Inclusivity in Online Platforms: Recruitment Strategies for Improving Participation of Diverse Sociodemographic Groups

Governments are increasingly implementing smart and digital approaches to promoting citizen participation. However, whether online participation platforms are tools that improve inclusivity in citizen participation remains underexplored. To address this gap, this article focuses on the role of recruitment messages and their effect on participation in an online participation platform by gender and age. A field experiment with a neighborhood census sample (N = 6,066) shows that online participation dips for younger and older citizens and is equal among women and men. For the age groups between 60 and 75, differences in the control and intervention recruitment messages significantly impacted participation. These findings can help public managers tailor recruitment strategies to facilitate inclusive participation and represent a first step toward learning what types of messages are effective for whom.     

The Norwegian Barents Sea Management Plan and the EC Marine Strategy Directive: Some Political and Legal Challenges with an Ecosystem-Based Approach to the Protection of the European Marine Environment

This article addresses some of the implications of the EU's proposed Marine Strategy Directive for ongoing work in the regional seas conventions and for national work on regional marine strategies. The starting point is the proposed directive's focus on the ecosystem approach to the protection of the marine environment. Key elements within this approach are analysed, such as integration of environmental considerations into other policy areas; introduction of ecological quality objectives; and establishment of holistic monitoring and assessment programmes. Is it possible to transform these concepts into legally binding obligations? What will the implications of the proposed directive be for the rights and obligations of EU Member States under international law? A Management Plan for the Norwegian Part of the Barents Sea ('Barents Plan') was adopted by the Norwegian Government in March 2006 and approved by the Norwegian Storting (Parliament) in June 2006. It provides an example of a concrete application of the concepts in the proposed directive. Based on an analysis of the proposed Marine Strategy Directive and the Barents Plan, some key political and legal challenges are discussed in this article.     

The effect of ethanol and antabus-antabus-alcohol-reaction on histamin and mast cell. Contents of the lung (author's transl)]

Alcohol--orally given in concentrations from 1 to 4 g/kg body-weight--leads to a reduction of mast cells in the guinea pig lung. At the same time a minor decrease of histamine concentration was observed. The incompatibility reaction with alcohol after disulfiram intake (DAR) shows an additional degranulation oft mast cells of the lungs and decrease of histamine-content. So far, there seems little difference between the influence of disulfiram alone and the DAR. Besides thrombocytes and basophile leucocytes, the mast cells of the lung are responsible for the release of histamine and serotonine during higher alcohol concentrations and alcohol-disulfiram-reactions. We think that the intolerance phenomena of humans after alcohol--f.e. in form of flush-reaction--is at least partly related to the concomitant influence oft mast cell-substances.     

Dynamics in the Dutch policy advisory system: externalization,politicization and the legacy of pillarization

Although the literature on policy advisory systems has experienced a revival in recent years, its empirical focus has mainly been on Anglophone countries (Craft and Halligan 2016). This paper applies the policy advisory systems approach to the Netherlands, which can serve as an example of the dynamics in the policy advisory systems of consensus-driven, neo-corporatist polities Lijphart in Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries, 21, 235–266 1999). Using a historical-institutionalist perspective, the dynamics of the Dutch policy advisory system from the mid-1960s to the present day are examined. Based on original cross-time survey data and an analysis of secondary sources, the impact of depillarization (mid-1960s–mid-1990s), new public management (mid-1980s onwards) and an increased pressure on the executive have had for the Dutch policy advisory system (from the late 1990s): fragmentation, externalization and a non-partisan brand of politicization are shown. More specifically, the use of the institutionalized system of permanent advisory councils has lost part of its significance in favour of both external consultants and ad hoc advisory committees. The Dutch case, with its accumulative institutional design based on Weberianism, neo-corporatism and new public management elements, has thus experienced markedly different dynamics in its policy advice system than the Anglophone countries.     

Silence and Articulation—Whiteness,Racialization and Feminist Memory Work

Racialization is a constant process of “doing race”. Critical whiteness studies make efforts to address the silencing of whiteness in mainstream white feminism. In this article memory work is explored as a possible method for studies of whiteness as an unmarked majority position. The focus is on methodological practices or “how‐to‐do” questions. Starting from feminist epistemology the author investigates ways of practising the epistemological standpoint of situated knowledges. Feminist epistemology, despite its disagreements, has pointed to the importance of positioning work for scientific knowledge production. The relationship between racialization as an analytical concept and whiteness as dominant majority position is complicated. Usually memory work is employed to address gender or more specifically femininity, but, as argued here, it is well suited to investigations of racialization, too. The analysis shows that silent avoidance of matters associated with whiteness helps keep the majority position in place; whiteness is co‐produced with silence through avoidance in concrete everyday situations. Despite a number of problematic aspects, memory work proved productive in bridging the gap between an epistemological standpoint and the nitty‐gritty work of doing empirical research. It helped clarify racialization as a relational phenomenon and shows how lack of attention to or awareness of race has implications for scientific knowledge production.     

Scheduled Castes Policies in Interstate Perspective: Constitutional Power,Argumentative Practices,and Governance in India

The article discusses legal and administrative dimensions that are relevant for comparing development policies for the Scheduled Castes across Indian states. The policies for the Scheduled Castes are subject to more central control than several other policy domains. The article therefore highlights the logic in India’s multilevel system of governance while specifying the constitutional meaning of the Scheduled Caste category, its related terms and discursive relevance. This provides a background to outline the relevant institutional dimensions at the center of India’s political system and the level of the regional states. The article suggests that the Scheduled Castes Development Corporations provide a useful basis to develop interstate comparisons. However, the comparison of development policies for Scheduled Castes cannot be complete without acknowledging the extent to which policies are often a result of argumentative practices among Dalit movements and actors in context, since their demands may generate decisions or information about policies.