Policy Bubbles

We develop the concept of a policy bubble to capture the notion of long‐term overinvestment in a policy. In sketching the relation of policy bubbles to economic bubbles, we describe how these two concepts have similar origins but different trajectories because they are filtered by different institutions. We examine in some detail three likely instances of ongoing policy bubbles: crime policy, school reform (charter schools and private education vouchers), and the contracting and privatization of public services. We show how these cases differ from the housing bubble of 1997–2007, how they differ from each other, and the extent to which they can be considered policy bubbles. Last, we suggest this concept can help unify the policy process literature with the practice of policy evaluation and outline testable hypotheses for future research.     

The Importance of Attention Diversity and How to Measure It

Studies of political attention often focus on attention to a single issue, such as front‐page coverage of the economy. However, examining attention to a single issue without accounting for the agenda as a whole can lead to faulty assumptions. One solution is to consider the diversity of attention; that is, how narrowly or widely attention is distributed across items (e.g., issues on an agenda or, at a lower level, frames in an issue debate). Attention diversity is an important variable in its own right, offering insight into how agendas vary in their accessibility to policy problems and perspectives. Yet despite the importance of attention diversity, we lack a standard for how best to measure it. This paper focuses on the four most commonly used measures: the inverse Herfindahl Index, Shannon's H, and their normalized versions. We discuss the purposes of these measures and compare them through simulations and using three real‐world datasets. We conclude that both Shannon's H and its normalized form are better measures, minimizing the danger of spurious findings that could result from the less sensitive Herfindahl measures. The choice between the Shannon's H measures should be made based on whether variance in the total number of possible items (e.g., issues) is meaningful.     

The Solidarity Revolution in Poland, 1980-1981

Abstract: This article, based upon in-depth interviews with anti-governmentleaders and activists, first explains the significance of theupheaval in Communist Poland in 1980–1981 and articulateshow the author became involved in this research and explainshis methodology. It then concentrates on the impact on the personallives of the participants and on social relations in Polandof the upheaval that produced an unprecedented-in-the-Soviet-blocindependent union with the right to strike. It shows how activistsdeveloped talents and cultivated abilities as they assumed responsibilitiesthat had previously been unavailable to them. It examines howworkers' lives changed as they grasped control of power: theirworking conditions improved; their status rose; they treatedone another better; they educated themselves. These changes,which contributed to the context in which the political struggleof that period took place, survived the suppression of the unionand ultimately contributed to bringing about the end of Communismin Poland.     

Wirtschaftsförderung und Immobilienwirtschaft

Abstrakt Immobilienwirtschaft als Partner der Stadtentwicklung? Zugegeben eine Sichtweise, die oftmals in der Ausbildung von Planern oder Geographen etwas zu kurz kommt. Dabei w?re es oft sinnvoll, bei der Planung auch die Sicht der Immobilienwirtschaft respektive der künftigen Nutzer zu berücksichtigen. Seit jeher haben sich St?dte auch und vor allem durch die Baut?tigkeit von Privaten entwickelt. Investitionen der Kommunen und des Staates beschr?nkten sich in der Regel auf technische und soziale Infrastruktureinrichtungen und das eine oder andere Renommierobjekt, wie beispielsweise Museen, Theater, Opern. In Zeiten knapper ?ffentlicher Kassen werden selbst dafür zunehmend private Investitionen ben?tigt. In dem sich aktuell versch?rfenden Wettbewerb der St?dte und Regionen sind Investoren, die zur baulichen und wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung beitragen, wichtiger denn je. Wie sich das Zusammenspiel von Immobilienwirtschaft und Wirtschaftsf?rderung in der Praxis darstellt, schildern die Autoren beispielhaft anhand ihrer Erfahrungen aus der kommunalen Wirtschaftsf?rderung.     

Statistical methods for bioarchaeology: applications of age-adjustment and logistic regression to comparisons of skeletal populations with differing age-structures

Previous studies of patterns of osteoarthritis involvement in prehistoric skeletal populations have been used to suggest differences in lifestyle or subsistence patterns. In spite of the intriguing nature of such studies, inadequate controls for the potential confounding effects of age have made results less secure than they appear. While researchers remain unable to control for the inherent limitations imposed by preservation bias, meaningful advancement could be made in the analysis of these data. Here we propose two methods from epidemiology that would allow more robust comparisons between populations with differing age-structures: age-adjustment and logistic regression. We apply these two methods to previously published data from prehistoric populations of the American Great Basin. In doing so, we are able to discern sex differences in risk for osteoarthritis at the shoulder (beta = −1.82, SE = 0.74, OR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.04–0.69, p = 0.013), elbow (beta = −2.07, SE = 0.82, OR = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.03–0.63, p = 0.011), and in the foot (beta = −3.11, SE = 1.57, OR = 0.04, 95% CI = 0.00–0.97, p = 0.048), that were not noted in previous analyses of these data. These findings suggest that greater clarity of results and more precise comparisons of risk may be achieved by using these methods. We conclude that further application of these methods to bioarchaeological studies would potentially improve what can be said about prehistoric health patterns and lifeways.     

Regional innovation systems and the foundation of knowledge intensive business services. A comparative study in Bremen,Munich, and Stuttgart,Germany

Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) are believed to be one of the main drivers of technological change, innovation, and economic progress. Although firm foundations play a crucial role among KIBS, entrepreneurship research has hardly ever investigated the sector. As firm founders in early stages of their firms' development mostly draw on regional resources, and as the provision of the services is an interactive process, “proximity” between the different actors of the particular territorial innovation and production system clearly matters. This contribution analyses the interrelationships between KIBS foundations and their respective innovation and production systems by performing qualitative and conceptual in-depth studies of three German metropolitan regions.     

Kommunikation und Veränderung—aktuelle Herausforderungen in der Kommunalberatung

Die Herausforderung und das Ziel eines jeden kommunalen Beratungsprojektes ist die konsensorientierte und zielführende Kommunikation von notwendigen Veränderungen. Nicht unterschiedliche Städte und Gemeinden mit ähnlichen Problemlagen stehen im Vordergrund der Bearbeitung, sondern das höchst individuelle Angebot alternativer Kommunikationsverfahren. Auch der Kommunalberater aus der Geographie überzeugt vor allem durch seine persönliche Ansprache und seine beruflichen Erfahrungen. Die Perspektiven in diesem weiten Berufsfeld sind grundsätzlich nicht schlecht, wenn Geographen es heute und zukünftig verstehen, ihre fachlichen Vorzüge entsprechend darzulegen. Dieser Artikel soll Mut machen für die Herausforderungen vor Ort und Perspektiven aufzeigen!