Paradigm Shift of Japan＇s Monetary Policymaking： Implications of Abe Shinzo＇s Return to Power

The paper begins with reviewing the monetary policymaking of Japan since mid-1990s. The ＂Big Bang＂ reforms in 1996-1997 had developed the foundations of financial restructuring in both private and public sectors. More importantly, under the 1998 Bank of Japan （BOJ） Law, BOJ successfully earned an independence status to formulate ＂politically neutral＂ monetary policies but encountered political pressures from politicians and Ministry of Finance （MOF） bureaucrats. Then, the paper explores how the second Abe administration has forced BOJ to accommodate its financial agenda--boost economic growth and fight against deflation - in order to gain political interests but hurt BOJ independence. The paper proceeds to explain the conflict between politicians and appointed technocrats as an institutional game under government change. The paper concludes that Abe Shinzo handled the rivalry properly by acting aggressively on both economic and strategic issues and brought a significant electoral success of the Liberal Democratic Party＇s （LDP＇s） in the 2013 upper house election.

Critical Review on the Trajectory of Educational Policymaking and How Migrant Children Have Been Affected in China

This book review essay critically analyses the scholarly contribution and limitations of Yu's Migration and Educational Policymaking in China:A Critical Engagement with Policy Sociology and Bourdieu(2022).The essay primarily criticises how,while Yu adopts Bourdieu's concept of fields to develop the theoretical framework for his research on the trajectory of educational policymaking in China,he overlooks the importance of including alternative,relevant Bourdieu's concepts in his discussion.These concepts include capital,habitus and social and cultural reproduction of inequality(and how these intertwine with social immobility).The author,however,appreciates Yu's efforts in the exploration of localised education and related policies for migrant children in five first-tier Chinese cities,especially in how a comparative approach is exercised.The author believes Yu's book,despite a number of criticisms and scepticism,adds significant scholarly values to help academic researchers who have a disposition to present policy recommendations,along with postgraduate students of interest,enrich their understanding of how educational policymaking differs between different localised Chinese contexts and evolves in the past decades.

Pandemic Policymaking

This study leverages a high dimensional manifold learning design to explore the latent structure of the pandemic policymaking space only based on bill-level characteristics of pandemic-focused bills from 1973 to 2020.Results indicate the COVID-19 era of policymaking maps extremely closely onto prior periods of related policymaking.This suggests that there is striking uniformity in Congressional policymaking related to these types of large-scale crises over time,despite currently operating in a unique era of hyperpolarization,division,and ineffective governance.

ADDRESSING EQUITY ISSUE IN MULTI-ACTOR POLICYMAKING VIA A SYSTEM-OF-SYSTEMS APPROACH:AVIATION EMISSIONS REDUCTION CASE STUDY

Finding equitable policy solutions is critical for developing sustainable energy use. This paper presents a system-of-systems （SOS） formalism for addressing the equity issue in multi-actor policymaking. In a SoS, the control of the overall system performance is shared among a network of actors. In contrast to a single optimal solution that aggregates objectives of actors, the solution conCept of iso-performance is formulated and employed to illuminate multiple solutions and hence the ＇space＇ for actors to compromise. By specifically accounting for the equity issue, the level of sacrifice each actor makes for each iso-performance solution is computed. To demonstrate the approach, a case study is presented about policymaking to reduce fuel life cycle aviation emissions in the United States based on the year 2020 reduction target, involving government, airlines, jet fuel refinery companies, and aircraft and engine manufacturers. A resource allocation mixed integer programming model is employed to calculate carbon emissions resulting from airlines＇ deployment of aircraft fleet to meet changing air transport demand. The paper discusses three iso-performance solutions; each of them requires a different level of sacrifice from each actor. Such an insight can inform policymaking in determining the magnitude of compensation required when a particular solution is pursued.

Farmer Participation in the Management and Policymaking of Forestry Projects

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Disaster risk reduction in mountain areas: an initial overview on seeking pathways to global sustainability

As disasters cripple the world’s prospects for sustainable development, protecting the most vulnerable groups exposed to hazards is one of the main challenges facing humanity. Owing to the systemic nature of risk and the interactions and interdependencies between upland and lowland systems, healthy and productive mountain households and livelihoods are essential to global sustainability. This paper argues that, building on existing international frameworks, and integrated knowledge and praxis, the development of a global policy agenda should be established to build sustainable peace, sustainable security, and development.

Health Care Policy and Reform—Case Study on Liberia Tuberculosis among Childbearing Age Women

Objective: Liberia health care needs to focus on addressing this disease called Tuberculosis among childbearing age women in Liberia and the world;focusing on women’s health governance of Liberia should involve these three sets of actors to control a disease outbreak. The first set of state actors, including politicians, policymakers, and other government officials, need to provide health care education in every part. The public sector health bureaucracy comprising the health ministry, health, social insurance agencies, public pharmaceutical procurement and distribution entities, etc., is central. Still, non-health public sector actors also play a role. Methods: The researcher used the questionnaire method as the main instrument for the study. Results: This survey indicates that 48% of those responding to health education can reduce TB among childbearing age women showed that education could minimize the spread of TB. 25% can improve economic status. 27% said it could reduce the illiteracy rate. The instruments used were positively related to the topic to obtain the needed findings. This set comprises public, private, should not be-for-profit individuals and groups that deliver health services and organizations that support service provision: medical training institutions, health insurance agencies, the pharmaceutical industry. Health service delivery can be presenting from the health system perspective, with inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes. WHO’re Systems Thinking for Health Systems Strengthening explaining that service delivery includes “effective, safe and quality personal and non-personal health interventions that are providing to those in need, when and where needed (including infrastructure), with minimal waste of resources”. Conclusion: Inputs for a sound health system, the need for health care delivery include financial resources, competent health care staff, adequate physical facilities and equipment, essential medicines and supplies, current clinical guidelines, and operational policies.

Recent advances in energy storage and energy saving technologies:SDEWES special issue in 2022

Over the past few decades,there has been significant attention devoted to the development of advanced technologies for achieving sustainable and environmentally friendly energy production.One prominent event in this field was the 17th SDEWES Conference(Sustainable Development of Energy,Water,and Environment Systems),which took place from November 6-10,2022,in Paphos,Cyprus.This conference served as a gathering for 496 professionals,comprising scientists,researchers,and experts specializing in sustainable development.Participants came from 52 countries spanning six continents,with 349 attending in person and 147 joining virtually.Prof.Neven Duic,the full professor in the University of Zagreb,originated the SDEWES series since 2002,and serves as the associate editor of Energy Storage and Saving(ENSS)from the journal organization in 2021.This special issue(SI)is the second-time collaboration between SDEWES and ENSS.This editorial focuses on collating the key papers presented during the conference,with a particular emphasis on the pivotal topics including review on electrification and decarbonization,geothermal power utilization,thermal energy storage in heat pump,thermo-economic analysis on thermal system of buildings,industrial policymaking for low-emission technologies and mining investment in Latin America.ENSS also has established the SI for 18th SDEWES in 2023.Manuscripts are welcomed to 18th SDEWES held in Dubrovnik,Croatia on September 24-29,2023.

Defining,Explaining and,then,Exploiting the Elusive Concept of"Governance"

The concept of“governance”has become omnipresent in the lexicon of politics and political science.It has very quickly acquired many different meanings,but its most important property seems to be its capacity to serve as a substitute for“government”.The former is(allegedly)good,and the latter is(allegedly)bad.In this essay,I explore the definition,the presumptions and the utility of governance.I conclude that it can make an important contribution of our understanding of the increasingly complex process of making and implementing public policies,but not as a substitute for government.

Measuring residents’ anxiety under urban redevelopment in China: An investigation of demographic variables

Residents’concerns and feelings play pivotal roles in smoothly promoting urban redevelopment.Anxiety,as an intuitive feeling toward uncertainties,generally exists among residents who are confronted with redevelopment,and this feeling has gradually attracted scholars’attention.However,relatively few studies have focused on the multidimensional view of this concept and its influencing factors.Drawing upon a large-scale questionnaire survey conducted in 13 pilot areas in China,this study refines and verifies five prominent dimensions of anxiety,namely,housing conditions,monetary compensation,public services,life adaptation,and public participation level,through factor analysis and one-sample/-test.The finding contributes to achieving a complete understanding of anxiety,and the scales developed for measuring these dimensions lay the foundation for further empirical studies on anxiety.The individual and collective effects of age,job,and region variables on anxiety dimensions are demonstrated via independent-sample/-test and analysis of variance,which clarifies the formation process of anxiety and highlights the importance of these contextual variables.Tailored strategies for policymaking and engineering management,including establishing reasonable compensation standards,providing equal public services,and delivering highquality housing,are proposed to relieve residents5 anxiety.These strategies are expected to consider further the sensitive group,such as the elderly,farmers,and casual workers.

Framework of behavioral indicators evaluating TB health promotion outcomes: a modified Delphi study of TB policymakers and health workers

Background:Although TB health promotion directed at policy makers and healthcare workers(HCWs)is considered important to tuberculosis(TB)control,no indicators currently assess the impact of such promotional activities.This article is the second in a series of papers that seek to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion,using the Delphi method.In the first article,we sought to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion among TB suspects and patients.The objective of this second article is to present an indicator framework that can be used to assess behavioral outcomes of TB health promotion directed at policy makers and HCWs.Methods:A two-round,modified Delphi method was used to establish the indicators.Sixteen experts who were knowledgeable and experienced in the field of TB control were consulted in Delphi surveys.A questionnaire was developed following 4 steps,and involved ranking indicators on a five-point Likert scale.The consensus level was 70%.Median,mode,and Coefficient of variation(CV)were used to describe expert responses.An authority coefficient(Cr)was used to assess the degree of each expert’s authority.Results:Consensus was achieved following the two survey rounds and several iterations among the experts.For TB health-promotion activities directed at policymakers,the experts reached consensus on 2 domains(“Resource inputs”and“Policymaking and monitoring behaviors”),4 subdomains(“Human resources”among others),and 13 indicators(“Human resources per 100,000 person”among others).For TB health-promotion activities directed at HCWs,the experts reached consensus on 5 domains(“Self-protective behaviors”among others),6 sub-domains(“Preventing infection”among others),and 15 indicators(“Average hours of daily workplace disinfection by ultraviolet radiation”among others).Conclusions:This study identified a conceptual framework of core behavioral indicators to evaluate TB health-promotion activities directed at policymakers and HCWs involved in TB control.Validation in other parts of the world could lead to global consensus on behavioral indicators to evaluate TB health promotion targeted at policymakers and HCWs.

Researching social innovation:is the tail wagging the dog?

Background:Social Innovation in health initiatives have the potential to address unmet community health needs.For sustainable change to occur,we need to understand how and why a given intervention is effective.Bringing together communities,innovators,researchers,and policy makers is a powerful way to address this knowledge gap but differing priorities and epistemological backgrounds can make collaboration challenging.Main text:To overcome these barriers,stakeholders will need to design policies and work in ways that provide an enabling environment for innovative products and services.Inherently about people,the incorporation of community engagement approaches is necessary for both the development of social innovations and accompanying research methodologies.Whilst the'appropriate'level of participation is linked to intended outcomes,researchers have a role to play in better understanding how to harness the power of community engagement and to ensure that community perspectives form part of the evidence base that informs policy and practice.Conclusions:To effectively operate at the intersection between policy,social innovation,and research,all collaborators need to enter the process with the mindset of learners,rather than experts.Methods-quantitative and qualitative-must be selected according to research questions.The fields of implementation research,community-based participatory research,and realist research,amongst others,have much to offer.So do other sectors,notably education and business.In all this,researchers must assume the mantel of responsibility for research and not transfer the onus to communities under the guise of participation.By leveraging the expertise and knowledge of different ecosystem actors,we can design responsive health systems that integrate innovative approaches in ways that are greater than the sum of their parts.

Charting Course to Navigate Economic Headwinds

Reform, opening up and consumption will be China’s major tools to help keep the economy growing steadily during the second half of the year and beyond,with the country’s policymakers unveiling a general roadmap to help navigate through economic headwinds.