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Like Beresford, Hamilton and Kells have expertise in public policy, and their book details the evolution of Australia's contemporary water policy to the present day. While Beresford offers an overview of water trading, here Hamilton and Kells go deep. The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) traverses the lands of forty Aboriginal nations, all four eastern Australian states and an area larger than France. [Extracted from the article]

Female under-representation in high-profile career positions has relevant impacts on firms' outcomes, research topics, and public policies. In the academic profession, women's participation decreases as they evolve in their careers. To understand the lack of women in economics in Brazilian academia, we investigate the decision to submit papers to the largest conference in the country (Brazilian Meeting of Economics, or ANPEC Meetings), an important achievement in the profession. We explore a novel panel dataset of researchers and match them with web-scraped data of their résumés to test gender differences in the probability of submitting an article one year after having a paper (same or new) rejected in the previous year. Our findings suggest that women desist 2.9% points more than men when facing rejection. We also find evidence that younger women give up more and that the quality of the undergraduate program relates to the gender gap in the likelihood of desisting. Finally, we argue that more competitive women may self-select into higher-quality institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A consensus has formed that the negative social externalities of online harms combined with huge market power of internet intermediaries justify regulation of online service providers.[1] Fake news, foreign interference in democracy and a business model based on exploitation of engagement via behavioural data have consolidated a political will for new policies, and the government's White Paper proposes a new social media regulator with the power to fine companies that fail to reduce exposure to harmful content. The White Paper proposes, rather than defining a size threshold triggering regulation, to locate discretion with the regulator to decide where to place regulatory emphasis: the regulator will have to decide on the basis of evidence, what the harm reduction priorities are at any one time. So both illegal and harmful content should be part of the regulator's remit, but the regulator should avoid muddying the distinction between them. In effect, each company would be responsible to observe a general regulator-derived code for dealing with speech that clearly meets a standard of illegality, and a company-specific or sector-wide voluntary code that reflects the terms of service of the company. [Extracted from the article]

In the first four or five centuries of its manufacturing in Europe, paper was neither cheap nor available in unlimited quantities. Old rags, the primary material from which the paper was exclusively made, were a strategic commodity and trade with them was strictly regulated. Owing to their perpetual scarcity, as well as to the overall laboriousness of the papermaking process, a skilled master printer of the Incunabula period was hardly able to purchase a ream or two of high-quality paper for his monthly earnings. Consequently, the earliest printers had to rely on the support of ‘venture capitalists’ in order to secure steady supplies of paper. But the limitations of its manufacturing were not resolved by the end of the Incunabula period. Alas, the shortage and high cost of paper accompanied the development of print in Italy and elsewhere practically up until the advent of its industrial production from wooden pulp in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

'Governments are machines designed to allow the upper classes to exert pressure on the rest of society', explains Gelderloos. The solutions are already here: tactics for ecological revolution from below: by Peter Gelderloos, London, Pluto Press, 2022, 204 pp. This book thus has four important threads: (anti-authoritarian) anti-colonial struggle, the limitations of Western Science, the pacifying role of NGOs and the importance of imagining revolutionary socio-ecological horizons through active struggle. [Extracted from the article]

From the moment a man took ‘the king’s shilling’ and was sworn to serve as a soldier in the nineteenth-century British Army, his life proceeded as a file as well as a fighting man. Disorder and desertion drove the utilitarian purposes of discipline and tracking, while constant pressure to account for expenditure in lives and money added further impetus to the copious industry of military record-keeping. Individuals were enumerated, named, appraised and allocated pay. Such archives produce a disorderly silence where men are present but without voice. Carefully archived and always public, military files have a continuing currency through the post-army lives of soldiers into the twenty-first century for descendants and historians. Tracking the life of ‘files’ over time, the paper reflects on the shifting forms of knowledge produced. In particular, it notes the tensions between the densely written form of the files in a population of rank and file soldiers who were partially literate; the highly detailed individuation of the files within a heavily conformist institution, and the modernity of post-1850s record-keeping in an institution bound by tradition. It ends with a reflection on the limitations and opportunities presented by digital access to this substantial archive of imperial-colonial conflict. Abbreviations: AJCP: Australian Joint Copying Project TNA: The National Archives, London WO: War Office [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the range and extent of problematic content and behaviour described in the OHWP, government concern and scrutiny is certainly merited. If we set aside the focus on harms or illegal content, the OHWP could instead be read as a manifesto for government-led platform governance. If viewed from a platform governance perspective, the most significant failing of the duty of care approach is that (at least as currently framed) it doesn't tackle the unique regulatory challenges posed by problematic behaviour and content on platforms. The proposed "duty of care" may in practice require procedural accountability on the part of platforms, but by choosing to target rhetorical simplicity over principles for good governance, it fails to provide a broad-ranging normative framework for platform governance that could truly set an international standard. [Extracted from the article]

This document was developed by a group of over two dozen pain clinicians and investigators from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway. Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and funded by an educational grant form Mundipharma International, Limited. The stated aim of the White Paper is to identify inequalities in government policies towards opioids that contribute to inadequate treatment of pain. It calls for their replacement with policies that will support doctors and patients in their efforts to relieve pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to the 2014 American Political Science Association Annual Conference’s theme of “Politics After the Digital Revolution.” It first gives a brief assessment of how the discipline of political science has reacted to the digital revolution. It then seeks to couch the putative revolution in Thorstein Veblen’s theory of a “machine process” in order to recast it less as a discrete phenomenon to be dealt with by the discipline, but instead as part of an evolutionary process of social change that instils habits of mind of those who are subject to it, and who in turn, influence the machine process itself in a co-determinant manner. This article offers the synthesis of Veblen and the Frankfurt School to theorize how the digital revolution might be critically assessed in its evolutionary framework, and speaks towards an evolutionary critical theory for analysing political society beyond discrete events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the context of COVID-19, universities, national innovation systems (NIS) and global value chains (GVCs), this paper explores systemic barriers (trends and factors) that influence digital learning innovation (DLI) in Africa. The study used the PRISMA framework and Scopus data for a systematic literature review (SLR) and a bibliometric analysis spanning 2000–2021. It also mapped universities globally and in Africa based on Webometrics (Jan 2022) and the Global Innovation Index (Feb 2022) data using a typology. A broad SLR on digital learning extracted two African samples of 2,640 and 4,669. A narrow SLR on DLI, Innovation Systems (IS) and Innovation Barriers (IB) extracted 221 studies. The broad SLR showed that Africa (with the exception of South Africa continentally and Kenya regionally) lags globally in digital learning literature. It also identified country, affiliation (university) and funding sponsor as three possible factors that influence DLI. The narrow SLR revealed a gap in the literature on DLI – IS – IB and a low emphasis on GVCs. From the literature, this paper proposes a conceptual model spanning DLI – IS – IB and a typology of systemic barriers to inform future research. It also provides unique empirical data to inform DLI and GVC focused public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments of the author on the transport White Paper. The British Deputy Prime Minister's proposals, as revealed in the July 1998 White Paper, fall far short of the rhetoric one recalls from the 1997 general election campaign, or even of the promises that followed it. The railways are not to be renationalized; the buses are not to be re-regulated and area-wide local authority franchising is not even mentioned. All the same, the politicians' urge to meddle runs throughout the document and the liberty of entrepreneurs to seek out and satisfy demand is still to be overseen by those whom scholar Deepak Lal calls the Platonic guardians. The search for a definitive meaning of the word integration is abandoned in favor of a list of four possible interpretations. There is to be a new Commission for Integrated Transport and there are to be local transport plans will be the key to the delivery of integrated transport locally. So the Commission and the local authorities will have to work out the meaning of the word for themselves. The White Paper is being followed by a collection of daughter papers which might, just possibly, throw more light on the question. A policy based upon an indeterminate concept such as this can hardly be expected to make things better for everyone.

The focus of this paper is on how the state sets up discriminatory structures, how immigrants work out ways of managing those structures and how in this process they construct flexible and innovative identities. Two main issues are explored. The first is the relationship between state control and exclusion and immigrant resistance. The paper shows how, despite increased surveillance and digital nets mounted by European states to keep immigrants out of their territory, the British state is ambivalent towards irregular immigrants. At the same time, it is in the interstices of ambiguity that immigrants, by buying, renting and borrowing documents, have found ways through their networks and communities to resist or get around exclusionary and contradictory regulations. Second, the paper is concerned with the construction of innovative and flexible identities. The research reveals how immigrants occupy rebellious spaces and construct identities in difficult situations at the intersection of self and structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article enquires into the connections between gender and discourses of the nuclear weapons state. Specifically, we develop an analysis of the ways in which gender operates in the White Paper published by the UK government in 2006 on its plans to renew Trident nuclear weapons (given the go-ahead by the Westminster Parliament in March 2007). We argue that the White Paper mobilizes masculine-coded language and symbols in several ways: firstly, in its mobilization of techno-strategic rationality and axioms; secondly, in its assumptions about security; and, thirdly, in its assumptions about the state as actor. Taken together, these function to construct a masculinized identity for the British nuclear state as a “responsible steward.” However, this identity is one that is not yet securely fixed and that, indeed, contains serious internal tensions that opponents of Trident (and of the nuclear state more generally) should be able to exploit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the political importance of public parts in light of the British government's White Paper program. Problems in achieving ideals for parks and open spaces; Impact of the neglect of public open spaces; Sources of funding for the development of public open spaces according to the White Paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the web site Selected Papers of William L. White, located at www.williamwhitepapers.com, from William L. White, senior research consultant, Chestnut Health Systems/Lighthouse Institute.

In the aftermath of recent populist upheavals in Europe, nationalist economic policies challenge the overly positive view on economic integration and the reduction of trade barriers established by standard economic theory. For quite a long time the great majority of economists supported trade liberalisation policies, at least those actively engaged in policy advice or public debates. In this paper, we examine the elite economics discourse on trade policies during the last 20 years regarding specific characteristics of authors, affiliations, citation patterns, the overall attitude towards trade, as well as the methodological approach applied in these papers. Our analysis yields the following results: First, the hierarchical structure of economics also manifests in the debate about trade. Second, while we found some indications of a shift towards more empirically oriented work, quite often empirical data is solely used to calibrate models rather than to challenge potentially biased theoretical assumptions. Third, top economic discourses on trade are predominantly characterised by a normative bias in favour of trade-liberalisation-policies. Forth, we found that other-than-economic impacts and implications of trade policies (political, social and cultural as well as environmental issues) to a great extent either remain unmentioned or are rationalised by means of pure economic criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last ten years, as international environmental protection consciousness has increased, the study and applications of green building, green construction materials and energy savings as well as reduction of carbon dioxide have become urgent issues for governments. In Taiwan, joss papers are burned in more than 11,731 registered shrines or temples in traditional Chinese deity or ancestor worship ceremonies during special holidays or occasions. Instead of placing this large amount of burned joss paper ash (BJPA) in landfills, this study proposes recycling BJPA by replacing some cement with calcined BJPA (CBJPA) in mortar specimens. After BJPA samples were calcined at a high kiln temperature, mortar samples were created using CBJPA to replace cement at seven different levels: 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. Tests like setting time and compressive strength were performed for macro-analyses; scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermal gravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis were carried out for the microstructure and chemical composition analyses. The test results showed that the compressive strengths of specimens with different levels of CBJPA replacement were apparently less than those of the control group (0% CBJPA) at all curing times. The compressive strength and setting time both decreased as the fraction of CBJPA in the mortar increased. Furthermore, because the hydration product did not cement and the mortar specimen structure was loose, the expected strength improvement from the pozzolanic reaction provided by the CBJPA was not clearly observed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this theoretical paper, we respond to the Triple Day Thesis (TDT) by positioning it within the context of the neoclassical labour supply literature and existing public policy. The TDT applies a theoretical lens to the practical experiences of mothers as they distribute time between self-reproductive, reproductive, and waged work. Self-reproductive work refers to self-care, self-investment, and self-realizable activities, including time for good sleep, schooling, and intellectual and social engagements that promote mothers' human development and well-being. The TDT identifies the Triple Day Problem (TDP) as the lack of freedom or inability of mothers to engage in self-reproductive work as they balance the increasing demands of reproductive work with waged work and proposes Motherhood Compensation as a social policy solution. In this paper, we demonstrate that the existence of the TDP can be used to explain persistent gender differences in labour force participation. We envision the TDT as a novel theoretical approach to promoting mothers' labour force participation and social mobility through self-reproductive work. We suggest that Motherhood Compensation can be created from a mix of already existing family programs, including paid leave, parental allowance, and cash transfer programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) has become increasingly popular among policymakers because of its potential to drive economic growth. In many countries, the promotion of EE has been linked with innovation policy but little research has been done to examine whether such policy can facilitate EE's development. Using the case study method to examine the growth of China's unicorns, which are productive entrepreneurial outputs of EE, this paper investigates the process of EE's emergence and development, and the role of government policies, including innovation policy, in promoting EE's growth. The paper advances three policy implications derived from the case study; first, the important role of government policies in creating institutional contexts; second, developing informal institutions, and third, implementing a systemic intervention, to promote EE's emergence and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates proposals made in the White Paper on Local Government to address rural poverty in South Africa. Proposed institutional systems; Identification of the needs of the poor; Responsibility of traditional leadership; Promotion of the meaningful participation of women in public life.

Andrew Heaney has been executive director of strategy and regulation with TalkTalk since 2007. He was previously a competition policy director with Ofcom and a partner with Spectrum Strategy Consultants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a course application in urban affairs within a masters program in public administration. The course application utilizes service learning and critical social analysis methods as instructional tools. The article identifies the historical evolution of social analysis, starting in the Enlightenment and finally reaching its current manifestation in critical theory. The development of critical social analysis methodology, otherwise known as "critical consciousness," is then analyzed in the applications of social critics and educators Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich. Based on this form of social criticism, four vignettes are evaluated based on an intensive seminar course in urban affairs. The subsequent techniques are then adapted within a service learning component in the course. The article details examples of focus questions and journal exercises deemed useful in aiding students, administrators and practitioners in critically assessing the study of urban affairs. The potential implications for this pedagogical model can assist educators, students, and administrators to more clearly analyze and assess urban policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much attention has been paid to European policy arrangements in individual policy fields, European intersectoral policy coordination has been mostly an overlooked phenomenon, especially within the sectors of education and employment. Thus, in the introductory paper for this Special Issue, we offer a contemporary discussion of European intersectoral policy coordination. We firstly review the literature on intersectoral policy coordination, and secondly look at the application of concepts related to intersectoral policy coordination to supranational arrangements, especially the European Union. We then employ the concept of boundary-spanning policy regime and the related 'I' framework (issues, ideas, interests, and institutions) to discuss the individual pieces' contributions. This serves to explore the strength of the intersectoral perspective when analysing European policy coordination in education and employment. We conclude with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this approach and offer a research agenda to study supranational intersectoral policy coordination (in education and employment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper advances a subcategory of influencers who mobilise their audiences towards consumption-driven change; we label them 'ethical influencers'. Using netnography and an archival dataset on ten ethical influencers, we delineate their unique challenges and positioning. Ethical influencers legitimate their accounts via a close-up of personal practices, as opposed to an articulated persona, and connect with divergent audiences to advocate for the needed change. Our paper describes the divergent audience groups and engagement styles: allies, inquisitives, detractors, and enigmatics. We also identify the ethical influencers' linking strategies to connect these audiences with other market actors (e.g. ethical businesses and other ethical influencers) which include acting, humanising, framing, pivoting, and evangelising. This research advances influencer marketing literature and offers important managerial and public policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, research on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has snowballed across many disciplines: technical fields, economics, law, public policy, finance, accounting, and others. As the uses of blockchain technology behind Bitcoin expand, more disciplines will be drawn to its study and the research will greatly expand. This paper provides an assessment of the current state of the literature. From a comprehensive search of the literature that resulted in an original sample of 13,507 results, a final sample of 1,206 papers on Bitcoin are categorised and mapped across six disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to document and analyze the long arc of connectivity between China and Latin America. First, using analytical international trade and economic tools, we provide a new economic perspective of the First Globalization–-the Ming and early Qing China's economic and business links with Latin America and Europe. Second, due to U.S. government trade policies toward China in the 1990s, the Second China's Globalization was ushered in with its entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO). During this second phase, China exchanged manufactured goods with minerals and resources from Latin America. Finally, the tough technology and trade stance by the Trump and Biden Administrations prompted China to intensify the third phase of China interaction with Latin America. For the 2020s and beyond, one important pillar of the Third China-Latin America-Europe Globalization is heightened efforts for China to increase its digital-AI, telecommunication and platform business presence and access into the Latin American markets. To enrich our analysis, we will provide Chinese-style digital-AI business and economic models to help illustrate our discussions. Throughout our paper, we want to point out that government policies were instrumental in bringing forth these Three Globalizations that involve China-Latin America-Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the wholesale destruction of priceless and irreplaceable historical records in Australia during World War II. Impact of Australia's involvement in the war on the policy on waste materials; Features of the plan for the salvage of waste materials; Results of salvage collection in the country; Four types of salvage activities; Historical records destroyed during the campaign.

Criterion measures are foundational to an effective selection and classification process and valid enlistment aptitude standards. The Department of Defense, when possible, considers eligibility standards based on empirical evidence of the relationship between recruit attributes and applicable performance to be best practice. Ensuring use and incorporation of appropriate criteria is critical to this process. However, this process is often complex and costly. Numerous policy related issues must be considered. This paper provides commentary on each of the technical papers included in this issue from a policy and operational perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and environmental justice across generations is a fundamental attribute of sustainable development. In this article, which is also a call for papers for a future theme in Public Money & Management (PMM), we develop our case for further research on how governments and public service organizations seek to address sustainable development in their decision-making processes. We believe that accounting for social and environmental aspects is an underdeveloped area of research and practice that is worthy of further critical enquiry. We therefore call on researchers and practitioners to submit their research to a themed issue of PMM on managing and accounting for sustainable development in public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this paper was to (1) present and critically reflect upon a national sport policy's implementation and monitoring process in a multi-level, multi-sectoral context from an insider's perspective and (2) provide recommendations for future research and policymakers regarding sport policy implementation and monitoring. Based on hundreds of documents (e.g. formal and personal meeting notes, formative and summative evaluation reports) gathered over the policy's lifespan, the paper critically reflects on the second Canadian Sport Policy's (CSP) implementation process between 2012 and 2022, which comprised grassroots, high performance, and sport for development goals, using the multiple governance framework. The reflection highlights key challenges for implementing a soft (national sport) policy in a complex, multi-level, multi-sectoral governance context, such as the normative soft policy seeing a 'policy for all' becoming a 'policy for no one', no stakeholder accountability per se, nor power for the policy intermediary to enforce implementation. This resulted in the CSP 2012's ceremonial attribution of success because any action could be seen as fitting within policy goals. The paper highlights the importance of (1) aligning policy development, implementation, and evaluation between macro and micro levels; (2) a more holistic policy implementation process analysis using in situ methods; (3) understanding the personal experiences, struggles, and tensions found within policy implementation to explain potential outcomes; (4) policy ambiguity and equifinality limiting policy implementation evaluation; (5) resources/dedicated funding as a policy implementation success driver; and (6) potential tools (e.g. use of outside experts, conceptual maps) for soft policy implementers/monitors and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the field of innovation studies, researchers have identified systematic failures that hamper investment in R&D, innovation, and growth. Accordingly, researchers in this field often seek to provide policy recommendations on how to alleviate these failures. However, previous discussions have often been lacking considerations to the risks of political failures, meaning that policies fail to achieve their stated goals in a systematic manner. In response to this gap, this article aims to illustrate the concept of political failure and its relevance for innovation research. This is done by both discussing how political failure can impact innovation policy and by reviewing the prevalence of any discussions of political failure among top-ranked journals on innovation for the period 2010–2019, a total of 7161 articles. The results show that consideration of political failure is scarce, with a small number of papers that have a substantial analysis of political failures. If the awareness of political failures could be increased, this could lead to better policy recommendations with a more nuanced discussion of the risks and limitations of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to examine two policies in an attempt to measure their impact and ascertain any potential trajectory from government-level agenda to borough-level contextualisation. Inspired by content analysis, but also taking into account the implementation of the documents, this study draws upon the Every Child Matters green paper (2003) as a government initiative and seeks to establish the progression route taken by one particular borough (Knowsley). Knowsley, a borough with high unemployment figures for school leavers, aims to address its problematic areas through policy implementation and strongly acknowledges the significance of Every Child Matters. The two policies looked at here are the government green paper Every Child Matters (2003) and Knowsley's Children and Young People's Strategic Plan 2007-2010 (2007). Both policies concern themselves with progression routes for young people and problematic areas are identified at an early age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Understanding how to make the world a better place requires interdisciplinary knowledge. Public policy analysis helps policymakers arrive at informed policy decisions. The policy analysis process involves public problem definition and data collection, stakeholder identification, a rationale for government involvement, evaluation criteria, identification and analysis of policy alternatives, and a recommendation. Economics informs not only the identification of market failures but also how we think about public problems, evaluate relevant research, identify policy alternatives, weigh objective criteria (costs, benefits, equity), and select optimal solutions. Students of policy analysis gain experience through in-class examples of contemporary topics and an iterative policy paper, where each student selects a public problem, conducts research, and writes an analysis. Students become effective consumers and beginning producers of policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

But replacing market processes (supported by relevant and reliable accounting information) with government allocation processes risks resource misallocation and dampens innovation and ultimately economic growth. The COVID-19 pandemic wrought profound changes in product and service markets which require a process of "creative destruction" that might be hindered by lack of a proper exit strategy from government interventions. They document firms' adjustments of their management controls in response to the COVID-19 crisis resulting in stronger action controls, more flexible result controls and weaker cultural controls. [Extracted from the article]

This paper focuses on the role of classroom observation in the development and assessment of schoolteachers in Vietnam through a narrative review of current policy and cognate research literature. The overall aim of this review was twofold. Firstly, to contribute to a growing bank of Vietnam-based studies to maximise the value of the insights from this scholarly work into recent policy reforms on teachers' professional development in Vietnam. Secondly, to widen access and exposure to published work on the topic in Vietnamese that is not readily accessible to English-speaking scholars. This review revealed a long history and engrained culture of using observation as a teacher performance evaluation tool. In recent years, there have been policy reforms and research studies that have repositioned observation as a tool for teacher learning and development. However, the implementation of these reforms has been inconsistent across Vietnam, along with recent reform having encountered resistance from a culture of compliance in schools. This paper identifies some of the key issues that policy makers and educational leaders need to address in practice in order to ensure the effective and meaningful implementation of the reforms relating to the use of observation for learning and developmental purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contends that rural communities in the United States and Europe broadly have been mainly studied as a dichotomy to their urban counterparts. The focus on cities and urban centers and an inculcation of myths and assumptions regarding ruralness have led to knowledge gaps, misperceptions, and missed opportunities in public administration and policy studies. This paper interrogates misconceptions about ruralness and refutes them. It identifies a gap in research agendas, knowledge, and scholarship about ruralness; explores issues with the design of policies and, therefore, policy implications concerning rural communities; and describes how the misconceptions, the lack of scholarly knowledge, and policy implications coalesce to drive a feeling of marginalization and exclusion in rural communities, fuelling a "culture war" dynamic. The conclusion offers potential directions for establishing a research agenda that prioritizes studying rural society as a subgroup with unique needs and belief systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to empirically investigate the macroeconomic effects of public policy on unemployment benefits. We address this issue by asking a simple question: How does public policy relating to unemployment benefits affect economic growth, productivity, and unemployment rate? We employ a dynamic panel VAR and perform a number of estimations, using data for several OECD countries. Overall, our results suggest that increases in unemployment benefits have both positive and adverse effects. In particular, we find that benefits generosity can increase output and productivity, but can also weakly raise unemployment rates in some cases. Our analysis in this paper calls into question the mainstream policy view of using reduction in unemployment benefits as a tool to improve macroeconomic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global commitments to the education of children with disabilities, have led to progressive policy developments in India, and a surge in the enrolment of children who were traditionally excluded from the formal education system. This paper examines the perceptions and practices of mainstream teachers in rural government schools, within the context of increased learner diversity, focusing on how teachers understand, and respond to, the needs of children with disabilities. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers and classroom observations, in six primary schools, in three districts of Haryana. Our findings suggest that deficit-oriented views dominated teacher thinking, but they showed a readiness to engage with disability issues, recognising the value of education for all. However, they struggled in their classroom practices in relation to meeting diverse learner needs and exclusionary practices were further amplified for children with disabilities. Teachers were unwilling to take responsibility for the learning of children with disabilities, expressing significant concerns about their own preparedness, while highlighting the lack of effective and appropriate support structures. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the pressing need for effective teacher professional development opportunities and other support structures, to provide quality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums have widely used digital technologies to expand their societal and cultural impact. In terms of their use of information technologies (IT), museums have evolved from initial experiments in the 1950s to a significant online presence today. In the process of digital transformation, museums have shaped their digital identity, aiming to expand their activities beyond museum walls with emerging new roles in the digital era. The concept of museums' digital identity is the focus of this paper. To articulate the concept, the theory of digital identity, the methodology of web history, the concept of virtual museums, and museum branding, are brought into consideration. The author articulates the concept of museums' digital identity and outlines a number of components at the collective and individual levels embodied in national strategies and policy documents relating to digital transformation, articulated in statements by museum associations, revealed in features of their online presence, and embedded in brand design. In the conclusion, the author raises questions about the driving force of museums in developing digital identity and the need to comprehensively analyse the multiplatform museum presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young citizens play a key role in providing a continuous blood supply for public health system. This paper examines the prosocial behavior of young non-blood donors and analyses motivations, barriers, anticipated emotions (AEs), and intention to donate of a sample of 1,626 Spanish non-donors belonging to Generation Z and millennials. Among the main conclusions, motivations and barriers are antecedents of the AEs. Particularly, motivations (external and internal) positively influence AEs that enhance blood donation and deter AEs of not donating. Barriers (external and/or external) positively influence AEs that deter blood donation and deter AEs that enhance blood donation. Findings also demonstrate the influence of AEs in predicting intention to donate, and thus in prosocial behavior. As different clusters of young non-donors coexist according to their motivations and barriers, the paper identifies the cluster that would reduce free-riders. Public policy may change citizens' behavior by changing AEs that deter blood donation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arab world faces serious challenges in the protection of human rights. Merely criticising government policies towards human rights has long meant risking one's freedom, if not life. Yet despite the myriad threats, there is a long and powerful history of efforts to address human rights from multiple perspectives that has largely been ignored outside the region (and even by many human rights scholars and practitioners within it), in good measure because most of it occurs in Arabic, which most international human rights scholars do not read. This paper critically reviews Arab human rights publications written in Arabic as a first attempt towards elucidating the diversity and depth of human rights literature in the Arab world for the broader field of human rights studies. Bringing this knowledge to the international human rights community is crucial to helping develop a human rights discourse in and for the Arab world that can positively impact research, advocacy and governance despite the broad environment of authoritarian retrenchment across the region. In so doing, our research offers new knowledge for developing human rights studies in trajectories that can have more direct impact on human rights struggles on the ground globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article critically examines the intersections of translanguaging, raciolinguistics, and curriculum studies within the context of Latin America. It interrogates how dominant discourses and practices perpetuate coloniality and linguistic hierarchies in the region. Through an analysis of a special issue of the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, the paper explores how emergent scholarship challenges the hegemony of Global English and disrupts colonial narratives embedded in national educational policies. By theorizing curriculum at the intersection of translanguaging, raciolinguistics, and sociopolitical contexts, this article advocates for a counter-curriculum that prioritizes the epistemic agency of historically excluded communities. Translanguaging practices emerge as a form of resistance, underscoring the role pedagogy plays in subverting dominant language ideologies. They challenge Eurocentric ways of knowing by advancing inclusive pedagogies rooted in local knowledges and linguistic diversity. Ultimately, the article advocates for a decolonial curriculum that prioritizes linguistic autonomy, cultural pluralism, and epistemic justice in Latin America and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we theorize the 2016 Brexit referendum as a critical juncture in UK politics and analyse its effects on devolution using the concept of regional authority. We argue that Brexit raised the option of re-balancing the self-rule and shared rule dimensions of regional authority present in UK devolution. We generate hypotheses regarding parties' territorial strategies and test them against a content analysis of 2015 and 2017 UK general election manifestos. We demonstrate that proposals dealing with shared rule grew between 2015 and 2017, within the context of consistency in parties' overall territorial positioning. The governing Conservatives also offered more proposals on shared rule but not ones that increased devolved influence. Overall, they moved from favouring an increase in regional authority in 2015 to the cusp of maintaining existing regional authority and somewhat reducing it in 2017. This helps to explain whypost-Brexit UK government policy in practice maintained a primary focus on self-rule within a general approach of limiting the further growth of regional authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new form of volunteer-based intervention is mushrooming across Europe: social mentoring. Such programmes turn 'ordinary' citizens into mentors for individuals from disadvantaged groups. Related initiatives are becoming more institutionalised and social mentoring has gained popularity as a social policy measure, especially in the face of crises. However, the social work discussion has taken little notice of this burgeoning phenomenon adjoining our professional field. There is a lack of concepts and data that could fuel a debate at the intersection of mentoring for social inclusion, human services, and welfare policies. This paper presents a first attempt to outline what social mentoring means, why social work should engage with it and how we can research into it. It offers theoretical reflection on ongoing developments in the EU, based on observation of the literature and field. To expand the available knowledge, it is suggested that research should pay equal attention to all three constituent elements of the topic: personal relationships, programmes, and policies. In line with critical traditions, this paper suggests a holistic, multi-scalar perspective that is sensitive to social inequalities and power imbalances, while also embracing innovative and transformative aspects of social mentoring as a 'popular' form of social problems work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

\nHIGHLIGHTSThe development of education for older adults through policy measures has become an important means for governments to actively cope with population aging. Taking the number of education policies for older adults adopted in 31 provinces of China from 2016 to 2023 as an example, this study empirically analyzes the factors influencing the diffusion of education policies from dimensions of internal tension and external pressure. The results showed that the level of economic development, natural population growth rate, older adults dependency ratio, child dependency ratio, illiterate population over 15 years old, number of local libraries inside the province and the adoption of education policies for older adults in adjacent provinces significantly affected the adoption of education policies for older adults in each province. After the introduction of regional variables, it is found that there are significant differences in the adoption of education policies for older adults by provincial governments in different regions of China. The policy responsiveness of eastern provinces is the best, followed by the central, and the western is the worst. The above results indicate that provincial governments in China are not only affected by the supply level of education services for older adults and their service demand within the province, but also affected by the adoption behavior of other provinces when making decisions, which is the result of rational thinking and competitive pressure. The above results provide China’s experience for the diffusion and implementation of education policies for older adults in a wider range. The research focus of education policy for older adults is shifted from the content, value demands and implementation effects of central policy texts to the innovation and diffusion of policies at the local level, which expands the theoretical vision of education policy research for older adults. The empirical analysis results of this paper show that the combination of the education policy for older adults with the internal tension factors and external competitive pressure such as provincial economic level, population transition trend and public service resources can actively promote a new perspective to carry out research on the policy response of Chinese local governments. It will help to form a detailed and concrete understanding of the effect of local policy innovation in China.This paper expands the applicability of contemporary policy diffusion theory in non-Western countries by examining the diffusion factors that influence Chinese provincial education policies for older adults. It is proposed that when explaining the phenomenon of policy diffusion in China’s local governments, we should not only focus on the economic conditions of the internal jurisdiction and the external diffusion effect emphasized by the existing theories, but also pay attention to the current background of population transition, China’s inter-governmental relations, and even the influence of the official personnel system. These findings provide new theoretical space and application prospects for the research on the diffusion of local government policy innovation.This paper has the following implications for further promoting the reform and innovation of education for older adults in China: First, the empirical results further highlight the value of education for older adults to develop and utilize human resources, and urge us to associate the practice of education for older adults with the evaluation indicators related to economic increase such as retraining and reemployment, and accelerate the innovation and diffusion of education policies for older adults; Second, the ultimate goal of the diffusion of education policies for older adults is to achieve policy results. Therefore, the provincial government should formulate ‘local’ education policies for older adults that meet the needs of the provincial population and avoid mechanical imitation or blind competition between the central government and other provincial policies. Third, it is necessary to further improve the utilization of provincial public service resources, including the use of museums and library resources to launch education for older adults.The research focus of education policy for older adults is shifted from the content, value demands and implementation effects of central policy texts to the innovation and diffusion of policies at the local level, which expands the theoretical vision of education policy research for older adults. The empirical analysis results of this paper show that the combination of the education policy for older adults with the internal tension factors and external competitive pressure such as provincial economic level, population transition trend and public service resources can actively promote a new perspective to carry out research on the policy response of Chinese local governments. It will help to form a detailed and concrete understanding of the effect of local policy innovation in China.This paper expands the applicability of contemporary policy diffusion theory in non-Western countries by examining the diffusion factors that influence Chinese provincial education policies for older adults. It is proposed that when explaining the phenomenon of policy diffusion in China’s local governments, we should not only focus on the economic conditions of the internal jurisdiction and the external diffusion effect emphasized by the existing theories, but also pay attention to the current background of population transition, China’s inter-governmental relations, and even the influence of the official personnel system. These findings provide new theoretical space and application prospects for the research on the diffusion of local government policy innovation.This paper has the following implications for further promoting the reform and innovation of education for older adults in China: First, the empirical results further highlight the value of education for older adults to develop and utilize human resources, and urge us to associate the practice of education for older adults with the evaluation indicators related to economic increase such as retraining and reemployment, and accelerate the innovation and diffusion of education policies for older adults; Second, the ultimate goal of the diffusion of education policies for older adults is to achieve policy results. Therefore, the provincial government should formulate ‘local’ education policies for older adults that meet the needs of the provincial population and avoid mechanical imitation or blind competition between the central government and other provincial policies. Third, it is necessary to further improve the utilization of provincial public service resources, including the use of museums and library resources to launch education for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]