Public Debate Research Articles

Regulatory Arrangement in Supporting The Restructuring of State-Owned Plantation Enterprises

The formation of a holdingholding to restructure the state-owned plantation industry cannot be separated from the government’s ability to control the country’s economic engine. Government Regulations Number 72 of 2014 and Number 72 of 2016 which were passed as legalizing the formation of BUMN holdingholding s have sparked controversy and public debate. The fundamental issue of this procedure is the Parent Company’s legal obligation to manage the Parent Company. In the relationship between parent companies and subsidiaries, the concept of limited liability presents its own problems. In addition, there is uncertainty regarding legal obligations to third parties. The research methodology is normative law which is supported and obtained from literature data. The findings of this study indicate that the use of the BUMN Law and Limited Liability Company Law as guidelines for managing Plantation BUMNs does not provide the business confidence that Plantation BUMNs need to grow and stay healthy. Considering that the business world continues to develop and the high need for group company management among business actors who carry out business development and expansion, adjustments to these two regulations are very important. The modern business paradigm has resulted in the consolidation of centralized operations in a way that drives growth. As a result, the formation of a holding companyholding company by the government is inappropriate if it is not preceded by changes to the Limited Liability Company Law which provides business certainty for established Plantation BUMNs.

A prescription model for vapes: the way we 'do' medicines policy in Australia.

On 2 May 2023, the Australian Federal Government announced a suite of reforms aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of the prescription model of regulation of vaping (or e-cigarette) products in Australia. These reforms are intended to protect Australians, particularly young people, from the harms of vaping and nicotine dependence. The ensuing public debate on the issue has often created the impression that the options under consideration are to either retain 'recently introduced' prescription regulation or to 'revert to' a retail supply approach. However, the sale of nicotine vapes by retailers such as tobacconists and convenience stores has never been lawful in Australia. The reforms do not seek to change the way nicotine vaping products are regulated, but rather to ensure that the existing prescription model can be effectively enforced and can function as originally intended. This paper describes the historical context and rationale for strengthening prescription regulation of vapes in this country.

Aboriginal Self‐determination, Land Rights, and Recognition in the Whitlam Era: Laying Groundwork for Power Sharing and Representation

The Whitlam Labor government (1972–75) is remembered for ushering in a new era in Indigenous affairs, with the move to “self‐determination”, abandoning the longstanding insistence on “assimilation”. The new government intended to deploy the Commonwealth's new legislative power established in the 1967 constitutional referendum to bring in a range of reforms, responding to consistent demands from Indigenous leaders, activists, and supporters through the previous decade. Whitlam's campaign speech promised anti‐discrimination legislation, provisions to allow Aboriginal communities to incorporate, and legislation of a system of land tenure. The government faced considerable political obstacles, ultimately curbing the ambitious reform agenda. Nevertheless, these initial efforts to conceptualise representation, recognition, and compensation laid important foundations for the current public debate about “Voice, Treaty, Truth”, following the Uluru Statement from the Heart. This paper explores self‐determination through the path‐breaking work of the Woodward Aboriginal Land Rights Commission and the establishment of well‐resourced land councils as authoritative and legitimate representatives of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. The Whitlam government's willingness to experiment with power‐sharing in the sensitive area of land ownership provided a valuable prototype for genuine engagement with First Nations people today, as Australia contemplates the failure of the constitutional referendum around a Voice to parliament.

Channel changes over the last 200 years: A meta data analysis on European rivers

AbstractThe combined analysis of past evolutionary trajectories of channel morphology and temporal patterns of driving factors is fundamental to understanding present river conditions, supporting river management and evaluating future changes. Rivers in Europe underwent important channel changes during the Anthropocene in response to changing natural drivers and anthropogenic pressures. A considerable number of papers have been published on this topic, in the last decades. In this study, a comprehensive meta‐analysis on channel changes during the last 200 years in Europe was performed, aiming to provide quantitative information on the intensity of changes, to highlight regional scale similarities and dissimilarities in evolutionary morphological trajectories and to discuss the main causes of such changes. Based on a review, 102 papers were selected, addressing 145 channel reaches flowing through five main mountain ranges (Iberians, Alps, Apennines, Balkans and Carpathians) in the southern and eastern parts of Europe. The results show that active channel narrowing (between 26% and 36% on average) and incision (between 1 and 2 m) prevailed in most rivers between the 1800s and the 1950s, although widening was documented in some rivers of the Alps and the Apennines. Most multi‐thread reaches maintained their pattern until the mid‐20th century. Active channel changes accelerated during the 1950s–1990s (or 2000s) period, with channel narrowing up to 60% and channel incision up to 14 m. Multi‐thread patterns strongly decreased in frequency, with anabranching channels disappearing and single‐thread patterns becoming predominant. The cumulative effect of multiple and concomitant human pressures (gravel mining, channelisation and damming) was identified as the main driving factor for these accelerated changes. These findings must feed the public debate about preventing alterations of river ecosystems—exerted by anthropic disturbances—in a context of rapid economic development, especially in river systems still poorly altered and thus preserving wide, active and heterogeneous fluvial corridors.

Exploring Transition Tensions in Public Opinion on the COP26 Coal Phase-out Deal for South Africa as Expressed on Facebook

ABSTRACT The 2021 COP26 meeting presented South Africa with an $8.5 billion deal to reduce its heavy reliance on coal, sparking a renewed public debate about transforming the country's coal-fired energy system to address emissions, energy deficits, and declining services. This paper examines public opinion on this important energy transition initiative as expressed on social media. While the use of social media platforms for public deliberation on policy matters is increasing in Africa, research exploring the African social media landscape in the context of energy transition is limited. This paper addresses this gap by qualitatively analysing 3,980 Facebook comments on 31 news posts related to the COP26 deal using sentiment and thematic approaches in ATLAS.ti 22. The findings reveal a prevalent negative sentiment and delegitimizing opinions that challenge the deal's credibility. Prominent topics within the discourse encompass concerns about corruption, distrust in public institutions, and perceptions of foreign involvement. Although some motivating factors supporting the deal emerged, negative sentiments and viewpoints dominated the discourse. Studying symbolic practices related to energy visions in this underexplored Global South context yields valuable insights into public opinions on energy transitions, highlighting the link between governance institutions and societal attitudes toward energy transition.

Printing Ochre

The discipline of geology was relatively new at the start of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in the late 1800s, but through the organisation of an efficient government bureau and the voice of its printed page, it became a dominant perspective in the way generations of citizens relate to and view the natural world, human and nonhuman, life and nonlife. I choose to position my press in direct opposition to the maintenance of these dualisms. I will argue the critical role of print in facilitating USGS domination of terrestrial beings in a practical sense, yet beyond the methods and reach of publication, I believe the products of the USGS mediate our understanding of and relation to these beings. Instead, design practices can be directed towards changing attitudes and understanding between humans and nonhumans. Monika Bakke argues for the importance of artistic endeavours in addressing our collective futurity: Drawing on both life’s mineral origins and its key role in shaping mineral species, artists are turning to technoscience in order to develop, outside expert circles, better understanding of physical, chemical, and biological environments, not just of the geological past but also those to come in the future. ... Yet, their methodologies are specific to art which offers creative ontological and ethical contributions to public debate. (2017, p. 43) I am developing a design research paradigm relating to ochre as an epistemic tool for human and nonhuman intersubjectivity and ontological reconciliation or reunification between life and nonlife. I model my practice after a simplification of the USGS: to survey (observe, describe, collect) and to report (archive, document, record), with some critical variance in method and outcomes.

Taking sides: Corporate social responsibility and political ideology

AbstractIn the United States and other countries, large private firms are increasingly more likely to take public political stances on controversial issues. Firms behave as ideological actors when they take sides in large public debates on social and economic issues. These stances may involve public speech, changes in the terms of service, or in internal reorganization and intrafirm actions. Despite the increase in firms' political actions, firms' ideological orientations remain unexamined. To answer this question, we collect corporate social responsibility statements from Fortune 1000 firms. Using semisupervised topic models, we identify topics that reflect stances on environmental and social issues. We then examine if firms are more likely to take stances on political issues due to pragmatic or ideological factors. We find that while pragmatic considerations play a role, firms' political stances are more driven by the ideological orientation of employees and managers. This research contributes a novel measure of firm ideology and sheds new light on the determinants of corporate political activity.

Public services provided after Earthquake 2023 in the Context of Central Government-Local Administration Relations: Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Case

Central government-local administration relations are one of the most problematic mechanisms of our administrative history in structural and functional terms. This study will examine the dynamics of central government and local administration relations from a public policy standpoint, emphasizing the importance of collaborative policymaking and cooperation between the two levels of government. AFAD (disaster and emergency management presidency) faced criticism during the February 2023 earthquake in Türkiye sparking a public debate on the relationship between central and local administrations. The study will focus on Mersin, one of the provinces most affected by the recent earthquakes, and the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality. The Metropolitan Municipality's response to the earthquake in Mersin and the public services provided during the aftermath will be analyzed. The role assumed by Mersin Metropolitan Municipality in the context of disaster management is studied to firstly reveal the potential of local administration in terms of disaster management and secondly to show its relations with the central government. In the study, the analysis of the aid provided to earthquake victims will be based on the data of AFAD and Mersin Metropolitan Municipality. The qualitative analysis of the obtained data will reveal the potential of the central government-local administration relationship with structural and functional mechanisms.

“It’s a Balancing Act”: Contradictory Ambitions of Journalistic Media in Addressing Harassment in Sport

Over the last five years, the Finnish sports media has played a key role in disseminating information and stimulating debate on gender equity, sexual harassment, and the structures and culture that perpetuate the latter in sport. Triggered by the Me Too movement, the handling of harassment cases has shifted from the private domain to the public debate in the media, making it political. In this article, I study the perception of the politicisation of harassment within sports media. The article utilises interviews with 16 Finnish sports journalists who have been reporting on harassment cases in national and regional media houses. In the thematic analysis, the facilitators and constraints of harassment reporting are examined in relation to the prevailing power structures, culture, and attitudes in the professional sports environment. While the interviews highlight the changing face of sports journalism and, within it, an ambition to move from entertainment and performance reporting to socio-politically critical journalism, the article also highlights the problematic contradictions embedded in the ambition within sports media to address harassment in sport. The findings of this research suggest that when studying the outcomes of news reporting, it is important to pay attention to news production processes and the gendered aspects that influence them.

The Role of the Public Sphere of Science in Fostering Public Trust in Science in Ukraine

Introduction. The war in Ukraine has created a challenging environment for scholarly research, as many researchers and institutions have found themselves in constrained conditions and resources. Furthermore, there has been a decline in public trust in institutions in Ukraine, including the scholarly community.Problem Statement. In Ukraine, public trust in science has been consistently low in recent years. This may have negative consequences for the development of science and technology in the country, as well as for public policy decisions that rely on scientifi c evidence. Therefore, there is a need to foster public trust in the science of Ukraine.Purpose. The purpose of this research is to identify the key tools and technologies of the public sphere of science, which can contribute to building trust in science among the Ukrainian public.Material and Methods. There have been used the methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison, structural, functional, system analysis, and integration.Results. The importance of the role of the public sphere of science in shaping public trust in scholarly research in Ukraine has been established. The main tools and technologies in the public sphere of science that can be used to engage the public and to enhance trust in science in Ukraine have been analyzed. The role of social media platforms, scientifi c webinars, scientifi c platforms, and scientifi c festivals in this process and their potential for engaging the public in scientifi c knowledge and research have been discussed.Conclusions. The importance of involving the public in scientifi c decision-making processes and engagement through organizing public discussions and debates has been concluded. Another crucial step is ensuring open access to scientifi c information and promoting greater transparency. Collaboration among research organizations, the public, the government, and other stakeholders is also vital to the development of eff ective scientifi c policies. The use of innovation technologies and digital tools facilitates interaction between science and the public. Ensuring access to scientifi c knowledge and scientifi c education contributes to increasing trust in science.

Recounting Mussolini: the narrative of Fascism between memory and popular culture

ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, softened and positive portrayals of Fascism have become established in public debate in Italy. A key feature in this process of defascistization has been the reduction of Fascism to the cult of the Duce. This article examines how this narrative has emerged, focusing not on the politics of memory but instead on the role of the culture industry, public debate and the media. It examines three distinct but related phenomena: the ‘Mussolinization’ of Fascism in public narrative as promoted by television and other mass media; the transformation of the electoral system and political language, marked specifically by the shift from the centrality of the collective to that of authoritative and charismatic individuals; the prominent place of the figure of the hero in the popular culture.

Cosmopolitan underworld: opiate refinement in inter-war Istanbul

Abstract The Turkish government’s suppression of private heroin factories and its monopolization of opium exports brought the state into conflict with a large numbers of Istanbul residents who sought to profit from the lucrative trade in opiates. Sites of clandestine drug production spread across the urban and suburban landscape, inspiring public alarm and new policing measures. The article examines the human networks behind these production sites, investigating how they utilized the diversity of their members and contacts in the search for profit and the evasion of the state, and how this diversity was interpreted in press and public debate.

Journalists and scientists together: the public problem of science disinformation in Brazil

This article analyzes the public problem of scientific disinformation in the Brazilian media covering the Covid-19 pandemic. A content analysis of 226 articles addressing disinformation as a problem was conducted in a quality newspaper (“Folha de S. Paulo”), a popular website (Metrópoles) and a science journalism magazine (“Pesquisa Fapesp”). The results suggest that the public debate has focused on spreading fake news during the Pandemic and its negative impact on public health. In addition, two opposing discourses, one populist and the other based on the scientific community and institutional normality, structured the public problem of science and disinformation in Brazil.

A medical language for climate discourse

Innovative communication theories propose that we understand messages not by decoding their meaning but by inferring what speakers intend to express. However scientifically accurate the messages climate scientists have put forward, the appropriate inferences may not have been drawn by most of their audiences. One of the main reasons may be that scientific metaphors allow for multiple interpretations, yet, because of their expressive power, they impact discourses disproportionately. Climate communication took a path of euphemistic scientific expressions partially due to the noble scientific norms of self-restraint and modesty, but the hidden implications of climate jargon distort the way non-experts think about the heating climate. Consequently, the current climate jargon hinders informed decisions about Earth’s life support systems. Changing the softened expressions of climate language, from the cool of basic research to the heat and compassion of medical contexts, may allow for more productive public and political debates – which may lead to more powerful policy solutions. Speaking and thinking in medical terms could turn the perception of worst case scenarios from hypotheticals or doomism to life-saving interventions. We typically start reducing fever before it gets out of control, let alone crosses a threshold of potential death. Instead of putting on a positivist mascara, a calm and serious discussion of safety measures in medical terms, for example, talking about climatic tipping cascades as metastases, could foster a more honest evaluation of the required legal and regulatory steps to keep our home planet habitable.

To Retire or Not to Retire? A Comprehensive Examination of Retirement Decision Dynamics in Italy

The concept of active aging has become central to the public debate in many Western countries, given the increasing aging of the population and the future challenges associated with it. This phenomenon is tightly intertwined with choices regarding the retirement period, which can be postponed for different reasons by individuals in a society. The purpose of this paper is to understand the personal and family characteristics that influence future choices about retirement date in Italy. Utilizing data provided by the Bank of Italy in the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), a logistic regression is performed to observe the impact of different covariates on the hypothesized retirement date of individuals close to retirement, i.e., over the age of 50 who are still in working status. The results show that the decision to delay retirement has increased in recent years, and is influenced by personal (e.g., matrimonial status), work, and economic factors. In addition, these factors have different impacts between males and females.

Interpreting Different Narratives about Land Services and Land Use Economics of Common Agricultural Policy

Since 2023, a new format of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been implemented in Europe. Market forces alone cannot guarantee land services, which can be described as flows of goods and services from ecosystems to human systems as functions of nature. Market forces also cannot ensure food security everywhere and at all times, so deliberate measures should incentivize farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices and maintain necessary skills and resources. This study identifies, quantifies, and interprets four narratives that are typical in the approach to food security and the public debate about the land services in the CAP Strategic Plans: (A) provision of land services within the Pillar 1 economics; (B) small vs. large farms; (C) direct payments in comparison with rural development; and (D) choices by the old and new member states. Participatory processes, descriptive statistics, and partial component analysis were used in terms of the methodology. The key finding is that the importance attached to eco-schemes varies among member states, although a majority dedicate approximately 25% of the Pillar 1 budget to them. We showed that small-scale farming countries move resources from Pillar 2 to strengthen direct payments. In contrast, affluent countries with robust agricultural structures can afford to reinforce Pillar 2 rural development through transfers from direct payments. To support small-scale and medium farms, appropriate support requires a combination of several measures, including the sizable hectare payment in Pillar 1 and farmer-oriented agri-environmental measures.

Do wolves control their own numbers? Understanding and updating the long debate

The population dynamics of animals involve a complex interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic regulation, characterized as population self‐regulation, encompasses mechanisms that moderate growth rates before reaching maximum food‐dependent densities. Conversely, extrinsically regulated populations are constrained by environmental variables such as food availability, predation, and disease. What regulates wolf populations has been debated for decades, with most publications concluding that wolves are extrinsically regulated, despite evidence of intrinsic mechanisms. This paper summarizes one perspective from a debate at the 'Wolves Across Borders' conference in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2023. Since this paper is a summary of a public debate, the paper is neither a review nor research paper, rather a research history and a recommendation on how the long‐term disagreement might be resolved. Wolf population regulation is likely an interplay between both intrinsic and extrinsic factors which is best studied longitudinally by monitoring one population through time.

British Columbia’s Autism Funding Policies

British Columbia’s Autism Funding Policies

A Drop of Epistemic Humility

Amin Ghaziani interviews Charles Fain Lehman, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor of City Journal, about the value-add of conservative viewpoints in public debate.

People’s beliefs about pronouns reflect both the language they speak and their ideologies.

People’s beliefs about pronouns reflect both the language they speak and their ideologies.