Analysing the two-level game: international and national determinants of change in education policy making

Education policy making is often considered an exclusive domain of the nation state in western industrialised countries. Since the 1990s, however, international organisations (IOs) have started to play a greater role in the field of education by developing new forms of governance. As a consequence, the predominance of the nation state in education becomes an increasingly contested issue. Yet, it is not clear what kind of effects IO governance will have, whether it brings about greater convergence among national education policies by promoting uniform solutions for commonly shared problems, or whether national institutions continue to follow their own logic, thereby hindering equal responses to IO governance. In order to develop a better understanding of the dynamics in this two-level game, this paper sets out to develop an analytical framework for examining the interplay between international and national determinants of change in the field of education. We argue that IOs apply different governance instruments by which they seek to influence national education policy making. However, the degree to which nation states will respond to these international stimuli is likely to be mediated by national transformation capacities, most prominently veto players and nationally rooted ideas of education. Based on these basic assumptions, we develop a parsimonious model in which we assess the influence of IO governance on national education policy making mediated through national transformation capacities.Bildungspolitik wird in den westlichen Industrienationen häufig als ausschließliche Aufgabe des Nationalstaates betrachtet. Seit den 1990ern ist jedoch zu beobachten, dass internationale Organisationen (IOs) eine immer größere Rolle im Politikfeld Bildung spielen, indem sie neue Formen der Governance entwickeln. Dies führt dazu, dass die staatliche Vorherrschaft in der Bildungspolitik zunehmend in Frage gestellt wird. Dennoch ist bisher unklar, welche konkreten Effekte der Einfluss internationaler Organisationen hat. Zum einen wäre es möglich, dass sie einheitliche Lösungen für Probleme im Bildungsbereich vorschlagen, die von vielen Nationalstaaten geteilt werden, was zu einer größeren zwischenstaatlichen Konvergenz der Bildungspolitik führen könnte. Zum anderen wäre denkbar, dass nationale Institutionen ihrer eigenen Logik folgen, was eine Annäherung nationaler Pfade verhindern würde. Um ein besseres Verständnis der Dynamiken in diesem Zwei-Ebenen-Spiel zu ermöglichen, soll in diesem Arbeitspapier ein analytischer Rahmen entwickelt werden, anhand dessen das Zusammenspiel der nationalen und internationalen Determinanten von Wandel in der Bildungspolitik untersucht werden kann. Es wird angenommen, dass IOs mit Hilfe verschiedener Governance Instrumente versuchen, nationale Bildungspolitik zu beeinflussen. Allerdings reagieren Nationalstaaten nicht zwangläufig uniform auf diese internationalen Stimuli, sondern entsprechend ihrer Transformationskapazitäten. Diese werden hauptsächlich von nationalen Vetospielern und nationalen Leitideen von Bildung beeinflusst. Aufbauend auf diesen Annahmen entwickeln wir ein einfaches Modell zur Analyse des Wandels von Bildungspolitik, der durch IO Governance ausgelöst und durch nationale Transformationskapazitäten gesteuert wird

Achieving an Islamic Interpretation of qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ

This is a lightly edited version of the keynote address Professor Nagel originally intended to deliver at the conference “Islamic Stories of the Prophets: Semantics, Discourse, and Genre” (Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Naples, October 14–15, 2015). Although he was unable to attend the conference, he has graciously granted us permission to include the paper as part of this issue of Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations

The evolution and uses of the stories of the Prophets

This is a stable archival PDF of an open-access, peer-reviewed journal volume originally published at www.mizanproject.org/journal

Challenges and opportunities for quantifying roots and rhizosphere interactions through imaging and image analysis

The morphology of roots and root systems influences the efficiency by which plants acquire nutrients and water, anchor themselves and provide stability to the surrounding soil. Plant genotype and the biotic and abiotic environment significantly influence root morphology, growth and ultimately crop yield. The challenge for researchers interested in phenotyping root systems is, therefore, not just to measure roots and link their phenotype to the plant genotype, but also to understand how the growth of roots is influenced by their environment. This review discusses progress in quantifying root system parameters (e.g. in terms of size, shape and dynamics) using imaging and image analysis technologies and also discusses their potential for providing a better understanding of root:soil interactions. Significant progress has been made in image acquisition techniques, however trade-offs exist between sample throughput, sample size, image resolution and information gained. All of these factors impact on downstream image analysis processes. While there have been significant advances in computation power, limitations still exist in statistical processes involved in image analysis. Utilizing and combining different imaging systems, integrating measurements and image analysis where possible, and amalgamating data will allow researchers to gain a better understanding of root:soil interactions