Shift In Public Policy Research Articles

Barriers to the Expansion of Electrical Cogeneration by the Wood Products Industry in the United States

Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is a very efficient way to produce both useful process heat and electric power which provides a number of benefits to society including reduction in greenhouse (GHG) emissions which directly impacts climate change. Past efforts to promote energy efficiency and distributed generation technologies were supported by the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA). Under this policy, the nation experienced rapid growth of highly efficient and distributed energy generation facilities. Since the mid-1990s, a series of policy changes and regulatory barriers has stifled further growth of cogeneration facilities. This shift in public policy, for the most part, does not differentiate between cogeneration and merchant plants, that specifically limit the ability of cogeneration to provide additional social benefits to the United States. This article includes a review of the many new regulatory and other barriers which have developed over the years and makes recommendations to overcome them.

Pineros: Latino Labour and the Changing Face of Forestry in the Pacific Northwest by Brinda Sarathy

 Reviews The series tackles big subjects comprehensively in language meant to reach the nonspecialist. Hyde’s contribution demands dedication due to its length alone.And the nature of the subject matter — familial relationships in far-flung places, among several families whose stories are traced across hundreds of pages, coupled with the successes and failures of nationalistic interventions — compels a careful reading. But Hyde is masterful at telling her stories,and the time spent with the text reveals important patterns of indigenous–nonindigenous kinship ties first disrupted and often destroyed in conquest throughout what is now the American West. A reader interested in Oregon history might be tempted to skip to the sections that address the Pacific Coast and John and Marguerite McLoughlin’s family and would be well rewarded for it.But that reader would also miss the larger pattern the book sets out to reveal. Katrine Barber Portland State University Pineros: Latino Labour and the Changing Face of Forestry in the Pacific Northwest by Brinda Sarathy UBC Press, Vancouver, 2012. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 208 pages. $94.00 cloth. $35.95 paper. Brinda Sarathy offers a scholarly analysis of the role of Latino contract laborers — pineros — in the maintenance of federal forests in the Pacific Northwest. Her goal is an explicitly activist one: to expose the exploitation of a largely invisible group of workers in the hope of provoking shifts in public perceptions and government policy. Sarathy’s work combines archival research with the findings of over seventy-five interviews she conducted with government officials, labor contractors, forest workers and their families, and the employees of social service and community organizations serving the Latino population of the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon. Sarathy takes readers very quickly through the evolution of the U.S. timber industry over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis on the transformative impact of the post–World War II boom years, followed by the application during the 1970s (and thereafter) of a new reforestation regime driven by that era’s shift in environmental values. Oregon’s 1971 Forest Practices Act, for example, contributed to the rise of a booming industry in reforestation. Sarathy notes that both private landowners and public-land managers responded to the new legal exigencies by contracting out the very physically demanding work of planting trees.That labor system evolved from the 1970s through the 1990s — the decades that are the principal focus of the book — starting with native-born “Anglo” contractors and laborers (including for a while some cooperative crews that were driven by environmentalist sentiments rather than by market values), then Anglo contractors employing a growing proportion of Latino workers. After the 1986 Immigration and Control Act, older legalized Latino immigrant contractors harnessed a labor force of both legal and undocumented Latino immigrant workers. Among Sarathy’s more significant revelations in the book is her description of the use of vulnerable, undocumented workers on federal land under federal contract at a time of increasingly stringent immigration restriction. Sarathy presents her most cogent defense of those vulnerable workers, and the most concise statement of her own policy views, in two sentences mid book:“The labour exploitation of pineros is due in significant part to the fragmented nature of policy making: decisions and debates about the‘natural’environment take place separately from discussions of immigration policy and the implementation and enforcement of labour laws. Only by tak-  Reviews ing into account the inextricable relationships between labour and landscape and by accepting Latino immigrants as integral players in forests and rural communities can we hope to have land management policies that promote both forest health and environmental justice” (p. 75). Sarathy effectively demonstrates the pineros’ marginalization, their experience of labor abuses,untimelyorabsentpay,uncompensated injury, and fear of deportation, along with the difficulties they face defending their interests due to language barriers and racial prejudice — including the arguably most benign manifestation of racism in the treatment of Oregon’s Latinos by the mainstream press more as “cultural spectacle” than as full human beings. On that score, Sarathy devotes a chapter to Latino workers’ organizational efforts beyond the southern Oregon woods, ranging from labor unionism — for example, the Pineros...

The Effects of Public Pressure on CSR Behavior in a Capital Market Experiencing Excessive Moral Debt

ABSTRACTThe events surrounding the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbanes) offer an opportunity to reflect on the influences of public pressure and possible public policy shifts on CSR behavior in a capital market experiencing excessive moral debt. Using the passage of Sarbanes to symbolize a potential public policy shift driven by public pressure, we examine the influence of social legitimacy variables on corporate social responsibility (CSR) behavior before (1991–2001) and after (2002–2005) the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. We posit that changes in CSR strategies surrounding the passage of Sarbanes were used to maximize stakeholder interests by addressing social legitimacy involving corporate accountability issues.Our findings support that CSR behaviors were significantly influenced by the public pressure variables of Sarbanes and company size, but were not significantly influenced by our economic legitimacy control measures, with the exception of a positive significant interaction between Leverage and Sarbanes for CSR Strengths. It appears that post-Sarbanes CSR behaviors were used to address social legitimacy concerns. Further, as CSR Weaknesses ratings exceeded CSR Strengths ratings post-Sarbanes, it appears that transparency of actual CSR performance may have improved post-Sarbanes.

A toxic combination of poor social policies and programmes, unfair economic arrangements and bad politics: the experiences of poor Canadians with Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a serious life-threatening chronic disease whose prevalence is especially high among Canadians living in poverty. And these Canadians with T2DM in poverty are especially likely to experience serious consequences of the disease. Of special concern is Statistics Canada reporting an explosive increase in mortality rates from diabetes (of which 90% represent T2DM) in low-income urban neighbourhoods across Canada. We place findings from interviews with 60 Canadians with T2DM who live in poverty within the context of recent shifts in public policy that have affected the distribution of the social determinants of health. Findings of material deprivation among our participants indicate that it is almost impossible for these individuals to acquire the diet necessary to prevent the adverse outcomes associated with T2DM. These findings draw attention to consideration of the important role public policy plays in affecting the situation of people living in poverty who are afflicted with T2DM and other chronic diseases.

Cutting Inoperable Bodies: Particularizing Rural Sociality to Normalize Hysterectomies in Balochistan, Pakistan

Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic research in Balochistan, Pakistan (2005–2006), I explore Panjguri midwives’ (dïnabogs, kawwās, or balloks) narrative links between routine injections of prostaglandins around childbirth and the increasing number of hysterectomies. These techno-medical interventions reflect the postcolonial biomedicalization of women's bodies and reproductive health care, and are reinforced by shifts in Pakistan's public health policy against maternal mortality in a context where about 90 percent of births occur outside of hospitals. Transnational campaigns against maternal mortality further biomedicalize women's lives. Interviews with doctors, midwives, and women, and analysis of women's experiences, illustrate the practical considerations that were used to normalize radical hysterectomies over less invasive procedures.

Migrants and the Emerging HIV Epidemic in Finland in the 1980s and the 1990s

This article examines how migrants were narrated in the emerging HIV epidemic in Finland. The article argues that the stigma of HIV and foreignness/ otherness in Finnish society intersected in complex ways to exclude migrants in many areas of public and private life during the first decades of the epidemic, though the situation has improved today. The article explores how HIV infection is embedded in existing criminal law and public health policies generally, and specifically in the Finnish context. Using an analysis of newspaper, academic, and policy texts based on a systematic review of all extant material in Finnish libraries, the article traces the genealogy of how HIV was initially conceived as a non-Finnish disease of un-masculine men or foreigners and transformed into a human rights issue under a policy of AIDS exceptionalism. Despite the shift in Finnish public health policy toward AIDS exceptionalism, public health policy tended to be expert-oriented, which often excluded migrant communities from participating in interventions as stakeholders.

P1-346 Epidemiology and indigenous health policy: rising to the challenge

IntroductionThe Aboriginal Patterns of Cancer Care Project (APOCC) is investigating why Aboriginal people with cancer in New South Wales (NSW) Australia have a 60% higher mortality than non-Aboriginal people. Translating...

Designated as Dangerous: Characteristics of Sex Offenders Subject to Post‐Sentence Orders in Australia

The earliest characterisation of Australian sex offenders subjected to post‐sentence legislation is presented. Demographic, developmental, clinical, and criminal characteristics were obtained for sex offenders under post‐sentence orders in Western Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. Data on 50 offenders were recorded from psychological and psychiatric risk assessment reports statutorily required at the initiation of post‐sentence legal proceedings. The findings describe a group of demonstrably dangerous men who exhibited an early onset of sexual offending, high rates of mental disorder, sexual deviance, and antisociality. Their developmental histories are characterised by early deprivation, disadvantage, abuse, early exposure to substance abuse, and social and psychological dislocation. These offenders present a conundrum to criminal justice agencies. They are an objectively unfortunate group and have engaged in significantly harmful behaviours. However, the early onset of their offending suggests that early intervention services, such as those offered by mental health professionals, have a critically important role to play in any effort to alter offending trajectories such as those exhibited in this sample. A paradigm shift in public policy from a post hoc model to a well‐resourced preventative and public health approach to the problem of sexual violence is proposed. Broad treatment implications are also considered.

Explaining the ‘Health Check’ of the Common Agricultural Policy: budgetary politics, globalisation and paradigm change revisited

Three potential explanations of past reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can be identified in the literature: a budget constraint, pressure from General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO) negotiations or commitments and a paradigm shift emphasising agriculture's provision of public goods. This discussion on the driving forces of CAP reform links to broader theoretical questions on the role of budgetary politics, globalisation of public policy and paradigm shift in explaining policy change. In this article, the Health Check reforms of 2007/2008 are assessed. They were probably more ambitious than first supposed, although it was a watered-down package agreed by ministers in November 2008. We conclude that the Health Check was not primarily driven by budget concerns or by the supposed switch from the state-assisted to the multifunctional policy paradigm. The European Commission's wish to adopt an offensive negotiating stance in the closing phases of the Doha Round was a more likely explanatory factor. The shape and purpose of the CAP post-2013 is contested with divergent views among the Member States.

Changing Public Policy Due to Saudi City of Jeddah Flood Disaster

Problem statement: This study discussed the last flood disaster which occurred in Jeddah City-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 25th of November 2009 which caused more than 121 fatalities and billions of dollars in losses in addition to around 20,000 sheltered families which cause a shift in public policy to deal with natural disasters in Saudi Arabia. Approach: We followed the flood disaster events starting from rain fall to the recovery stage. Then, timeline for the event is constructed with the intention to document and draw lessons for quick response in future disasters. Results: Natural causes and human errors and lack of clear public policy to deal with natural disasters were the most contributors to human and monetary losses due to the flood disaster in Jeddah City. Conclusion/Recommendations: It is necessary to have declared public policy for accountability which enable decision makers develop and implement policies and procedures, as well as plans to deal with natural and man-made disasters.

Resilient responses to climate change and variability: a challenge for public policy

Climate change produces future risks and increasing climate variability produces current risks. Reducing disaster risk is addressed at the national level using approaches usually developed by the United Nations. These approaches, particularly in the developed world, address resilience building but practice is top-down and reactive. Effective resilience building requires a bottom-up participatory approach aimed at enhancing adaptive capacity. Using climate change and variability as a vehicle, this article posits that, without a shift in public policy, effective resilience could be jeopardised. Key to successful adaptation has been the willingness to learn how to develop a coherent set of principles that can inform a new approach to public policy for disaster management.

The Obama Administration: what can social science offer?

This paper reports on the 2009 Academy of Social Sciences annual debate about prospects for the new United States administration. Just half way into the ‘first hundred days’ of President Barack Obama's term, a panel of social scientists, convened by Philip Davies, Director of the British Library's Eccles Centre for American Studies, addressed the question of what social science could offer the new president in various areas of policy and government action. Each of the panellists was offered the opportunity to revisit their presentations in the light of the discussion that took place, and this paper brings these thoughts together. Dilys Hill introduces the contributions with an overview commentary on the debate contributions. Andrew Rudalevige's analysis of the scholarship on managing the presidency leads him to state that ‘Presidential leadership lies … in garnering the benefits of centralising without losing the wider expertise brought to bear by a decentralised process. Herein—somewhere!—lies the holy grail of Cabinet Government, American-style.’ George C. Edwards examines presidential strategies for government with the conclusion that ‘Rather than creating the conditions for important shifts in public policy, such as moving public opinion in their direction, effective leaders are the less heroic facilitators who work at the margins of coalition building to recognise and exploit opportunities in their environments.’ Jenel Virden points out that in 2008 the percentage and numerical turnout of women was higher than that for men; women voted more for Obama than did men; and they were strongly hopeful that under the new administration prospects would improve. Having engaged so successfully with this sector of the population, the Obama Administration is under pressure to recognise and address its needs. Robert Singh points out that there are necessary reservations about the utility of social science in informing an Obama foreign policy, but nonetheless elaborates three propositions and seven principles that could usefully frame the administration's approach.

Social stakes of urban renewal: recent French housing policy

The social implications of urban restructuring, especially the spatial approach of urban renewal, are important indicators for the building stock, as this impacts on demolition and reconstruction. The social stakes of urban renewal reside in both its political intent and its social effects. Ongoing socio-economic difficulties have led to a shift in French public policy on disadvantaged neighbourhoods, moving from the promotion of local social and economic development to an increasing fear of concentrating local communities or ‘ghettos’. Social mix has become a policy objective for these neighbourhoods, and urban renewal as the means to achieve it. Although the effects of this policy are currently hard to assess, three social stakes can nonetheless be identified, partly based on the results of ongoing research at Les Minguettes, a suburb of Lyon, France. First, contemporary urban renewal tends to erode the stock of affordable housing, without bringing noticeable improvements in housing conditions. Second, this policy weakens the inhabitants' social capital, a resource strongly locally anchored in working-class milieus. Finally, social mix tends to transform local forms of coexistence in unpredictable ways, with no guarantee of the anticipated positive cooperation between locals and newcomers. L'approche spatiale de la rénovation urbaine, une politique de gestion du parc bâti consistant principalement à démolir et reconstruire des logements, a des implications sociales importantes. Les enjeux sociaux de la rénovation urbaine résident à la fois dans ses intentions politiques et dans ses conséquences sociales. Les difficultés socioéconomiques actuelles ont conduit à un changement de la politique publique française à l'égard des quartiers défavorisés, qui est passée de la promotion du développement social et économique local à une crainte croissante des regroupements communautaires ou de la formation de «ghettos». La mixité sociale est devenue un objectif des politiques visant ces quartiers et la rénovation urbaine le moyen d'y parvenir. Bien que les effets de cette politique soient actuellement difficiles à évaluer, trois enjeux sociaux peuvent néanmoins être identifiés, en se basant pour partie sur les résultats de recherches en cours aux Minguettes, en banlieue de Lyon, en France. Tout d'abord, la rénovation urbaine d'aujourd'hui a tendance à grignoter le parc des logements abordables, sans que cela se traduise par des améliorations sensibles des conditions de logement. En second lieu, cette politique affaiblit le capital social des habitants, une ressource fortement ancrée localement dans les milieux populaires. Enfin, la mixité sociale a tendance à transformer les formes locales de coexistence de manière imprévisible, sans garantie de la coopération positive escomptée entre les anciens et les nouveux habitants. Mots clés: parc bâti, démolition, politique du logement, quartier, capital social, mixité sociale, rénovation urbaine, France

Analysis of potential impacts of climate change on forests of the United States Pacific Northwest

As global climate changes over the next century, forest productivity is expected to change as well. Using PRISM climate and productivity data measured on a grid of 3356 plots, we developed a simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) model to estimate the impacts of climate change on potential productivity of Pacific Northwest (PNW) forests of the United States. Productivity, measured by projected potential mean annual increment (PMAI) at culmination, is explained by the interaction of annual temperature, precipitation, and precipitation in excess of evapotranspiration through the growing season. By utilizing information regarding spatial error in the SAR model, the resulting spatial bias is reduced thereby improving the accuracy of the resulting maps. The model, coupled with climate change output from four generalized circulation models, was used to predict the productivity impacts of four different scenarios derived from the fourth IPCC special report on emissions, representing different future economic and environmental states of the world, viz., scenario A1B, A2, B1 (low growth, high economic development and low energy usage), and COMMIT. In these scenarios, regional average temperature is expected to increase from 0.5 to 4.5 °C, while precipitation shows no clear trend over time. For the west and east side of the Cascade Mountains, respectively, PMAI increases: 7% and 20% under A1B scenario; 8% and 23% under scenario A2; 5% and 15% under scenario B1, and 2% and 5% under the COMMIT scenario. These projections should be viewed as potential changes in productivity, since they do not reflect the mitigating effects of any shifts in management or public policy. For managers and policy makers, the results suggest the relative magnitude of effects and the potential variability of impacts across a range of climate scenarios.

Modern environmental health hazards: a public health issue of increasing significance in Africa.

ObjectivesTraditional hazards such as poor sanitation currently account for most of Africa’s environmentally related disease burden. However, with rapid development absent appropriate safeguards for environment and health, modern environmental health hazards (MEHHs) may emerge as critical contributors to the continent’s disease burden. We review recent evidence of human exposure to and health effects from MEHHs, and their occurrence in environmental media and consumer products. Our purpose is to highlight the growing significance of these hazards as African countries experience urbanization, industrial growth, and development.Data sourcesWe reviewed published epidemiologic, exposure, and environmental studies of chemical agents such as heavy metals and pesticides.Data synthesisThe body of evidence demonstrates ongoing environmental releases of MEHHs and human exposures sometimes at toxicologically relevant levels. Several sources of MEHHs in environmental media have been identified, including natural resource mining and processing and automobile exhaust. Biomonitoring studies provided direct evidence of human exposure to metals such as mercury and lead and pesticides such as p,p′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and organophosphates. Land and water resource pollution and industrial air toxics are areas of significant data gaps, notwithstanding the presence of several emitting sources.ConclusionUnmitigated MEHH releases and human exposure have implications for Africa’s disease burden. For Africans encumbered by conditions such as malnutrition that impair resilience to toxicologic challenges, the burden may be higher. A shift in public health policy toward accommodating the emerging diversity in Africa’s environmental health issues is necessary to successfully alleviate the burden of avoidable ill health and premature death for all its communities now and in the future.

Childhood Obesity and Parental Responsibilities

In his recent Beveridge lecture, Julian LeGrand highlighted a significant shift in social and public health policy over the past sixty years. In 1948, the task for the new British welfare state was to deal with the five “giants of too little”: too little income, work, education, housing, and health care. While there is no reason for complacency, the United Kingdom has made significant progress in these areas. But new giants have emerged: the “giants of too much.” Excessive consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and food have significantly affected both population health and health care budgets. In this issue of the Report, Erika Blacksher deals with one of the giants of excess—childhood obesity. Two central points emerge from Blacksher’s clear summary of the evidence. First, childhood obesity has serious shortand long-term consequences, affecting not only children’s “current and future health but also their evolving and future liberty as adults.” Between 40 and 77 percent remain obese as adults, and poor adulthood health is highly correlated with low socioeconomic status and educational attainment. Second, the social gradient in health means that childhood obesity is not distributed equally across socioeconomic groups. As many as one in three children of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups are obese, with higher levels in particular ethnic groups.

A “Consumer's Right” to Choose a Midwife: Shifting Meanings for Reproductive Rights under Neoliberalism

The “right to choose” has long served as the ideological rallying cry for reproductive rights activists. Yet critical attention to the social, political, and economic conditions under which individuals make such choices has been central to anthropological research on reproduction. In the context of neoliberal public policy shifts that favor trust in the market to remedy all social and economic inequality, I explore how women's reproductive rights are becoming characterized by one's ability to consume uneven reproductive “choices.” Based on my ethnographic fieldwork with midwifery supporters in Virginia, I examine how organizers have begun to utilize “consumer rights” rhetoric in their struggle for legal access to midwives. One often‐unintended result has been intensified divisions within this movement, particularly as low‐income “homebirthers” feel unable to claim the identity of “consumer.” I use Virginia as a case study to raise broader questions about women's shifting strategies toward securing reproductive rights under neoliberalism.

Improving the Transfer of Care to General Practice for People With Intellectual Disabilities: Development of a Guideline

Abstract In the Netherlands, a public policy shift has led to a movement of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) from residential congregate care facilities to normative housing in their communities. Along with these physical transfers, medical care has also been transferred from specialty intellectual disability physicians (IDPs) associated with the residential facilities to general practitioners (GPs) native to the community. To facilitate these changes, the authors created a set of guidelines for the transfer of ID medical care. In developing these guidelines, the authors queried: (1) What elements have to be included in the draft guidelines? (2) What are the barriers to using the draft guidelines in practice and how can these barriers be overcome? and (3) What elements have to be included in the final form of the guidelines? Data for the draft guidelines were drawn from information gathered during interviews and discussions with physicians and allied workers. The guidelines call for a feasible working agreement between IDPs and GPs regarding handing over patient files containing problem lists and histories and arrangements of out‐of‐hours house calls, practice visits, medication delivery, and paramedical treatments. Inherent barriers to the implementation of the guidelines might be communication difficulties among persons involved in the transfer of care and governmental rules that fail to overcome organizational barriers.

An Examination of the Outcomes of Various Components of a Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence by Male Offenders

With recognition that police intervention by itself is not entirely effective, in recent years there has been a shift in public policies towards the implementation of a coordinated community response to domestic violence incidents. This article examines the impact of participation in several aspects of a coordinated community response (CCR) in a mid-sized city in the Midwest. Specifically, recidivism was examined using information on officially recorded re-arrests for 131 male domestic violence offenders involved in a CCR type intervention. In addition, exploratory analyses attempt to determine if certain offender characteristics are related to their likely of progressing through each of several post-conviction components of this CCR-type intervention. Limitations of the research and suggestions for policy responses to domestic violence are discussed.

Voluntary Approaches to Environmental Problems: Exploring the Rise of Nontraditional Public Policy

Government reliance on voluntary programs represents a significant shift in public policy: moving from command and control regulations to market based mechanisms. This article explores the determinants of Voluntary Remediation Programs (VRPs) in the American States. During the 1980s and 1990s, 44 states adopted VRPs to facilitate remediation of existing hazardous waste sites. Relying on diffusion of innovation theory, I develop a model of state policy adoption that explores the influence of internal state political and economic factors, as well as testing the influence of regional and top‐down diffusion forces. I utilize a discrete‐time event history approach to test this model. The results indicate that state policymaking is responsive to interest group pressure and the pace of cleanup at hazardous waste sites. Additionally, state policymaking is consistently influenced by the actions of surrounding state governments; the probability of adopting a voluntary program increases if surrounding states have already developed these policies.