Eda Kranakis
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199241057
- eISBN:
- 9780191714290
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241057.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
The first section of the chapter provides an overview of European institutions, particularly the Common Market, known formally as the European Economic Community (EEC). This overview highlights the ...
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The first section of the chapter provides an overview of European institutions, particularly the Common Market, known formally as the European Economic Community (EEC). This overview highlights the legal foundations on which European industrial policy was built, and the institutional dynamics that shaped its path of development. The section titled ‘The Emergence of SRI Policy within the EEC, 1960-1965’ surveys the emergence of European industrial policy in the period from 1960 through 1965; the section on ‘Years of Revolution’ looks at the period 1966-1967, when a political crisis rocked the Community and fundamental conceptual changes occurred in the realm of technology policy; the next section looks at the period 1968-1970, which witnessed a further Community crisis and a ‘relaunch’ of European technology policy in CDP; and the section on ‘Unidata, 1971-1975’ traces the emergence of Unidata, its structure, and its ultimate demise in that period. Finally, the relationship between European technology policy in CDP and the history of Unidata is summarized.Less
The first section of the chapter provides an overview of European institutions, particularly the Common Market, known formally as the European Economic Community (EEC). This overview highlights the legal foundations on which European industrial policy was built, and the institutional dynamics that shaped its path of development. The section titled ‘The Emergence of SRI Policy within the EEC, 1960-1965’ surveys the emergence of European industrial policy in the period from 1960 through 1965; the section on ‘Years of Revolution’ looks at the period 1966-1967, when a political crisis rocked the Community and fundamental conceptual changes occurred in the realm of technology policy; the next section looks at the period 1968-1970, which witnessed a further Community crisis and a ‘relaunch’ of European technology policy in CDP; and the section on ‘Unidata, 1971-1975’ traces the emergence of Unidata, its structure, and its ultimate demise in that period. Finally, the relationship between European technology policy in CDP and the history of Unidata is summarized.
Dorothy McBride Stetson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242665
- eISBN:
- 9780191600258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242666.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The introduction describes in full the comparative politics research design developed by the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State and used to study the role of women's policy agencies as ...
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The introduction describes in full the comparative politics research design developed by the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State and used to study the role of women's policy agencies as allies or adversaries of women's movement activists in influencing abortion policy and politics. The theoretical foundation integrates several theoretical strands: democratic representation, new institutionalism, and social movement impact. The chapter describes the network's theory of state feminism and provides a primer on the comparative method in policy research.Less
The introduction describes in full the comparative politics research design developed by the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State and used to study the role of women's policy agencies as allies or adversaries of women's movement activists in influencing abortion policy and politics. The theoretical foundation integrates several theoretical strands: democratic representation, new institutionalism, and social movement impact. The chapter describes the network's theory of state feminism and provides a primer on the comparative method in policy research.
Erica Bell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199549337
- eISBN:
- 9780191720635
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549337.003.012
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion on the purpose of the book, which is to provide readers with the ‘hands-on’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to deliver research for ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion on the purpose of the book, which is to provide readers with the ‘hands-on’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to deliver research for health policy, in the government, not-for-profit, and private sectors. It focuses on describing research for health policy in a heuristic, practice-based way. The chapter then discusses two assertions underpinning the approach in the book and three different kinds of sources used throughout the volume.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion on the purpose of the book, which is to provide readers with the ‘hands-on’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to deliver research for health policy, in the government, not-for-profit, and private sectors. It focuses on describing research for health policy in a heuristic, practice-based way. The chapter then discusses two assertions underpinning the approach in the book and three different kinds of sources used throughout the volume.
Frank Fischer
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242641
- eISBN:
- 9780191599255
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924264X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
In recent years a set of new ‘postempiricist’ approaches to public policy, drawing on discursive analysis and participatory deliberative practices, have come to challenge the dominant technocratic, ...
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In recent years a set of new ‘postempiricist’ approaches to public policy, drawing on discursive analysis and participatory deliberative practices, have come to challenge the dominant technocratic, empiricist models in policy analysis. In this book, Frank Fischer brings together this work for the first time and critically examines its implications for the field of public policy studies. He describes the theoretical, methodological and political dimensions of this emerging approach to policy research. The book includes a discussion of the social construction of policy problems, the role of interpretation and narrative analysis in policy inquiry, the dialectics of policy argumentation, and the uses of participatory policy analysis. After an introductory chapter, ten further chapters are arranged in four parts: Part I, Public Policy and the Discursive Construction of Reality (two chapters), introduces the re-emergence of interest in ideas and discourse. It then turns to the postempiricist or constructionist view of social reality, presenting public policy as a discursive construct that turns on multiple interpretations. Part II, Public Policy as Discursive Politics (two chapters), examines more specifically the nature of discursive politics and discourse theory and illustrates through a particular disciplinary debate the theoretical, methodological, and political implications of such a conceptual reframing of policy inquiry. Part III, Discursive Policy Inquiry: Resituating Empirical Analysis (four chapters), offers a postempiricist methodology for policy inquiry based on the logic of practical discourse, and explores specific methodological perspectives pertinent to such an orientation, in particular the role of interpretation in policy analysis, narrative policy analysis, and the dialectics of policy argumentation. Part IV, Deliberative Governance (two chapters), discusses the participatory implications of such a method and the role of the policy analyst as facilitator of citizen deliberation .Less
In recent years a set of new ‘postempiricist’ approaches to public policy, drawing on discursive analysis and participatory deliberative practices, have come to challenge the dominant technocratic, empiricist models in policy analysis. In this book, Frank Fischer brings together this work for the first time and critically examines its implications for the field of public policy studies. He describes the theoretical, methodological and political dimensions of this emerging approach to policy research. The book includes a discussion of the social construction of policy problems, the role of interpretation and narrative analysis in policy inquiry, the dialectics of policy argumentation, and the uses of participatory policy analysis. After an introductory chapter, ten further chapters are arranged in four parts: Part I, Public Policy and the Discursive Construction of Reality (two chapters), introduces the re-emergence of interest in ideas and discourse. It then turns to the postempiricist or constructionist view of social reality, presenting public policy as a discursive construct that turns on multiple interpretations. Part II, Public Policy as Discursive Politics (two chapters), examines more specifically the nature of discursive politics and discourse theory and illustrates through a particular disciplinary debate the theoretical, methodological, and political implications of such a conceptual reframing of policy inquiry. Part III, Discursive Policy Inquiry: Resituating Empirical Analysis (four chapters), offers a postempiricist methodology for policy inquiry based on the logic of practical discourse, and explores specific methodological perspectives pertinent to such an orientation, in particular the role of interpretation in policy analysis, narrative policy analysis, and the dialectics of policy argumentation. Part IV, Deliberative Governance (two chapters), discusses the participatory implications of such a method and the role of the policy analyst as facilitator of citizen deliberation .
Frank Fischer
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242641
- eISBN:
- 9780191599255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924264X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This is the first of four chapters offering a postempiricist methodology for policy inquiry based on the logic of practical discourse, and examines the problems of policy research from an ...
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This is the first of four chapters offering a postempiricist methodology for policy inquiry based on the logic of practical discourse, and examines the problems of policy research from an epistemological perspective. Focusing on the empiricist and technocratic aspects of policy analysis, the discussion first offers a critique of the neopositivist premises that have shaped and guided the enterprise; then, drawing on the theories of social constructivism and practical discourse, it sets out the foundations of a value-critical postempiricist framework for policy inquiry, emphasizing the need to integrate empirical and normative inquiry. The analysis shows the way in which what is understood as ‘science’ is influenced by the socio-historical context in which in emerges, and that social meanings and value judgements are built into scientific practices otherwise described as ‘value neutral’. In particular, it shows that in a world of multiple realities there is no ‘objective’ reality in which a scientific social science can anchor itself, rather, social science –– like science generally Vis a social activity and its products are based more on consensus than proof in the traditional understanding of the term. Towards this end, postempiricism offers a craft-oriented discursive or deliberative approach to policy science, one that better explains what social scientists are already doing; in this view, the analyst functions as an interpretive mediator between the available analytical frameworks of social science and the competing local perspectives. The chapter closes with a discussion of the problem of relativism traditionally associated with intepretivist approaches.Less
This is the first of four chapters offering a postempiricist methodology for policy inquiry based on the logic of practical discourse, and examines the problems of policy research from an epistemological perspective. Focusing on the empiricist and technocratic aspects of policy analysis, the discussion first offers a critique of the neopositivist premises that have shaped and guided the enterprise; then, drawing on the theories of social constructivism and practical discourse, it sets out the foundations of a value-critical postempiricist framework for policy inquiry, emphasizing the need to integrate empirical and normative inquiry. The analysis shows the way in which what is understood as ‘science’ is influenced by the socio-historical context in which in emerges, and that social meanings and value judgements are built into scientific practices otherwise described as ‘value neutral’. In particular, it shows that in a world of multiple realities there is no ‘objective’ reality in which a scientific social science can anchor itself, rather, social science –– like science generally Vis a social activity and its products are based more on consensus than proof in the traditional understanding of the term. Towards this end, postempiricism offers a craft-oriented discursive or deliberative approach to policy science, one that better explains what social scientists are already doing; in this view, the analyst functions as an interpretive mediator between the available analytical frameworks of social science and the competing local perspectives. The chapter closes with a discussion of the problem of relativism traditionally associated with intepretivist approaches.
John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150314
- eISBN:
- 9781400850365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150314.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter discusses how the United States experienced a crisis of partisanship that was marked by a continuing escalation in ideological rancor, polarization, and divisiveness in Washington. This ...
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This chapter discusses how the United States experienced a crisis of partisanship that was marked by a continuing escalation in ideological rancor, polarization, and divisiveness in Washington. This entailed the proliferation of a more competitive and often contentious set of private policy research organizations thanks to numerous sources of tax deductible private funding from corporations and wealthy individuals, and a fragmented and porous political system. Paradoxically, as the crisis of partisanship reached an unprecedented level in the late 1990s and early 2000s, cooperation among some of these organizations broke out across the political divide due to the efforts of those who sensed the disastrous consequences of such mean-spirited partisanship for the country and for the credibility of their research organizations.Less
This chapter discusses how the United States experienced a crisis of partisanship that was marked by a continuing escalation in ideological rancor, polarization, and divisiveness in Washington. This entailed the proliferation of a more competitive and often contentious set of private policy research organizations thanks to numerous sources of tax deductible private funding from corporations and wealthy individuals, and a fragmented and porous political system. Paradoxically, as the crisis of partisanship reached an unprecedented level in the late 1990s and early 2000s, cooperation among some of these organizations broke out across the political divide due to the efforts of those who sensed the disastrous consequences of such mean-spirited partisanship for the country and for the credibility of their research organizations.
John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150314
- eISBN:
- 9781400850365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150314.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter shows that the German knowledge regime was coordinated through a number of mechanisms that reflected Germany's long-standing formal corporatist institutions as well as the country's ...
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This chapter shows that the German knowledge regime was coordinated through a number of mechanisms that reflected Germany's long-standing formal corporatist institutions as well as the country's strong multiparty proportional representation system of government. However, contrary to what one might expect given these institutional legacies, there were also a considerable number of more informal coordinating mechanisms. Following the end of the Golden Age, Germany faced a crisis of corporatism, which led eventually to an expansion of private policy research organizations, not to mention lobbyists, which increased competition in the knowledge regime. This was a decentralized effort to reform the knowledge regime through a kind of trial-and-error process based upon various privately organized initiatives, but it was blended with somewhat more centralized coordination too, such as deliberate efforts by the state to improve the scientific quality of policy analysis and advice emanating from the semi-public policy research organizations.Less
This chapter shows that the German knowledge regime was coordinated through a number of mechanisms that reflected Germany's long-standing formal corporatist institutions as well as the country's strong multiparty proportional representation system of government. However, contrary to what one might expect given these institutional legacies, there were also a considerable number of more informal coordinating mechanisms. Following the end of the Golden Age, Germany faced a crisis of corporatism, which led eventually to an expansion of private policy research organizations, not to mention lobbyists, which increased competition in the knowledge regime. This was a decentralized effort to reform the knowledge regime through a kind of trial-and-error process based upon various privately organized initiatives, but it was blended with somewhat more centralized coordination too, such as deliberate efforts by the state to improve the scientific quality of policy analysis and advice emanating from the semi-public policy research organizations.
Gil Loescher
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199246915
- eISBN:
- 9780191599781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199246912.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
A key focus is the organizational culture and effectiveness of UNHCR as the principal protection agency for refugees. UNHCR functions with an imperfect mandate, under circumstances necessitating ...
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A key focus is the organizational culture and effectiveness of UNHCR as the principal protection agency for refugees. UNHCR functions with an imperfect mandate, under circumstances necessitating competition with other agencies for limited resources, and in political environments that are inhospitable to crisis management and refugee protection. Because of its financial vulnerability and dependence on donor governments and host states, the agency's actions are clearly shaped by the interests of governments. The UNHCR finds it difficult to learn from past mistakes and it lacks strong policy research and strategic thinking capacities. The author offers policy recommendations aimed at making UNHCR more effective and accountable in its central function of protecting refugees.Less
A key focus is the organizational culture and effectiveness of UNHCR as the principal protection agency for refugees. UNHCR functions with an imperfect mandate, under circumstances necessitating competition with other agencies for limited resources, and in political environments that are inhospitable to crisis management and refugee protection. Because of its financial vulnerability and dependence on donor governments and host states, the agency's actions are clearly shaped by the interests of governments. The UNHCR finds it difficult to learn from past mistakes and it lacks strong policy research and strategic thinking capacities. The author offers policy recommendations aimed at making UNHCR more effective and accountable in its central function of protecting refugees.
John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150314
- eISBN:
- 9781400850365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150314.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter examines the political-economic problems that France faced in the aftermath of the Golden Age. These political-economic problems persisted and precipitated what some people described as ...
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This chapter examines the political-economic problems that France faced in the aftermath of the Golden Age. These political-economic problems persisted and precipitated what some people described as a crisis of ideas within the state—the realization that the statist knowledge regime was too insulated and therefore suffered a lack of fresh thinking. In turn, policymakers began to encourage the development of new semi-public policy research organizations outside the state as well as new ones inside it in an effort to cultivate new ideas. This externalization strategy was very much a part of France's move away from dirigisme—central state-led economic development—and involved the gradual if partial separation of the knowledge regime from the policymaking regime, which earlier had been virtually indistinguishable from each other.Less
This chapter examines the political-economic problems that France faced in the aftermath of the Golden Age. These political-economic problems persisted and precipitated what some people described as a crisis of ideas within the state—the realization that the statist knowledge regime was too insulated and therefore suffered a lack of fresh thinking. In turn, policymakers began to encourage the development of new semi-public policy research organizations outside the state as well as new ones inside it in an effort to cultivate new ideas. This externalization strategy was very much a part of France's move away from dirigisme—central state-led economic development—and involved the gradual if partial separation of the knowledge regime from the policymaking regime, which earlier had been virtually indistinguishable from each other.
John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150314
- eISBN:
- 9781400850365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150314.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter demonstrates that in every country, policy research organizations began to converge on similar dissemination practices, such as use of the Internet and new media, by which they channeled ...
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This chapter demonstrates that in every country, policy research organizations began to converge on similar dissemination practices, such as use of the Internet and new media, by which they channeled their analysis and recommendations to policymakers and others—practices that tended to resemble those of American advocacy organizations. Both trends were evident within and across knowledge regimes. However, convergence was extremely uneven and partial because there were significant obstacles to the wholesale diffusion of these practices across countries and organizations. As a result, although each knowledge regime underwent significant change, national differences persisted in how each one was organized and operated. In short, the chapter found patterns of only limited convergence that were at odds with what many organizational and economic sociologists and others would have expected, especially during times of great uncertainty like the end of the Golden Age and the rise of globalization.Less
This chapter demonstrates that in every country, policy research organizations began to converge on similar dissemination practices, such as use of the Internet and new media, by which they channeled their analysis and recommendations to policymakers and others—practices that tended to resemble those of American advocacy organizations. Both trends were evident within and across knowledge regimes. However, convergence was extremely uneven and partial because there were significant obstacles to the wholesale diffusion of these practices across countries and organizations. As a result, although each knowledge regime underwent significant change, national differences persisted in how each one was organized and operated. In short, the chapter found patterns of only limited convergence that were at odds with what many organizational and economic sociologists and others would have expected, especially during times of great uncertainty like the end of the Golden Age and the rise of globalization.
John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150314
- eISBN:
- 9781400850365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150314.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter assesses the degree to which knowledge regimes influence policymaking. It begins by asking whether individual policy research organizations influence policymakers' thinking? For ...
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This chapter assesses the degree to which knowledge regimes influence policymaking. It begins by asking whether individual policy research organizations influence policymakers' thinking? For methodological reasons, it is enormously difficult to determine which policy research organizations are influential on an individual basis. Notably, the evidence offered by people in these organizations by which they try to measure their organization's influence is, by their own admission, often circumstantial at best. Meanwhile, based on content analysis of reports from national councils of economic advisors in the four countries studied here, arguments, analyses, and policy recommendations from these councils reflect the arrangement of the knowledge regimes in which they are located. As such, these cases demonstrate that the structure of knowledge regimes affects the content of the ideas that they produce.Less
This chapter assesses the degree to which knowledge regimes influence policymaking. It begins by asking whether individual policy research organizations influence policymakers' thinking? For methodological reasons, it is enormously difficult to determine which policy research organizations are influential on an individual basis. Notably, the evidence offered by people in these organizations by which they try to measure their organization's influence is, by their own admission, often circumstantial at best. Meanwhile, based on content analysis of reports from national councils of economic advisors in the four countries studied here, arguments, analyses, and policy recommendations from these councils reflect the arrangement of the knowledge regimes in which they are located. As such, these cases demonstrate that the structure of knowledge regimes affects the content of the ideas that they produce.
Erica Bell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199549337
- eISBN:
- 9780191720635
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549337.003.01
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
The task of using evidence to influence health policy makers is best approached with the benefit of insight into what changes policy. This chapter offers conceptual and practical understandings of ...
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The task of using evidence to influence health policy makers is best approached with the benefit of insight into what changes policy. This chapter offers conceptual and practical understandings of how health policy works, and what changes it. Topics discussed include: models of research in policy change, kinds and uses of information for policy, what is policy-relevant research?, barriers to research-policy transfer, and what researchers can do to shape policy.Less
The task of using evidence to influence health policy makers is best approached with the benefit of insight into what changes policy. This chapter offers conceptual and practical understandings of how health policy works, and what changes it. Topics discussed include: models of research in policy change, kinds and uses of information for policy, what is policy-relevant research?, barriers to research-policy transfer, and what researchers can do to shape policy.
Cindy Dell Clark
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195376593
- eISBN:
- 9780199865437
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195376593.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Clinical Child Psychology / School Psychology
This book provides qualitative researchers with a guide to inquiry that learns from, with and about children. From fieldwork done during participant observation, to focus groups and depth ...
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This book provides qualitative researchers with a guide to inquiry that learns from, with and about children. From fieldwork done during participant observation, to focus groups and depth interviews, to the use of artwork, photography, play and metaphors, viable methods to foreground children’s views are featured. The tools for child-centered research and its interpretation are drawn from both academic and applied qualitative inquiry, providing broad instruction across a range of kid-attuned approaches. The book takes stock of a blossoming world-wide child-centered research movement, and its promise of better grasping children’s lives. Child-focused inquiry, the book insists, has relevance to both academic theory and practical application, including public policy.Less
This book provides qualitative researchers with a guide to inquiry that learns from, with and about children. From fieldwork done during participant observation, to focus groups and depth interviews, to the use of artwork, photography, play and metaphors, viable methods to foreground children’s views are featured. The tools for child-centered research and its interpretation are drawn from both academic and applied qualitative inquiry, providing broad instruction across a range of kid-attuned approaches. The book takes stock of a blossoming world-wide child-centered research movement, and its promise of better grasping children’s lives. Child-focused inquiry, the book insists, has relevance to both academic theory and practical application, including public policy.
Maylene Shung King, Paula Proudlock, and Lori Michelson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195314083
- eISBN:
- 9780199865550
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314083.003.0003
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
Firearms were found to be a major cause of injury and death among children in the 5- to 18-year-old age group and the leading cause of death in young men in their late teens in South Africa. In the ...
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Firearms were found to be a major cause of injury and death among children in the 5- to 18-year-old age group and the leading cause of death in young men in their late teens in South Africa. In the 1990s, the high incidence of firearm deaths and injuries spurred government policy and law reform, culminating in a new Firearms Control Act, which replaced the ineffective and outdated Arms and Ammunition Act. This chapter considers the role research played in this complex process by examining the activities and impact of a research and advocacy project undertaken by an academic policy research organization called the Child Health Policy Institute (CHPI) at the University of Cape Town. The chapter describes the political context within which the project was initiated; outlines the research findings and how they were disseminated and utilized in relation to the law reform process; describes the law reform process and broader advocacy strategy related to it; and reflects on lessons learned.Less
Firearms were found to be a major cause of injury and death among children in the 5- to 18-year-old age group and the leading cause of death in young men in their late teens in South Africa. In the 1990s, the high incidence of firearm deaths and injuries spurred government policy and law reform, culminating in a new Firearms Control Act, which replaced the ineffective and outdated Arms and Ammunition Act. This chapter considers the role research played in this complex process by examining the activities and impact of a research and advocacy project undertaken by an academic policy research organization called the Child Health Policy Institute (CHPI) at the University of Cape Town. The chapter describes the political context within which the project was initiated; outlines the research findings and how they were disseminated and utilized in relation to the law reform process; describes the law reform process and broader advocacy strategy related to it; and reflects on lessons learned.
Erica Bell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199549337
- eISBN:
- 9780191720635
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549337.003.03
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This chapter identifies critical challenges, tasks, sources, methods, and strategies for reviewing in policy-relevant research. It offers exemplars of policy-relevant reviews that extend and ...
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This chapter identifies critical challenges, tasks, sources, methods, and strategies for reviewing in policy-relevant research. It offers exemplars of policy-relevant reviews that extend and highlight this discussion. The aim is to identify possible best practice for such comparative literature analyses, including from the international scholarly literature across the disciplines.Less
This chapter identifies critical challenges, tasks, sources, methods, and strategies for reviewing in policy-relevant research. It offers exemplars of policy-relevant reviews that extend and highlight this discussion. The aim is to identify possible best practice for such comparative literature analyses, including from the international scholarly literature across the disciplines.
Michael J. Camasso
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195179057
- eISBN:
- 9780199864546
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179057.003.0007
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy, Children and Families
This chapter focuses on the response to the Family Cap research. The critical assessment of research methods and findings began in earnest at several Washington-based Think Tanks with the publication ...
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This chapter focuses on the response to the Family Cap research. The critical assessment of research methods and findings began in earnest at several Washington-based Think Tanks with the publication of the final reports. The most stinging critique came from several scholar/researchers based at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). It is through this critique that the author gained an appreciation for the distinction between the tangible and the dismissive approaches to research criticism.Less
This chapter focuses on the response to the Family Cap research. The critical assessment of research methods and findings began in earnest at several Washington-based Think Tanks with the publication of the final reports. The most stinging critique came from several scholar/researchers based at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). It is through this critique that the author gained an appreciation for the distinction between the tangible and the dismissive approaches to research criticism.
Ruth Emond and Robbie Gilligan
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195314083
- eISBN:
- 9780199865550
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314083.003.0007
- Subject:
- Social Work, Research and Evaluation
This chapter focuses on a research project aimed at exploring the experiences of children and young people in residential care with regard to education. In particular, it highlights the ways in which ...
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This chapter focuses on a research project aimed at exploring the experiences of children and young people in residential care with regard to education. In particular, it highlights the ways in which the two social arenas of school and institutional care are interconnected, and how these arenas and connections were managed by young people themselves. The chapter provides a respective account of undertaking non-commissioned research and the impact this has on the resulting dissemination strategy. Rather than presenting the findings of the study, it focuses on the process of producing dissemination materials targeted at research end users, in this case children and young people living in residential care in Ireland. It discusses the experience of conducting policy-oriented research without the active contribution of key policy stakeholders.Less
This chapter focuses on a research project aimed at exploring the experiences of children and young people in residential care with regard to education. In particular, it highlights the ways in which the two social arenas of school and institutional care are interconnected, and how these arenas and connections were managed by young people themselves. The chapter provides a respective account of undertaking non-commissioned research and the impact this has on the resulting dissemination strategy. Rather than presenting the findings of the study, it focuses on the process of producing dissemination materials targeted at research end users, in this case children and young people living in residential care in Ireland. It discusses the experience of conducting policy-oriented research without the active contribution of key policy stakeholders.
Maurice Wright
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199250530
- eISBN:
- 9780191697937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199250530.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
The constitution of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) prescribes that all proposed legislation and policies adopted by the party must first be examined and approved by the party before ...
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The constitution of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) prescribes that all proposed legislation and policies adopted by the party must first be examined and approved by the party before submission to the Cabinet and the Diet. The Policy Affairs Research Council is charged with studying, researching, and planning party policies. The Council was the party's central policy-making body throughout the last quarter of the 20th century. As the turnover of both party and government posts was high, there was a large group of party elders, some of whom were also leaders of factions or remained influential within them. Elders and senior party leaders provided initiative, guidance, management, coordination, and control in the party's policy-making. This chapter examines the role and influence of elders and senior leaders in the LDP's formal policy-making structures, together with the contribution made by the rank-and-file Dietmen, as well as the role played outside those structures by informal policy tribes. The focus is mainly on the LDP in the period 1975–93, and again in 1996–2000.Less
The constitution of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) prescribes that all proposed legislation and policies adopted by the party must first be examined and approved by the party before submission to the Cabinet and the Diet. The Policy Affairs Research Council is charged with studying, researching, and planning party policies. The Council was the party's central policy-making body throughout the last quarter of the 20th century. As the turnover of both party and government posts was high, there was a large group of party elders, some of whom were also leaders of factions or remained influential within them. Elders and senior party leaders provided initiative, guidance, management, coordination, and control in the party's policy-making. This chapter examines the role and influence of elders and senior leaders in the LDP's formal policy-making structures, together with the contribution made by the rank-and-file Dietmen, as well as the role played outside those structures by informal policy tribes. The focus is mainly on the LDP in the period 1975–93, and again in 1996–2000.
Michael J. Camasso
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195179057
- eISBN:
- 9780199864546
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179057.003.0009
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy, Children and Families
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It argues that the traditional litmus test of the high technical quality of an evaluation study has been acceptance of the research in peer-reviewed ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It argues that the traditional litmus test of the high technical quality of an evaluation study has been acceptance of the research in peer-reviewed journals. As shown in the references provided in the book, the research conducted on New Jersey’s Family Cap has met this standard many times over. However, a vastly different picture of the evaluation’s technical quality is obtained from the widely disseminated, in-house publications produced by policy centers like the American Enterprise Institute-linked Welfare Reform Academy and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It argues that the traditional litmus test of the high technical quality of an evaluation study has been acceptance of the research in peer-reviewed journals. As shown in the references provided in the book, the research conducted on New Jersey’s Family Cap has met this standard many times over. However, a vastly different picture of the evaluation’s technical quality is obtained from the widely disseminated, in-house publications produced by policy centers like the American Enterprise Institute-linked Welfare Reform Academy and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
Brian Head and James Walter
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781447310273
- eISBN:
- 9781447310297
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447310273.003.0018
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Academic researchers sometimes seek to influence policy debate but are more closely involved in documenting the exercise of political power, the causes of policy change, and debates over policy ...
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Academic researchers sometimes seek to influence policy debate but are more closely involved in documenting the exercise of political power, the causes of policy change, and debates over policy reform. This chapter examines several types of policy-related research and how academic policy advice and research findings have been accepted as inputs into the policy process. It has often been claimed that academics and policy practitioners are distinctive communities, and that bridging the gap is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, there has been a notable increase in dialogue and exchange, and several academics have become prominent as policy advisors or commentators. The incentives and barriers to academic engagement in contemporary policy debates are outlined. The chapter concludes by considering how the institutional and cultural gaps between the research sector and policy-makers can be most effectively bridged.Less
Academic researchers sometimes seek to influence policy debate but are more closely involved in documenting the exercise of political power, the causes of policy change, and debates over policy reform. This chapter examines several types of policy-related research and how academic policy advice and research findings have been accepted as inputs into the policy process. It has often been claimed that academics and policy practitioners are distinctive communities, and that bridging the gap is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, there has been a notable increase in dialogue and exchange, and several academics have become prominent as policy advisors or commentators. The incentives and barriers to academic engagement in contemporary policy debates are outlined. The chapter concludes by considering how the institutional and cultural gaps between the research sector and policy-makers can be most effectively bridged.
