Research and Policy Making: Fields Apart in a Complex World?

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-405
Author(s):  
Mariano Aguirre

The debate about how to influence policy and how useful policy is for decision-makers is related to the evolution, dynamics and interaction among ways to do politics; the role of the state; the role of different social and political actors; the relationship between public and private approaches to academia; and the influence of communications technologies. These are the actors and factors that operate in the complex reality of international politics. The speed of modern politics and the role of media pundits work against the long-term academic perspective. Fastness and complexity, superficiality and deepness compete in the policy-making field creating gaps, revolving doors and competition.

2020 ◽  
pp. 107780122094039
Author(s):  
Karni Krigel ◽  
Orly Benjamin

Scholars of intimate partner violence (IPV) cite the various forms of IPV perpetrated by violent male partners to establish their coercive control over women. This scholarship emphasizes IPV’s long-term destructive effects on survivors’ lives. However, until recently, the role of the state in the relationship between different manifestations of IPV has received little attention, leaving hazy the meaning of absent formal legislation. An opportunity to clarify the significance of this condition lies in Israel, where economic abuse is not yet recognized as grounds for legal and social sanctions. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 IPV survivors, the present study explores state actions involved in transitions between types of violence as revealed in cases of ongoing economic abuse.


Oikos ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (33) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Marcelo Yáñez Pérez

RESUMEN El artículo muestra los principales resultados de la investigación denominada: “Percepción de la Población Pobre de Santiago sobre Medioambiente en Chile”, realizada durante 10 años consecutivos por la Escuela de Administración y Economía de la Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez. El estudio incluye antecedentes sobre las concepciones de medioambiente, calidad percibida en la ciudad de Santiago y a nivel del barrio de residencia, agentes y hechos contaminantes, responsables de cuidar el medioambiente, calificación en su gestión, personas más afectadas, consecuencias para el país y expectativas a futuro. También contempla sus percepciones en torno a la relación entre la salud de las personas y la calidad del medioambiente, rol del Estado, importancia del tema para los políticos, relación con el crecimiento económico, importancia de la educación y la información en la prevención, y grado de equidad en las sanciones a empresas públicas y privadas así como a ricos y pobres cuando contaminan. Palabras clave: medioambiente, percepciones, pobreza. ABSTRACT This article describes the main results of the research titled "Perceptions of the Environment by Santiago's Poor Population in Chile" conducted over 10 consecutive years by the Economy and Administration School of Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez (UCSH). The study incorporates evidences on perceptions of the environment, its perceived quality in Santiago at neighbourhood level, pollution components, contaminating agents, those responsible for taking care of the environment and the evaluation of their performance, those most affected by pollution, the consequences for the country and future expectations. This work also considers the perception of the relationship between people's health and the quality of the environment, the role of the State, the importance politicians assign to this issue, its link to economic growth, the significance of preventive education and information, and the level of equity of sanctions on public and private companies as well as on rich and poor population who contaminate the environment. Keywords: environment; perceptions; poverty. Revista OIKOS año 16, N° 33, junio de 2012 ISSN 0717-327 X • pp. 97 - 132 a Este estudio ha sido realizado en el contexto de la investigación “Percepción de la población pobre de Santiago sobre las condiciones de acceso, equidad y satisfacción en la obtención de bienes básicos y públicos – año 2012: visión evolutiva desde el año 2003”, que es parte del Programa de Investigación de la Escuela de Administración y Economía de la UCSH. Esta investigación ha sido financiada desde sus inicios y en su totalidad con fondos propios de esta Universidad.


Author(s):  
Maureen L. Whittal ◽  
Melisa Robichaud

The cornerstone of cognitive treatment (CT) for OCD is based upon the knowledge that unwanted intrusions are essentially a universal experience. As such, it is not the presence of the intrusion that is problematic but rather the associated meaning or interpretation. Treatment is flexible, depending upon the nature of the appraisals and beliefs, but can include strategies focused on inflated responsibility and overestimation of threat, importance and control of thoughts, and the need for perfectionism and certainty. The role of concealment and the relationship to personal values are important maintaining and etiological factors. The short-term and long-term treatment outcome is reviewed, along with predictors of treatment response and mechanisms of action, and the chapter concludes with future directions regarding CT for OCD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1690
Author(s):  
Beniamino Callegari ◽  
Ranvir S. Rai

Organizational ambidexterity is widely recognized as necessary for the economic sustainability of firms operating in the financial sector. While the management literature has recognized several forms of ambidexterity, the relationship between them and their relative merits remain unclear. By studying a process of implementation of ambidextrous capabilities within a large Scandinavian financial firm, we explore the role of top-down reforms and bottom-up reactions in determining the development of sector-specific innovative capabilities. We find that blended ambidexterity follows naturally from the attempt to correct the tensions arising from harmonic ambidextrous blueprints. The resulting blended practice appears to be closely related to the reciprocal model of ambidexterity, which appears to be a necessity rather than a choice, for large firms attempting to develop innovative capabilities. Consequently, we suggest to re-interpret current taxonomies of ambidexterity not as alternative blueprints, but rather as stages in a long-term process of transition.


Author(s):  
Lovel Kukuljan ◽  
Franci Gabrovšek ◽  
Matthew D. Covington ◽  
Vanessa E. Johnston

AbstractUnderstanding the dynamics and distribution of CO2 in the subsurface atmosphere of carbonate karst massifs provides important insights into dissolution and precipitation processes, the role of karst systems in the global carbon cycle, and the use of speleothems for paleoclimate reconstructions. We discuss long-term microclimatic observations in a passage of Postojna Cave, Slovenia, focusing on high spatial and temporal variations of pCO2. We show (1) that the airflow through the massif is determined by the combined action of the chimney effect and external winds and (2) that the relationship between the direction of the airflow, the geometry of the airflow pathways, and the position of the observation point explains the observed variations of pCO2. Namely, in the terminal chamber of the passage, the pCO2 is low and uniform during updraft, when outside air flows to the site through a system of large open galleries. When the airflow reverses direction to downdraft, the chamber is fed by inlets with diverse flow rates and pCO2, which enter via small conduits and fractures embedded in a CO2-rich vadose zone. If the spatial distribution of inlets and outlets produces minimal mixing between low and high pCO2 inflows, high and persistent gradients in pCO2 are formed. Such is the case in the chamber, where vertical gradients of up to 1000 ppm/m are observed during downdraft. The results presented in this work provide new insights into the dynamics and composition of the subsurface atmosphere and demonstrate the importance of long-term and spatially distributed observations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia Petridou ◽  
Pär M. Olausson

AbstractCentral to policies relating to risk governance at the regional and local levels is the interaction between the public and private sectors also referred to as networked governance. At the same time, the role of political actors in general and policy entrepreneurs in particular, in terms of policy change, has gained considerable traction in recent policy scholarship. The purpose of this study was to investigate the change in governance arrangements resulting in the formation of a coordination network in regional flood risk management-the first of its kind in Sweden. Our research is guided by the following questions: first, would the policy change (the establishment of the networks)have taken place if a policy entrepreneur were not part of the policy transfer process? Second, what is the role of policy entrepreneurship in the implementation of the policy after its nationwide adoption? Third, what other factors played a role in the variation of the results in the implemented policy that is, the enforced networks? We find the role of a policy entrepreneur key in the policy transfer from the regional to the national level. In order to investigate the resultant networks, we draw from B. Guy Peters (1998) and his conceptualization of factors which affect the politics of coordination. In addition to the presence of a policy entrepreneur, we compare: (i) pluriformity of network members;(ii) member interdependence; (iii) redundancy of structures, and (iv) degree of formality (in terms of meetings). Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs contribute to the variation in the functionality of the enforced river groups, though other factors play a significant role as well.Most importantly, perhaps, we did not identify entrepreneurs in any of the river groups which were not functional.


Author(s):  
Maryam Fattahi

One of the available challenges in areas of health economics is identification of the effective factors on health expenditures. Air pollution plays important role in the public and private health expenditure but most studies have ignored the role of this category in explanation of health expenditures. On the other hand, the impact of air pollution on health expenditures is influenced by several factors. This study intends to investigate the effect of air pollution on public and private health expenditures and to identify the urbanization rate factor affecting the relationship between air pollution and public and private health expenditures. Scope of the present study is developing countries over period of 1995-2011. We used a dynamic panel and Generalized Method of Moments method. The empirical results indicate that air pollution has positive and significant effect on public and private health expenditures. Also, the results imply that urbanization rate affecting the relationship between air pollution and health expenditures that urbanization rate plays a reinforcing role.


Author(s):  
Vera Maria Vidal Peroni

O artigo trata das redefinições no papel do Estado, que reorganizam as fronteiras entre o público e privado e materializam-se das mais diferentes formas na educação básica pública, e suas implicações para o processo de democratização da educação. No caso brasileiro, muito lutamos no período de abertura política pela democratização com direitos sociais materializados em políticas. Mas, ao mesmo tempo em que avançamos nos direitos conquistados, também foi naturalizado que o Estado não seria mais o principal executor.Palavras-chave: parceria público-privada em educação; política educacional; democratização da educação.The article deals with the redefinitions of the role of the state, which reorganize the boundaries between public and private that materialize in many different forms in basic public education, and their implications for the process of democratization of education. In the Brazilian case, we have struggled so hard since the so-called ‘opening period’ of political democratization with social rights materialized in public policies. However, while we have advanced in the conquered rights, at the same time the idea of the State as the main provider no longer prevails.Keywords: public-private partnership in education; educational policy; democratization of education


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Makrinioti ◽  
Andrew Bush ◽  
James Gern ◽  
Sebastian Lennox Johnston ◽  
Nikolaos Papadopoulos ◽  
...  

Bronchiolitis is the most common cause of hospitalization in infancy and is associated with a higher risk for the development of childhood asthma. However, not all children hospitalized with bronchiolitis will develop asthma. The mechanisms underlying asthma development following bronchiolitis hospitalization are complex. Immune responses to respiratory viruses may underlie both bronchiolitis severity and long-term sequela (such as asthma). Interferons (IFNs) are important components of innate immune responses to respiratory viruses and could influence both asthma development and asthma exacerbations. However, the nature of the relationship between interferon production and wheezing illnesses is controversial. For example, low peripheral blood IFN responses at birth have been linked with recurrent wheeze and asthma development. In contrast, there is evidence that severe illnesses (e.g., hospitalization for bronchiolitis) are associated with increased IFN responses during acute infection (bronchiolitis hospitalization) and a higher risk for subsequent asthma diagnosis. Furthermore, mechanistic studies suggest that bronchial epithelial cells from asthmatic children have impaired IFN responses to respiratory viruses, which may enable increased viral replication followed by exaggerated secondary IFN responses. This review aims to discuss controversies around the role of IFNs as drivers of susceptibility to asthma development following bronchiolitis hospitalization. Past evidence from both mechanistic and cohort studies are discussed. We will highlight knowledge gaps that can inform future research study design.


Author(s):  
Priyadarshni Patel ◽  
Jeganathan Ramesh Babu ◽  
Xu Wang ◽  
Thangiah Geetha

Obesity is caused by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. Despite extensive study, contemporary through diet, exercise, education, surgery, and pharmacological treatments, no effective long-term solution has been found to this epidemic. Over the last decade, there has been a tremendous advancement in understanding the science of epigenetics, as well as a rise in public interest in learning more about the influence of diet and lifestyle choices on the health of an individual. Without affecting the underlying DNA sequence, epigenetic alterations impact gene expression. Previous animal studies have shown a link between the type of diet and expression or suppression of obesity genes, but there are very few human studies that demonstrate the relationship between dietary intake and obesity gene expression. This review highlights the effects of carbohydrates, lipids, and protein intake from the diet on obesity-related genes.


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