Political attention to environmental issues: Analyzing policy punctuations in the Netherlands

One of the most dramatized features in Al Gore's movie The Inconvenient Truth is the effects of a rising sea-level in the Netherlands. The film is an example of how the mobilization of bias in the Netherlands resulted in sudden high levels of attention for climate change problems. We analyze agenda setting on Dutch environmental policy, using various policy issue datasets about parliamentary activities, media, and expert organizations and focusing on the interrelations between these policy venues. All datasets are coded by the same topic codebook. The findings show that interest in environmental issues is largely determined by the state of the economy, unexpected incidents, and the competition for attention with other issues in the political arena. We show that political interest in environmental issues has initially been flagging, since the environment was mostly seen as a European topic, and Europe has not been popular since the referendum on a European Constitution. However, once the climate change problem was translated to a national problem, popular attention increased enormously. We conclude that climate change framed as a European problem does not increase attention, nationalization of the problem does

The value of theoretical multiplicity for steering transitions towards sustainability

Transition management, as a theory of directing structural societal changes towards sustainable system innovations, has become a major topic in scientific research over the last years. In this paper we focus on the question how transitions towards sustainability can be steered, governed or managed, in particular by governmental actors. We suggest an approach of theoretical multiplicity, arguing that multiple theories will be needed simultaneously for dealing with the complex societal sustainability issues. Therefore, we address the steering question by theoretically comparing transition management theory to a number of related theories on societal change and intervention, such as multi-actor collaboration, network governance, configuration management, policy agenda setting, and adaptive management. We conclude that these related theories put the managerial assumptions of transition management into perspective, by adding other steering roles and leadership mechanisms to the picture. Finally we argue that new modes of steering inevitable have consequences for the actual governance institutions. New ways of governing change ask for change within governance systems itself and vice versa. Our argument for theoretical multiplicity implicates the development of multiple, potentially conflicting, governance capacitie

A Special Need for Others

__Abstract__ Children with psychiatric disorders are at risk for experiencing poor psychosocial, emotional, and behavioral adjustment after leaving school (Heijmens Visser, Van der Ende, Koot, & Verhulst, 2003; Wielemaker, 2009). These children thus need a good educational environment in order to optimally develop despite their impairments. Yet, some of these children have such complex special educational needs that they are placed in settings for special education. Especially these children could benefit from education that also targets their social, emotional, and behavioral skills in an educational environment that is adapted to their needs. Research has consistently shown that children’s social, emotional, and behavioral classroom adjustment is affected by the dynamic and reciprocal interplay between the child and his or her teacher and between the child and his or her peers (Pianta, Hamre, & Stuhlman, 2003; Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003). However, most of this research has been conducted in general education and not much is known about the social dynamics in special education. However, such information can contribute to improving the special educational environment. This thesis therefore focuses on the social classroom dynamics (i.e., the interplay between children, their teachers, and their peers) that are part of the environment shaping the classroom adjustment of children with psychiatric disorders in special education. In addition, to help improve the educational quality in special education settings, we implemented and examined the effects of an intervention, The Good Behavior Game, on children’s classroom adjustment, social classroom relationships, and teachers’ sense of competence and wellbeing. To give the reader a general introduction on the important topics of this thesis, this introduction starts with a discussion of special education from an international and national perspective. Next, the importance of positive teacher-child and peer relationships for children’s classroom adjustment is discussed. Subsequently, a short introduction to the Good Behavior Game is given, followed by an overview of the design of the study. Finally, the research questions of this thesis are introduced together with an outline of the different chapters

The life history and its environmental regulation in the subtidal red alga, <i>Acrosymphyton purpuriferum</i> (J. Ag.) Sjöst.

In this thesis a descrlption is given of the life history of the benthic marine red alga Acrosymphyton puriferum (J. Ag.) Sjöst. (Rhodophyceae, Cryptonemiales) and of the influence environmental factors have on the course of this life history. ... Zie: Summar