Cultural representations of mental illness in contemporary Japan

This paper presents the results of a research project aimed at studying the cultural representations of mental illness and related interventions models in contemporary Japan, and providing the basis for a comparison between Japanese and Italian mental health cultures. The research methodology is based on interviews with scholars and professionals from multiple disciplinary areas and fields of practice, in order to analyze the interactions between medical, social sciences’ and humanities’ discourse on mental illness. The results highlight the significance of home custody within the modernization of the country, between Edo and Meiji periods; the cultural frameworks of contemporary psychiatry’s action; what anti-psychiatry and the ‘critical’ reflection on mental illness represented within the academic debate; the new demands and potentialities connected to the spread of psychology within the mental health sector; remarkably new experiences of social integration with the contribution of arts

Effects of Changes in Public Policy on Efficiency and Productivity of General Hospitals in Vietnam

The health sector reform programme which began in Vietnam in 1989 in order to improve the efficiency of the health system has altered the way in which Vietnamese hospitals operate. The programme put the spotlight on input savings. This study aims to examine the relative efficiency of hospitals during the health reform process and assess - by looking at the relative efficiency of hospitals - the effects of the regulatory changes. The study employs the DEA two-stage approach referring to data from 101 general public hospitals over the period 1998-2006. The study revealed that there was evidence of improvement in the productivity of Vietnamese hospitals over the period 1998-2006, with a progress in total factor productivity of 1.4% per year. Furthermore, the differences in hospital efficiency can be attributed to both the regulatory changes and hospital-specific characteristics. The user fees and autonomy measures were found to increase technical efficiency. Provincial hospitals were revealed to be more technically efficient than their central counterparts and hospitals located in the North East, South East and Mekong River Delta regions performed better that hospitals from other regions

Measuring intra-hospital clinic efficiency and productivity : an application to a Greek university general hospital

In this paper we use Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Productivity Index and its decompositions to assess the productive efficiency and productivity of the in-patient clinics of a large Greek University General Hospital. Clinics are represented by means of a simple model whereby they use inputs (labor and capital) to produce outputs (in-patient days and patient discharges). The efficiency model is input oriented and assumes constant returns to scale. Model validation analyses showed that this model appears to be externally valid. The framework proposed here is a simple and useful tool for informing intra-hospital management decisions.peer-reviewe

Without purpose and strategy?: a spatio-functional analysis of the regional allocation of public investment in Greece

We utilise a large database on public investment at the prefecture (NUTS-3) level in Greece for the period 1976-2008 to examine the spatial and functional allocation of public investment in the country. We investigate the extent to which expenditures in different types of public investment are complementary across space and over time and examine their redistributive character. We also analyse regional specialisations and the geographical concentration of public investments and complementarily use an exploratory spatial data analysis to examine the extent of clustering of public investment and identify possible patterns in the geography of clusters and hotspots. Although our analysis uses predominantly descriptive tools, our results have confirmatory power, as they reveal a surprisingly random pattern for the spatial and functional allocation of public investment in Greece, thus raising important questions about the rationale for these allocations and, by implication, about the geographical, political and economic dynamics that underlie them. These questions obtain an additional salience in light of the administrative and fiscal reforms pursued currently by the Greek government under the pressure of the country’s sovereign debt crisis

Whither Public Interest: The Case of Greece's Public Finances

During the last three decades there has been an almost continuous undermining of the public interest by private interests operating either outside or inside Greek public administration. The result of this infiltration has been a gradual loss of bureaucratic autonomy to pursue the public interest. The web of relationships developed between private interests and the two dominant political parties have eroded both the efficacy of public administration and the dynamism of the private sector as incumbent firms and public (or quasi-public) sector functionaries have been using their power to prevent the birth of new firms and to raid the state coffers. The upshot of these have been the emergence of permanently large budget and current account deficits, which have in turn driven Greece’s foreign indebtedness to alarming levels, necessitating the current bailout by the EU/ECB/IMF.debt, deficits, political economy, fiscal crisis, Greece

Quantifying the effects of modelling choices on hospital efficiency measures: A meta-regression analysis

It has often been argued that the results of efficiency analyses in health care are influenced by the modelling choices made by the researchers involved. In this paper we use meta-regression analysis in an attempt to quantify the degree to which modelling factors influence efficiency estimates. The data set is derived from 253 estimated models reported in 95 empirical analyses of hospital efficiency in the 22-year period from 1987 to 2008. A meta-regression model is used to investigate the degree to which differences in mean efficiency estimates can be explained by factors such as: sample size; dimension (number of variables); parametric versus non-parametric method; returns to scale (RTS) assumptions; functional form; error distributional form; input versus output orientation; cost versus technical efficiency measure; and cross-sectional versus panel data. Sample size, dimension and RTS are found to have statistically significant effects at the 1% level. Sample size has a negative (and diminishing) effect on efficiency; dimension has a positive (and diminishing) effect; while the imposition of constant returns to scale has a negative effect. These results can be used in improving the policy relevance of the empirical results produced by hospital efficiency studies.

Measuring the efficiency of Palestinian public hospitals during 2010-2015: an application of a two-stage DEA method

While health needs and expenditure in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are growing, the international donations are declining and the economic situation is worsening. The purpose of this paper is twofold, to evaluate the productive efficiency of public hospitals in West Bank and to study contextual factors contributing to efficiency differences

EU-Supported Regional Development After 2007: Lessons Learnt and Future Priorities of the Greek Regions Falling Under the New "Competitiveness" Objective Programmes

Next year (2007) is expected to be a milestone for the regional policy of Greece. For the first time since the EU launched the programmes which are co-funded by the Structural Funds, Greek regions are excluded from the Objective 1 “Convergence†programmes of the 2007-2013 programming period. Two regions, Sterea Ellada and Southern Aegean have been included in the phasing - in group of NUTS II regions which are falling under the new “Regional Competitiveness and Employment†objective since they have exceeded the 75% boundary of the GDP per capita of the EU both in relation with the older 15 and the 25 current member states. Hence, apart from the reduction funding compared to the current period, they are obliged to redefine their developmental priorities and to adjust the programming context according to the new circumstances in line with the Lisbon and Gothenburg objectives. Within this context the preparation calls for the adjustment to the new circumstances and the exploration of the most efficient way to continue and empower the developmental path. In addition to these, some important matters such as the actual developmental position of these regions, the sectors where cohesion hasn’t been achieved, the new challenges and the experience that has been gained and to what extent it is being used as a learning process have to be explored The article aims to contribute to the ongoing conversation regarding the ways by which Sterea Ellada and Southern Aegean regions can utilize the Structural Funds in the new programming period, based on their experience until today, but also on the possibilities which they are being offered as “phasing – in†regions of the “Competitiveness and Employment†objective according to the new context of regional policy. To these directions, the general outlines of the future perspectives of the regional priorities of the European Union will be presented initially, both for the current and the next programming period. A comparative description of the socio-economic position of the two regions within the European Union is given next, followed by a discussion of the current programming experience and some implementation issues and lessons learnt. Finally, suggestions and some policy priorities as well as the conclusions of the analysis will be presented.

The Obliteration of Truth by Management: Badiou, St. Paul and the Question of Economic Managerialism in Education

This paper considers the questions that Badiou’s theory of the subject poses to cultures of economic managerialism within education. His argument that radical change is possible, for people and the situations they inhabit, provides a stark challenge to the stifling nature of much current educational climate. In 'Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism', Badiou describes the current universalism of capitalism, monetary homogeneity and the rule of the count. Badiou argues that the politics of identity are all too easily subsumed by the prerogatives of the marketplace and unable to present, therefore, a critique of the status quo. These processes are, he argues, without the potential for truth. What are the implications of Badiou’s claim that education is the arranging of ‘the forms of knowledge in such a way that truth may come to pierce a hole in them’ (Badiou, 2005, p. 9)? In this paper, I argue that Badiou’s theory opens up space for a kind of thinking about education that resists its colonisation by cultures of management and marketisation and leads educationalists to consider the emancipatory potential of education in a new light