Public Advocacy Efforts Research Articles

Construyendo Conexiones Para Los Niños: Environmental Justice, Reproductive Feminicidio, and Coalitional Possibility in the Borderlands

ABSTRACT Familias Unidas del Chamizal is a community organization in El Paso, TX that works to increase awareness around the issues of education, environmental racism, development, and public health. In 2019, the El Paso Independent School District launched an initiative to close several schools due to low enrollment, forcing students in Barrio Chamizal to relocate to Frederick Douglass Elementary, which borders a designated industrial zone and is surrounded by two major recycling plants. In response, Familias Unidas has organized to reverse the decision and call attention to the discriminatory practices of the school district. We take the public advocacy efforts of Familias Unidas as an instrumental case study to trace the intersections of health communication, Latinx communication, and environmental racism along the U.S.–Mexico border. Utilizing an intersectional borderlands health communication approach, we draw on publicly available texts to trace the argumentative strategies employed by Familias Unidas to mobilize community members. Familias Unidas rhetorically constructs a public health crisis in the borderlands by connecting the school closures to larger coalitional struggles concerning the environment, citizenship, race/ethnicity, language, and class. We identify three rhetorical strategies – familia, comunidad, and (in)justicia – employed by Familias Unidas to shape their public argument(s).

Confronting Humanitarian Insecurity

Violence against aid workers seeking to bring assistance and protection to vulnerable people amid ongoing armed conflicts, disasters or other crises has fuelled growing concern over how to protect the humanitarian mission. Based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 118 practitioners involved in humanitarian operations and security management, this article considers three under-analysed prongs of grappling with humanitarian insecurity. The first three sections, in turn, examine the pursuit of accountability at both the domestic and international levels, public advocacy efforts and confidential negotiation. The fourth section links the article’s assessment of these three modes of responding to humanitarian insecurity to the broader discourse on security management in the humanitarian sector. Specifically, this section revisits and reimagines the security triangle, a framework that has played an influential role in shaping discourse on security management in humanitarian operations. The final section offers concluding remarks.

Healthcare Reform Repeal Efforts in the United States in 2017: An Inquiry into Public Advocacy Efforts by Key Interest Groups

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was subjected to repeated repeal and replace efforts in the United States Congress in 2017. Attempts to repeal and replace the law failed, but penalties for not complying with its mandate that individuals purchase health insurance were removed in tax legislation passed late in the year and administrative actions taken by President Trump yielded additional concerns about the stability of the law’s reform approach and the expanded health insurance access that it created. This article explores public advocacy efforts by key interest groups from three major policy sectors—health providers, the insurance industry, and the business community—that had served as an “axis of opposition” to past American healthcare reform efforts. It identifies resource and incentive policy feedback effects that appear likely to influence these groups due to design features of the ACA and assesses whether patterns of advocacy efforts in 2017 are consistent with what might be expected if these design features had their predicted effects. Our assessment reveals patterns of interest group advocacy that are consistent with what might be expected to arise from resource and incentive based policy feedback effects, and interest group political dynamics that differ from what was in place prior to passage of the ACA. It also reveals advocacy patterns that are not well explained by resource and incentive based policy feedback effects, and—in so doing—yields insights that are relevant to the design of policy reforms and future research.

Governing Boring Apocalypses: A new typology of existential vulnerabilities and exposures for existential risk research

In recent years, the study of existential risks has explored a range of natural and man-made catastrophes, from supervolcano eruption to nuclear war, and from global pandemics to potential risks from misaligned AI. These risks share the prospect of causing outright human extinction were they to occur. In this approach, such identified existential risks are frequently characterised by relatively singular origin events and concrete pathways of harm which directly jeopardise the survival of humanity, or undercut its potential for long-term technological progress. While this approach aptly identifies the most cataclysmic fates which may befall humanity, we argue that catastrophic ‘existential outcomes’ may likely arise from a broader range of sources and societal vulnerabilities, and through the complex interactions of disparate social, cultural, and natural processes—many of which, taken in isolation, might not be seen to merit attention as a global catastrophic, let alone existential, risk.This article argues that an emphasis on mitigating the hazards (discrete causes) of existential risks is an unnecessarily narrow framing of the challenge facing humanity, one which risks prematurely curtailing the spectrum of policy responses considered. Instead, it argues existential risks constitute but a subset in a broader set of challenges which could directly or indirectly contribute to existential consequences for humanity. To illustrate, we introduce and examine a set of existential risks that often fall outside the scope of, or remain understudied within, the field. By focusing on vulnerability and exposure rather than existential hazards, we develop a new taxonomy which captures factors contributing to these existential risks. Latent structural vulnerabilities in our technological systems and in our societal arrangements may increase our susceptibility to existential hazards. Finally, different types of exposure of our society or its natural base determine if or how a given hazard can interface with pre-existing vulnerabilities, to trigger emergent existential risks.We argue that far from being peripheral footnotes to their more direct and immediately terminal counterparts, these “Boring Apocalypses” may well prove to be the more endemic and problematic, dragging down and undercutting short-term successes in mitigating more spectacular risks. If the cardinal concern is humanity’s continued survival and prosperity, then focussing academic and public advocacy efforts on reducing direct existential hazards may have the paradoxical potential of exacerbating humanity’s indirect susceptibility to such outcomes. Adopting law and policy perspectives allow us to foreground societal dimensions that complement and reinforce the discourse on existential risks.

High on Attractiveness, Low on Nutrition: An Over-Time Comparison of Advertising Food Products on Israeli Television

ABSTRACTThis content analysis examines Israeli television food advertising. It compares 2008–2009 and 2012–2013, two periods immediately before and several years after regulatory, educational, and public-advocacy efforts have been advanced to raise awareness of and tackle the television–obesity link. Advertisements were drawn from a composite week sample aired on Israeli broadcast channels from 4:00 p.m. until midnight in each of the two periods. Nearly a quarter of ads were for food products, even after a significant drop over the years. The most common food categories included candies and sweetened drinks, whereas fruit and vegetables were among the least common products advertised. The most prevalent central message in food advertisements was that the product makes for an economically sensible purchase, with a much lower focus on the health qualities of the food products. Food advertisements were characterized by a very short duration and an increased reliance on emotional, rather than cognitive, appeal, especially in ads for low-nutrient foods. A significant increase was observed in 2012–2013 in the reliance on thin models in food advertisements, and these were most often associated with high levels of physical attractiveness, promoting the thin ideal. Findings are discussed in light of theory, previous research conducted worldwide, and audience effects. Implications are addressed for health and media industry regulation efforts.

Problem solving for breast health care delivery in low and middle resource countries (LMCs): consensus statement from the Breast Health Global Initiative

International collaborations like the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) can help low and middle income countries (LMCs) to establish or improve breast cancer control programs by providing evidence-based, resource-stratified guidelines for the management and control of breast cancer. The Problem Solving Working Group of the BHGI 2010 Global Summit met to develop a consensus statement on problem-solving strategies addressing breast cancer in LMCs. To better assess breast cancer burden in poorly studied populations, countries require accurate statistics regarding breast cancer incidence and mortality. To better identify health care system strengths and weaknesses, countries require reasonable indicators of true health system quality and capacity. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, countries should formulate cancer control strategies to identify both system inefficiencies and patient barriers. Patient navigation programs linked to public advocacy efforts feed and strengthen functional early detection and treatment programs. Cost-effectiveness research and implementation science are tools that can guide and expand successful pilot programs.