scholarly journals Editorial: Systemic Perspectives on New Alignments During COVID-19: Digital Challenges and Opportunities

Author(s):  
Thérèse Laferrière ◽  
Margaret Cox

This overview of the articles presented in this issue considers the digital challenges and opportunities of the systemic perspectives on new alignments resulting from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. New challenges and opportunities were addressed by the 13 working groups of EDUsummIT2019 prior to the pandemic. However, the evidence and analyses presented in this issue have built on those originally identified perspectives by reviewing recent (2020/2021) research, development and practice across many educational sectors and contexts. We have shown that the status quo in the majority of education systems across the world has been thrown out of kilter. This has resulted in new alignments needing to be made to take account of the enforced remote learning when schools have been closed and blended learning has become widely practised even at school level. The most prominent of these have been caused by changes in digital equity which consequently imposes new challenges to policy makers, teachers and learners. This special issue stimulates reflection in and on practice as well as help problematizing new research challenges.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1343-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elin Lerum Boasson ◽  
Dave Huitema

This is an introductory paper to a special issue on climate governance entrepreneurship, where entrepreneurship is understood as acts performed by actors seeking to ‘punch above their weight’. By contrast, actors who are merely doing their job are not ‘entrepreneurs’. In order to understand climate policy and governance, we need to learn more about the factors that condition variance in entrepreneurial activity, strategies and success. In this introduction, we present a comprehensive review of the literature on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in policy in governance, with special attention to the recent upsurge in studies of climate governance entrepreneurship. We distinguish two types of entrepreneurship: (1) acts aimed at enhancing governance influence by altering the distribution of authority and information; and (2) acts aimed at altering or diffusing norms and cognitive frameworks, worldviews or institutional logics. The contributions in this special issue offer valuable insights into how personal motivations, policy windows, international trends, cultural-institutional traditions and the distribution of structural power influence entrepreneurship. However, more work is needed – not least as regards whether actors that seek change are more active and/or more successful as entrepreneurs compared to those that defend the status quo, and whether there is more successful entrepreneurship in public or in private arenas of governance.


2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-61
Author(s):  
Ben Wisner ◽  
Peter Walker

The massive human and economic impact of the Asian tsunami in later 2004 is mirrored in the aftershocks felt among humanitarian organisations, development agencies, and policy makers. This paper raises a number of these troubling, fundamental issues. Firstly, the call for an Indian Ocean tsunami warning system raises fundamental issues about what warning systems can, and cannot, do. Secondly, one is also forced to consider why in the first place so many people live on exposed coasts today, vulnerable not only to tsunamis but tropical storms and rainy season flooding among other hazards. Thirdly, one is challenged to question the very meaning of “recovery”. Such massive damage has been done and so many people and their livelihoods have been dislocated, is it actually possible to imagine a return to the status quo ante? Fourthly, reconstruction of the magnitude now underway in the affected areas raises many difficult questions about accountability, transparency, and the unevenness with which the international community responds to crises. The paper finishes with some recommendations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-310
Author(s):  
Zoe Corwin ◽  
Tattiya J. Maruco

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the potential of digital tools to address the significant challenge of increasing access to college and outline challenges and opportunities in effectively implementing a digital intervention across an entire school. Design/methodology/approach The study encompasses a randomized control trial and comparative case studies. This paper highlights qualitative data focused on implementation. Findings Findings illustrate impediments and strategies for implementing a school-wide digital intervention. Research limitations/implications Research focused on one particular intervention and is thus limited in scope. Practical implications The study has the potential to assist practitioners in better serving students from low-income and minoritized communities through digital tools. Social implications The study has implications for increasing the number of first-generation and minoritized youth who apply to and enroll in college. The study highlights digital equity issues often overlooked in ed-tech sectors. Originality/value Few studies exist that examine the implementation of digital interventions at the school level. Focusing on digital equity in the college access space (academic and practice) is novel.


Ethnicities ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 775-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Clough Marinaro ◽  
Ulderico Daniele

This article examines novel spaces for Roma political participation that opened up under a right-wing municipal government in Rome between 2008 and 2013. Three channels were created through which Roma could engage with policy-makers and, in theory, make their voices heard: a ‘Mayor’s Delegate for Roma Issues’; a forum for debate among Roma groups and elected representatives in two official camps. Based on in-depth interviews with protagonists of this key period of mobilisation, we evaluate the successes achieved and obstacles faced. In particular, we highlight the differentiations which emerged among Roma actors, concluding that, following an initial period of enthusiasm and cohesion, most participants withdrew, achieving few of their initial goals. While the analysis demonstrates the heterogeneity of Roma groups and interests in this process, it also underlines the constraints created by the external political opportunity structure which ultimately worked to co-opt activists in order to maintain the status quo.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Kazmierski

In many ways, our democratic institutions, processes, and frameworks resemble the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period...They have ceased to evolve sufficiently and are being left behind in an environment where technological innovations and greater expectations for political consultation, participation, and accountability have combined to present new challenges to the legitimacy, and perhaps the viability, of the status quo. Indeed, without further evolution, one wonders how our democratic dinosaurs will be able to survive cataclysmic events on the horizon, including escalating terrorism events and their aftermath.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuefeng Li ◽  
Meiling Liu ◽  
Bingzhe Li ◽  
Xiangyu Zhang ◽  
Shu Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: There are over 16.8 million rare disease patients in China, representing a large community that should not be neglected. To provide a basis for policy-makers, a comprehensive analysis of the status quo, unmet needs, difficulty caused by the rare disease is essential.Methods: Therefore, a questionnaire-based study of patients and care-givers was performed.Findings: A total of 1,959 patients and care-givers participated, representing 104 rare diseases, such as lysosomal diseases, hemophilia, and muscular dystrophy. The diagnosis was delayed for 1.4 ± 3.0 years, and patients experienced 1.6 ± 3.8 misdiagnoses between 3.2 ± 2.4 hospitals. The hospitals where diagnoses made were highly concentrated in 10 large hospitals (43.8%) and 5 big cities (42.1%), indicating a significant inequality of medical resources. The disease often led to difficulty in social life, education, and employment, as well as financial burden that was seldom covered by medical insurance. A battery of standardized tests, including SF-36, PHQ-9, PHQ-15, GAD-7, and PSQI, demonstrated poor health status, depression, somatization, anxiety, and sleeping issues among both patients and care-givers (p<0.05).To examine the influence of age, disease type, and relationship to patients on the scores in these tests, statistical analysis with a general linear model was conducted. It was also shown that poor health, anxiety, depression, somatization, and sleeping problems were more prevalent in patients than in care-givers, and more prevalent in more severe diseases (e.g., hemophilia, Dravet) or undiagnosed than in other diseases.Interpretations: This study identified the lack of rare disease awareness and legislative support as the major challenge to rare diseases in China, and makes key recommendations for policy-makers, including legislating orphan drug act, raising rare disease awareness, and protecting rights in education and employment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Baldwin ◽  
Valia Kordoni

Our purpose in this special issue is partly to reflect on the status quo and, in the process, identify potential areas where greater crossover between the fields of linguistics and computational linguistics can and perhaps should occur. It is also, however, to highlight sub-areas of computational linguistics where that crossover is happening, and can be seen to have enhanced the linguistic and computational linguistic impact of the research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
Julie Everett-Hincks ◽  
Mark Henaghan

Gene editing use in pest control, primary industries and human health care pose significant new challenges for regulation. Under current New Zealand legislation (the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996) and a judicial ruling on interpretation of the legislation and regulations, the status of gene edited organisms in New Zealand are considered genetically modified and are regulated as new organisms employing a precautionary approach. This article has identified some of the complexities of the legislation inherent in regulating a rapidly developing technology, where such advances may be well ahead of current frameworks and public acceptance. Legal and policy issues have been considered. A future-proof framework to keep abreast rapidly advancing biotechnologies is required whereby new legislation for biotechnologies is developed and a single-entry point for biotechnology applications is implemented. Most importantly this article recommends valuing Treaty of Waitangi principles and have those principles lead us in all that we do. 


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