The Global Trajectories of Compulsory Education: Clustering Sequences of Policy Development

In Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-78885-8_3, Fabian Besche-Truthe looks at the global trajectories of compulsory education. A plethora of studies exist that examine fundamental policy changes at a national level from a global perspective. In comparison, the global policy trend of expanding the duration of compulsory education has been less explored. Besche-Truthe draws on the concepts of trajectories and ‘pathways’ in order to reveal the various development paths that account for the expansion of compulsory education. A sequence analysis (SQA) lends itself as a method of inquiry because it enables the researcher to regard the whole trajectory of policy development as a single unit of analysis. The chapter yields the first exploration into different trajectories and how these trajectories can be subsumed and clustered into specific development paths.

Cross-Sector Collaboration to Improve Homeless Services: Addressing Capacity, Innovation, and Equity Challenges

Homeless services are plagued by resource scarcity and fragmentation, making the field a poster child for cross-sector collaboration—a policy trend where nonprofits and government come together to address problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. The continuum of care (CoC) system mandates this—through coordination, regions are thought to be better able to integrate services to improve homeless outcomes. This study uses qualitative data from eighteen CoC networks to investigate (1) the collaborative challenges that CoCs experience and (2) the role that network managers play in addressing those challenges. Findings indicate three primary challenges: lack of capacity, inability to create momentum around innovative practices, and inequities across service populations. Together, these can affect the trajectories of people who are homeless by making the system less efficient and creating service gaps, but leaders can address them by promoting a collective vision and sharing power.

US antitrust body underlines policy trend on big tech

Headline UNITED STATES: FTC underlines policy trend on big tech

ICT policies in Latin America: Long-term inequalities and the role of globalized policy-making

ICT policies have been presented as one of the keys for inclusion in the global economy. For instance, in countries like Peru, the need for increased connectivity appears crucial, as integration to the global economy through free trade agreements with developed economies becomes an essential part of economic policy. However, it can be argued that the actual impact of such policies is marginal, and that the actual policy-making process is not helping, as much as competition, at the local telecommunications markets. At the same time, other elements composing an ICT strategy, including cultural and social aspects, are weakly presented. After discussing the facts, an exploration of the limitations of state policy is drawn from the combined conceptual frameworks of Rodrik’s notion of the Trilemma of Global Economy and Held’s Vicious Gridlock. Also, the analysis of policy-making in Latin America and Peru by local scholars is explored to propose that digital inequalities are only addressable by market forces under the current policy arrangement available to governments like Peru’s. Finally, the article argues that it is needed to both abandon “information society” as a policy trend and instead, confront the decreasing political capacities of emerging states to thus, influence the outcomes of telecommunications/media development investments in their regions and countries.

Cultural education and the good citizen: a systematic analysis of a neoliberal communitarian policy trend

This chapter assesses the articulation of notions of ‘good citizenship’ in the conceptualisation and operationalisation of policies targeting the cultural literacy of young people in the UK over the past decade. To do so, it analyses the findings of a systematic review of relevant policy documents published between 2007 and 2018. Cultural literacy policies have been used to promote a particular vision of the good citizen through a ‘neoliberal communitarian’ model of governance. This model combines the individualising logics of neoliberalism that emphasise responsibility and self-regulation with the collective focus of communitarianism on shared culture and values. These threads are deployed simultaneously to ‘responsibilise’ citizens in order to reduce the perceived burden that they present to the state, as well as to police nationalist parameters of inclusion and exclusion.