Climbing the Mountain: An Approach to Planning and Evaluating Public-Policy Advocacy

· This article proposes a new methodology for planning and evaluating public-policy advocacy. The methodology is designed around a series of stages, each with a different set of strategic planning and assessment requirements. · The article suggests that both planning and evaluative approaches that fail to take account of the necessary stages required to develop and then implement an advocacy strategy will likely assign the wrong indicators of success. · This analysis is based on direct experience working with both policy processes and a wide range of foundations and nonprofits that have invested in public-policy advocacy, including the Rockefeller, Ford, David and Lucille Packard, and William and Flora Hewlett foundations

Grounded Theory Method and Symbolic Interactionism: Freedom of Conceptualization and the Importance of Context in Research

Der symbolische Interaktionismus (SI), eine Perspektive zum Verständnis menschlichen Verhaltens, wird gemeinhin als Grundlage für die Grounded-Theory-Methodologie (GTM) angesehen. Der Zweck der GTM besteht jedoch darin, aus Daten eine substanzielle, erklärende Sozialtheorie zu erstellen, ohne sich auf vorherige Annahmen zu stützen. Daher argumentieren einige, dass SI eine unnötige theoretische Einschränkung des Hauptziels der GTM – der freien Konzeptualisierung von Daten – darstelle. In diesem Artikel verwenden wir Beispiele aus einer laufenden konstruktivistischen Grounded-Theory-Studie über die Aushandlung der Rollen von Krankenschwestern in der Allgemeinmedizin in Neuseeland, um zu zeigen, was SI in Bezug auf die konzeptionelle Entwicklung und das Verständnis des Kontextes beitragen kann. Wir argumentieren, dass durch das Stellen von drei Fragen aus einer symbolisch-interaktionistischen Perspektive in jeder Phase des Forschungsprozesses die Freiheit der Konzeptualisierung erhöht und das Bewusstsein für kontextuelle Belange gefördert werden kann, um eine bessere Brücke zwischen den Weltsichten zu schlagen.Symbolic interactionism (SI), a perspective used to understand human conduct, is commonly said to underpin grounded theory methodology (GTM). However, the purpose of GTM is to produce substantive explanatory social theory from data without reliance on prior assumptions. Therefore, some argue that SI is an unnecessary theoretical constraint on the principal aim of GTM—the free conceptualization of data. In this article we use examples from an ongoing constructionist grounded theory study into the negotiation of nurses' roles in general practice in New Zealand, to demonstrate how SI can inform GTM regarding conceptual development and context. We argue that by asking three questions from a symbolic interactionist perspective, at each stage of the research process, freedom of conceptualization may be enhanced and awareness of contextual matters promoted to better bridge world views

“Making Up” with Law in Development

This article draws on Ian Hacking’s idea of “making up people” to reflect on the relationship between development knowledge, practice, and expertise. Using Hacking’s five-part model as a counterpoint to mainstream accounts of development and its tasks, it (re)describes the manner in which development vision informs practice, while practice itself reconstructs the horizon of possibilities for developing states and their populations. The picture that emerges is one of tight interconnections between expertise-driven institutional practice and what we come to see and therefore to “know” about development. It is also one in which iconic figures such as the entrepreneurial woman emerge as products of, and catalysts to, legal and policy reform. Hacking’s model can be productively applied to related projects, illuminating the paths of international (and domestic) rights-based struggles for gender equality. It thus stands to reveal otherwise opaque connections among projects in which law plays a central role

Implementation, impact and costs of policies for safe staffing in acute NHS trusts

The aim of this research has been to describe the implementation of safe staffing policies in NHS general acute Trusts in England looking at costs and consequences, and examining the factors that have influenced implementation. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods were used (national survey, analysis of national data, four case studies, realist evaluation) to examine the impact of policies nationally, and explore commonality and variation in local responses to safe staffing policies. The report is based on independent research commissioned and funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme (“Implementation, Impact and Costs of Policies for Safe Staffing in Acute NHS Trusts”, PR-ST-1115-10017). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the Department of Health and Social Care, ‘arm’s length bodies’ or other government departments

Racial disparities in problems with voting

Electoral laws in the United States are causing hurdles for participation which affect the racial minority population in greater degree than for the white population. This thesis looks at racial disparities in problems with voting with data from the 2020 Cooperative Election Study. A logistic fixed effect regression model shows the results of racial minorities who are Black, Hispanic, and Two or more races have statistically significant increased odds in having problems with voting, compared to White. When adding the structural variables, some of this is explained by low education, living in urban areas and being younger, controlled for the state the respondent lives in. There are still significant results that Hispanics and Two or more races have increased odds in having problems with voting, compared to White, controlled for education, rurality, age, and state. These laws excludes eligible voters from the American democracy. Voting is a cornerstone in a democracy and should represent the will of all the people. Exclusion of racial minorities violates with the definition of Robert Dahl, that a democracy “is the continuing responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens, considered as political equals” (Dahl 1971, 1). When excluded, racial minorities are not political equals, the government is not being responsive to their preferences, and they don’t possess the opportunity to vote them out. Inclusion should always be desirable as a democratic ideal

Political messianism in Portugal, the case of André Ventura

The article aims to discuss Populist Radical Right (“PRR”) through the case of the Portuguese party, Chega (“enough”), presenting its leader, André Ventura, as a political Messiah. Confronting the literature, this article emphasises that, until Ventura came into the scene and contrary to the idea of Portuguese exceptionalism, populism was historically evident in Portuguese politics long before the advent of Chega. Although much has been written about the PRR party, this article presents its leader, André Ventura, in the frame of political messianism. Supporting the argument with tweets from Ventura, this article shows that the leader of Chega navigates the waters of Portuguese colonial memory, with its narrative of a country without racism and of political messianism with roots in Sebastianism in case of Portugal, a poetic-prophetic aspiration for the return of the political saviour. To acquire a religious aura, Ventura uses elements of popular Portuguese religiosity, such as the Miracle of Fatima.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio