policy development within these counties using social network analysis; and (3) assess the perceived replicability of Policy Codesign among leaders and other staff of policy-oriented state behavioral health intermediary organizations across the USA.DiscussionThis study will assess the feasibility of a specific approach to collaborative policy development, Policy Codesign, in two diverse regions. Results will inform a subsequent multi-state study measuring the impact and effectiveness of this approach for achieving multi-sector and evidence informed policy development in adolescent SUD prevention and treatment.