Societal Actors Research Articles

The origins of social protection in healthcare: classifying healthcare systems at introduction in 165 countries

ABSTRACT While the emergence of welfare states, and the origins of social protection in healthcare, have been examined extensively for Global North countries, there is much less research with a global perspective. Addressing this gap, this study provides a descriptive and analytical account of the characteristics of healthcare systems as they were introduced worldwide. Using original and unpublished data, the study classifies healthcare systems according to the main actor type in regulation, financing, and service provision. We find two worlds of healthcare regulation – a state-regulated and a societally-regulated. Adding the financing dimension yields six clusters of healthcare regulation and financing. Based on regulation, financing, and service provision the classification reveals the existence of 12 healthcare system types. While systems that rely on societal actors mainly emerged prior to the mid-twentieth century, state-based systems have characterized system introductions since then. The classification of healthcare systems in 165 countries shows that only a limited number of actor combinations can be found empirically. However, it still presents greater variety than previous studies focusing on the Global North. The notable historical and regional patterns in the choice of healthcare system types can serve as a starting point for further research on healthcare system development.

A Study On The Impact of The Digital Economy on China’s Carbon Neutrality Capability

The digital economy is a new economic form driven by digital technology, which contains green and low-carbon effects and can promote the transition to a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society. This paper explores the impact of the digital economy on carbon neutrality capability using panel data from 30 provinces in China between 2013 and 2021and finds that the digital economy has a positive effect on carbon neutrality capability with non-linear characteristics. It has a positive and then a negative effect on carbon reduction capability, as well as a positive effect on carbon removal capability. The digital economy can aid various societal actors in enhancing carbon neutrality capability by promoting corporate technological innovation, encouraging public green consumption, and adjusting government environmental regulations.

A Will to Win: The Role of the Public in Taiwan’s Defensive Military Outlook

Public support is a critical factor in the outcome of interstate conflicts, yet, how it operates, interacts with hard power, or influences the overall military outlook remains surprisingly undertheorized. Public support has been particularly salient for such states as Finland and Ukraine that have faced opponents of vastly greater military size, capability, and sophistication. This paper advances an original theory on the strategic utility of public support for conflict through an analysis of the case of Taiwan, a potential current flashpoint for a great power war. This paper assesses trends in Taiwanese public support for resisting a Chinese invasion over time, identifies a major upswing in the public’s willingness to fight, and argues that further coordination by state and societal actors could deter a Chinese attack or at least greatly increase the costs of an invasion and the likelihood of failure.

Policy learning in crisis governance: translating narratives and reframing actions for co-evolving futures

ABSTRACT Most policy learning literature assumes identifiable lessons, comparable points of consideration, transferable solutions, and expectable performative changes. However, all these assumptions are challenged in the context of crises, where complexity makes learning across contexts difficult, if not impossible. This article aims to bring in policy learning from critical perspectives. It argues that, in the face of complexity, policy learning that can support crisis governance is instead an internal process involving the translation of lessons and the co-evolution of interrelated actors. In this lens, policy learning goes beyond the conventional understanding of lessons, drawing on actual practices within the learning loops of the particular policy cycle. Such loops and cycles, in this view, are not truly present. Grounded in Hyogo, Japan’s empowered participatory governance in responding to the crisis, policy learning is instead a complex everyday practice for translating narratives about past actions that, in turn, help frame future directions. With that framework, it can stimulate the co-evolution of state and societal actors without clear changing points, leading to more robust governing practices.

An empirical investigation of ethnic-cultural procedural fairness effects and their boundary conditions among three societal groups in South Africa

ABSTRACT Ethnic-cultural procedural fairness refers to the perception that societal actors use fair and unbiased procedures to make decisions vis-à-vis one’s ethnic-cultural group. Prior research using ethnic-cultural minority samples has convincingly shown that such perceptions are associated with a range of desirable outcomes. Yet, this body of evidence has so far limited its scope to European and North American samples. Moreover, more research is needed on the underlying psychological processes. Therefore, the central aim of the present study was to investigate ethnic-cultural procedural fairness effects among three societal groups in South Africa. In Study 1 (N = 326 black South Africans), we observed relationships between ethnic-cultural fairness perceptions and positive institutional and intergroup attitudes. Institutional and social trust respectively mediated these associations. Study 2 (N = 747) replicated these findings among white (n = 595), but not among coloured South Africans (n = 152). Notably, across both studies, we also obtained evidence for moderation. That is, procedural fairness effects on institutional attitudes were significantly smaller among socioeconomically burdened black participants, and procedural fairness effects on intergroup attitudes were fully curbed among white participants who reported high levels of perceived group discrimination. Taken together, our results call for enhanced attention to procedural fairness obstacles outside of typical WEIRD settings.

Introduction: Future‐proofing policies – How foresight shapes European Union governance

AbstractIntroducing this issue, the present article notes how the growing political importance given to foresight in EU governance has so far only sparked limited interest among scholars of EU law and policy‐making. To address this gap, the article starts by clarifying concepts and defining the key terminology at the intersection between (strategic) foresight and EU governance ‘in the law’ (involving societal actors in law‐making processes) and ‘through law’ (governmental actors steering society via law). It then offers a comparative discussion of the main insights of the contributions to the issue, highlighting how and why foresight has become institutionalised and how it operates across EU institutions today. In the concluding section, the article turns to the future and calls for more research into how foresight shapes EU governance, setting a research agenda for the study of foresight as a practice informing law‐ and policy‐making in the European Union.

The Origins of a Fiscal Outlier: The Abandonment of a Federal VAT in the Nixon Presidency

Abstract Richard Nixon was the first president who examined the possibility of introducing a value-added tax (VAT) at the federal level in the late twentieth century. By 1970, his administration had considered recommending it alongside other domestic programs to overcome the criticism against the VAT’s regressivity, potential conflict in the federal–state tax authority, and the fragmented decision-making authority between the executive and legislative branches of the government. However, in 1971, the Nixon administration shifted their policy priority toward gaining the middle-class political support by linking local property tax relief to a federal VAT. Although they combined the two measures with a rebate to obtain consent to and confidence in them from the “opponents” among the “internalists” of policymaking and societal actors, their attempt failed to accomplish it. As a result, Nixon abandoned the federal VAT. This abandonment was a missed opportunity to introduce a federal VAT, leading the United States to become a fiscal outlier among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries: it has not yet implemented a national/federal VAT. Furthermore, this outcome marked the origin of certain historical characteristics of the American fiscal state: the use of tax expenditures, “fend-for-yourself federalism,” weak extractive capacity, and fiscal inflexibility.

A comparative study of energy governance on energy resilience: process tracing of China and Thailand's solar power development

Asia, the world's highest emitting region with surging electricity demand, must transition to clean energy sources for sustainable development. Despite significant progress in solar power deployment, its penetration in the electricity mix remains relatively low. This study employs process tracing to compare solar power development in China and Thailand from 2000 to 2023, representing state-driven and society-centered governance approaches. By analyzing data from secondary sources and conducting online stakeholder interviews, we assess the role of energy governance in fostering resilience during the low-carbon transition. We find state-driven governance exhibits resilience in addressing immediate crises, while society-centered governance drives societal transformation towards a low-carbon future. While state-centric governance suits large-scale centralized renewables, society-centered governance is crucial for distributed renewable projects. Path-dependent governance determines how the energy sector takes in niche innovation, and the reinforced governance structure constrains energy resilience given the interaction within and of the sector with other societal actors. The findings provide insights to inform evidence-based policies and interventions for renewable deployment.

Civil society ethos? Attitude differences between civil society elites and the population in Sweden

Previous studies have found that elites differ from the general population not only in terms of their demographic and social composition but also with respect to policy preferences and attitudes. When it comes to civil society organisations, the issue of representation and representativeness of top-level leadership is of particular relevance, since a small number of individuals are expected to act on behalf of groups and causes that are not well acknowledged or even suppressed by other societal actors. Using two survey studies, this study compares the demographic composition and attitudes of the top-level leaders of the most resourceful civil society organisations in Sweden with those of the general population. We find that civil society elites are not demographically representative of the general population and that they also differ in attitudes when it comes to levels of trust, political orientations, satisfaction with democracy, and acceptance of income inequality. What is more interesting, however, is that the differences in attitudes cannot be fully explained by the skewed demographic characteristics of the civil society leaders, indicating that there might be distinctive sets of values and attitudes underpinning a ‘civil society ethos’.

Examining challenges and strategies in implementing STEM education in Malaysian secondary schools: perspectives of teachers and students

This study examines the obstacles hindering the complete integration of STEM education in secondary schools, considering perspectives from both teachers and students, and proposing effective strategies. Employing a quantitative survey approach, the research involves 30 STEM teachers and 70 secondary school students. Findings demonstrate a consensus among participants, emphasizing issues such as inadequate teaching equipment and facilities as significant barriers to comprehensive STEM implementation. Educators favor technology-integrated teaching methods, while students show enthusiasm for incorporating these tools into their learning. Proposed effective strategies include enhancing internet accessibility and infrastructure. The study underscores the importance of engaging diverse stakeholders—teachers, parents, societal actors, and governmental bodies—to fully understand challenges and promote successful STEM integration in secondary education.

The Guidance of Public Value in China’s Historic Environment: Research on Regeneration Strategies Using Taiyuan’s Bell Tower Street as an Example

When profit-driven renewal is difficult to implement, many historic districts in China become “frozen” under protection. In the recent social context of “building cities for the people”, public value-oriented renewal of urban historic areas has become crucial in city transformation. This study investigates strategies for historic district regeneration in China by integrating spatial form, urban governance, and public value. We propose a novel framework to analyze the regeneration of historic districts, using Taiyuan’s Bell Tower Street as a case study. The framework distinguishes between two dimensions: spatial and economic–social. In the spatial dimension, we focus on the transformation of spatial form to regenerate public value, emphasizing the attribute of “publicness” as central to urban regeneration efforts. This involves a tiered approach to excavating and upgrading historic districts at macro, meso, and micro levels. The economic–social dimension explores urban governance to enhance public value through collaboration between government, market, and societal actors. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, including document reviews, interviews, field observations, and statistical data analysis. The analysis highlights that a public value-oriented approach to heritage regeneration can balance historical preservation with contemporary urban needs, offering a sustainable model for other cities.

Hearing, listening, and learning: how bioeconomy triple helix clusters deal with uninvited societal input

Policymakers in the European Union embrace collaborations of businesses, governments, and academia to develop a sustainable and circular bioeconomy. These so-called Triple Helix clusters aim to stimulate innovation and learning. However, Triple Helix collaborators also face conflicting perspectives on the desirability and directionality of the bioeconomy transition, either within a cluster or with societal actors affected by a cluster’s innovations. While previous Triple Helix research focussed on how to broaden the cluster collaboration towards a more inclusive range of actors to handle such contestations, we study how cluster partners deal with uninvited input from societal actors that do not form part of a cluster. We conceptualize this input as societal back talk and distinguish organizational hearing, listening, and learning capabilities to explore how back talk contributes to innovation in three bioeconomy clusters in the Netherlands, Germany, and Ireland. Our qualitative case study analysis is based on interview transcripts, newspaper articles, and policy and planning documents. Results indicate that collaborating partners generally do not hear uninvited back talk that fundamentally challenges their tacit beliefs, because partners focus on informing the public about what they consider techno-economic benefits of their projects. As a consequence, collaborators become ‘insiders’, which hinders listening to divergent problem definitions and alternative solutions of ‘outsiders’. Learning from uninvited back talk is therefore restricted to minor adjustments. To avoid innovative solutions remaining unexplored as a result of this discursive lock-in, Triple Helix collaborators must engage in hearing and listening to critical societal actors by establishing a reflective, two-directional dialogue.

Conspiracy theories and the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: the rise, radicalization, and fall (?) of YamatoQ-kai

Abstract This article investigates how conspiracy theories, spirituality, and resistance against pandemic-mitigation measures became intertwined during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Japan. Utilizing selected concepts from social movement theories (SMT), this case study-driven exploratory analysis focuses on the activities of YamatoQ-kai, a civil society organization that originated in a group of conspiracy-theory influencers and whose activities included the dissemination of an anti-immunization agenda. By analysing online posts on the organization’s homepage and journalistic reports on the organization, the article illuminates the underlying implications of the conspiracy theorists’ activism and demonstrates how the group adopted QAnon’s conspiracy rhetoric whilst taking a Japanized form. Second, it explains YamatoQ’s pivotal place amongst the Japanese societal actors espousing vaccine-hesitant attitudes. Finally, it shows how the group—as an unconventional case of conspirituality—created tangible experiences for followers and demonstrates the affective impact of group solidarity. In this way, the article’s findings contribute to closing the research gaps in scholarship on conspiracy theories, vaccine scepticism, and conspirituality.

Blame and obligation: The importance of libertarianism and political orientation in the public assessment of disinformation in the United States

AbstractDisinformation concerns have heightened the importance of regulating content and speech in digital communication environments. Perceived risks have led to widespread public support for stricter control measures, even at the expense of individual speech rights. To better understand these preferences in the US context, we investigate public attitudes regarding blame for and obligation to address digital disinformation by drawing on political ideology, libertarian values, trust in societal actors, and issue salience. A manual content analysis of open‐ended survey responses in combination with an issue salience experiment shows that political orientation and trust in actors primarily drive blame attribution, while libertarianism predominantly informs whose obligation it is to stop the spread. Additionally, enhancing the salience of specific aspects of the issue can influence people's assessments of blame and obligation. Our findings reveal a range of attributions, underlining the need for careful balance in regulatory interventions. Additionally, we expose a gap in previous literature by demonstrating libertarianism's unique role vis‐à‐vis political orientation in the context of regulating content and speech in digital communication environments.

Reflexiones para una arqueología activista en América Latina contemporánea

In the current context throughout Latin America, where power groups and the market are increasingly interested in the natural and cultural resources of indigenous territories, indigenous peoples are once again being denied, and their identities, preexistence in the territories, and rights are being questioned. As archaeologists, we must recognize that our work is not merely about investigating past landscapes but also about conducting archaeology in territories currently intersected by recurring conflicts. This article proposes and discusses the conceptual and theoretical-methodological foundations of a committed and activist archaeology, one that contributes to social justice and the emancipation of historically subordinated minorities, such as indigenous peoples. This archaeology must be based on two fundamental premises: the recognition of indigenous peoples as subjects of rights and the implementation of interculturality. Based on these principles, two lines of work are proposed, each involving specific methods: (1) the development of demand-driven research that produces knowledge serving the projects and struggles of indigenous peoples, and (2) the creation of multivocal products where indigenous voices appear in the first person, contributing to their internal processes and their articulation with various societal and state actors. This article advocates for a transformation of contemporary Latin American archaeology, both in its relationship with the social environment where research is conducted and in the way knowledge is produced, placing the discipline at the service of the projects, causes, and struggles of subjugated minorities.

Climate services: Co-development in Cork City, Ireland

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time [1]. It will reshape our world and impact all of society. Cities are where the majority of people live and where most of the world’s population directly experiences climate change impacts. No one individual or organisation will be able to deliver adaptation to climate change for society – we need collaboration across scales, disciplines and societal actors. To help combat climate change impacts that are now unavoidable, Cork City (Ireland) is working in conjunction with 19 partners across Europe, as part of the EU Horizon REACHOUT project, to co-develop user friendly climate services that will help the city prepare for and adapt to these impacts, in line with the strategic development plans for the city and the region. Cork City is exposed to a range of climate related risks, including flooding, heat and wind, all of which are expected to increase in the future under climate change. Cork City Council, University College Cork and technical partners across Europe have been working with local communities to co-develop a range of climate service tools that will be particularly valuable for Cork City and its residents. These tools are intended to support building local resilience to, and understanding of, climate impacts within the city, and to motivate citizens to engage in climate action. This paper explores how these tools may be used to provide climate services in the context of Cork City and how they perform in terms of accessibility, relevance, usability and capacity.

Saving Kurapaty: The Memorialisation of Victims of Political Repressions in Belarus as a Transitional Justice Mechanism

Abstract This article examines the memorialisation of victims of political repressions as part of a transitional justice policy. By drawing on insights from memory studies, it reveals how such memorialisation practices can become a dynamic transitional justice mechanism developed by grassroots movements. The case study in focus is the arrangement of memorials to the victims of Stalinist repressions in Kurapaty near Minsk, Belarus, identifying societal actors participating in memorialisation practices and exploring their values. This study provides a more complex understanding of questions concerning transitional justice, memorialisation, and material traces of traumatic memory embodied in the memorials.

Intricacies in Steering the Direction of Science

René von Schomberg’s article (von Schomberg, 2024) makes an invigorating case for the co-responsibility of societal actors to give direction to the pursuit of science. In this reply, I wish to endorse his position as a much-needed reconceptualisation in the face of societal challenges and internal scientific developments. At the same time, I urge that there remain theoretical and practical intricacies in attempting to steer science.

Technosocial disruption, enactivism, & social media: On the overlooked risks of teenage cancel culture

In a world undergoing rapid, large-scale technological change, the phenomenon of technosocial disruption is receiving increasing scholarly and societal attention. While the phenomenon is most actively delineated in philosophy of technology, it is also receiving growing attention within a different area of philosophy, namely the so-called “4E Cognition” approach to philosophy of mind. Despite this shared interest in technosocial disruption, there is relatively little exchange between the theorizing going on in these two different areas of philosophy. One of our paper's two main aims is programmatic: to motivate the fruitfulness of such an exchange. We do this by turning to a specific case of technosocial disruption, namely Teenage Cancel Culture [TCC]. TCC cannot be disentangled from the introduction of social media platforms [SMPs] into modern day social life. Hence, we will speak of SMP-Afforded TCC. SPM-afforded TCC is a phenomenon fretted over by societal actors but strikingly ignored in academic research. In our effort to narrow this knowledge gap, we analyze SMP-afforded TCC from a perspective of technosocial disruption enriched by insights from 4E-Cognition. This brings out a specific worry about the role of SMPs in the social lives of teenagers. We argue that SMP-afforded TCC disrupts the social relational domains within which teenagers develop, maintain, and express their precarious social identities, by creating social affordances that are hostile to healthy risky interpersonal identity-exploration. As such, SMP-afforded TCC not only cancels particular individuals for particular acts; it may also pre-emptively cancel a certain way of being a social self, namely a healthy social risk-taker. We conclude the paper by proposing several potential routes for mitigating the perniciously disruptive effects of SMP-afforded TCC and identifying future areas for research.

When EU Agencies Set Up Advisory Committees: All About Autonomy?

AbstractEuropean Union (EU) agencies' relations with interest groups have received scarce research attention despite their relevance to bureaucratic autonomy and functioning. Such relations may be organised via advisory committees, which are durable organisational structures for regularised contact between an agency and those societal actors given membership by the agency. Advisory committees may be imposed by the legislator to control an agency or harnessed by the latter to build autonomy. The EU legislator leaves significant discretion to EU agencies regarding advisory committees. However, EU agencies' late emergence in already densely populated regulatory fields begs the question of whether the use of agency discretion is fully autonomous. A case in point is the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), whose establishment and design of three European Stakeholder Committees are examined here. Advisory committees were needed by, but also imposed on, ACER, reflecting agency preferences to improve task performance as much as prior institutionalisation within the organisational field. Hence, factors beyond legal requirements can constrain agency discretion on how to organise the organisation of agency–interest group relations.