Post-Vietnam Syndrome: Psychiatry, Anti-War Politics, and the Reconstitution of the Vietnam Veteran

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-219
Author(s):  
Lenny Grant
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Medical Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Rhetorical Ecology ◽  
Vietnam Syndrome ◽  
Source Materials

Using primary source materials from medical, government, and journalism archives, this study of public medical discourse reveals the role of argumentation in posi­tively shaping public perceptions of traumatized soldiers and locates the contem­porary origins of the trope of “soldier as psychological victim of war”—a perception that continues to inform public policy and medical research. Using Jasinski’s (1998) concepts of interior and exterior constitutive potential to analyze the public writ­ings, interviews, and Congressional testimony of VVAW-affiliated psychiatrists, the study finds that the radical psychiatrists’ interior (directed at veterans) and exte­rior (directed at public and medical institutions) rhetorics were (and arguably remain) mutually effective in creating an identity for veterans to occupy that exculpated them from their involvement in war, while allowing them to garner benefits for their ser­vice. The article concludes with two examples of the “veteran as psychological vic­tim of war” trope as it shapes the contemporary rhetorical ecology of former servicemembers.

The 2016 Police and Crime Commissioner elections

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Public Awareness ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the 2016 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and to compare them with those that took place in 2012. It seeks to evaluate the background of the candidates who stood for office in 2016, the policies that they put forward, the results of the contests and the implications of the 2016 experience for future PCC elections. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based around several key themes – the profile of candidates who stood for election, preparations conducted prior to the contests taking place, the election campaign and issues raised during the contests, the results and the profile of elected candidates. The paper is based upon documentary research, making particular use of primary source material. Findings The research establishes that affiliation to a political party became the main route for successful candidates in 2016 and that local issues related to low-level criminality will dominate the future policing agenda. It establishes that although turnout was higher than in 2012, it remains low and that further consideration needs to be devoted to initiatives to address this for future PCC election contests. Research limitations/implications The research focusses on the 2016 elections and identifies a number of key issues that emerged during the campaign affecting the conduct of the contests which have a bearing on future PCC elections. It treats these elections as a bespoke topic and does not seek to place them within the broader context of the development of the office of PCC. Practical implications The research suggests that in order to boost voter participation in future PCC election contests, PCCs need to consider further means to advertise the importance of the role they perform and that the government should play a larger financial role in funding publicity for these elections and consider changing the method of election. Social implications The rationale for introducing PCCs was to empower the public in each police force area. However, issues that include the enhanced importance of political affiliation as a criteria for election in 2016 and the social unrepresentative nature of those who stood for election and those who secured election to this office in these contests coupled with shortcomings related to public awareness of both the role of PCCs and the timing of election contests threaten to undermine this objective. Originality/value The extensive use of primary source material ensures that the subject matter is original and its interpretation is informed by an academic perspective.

Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky ◽  
Asheley Landrum ◽  
Natalie Jomini Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Science Media

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.

scholarly journals A Content Analysis of Public Policy Design and Implementation in Slovenia: Weighing Strategic and Normative Factors

2021 ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
Žiga KOTNIK ◽  
Dalibor STANIMIROVIĆ
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Public ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Strategic Factors ◽  
Normative Factors

"Policy processes are complex systems and require an in-depth and comprehensive analysis. Especially, factors that affect public policy design and implementation, as two important stages of the public policy cycle, have not been sufficiently explored. The aim of the paper is to analyze the relationship between two critical factors that influence the design and implementation of public policies in the case of Slovenia, namely strategic factors and normative factors, and offer a basis for comparison with similar countries. Based on twenty-two structured interviews with prominent public policy experts in Slovenia and content analysis of the responses, the findings reveal that, although strategic factors are identified by the interviewees as the most critical, the role of normative factors is also important and should not be underestimated. For various reasons, in practice, normative factors often turn out to be crucial."

Storytelling and Narrative Research in Crisis and Disaster Studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Jerolleman
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Community Recovery ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advocacy Training ◽  
The Past ◽  
Planning Policy ◽  
Fundamental Part ◽  
Disaster Studies ◽  
The Public Sphere

Storytelling is a common and pervasive practice across human history, which some have argued is a fundamental part of human understanding. Storytelling and narratives are a very human way of understanding the world, as well as events, and can serve as key tools for crisis and disaster studies and practice. They play a tremendously important role in planning, policy, education, the public sphere, advocacy, training, and community recovery. In the context of crises and disasters, stories are a means by which information is transmitted across generations, a key strategy for survival from non-routine and infrequent events. In fact, the field of disaster studies has long relied on narratives as primary source material, as a means of understanding individual experiences of phenomena as well as critiquing policies and understanding the role of history in 21st-century levels of vulnerability. Over the past several decades, practitioners and educators in the field have sought to use stories and narratives more purposefully to build resilience and pass on tacit knowledge.

The role of the Market in Career Counselling Delivery

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony G. Watts ◽  
Tony Watts
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Career Guidance ◽  
Career Counselling ◽  
New Right ◽  
Market Maker ◽  
Guidance Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Training

This article explores the roles of public policy in career guidance delivery. Traditionally, most career guidance services have been structured towards the provision of social welfare to the public sector. The New Right critique of this has led to attempts to apply market principles to guidance delivery. This can take the form of a market or quasi-market in guidance. However, guidance can also be viewed as a market-maker: a means of making the labour market and education and training markets work more effectively. Some experiments in applying these principles in the UK and elsewhere are analysed.

scholarly journals From Claiming Credit to Avoiding Blame: The Evolution of Congressional Strategy for Asbestos Management

1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Twight
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Information Costs ◽  
The Public ◽  
Congressional Behavior ◽  
The Us ◽  
Blame Avoidance ◽  
Credit Claiming

ABSTRACTThis paper develops a theory synthesizing credit-claiming and blameavoidance explanations of congressional behavior and evaluates it against asbestos policy in the United States from the 1920s through the 1980s. Public policy is viewed as shaped by officeholders' ability to achieve political ends through augmenting information costs and other transaction costs facing the public. Public perceptions are seen both as the endogenous product of congressional information-cost manipulation and as an exogenous constraint that changes in identifiable ways over time. Different policy stances - open credit claiming, concealed credit claiming, early-stage blame avoidance, and full-scale blame avoidance – are predicted to emerge in response to specified conditions, yielding implications about the expected timing of public policy changes. Specific types of transaction-cost manipulation are predicted to accompany the identified policy stances. The US asbestos policy experience is shown to be consistent with the predictions of the model.

scholarly journals Priority Setting as A Double-Edged Sword: How Modernization Strengthened the Role of Public Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-487
Author(s):  
Or Brook
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Priority Setting ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Common View ◽  
The Public ◽  
Eu Competition Law ◽  
National Competition ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Detrimental Impact

Abstract This article questions the common view that the modernization of EU competition law has removed public policy considerations from the public enforcement of Article 101 TFEU. Based on a large quantitative and qualitative database including all of the Commission’s and five national competition authorities’ enforcement actions (N ≈ 1,700), it maintains that modernization has merely shifted the consideration of public policy from the substantive scope of Article 101(3) TFEU to procedural priority setting decisions. Instead of engaging in a complex balancing of competition and public policy considerations, the competition authorities have simply refrained from pursuing cases against anticompetitive agreements that raise public policy questions or settled those cases by accepting negotiated remedies. This outcome, the article claims, is a double-edged sword. The Commission’s attempt to narrow down the scope of Article 101(3) as part of modernization has not eliminated the role of public policy in the enforcement. Rather, undertakings can reasonably assume that restrictions of competition that produce some public policy objectives will not be enforced, even if they do not meet the conditions for an exception. These discretionary nonenforcement decisions have a detrimental impact on the effectiveness, uniformity, and legal certainty of EU competition law enforcement. JEL: K21, K230

scholarly journals Masculinities and Animal Harm

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 908-926
Author(s):  
Angus Nurse
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Animal Abuse ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Offending Behavior

This paper explores the role of masculinities in animal harm and conceptions on the Masculinities Offender, primarily motivated by power and masculine behaviors. Within “masculinities crimes,” the exercise of power allied to sport or entertainment is significantly linked to organized crime and gambling. Masculinities crimes also include elements of cruelty or animal abuse and perceptions by offenders of their actions having cultural significance, and where toughness, masculinity, and smartness combine with a love of excitement. Examples include badger digging, badger baiting, cock-fighting, and other crimes involving the “sporting” killing or taking of wildlife.  This article explores masculinities offender rationalizations and associated masculinity-based negative attitudes towards animals and animal harm. The public policy response to masculinities crimes reflects acceptance of the violent nature of offenders. Yet arguably enforcement and punishment through use of surveillance activities and undercover operations, and reliance on prison as the primary deterrent/sanction risks being counter-productive and reinforcing the very masculinities that underlie offending behavior.

Crystallising the official narrative: News discourses about the killings from the Philippine government’s campaign against illegal drugs

Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 146488491986782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryll Ruth R Soriano ◽  
Clarissa C David ◽  
Jenna Mae Atun
Keyword(s):  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Television News ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Zero Tolerance Policy ◽  
The Media ◽  
State Responses ◽  
Selection Of

News media’s construction of crime and drugs can shape and change public perceptions and influence popular acceptance of policy and state responses. In this way, media, through selection of sources and framing of narratives, act as important agents of social control, either independently or indirectly by state actors. This article examines how the Philippine government’s anti-drug campaign, and the thousands of deaths resulting from them, has been depicted by the media to the public. We conducted a discourse analysis of television news stories to extract dominant frames and narratives, finding a pattern of over-privileging of State authority as a source, resulting in a monolithic message of justifying the killing of suspects. Furthermore, the ‘event-focused’ slant, which dominates the character of reports by media, inevitably solidifies the narrative that the deaths are a necessary consequence of a national public safety campaign. By relying almost exclusively on this narrative, to the exclusion of alternative frames, the media amplifies and crystallises the state’s narrative. As we critically examine how drugs, drug use and the zero-tolerance policy are positioned through discourse in news texts, the article raises important implications to the ethics and role of journalism in politics and provides explanations relating to crime-reporting norms, values and media organisation realities in the country.

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