Reform Period Research Articles

Educational Differences in Fertility Among Female Same-Sex Couples in Finland.

Same-sex couples increasingly often live in legally recognized unions and have children as a couple. The accessibility of parenthood, however, depends on intersecting contextual and couple-level characteristics. Using Finnish register data on female same-sex couples who registered their partnership in 2002-2016, a period of important legal reforms regarding same-sex parenthood, we explore how education and the existence of prior children predict childbearing within the same-sex partnership. Female couples' likelihood of having a child within five years of registering a partnership increased from 20% to 45% over the observation window. This increase was not universal. The likelihood increased from 24% to 55% for couples with a tertiary education but decreased from 27% to 9% for couples with primary and lower secondary education. Couples with the highest level of education and no prior children born before the partnership were the most likely female couples to have a child. Educational differences in childbearing were only marginally explained by couples' income levels. The results highlight how intersectional factors shape female couples' fertility behavior. Intensifying educational differences in couples' fertility might reflect changes in couple-level characteristics and institutional barriers to childbearing that merit more attention.

Tracking a Decade of Development of Early Childhood Care and Education in Kazakhstan, 2006–2015

The study employed data from the 2006, 2010–2011 and 2015 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys to assess the decade of early childhood care and education (ECCE) development in Kazakhstan. Enrollment grew from 15% to 60% but remained lower than the targeted rate of 75%. The effects of the wealth gradient and language disparities on enrollment were reduced significantly. Concurrently, regional disparities in enrollment increased during the reform period and the child’s age became a significant precursor of enrollment over time. Parents opted to enroll relatively older children to ECCE and this trend has been shown to become more prominent over time.

Teachers as macro curriculum makers: Mandate and influence in the Norwegian LK20

AbstractThis study investigates teacher participation in Norway's most recent national curriculum reform. During the reform period, teachers were invited to take part in macro curriculum making as members of national curriculum committees. In policy documents, teacher participation is emphasised as key to the legitimacy of the curriculum. In this study, what the teachers were expected to contribute to the process and the extent to which they were able to influence the final national curriculum are examined. Through interviews and document analysis, the study investigates teachers' mandate as macro curriculum makers and their perception of their own influence on the final curriculum. The findings show that the teachers' mandate is unclear and that official documents are vague regarding teachers' influence. The interviewed teachers believed they had some degree of influence on the final curriculum; however, they were largely excluded from the final decision‐making, which may have impacted their influence. The study contributes to the field of curriculum research by illuminating the complexity of participatory approaches and by discussing what teachers can contribute to national reform work. Implications for future reform include the need for clearly defined roles, as well as transparency and accountability in decision‐making on behalf of central authorities.

Economic Decentralization and High-Quality Urban Development: Perspective from Local Effect and Spatial Spillover in 276 Prefecture-Level Cities in China

The advancement of high-quality urban development is of paramount importance for the enhancement of sustainable development and competitiveness at the city level. The economic decentralization system represents a pivotal institutional driving force in this regard. This paper examines the impact of decentralization on the high-quality development of Chinese cities. It constructs the high-quality urban development index (HUDI) through the entropy weight method and analyzes the mechanisms and spatial correlations between fiscal and financial decentralization on the high-quality development of cities through the establishment of panel and spatial regression models. The findings indicate that fiscal and financial decentralization exert a positive influence on urban high-quality development. However, the two forms of decentralization do not exhibit synergies but rather exert an inhibitory effect on one another. Furthermore, decentralization has a considerable positive spatial spillover effect on urban high-quality development. Heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that the impact of the economic decentralization system varies across different regions, reform periods, and cities with varying administrative levels. The robustness test of this paper provides further evidence of the reliability of the research findings. This paper offers theoretical support and policy recommendations for optimizing economic decentralization systems and promoting high-quality urban development.

Appealing for Local Control and Spatial Inequality: Reforming Governance and Development Rationalities in Southern California

Several limitations have thwarted the implementation of California housing law for over fifty years. This paper sheds light on the evolution of municipal-state relations at a period of reform by analyzing the contentious implementation of state housing law in Orange County, California, a region of concentrated affluence. Systemic privilege has historically allowed some jurisdictions to influence decision-making at higher levels, skewing housing policy and planning outcomes. Nonetheless, and despite contention between different government levels and localities, the leverage of reactionary local politics is weakening.

‘We’ve Done Our Bit’: Post-COVID Experiences of Precarious Privilege Among Western International School Teachers in Shanghai

In this article, we consider how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected migration experiences and decisions among transnationally mobile Western international school teachers in China. International school teachers are among the most numerous groups of Western ‘expats’ in the country, arriving from the beginning of China’s ‘Reform period’. Drawing on exploratory interviews with international school teachers, we examine experiences of precarious privilege against the backdrop of COVID-19 lockdowns. We analyse our participants’ decisions about onward migration or permanence in China. In spite of evidence showing erosion of privilege during the pandemic, international school teachers remain largely insulated from its impact due to the privileged nature of their employment. Of greater significance was the impact of the Shanghai lockdown on the participants’ mobility and emotions, which proved the catalyst for two of the three participants to return to the UK.

PSİXİ İNKİŞAF LƏNGİMƏSİNİN ƏSAS XARAKTERİSTİKASI

Mental development delay is being studied both as a special and a general pedagogical is¬sue in the country. It is a complex problem with various causes, clinical symptoms, and psychological and pedagogical manifestations. Therefore, in the period of educational reforms, comprehensive research on mental development delay in accordance with the "Law on Special Education" is highly relevant and necessary. Over the past two decades, the statistics on changes in children's psycho-emotional development have increased tenfold. According to this data, delays in speech development hinder cognitive development (leading to mental-speech developmental delays), or conversely, congenital mental and neurological conditions cause speech development issues.

Strengthening regulation for medical products in Tanzania: An assessment of regulatory capacity development, 1978-2020.

Improving medicines regulation can lead to better population health, but how this process works in low- and middle-income countries remains underexplored. Tanzania's pharmaceutical sector is often cited as a successful example of a well-functioning regulatory system in a developing country, attributed to the work of the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA), now the Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devices Authority (TMDA). This raises the question: how was this regulatory capacity developed, and what lessons can other countries learn from Tanzania's experience? This paper analyzes changes in Tanzania's pharmaceutical regulation over three periods of significant sectoral reform. A desk review was conducted of Tanzania's policies, laws, regulations, guidelines, procedures, and institutional reports. The study reveals that Tanzania's regulatory capacity improved significantly through targeted reforms that addressed challenges in key regulatory areas. The three key periods examined are: 1) The separation of medicines regulation from food safety (1978-2003), 2) The expansion of regulatory domains and the establishment of a semi-autonomous regulatory agency (2003-2011), and 3) The expanded role of the Pharmacy Council to include premises regulation (2011-2020). The development of a well-functioning regulatory system in Tanzania resulted from advancements in four key areas: 1) The evolution of a legal regulatory framework, 2) Strong stakeholder engagement, 3) Continuous capacity building, and 4) Effective organizational leadership. Tanzania's regulatory system has evolved from being relatively ineffective to leading regional harmonization efforts in East Africa. This progress was not linear, requiring sustained effort, collaboration, and support from key development partners such as the Global Fund, WHO, and UNDP. Future efforts to enhance regulatory effectiveness should focus on creating adaptive systems that respond to changing needs, rather than solely prescriptive functions.

Constitutional Court Decision No.60/Puu-XXII/2024 Protects the Constitutional Rights of Citizens and Political Parties in Simultaneous Regional Elections in the Regions

Since Indonesia's establishment and independence, the process of filling the seats or positions of Regional Heads has changed many times, starting from the Old Order era, the New Order, and the reform period. These changes are actually in accordance with the needs of the times and not motivated by the interests of maintaining power. The decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) Number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 is right for now. At least it saves democracy from the cartel politics being played by the political elites in the country. The Constitutional Court's decision, which changed the threshold to resemble or almost the same as the requirements for individual candidates, opened the faucet for competition to become even more alive. This includes guaranteeing the constitutional rights of non-parliamentary political parties (without seats) to be able to nominate candidates for Regional Heads who were originally unable to as specified in Article 40 of Law 10 of 2016 concerning Pilkada. However, for the sustainability of democracy in the future, the author views that this decision is not optimal or still leaves problems. In the future, the implementation or application of a threshold or minimum requirement of support for the nomination of candidates for Regional Heads and even the President is no longer appropriate. In the future, an open nomination system should be applied, in which all political parties participating in the elections that pass the KPU verification are automatically entitled to propose candidates for Regional Heads. Some countries that adhere to the Presidential system do not recognize the term threshold. America, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and Kyrgyzstan.

Governmental strategies for municipal amalgamations: evidence from 24 European countries

ABSTRACT For several decades, European governments have pursued amalgamations of local governments, mainly to improve municipal service provision, efficiency and governing capacities. Some reforms resulted in comprehensive territorial restructuring; others had little impact. This study investigates the strategies and policy tools European governments implemented to achieve municipal amalgamations. I propose a new three-fold typology of reform strategies and analyse the policy instruments used in each strategy throughout the reform periods, using comparative evidence on 29 amalgamation reforms implemented by central and regional European governments since 2000. I assess the outcomes of each strategy and discuss the findings’ implications for multi-level reform governance.

Ownership Society of the Proletariat

One big puzzle in China’s market reform is how the government maintained popular support during the rapid socioeconomic transformation. This article argues that while the market transition aggravated economic inequality, the housing privatization reform of the late 1990s, in which public housing was sold at deeply discounted prices, provided a much-needed welfare benefit to the urban residents before a functioning welfare system was established. Using survey data collected in Beijing during the period of housing privatization reform, this study finds that urban residents who purchased public housing reported higher evaluations of China’s market reform and were more satisfied with government performance. The effect was stronger among SOE blue-collar workers, lower-income earners, and those without social insurance. Further analysis shows that the purchase of public housing had a long-lasting effect on shaping pro-market policy preferences among these former proletariats. These findings suggest that housing privatization contributed to a widely dispersed coalition that supported the government’s market-oriented policies, serving as a source of political legitimacy during the period of dramatic changes.

RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE IN CHANGING INDONESIA: The Political Struggle and Movement of Hidayatullah

This article seeks to endeavors and strategies of an Islamic organization, Hidayatullah, to survive in changing political regimes in the New Order to Reformation period of Indonesia. It was established as an Islamic educational and dakwah (Islamic proselytizing) institution in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, in 1973. Despite socio-political changes in the country, it has expanded to several provinces in Indonesia which transformed it to become the largest Islamic educational institution with 402 branches of Islamic schools. The organization focuses its activities on Islamic education and dakwah through various ways including printed media such as Suara Hidayatullah magazine, distributed weekly to its branches, mosques, and schools. Based on a literature review of Suara Hidayatullah magazine and interviews with Hidayatullah prominent figures, this article delves into the struggles and movement of Hidayatullah through its dynamics and transformation in socio-political changes in Indonesia. This article argued that in political dynamics and transformation within Hidayatullah organization show the resistance and resilience to survive in the socio-political crisis of Suharto’s New Order era (1966-1998), which discriminated against Islam as a political ideology and in the aftermath of reformation. One of the strategies to comply with the political repressions is to declare Hidayatullah as an Islamic organization like Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah in 2000. This transformation process proves Hidayatullah’s strategic foresight and adaptability in socio-cultural and political changes.

Институциональная трансформация политики занятости Китая в условиях рыночных преобразований: ретроспективный анализ

During the period of market reform and economic opening up, China's employment policy has undergone profound institutional changes. Since 1978, in the process of building a socialist market economy with Chinese specifics, there has been a large-scale institutional transformation of the state policy of distributing the total labor force of society across territories, industries and enterprises into a policy of supporting employment through state regulation of the labor market, improving the education system and creating the institution of social protection of workers. Four stages of institutional transformation of China's economic employment policy have been identified. For more than 40 years of reform and gradual improvement over the centralized distribution of labor force, the employment policy by now organically combines the market mechanism with an effective system of state regulation of employment. It is substantiated that institutional changes in China were implemented purposefully, providing a gradualist replacement of the centrally planned distribution of labor force in the prereform economy by a labor market with sufficiently effective state regulation with gradual supplementation and expansion of successful rules. The impact of institutional changes on the structure of employment in rural areas is analyzed, as well as the emergence of new challenges that are associated with adaptation to the new economic system.

The Impact of Meritocracy on Higher Education: A Perspective from College Admissions Policies in Mainland China

This study examines the impact of meritocracy on higher education in mainland China, focusing on university admission policies. Since the reform and opening-up period, Chinas economic and educational advancements have increasingly emphasized elitism, particularly in allocating university admission slots through mechanisms like the Gaokao. The analysis, conducted from historical and contemporary perspectives, reveals that while elitism has optimized the distribution of educational resources, it has also deepened social inequalities. Despite their intent to promote fairness, policies such as the provincial quota system and independent admissions have widened regional and urban-rural disparities in educational resources. Furthermore, government initiatives like targeted poverty alleviation and regional preferential policies have had limited success in addressing these disparities. The study concludes that while elitism has centralized high-quality educational resources, it has hindered upward social mobility, especially for students from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds, highlighting the need for comprehensive reforms to achieve educational equity and social justice.

Stone Altars, Wooden Tables, Silver Chalices, Unleavened Hosts, and Plain Bread: The Long Reformation of the Eucharist’s Materiality in the Pays de Vaud (1400–1600)

Recent scholarship on the late medieval Pays de Vaud has allowed for a better understanding of the Reformation (1536) in this region, revealing it as a period marked not only by ruptures but also by significant adaptations and continuities. This article employs a trans-periodic approach to explore the material culture of the Eucharist, tracing its developments across the late medieval and Reformation periods. Key findings include the transition from stone altars to wooden communion tables, the contested continuity in the substance and shape of chalices, and the gradual shift from unleavened hosts to plain bread. These changes highlight a complex interplay of theological and practical concerns. The study provides a nuanced perspective on the Reformation in the Pays de Vaud, emphasizing the ongoing influence of medieval ecclesiastical reforms and the gradual nature of liturgical transformations. This analysis underscores the importance of material culture in understanding religious and cultural shifts during this pivotal period.

LECTURE #1. FROM SOCRATES TO MILTON: THE FORMATION OF THE BASIC CONCEPTUAL IDEAS OF FREEDOM

The lecture is devoted to the analysis of the use of the concept of «freedom» in different periods of the formation of European civilization: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation period. The role in understanding the category of «freedom» of such thinkers as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, Dante and Vico, Machiavelli and Montaigne, Guicciardini and Rinuccini, Hugo Grotius and Martin Luther, Montaigne and Milton is shown. The existing definitions of the concept of «freedom» are analyzed.

The transition to direct mayoral elections in clientelistic environments: Causal public spending and service delivery effects

We examine the impact of the transition to direct mayoral elections on district spending and household public service access in Indonesia during a period of momentous national democratic reform. We leverage the arguably exogenous timing of direct local elections to specify a staggered difference-in-differences model, which we estimate using the latest methods to plausibly identify causal effects. We find that the transition to direct elections led to a consistent and large decline in capital spending in both pre- and post-election years. We also determine that the transition resulted in a moderate decrease in household service access in the post-election period. Pre-election capital spending impacts are a function of both general disruptions associated with the transition and emerging clientelism. Service access effects are completely explained by the relative extent of clientelism across districts. We conclude that the local democratic transition in Indonesia had a mostly negative impact on key spending and service outcomes, at least in the short-run and for those districts in which clientelistic practices were especially pronounced.

Solutions to Improve Quality of Physical Education for Students of Universities in Vietnam

This article aims to find solutions to accelerate the quality of physical education (PE) for students at universities of Vietnam based on theoretical and practical research on bettering the PE quality in the period of comprehensive educational reform and surveying the status quo’ of PE quality assessment of students at universities under the current curriculum. The study employs the methods of document analysis and synthesis, discussion interview, pedagogical test, sociological investigation and statistical mathematical on SPSS 22.0 software. The results obtained by research, case studies and surveys on 1268 students and 40 PE experts from 03 universities of Vietnam: Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, Tan Trao University and Hung Vuong University posit that students' PE performance is influenced by various subjective and objective factors, thereby emphasizing that to further the PE quality, learning outcomes and movement activities, universities are required to focus on innovative solutions in competency-centered approach for students. The article proposes 03 groups of solutions, including: Group 1: Solutions on extracurricular programs; Group 2: Solutions on innovation of teaching methods; Group 3: Solutions on mobilizing social capitals for facilities and equipment. These solutions gained great consensus and scientific significance on the research subjects.

Dynamics of Cultural Landscape on Idjen Boulevard as an Icon of Heritage Street Corridor in Malang City - Indonesia

The dynamic development of the city has brought about significant physical and environmental changes in Malang City, impacting the increasingly blurred identity of heritage areas. One such area is Idjen Boulevard, representing an icon of the heritage road corridor in Malang City. To comprehend the evolving nature of these heritage areas, it is essential to conduct studies documenting their past conditions and dynamics across various historical periods: the Colonial period, the Old Order period (the beginning of Indonesian independence), the New Order period, and the Reformation period. This comprehensive approach aims to understand the changes that occurred in each time periodization within each zone/road segment. These insights are crucial for determining future development control steps through targeted regulations. The research employs the Interpretive Historical Urban Landscape method, focusing on thirteen components that constitute the Cultural Landscape. This method involves analyzing the results of observations, both from literature and field sources, supported by tools such as CAD Mapper, Google Earth, Google Street View, GISTARU (an interactive urban spatial detail plan), and SketchUp. These tools are instrumental in obtaining findings about the hierarchy of changes in cultural landscape components and the dynamics within each zone of the specified observation unit.

Pendidikan Islam pada Masa Pembaharuan

During the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the concept of education was not fully formed as we understand it today. However, through the Prophet's actions and efforts in spreading the teachings of Islam, he served not only as a teacher but also as a character builder. The Prophet's preaching successfully transformed the Arabs in Mecca, who were previously engaged in idol worship, into worshipers of the One God, Allah. Islamic education emphasizes the formation of mental attitudes reflected in tangible actions, both for the benefit of individuals and society. It not only focuses on theoretical aspects but also on the practical implementation of the teachings imparted. Islamic education encompasses the formation of faith and the practice of good deeds simultaneously, as well as aspects of individual and social education. The history of Islamic education has undergone various phases of development alongside the development of Islam itself, from the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to the leadership of the Caliphs in different Islamic states. However, along with the decline of the Muslim community, Islamic education has also experienced a similar decline. This study adopts a Literature Review approach, involving the collection of literature data through digital libraries and the internet, as well as the use of document studies on previous research findings. Journal searches were conducted through Google Scholar and academic literature related to Islamic education during the reform period.