Institutional Context (institutional + context)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences


Selected Abstracts


Making Sense of Gender in Shifting Institutional Contexts: Some Reflections on Gender Mainstreaming

IDS BULLETIN, Issue 4 2004
Ramya Subrahmanian
First page of article [source]


Emerging Markets as Learning Laboratories: Learning Behaviors of Local Firms and Foreign Entrants in Different Institutional Contexts

MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2005
Michael A. Hitt
abstract In this work, we examine and integrate the research streams on learning behaviours of both local firms and foreign entrants in emerging markets. We propose that local firms and foreign entrants differ in the types of learning pursued and in the learning processes used. While emerging market firms engage in a significant amount of exploratory learning, they also attempt to exploit the newly gained knowledge in their current markets. Furthermore, foreign entrants engage in exploitative learning as expected but also must participate in exploratory learning to acquire knowledge of culture, institutional norms, and important social relationships. While much of the learning occurs through cooperative processes with both partners, they also each engage in experiential learning. We argue that emerging markets also differ; firms in the more mature emerging markets seek different types of learning and the learning processes used vary compared to those in less mature emerging markets. Our research suggests that emerging markets represent learning laboratories and provide a base to catalyse future research. [source]


Multiple judgments: Institutional context and part-time faculty

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES, Issue 140 2007
John S. Levin
Part-time faculty are best understood as extensions of institutional identity. In the twenty-first century, the identity of community colleges makes part-time faculty central to the organization's goals. [source]


Public and stakeholder participation in European water policy: a critical review of project evaluation processes

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2006
Nuno Videira
Abstract The recent reform of the European water policy recognizes the importance of developing effective mechanisms to support public and stakeholder participation in river basin decision-making processes. This paper critically reviews the evaluation processes of different types of water related project in five European countries (Portugal, Greece, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Spain), with respect to participatory criteria. The horizontal comparison of these cases accounted for criteria such as the political and institutional context, the design, the implementation and the evaluation of the outcomes of participation. The results indicated that, in the majority of the case studies, participation was simply adopted to conform to the requisites of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. Thus, there was truly no room for the active involvement and collaboration of the interested parties. The development of guidelines, drawing from the analysis of past experiences, is expected to support the implementation of the participatory objectives of the EU water policy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Learning Spaces: an ICT-enabled model of future learning in the Knowledge-based Society

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2007
YVES PUNIE
This article presents elements of a future vision of learning in the knowledge-based society which is enabled by ICT. It is not only based on extrapolations from trends and drivers that are shaping learning in Europe but also consists of a holistic attempt to envisage and anticipate future learning needs and requirements in the KBS. The ,learning spaces' vision puts learners at the centre of learning, but, at the same time, conceives learning as a social process. The potential of ICT-enabled learning spaces can only be realised, however, if it is embedded in a social and institutional context that is open to innovation and supported by a favourable policy environment. [source]


Migrant mobilization between political institutions and citizenship regimes: A comparison of France and Switzerland

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004
Marco Giugni
This article focuses on the political claims made by immigrants and ethnic minorities in France and Switzerland. We look at cross-national variations in the overall presence of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the national public space, and the forms and content of their claims. Following a political opportunity approach, we argue that claim-making is affected both by institutional opportunities and by national models of citizenship. The civic-assimilationist conception of citizenship in France gives migrants greater legitimacy to intervene in the national public space. Furthermore, the inclusive definition of ,membership in the national community' favors claims pertaining to minority integration politics. However, the pressure toward assimilation to the republican norms and values tends to provoke claims for the recognition of ethnic and cultural difference. Finally, closed institutional opportunities push migrants' mobilization to become more radical, but at the same time the more inclusive model of citizenship favors a moderate action repertoire of migrants. Conversely, the ethnic-assimilationist view in Switzerland leads migrants to stress homeland-related claims. When they do address the policy field of ethnic relations, immigration and citizenship, they focus on issues pertaining to the entry and stay in the host society. Finally, the forms of action are more moderate due to the more open institutional context, but at the same time the action repertoire of migrants is moderated by the more exclusive model of citizenship. Our article is an attempt to specify the concept of ,political opportunity structure', and to combine institutional and cultural factors in explaining claim-making by immigrants and ethnic minorities. We confront our arguments with data from a comparative project on the mobilization on ethnic relations, citizenship and immigration. [source]


MULTILEVEL FRAMING: AN ALTERNATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF BUDGET CONTROL IN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2010
Lars Fallan
This paper addresses the question as to why there tends to be recurring budget deviations in public sector service organizations. In the public sector, budgets and actuals are loosely coupled, and budgets may serve other institutional functions than control purposes. However, little research has addressed how the framing of budget information may explain the different functions of the budgets as control devices. The paper argues that the valence of budget deviations varies between organizations, and that organizations that have a positively oriented valence towards budget surpluses have a propensity to underspend the budgets. Consequently, organizations that have a positively oriented valence towards budget deficits tend to overspend the budgets. The empirical part analyses the budget situations in the Central Bank of Norway and in a large university hospital in Norway. In the case of the Bank, it was found that underspending of budgets was framed as performance measures indicating high organizational efficiency. The Hospital, on the other hand, showed a different picture as budget deficits were the situation during all years studied. One main finding was the key actors' roles as translators of the society's expectations as to the fulfilling of the organizations' missions. These translators function as mediators between the institutional context and pressures, the organizations' goals and the internal budget processes. The conventional wisdom that the budget also acts as a means of communication and as symbols and ritual acts that reflect the institutional contingencies of the organizations, is further developed by describing how organizations' goals valence the role of budgets. [source]


Private Actors and the State: Internationalization and Changing Patterns of Governance

GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2002
Christoph Knill
This article investigates the implications of political and economic internationalization on patterns of governance from a statecentric perspective. The actual patterns of governance in internationalized environments can be related to the respective governance capacity of public and private actors, which hinges in turn on the strategic constellation underlying the provision of a public good. The specific strategic constellation varies in three dimensions: the congruence between the scope of the underlying problem and the organizational structures of the related actors, the type of problem, and the institutional context, all of which involve a number of factors. With this concept in mind, we identify four ideal-typed patterns of governance, enabled by different configurations of public and private capacities to formally or factually influence in various ways the social, economic, and political processes by which certain goods are provided. [source]


Hospital ownership and quality of care: what explains the different results in the literature?

HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 12 2008
Karen Eggleston
Abstract This systematic review examines what factors explain the diversity of findings regarding hospital ownership and quality. We identified 31 observational studies written in English since 1990 that used multivariate analysis to examine quality of care at nonfederal general acute, short-stay US hospitals. We find that pooled estimates of ownership effects are sensitive to the subset of studies included and the extent of overlap among hospitals analyzed in the underlying studies. Ownership does appear to be systematically related to differences in quality among hospitals in several contexts. Whether studies find for-profit and government-controlled hospitals to have higher mortality rates or rates of adverse events than their nonprofit counterparts depends on data sources, time period, and region covered. Policymakers should be aware of the underlying reasons for conflicting evidence in this literature, and the strengths and weaknesses of meta-analytic synthesis. The ,true' effect of ownership appears to depend on institutional context, including differences across regions, markets, and over time. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Modernising pay in the UK public services: trends and implications

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010
Stephen J. Perkins
The emerging character of the UK government's public sector pay reforms during the second and third (New) Labour terms of office is reviewed and contextualised. Three settings are examined where pay reform has been actively employed , with the accent on harmonisation, simplification and devolution of practice, with the express intention of restoring public service workforce morale, while improving services to clients , namely, local government, the National Health Service and the Higher Education sector. The evidence is interpreted as illustrating undoubted change, but also significant areas where progress has been less than intended, measured against the government's original programme goals. Equal pay considerations appear to have dominated all three projects reviewed: the failure to date of public sector managements to capitalise on opportunities the new pay architecture affords them to change local working practices may be attributed to a combination of factors discussed in the article. These have given rise to tensions as efforts have been pursued to transplant private sector pay techniques, somewhat hastily in some cases, without due consideration of the institutional context within which public services and proximal institutions function. [source]


Institutional Change and Union Membership: A Longitudinal Analysis of Union Membership Determinants in Israel

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2000
Gedaliahu H. Harel
We examine the degree to which factors associated with workers' union membership decisions are sensitive to shifts in the institutional environment of unions. Comparative logit analyses of the relationship between potential determinants of membership and actual union membership over time suggestthat the factors associated with membership are elastic and may reflect shifts in the institutional context of unions. [source]


The issue of gender within computing: reflections from the UK and Scandinavia

INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2001
Maxine Robertson
Abstract. Thispaper explores some of the reasons that may underlie the gender segregation and declining levels of female participation within the field of computing in Europe during the 1990s in both the professional (industrial) and academic spheres. The interrelationships between three areas , communicative processes, social networks and legitimizing claims to knowledge overlaid by gendered-power relations , are used to analyse and explain the existing situation. The paper draws upon statistical data to explore the extent of gender segregation and then focuses on the authors' own experiences within the UK and Scandinavia in order to explore some of the underlying causes. While direct discrimination does still occur, the paper suggests that indirect, deep-rooted discrimination is the major reason for the situation that currently exists. Drawing upon our own experiences in academia and business and acknowledging the importance of the institutional context, the paper offers a number of recommendations as to how the current situation may be improved. We suggest first that consideration is given to the pedagogical design and marketing of computing courses so that individuals are initially attracted to computing from far more diverse backgrounds, approaches and interests than at present. Second, we suggest that those with influence in the field reflect upon the constitution and behaviours of the informal networks in which they are involved and seek to include female researchers more actively here. Finally we suggest that consideration is given in more general terms to how the field may become more gender neutral and, thus, more inclusive in the future. Masculine discourses and ,hard' skills have dominated within computing for too long and contribute significantly to the declining participation of women within computing. [source]


Bono Made Jesse Helms Cry: Jubilee 2000, Debt Relief, and Moral Action in International Politics

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2007
JOSHUA WILLIAM BUSBY
Do states and decision-makers ever act for moral reasons? And if they do, is it only when it is convenient or relatively costless for them to do so? A number of advocacy movements,on developing country debt relief, climate change, landmines, and other issues,emerged in the 1990s to ask decision-makers to make foreign policy decisions on that basis. The primary advocates were motivated not by their own material interests but broader notions of right and wrong. What contributes to the domestic acceptance of these moral commitments? Why do some advocacy efforts succeed where others fail? Through a case study of the Jubilee 2000 campaign for developing country debt relief, this article offers an account of persuasion based on strategic framing by advocates to get the attention of decision-makers. Such strategic but not narrowly self-interested activity allows weak actors to leverage existing value and/or ideational traditions to build broader political coalitions. This article, through case studies of debt relief in the United States and Japan, also links the emerging literature on strategic framing to the domestic institutional context and the ways veto players or "policy gatekeepers" evaluate trade-offs between costs and values. [source]


Coalition Cabinet Decision Making: Institutional and Psychological Factors,

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 1 2008
Juliet Kaarbo
This essay reviews the intersection between institutional and psychological conditions that occurs in multiparty coalition cabinets and the effects on foreign policy and decision making. Parallel research in social psychology and foreign policy can provide clues to the underlying mechanisms linking institutional context to policymaking and policy choices. The psychological processes involved in group polarization, persuasion, and other influence strategies as well as psychological factors affecting the quality of decision making are important in coalition cabinets and are reinforced by the particular institutional dynamics of multiparty governance. Indeed, this essay proposes that future research focus on contingency factors in the policymaking process, given the competing views on the effects of multiple advocacy on the quality of decision making and on the types of foreign policies associated with multiparty cabinets. More broadly, this essay supports the view that a highly structural understanding of the effects of institutions on politics and policies is incomplete and that research on the interplay among structures and human agents is critical. [source]


From GATT to the WTO: The Internal Struggle for External Competences in the EU

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 5 2006
STIJN BILLIET
Despite the rise of ,mixity', the Commission is nonetheless the key European player in the WTO, even regarding issues that are not exclusive EC competences. While established integration theories struggle to explain this phenomenon, this article argues that the external institutional context should be brought into the analysis. [source]


The use of conversational analysis: nurse,patient interaction in communication disability after stroke

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 3 2009
Clare Gordon
Abstract Title., The use of conversational analysis: nurse,patient interaction in communication disability after stroke. Aim., This paper is a report of a study to explore how nursing staff and patients with aphasia or dysarthria communicate with each other in natural interactions on a specialist stroke ward. Background., Nursing staff often talk with patients in a functional manner, using minimal social or affective communication. Little nursing research has been carried out with patients who have communication difficulties. Conversational analysis, used in other healthcare settings, is a way to explore these interactions in depth in order to gain further understanding of the communication process. Method., An observational study was carried out in 2005 and the data were 35·5 hours of videotape recording and field notes with 14 nursing staff and five patients with aphasia or dysarthria. The recordings were analysed using conversation analysis. Findings., Nursing staff controlled the conversations by controlling the topic and flow of conversations, creating asymmetry in all interactions. Patients had very little input because of taking short turns and responding to closed questions. These behaviours are related to the institutional context in which they occur. Conclusion., In rehabilitation, the focus for interaction may be thought to be patient goals, worries or plans for the future, but in this study nursing staff controlled the conversations around nursing tasks. This may be because they do not have the confidence to hold conversations with people with communication problems. Nursing staff need to receive training to reinforce communication rehabilitation programmes and to engage more fully with patients in their care, but also that a wider institutional culture of partnership is developed on stroke wards. [source]


The interpreter as institutional gatekeeper: The social-linguistic role of interpreters in Spanish-English medical discourse

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2000
Brad Davidson
Increases in immigration have led to an enormous growth in the number of cross-linguistic medical encounters taking place throughout the United States. In this article the role of hospital-based interpreters in cross-linguistic, internal medicine ,medical interviews' is examined. The interpreter's actions are analyzed against the historical and institutional context within which she is working, and also with an eye to the institutional goals that frame the patient-physician discourse. Interpreters are found not to be acting as ,neutral' machines of semantic conversion, but are rather shown to be active participants in the process of diagnosis. Since this process hinges on the evaluation of social and medical relevance of patient contributions to the discourse, the interpreter can be seen as an additional institutional gatekeeper for the recent immigrants for whom she is interpreting. Cross-linguistic medical interviews may also be viewed as a form of cross-cultural interaction; in this light, the larger political ramifications of the interpreters' actions are explored. ,Interpreters are the most powerful people in a medical conversation.' Head of Interpreting Services at a major private U.S. hospital, May 1999. [source]


Constructions of competence within dietetics: Trust, professionalism and communications with individual clients

NUTRITION & DIETETICS, Issue 2 2009
Robyn CANT
Abstract Aim:, Issues of trust are important factors that affect communication in professional,client relationships. This paper aims to explore trust in communication from the viewpoint of both clients (the truster) and dietitians. Methods:, The qualitative research techniques were based on grounded theory. Purposive samples of 46 dietitians and 34 of their adult outpatients were drawn from health services (hospitals, community services and private clinics) in one state of Australia. Clients from eight centres were aged from 21 to 80+ years. Audio-recorded in-depth interviews and focus groups were used to gather data. Transcribed narratives were open-coded and examined for deviant cases. Themes identified in dietitian and client data sets describing clients' trust were compared. Results:, The themes identified confirmed a typology of trust (from the perspective of the truster) present in the health care literature. Clients' trust was derived from institutional context or reputation. Interpersonal trust perceived in verbal and non-verbal communications with a dietitian were in evidence. Dietitians' value attributes of integrity and respect were identified as traits that help build trust and demonstrate dietitians' professionalism. The findings were built into a concept model of trust. Conclusions:, Behaviours shown that convey a sense of acceptance, understanding and individual management may lead to positive communication, and hence help build a client's trust in a professional. The link between trust, performance and dietetics clients' outcomes should be investigated further. [source]


Critical Mass, Deliberation and the Substantive Representation of Women: Evidence from the UK's Devolution Programme

POLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2006
Paul Chaney
This article provides empirical evidence to support recent assertions that the substantive representation of women depends not only on the numbers of women elected representatives in national legislatures, but also who they are. In this case study of one of the UK's devolved legislatures, analysis was undertaken of the transcripts of 327 plenary debates held during the first term of the National Assembly for Wales, where women constituted 42 percent of elected members (1999,2003). The gender dynamics of political debate around key equality topics reveal that the link between descriptive and substantive representation of women is complex. When a ,critical mass' of women is achieved the substantive representation of women is affirmed as ,probabilistic' rather than ,deterministic' for it is shaped by the institutional context, the gender dynamics of debate and, importantly, the actions of individual ,equality champions'. While women representatives exhibited a greater propensity to advance gender equality in debate than their male colleagues, the present findings also show the disproportionate influence of ,equality champions': women who are able to draw upon earlier feminist activism and act as ,strategic insiders' who make a difference to women's issues in a parliamentary context. [source]


Capacity development for education service delivery in Pakistan: Top-down devolution

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2010
David Watson
Abstract The historical, political, socio-cultural and institutional context in the public service of Pakistan is not auspicious for the delivery of social services such as education. The then military regime introduced radical devolution reforms in 2001 that promised improvements in service delivery by enhancing accountabilities and capacities for change in local government. However the political economy of this top-down devolution has proved contentious. It established new power structures and authorities over resources at local levels but without concurrent efforts to enhance service delivery capacities. This article examines capacity issues in two cases of capacity development in education service delivery in Pakistan's largest province. The Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme (PESRP) was managed by a provincial-level implementation unit; the Strategic Policy Unit (SPU) of City District Government Faisalabad was a local government project supported by technical co-operation. Both delivered major improvements in education delivery capacity in just 4 years, after decades of delivery stagnation and worsening education indicators. The sustainability of these initiatives is in doubt, as political economy factors remain a major impediment to devolved service delivery in Pakistan. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


From policy lessons to policy actions: motivation to take evaluation seriously

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2004
Gustavo Gordillo
The purpose of this article is to analyse the institutional aspects of creating effective systems for monitoring and evaluations (M&E) in government-led rural development efforts in developing countries. We argue that the ultimate challenge of creating effective M&E systems for public policy is not only related to the supply of information and the delivery of new knowledge to policy makers, but more importantly to their demand for lessons learnt about the effects of earlier policies. The challenge, then, is for governments to construct institutional arrangements that support the transformation of policy lessons into policy actions. This article shows that the likelihood of this transformation is closely related to the capacity of institutions to deliver mechanisms for downward accountability and processes for organisational learning. We add to earlier work in this area by considering the conditions under which such a transformation process is more or less likely, given the severe power and information asymmetries that characterise the institutional context of many developing countries' national governments. We use the tools of institutional analysis to examine the incentive structures of the actors involved in two concrete field settings, and assess to what extent these actors are likely to take evaluations seriously. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Multinationals and institutional competitiveness

REGULATION & GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2007
Peer Hull Kristensen
Abstract This article discusses how institutional competitiveness and multinationals are mutually enriching concepts. Multinationals transfer capital, technology, and knowledge into new settings. They allow subsidiaries access to new markets, new resources, and new processes. Potentially, therefore, institutional competitiveness can be increased by the presence of multinational corporations (MNCs) and their subsidiaries. However, this depends on the type of multinational and the type of institutional context. By differentiating two types of MNC in terms of short-term and long-term orientations to investment, and two types of host institutional setting in terms of strength of institutional complementarities and interconnectedness, we develop a typology of four types of interaction between MNCs and institutional settings. We then analyze how each type influences institutional competitiveness. We conclude that these outcomes, while structurally shaped, are still dependent on how actors (individuals, firms, collective organizations, and governments) strategize to develop institutional frameworks in the context of highly competitive global markets. [source]


Local Institutions and the Politics of Urban Growth

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2009
Mark Lubell
This article uses a political market framework to analyze how the structure of local political institutions affects the relative political influence of development and environmental interests in the context of urban growth. Using panel data from 406 Florida cities from 1998 to 2003, the empirical analysis finds important interaction effects between the structure of city executive branch institutions and interest group variables. The economic and political forces driving urban growth do not operate identically in all cities,they vary as a function of institutional context. Institutional structure helps determine which interest groups have their preferences reflected in local land-use changes and development patterns. The resulting patterns suggest a "sustainability paradox" wherein richer, environmental interests push for the preservation of environmental amenities while at the same time accelerating the number of residential units built in a community. [source]


Laïcité and multiculturalism: the Stasi Report in context1

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Murat Akan
Abstract French republican universalism , expressed most strongly in the principle and practice of laïcité, and multiculturalism have constituted opposite poles on questions of citizenship and integration. The report of the Stasi Commission on laïcité on 11 December 2003 and the following legislation on the donning of religious symbols in French public schools have once again, spurred debates over the meanings and practices of laïcité. The report and the law have been interpreted in different ways. Some have presented them as a reaffirmation of a historically constituted laïcité under new circumstances, others as a divergence from the real problems of racism, unemployment and gender inequality. In this article, I offer an alternative reading by supplementing a critical reading of the report with an analysis of its historical and immediate institutional context. I evaluate the Stasi Report in its immediate context of institutional change, and in the historical context of selected developments concerning laïcité since the 1905 law separating churches and State. I argue that the Stasi Report marks a fundamental break with French republican universalism, and I show that this break occurred contemporaneously with key gestures of multiculturalism: the establishment of the French Muslim Council and the creation of Muslim high schools under contract with the French state. This double movement to narrow the boundaries of laïcité, and for the state to expand the boundaries of identity-specific, Muslim public institutions and private schooling constitutes a reorganization of the public sphere in France which qualifies as a move towards multiculturalism. [source]


Change over Tenure: Voting, Variance, and Decision Making on the U.S. Courts of Appeals

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2008
Erin B. Kaheny
Existing scholarship on the voting behavior of U.S. Courts of Appeals judges finds that their decisions are best understood as a function of law, policy preferences, and factors relating to the institutional context of the circuit court. What previous studies have failed to consider, however, is that the ability to predict circuit judge decisions can vary in substantively important ways and that judges, in different stages of their careers, may behave distinctively. This article develops a theoretical framework which conceptualizes career stage to account for variability in voting by circuit judges and tests hypotheses by modeling the error variance in a vote choice model. The findings indicate that judges are more predictable in their voting during their early and late career stages. Case characteristics and institutional features of the circuit also affect voting consistency. [source]


Structure and Opportunity: Committee Jurisdiction and Issue Attention in Congress

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2006
Adam D. Sheingate
This article explores how the congressional committee system shapes the dynamics of issue attention. Consisting of what is referred to as a congressional opportunity structure, it describes how committee jurisdictions provide an important institutional context for the attention paid to new issues in congressional hearings. This is illustrated through an examination of congressional attention to biotechnology over a 30-year period. This article finds that committees with broader jurisdictions were more active in biotechnology than committees with a narrow policy remit. However, these institutional effects varied widely, even within a single policy domain. This variation suggests that issue attention depends on the degree of fit between issue characteristics and the congressional opportunity structure. More broadly, the findings here illustrate the virtues of public policy research in studies of Congress. [source]


Public Health in the Emergency Department: Overcoming Barriers to Implementation and Dissemination

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 11 2009
Mary Pat McKay MD
Abstract This article is the outcome of a consensus building workshop entitled, "Overcoming Barriers to Implementation and Dissemination" convened at the 2009 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference, ,,Public Health in the ED: Surveillance, Screening, and Intervention." The participants were asked to address potential methods for overcoming barriers to the dissemination and implementation in the emergency department (ED) of evidenced-based practices to improve public health. The panel discussed three broad areas of interest including methods for disseminating evidence-based practices, barriers encountered during the process of implementation, and the importance of involvement in activities outside the ED including engagement in policy development and improvement. Four recommendations were discussed in detail and consensus was reached. The recommendations included 1) researchers and advocates should disseminate findings through multiple forums beyond peer-reviewed publications when an ED-based public health intervention has enough evidence to support integration into the routine practice of emergency care; 2) local barriers to implementation of public health interventions should be recognized and well understood from multiple perspectives prior to implementation; 3) innovation must be put into place and adapted based on local institutional context and culture as barriers and the best methods for overcoming them will vary across institutions; and 4) use of legislation, regulation, and incentives outside of the ED should support and strengthen ED-based interventions. For each area of interest, research dimensions to extend the current understanding of methods for effectively and efficiently implementing evidence-based public health interventions in the ED were discussed and consensus was achieved. [source]


The Devil is in the (Bio)diversity: Private Sector "Engagement" and the Restructuring of Biodiversity Conservation

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2010
Kenneth Iain MacDonald
Abstract:, Intensified relations between biodiversity conservation organizations and private-sector actors are analyzed through a historical perspective that positions biodiversity conservation as an organized political project. Within this view the organizational dimensions of conservation exist as coordinated agreement and action among a variety of actors that take shape within radically asymmetrical power relations. This paper traces the privileged position of "business" in aligning concepts of sustainable development and ecological modernization within the emerging institutional context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Environment Facility in ways that help to secure continued access to "nature as capital", and create the institutional conditions to shape the work of conservation organizations. The contemporary emergence of business as a major actor in shaping contemporary biodiversity conservation is explained in part by the organizational characteristics of modernist conservation that subordinates it to larger societal and political projects such as neoliberal capitalism. [source]


Place-based social exclusion: redlining in the Netherlands

AREA, Issue 1 2005
Manuel B Aalbers
,Redlining' is a form of place-based exclusion. It is widely documented in the US, but not in Europe. This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of redlining practices in the two largest cities of the Netherlands: Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It shows that redlining was common practice in Rotterdam in 1999. In 2001, no signs of redlining were found in Rotterdam. However, ,yellowlining' (lower loan-to-value ratios) was still common in some parts of Rotterdam. In Amsterdam, no neighbourhoods were faced with redlining in either 1999 or 2001. However, in 1999 some neighbourhoods were yellowlined. This paper aims to get a better understanding of the nature and the institutional context of redlining in the Netherlands by explaining how the differences in redlining practices between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and between 1999 and 2001, can be explained. The National Mortgage Guarantee as well as socio-historical, and housing and mortgage market differences and changes, are instrumental in explaining these differences in redlining practices. [source]


Is There a Third Way for Industrial Relations?

BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2004
Chris Howell
There has been little systematic analysis of what the ,Third Way' means in the sphere of industrial relations. This paper examines the record of the New Labour government in order to evaluate the distinctiveness, innovation and coherence of its industrial relations policy. It argues that many of the limitations of this policy result from the institutional context within which it was introduced. In comparative perspective, Third Way industrial relations can be thought of as a policy adaptation specific to centre,left governments in weakly co-ordinated liberal market economies. [source]