Frame Problem Research Articles

Corporate social responsibility, policy framing and strategic marketing: understanding the alcohol industry’s use of social media in Uganda

BackgroundSub-Saharan Africa is important to the future of alcohol and global health because the alcohol market there is expanding rapidly in a relatively young population. This entails a corresponding contest about whether the policy measures adopted will be shaped by scientific evidence or by industry interference in alcohol policy. This study examines how alcohol industry actors use social media.MethodsUganda was selected for study because of high levels of alcohol harm and recent alcohol policy debates. Data on the X (formerly Twitter) activity of the Ugandan companies of AB InBev and Diageo, who are the two main brewers, and the trade association including both, were collected, coded and thematically analysed.ResultsX is used overwhelmingly by alcohol industry actors in Uganda to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) and alcohol policy framing content. There is little direct product marketing. The framing of policy problems and solutions, and of the actors involved in policymaking and CSR resembles that used elsewhere in the political strategies of the transnational alcohol corporations. Content which appears more emphasised in Uganda includes material on farmers, illicit trade and contribution to the economy. As elsewhere, it avoids giving attention to the policy measures which would make a difference to the levels of alcohol harms endured by Uganda. Rhetorically, X is thus used to create a parallel universe, in which the actual harms and what is known about how to reduce them are conspicuous by their absence.ConclusionsThe alcohol industry presents itself as indispensable to Uganda’s future and appears to have developed relationships with politicians, partnerships with government, and built a coalition with farmers. This means the alcohol industry may be well positioned to oppose public health policy measures, even though their arguments lack substance and are at odds with the evidence.

Defining their real problems, getting public and policy attention: Global struggles of deprived communities for sustainable development

AbstractAgenda is the list of issues or problems that policymakers agree to consider. Agenda setting is a struggle between stakeholders to define these issues. Communities suffering from pollution, homelessness, unemployment, and other unsustainabilities have the best science and most legitimate interest to define these problems for policymakers. However, our knowledge about bottom‐up agenda setting is limited. This study is an original, first‐time investigation to explore and conceptualize how deprived communities engage in the competition to set policy agendas. The findings from analyzing secondary evidence indicate that deprived communities engage in agenda‐setting competition in a three‐step process of (i) defining their problems; (ii) seeking public attention to their problems; and (iii) demanding policy attention to their problems. Strategies that deprived communities use in these steps are identified and illustrated. The study produces a conceptual toolkit to research and map bottom‐up agenda‐setting. The toolkit might be further tested and refined, including in environmental studies. Bottom‐up agenda setting is fundamental to sustainable development by ensuring that framing of social and environmental problems comes from their sufferers so that policymakers rather provide solutions.

Escaping the politics trap: exercising collective power

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the EU’s deployment of EU collective power in response to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Collective power has two dimensions, the ‘power to’ and the ‘power with’, which translate into the power to get things done and the power to act in concert. These two dimensions of power are underpinned by a third dimension, discursive power. The analytical framework consists of two bundles of activity, agenda setting and problem recognition (the problem frame) and the development of policy solutions (the action frame). Agreeing a problem frame is a necessary but insufficient requirement for action which requires agreement among the member states on what they are prepared to commit to in terms of policy instruments. The paper concludes that the EU avoided a politics trap during these crises by reaching consensus on both the problem and action frames and were assisted in this by the emergence of three EU polity norms and the mobilisation of institutional capacity.

Designing development programmes for climate change and uncertainty in Pacific Melanesia – the role for knowledge brokers

ABSTRACT With rapid globalization and climate change, development programmes face increasingly complex problems. New approaches to programme design and delivery are required, and knowledge brokers can contribute to this reorientation. To understand how community development initiatives in Melanesia address complexity, and their needs for knowledge brokering, we surveyed designers, managers and implementers in eight programmes from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Applying the ‘Cynefin’ framework to describe complexity, we mapped programmes’ problem identification and solution design to elucidate their framing of problems. Whilst respondents identified uncertainties and complexities related to climate change, natural disasters and socio-economic conditions, programmes were designed with minimal consideration of these risks. Respondents attributed this to limited capacity and support networks to access and understand future risk information; poor information-sharing due to a lack of trust between partners; and minimal engagement between communities and the government. We highlight competencies that brokers need to enable more effective responses to rapid systems change, including fostering collaborations among partners, generating knowledge co-production, systems thinking, understanding complexity and uncertainty, and the promotion of learning and reflection. By incorporating brokering capacity, programmes in Melanesia could be better designed to account for future uncertainty, and tackle increasingly complex development challenges more effectively.

Driving towards inclusion: Using a service design framework to investigate technology-induced inequalities

Technological growth is realizing an ever more intelligent and convenient future. However, is this future equal, and what role does service design play in addressing, or exacerbating, these inequalities? The relationship between technology and inequality is fluid, moving from the elimination of existing inequalities to the creation of new ones, and service design has the potential to impact this bidirectional relationship. On the other hand, the current literature fails to clearly identify service design’s contribution to the technology-inequality-design nexus. This paper develops a framework to do so. Drawing on the four dimensions of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 4 model, this paper uses double diamond design process and methods, including user journey, problem framing, and prototyping, etc. to propose a novel framework incorporating four dimensions of service design and their links to inequality. The framework is then demonstrated through an application to autonomous vehicle technology. More broadly, the framework can be used by service designers and practitioners to identify different dimensions of hidden inequality within service design.

Use of personas in co-designing learning experiences with teachers: An exploratory case study

AbstractThis paper explores the use of personas in co-designing learning experiences for students. It reviews existing literature about the use of personas within the design process and then presents a case study of a group of teachers (N = 15) and designers collaboratively designing (co-designing) a term-long learning experience for a group of digital technologies students in a high school. The paper draws upon theory and results from the exploratory case study to suggest that there is significant value in using personas early in the design process when a group of co-designers are designing for a group who are absent—in this case, students. The paper shares a description of the co-design process and the use of personas, as well as an analysis of the personas created and the participant perceptions of the value of the activity. It outlines a three-step activity framework for using creative personas effectively in similar situations where a group of teachers-as-designers are co-designing for absent students. It proposes that personas are valuable for groups of teachers co-designing for students as a way to evoke empathy, aid in problem framing, and set up a space for creative thinking as part of an iterative design process.

The Problem of Disinformation: A Critical Approach

ABSTRACT The term disinformation is generally used to refer to information that is false and harmful, by contrast with misinformation (false but harmless) and malinformation (harmful but true); disinformation is also generally understood to involve coordination and to be intentionally false and/or harmful. However, particular studies rarely apply all these criteria when discussing cases. Doing so would involve applying at least three distinct problem framings: an epistemic framing to detect that a proposition in circulation is false, a behavioural framing to detect the coordinated efforts at communicating that proposition, and a security framing to identify threats or risks of harm attendant on widespread belief in the proposition. As for the question of intentionality, different kinds of clues can be picked up within each framing, although none alone is likely to be conclusive. Yet particular studies tend to centre on or prioritise a single framing. Many today aim to make policy recommendations about combatting disinformation, and they prioritise security concerns over the demands of epistemic diligence. This carries a real risk of disinformation research being ‘weaponised’ against inconvenient truths. Against combative approaches, this article argues for a critical approach which recognizes the importance of epistemic diligence and transparency about normative assumptions.

Framing the predictive mind: why we should think again about Dreyfus

AbstractIn this paper I return to Hubert Dreyfus’ old but influential critique of artificial intelligence, redirecting it towards contemporary predictive processing models of the mind (PP). I focus on Dreyfus’ arguments about the “frame problem” for artificial cognitive systems, and his contrasting account of embodied human skills and expertise. The frame problem presents as a prima facie problem for practical work in AI and robotics, but also for computational views of the mind in general, including for PP. Indeed, some of the issues it presents seem more acute for PP, insofar as it seeks to unify all cognition and intelligence, and aims to do so without admitting any cognitive processes or mechanisms outside of the scope of the theory. I contend, however, that there is an unresolved problem for PP concerning whether it can both explain all cognition and intelligent behavior as minimizing prediction error with just the core formal elements of the PP toolbox, and also adequately comprehend (or explain away) some of the apparent cognitive differences between biological and prediction-based artificial intelligence, notably in regard to establishing relevance and flexible context-switching, precisely the features of interest to Dreyfus’ work on embodied indexicality, habits/skills, and abductive inference. I address several influential philosophical versions of PP, including the work of Jakob Hohwy and Andy Clark, as well as more enactive-oriented interpretations of active inference coming from a broadly Fristonian perspective.

An assessment of numerical and geometrical quality of bases on surface fitting on Powell–Sabin triangulations

It is well known that the problem of fitting a dataset by using a spline surface minimizing an energy functional can be carried out by solving a linear system. Such a linear system strongly depends on the underlying functional space and, particularly, on the basis considered. Some papers in the literature study the numerical behavior and processing of the above-mentioned linear systems in specific cases. The bases that have local support and constitute a partition of unity have been shown to be interesting in the frame of geometric problems. In this work, we investigate the numerical effects of considering these bases in the quadratic Powell–Sabin spline space. Specifically, we present a direct approach to explore different preconditioning strategies and assess whether the already known ‘good’ bases also possess favorable numerical properties. Additionally, we introduce an inverse optimization approach based on a nonlinear optimization model to identify new bases that exhibit both good geometric and numerical properties.

Design: Episteme and Doxa. Co-design as an Opportunity to Share Choices

This paper delves into the concept of co-design, a collaborative approach involving stakeholders in the conceptualization and design phases to understand diverse perspectives and jointly define project directions. Examining the relationships between co-design, Design Thinking, and user-centred design, the paper emphasises distinctions in their goals and methods. It addresses potential biases in co-design processes, providing strategies to mitigate analogical relations, cognitive effort minimization, and emotional influences. Epistemological reflections highlight the efficacy of participatory methods in generating theoretical hypotheses while underscoring the need for evidence-based validation. The article explores co-design’s applications in speculative design and ludo-didactics (game design). In speculative design, co-design aids in framing problems and generating plausible contextualizations, while in game design, participatory processes, particularly playtesting, enhance the exploratory and refinement phases. The paper suggests avenues for further research, emphasising the strategic placement of Co-design processes in project phases, considering potential biases, and exploring its application in disruptive innovation contexts.

Intersectionality in Artificial Intelligence: Framing Concerns and Recommendations for Action

While artificial intelligence (AI) is often presented as a neutral tool, growing evidence suggests that it exacerbates gender, racial, and other biases leading to discrimination and marginalization. This study analyzes the emerging agenda on intersectionality in AI. It examines four high‐profile reports dedicated to this topic to interrogate how they frame problems and outline recommendations to address inequalities. These four reports play an important role in putting problematic intersectionality issues on the political agenda of AI, which is typically dominated by questions about AI’s potential social and economic benefits. The documents highlight the systemic nature of problems that operate like a negative feedback loop or vicious cycle with the diversity crisis in the AI workforce leading to the development of biased AI tools when a largely homogenous group of white male developers and tech founders build their own biases into AI systems. Typical examples include gender and racial biases embedded into voice assistants, humanoid robots, and hiring tools. The reports frame the diversity situation in AI as alarming, highlight that previous diversity initiatives have not worked, emphasize urgency, and call for a holistic approach that focuses not just on numbers but rather on culture, power, and opportunities to exert influence. While dedicated reports on intersectionality in AI provide a lot of depth, detail, and nuance on the topic, in the patriarchal system they are in danger of being pigeonholed as issues of relevance mainly for women and minorities rather than part of the core agenda.

Exploring cultural landscape narratives to understand challenges for collaboration and their implications for governance

ABSTRACT Ongoing land use change, including both land abandonment and agricultural intensification and expansion, not only present a threat for biodiversity and ecosystem health but also for the persistence of cultural landscapes. However, farmland abandonment and the resulting loss of traditional cultural landscapes is an under-researched topic in the literature. Our work in a transdisciplinary action research project in the Spreewald Biosphere Reserve suggested that challenges to preserve the cultural landscape are rooted in diverging landscape understandings and future aspirations. Dealing with and integrating different perceptions and viewpoints is a key challenge in landscape governance. Narratives as storylines about a topic or an issue have a structural and temporal dimension and can help understand land-use conflicts and different viewpoints. We adopted a social constructivist perspective on landscape to engage with meanings and perceptions (including values) that constitute landscape to diverse stakeholders. To understand these differences in meaning, we drew on Q-methodology and conducted 38 interviews with key stakeholders. We elicited three co-existing and partly overlapping landscape narratives. These differ with regard to meanings of the term cultural landscape, including how stakeholders characterise the landscape, how they appreciate it, and what they perceive as threats. We show how such differences in meanings and values attributed to the landscape translate to different problem framings and future aspirations and thus present a barrier for collaborative management and governance. We highlight how participatory vision development could help address narrative tensions and argue that a more integrative perspective would better include cultural aspects.

IPlan: A Platform for Constructing Localized, Reduced-Form Models of Land-Use Impacts

To help young people understand socio-environmental systems and develop the confidence that meaningful action can be taken to address socio-environmental problems, young people need interactive simulations that enable them to take consequential actions in a familiar context and see the results. This can be achieved through reduced-form models with appropriate user interfaces, but it is a significant challenge to construct a system capable of producing educational models of socio-environmental systems that are localizable and customizable but accessible to educators and learners. In this paper, we present iPlan, a free, online educational software application designed to enable educators and middle- and high-school-aged learners to create custom, localized land-use simulations that can be used to frame, explore, and address complex land-use problems. We describe in detail the software application and its underlying computational models, and we present robust evidence that the accuracy of iPlan simulations is appropriate for educational contexts and preliminary evidence that educators are able to produce simulations suitable for their pedagogical goals and learner populations.

The Convergence of Ikigai and Design Thinking: Crafting a Purposeful Framework

In an era where innovation is not just about solving problems but also about enhancing human experiences and fostering personal fulfillment, the convergence of Ikigai principles with Design Thinking methodology offers a promising avenue for holistic problem-solving and innovation. This paper explores the intersection of Ikigai—a Japanese concept representing one's reason for being—and Design Thinking—a human-centered approach to innovation. We propose a conceptual framework, termed Ikigai-Driven Design (IDD), which integrates the principles of Ikigai with the stages of Design Thinking. IDD comprises five main stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test, each combining elements of Ikigai and Design Thinking to foster purposeful innovation. The Empathize stage emphasizes understanding what users love and what the world needs, drawing insights from human-centered research methods. In the Define stage, practitioners frame problems through the lens of Ikigai, aligning identified needs with their own passions and strengths. The Ideate stage encourages divergent thinking, leveraging practitioners' Ikigai to generate creative solutions. Prototypes created in the Prototype stage embody practitioners' purpose and values, tested and refined based on user feedback in the Test stage. By integrating Ikigai principles with Design Thinking methodology, IDD offers a structured yet flexible approach to innovation that resonates deeply with users and contributes to practitioners' sense of fulfillment and meaning.

A Framework for Assessing the Impact of Outbreak Response Immunization Programs.

The impact of outbreak response immunization (ORI) can be estimated by comparing observed outcomes to modelled counterfactual scenarios without ORI, but the most appropriate metrics depend on stakeholder needs and data availability. This study developed a framework for using mathematical models to assess the impact of ORI for vaccine-preventable diseases. Framework development involved (1) the assessment of impact metrics based on stakeholder interviews and literature reviews determining data availability and capacity to capture as model outcomes; (2) mapping investment in ORI elements to model parameters to define scenarios; (3) developing a system for engaging stakeholders and formulating model questions, performing analyses, and interpreting results; and (4) example applications for different settings and pathogens. The metrics identified as most useful were health impacts, economic impacts, and the risk of severe outbreaks. Scenario categories included investment in the response scale, response speed, and vaccine targeting. The framework defines four phases: (1) problem framing and data sourcing (identification of stakeholder needs, metrics, and scenarios); (2) model choice; (3) model implementation; and (4) interpretation and communication. The use of the framework is demonstrated by application to two outbreaks, measles in Papua New Guinea and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The framework is a systematic way to engage with stakeholders and ensure that an analysis is fit for purpose, makes the best use of available data, and uses suitable modelling methodology.

Financial Behavior in Personal Investment: Influence of Psychological Factors on Investment Decision

In the ever-evolving realm of financial markets, understanding the underlying psychological dynamics shaping investor behavior is paramount. Financial behavior refers to the choices and actions people make when managing their own cash across a range of investment vehicles, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate. It includes components that are vital in determining the results of investments, including risk tolerance, investment objectives, decision biases, emotions, and financial literacy. Achieving long-term investment success and financial security requires an understanding of and ability to control one's own financial behavior. An extensive research model has been painstakingly built to clarify the complex connections between these psychological variables and the process of making investing decisions. This study examines the impact of three psychological aspects on investment decisions made by 220 investors who trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE): information asymmetry, problem framing, and risk propensity. Effective investing strategies necessitate an awareness of the interplay between psychological biases and cognitive processes, as these aspects influence personal investment decisions. By using a quantitative research methodology, information was gathered by sending surveys to investors who were actively trading stocks on the BSE and NSE platforms. Regression analysis and correlation studies are two statistical analytic approaches that were used to investigate the connections between investing decisions and psychological aspects. The study's conclusions add to the corpus of knowledge by illuminating the complex dynamics of financial decision-making and the part played by psychological variables. Furthermore, the knowledge gained from this study has important ramifications for financial advisors, investors, and legislators that aim to improve investor welfare and encourage well-informed stock market decision-making.

Reframing the wicked problem of pre-harvest burning: A case study of Thailand's sugarcane

Pre-harvest sugarcane burning persists in many countries though there are policies prohibiting the practice. As problems related to sugarcane harvesting are complex, a thorough understanding of the problems for policy formulation is required. The objective of this study was to reanalyze or reframe problems of sugarcane harvesting and pre-harvest sugarcane burning. Concepts of wicked problems, practical reasoning and policy reframing were applied. The study used a participatory modeling approach to illustrate the case of Thailand. Wickedness was shown by complexity and uncertainties of factors intertwining with values related to adoption of harvesting methods; green mechanical, green manual and burnt manual. As timeliness of harvest was the top priority, the burnt method was considered more efficient. It was easier, faster, cheaper and more suitable under unfavorable circumstances for the green methods. The policy to reduce burnt-harvested sugarcane was not so effective and also led to the undesired ‘green but unclean’ method. To frame harvesting problems based on emissions of fine particulates (PM2.5) from sugarcane burning was not a good choice. Incomplete problem sense-making and poor problem frame were indicated. Most farmers were unable to associate sugarcane burning with environmental problems of PM2.5 (and also global warming/climate change) and livelihood impacts. Nevertheless, a larger concern over climate variations was perceived by a majority of farmers. Farmers who adapted relied primarily on green harvesting and the use of residues as trash blankets. Through policy reframing, inefficient green harvesting was seen as a better frame. The new frame enabled farmers linking agricultural practices to sustainability of environment, productivity and livelihoods in the context of climate change. Using participatory modeling for reframing policy problems in general and wicked problems in particular was shown to be powerful and contributing to originality.

Spatial–temporal hypergraph based on dual-stage attention network for multi-view data lightweight action recognition

For the problems of irrelevant frames and high model complexity in action recognition, we propose a Spatial–Temporal Hypergraph based on Dual-Stage Attention Network (STHG-DAN) for multi-view data lightweight action recognition. It includes two stages: Temporal Attention Mechanism based on Trainable Threshold (TAM-TT) and Hypergraph Convolution based on Dynamic Spatial–Temporal Attention Mechanism (HG-DSTAM). In the first stage, TAM-TT uses a learning threshold to extract keyframes from multi-view videos, with the multi-view data serving as a guarantee for providing more comprehensive information subsequently; In the second stage, HG-DSTAM divides the human joints into three parts: trunk, hand and leg to build spatial–temporal hypergraphs, extracts high-order features from spatial–temporal hypergraphs constructed of multi-view human body joints, inputs them into the dynamic spatial–temporal attention mechanism, and learns the intra frame correlation of multi-view data between the joint features of body parts, which can obtain the significant areas of action; We use multi-scale convolution operation and depth separable network, which can realize efficient action recognition with a few trainable parameters. We experiment on the NTU-RGB+D, NTU-RGB+D 120 and the imitating traffic police gesture dataset. The performance and accuracy of the model are better than the existing algorithms, effectively improving the machine and human body language interaction cognitive ability.

Responsibility and innovation for low waste and circular economy transitions: what roles for households?

ABSTRACT The need for waste policy to embrace CE principles through measures to avoid waste generation and improve recycling rates can be understood within the broader context of sustainability transitions. We analyze three Australian waste policies to understand how households are framed as framing policy actors. Using a governance rationalities framework inspired by Hajer (2005) and Dryzek’s (2013) work on environmental governance, we identified four discursive structures, i.e. four different problem frames with suggested solutions, measures and responsibilities. These problem frames reveal an expanding role for government and industry in waste management, alongside a more passive role for households. While anticipating that households will undertake more sorting and will reduce the amount of waste they generate, the policies lack a coherent conceptualization of the role of households as actors in circular economy transitions in Australia. Our analysis highlights and helps to understand the discrepancy between high-level CE and zero-waste policy ambitions and their implementation in practice. We conclude with suggestions on how waste policy could benefit from deliberative approaches that engage with agency for social innovation and transformation in norms and practices at the household scale.

Increasing Student Awareness of Complex Problems Through Systems Thinking: How (Re)Framing Can Lead to Identifying the Core Problem

Within global and interconnected societies, engineers need to embrace complexity and understand the importance of awareness of their choices in the problem definition process. In this practice paper, we propose a framework to increase students’ awareness of choices during problem definition, based on the integration of three frameworks: systems mapping, problem framing, and Cynefin framework. Through application of the frameworks students can identify important elements and interconnections within a system and frame the scenario around the core problem. We provide an example from an entrepreneurship course to illustrate how the proposed framework can increase awareness among engineering students and allow them to identify and respond to the core problem effectively. We conclude that this framework can help students broaden their understanding of complex systems and identify alternative core problems. This work also highlights the importance of recognizing that not all problems can be solved through engineering (technical) solutions.