Elections,Policy and the Media: Tasmania's Forests and the 2004 Federal Election

Much of the academic literature holds the media responsible for the proliferation of the game frame as a way of reporting on elections. This paper challenges that view through an examination of media coverage of forest policy in the 2004 federal election. The study of articles published in three major broadsheets finds that the majority of stories were set within the game frame, which depicts elections as sporting contests, and that far fewer articles focused on the issue. The lack of interest in policy is characteristic of election reporting but, in this case, can be attributed to the way in which the major parties managed their campaigns. Not only did they drive the game frame but, as policy makers, they also determined the frame within which the limited media consideration of policy substance was set. The article concludes that political actors must take at least some responsibility for the domination of the game frame in election reporting.     

Managing Multidisciplinarity: Lessons from SUBR:IM

Abstract

The complex nature of societal problems has fuelled arguments that such issues can only be addressed by holistic responses which are informed by high-quality policy, practice and techno-scientific research. As a result, research councils are encouraging the development of interdisciplinary research consortia through which the strengths of various scientific and social scientific disciplines can be harnessed to produce coherent, well-informed and cross-disciplinary outputs. Yet the task of managing such projects is problematic. The paper draws on the authors' experiences of managing one such consortium, SUBR:IM (Sustainable Brownfield Regeneration: Integrated Management). We reflect upon the processes and politics of building a broadly-based consortium and argue that, while the benefits of such endeavours can be significant, research councils need to give greater recognition to the barriers that exist to achieving genuine collaboration, such as disciplinary incommensurabilities, centrally imposed constraints and internal resistance. The paper explores these barriers before identifying possible ways forward, including better processes of consortia building, more effective internal structures, focusing on a single case study and recruiting the right mix of academics.     

Women and Money: Lessons from Senegal

This article examines the complexity and diversity of women's informal financial practices using data from surveys conducted in Senegal. It suggests that these practices are at the centre of a constant dialectic between short‐term and long‐term horizons, between the requirements of daily survival and the demands of community solidarity, and between personal aspirations and collective constraints. These practices also clearly illustrate a desire among the women in Senegal to impose a form of financial self‐discipline, and to create situations that will oblige them to earn income. The socio‐economic diversity among these entrepreneurs is also underscored. Informal financial arrangements are both a product and producer of gender inequalities and inequalities among women, as reflected in the research. This has direct policy implications, especially for microfinance products. If they are to be effective, microfinance services must develop beyond a standard, one‐size fits all model and become more innovative and adaptable to the diverse demands of women. They must be combined with complementary measures that challenge the systemic causes of inequality. Microfinance programmes should draw on informal financial arrangements while challenging their tendency to perpetuate inequality.     

Solidarity Economy for Development and Women's Emancipation: Lessons from Bolivia

This article critically assesses the relationship between the solidarity economy (SE) and women's emancipation through a case study of SE groups in El Alto, Bolivia. It highlights the fact that the failure to harness the potential of SE as a development alternative and as a means for the emancipation of women can partly be attributed to the neglect of gender‐related issues in the study of SE. Following an examination of SE in the Bolivian context of class and ethnicity, the article deepens the analysis by focusing on gender. It shows that the significant participation of women in SE is a response to the double imperative imposed by the current processes of monetization of production and home‐based reproduction. Compared with their insertion into the market individually, participation in SE allows women to increase and smooth their income. In general, however, their income remains lower than that of men and also below the poverty line. This reflects a continuing gender asymmetry and points to the limitations to what solidarity among poor women can achieve. The article concludes with an assessment of the possibilities as well as the difficulties inherent in a new pathway to women's emancipation through SE, a pathway which would necessitate a reorganization of the social sphere of reproduction.     

Epistemological Ignorances and Fighting for the Disappeared: Lessons from Mexico

Social justice struggles across the Americas have, over the last half century, transformed the urban areas of this region into international staging grounds for protesting the global devastation wrought by capitalist exploitation, state terror and social hatred. This paper maintains that there is much to learn for struggles against this triangulation in other parts of the world. In particular, through a discussion of how contemporary activism in Mexico against feminicidio, drug wars and brutal repression draws from a long legacy of protest across the Americas, I seek to illustrate the relevance for other places as people fight a cruel modernity that evolves through terror, profit and hatred. Critical geography has long contributed to exposing these connections and can still deepen its commitments to mapping the landscapes of the growing populations of disappeared and marginalized peoples in Mexico and elsewhere.     

Sustainable Water Management Policy: Lessons from Amsterdam

This article focuses on the identification of critical water policy instruments, and opportunities and barriers to transforming urban water use in a sustainable and efficient direction in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). The main lessons that can be inferred from past and current water policies and management practices in Amsterdam show (1) the relevance of common action for increasing the quality of or general control over water resources when shared interests of different actors using the same water resource are present; (2) that the effectiveness and applicability of water policy instruments are strongly conditional upon receiving the support of both water users and suppliers; (3) that the governance structure of water provision plays a crucial role in increasing the efficiency of water use.     

Cultural survival: Lessons from the native North Americans

Champagne, Duane. American Indian Societies: Strategies and Conditions of Political and Cultural Survival. Cambridge: Cultural Survival, Inc., 1989. 160 pp. including references. $19.95 cloth, $10.00 paper.

Cohen, Fay G. Treaties on Trial: The Continuing Controversy over Northwest Indian Fishing Rights. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986. vii + 256 pp. including notes and index. $20.00 cloth, $9.95 paper.

Fahey, John. The Kalispel Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986. vii + 248 pp. including notes, bibliography, and index. $18.95 cloth.

Thornton, Russell. We Shall Live Again: The 1870 and 1890 Ghost Dance Movements as Demographic Revitalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. ix + 95 pp. including appendices, bibliography, and index.     

Indexing Immigration and Integration Policy: Lessons from Europe

Immigrant‐related policy indexes have become popular in both U.S. and European contexts, yet these projects boast distinct and divergent trajectories. European indices are characterized by rigorous conceptualization, specificity in elements of policy design (e.g., settings like fees or appeal process), and a variety of measurement strategies. By contrast, U.S. state‐level policy indices exhibit a lack of differentiation between immigration and integration policy and excessive generality in measurement and representation of policy instruments and settings, exacerbated in presenting a policy index as an aggregate count. This paper argues U.S. policy indexing can benefit from the European indexing experience. Following an overview of the state of each field, assessing concept differentiation, specification, and measurement in each, the paper illustrates how even the well‐conceived and specified European integration policy indices run into problems at the analysis stage. It presents a replication‐replacement study to illustrate divergent performance of highly correlated and conceptually agreeing indices, as well as methodological issues inherent to indices of low‐N, including using a policy index as a dependent variable and index selection absent a priori theorization. It concludes with suggestions for improving American immigration policy indices, as well as general observations on working with statistical power‐challenged indices and data limitations.     

Clintoncare and Obamacare: Lessons for Gridlock Theory

Abstract

The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 marked a significant achievement for congressional health reform. Despite increased partisanship, decreased productivity, and increased polarization of Congress, major health reform legislation was passed. We compare the ACA’s passage to the failure of Clinton-era health reform, emphasizing gridlock theory, which some scholars interpreted to predict that major health reform would not be possible in 2010. We identify several ways in which the different outcomes for the ACA and the Clinton reform effort can be explained by gridlock theory: pivotal actors, the gridlock window, and the status quo. However, factors not included in gridlock theory, such as the role of parties and institutional change, appear to also have contributed to the success of the ACA relative to the failure of Clinton health reform. Lessons learned from health reform suggest an opportunity to expand gridlock theory to account for these additional factors.