Depoliticisation in Livestock Farming Governance: Turning Citizen Concerns into Consumer Responsibilities

The Dutch livestock farming sector faces complex challenges concerning its sustainability and social license to operate. Engaging with what is widely understood as a legitimacy crisis, the Dutch government organised a two-day multi-stakeholder meetings to explore future directions. Participants engaged with the public as a key but absent stakeholder, in ways that contributed to the outcome of the meetings in important ways. The paper charts and analyses how and with what consequences this happened. Findings are that participants discursively constructed citizens in terms of consumer roles, with deliberations turning citizen concerns about livestock farming into questions of consumer responsibility, side-lining citizens’ political voices and discursively displacing the possibility of politics around livestock farming. This instance of network governance presents a case of depoliticisation of an issue of concern to citizens, closely related to market players being put in the driver's seat of change, with the government in a supporting role. The article argues that this raises significant questions on the nature and role of construction of publics in network governance.<br/

From humanitarian diplomacy to advocacy: a research agenda

In the humanitarian domain, advocacy has mainly been associated with activities of humanitarian actors on behalf of populations in need. While the emergence of humanitarianism was related to large advocacy movements, it has lately become associated with humanitarian diplomacy that is grounded in international humanitarian law and aims to maximise support for operations and programs towards humanitarian objectives. This chapter seeks to broaden and revitalize the concept of humanitarian advocacy as the activities of affected communities and their advocates to articulate, advance, and protect their rights (i.e., entitlements to assistance and citizenship rights more broadly), needs, views, and interests'. The chapter proposes an agenda for research and argues that we need to reimagine humanitarian advocacy, in line with current changes in humanitarian action, and open to discover the meaning of advocacy in a bottom-up manner by exploring actors, political contacts, strategies, scope, and aims

Worldwide trends in population-based survival for children, adolescents, and young adults diagnosed with leukaemia, by subtype, during 2000–14 (CONCORD-3) : analysis of individual data from 258 cancer registries in 61 countries

Background Leukaemias comprise a heterogenous group of haematological malignancies. In CONCORD-3, we analysed data for children (aged 0–14 years) and adults (aged 15–99 years) diagnosed with a haematological malignancy during 2000–14 in 61 countries. Here, we aimed to examine worldwide trends in survival from leukaemia, by age and morphology, in young patients (aged 0–24 years). Methods We analysed data from 258 population-based cancer registries in 61 countries participating in CONCORD-3 that submitted data on patients diagnosed with leukaemia. We grouped patients by age as children (0–14 years), adolescents (15–19 years), and young adults (20–24 years). We categorised leukaemia subtypes according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer (ICCC-3), updated with International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third edition (ICD-O-3) codes. We estimated 5-year net survival by age and morphology, with 95% CIs, using the non-parametric Pohar-Perme estimator. To control for background mortality, we used life tables by country or region, single year of age, single calendar year and sex, and, where possible, by race or ethnicity. All-age survival estimates were standardised to the marginal distribution of young people with leukaemia included in the analysis. Findings 164563 young people were included in this analysis: 121328 (73·7%) children, 22963 (14·0%) adolescents, and 20272 (12·3%) young adults. In 2010–14, the most common subtypes were lymphoid leukaemia (28205 [68·2%] patients) and acute myeloid leukaemia (7863 [19·0%] patients). Age-standardised 5-year net survival in children, adolescents, and young adults for all leukaemias combined during 2010–14 varied widely, ranging from 46% in Mexico to more than 85% in Canada, Cyprus, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Australia. Individuals with lymphoid leukaemia had better age-standardised survival (from 43% in Ecuador to ≥80% in parts of Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia) than those with acute myeloid leukaemia (from 32% in Peru to ≥70% in most high-income countries in Europe, North America, and Oceania). Throughout 2000–14, survival from all leukaemias combined remained consistently higher for children than adolescents and young adults, and minimal improvement was seen for adolescents and young adults in most countries. Interpretation This study offers the first worldwide picture of population-based survival from leukaemia in children, adolescents, and young adults. Adolescents and young adults diagnosed with leukaemia continue to have lower survival than children. Trends in survival from leukaemia for adolescents and young adults are important indicators of the quality of cancer management in this age group.peer-reviewe

How to grasp the public?

Podobno kot druge vlade v razvitih demokracijah so se zadnje nizozemske vlade lotile iskanja poti za povezovanje z državljani. Članek ugotavlja, da so ta prizadevanja obremenjena z vnaprejšnjimi konstrukcijami javnosti pred spreminjanjem odnosa med državljani in vlado. V mnogih primerih so vladne komunikacijske teorije in prakse za ponovno povezavo z državljani utemeljene v konstruktih javnosti kot prisotne in jasno določene entitete, kot pripravljene in željne konstruktivne interakcije o specifičnih politikah. Članek obravnava predpostavki o ustreznosti državljanov takim konstruktom in prizadevanjih za povezovanje prek takih konstruktov za problematični. Na koncu so obravnavane možnosti za alternativne konstrukte javnosti, kar pomeni, da je povezovanje mogoče z drugačno konstrukcijo javnosti.The Dutch government, like many other governments of advanced democracies, finds itself confronted with political disaffection. Recent cabinets have searched for ways to reconnect with citizens. The main argument made in the article is that these efforts are saddled with constructions of the public, which pre-empt the transformation of citizen-government relations that the government seeks. The article shows that there are many instances in which we find that government\u27s theories and practices of communication for reconnection are rooted in constructions of the public as a present and clearly defi ned entity, as ready and eager for constructive interaction, and for interaction about specific policies. It is argued that both assumptions about citizens fitting these constructions and attempts at connection through these constructions are problematic. Finally, the article discusses possibilities for alternative constructions of the public, which suggests that the connection is possible if the public is constructed differently

Advocacy in Constrained Settings. Rethinking Contextuality

Practical guidance on advocacy in the context of development commonly relates to the contexts in which it is set. However, context is relevant beyond the aspects usually addressed, most importantly the presence of a liberal state that has authority and competence to make and enforce policy decisions. To lay bare and reflect on these assumptions for advocacy research and practice, the chapter turns to advocacy manuals for practitioners in the development field. To illustrate and substantiate the problematic nature of the assumptions underlying practitioner guidance, the chapter provides insights from research into civil society advocacy in settings where the condition of the liberal state is not met: authoritarian/hybrid and fragile contexts. A discussion of findings from this research, and a reflection considering them, lead to the identification of a set of considerations for advocacy research and practice in the development sector regarding contextuality: CSO roles, advocacy capacities, strategies, and risk management

Conceptual foundations : Reimagining roles, relations, and processes

This chapter establishes a conceptual foundation for investigating the reimagining of roles, relations, and processes in collaborations among civil society organizations in development. The chapter starts by introducing the notion of imagination. It then proceeds to review the existing research literature on challenges related to power and privilege in civil society organization collaborations. Further, it explores new ideas and practices that have been identified as practical translations of the potential new foundations for collaboration. The discussion presented in this chapter forms not only an overall conceptual context for the chapters that follow, all of which speak from, but also to this literature and offer new directions for this reimagining.peerReviewe

Negotiating effectiveness in transnational advocacy evaluation

International development organizations increasingly use advocacy as a strategy to pursue effectiveness. However, establishing the effectiveness of advocacy is problematic and dependent on the interpretations of the stakeholders involved, as well as the interactions between them. This article challenges the idea of objective and rational evaluation, showing that advocacy evaluation is an inherently political process in which space for interactions around methods, processes and results defines how effectiveness is interpreted, measured and presented. In addition, this article demonstrates how this space for interaction contributes to the quality and accuracy of evaluating advocacy effectiveness by providing room to explore and address the multiplicities of meaning around identifying, measuring and presenting outcomes