The dissemination and utilization of welfare‐to‐work experiments in state policymaking

Abstract This paper reports the results of a telephone survey of state‐level officials as to the influence of evaluations of three state welfare innovations: California's GAIN, New York's CAP, and Florida's Project Independence. The three experiments were known to those interviewed, yet they did not have dramatic, decisive effects on policymaking. However, GAIN and CAP appear to have influenced policymaking in less dramatic and more subtle respects. Much more important than empirical findings about the effects of tested programs was information about how these programs actually operated in the field along with evidence that the policies tested in welfare‐to‐work experiments were logically consistent (that is, there was no obvious reason to think that they would be unsuccessful), could clear federal waivers, and would not encounter major political resistance. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Regional development policies and the constructions of gender equality: The Swedish case

Abstract.  This article uses a discursive approach to analyze how gender equality has and is being constructed and given meaning in the context of Swedish regional policy. Drawing on Carole Bacchi's 'What's the Problem? Approach', we explore how arguments concerning the new forms of regional policy are assigning different categories of people different subject positions and, in particular, we focus on the kind of subject positions that are being given to women as a group in this context. The discourse being shaped in national policy is, however, interpreted in specific contexts. Accordingly, we compare the way this new discourse is being (re)interpreted and (re)constructed and the subject positions being ascribed to women in the regional development partnerships and growth strategies in two Swedish regions: Västerbotten and Jönköping. Finally, we draw attention to how both the form and the content of Swedish regional development policies create great difficulties for politicizing gender as a power dimension in society. We suggest that regional politics has become de-politicized and argue for the need for it to be re-politicized with gender included as a conflict dimension.     

Foot‐march: Large‐scale mobilization for a public cause or a tool for fanning political ambition

We present the case of an awareness campaign, strategically crafted by a local student political leader, based on a national level policy for urban poor and marginalized, in the city of Ahmedabad in India. The campaign, designed in the form of a foot‐march, was aimed at mobilizing the urban poor, but with a clear ambition of gaining visibility for political mileage. This study reinforces that the mediation role taken up by local leaders transcends the traditional policymaking, in democracies with blurred boundaries between the state and citizens. Further, in local governance structures, with weak participatory spaces for the poor, foot‐marches have the potential to become an extended invited participatory space.     

Enabling global principle‐based regulation: The case of risk analysis in the Codex Alimentarius

This paper deals with the creation of global principle‐based standards. For such standards to be accepted and effective, particular conditions must be fulfilled. One such condition, little explored, is that standard‐makers and ‐takers share knowledge about the meaning of the principles, as well as the practices through which they are likely to be applied. The paper shows that this condition is fulfilled when transnational cultural systems exist, by means of which both types of actors engage in the explication and representation of their practices so that a common, standard understanding emerges of how principles may be interpreted on the ground and informs the negotiations. A transnational cultural system is a crucial governance infrastructure to set global standards, as shown by the long history of creating a risk analysis guideline by the Codex Alimentarius, the inter‐governmental body for food standards.     

Civil War and Social Cohesion: Lab‐in‐the‐Field Evidence from Nepal

We study effects of wartime violence on social cohesion in the context of Nepal's 10‐year civil war. We begin with the observation that violence increased levels of collective action like voting and community organization—a finding consistent with other recent studies of postconflict societies. We use lab‐in‐the‐field techniques to tease apart such effects. Our causal‐identification strategy exploits communities' exogenous isolation from the unpredictable path of insurgency combined with matching. We find that violence‐affected communities exhibit higher levels of prosocial motivation, measured by altruistic giving, public good contributions, investment in trust‐based transactions, and willingness to reciprocate trust‐based investments. We find evidence to support two social transformation mechanisms: (1) a purging mechanism by which less social persons disproportionately flee communities plagued by war and (2) a collective coping mechanism by which individuals who have few options to flee band together to cope with threats.     

多媒体教学中人机关系的哲学思考

多媒体计算机应用于教育领域,给传统的教学活动带来了新的挑战,它打破了传统教学中所结成的人（教师）与人（学生）的单一交流模式,取而代之以新型的人（教师）-机-人（学生）的双向交互模式,而在这一模式中,人与机究竟形成了怎样的关系？本文欲从哲学视角进行阐述,以期更好地协调人机关系,促进教学改革。     

When experimentalist governance meets science‐based regulations; the case of food safety regulations

This paper examines a central regulatory mechanism that shapes food economies. Food safety regulations in the United States rely on a science‐based transnational regulatory system known as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), which bears central features of what Sabel and Zeitlin identified as experimentalist governance: a new form of regulation that is flexible, responsive, and involves stakeholders in iterative and direct democratic deliberation. The core theoretical question the paper examines is what the reliance on science means for the promise of an experimentalist policy regime to enable a new form of democratic politics. Based on a case study of the HACCP system implemented by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service since the late 1990s, HACCP's reliance on food science has acted as an effective divider between producers who were able to take advantage of the system's flexibility and others for whom this was challenging. There is clear evidence that HACCP posed a disproportionate burden on small processors and that some of them were unable to adapt to the requirements of the regulatory system. In so far as the HACCP‐based food safety regulations delineated the kind of producer that thrived in the system and contributed to the demise of another set of producers, the regulatory system shaped market outcomes.     

Strategic port classification: International clustering‐based approach for decision‐making optimization

This comprehensive study aims to identify from a strategic perspective a new port classification approach based on port features and characteristics. Data of 3,685 ports worldwide have been collected, and 25 dimensions with 62 factors have been identified and utilized to analyze and classify ports worldwide. The K‐means clustering technique has been utilized to conduct the port classification process at several levels. First, ports have been classified into two general clusters (low capabilities and moderate‐to‐high capabilities). Then only ports with moderate‐to‐high potentials were classified and taxonomized. In addition to identifying and classifying ports with moderate‐to‐high capabilities, findings of the second round demonstrate the existence of three main clusters. The new port classification has been used to provide new insights about the top 50 terminal ports as a real case study. This innovative approach is valuable for most port‐related decision‐making situations and facilitates the global supply chain management processes.     

Migration‐based Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust: A Multilevel Analysis of How Country,Neighbourhood and Workplace Diversity Affects Social Trust in 22 Countries

How does ethnic diversity affect social trust? The conflict hypothesis, which predicts a negative effect, and the contact hypothesis, which predicts a positive effect, represent the main competing answers. This article argues that the ‘true’ answer to the question is contingent upon the social units under study and how they interact. More specifically, it is argued that diversity will have a negative effect on social trust when focusing on social units where intergroup contacts are easy to avoid (neighbourhoods broadly defined), whereas diversity will have a positive effect when focusing on social units where intergroup contacts are hard to avoid and are supported by higher authorities (e.g., workplaces). The data substantiating the argument is from the first round of the European Social Survey, covering 30,000 individuals nested within 22 countries, and is analysed by means of multilevel linear regression modeling.     

The limits and variety of risk‐based governance: The case of flood management in Germany and England

Risk‐based governance is argued by many to hold the promise of a more rational and efficient state, by making explicit the limitations of state interventions and focusing finite resources on those targets where probable damage is greatest. This paper challenges the assumption that risk‐based governance has the potential for universal and uniform application, by comparing contemporary flood management in Germany and England. On first inspection, flooding appears to be a paradigmatic case of risk colonizing European policy discourses, with the traditional notion of flood defense giving way to flood risk management in the context of climate change, increasingly frequent flood disasters, political and cost pressures on flood protection, and publicly available European‐wide flood assessments. Drawing on in‐depth empirical research, this paper shows how the role, and even the definition, of “risk” is institutionally shaped, and how the respective institutional environments of German and English flood management practices impede and promote risk colonization. In particular, the use and conceptualizations of risk in governance are variously promoted, filtered, or constrained by the administrative procedures, structures, and political expectations embedded within flood management and wider polities of each country. The findings of this research are important for the design and implementation of supranational policies and regulations that endorse risk‐based approaches, such as the recent EU Flood Directive, as well as scholarly debate as to how to legitimately define the limits of governance in the face of uncertainty and accountability pressures.     

Aligning top‐down and bottom‐up in development planning: The case of Bhutan

Effective planning makes a vital contribution to developmental success. It is generally perceived as being either centralized (top‐down) or decentralized (bottom‐up). Centralized planning dominated the early development decades, but disappointing results greatly lessened its appeal and paved the way for participatory and decentralized planning. Both types of planning are evident today, but the question has arisen as to whether top‐down and bottom‐up planning can be successfully combined into one effective, efficient, and popular system. This question is examined through the case of Bhutan where central planning was introduced at the outset of the country's push for modernization and today leads the way in the country's pursuit of Gross National Happiness (GNH). However, central planning has been complemented with decentralized participatory planning at the subnational levels. Success in aligning the two planning modes has been achieved by incremental development of the planning system, orientation to the unifying national vision of GNH, a powerful central planning agency, actors at all levels who are able and knowledgeable in their planning roles, and processes that are well organized and proven to work to the satisfaction of all participants.     

From Participatory Reform to Social Capital: Micro‐Motives and the Macro‐Structure of Civil Society Networks

Although a wide‐ranging literature explores the favorable effects of social capital, it is only relatively recently that systematic attention has been directed to the manner in which social networks emerge and the consequent implications for civic engagement and collaborative governance. This article employs advanced social network statistical models to examine civic network emergence following a participatory reform in Los Angeles. Findings suggest that the reform fostered a number of favorable network attributes supportive of democratic participation. At the same time, subtle but ubiquitous effects of socioeconomic sorting had the unintended and undesirable effect of elevating higher‐status actors within the emergent civic network. These findings suggest that macro‐level policy interventions are required to foster the development of ties that promote cross‐talk among socioeconomically distinct community groups.     

Emerging trend set by a start‐ups on Indian online education system: A case of Byju's

The study is aimed at exploring the growth of Byju's Market in K12, which has brought new and emerging trends in the field of education, especially e‐learning has been made easy through visualized, animated video, and audio classes for grades 4th to 12th especially for mathematics and science subjects. It also extends its courses for CAT, JEE, NEET, and IAS. The objective of the study is to describe the growth of this startup to unicorn and becoming one of the most valued startup in India standing in the 4th spot. The founder of Byju's wish to make the Indian education like what the Mouse House did for entertainment. The study focused with comparison of fellow rival brands along with their SWOT analysis, purely based on secondary and behavioral data which was collected from available websites, rating agencies, articles, and case study of Harvard Business School, which were published in newspapers by different personalities. There is high scope for the project in future for researchers in this industry.     

Social funds and local government: the case of Malawi

Two instruments—social funds and decentralization—are currently quite popular policy instruments being adopted in many developing countries throughout the world. Each of these instruments is currently being used or is being implemented in Malawi, Africa. While each instrument is intended to improve the flow of public services in a locality, the article discusses how each has certain potential theoretical advantages over the other. The article then goes on to describe and analyze the flow of resources to Malawian communities under the two largest social action programs, neither of which currently relies on substantial inputs, financial or human, from local governments. The data illustrates a wide disparity in the per capita amounts allocated to these demand‐driven initiatives across districts but also shows the relatively diverse set of local public services supported by the funds. The article close with a discussion of how these two initiatives might be merged within the context of the new Local Government Act 1998, under which local services are to be devolved in the near future. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Information Shocks and the Take‐Up of Social Programs

The causes of participation in social programs have been studied extensively, with prominent roles found for program rules and benefits. A lack of information about these programs has been suggested as a cause of low participation rates among certain groups, but it is often difficult to distinguish between the role of information sharing and other features of a neighborhood, such as factors that are common to people of the same ethnicities or socioeconomic opportunities, or uniquely local methods of program implementation. We seek to gain new insight into the potential role of information flows by investigating what happens when information is disrupted. We exploit rich microdata from Florida vital records and program participation files to explore declines in Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participation during pregnancy among foreign‐born Hispanics in the “information shock” period surrounding welfare reform. We identify how the size of these reductions is affected by having a high density of neighbors from the same place of origin. Specifically, we compare changes in WIC participation among Hispanic immigrants living in neighborhoods with a larger concentration of own‐origin immigrants to those with a smaller concentration of own‐origin immigrants, holding constant the size of the immigrant population and the share of immigrants in the neighborhood who are Hispanic. We find strong evidence that having a denser network of own‐origin immigrants mediated the information shock faced by immigrant women in the wake of welfare reform.     

Partnerships between local governments and community‐based organisations: exploring the scope for synergy

The utility of both local governments and community‐based organisations can be considerably enhanced when these agencies work in partnership with one another. Different roles will be played by local governments and community organisations in different types of partnership arrangements. Distinguishing among these roles helps allocate responsibilities better among the partner agencies, and it is also helpful for scheduling implementation, devising appropriate capacity building programmes and designing suitable accountability mechanisms. An analytical framework to help with these tasks is developed and presented in this article. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Three‐Stage Adoption Process for Social Media Use in Government

Social media applications are slowly diffusing across all levels of government. The organizational dynamics underlying adoption and use decisions follow a process similar to that for previous waves of new information and communication technologies. The authors suggest that the organizational diffusion of these types of new information and communication technologies, initially aimed at individual use and available through markets, including social media applications, follows a three‐stage process. First, agencies experiment informally with social media outside of accepted technology use policies. Next, order evolves from the first chaotic stage as government organizations recognize the need to draft norms and regulations. Finally, organizational institutions evolve that clearly outline appropriate behavior, types of interactions, and new modes of communication that subsequently are formalized in social media strategies and policies. For each of the stages, the authors provide examples and a set of propositions to guide future research.     

Digital diasporas and governance in semi‐authoritarian states: the case of the Egyptian Copts

This article explores the potential role of diasporas and information technology (IT) in fostering good governance in semi‐authoritarian states. Following a review of the literature on good governance and information technology, the case of the Egyptian Copt community and its diaspora is explored, focusing on the activities of the U.S. Copt Association. It is argued that, whether or not it is an explicit objective, the U.S. Copt Association is supporting improved and more democratic governance in Egypt. The case confirms that heterogeneous networks of communication and people can promote good governance, even for the socially excluded and disempowered in a weakly penetrated state. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.