Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
131,051
result(s) for
"POLICY ISSUES"
Sort by:
Policy issue interdependency and the formation of collaborative networks
Environmental problems often span a set of challenges that each may engage different policy actors across different policy domains. These challenges, or policy issues, nonetheless exhibit interdependencies that may constrain the ability of actors to work together towards joint solutions. Still, we have limited knowledge about whether and how policy issue interdependencies actually shape how actors collaborate. Using data derived from two venues for collaborative water governance in the Norrström basin, Sweden, we investigate whether and how policy issues and policy issue interdependencies influence actors' selection of collaborative partners. We test two alternative sets of propositions; one set assumes that partner selection is driven by actors' engagement in policy issues and their interdependencies, while the other set emphasises social positions and actor attributes. Our results show that in one venue, actors' choices of collaborative partner were associated with factors from both sets, but not with policy issue interdependencies specifically. In the other venue, only actor and relational attributes shaped social tie formation. These results suggest that how actors interact does not necessarily align with the policy issues and the policy issue interdependencies defined by the environmental problem they are to address. Our results provide an important step towards arriving at evidence‐based recommendations for more effective collaborative efforts in addressing complex environmental problems that no actor can address alone. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Journal Article
Shaping global health policy : global social policy actors and ideas about health care systems
\"This book investigates global social policy in the field of health. While legal or regulatory obligations to run health systems have primarily remained at the level of national governments, the ideational and discursive exchanges about suitable models, appropriate reforms, and socially protective arrangements extends to various transnational forums across multiple scales. Using an approach that combines transnational and comparative social policy analysis with international relations, Shaping Global Health Policy assesses various global social policy actors and compares their ideas and prescriptions about national health care systems. These comprise governmental and non-governmental organisations, including the World Health Organisation, World Bank, International Labour Organisation, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Trade Organisation, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, G8, G20, BRICS, and CSOs ('Global Health Watch'). The book particularly focuses upon the ensemble of health provision, financing and regulation to a comprehensive system of health and social protection. How global social policy actors guide specific national health policies is illustrated with the case of Polish health care reform in transition. Crucially, the book highlights the multiplicity of actors and the importance of considering health policies across multiple scales\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Assessing Policy Issue Interdependencies in Environmental Governance
The ability to effectively resolve complex environmental problems hinges upon the capacity to address several different challenges in concert. These challenges, what we refer to as policy issues, often relate to one another – they interdepend. Policy issue interdependency has been extensively theorised in the literature, yet few methodological approaches and little empirical evidence exist to translate the concept of policy issue interdependency to the on-the-ground realities facing policy actors in specific cases and contexts. We build from previous studies to develop a methodological procedure that investigates policy issue interdependencies in ways that take into account what measures and possible solutions policy actors have at their disposal in specific cases for specific environmental problems. By applying our methodological procedure to a case of water governance in Sweden, four insights emerged. First, validation by stakeholders confirms that our procedure produces reliable results. Second, we find that many, but certainly not all, policy issues are interdependent. More specifically, different patterns of policy issue interdependencies are associated with the biophysical and the governance spheres, respectively. Third, our results suggest that policy issue interdependencies are most important to consider when the overall level of interdependency is moderate. Last, our study raises new questions about policy actors’ perception of policy issue interdependencies. In particular, a key question for future research would be if reinforcing (win-win) or counteracting (trade-off) interdependencies are easier to comprehend and act on for policy actors.
Journal Article
Medical tourism and transnational health care
\"Medicine and tourism have become separated in contemporary popular consciousness. The former implies anything but a pleasurable experience and the latter presumes a healthy disposition for participation. We argue that this popular conception of the separation of tourism and medicine ignores an historical continuity of lineage from the 18th century pursuit of a 'cure' at resorts and spas, to 20th century notions of holidays as worker welfare through to global patient mobility in the quest for cutting-edge medical interventions in so-called 'untreatable' conditions. Disciplinary divisions within the academy have reinforced the separation between medicine and tourism in popular culture, but there is now an emergent challenge to re-think the medicine/tourism nexus. Under the influence of transnational health care consumption, two very contrasting traditions of Western thought are now confronting one another. This book provides a comprehensive landscape of diverse research communities' attempts to capture its implications for existing bodies of knowledge in selected aspects of medicine, medical ethics, health policy and management, and tourism studies\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Challenges for environmental governance: policy issue interdependencies might not lead to collaboration
Policy actors address complex environmental problems by engaging in multiple and often interdependent policy issues. Policy issue interdependencies imply that efforts by actors to address separate policy issues can either reinforce (‘win–win’) or counteract (‘trade-off’) each other. Thus, if interdependent issues are managed in isolation instead of being coordinated, the most effective and well-balanced solution to the underlying problem might never be realised. This study asks if reinforcing and counteracting interdependencies have different impacts on perception and collaboration. Our empirical study of collaborative water governance in the Norrström basin, Sweden, shows that policy actors often avoid collaborating when the policy issues exhibit reinforcing interdependencies. Our evidence indicates a perceived infeasibility of acting on reinforcing interdependencies. We also find that actors do not consider counteracting interdependencies (‘trade-offs’) at all when they engage in collaboration. Further, even though actors were aware of counteracting and reinforcing interdependencies, our analyses suggest they might be less aware of the former. These findings illustrate that actors either avoid each other due to policy issue interdependencies or, at best, ignore existing interdependencies when engaging in collaboration. Our study highlights the importance of problem perception in accomplishing integrated solutions to complex environmental problems, and of how understandings of different types of interdependencies shape collaboration in environmental governance.
Journal Article
The Importance of Sleep for People With Chronic Pain: Current Insights and Evidence
We are currently in the midst of a sleep crisis. Our current work and lifestyle environments are normalizing poor sleep with substantial negative impact on our health. Research on sleep has linked sleep deprivation to poorer mental health, obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and a myriad of other health conditions. Sleep deprivation is an even greater issues for people with musculoskeletal conditions and chronic pain. Between 67% and 88% of individuals with chronic pain experience sleep disruption and insomnia, and at least 50% of people with insomnia report chronic pain. The link between sleep and pain is well documented. Experimental, cohort, and longitudinal studies have all demonstrated that restricted sleep is linked to greater pain. Poor sleep therefore not only affects general health but has a direct impact on inflammation, pain response, and experience. Improving sleep in people living with musculoskeletal conditions and with chronic pain has the potential to deliver great benefit to many. This article describes the evidence base that can underpin such work, including research about the link between pain and sleep as well as theories and approaches to intervention that may help. © 2022 The Authors. JBMR Plus published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Journal Article
Defenders of the unborn : the pro-life movement before Roe v. Wade
\"Abortion is the most divisive issue in America's culture wars, seemingly creating a clear division between conservative members of the Religious Right and people who align themselves with socially and politically liberal causes. In Defenders of the Unborn, historian Daniel K. Williams complicates the history of abortion debates in the United States by offering a detailed, engagingly written narrative of the pro-life movement's mid-twentieth-century origins. He explains that the movement began long before Roe v. Wade, and traces its fifty-year history to explain how and why abortion politics have continued to polarize the nation up to the present day\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Heavy metal contents of selected commercially available oil-based house paints intended for residential use in Ethiopia
Environmental pollution by paint-based heavy metals have been continued to be a great concern. Thus, this study was aimed at investigating the levels of selected heavy metals (Ni, Cd, Cr, Zn, and Pb) in oil-based paint samples being manufactured and sold in Ethiopia. An optimized acid digestion procedure using conc. HNO
3
, conc. HClO
4
, and 30% H
2
O
2
mixture by volume ratio of 3:4:1 mL, respectively, for 2 h at 200 °C were used for paint samples digestion, and the contents of heavy metals were assayed by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. The 13 out of 14 (92.9%) analyzed paint samples had contained Pb > 90 mg/kg with the highest content of 51,200 mg/kg (dry weight) in the orange colored paint. Likewise, the levels of Cr, Ni, and Zn obtained were ranged from 43.75 to 50.00, 60.02 to 128.81, and 323.69 to 1102.16 mg/kg (dry weight), respectively, while Cd was not detected in all the paint samples. Generally, the mean contents of heavy metals in the investigated paint samples have followed the order: Pb > > Cr > Zn > Ni, demonstrating the occurrence of higher lead metal content. The elevated levels of heavy metals detected in the oil-based paint samples could be attributed to the continued usage of these metals in different form during paint manufacture. On the bases of the findings, a strict monitoring and evaluation of paints being produced in Ethiopia has been recommended so that the manufacturers comply with the national (policy issue) and/or international regulations on the levels of toxic metals in paints to ensure consumers safety.
Journal Article