Goodbye Expert-Based Policy Advice? Challenges in Advising Governmental Institutions in Times of Transformation

The global transformation towards sustainability has not only increased the demand for anticipatory and reflexive knowledge to support decision making, but also raises three challenges common to all forms of scientific policy advice: to appropriately consider societal norms and values (challenge of normativity), to integrate different forms of knowledge (challenge of integration) and to organize the participation of stakeholders (challenge of participation). While new forms of scientific policy advice in the field of sustainability research (SR) have emerged in response, the role of established actors such as the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) is increasingly scrutinized. One of the fundamental characteristics of TAB’s model of scientific policy advice is a rigid boundary arrangement between politics and science that places a high value on the objectivity and authority of scientific knowledge. Based on a content analysis of digitalization-related TAB reports spanning three decades, we describe how a rather technocratic institution such as TAB has dealt with the challenges of normativity, integration, and participation, and we compare its approach with that of SR institutions. TAB has partly adapted its working mode to the new challenges, e.g., by trying out new methods to foster a stronger dialogue with stakeholders. However, TAB’s response to the challenges distinctly differs from the forms of transformative research conducted in the SR community. We argue that this is not only a necessary precondition to maintain its reputation as a trustworthy actor towards the Parliament but gives TAB and similar expert-based institutions a special role in the governance of societal transformation

Lead Me, Follow Me, Or Get Out of My Way: Rethinking and Refining the Civil-Military Relationship

This monograph explains why robust civil-military relations matter and discusses how they are evolving. Part I discusses A More Perfect Military: How the Constitution Can Make Our Military Stronger by Diane Mazur, a book that examines the jurisprudence that has reshaped civil-military relations. Mazur maintains that since the Vietnam era, the U.S. Supreme Court has hewn the armed forces from general society in order to create a separate—and more socially conservative—sphere. Part II discusses The Decline and Fall of the American Republic by Bruce Ackerman, a wise and wide-ranging book which argues that the nation’s polity is in decline and that the increasingly politicized armed forces may force a change in government. Part III asks where we go from here. The important books attribute a thinning of civilian control over the military to specific legal and political decisions. They explain some of the most important implications of this transformation. They offer proposals about how to improve that critical relationship for the sake of enhancing the effectiveness of the armed forces and the vitality of the republic. This monograph goes on to examine briefly the evolving great power politics, the effects new technologies have on long-standing distinctions and borders, and the relative rise of non-state actors including al Qaeda—three sets of exogenous factors that inevitably drive changes in the civil-military relationship. In the end, this monograph points to a more ambitious enterprise: a complete reexamination of the relationship between force and society.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1541/thumbnail.jp

Renegotiating Parents' Role: A Case Study Examining Parent/College Official Communication and Messaging During Freshman Onboarding

Parents of incoming students and college officials often engage during freshman onboarding to support college student success. Elements of college success includes the student's development of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills; and success is often measured by annual retention and persistence to degree. This qualitative case study answers the central question of this investigation and fills a gap in the literature by determining that the communication and messaging taking place between parents and college officials during freshman onboarding predominately met each party's intentions and expectations and established a foundation by which the two stakeholders can work to support student success. Eight parents and nine college officials participated in interviews where they shared their goals for students and voiced their interpretations of the messages they received during freshman onboarding. Five themes emerged from the data: (a) parents are active participants in their student's college investigation; (b) parents and college officials are focused on strengthening readiness for the safe and successful transition from home to college; (c) parents and college officials share common goals for students;(d) parents acknowledge receipt of college officials' primary messages; and (e) parents and college officials align on issues but differ on tactics to address the issues. The findings of this study, coupled with a thorough analysis of the literature on the streams of: college readiness, messaging and onboarding, led to three major results: (a) parents and college officials are focused and united on their goal of developing students' non-cognitive skills; (b) parents and college officials place a low priority on critical measures of college student success; and (c) the foundation has been established for a partnership between parents and college officials focused on student success. Three recommendations were offered to parents and college officials: (a) increase focus on student cognitive development during freshman onboarding; (b) establish intentional communication and messaging promoting the goal of student retention and persistence to attaining the degree; and(c) strengthen the structure by which parents and college officials can communicate with each other. Three recommendations were offered to the community beyond the scope of this investigation: (a) conduct similar studies with stakeholders at other higher education institutions; (b) conduct studies focused on parents who hail from similar educational and cultural backgrounds; and (c) measure outcomes of efforts to focus on cognitive skill development, retention and persistence to degree.Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Management -- Drexel University, 201

Lobbying as Rhetorical Framing in the “Sharing Economy": a Case Study on the Limits and Crisis of the Evidence Based Policy Paradigm

This paper critically discusses the "sharing economy", highlighting the conceptual ambiguity and the rhetorics that characterise this emerging phenomenon and the regulatory and policy disputes that have arisen around it. The paper considers both consumption oriented platforms and platforms intermediating labour and identify a number of rhetorical narratives that are then contrasted with the available empirical evidence. It shows that the debates on the sharing economy are characterised by value disputes, uncertain facts, high stakes and the need of urgent decision; despite the lack of robust evidence, rhetorical discourses are used by powerful concentrated interests for lobbying based on a convenient framing of the policy agenda. As decisions on regulation are taken or not taken in conditions of scientific uncertainty and under the framing implemented by concentrated interests, the paper argues that the approach of policy makers and regulators to the sharing economy exemplifies vividly the crisis of the Evidence Based Policy paradigm

Trafficking in persons from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar to Thailand

This report examines the trafficking in persons from Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), and the Union of Myanmar (Myanmar) to Thailand.\ua0 It explores the circumstances that make Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar source countries for trafficking, the means and routes used to traffic persons to Thailand, the conditions of such trafficking, the profile of victims and perpetrators, the circumstances that make Thailand a destination for trafficking, and the exploitation of trafficked persons in Thailand and the countries of origin

Brexit and Beyond – Rethinking the Futures of Europe

Brexit will have significant consequences for the country, for Europe, and for global order. And yet much discussion of Brexit in the UK has focused on the causes of the vote and on its consequences for the future of British politics. This volume examines the consequences of Brexit for the future of Europe and the European Union, adopting an explicitly regional and future-oriented perspective missing from many existing analyses. Drawing on the expertise of 28 leading scholars from a range of disciplines, Brexit and Beyond offers various different perspectives on the future of Europe, charting the likely effects of Brexit across a range of areas, including institutional relations, political economy, law and justice, foreign affairs, democratic governance, and the idea of Europe itself. Whilst the contributors offer divergent predictions for the future of Europe after Brexit, they share the same conviction that careful scholarly analysis is in need – now more than ever – if we are to understand what lies ahead for the EU

Autocracies as Mediators in Conflicts

It is puzzling why autocracies, which typically are not renowned for their human rights record or their observance of international norms related to human rights and are frequently inured in their own violent conflicts, would choose to take on the seemingly humanitarian role of peacemaker as often as democracies in the conflicts of other states in the absence of such things as a former colonial relationship or shared geographic proximity with them. I argue that autocracies will offer more often to mediate when they are subjected to international scrutiny, sanctioning, and/or condemnation, as well as materially and immaterially benefitting from their efforts afterwards. I also posit that based on institutional attributes such as the presence of a professional bureaucracy (such as is found in a party “machine” autocracy) or by contrast an all-powerful autocrat (such as is found in personalist regimes), different autocratic regime-types will be more likely to offer to mediate than others. To test my theory, I utilize Large-N datasets about international mediation and autocratic regimes, as well as qualitative sources including information derived from the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, news articles/reports, and statements and criticisms from various states, in order to investigate when autocracies offer to mediate interstate conflicts, as well as which types of autocracies are most likely to offer to mediate an end to an international conflict. Quantitative analysis yielded some inconclusive results, however finding that Party-based autocracies are most likely to offer to mediate an international conflict when being sanctioned relative to other types of autocracies, while qualitative analysis did indeed uncover evidence that when being subjected to international condemnation and scrutiny, autocracies are likely to offer to mediate international conflict

New Perspectives in Critical Data Studies

This Open Access book examines the ambivalences of data power. Firstly, the ambivalences between global infrastructures and local invisibilities challenge the grand narrative of the ephemeral nature of a global data infrastructure. They make visible local working and living conditions, and the resources and arrangements required to operate and run them. Secondly, the book examines ambivalences between the state and data justice. It considers data justice in relation to state surveillance and data capitalism, and reflects on the ambivalences between an “entrepreneurial state” and a “welfare state”. Thirdly, the authors discuss ambivalences of everyday practices and collective action, in which civil society groups, communities, and movements try to position the interests of people against the “big players” in the tech industry. The book includes eighteen chapters that provide new and varied perspectives on the role of data and data infrastructures in our increasingly datafied societies