Policy Transfer among Local Governments: An Information–Theory Approach

We argue that the burgeoning literature on policy transfer suffers from the lack of an analytical framework that would facilitate understanding and, thus, theory–building. We suggest that policy transfer be conceptualized as occurring through a communications and information framework and that it focus on information networks that include producers, senders, and facilitators of information, as well as recipients. We apply this framework to an illustrative study of how British local–authority officials involved in the area of urban regeneration policy learn from each other's experience.
Utilizing this approach, the results of our case study yield several testable hypotheses for future study. In particular, they direct us towards the importance of informal networks in the policy–transfer process, towards an examination of the motivations of producers, senders, and disseminators of information, and towards the difficulty all participants in the network have in assessing the quality and validity of the information they receive.     

Patterns of family interaction and adolescent sex role concepts

This study examined the relationship between patterns of family interaction and adolescent development of sex role concepts. Sixty-six families of high school seniors completed a measure of daily family activities and a Plan Something Together Task, used to measure individuation in family communication. Adolescents' responses on the sex roles section of the Ego Identity Interview were coded to reflect Block's theory of the stages of development of sex role concepts. Results indicated gender differences in the development of sex role concepts as related to distinctive patterns of family communication and daily activity with the adolescents' mothers and fathers.This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-29819 and HD-17983), the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, and the University Research Institute and Institute of Human Development and Family Studies of the University of Texas at Austin.Received degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Research interests in adolescent development, adolescent mental health, and adolescents in high-risk families. To whom reprint requests should be addressed at School of Social Work, Annex C, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469-0124.Received degree from the University of Minnesota. Research interests are in adolescent development within the context of the family and adoptive family relationships.Received degree from the University of Minnesota. Research interests are in the role of ethnicity in adolescent identity development and family relationships.     

Sustained Dialogue in Managing Intractable Conflict

In the warn-torn new nation of Tajikistan, the author has been part of a five-stage dialogue for peace since 1993. The focus of the dialogue has been on transforming relationships and changing relationship dynamics so that this intractable conflict can be addressed positively. The author briefly describes this multilevel peace process both historically and substantively. He also discusses the continual process of evaluation of the Inter-Tajik dialogue effort as well as focuses on a series of questions that apply to intractable conflicts in general.