4,818 research outputs found
Lost in Translation: Piloting a Novel Framework to Assess the Challenges in Translating Scientific Uncertainty From Empirical Findings to WHO Policy Statements.
BACKGROUND:Calls for evidence-informed public health policy, with implicit promises of greater program effectiveness, have intensified recently. The methods to produce such policies are not self-evident, requiring a conciliation of values and norms between policy-makers and evidence producers. In particular, the translation of uncertainty from empirical research findings, particularly issues of statistical variability and generalizability, is a persistent challenge because of the incremental nature of research and the iterative cycle of advancing knowledge and implementation. This paper aims to assess how the concept of uncertainty is considered and acknowledged in World Health Organization (WHO) policy recommendations and guidelines. METHODS:We selected four WHO policy statements published between 2008-2013 regarding maternal and child nutrient supplementation, infant feeding, heat action plans, and malaria control to represent topics with a spectrum of available evidence bases. Each of these four statements was analyzed using a novel framework to assess the treatment of statistical variability and generalizability. RESULTS:WHO currently provides substantial guidance on addressing statistical variability through GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) ratings for precision and consistency in their guideline documents. Accordingly, our analysis showed that policy-informing questions were addressed by systematic reviews and representations of statistical variability (eg, with numeric confidence intervals). In contrast, the presentation of contextual or "background" evidence regarding etiology or disease burden showed little consideration for this variability. Moreover, generalizability or "indirectness" was uniformly neglected, with little explicit consideration of study settings or subgroups. CONCLUSION:In this paper, we found that non-uniform treatment of statistical variability and generalizability factors that may contribute to uncertainty regarding recommendations were neglected, including the state of evidence informing background questions (prevalence, mechanisms, or burden or distributions of health problems) and little assessment of generalizability, alternate interventions, and additional outcomes not captured by systematic review. These other factors often form a basis for providing policy recommendations, particularly in the absence of a strong evidence base for intervention effects. Consequently, they should also be subject to stringent and systematic evaluation criteria. We suggest that more effort is needed to systematically acknowledge (1) when evidence is missing, conflicting, or equivocal, (2) what normative considerations were also employed, and (3) how additional evidence may be accrued
Integration of psychological models in the design of artificial creatures
Artificial creatures form an increasingly important component of interactive computer games. Examples of such creatures exist which can interact with each other and the game player and learn from their experiences. However, we argue, the design of the underlying architecture and algorithms has to a large extent overlooked knowledge from psychology and cognitive sciences. We explore the integration of observations from studies of motivational systems and emotional behaviour into the design of artificial creatures. An initial implementation of our ideas using the âsim agentâ toolkit illustrates that physiological models can be used as the basis for creatures with animal like behaviour attributes. The current aim of this research is to increase the ârealismâ of artificial creatures in interactive game-play, but it may have wider implications for the development of AI
Western centric research methods? Exposing international practices
Data curated by humans reflects the biases and imperfections of humans (OâNeil, 2017; 2016). For example, in autonomous weapons systems, the initial data entered produces algorithms from which weapons systems learn, and, as a result, the systems mirror and amplify existing biases in the data sets (OâNeil, 2017). In political science and international relations, biases are also both inherent and amplified through the research approaches and methods adopted. They, too, are frequently hidden. A stark example of this is in the debate between area and disciplinary studies. Although there is a growing recognition that area studies can make valuable contributions to the study of international relations and that there is a need to âdecoloniseâ the discipline (Suzuki, 2021), the debate so far has not recognized the gulf of differences in research methods between these two approaches. This article argues that in the study of international relations and particularly regarding institutions, area studies approaches should be more frequently adopted. The limited use of these approaches not only hampers new research but also hides a colonial hangover.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
The transnational governance of global health : Norwegian and Swiss cases of national policies on global health
Cette thĂšse de doctorat a pour but de mieux comprendre les rapports entre une politique nationale sur la santĂ© mondiale et la gouvernance mondiale de la santĂ© (global health governance - GHG). Ă cette fin la thĂšse examine un objet Ă©mergent, la politique nationale sur la santĂ© mondiale (national policy on global health â NPGH) dans une perspective de science politique de la santĂ©, un champ de recherche interdisciplinaire. Elle sâappuie sur des thĂ©ories et des concepts de lâĂ©tude de politiques publiques pour explorer les processus, les rĂšgles et les relations de pouvoir qui caractĂ©risent les arĂšnes de politiques nationales dans lesquelles plusieurs secteurs interagissent pour coordonner la stratĂ©gie de santĂ© mondiale dâun pays. Ainsi conceptualisĂ©e en termes de politique publique, la NPGH est une arĂšne dâaction multisectorielle dans laquelle les acteurs des secteurs de la santĂ©, du dĂ©veloppement, et des affaires Ă©trangĂšres interagissent pour prendre des dĂ©cisions sur la façon de gĂ©rer le travail dâun gouvernement national concernant la santĂ© mondiale. Ătudier la NPGH permet dâĂ©clairer trois grands enjeux de la recherche et de la pratique en santĂ© publique et en promotion de la santĂ©, tels que lâintersectorialitĂ©, la gouvernance et le rĂŽle des sciences sociales. Cette thĂšse compte dix chapitres, dont quatre articles (deux publiĂ©s et deux Ă soumettre) et deux monographies de cas.
Lâarticle 1 prĂ©sente le cadre thĂ©orique qui oriente tant les questions de recherche que lâapproche dĂ©ductive utilisĂ©e pour gĂ©nĂ©rer et analyser le matĂ©riel empirique. Pour conceptualiser les processus de NPGH dans les termes de lâĂ©tude des politiques publiques, nous avons adaptĂ© le cadre thĂ©orique synthĂ©tique de Real-Dato. Ce cadre Ă©tablit les catĂ©gories analytiques qui permettent de conceptualiser les arĂšnes dâaction de NPGH, de replacer ces arĂšnes dans un ensemble de contextes multidimensionnels, et de poser leurs limites internes (nationales) et externes (globales) pour explorer les mĂ©canismes de changement de politique entre les paliers national (NPGH) et global (GHG).
Nous avons dĂ©veloppĂ© un devis dâĂ©tudes de cas multiples, qualitatif et rĂ©trospectif, incluant deux Ă©tudes de cas approfondies de NPGH en NorvĂšge et en Suisse, pour rĂ©pondre Ă trois questions de recherche :
1) Quels sont les éléments du policy design dans les documents de NPGH qui ont été formellement adoptés ?
2) Quâest-ce qui caractĂ©rise les arĂšnes dâaction qui dĂ©veloppent des documents de NPGHâ? et
3) Comment fonctionnent les mĂ©canismes de changement entre le systĂšme global de GHG et les arĂšnes nationales de NPGHâ?
Nous avons procédé à une collecte de données documentaires et à des entrevues pour générer les données. En 2014 et 2015, trente-trois entrevues individuelles semi-dirigées ont été réalisées avec des informateurs clés de Suisse (n = 14) et de NorvÚge (n = 19), en utilisant des techniques visuelles (article 2). Les informateurs clés comprenaient des acteurs politiques importants et des experts des secteurs de la santé, du développement et des affaires étrangÚres, ainsi que des acteurs de la société civile et des chercheurs. Pour chaque étude de cas, un « groupe consultatif contextuel » a été mis en place. Ces groupes constituent une partie intégrante du devis de recherche de la thÚse : ils ont été conçus et opérationnalisés comme des dispositifs méthodologiques visant à soutenir et valider la construction des cas.
Lâarticle 3 prĂ©sente les rĂ©sultats de la premiĂšre Ă©tude comparative, celle des deux documents de NPGH officiellement adoptĂ©s, la Politique extĂ©rieure suisse en matiĂšre de santĂ© et le White Paper on Global health in foreign and development policy de la NorvĂšge. Nous avons utilisĂ© le cadre conceptuel du policy design de Schneider et Ingram pour mener une analyse de contenu qualitative dirigĂ©e de ces documents, afin de comprendre les buts de ces politiques et les façons dont elles envisageaient de les atteindre. Cette Ă©tude a rĂ©vĂ©lĂ© que ces NPGH visent Ă opĂ©rer un changement sur le plan international et prĂ©voient le recours Ă des instruments de coopĂ©ration et de diplomatie en santĂ© pour apporter des modifications dans le systĂšme de gouvernance mondiale de la santĂ©.
En reconstituant de façon rĂ©trospective les arĂšnes dâaction qui ont produit ces deux documents (entre 2005-2013), nous avons constatĂ© que, dans les deux cas, les acteurs gouvernementaux de la santĂ© et des affaires Ă©trangĂšres (entre autres) ont innovĂ©, usant de stratĂ©gie et dâopportunisme pour crĂ©er des arĂšnes de collaboration leur permettant dâagir dans et sur le systĂšme de gouvernance mondiale de la santĂ©. Pour contextualiser et construire les deux cas approfondis des arĂšnes dâaction de NPGH en NorvĂšge et en Suisse, les analyses ont Ă©tĂ© rĂ©alisĂ©es en trois Ă©tapes :
âą Ă©tape 1 : cartographier des situations dâaction dans les deux arĂšnes dâaction nationales ;
âą Ă©tape 2 : comprendre les processus au sein de chaque situation dâaction ;
âą Ă©tape 3 : produire un rapport sur chaque situation dâaction axĂ©e sur les rĂšgles et le pouvoir.
Dans les cinq situations suisses, les rĂšgles ont institutionnalisĂ© les arrangements de partage du pouvoir et ont mis au dĂ©fi les cultures sectorielles. Dans les six situations norvĂ©giennes, elles ont renforcĂ© lâasymĂ©trie du pouvoir et la territorialisation sectorielle. Dans les deux cas, ce sont des secteurs diffĂ©rents qui sont Ă lâorigine des NPGH : le secteur de la santĂ© en Suisse et le secteur des affaires Ă©trangĂšres en NorvĂšge.
Lâarticle 4 prĂ©sente les rĂ©sultats de la deuxiĂšme Ă©tude comparative, qui visait Ă mieux comprendre la relation entre les processus de gouvernance de la santĂ© mondiale aux Ă©chelles nationale et mondiale. Les donnĂ©es des deux cas ont Ă©tĂ© analysĂ©es pour cerner les structures relationnelles entre les processus nationaux et internationaux de gouvernance de la santĂ© mondiale. Nous avons trouvĂ© cinq formes dâinteractions entre les arĂšnes de NPGH et la GHG : les entitĂ©s responsables de la gouvernance des organisations intergouvernementales pour la santĂ©, la gouvernance des partenariats mondiaux de santĂ© public-privĂ©, les accords de coopĂ©ration formels et informels, les carrefours mondiaux dâacteurs de santĂ©, et les Ă©lites transnationales. La circulation des idĂ©es et la rĂ©troaction entre diffĂ©rents processus de production des politiques publiques qui se chevauchent dans un espace transnational de gouvernance de la santĂ© mondiale signifient quâune arĂšne NPGH est partiellement intĂ©grĂ©e dans le systĂšme de GHG, de mĂȘme que le systĂšme de GHG est en partie intĂ©grĂ© dans une arĂšne NPGH.
Dans lâensemble, trois principaux rĂ©sultats de cette thĂšse contribuent Ă mieux comprendre le NPGH en tant que processus politique Ă la jonction de la diplomatie de la santĂ© et de la gouvernance mondiale de la santĂ© : la rĂ©partition des rĂŽles entre les secteurs varie selon les arĂšnes multisectorielles de NPGHâ; les idĂ©es politiques circulent dans les interactions entre les arĂšnes de NPGH et la GHGâ; la GHG se matĂ©rialise comme une cible systĂ©mique pour les arĂšnes de NPGH. En tant quâarĂšnes de politiques transnationales, les NPGH sont des politiques intersectorielles sans frontiĂšres : elles ciblent et interagissent avec des acteurs et des institutions ancrĂ©s dans les arĂšnes nationales, internationales et mondiales de gouvernance de la santĂ© mondiale. Cette forme de gouvernance transnationale de la santĂ© mondiale peut renforcer le statut privilĂ©giĂ© de certains acteurs Ă©tatiques dans la GHG et crĂ©er potentiellement des conditions pour le transfert de politiques publiques par le biais de mĂ©canismes de rĂ©seautage et dâapprentissage.
Cette thĂšse apporte trois contributions distinctes. PremiĂšrement elle contribue de deux façons Ă la connaissance sur les politiques publiques : 1) empiriquement, elle contribue Ă la connaissance des processus et des façons dont le secteur de la santĂ© sâengage avec dâautres secteurs dans la politique et la gouvernance intersectorielles, et 2) dâun point de vue mĂ©thodologique, elle contribue au dĂ©veloppement de devis de recherche et de mĂ©thodes qualitatives pour la recherche comparative sur les politiques de santĂ© qui prennent en compte la contextualisation de la politique. DeuxiĂšmement, elle fait une contribution thĂ©orique Ă la conceptualisation de la gouvernance transnationale de la santĂ© mondiale, dans laquelle la gouvernance de la santĂ© mondiale est comprise comme un processus qui se construit par le bas Ă travers des interactions transnationales. Cette conceptualisation de la gouvernance transnationale de la santĂ© contraste avec la conception gĂ©nĂ©ralement admise dâun processus qui se construit par le haut, Ă partir des organisations internationales. TroisiĂšmement, par son ancrage dans un domaine de recherche interdisciplinaire de la science politique de la santĂ©, cette thĂšse offre Ă la fois un exemple de la façon dont les thĂ©ories des politiques publiques peuvent ĂȘtre utilisĂ©es pour comprendre les politiques intersectorielles liĂ©es Ă la santĂ© et Ă la gouvernance de la santĂ© mondiale, et un exemple de la maniĂšre dont lâĂ©tude de politiques sur la santĂ© mondiale peut ĂȘtre utilisĂ©e pour Ă©laborer des thĂ©ories sur les politiques publiques.The objective of this thesis is to understand the relationship between national policy on global health and global health governance (GHG). To this end, the thesis examines an emergent object, national policy on global health (NPGH), from the perspective of the interdisciplinary research field of health political science. It draws on theories and concepts from policy studies to explore the processes, rules, and power relations that characterise national policy arenas in which multiple sectors interact to coordinate the global health strategy of a countryâs government. Conceptualised in public policy terms, NPGH is a multisectoral action arena wherein actors from health, development, and foreign affairs sectors interact to make decisions about how to manage the governmentâs work on global health. The study of NPGH as a research object sheds light on three broad areas of concern for public health and health promotion policy-related research and practice, such as intersectorality, governance, and the role of social science. The thesis is presented in ten chapters, including four articles (two published and two to be submitted) and two case monographs.
The theoretical framework that informs the research questions for the thesis and orients the deductive approach used to generate and analyse the empirical material is presented in Article 1. We adapted Real-Datoâs synthesis framework from the discipline of political science to conceptualise the processes of NPGH in public policy terms. This framework establishes the analytical categories constituting NPGH action arenas, set within a multidimensional set of contexts, around which we drew internal (national) and external (global) boundaries for exploring mechanisms of policy change between NPGH and GHG.
This thesis used a retrospective qualitative multiple case study design with two in-depth case studies of NPGH in Norway and Switzerland to answer three research questions:
1) What are the elements of policy design in formally adopted NPGH documents?
2) What characterises action arenas that develop NPGH documents? and
3) How do mechanisms of policy change operate between the system of GHG and the arenas of NPGH?
Data was collected through documentary and interview methods. In 2014 and 2015, I carried out thirty-three semi-structured interviews with key informants from the countries of Switzerland (n=14) and Norway (n=19), using visual techniques (Article 2). Key informants included senior policy actors and experts from the health, development, and foreign affairs sectors as well as civil society actors and researchers. For each case study, a âContext Advisory Groupâ was established. These groups are an integrated feature of the research design for this thesis as methodological devices to support and validate the construction of the cases.
Article 3 presents the results of the first comparative study, which examines the two formally adopted NPGH policy documents, the Swiss Health Foreign Policy and the White Paper on Global health in foreign and development policy from Norway. We used Schneider and Ingramâs policy design framework to conduct a directed qualitative content analysis of these documents to understand the aims of these policies and the plan to achieve them. This study found that these NPGH aim to create change at the international level and plan to use instruments of health diplomacy and cooperation to modify the global health governance system.
Retrospectively reconstructing the policy arenas that produced these two documents (between 2005-2013), I found that in both cases, government actors from health and foreign affairs sectors (among others) innovated, using strategy and opportunism to build arenas for collaboration to act in and on the global health governance system. To contextualise and construct the two in-depth cases of NPGH action arenas in Norway and Switzerland, analyses were carried out in three stages:
âą stage 1 to map action situations in the two national action arenas,
âą stage 2 to understand the processes within each action situation, and
âą stage 3 to produce a report of each action situation focusing on rules and power.
Rules institutionalised power-sharing arrangements and challenged sectoral cultures in the five situations of the Swiss arena, and they reinforced power asymmetry and sectoral territorialisation in the six situations of the Norwegian arena. The sectors responsible for initiating the NPGH action arena were different in each of the two cases: the health sector being the driver in the Swiss case, and the foreign policy sector in the Norwegian one.
Article 4 presents the results of the second comparative study, which aimed to better understand the relationship between processes for governing global health at national and international levels. Data from the two cases were analysed for the relational structures between the two (national and international) levels of processes for governing global health. We found five forms of interactions between NPGH arenas and GHG: governing bodies of intergovernmental organisations for health, governance of global public-private health partnerships, formal and informal cooperation agreements, global health hubs, and boundary-spanning transnational elites. The circulation of ideas and feedback between different overlapping policy processes within a transnational space for governing global health signifies that an NPGH arena is partly embedded in the GHG system, similarly to the way that the GHG system is partly embedded in an NPGH arena.
Overall, three main findings contributing to better understanding NPGH as a policy process at the junction of health diplomacy and global health governance stem from this thesis: the distribution of roles for sectors varies in multisectoral arenas for NPGH; policy ideas circulate in the interactions between arenas of NPGH and GHG; and GHG materialises as a systemic policy target for arenas of NPGH. As transnational policy arenas, NPGH are intersectoral policies without borders that target and interact with actors and institutions in multiple spaces spanning domestic, international, and global arenas for governing global health. This form of transnational governance of global health may bolster the insider status of some state actors in GHG and potentially create conditions for policy transfer through networking and learning mechanisms.
This thesis makes three distinct contributions. First, it contributes in two ways to knowledge on public policy: 1) empirically, it contributes to improve understanding of how the health sector engages with other sectors in intersectoral policy and governance, and 2) methodologically, it contributes to the development of research designs and qualitative methods for comparative health policy research that considers the contextualisation of policy. Second, it makes a theoretical contribution to the conceptualisation of transnational governance of global health, wherein GHG is understood a process that happens par le bas through national policyâs various transnational interactions as an alternative understanding to that as a process that happens par le haut from international institutions. Third, as a thesis anchored in an interdisciplinary research field of health political science, it offers an example of how public policy theories can be used to understand intersectoral policy related to health and global health governance, as well as an example of how the study of global health policy can be used to develop theories of public policy
Policy processes sans frontiĂšres: interactions in transnational governance of global health
National policy on global health (NPGH) arenas are multisectoral governing arrangements for cooperation between health, development, and foreign affairs sectors in government policy for global health governance. To explore the relationship between national and global processes for governing global health, this paper asks: in what forms of interaction between NPGH arenas and global health governance are learning and networking processes present? In a multiple case study of Norwegian and Swiss NPGH arenas, we collected data on intersectoral policy processes from semi-structured interviews with 33 informants in 2014-2015. Adapting Real-Datoâs framework, we analyzed each case separately, producing monographs for comparing NPGH arenas. Analyzing both NPGH arenas for relational structures linking external resources to internal policy arena processes, we found five zones of interactions - including institutions, transgovernmental clubs, and connective forms. These interactions circulate ideas and soften arenasâ boundaries. We argue that NPGH is characteristic of transnational governance of global health
Changing demand for animal source foods and their effects on the provision of ecosystem services
La captivité de Philippe de Vigneulles
Philippe de Vigneullesâs abduction and imprisonment (1490-91) gave rise to a âcycle of captivityâ that allows us to confront several different accounts of a profoundly ambiguous event. The present study examines the interpenetration of legal and literary discourse in the following texts: Philippeâs own prose accounts (the Journal and the Chronicle), his captivity poems, the Journal de Jehan Aubrion, and the three surviving depositions from the case. These documents provide valuable information not only on the corpus of an unjustly neglected writer, but also on modes of autobiography in a bourgeois culture of the pre-modern period.LâenlĂšvement de Philippe de Vigneulles (1490-91) a fait lâobjet dâun « cycle de la captivité » qui nous permet de confronter plusieurs auto-tĂ©moignages dâun Ă©vĂ©nement profondĂ©ment ambigu. La prĂ©sente Ă©tude examine lâinterpĂ©nĂ©tration entre discours juridique et discours littĂ©raire dans les textes suivants : les rĂ©cits en prose de Philippe (le Journal et la Chronique), ses poĂšmes de captivitĂ©, le Journal de Jehan Aubrion, et les trois dĂ©positions qui nous sont parvenues. Ces documents fournissent des renseignements prĂ©cieux, non seulement sur lâĆuvre dâun Ă©crivain trop peu Ă©tudiĂ©, mais aussi sur les modes du rĂ©cit de soi dans un milieu bourgeois Ă lâĂ©poque prĂ©-moderne
Introduction: Crimes, Misdemeanors, and Conflict Resolution in the Works of Philippe de Vigneulles (1471-c. 1528)
Philippe de Vigneulles was an active participant in the vibrant urban culture of Metz at the dawn of the sixteenth century. His voluminous historiographical and imaginative works purport to document the âmerveilleuses adventuresâ and âdiverses fortunesâ marking the history of his beloved city. These events include large-scale confrontations between royal and seigneurial powers, as well as conflicts on the local and regional levels. Philippe accords considerable attention to narratives of crim..
La captivité de Philippe de Vigneulles
Philippe de Vigneullesâs abduction and imprisonment (1490-91) gave rise to a âcycle of captivityâ that allows us to confront several different accounts of a profoundly ambiguous event. The present study examines the interpenetration of legal and literary discourse in the following texts: Philippeâs own prose accounts (the Journal and the Chronicle), his captivity poems, the Journal de Jehan Aubrion, and the three surviving depositions from the case. These documents provide valuable information not only on the corpus of an unjustly neglected writer, but also on modes of autobiography in a bourgeois culture of the pre-modern period.LâenlĂšvement de Philippe de Vigneulles (1490-91) a fait lâobjet dâun « cycle de la captivité » qui nous permet de confronter plusieurs auto-tĂ©moignages dâun Ă©vĂ©nement profondĂ©ment ambigu. La prĂ©sente Ă©tude examine lâinterpĂ©nĂ©tration entre discours juridique et discours littĂ©raire dans les textes suivants : les rĂ©cits en prose de Philippe (le Journal et la Chronique), ses poĂšmes de captivitĂ©, le Journal de Jehan Aubrion, et les trois dĂ©positions qui nous sont parvenues. Ces documents fournissent des renseignements prĂ©cieux, non seulement sur lâĆuvre dâun Ă©crivain trop peu Ă©tudiĂ©, mais aussi sur les modes du rĂ©cit de soi dans un milieu bourgeois Ă lâĂ©poque prĂ©-moderne
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