Search

An extensive literature base has investigated women's underrepresentation in decision-making positions with sport organizations, yet women's access to these positions remains limited. Diversification strategies, based on distributive justice, have failed to create further opportunities. A new approach is needed to address this latent issue. The concept of gender allyship is presented to address the limitations of distributive justice paradigms that involves men and women to work as members of a coalition to improve gender equity in sport organizations. Utilizing grounded theory, this paper presents the core category of awareness and related subcategories self-awareness, organizational awareness, and industry awareness, as a means of informing the performance of gender allyship. The findings provide interesting theoretical and empirical implications for understanding the development of awareness, its subcategories, and how it contributes to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The business case constitutes an important instrumental motive for corporate social responsibility (CSR), but its relationship with other moral and relational motives remains controversial. In this article, we examine the articulation of motives for CSR among different stakeholders in Germany historically. On the basis of reports of German business associations, state agencies, unions, and nongovernmental organizations from 1970 to 2014, we show how the business case came to be a dominant motive for CSR by acting as a coalition magnet: the vocabulary was used strategically by key policy entrepreneurs, while being ambiguous for flexible interpretations by different stakeholders, and thereby growing in attractiveness. As a resulting discourse coalition emerged among business, state, and civil society actors, the moral and relational motives for CSR became increasingly marginalized. The article offers a new approach to studying motives and contributes to understanding the complementary or competing nature of different motives for CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IssueWhen frontline employees' voice is not heard and their ideas are not implemented, patient care is negatively impacted, and frontline employees are more likely to experience burnout and less likely to engage in subsequent change efforts.Critical theoretical analysisTheory about what happens to voiced ideas during the critical stage after employees voice and before performance outcomes are measured is nascent. We draw on research from organizational behavior, human resource management, and health care management to develop a multilevel model encompassing practices and processes at the individual, team, managerial, and organizational levels that, together, provide a nuanced picture of how voiced ideas reach implementation.Insight/advanceWe offer a multilevel understanding of the practices and processes through which voice leads to implementation; illuminate the importance of thinking temporally about voice to better understand the complex dynamics required for voiced ideas to reach implementation; and highlight factors that help ideas reach implementation, including voicers' personal and interpersonal tactics with colleagues and managers, as well as senior leaders modeling and explaining norms and making voice-related processes and practices transparent.Practice implicationsOur model provides evidence-based strategies for bolstering rejected or ignored ideas, including how voicers (re)articulate ideas, whom they enlist to advance ideas, how they engage peers and managers to improve conditions for intentional experimentation, and how they take advantage of listening structures and other formal mechanisms for voice. Our model also highlights how senior leaders can make change processes and priorities explicit and transparent.

PURPOSE: Californias failed attempts to enact a statewide sugary beverage tax presents an opportunity to advance understanding of advocacy coalition behavior. We investigate the participation of advocacy coalitions in Californias statewide sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax policy debate. DESIGN: Document analysis of legislative bills and newspaper articles collected in 2019. SETTING: California. METHOD: A total of 11 SSB tax-related bills were introduced in Californias legislature between 2001-2018 according to the states legislative website. Data sources include legislative bill documents (n = 94) and newspaper articles (n = 138). Guided by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), we identify advocacy coalitions involved in Californias SSB tax debate and explore strategies and arguments used to advance each coalitions position. RESULTS: Two coalitions (public health, food/beverage industry) were involved in Californias statewide SSB tax policy debate. The public health coalition had higher member participation and referred to scientific research evidence while the industry coalition used preemption and financial resources as primary advocacy strategies. The public health coalition frequently presented messaging on the health consequences and financial benefits of SSB taxes. The industry coalition responded by focusing on the potential negative economic impact of a tax. CONCLUSION: Multiple attempts to enact a statewide SSB tax in California have failed. Our findings add insight into the challenges of enacting an SSB tax considering industry interference. Results can inform future efforts to pass evidence-based nutrition policies.

Locating the analysis in the context of the various shifts in Brazil’s development trajectory since 2003, this article problematises the dynamics underpinning processes of environmental governance. Adopting a critical institutionalist approach, the article analyses how evolving claims of sovereignty over natural resources are used to legitimise contested policy agendas for environmental governance of the Amazon region within Brazil’s coalition politics, and how bricolage processes (innovation, adaptation, and legitimisation) shape these agendas and their outcomes. In a context of territorial fragmentation and ideological differences between an expanding network of actors (federal, state, municipal and non-state) involved in the institutional bricolage of environmental policy-making, the analysis demonstrates that the coalition dynamics of each administration determines the extent to which environmental policies are implemented within Brazil as well as the social-environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the role of cow protection in resisting labour struggles in Bombay’s cotton mills from the birth of industrialization in the 1850s to its eventual decline in the 1990s. Relying on public discourse in newspapers, government reports, and union documents, it shows that cows, sacred to Hindus, became a symbol of identity and a basis for elective affinity between mill owners, political/religious leaders, and a pro-capital city government. Mill owners funded cow protection societies, political/religious leaders supported cow protection and mediated directly with mill owners, and the state offered legitimacy, further resisting the negotiating power and innovations of labour unions to demand better living and working conditions. By implicating cow protection (identitarianism/communalism more broadly) in the political economy of industrial capitalism, this essay shifts attention from its primarily nationalist, majoritarian, and often agrarian discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWhile the results of the 2024 general election in South Korea signalled a victory for the liberal bloc, mainly led by the Democratic Party of Korea, it also marked the climax of the recent downturn in the country’s left-leaning progressive politics. However, scant attention has been paid to the rise and fall of leftist parties in Korean politics, which have struggled to maintain their power even at the margins of the National Assembly. This commentary seeks to offer a nuanced understanding of progressive politics in South Korea, which has historically oppressed socialist movements amidst anti-communist regimes for decades. It first provides an overview of the socio-political landscape of class struggle in the country and then outlines the main characteristics of three streams of progressive politics—liberal, nationalist, and socialist. Then, it discusses the history of left-leaning progressive political parties that have taken different paths and positions regarding their electoral alliance with the liberals. It is concludes that, in the current political landscape, leftist partisans are unlikely to return to the National Assembly in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The centrality of community engagement in disease prevention and health promotion interventions highlights the need to understand the contextual factors that shape participation. Sense of Community (SoC), characterized by feelings of belonging, connection, and interdependence among members of a community, has emerged as a key component of community capacity and is therefore expected to influence engagement outcomes. However, empirical evidence is needed to assess its actual impact on community engagement. Additionally, the literature lacks a broader synthesis of the role and implications of SoC in this context. This study aims to review the empirical literature on SoC in disease prevention and health promotion, with a special focus on its association with community engagement. Methods: A scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines, searching for empirical studies published between 1974 and 2023 via Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed. Results: Nineteen studies were included in the review, revealing three key themes: (1) the community to which SoC refers – among intervention participants, within community coalitions, and defined by the place of residence; (2) the interpretation of SoC, either as a generic, intuitive concept or as a theoretically defined construct; (3) the ways in which SoC is studied – as a predictor of engagement but also as an outcome of the interventions. Generic SoC among intervention participants emerged as a positive outcome and a factor contributing to engagement. However, as the scope expanded to encompass broader communities and SoC became more theoretically grounded, these dynamics shifted. SoC related to the place of residence did not exhibit significant improvement after interventions. Broader community-level SoC showed positive associations with engagement among members of community coalitions, but evidence was less consistent among the individuals targeted by interventions. Conclusions: The review highlighted a scarcity of empirical research on SoC despite its recognition as a key component of community capacity. Contextualizing SoC is crucial, as its interpretation significantly influences its role in disease prevention and health promotion interventions. Further research is needed to clarify whether SoC can foster engagement at all community levels, especially among the general population. This is particularly relevant amid the current context of escalating health needs and strained traditional resources, where community engagement is increasingly essential to ensuring the sustainable delivery of disease prevention and health promotion efforts. If SoC can drive widespread engagement, it could play a pivotal role in building more proactive and autonomous health-promoting communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of Eurocracy has increasingly been shaped by the emergence of actors lobbying on the area of digital regulation, which has heavily increased during the Von der Leyen Commission. We study the extra-institutional actor networks that have been involved in the EU digital policy formulation, and hypothesise that beyond clearly visible networks of opposition, the subjacent social structure of discourse networks was dominated by Big Tech. We do so by analysing the role of actor coalitions that have emerged to channel specific demands and pressures in relation to the ongoing regulatory struggle, as well as the dominant discourse coalitions. Specifically, we use Social Network Analysis to examine the cooperation and competition patterns among the actors involved. Our work is relevant for the study of EU personnel in two ways. First, digital regulation is a pertinent example of dynamics in emerging fields, where dominating policy entrepreneurs establish discursive dominance over a long time. Second, our innovative methodological approach indicates why analysing organisational discourses are relevant to understand the networks that contribute to the structure of the EU field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Related Articles This research employs the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to examine two coalitions of U.S. foreign policy during the early part of Barack Obama's presidency when U.S. policy shifted from leading multilateral security operations with European allies to catalyzing others to lead. It identifies the primary members of two coalitions, the Democratic Interventionists and the Pragmatic Realists, who held differing beliefs about U.S. foreign policy. I investigate the beliefs of the members of these coalitions regarding the U.S. role in multilateral security operations, the policy preferences that emerge from those beliefs, the many strategies employed to ensure the adoption of their policy preferences, and the impact of the implemented policy. The ACF facilitates consideration of the strategy, means, and settings that the Pragmatic Realist coalition used to win the policy debate in the Obama administration. This article further provides a greater understanding of the circumstances that support U.S. multilateralism.Dolan, Chris J. 2008. “The Shape of Elite Opinion on U.S. Foreign Policy, 1992 to 2004.” Politics & Policy 36(4): 542–85. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2007.00121.x/abstract.Haar, Roberta N., and Lutz F. Krebs. 2021. “The Failure of Foreign Policy Entrepreneurs in the Trump Administration.” Politics & Policy 49(2): 446–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12399.Lasher, Kevin J., and Christine Sixta Rinehart. 2016. “The Shadowboxer: The Obama Administration and Foreign Policy Grand Strategy.” Politics & Policy 44(5): 850–88. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12175. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politics and power are increasingly central to the study of sustainability transitions, including just transitions. One line of research differentiates between incumbent coalitions that resist and insurgent coalitions that promote these transitions. More recently, there has been attention on the politics and power within these coalitions and the implications of who participates and how for the kinds of policy preferences that emerge. Here, we focus on how insurgent coalitions of relatively marginalized social forces negotiate differences in interests and power. We do so by comparing insurgent just transition coalitions in two US states, Washington State and Colorado. Our study also highlights the variability amongst actors within categories, whether labour or environmental and community justice, thus challenging their homogenization implied in the ‘jobs vs environment’ and green and blue framings. We believe that our research contributes to the politicization of sustainability transition research, including just transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a discursive attempt to contextualize Nigeria's anti-gay law (Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, SSMPA) at the heart of the country's political economy and thus argues that the SSMPA is a calculated and targeted political move implemented in the face of both national and global events for the purposes of preserving the country's sovereignty and securing political interests. This work examines how neoliberalism—both ideology and practice—as a governing rationality served as the backdrop for the enactment and legitimization of the SSMPA in Nigeria. Conclusively, this article proposes queer coalitions, an active government, and pan-Africanism as necessary cultural, social, and economic interventions for the emancipation of Africans, particularly queer Africans, from the whims of neocolonial actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a setting in which a community wishes to identify a strongly supported proposal from a space of alternatives, in order to change the status quo. We describe a deliberation process in which agents dynamically form coalitions around proposals that they prefer over the status quo. We formulate conditions on the space of proposals and on the ways in which coalitions are formed that guarantee deliberation to succeed, that is, to terminate by identifying a proposal with the largest possible support. Our results provide theoretical foundations for the analysis of deliberative processes such as the ones that take place in online systems for democratic deliberation support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Did the political pressures judges found themselves under in Poland under authoritarian backsliding influence their attitudes towards other marginalised groups? I address this question with reference to a particular case study: the rights of the LGBTQ+ population. While no clear pattern of solidarity can be detected, I make use of the term 'queer coalition', originally developed by Alexander Kondakov to account for the new complexities injected into the existing relationship by the authoritarian backsliding. Drawing on interviews with human rights lawyers, activists and judges, I further elaborate on Kondakov's analytical framing highlighting the volatile dynamics and issue-specificity of queer coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partnerships that effectively engage in certain key structural and process functions are more likely to meet their research goals and contribute to longer-term health equity outcomes. Ongoing evaluation of partnerships' level of achievement of these key functions, along with their fidelity to the guiding principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), is therefore essential to understand how they can achieve desired partnership outcomes. This article describes the validated Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) Questionnaire and the use of an accompanying Facilitation Guide in helping members of CBPR partnerships evaluate their partnership's state of development and interpret findings to improve its structure, processes, and outcomes. We describe the conceptual framework guiding the development of the MAPS Questionnaire and its 81-item across seven key outcome dimensions, along with 28 items measuring precursor characteristics of CBPR partnership outcomes. The Facilitation Guide provides general guidelines for sharing, interpreting, and applying results within partnerships using a participatory process, definitions and items for each dimension, an example of presenting summary means, and dimension-specific reflective questions for discussion. We offer recommendations for practical uses of the MAPS Questionnaire and Facilitation Guide. Whether used as a comprehensive tool or by dimension, the MAPS Questionnaire is conceptually sound and empirically validated for evaluating how CBPR partnerships can achieve long-standing success. CBPR partnerships at any stage of development will find the MAPS Questionnaire and Facilitation Guide useful in measuring and interpreting indicators of partnership success, sharing results, and improving their ability to contribute to achieving health equity goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. By 2023, 1,080,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Harris County. Systemic inequity and vaccine hesitancy have contributed to COVID-19 disparities. Community Health Workers provide health education and instrumental support to alleviate health disparities among vulnerable communities. We conducted an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis in June 2022 among a broad coalition of Community Health Work stakeholders to better understand the local landscape in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. We recruited 33 community health workers and industry stakeholders in Harris County, Texas, to participate in the SWOT analysis. Participants were asked to describe their opinions on the SWOT facing the Community Health Work landscape and then rank the outcomes of the analysis to prioritize action. Results. A total of 19 themes were identified. Weaknesses included lack of respect and resources for Community Health Workers and poor coordination and capacity among the workforce infrastructure. Limited funding and lack of appreciation for Community Health Workers were deemed important threats. Diversity and community connection were critical strengths, and strong education, training, and raising awareness for community health work were considered opportunities to overcome identified weaknesses and threats. Discussion. Increased funding, greater coordination, greater respect, and amplified training can improve capacity for Community Health Workers and, therefore, improve public health outcomes for respiratory illness and viral infections such as COVID-19. This analysis helps fill an important research gap on the topic Community Health Workers responding to public health crises with racially disparate outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains variation in the adoption of cannabis regulation reforms, both for medical and recreational purposes, across Latin America? This article argues that social mobilisation is essential to understand where debates for reform emerge and become stronger. Yet it further contends that policy adoption depends on the existence of pro‐reform elite political coalitions. These coalitions in turn depend on whether drug policy becomes a legislative priority and on specific conditions of the party system. The article compares four countries that show variation in the timing and content of reform: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cabinet shuffles in multiparty democracies do not equally affect all posts as they are caused by changes in the composition of government coalitions and by shifting political conditions. With data from the 340 individual cabinet appointments in Chile's presidential system in seven presidential terms (1990–2022), we find that the type of cabinet position and prior experience as cabinet ministers impact the length of service, but party members do not last longer than independents and neither do ministers with technocratic credentials. Ministers in low‐prestige positions are less likely to being sacked. As cabinet stability is associated with the delivery of public policies, studying the determinants of longer cabinet positions helps identify factors that contribute to governability and good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racial concepts emerge in preschool age, and affect children's evaluations of others' actions. This research investigated whether 2.5‐year‐old and 7‐year‐old children's (N = 160; 100% White) evaluations may be influenced by an initial racial bias when both out‐group and in‐group protagonists were evaluated directly by attributing the responsibility of negative or positive outcomes (i.e., fair or unfair distributions of resources). After seeing each of two familiarization events, displaying fair and unfair distributions performed by a hidden distributor, toddlers were asked to assign positive and negative outcomes to two distributors that were portrayed on drawings (Experiment 1) or photographs (Experiments 2–3) of White or Black faces. Seven‐year‐old children were assessed with the same forced‐choice character task by using photographs (Experiment 4). Toddlers showed a significant tendency to attribute a fair distribution of resources to Black faces only when these were shown by photographs. Conversely, 7‐year‐olds manifested a pro‐White/anti‐Black racial bias. These findings support prior literature on the age‐related development of race prejudice starting not before the three years of life, and shed light on an initial state that is aimed at intergroup coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prominent judges and scholars have long challenged the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation. Critics point to the privileged role that supposedly unrepresentative committee chairs play in the production of legislative history and a perceived inability to aggregate individual lawmakers’ intentions. These features, the argument goes, cast doubt on the reliability of committee reports, floor speeches, and the like as windows into congressional intent. This critique even comes with a pithy framing: using legislative history to interpret statutes is misguided because “Congress is a ‘they,’ not an ‘it.’” This widely adopted expression, although appropriate in previous congressional epochs, no longer reflects reality. Drawing on analysis of nine decades of congressional data, a detailed accounting of organizational changes on Capitol Hill, and case studies of bills passed in different eras, this Article synthesizes a set of developments that, taken together, greatly improve the signal quality of legislative documents. In brief, producers of legislative history in the contemporary Congress operate as agents of cohesive coalitions; the majority party selects them for these roles based on their orthodoxy, then decides to engage them to draft some bills and sideline them for others. In light of these developments, it is time for courts to inter the widespread view that legislative history cannot shed light on an enacting coalition’s collective will. In its place, this Article presents a new paradigm: when determining whether to consult legislative history, judges must consider Congress’s structure and procedures at the time of the relevant statute’s enactment. For laws enacted in recent decades, the conditions are such that legislative history evinces legislative intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the formation of R &D alliances and market sharing (MS) agreements by which firms commit not to enter in each other's territory in oligopolistic markets. We show that R &D alliance structures are stable only in the presence of MS agreements. Thus, long lasting R &D alliances could signal the existence of some MS agreement in the industry. We characterize the set of stable symmetric pairs of coalition structures with identical R &D and MS structure. In addition, we show the stability of a class of asymmetric pairs of coalition structures where the most efficient firms form both an R &D and a MS agreement while the other firms do not form any MS agreement but form two smaller R &D alliances. Even though MS agreements are detrimental for consumers, we show that the stable pairs of coalition structures are a better outcome for consumers than no cooperation at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mechanism allocates one unit of an infinitely divisible commodity among agents reporting a number between zero and one. Nash, Pareto optimal Nash, and strong equilibria are analyzed for the case where the agents have single-dipped preferences. One main result is that when the mechanism satisfies anonymity, monotonicity, the zero–one property, and order preservation, then the Pareto optimal Nash and strong equilibria coincide and result in Pareto optimal allocations that are characterized by so-called maximal coalitions: members of a maximal coalition prefer an equal coalition share over obtaining zero, whereas the outside agents prefer zero over obtaining an equal share from joining the coalition. A second main result is an axiomatic characterization of the associated social choice correspondence as the maximal correspondence satisfying minimal envy Pareto optimality, equal division lower bound, and sharing index order preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Khmelnitskaya and Yanovskaya (Math Methods Oper Res 66(2):255–261, 2007) characterized the Owen value for TU games with a coalition structure by the axioms of efficiency, marginality, symmetry across coalitions and symmetry within coalitions. Symmetry across components requires that components with equally productive in the game between components obtain the same total payoffs of their members. In this note, inspired by Casajus (Econ Lett 169:59–62, 2018), we weaken the symmetry across components to the sign symmetry across components, which requires only that equally productive components obtain the same sign of total payoffs. We extend the Khmelnitskaya-Yanovskaya's characterization by using efficiency, marginality, sign symmetry across coalitions, and sign symmetry within coalitions, similarly as it was done by Casajus (Econ Lett 169:59–62, 2018) for the Shapley value for general TU games. At last, we extend the main result to the Winter value for games with level structure [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In real life, the relationship between social or economic environment and resource constraints may impose restrictions on the formation of coalitions. More and more scholars have recognized the limitations of (crisp) cooperative games and propose fuzzy cooperative game models to better describe the partial cooperation between players. Based on this, we introduce level structure games under fuzzy coalition, and propose a new class of fuzzy values for these level structure games. We extend Harsanyi solutions to the fuzzy domain by linear fuzzy games and establish a general form of the Harsanyi solutions (FLH-value) for level structure games. In addition, we study two distribution systems based on FLH-value, which have absolute weight and relative weight respectively. The former satisfies the null player axiom, while the latter is not satisfied. The reason is that relative weight systems make weights of all priori coalitions change when building the characteristic function of every level, and a null player can obtain the excess profit from the overflowing Harsanyi dividend. Our research has certain implications for analyzing noncontributor distribution and maintaining alliance unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of multidimensional contextual factors on the perceived effectiveness of community coalitions engaged in the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) for addressing substance misuse. We introduced and validated an instrument for assessing a broad range of contextual factors for coalition development and program implementation. This research also scrutinizes how contextual factors impact coalition effectiveness, considering internal capacity indicators as mediators. Data were sourced from 295 and 297 coalition members across 2015 and 2016, respectively, involved in SPF initiatives within a northeastern state in the United States. Our analysis identifies three critical dimensions of contextual factors – collaboration and resources, politics, and demographics and norms – that significantly affect the perceived management and program effectiveness through different mechanisms. The findings underline the importance of prevention coalitions to comprehensively assess community contexts and strategically address contextual challenges to enhance their impact on substance misuse prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decreasing political trust poses severe challenges, particularly in policy domains where solutions to societal problems are urgently needed. The reason is that low trust decreases citizens' support for policy interventions. Since trust is difficult to increase in the short to medium term, this study explores how negative trust effects on policy support could be mitigated through policymaking procedures. We connect literature on policy design processes and trust to argue that involving broader actor coalitions when designing a policy is likely to mitigate the negative trust effect on public policy support. We test this argument with an empirical focus on environmental policy, based on data from a survey experiment in Switzerland (N = 6116). Our study design combines a choice experiment with treatment conditions for procedural inclusiveness and various levels of policy stringency with a novel approach to measuring trust. The main finding is that greater inclusiveness in terms of engaging a broader actor coalition in the policy design process reduces otherwise negative effects of low trust on policy support. The main policy implication is that political trust challenges are not a predicament for failure in addressing urgent societal problems but can be offset by including broad actor coalitions in policy design processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: US nursing homes were ground zero for COVID-19 and nursing home leaders faced multiple challenges to keep residents and staff safe. Understanding the leader’s role and their use of external resources to rapidly respond to the pandemic is important to better prepare for the next infectious disease outbreak emergency. The purpose of this study is to describe Missouri nursing home leaders’ use of external resources to manage challenges encountered during the pandemic. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study uses data from semi-structured interviews conducted with leaders from 24 Midwestern nursing homes between March 2022 and March 2023. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Dedoose software. Directed content analysis, guided by Donabedian’s Structure, Process, Outcome framework, was used for analysis. Interviews were conducted as part of a larger mixed-methods study focused on developing knowledge and recommendations to improve US nursing homes’ capacity to respond to infectious disease outbreaks. Results: Forty-three interviews were conducted across the 24 homes. Participants included administrators (n = 24), nurse leaders (n = 19), and infection preventionists (n = 16). Six sub-categories of external resources/support were used by leaders to manage challenges during the pandemic:1) corporate support and communications, 2) statewide resources, 3) community-based resources, 4) health care coalitions focused on emergency response planning, 5) existing affiliations with local organizations i.e., hospitals, and 6) community members and families. Corporate support was a primary resource; however, it was limited to chain-based homes. Leaders from standalone homes seemed most reliant on statewide agencies, existing affiliations, and other community-based resources due to their lack of corporate connections. Health care coalitions were few, but when available, helped nursing homes prepare for the pandemic onset. Family and community members were vital despite being off-site from nursing homes at the pandemic onset. Conclusion: Leaders played a pivotal role in accessing and using external resources to manage challenges during the pandemic. Statewide and community-based agencies and existing affiliations were particularly critical for standalone homes who otherwise had little to no means of support. Federal, state and local agencies must consider opportunities to build multi-agency regional collaborations, local health care coalitions and community-based partnerships that include nursing homes as member. Finally, community members and family were important in providing support, thus closing visitation is a double-edged sword that needs careful, future consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study scrutinises the core assumptions of Donald Horowitz's outbidding model, which defines ethnic party competition as a rivalry between extremist groups focussed solely on ethnic politics, deeming other socio‐economic issues insufficient for voter mobilisation and electoral success (Horowitz, 1985). Through a comprehensive analysis of ethnic parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, this study demonstrates how these parties extend their focus beyond ethnic concerns to include broader administrative matters, such as social and economic issues within the local governance framework. Utilising content analysis of Kurdish newspapers and a comparative perspective, this study challenges the prevailing notion of ethnic outbidding, revealing the multifaceted strategies employed by Kurdish parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can entrepreneurs frame foreign policy change so it forces political opposition into acquiescence? In this article, I show how foreign policy entrepreneurs use six frame alignment strategies to situate policy within the confines of the dominating discourse in ways that generate political support, exploit windows of opportunity, and manage coalitions. This contributes to our knowledge of the available framing tools for entrepreneurs and advances our understanding of the relationship between change and continuity in foreign policy. In the empirical analysis, based predominantly on twenty-three in-depth interviews, I show how a new venture of Swedish foreign policy, the deployment of Special Forces to Afghanistan, was successfully framed firmly within the confines of the foreign policy orientation and in line with previous policies. The analysis demonstrates how potential opposition was forestalled through the use of alignment strategies as sensitive and controversial aspects were masked as foreign policy continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substance use-related problems continue to be a national public health crisis despite years of prevention efforts. Community anti-drug coalitions are well positioned to address substance use at local levels. Coalitions often rely on their members to connect to resources they need to address community issues and plan for sustainability over time. Such capacity building occurs through voluntary cooperation among members, making it essential to understand the role network connections play. This study sought to determine whether structural characteristics of coalitions' resource sharing networks impact members' perceptions of community improvement and coalition sustainability. Surveys at two timepoints collected data from 68 coalitions in Pennsylvania and Missouri on members' connections or ties to share information, personnel, money, or other types of collaboration. Analyses examined how coalition-level measurements of sectoral diversity, density, and resource sharing centralization, respectively, were associated with members' perceptions of community improvement, sustainability planning, and coalition sustainability. Sectoral diversity and centralization were unrelated to study outcomes. Density was also unrelated with perceived community improvement and sustainability planning. However, two facets of cooperative density were positively associated with perceived coalition sustainability: the density of ties to share information and the density of multiple types of collaborative ties. This study suggests that both information and other collaborative ties foster perceived coalition sustainability, although not community improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of heritage work in extractive zones, focusing on how different stakeholders—industries, communities, and governments—leverage heritage to assert claims and achieve visibility. This paper is based on a multiyear research project examining the now-canceled Jordan Cove Energy Project and Pacific Connector Pipeline in Oregon. The focus here centers on defining heritage work and its use by various actors to navigate claims of legitimacy and access. I argue that in extractive contexts, heritage work is more than legal work or documentation; it is also a tool that communities use to refuse the erasure of connections to land and culture and to affirm connections. By defining heritage work and extractive zones in the same frame, this paper directs attention to how heritage is taken up, dismissed, legitimized, or valorized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Giorgia Meloni, the leader of a party with fascist roots, was elected Italy's prime minister, liberal alarm bells went off. Concerns soon evaporated, however, as Meloni continued Italy's policy of support for Ukraine against Russia and refrained from picking fights with the European Union. Her adherence to what looked like a traditional centre-right foreign policy mystified observers across the Atlantic, who neglected her more troubling domestic policies. In liberal-minded and pro-EU quarters, the belief emerged that if Meloni showed that moderation could pay off electorally, other far-right parties could follow suit. However, Meloni's foreign policy is arguably less the result of a genuine change of heart than of contingent factors such as a strongly Atlanticist US administration, Italy's need for EU cash and a lack of competition for the leadership of Europe's far right. All these conditions may vanish in the coming years, and if they do, Meloni may find that her experiment in moderation is not politically expedient after all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This methodological analysis traces the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on two ethnographic studies in Chicago: a neighborhood fight for affordable housing, and an effort to increase local participation in the 2020 U.S. Census. We attend to the relationship between space and visibility after the onset of the pandemic as methodological and political challenges. Drawing on Haraway's seminal description of situated knowledge, this article explores the changes that the pandemic brought to our situated and partial perspective as ethnographers of political process. To do so, we present fieldwork from both studies before and after they became fully virtual. Finally, we discuss shared emergent methodological implications with a focus on embodiment in fieldwork, the dynamics of access, and the formalization of participation in online venues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries are implementing carbon taxation to limit emissions, and this provides a new form of tax revenue. Studies have taken up the question of what forms of expenditure from carbon taxation receive public support and whether 'revenue recycling' can improve support for carbon taxation. However, public attitudes are ambiguous. We argue that some of the diverse findings partly reflect that previous studies have lacked the trade‐offs that come with expenditures and that we need to expand focus beyond what the average citizen wants. Therefore, we use an approach where members of the Danish public are asked how they would like to divide the total sum of carbon tax revenues between eight specific areas. We employ hierarchical cluster analysis, which shows a diverse field of groups. This reveals that, while generally popular, expenditures toward climate mitigation and adaptation need to be complemented by social spending to achieve broader support. Related Articles: Ike, Vivian. 2020. "The Impact of Veto Players on Incremental and Drastic Policy Making: Australia's Carbon Tax Policy and Its Repeal." Politics & Policy 48(2): 232–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12346. Lachapelle, Erick, Thomas Bergeron, Richard Nadeau, Jean‐François Daoust, Ruth Dassonneville, and Éric Bélanger. 2021. "Citizens' Willingness to Support New Taxes for COVID‐19 Measures and the Role of Trust." Politics & Policy 49(3): 534–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12404. Tuxhorn, Kim‐Lee, John D'Attoma, and Sven Steinmo. 2021. "Do Citizens Want Something for Nothing? Mass Attitudes and the Federal Budget." Politics & Policy 49(3): 566–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12406. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a 13-year-old boy with piso-hamate coalition confirmed by X-ray. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed type 1 coalition according to the classification of DeVilliers Minnaar. Piso-hamate coalition is rare, and suspicions should be raised in instances of chronic ulnar-sided wrist pain, particularly in individuals with a history of elevated hand usage, especially amongst athletes engaging in intensive hand grip activities. Surgical resection of the synchondrosis site between the pisiform and the hamate is an efficacious intervention that can mitigate pain. Level of Evidence: Level V (Therapeutic) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predominant economic theories of coalition formation assume that the best strategy during coalition negotiations is to approach as few partners as possible with self‐serving offers that barely beat all other competitors while maximizing one's profit. Accordingly, to be included in a winning coalition, one needs to be able to predict others' intentions, which is called perspective‐taking. However, economists derived the idea that these strategies lead to success from observed coalition outcomes, rather than testing the role of perspective‐taking empirically or modeling coalition negotiation dynamics. The present research revisits these theories from a psychological perspective within a novel coalition formation game that mimics common problems in horizontal supply chain collaboration. In line with theories of coalition formation, perspective‐taking during the negotiation predicted higher inclusion in winning coalitions and higher monetary payoffs, but unexpectedly also longer negotiations. Contrary to predominant theories, perspective‐taking led individuals to approach more partners and make other‐serving offers, suggesting that successful coalition negotiations rely on different mechanisms than previously thought. These results are also practically relevant because companies often fail to orchestrate their transport flows, which leads to economic losses and environmental damage. These insights are valuable as they call for a psychological revision of predominant theories on coalition formation and shed light on how social behaviour influences horizontal collaboration in the transport sector. Furthermore, these findings underscore the potential of coalition‐driven approaches in mitigating environmental consequences, offering a pathway toward sustainable practices in the face of climate challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three decades after the African National Congress (ANC) won 62.7 percent of the vote that propelled Nelson Mandela into the presidency in 1994, the ANC's vote share plummeted to 40.2 percent of the national vote in South Africa's 2024 general election (down from 57.5 percent five years previously,= and well below the 50 percent predicted by preelection polls). Against thirty years of pessimistic academic literature predicting the opposite, the ANC accepted electoral defeat. But this left the ANC in a strategic quandary. Had it reached the upper 40 percent range, easy coalitions with small parties would have passed the 50 percent threshold. But with only 40 percent, the party reached back into the early years of democracy and formed a government of national unity—a multiparty coalition that left the ANC's most significant political opponents out in the cold. ANC (and national) president Cyril Ramaphosa has sidelined Africanist parties and created a coalition with decidedly centrist parties. The "broad church" which has bedeviled the ANC is at an end. Multiparty coalition government has arrived in South Africa, but questions remain: Can ANC electoral decline be arrested by this sharp move towards the center? And what, if any, substantive role is there for the ANC in the future if not? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era defined by intense competition with China and Russia, Washington faces a crucial challenge: how to reconcile its ideological commitments with the pragmatic needs of global geopolitics. This article argues for forming pragmatic coalitions that include illiberal regimes, noting that key geopolitical partners in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East are often less than ideal from a liberal democratic perspective. However, deterring revisionist challenges will remain an utmost priority for the United States, and achieving it would likely require diplomatic flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ad hoc forms of military cooperation have become commonplace in European security and defence. The EU has even voiced the ambition to strengthen mutual support between its CSDP operations and European-led ad hoc coalitions. We ask whether and how this mutual support is strengthened and what it means for European defence integration. We focus on two cases: Task Force Takuba deployed to the Sahel region and the European Maritime Awareness mission in the Strait of Hormuz. Our analysis shows that European-led ad hoc coalitions are driven by short-term pragmatism, focused on providing quick fixes to collective problems and achieving particularistic gains. Plans to strengthen mutual support with the EU mostly emerge gradually and bottom-up, from military-operational experiences. However, formal integration is often hindered by political quarrels. We conclude that the EU needs a strategic vision for the position of ad hoc coalitions in European security and defence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the European Union's (EU) aid policy process and, more precisely, the factors through which member states (MS) shape the formulation of development cooperation policy at the EU level. Following literature on EU policy processes, we identify the several influence factors available for MS to advance their priorities in the context of defining EU aid policy and legislation. Thematically, these refer to MS' national institutional frameworks, their strategic vision and coordination, their human resources, the interactions among representatives and actors in Brussels and structural factors. The relevance and functioning of these factors when MS shape EU development cooperation policy are then explored through semi-structured interviews, showing that the exertion of power on the part of MS is not limited to their economic size or financial contributions and that influence is the result of the combination of a wide array of factors in the domains of coalitions, power resources, networks, institutions, and critical junctures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What brings competing parties to coalesce into new entities? I present a model of electoral competition in which parties can form alliances and decide how binding these should be. Parties face a dynamic trade-off between insuring themselves against significant shifts in public opinion and allowing flexibility to respond to future electoral changes. The model shows that more binding alliances such as mergers emerge in equilibrium when electoral volatility is high; instead, when voters are predictable (e.g., highly partisan), parties either run alone or form more flexible preelectoral coalitions. When the electorate is sufficiently volatile, a risk-averse centrist party might prefer to merge with an ideologically extreme party than with a moderate one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advances in EU integration since COVID-19 and Russia's full-scale invasion have challenged the expectations of cross-cutting cleavages resulting in a 'politics trap'. This article addresses this puzzle through a case study of the Visegrád-4 (V4), a key coalition in EU politics which significantly influenced many policy areas but whose effectiveness has strikingly diminished post-Brexit. Borrowing insights from EU integration theories and the literature on transnational coalitions, the article contends that inter-state cooperation depends on salience and national politicisation strategies. Based on a survey of policy documents and secondary literature, it argues that the V4 group effectively shaped EU policy through issue-specific bargaining in low-salience areas and joint politicisation of high-salience issues when it fitted the political strategies of incumbent leaders. However, in the 'second polycrisis', V4 unity and influence in EU politics have frayed due to overlapping conflicts in high-salience, non-negotiable areas, prominently, security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our daily life, players may reduce their cooperation levels for various reasons. This paper studies how to evaluate and allocate the cooperation payoff when the players cooperate partially. Different from previous research that directly uses the cooperation level to calculate the payoffs of fuzzy coalitions, we introduce the concept of dual fuzzy cooperative games, where the payoffs of fuzzy coalitions equal the difference between the original payoff and the lost payoff caused by the decline of the cooperation level. Meanwhile, the dual Shapley value is introduced, and its axiomatic systems are studied. Further, a special kind of dual fuzzy cooperative game with Choquet integral form is presented. Finally, we provide an application of dual fuzzy cooperative games in the manufacturer–retailer supply chain to allocate the payoff for vertical co-op advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the Comparative Political Economy discourse on countries' export specialization transitions. While current growth model literature often highlights producer coalitions' influence, we present a complementary perspective emphasizing industrial policies. These policies, we argue, are not solely shaped by politics but are also deeply influenced by sectoral technological capabilities. By strategically engaging in both demand and supply-side sectoral innovation processes, industrial policies deepen existing technological capabilities with spillover effects into new sectors or foster new sector-specific capabilities. Our empirical analysis comprises two main steps. First, we create export profiles for eight European nations, using OECD TiVA data from 1995 to 2018. These profiles are categorized based on their technological and innovation content. Second, we identify significant shifts in export structures within Ireland, Sweden and Spain. Through thorough case studies, we illustrate the role of industrial policies in cultivating sector-specific technological capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 60 years, International Environmental Law has produced hundreds of texts aimed at protecting the environment at global to regional scales. Most of these texts do not gather the support of all the states concerned. The reasons for this are analysed here. This retrospective look provides a striking panorama of the current situation. The international and domestic motivations that lead a state to the sovereign decision to ratify or not a treaty, are first recalled and put into perspective in their interdependencies. The analysis of thousands of ratifications of 51 major treaties draws lines of divergence between leading states, follower states, and states reluctant to enter into environmental commitments. On a global scale the latter form a large majority, including most African and Asian states. The states of Northern and Western Europe are among the first to ratify these treaties, followed by other European states. G7 member states occupy vey contrasting normative positions. Overall, three major moves emerge from this global panorama. First, historical and persistent inequalities in the development of countries have cast an indelible shadow on environmental international multilateral treaties which do not bring the expected fruits of development. Second, in environmental matters, over the past 15 years the trend consists in establishing agreements of more restricted range (regional, bilateral), with commitments from states on fairly flexible objectives, adaptable to their social and economic context. Third, these agreements are set within the broadly negotiated and thematically inclusive principles of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author talks about some of the challenges faced by educators in social work and argues for greater activism, spanning national and regional boundaries, building strength through relationship and solidarity. She discusses the persistence of extractive capitalism, activism in social work, and the actions that should be taken by social work educators and scholars to model to their students.

Local actors can defend public value by mobilizing resistance coalitions against threats from higher spatial scales. Drawing on existing scholarship on resistance movements and public value creation, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for understanding how local actors can protect public value from threats of rescaling driven solely by hegemonic discourses and presents a strategy that we call "playing the scales." Our case study analyzes a Local Action Group's resistance to a state-imposed and EU-framed regulation that threatened local forms of value creation on the Croatian peninsula of Pelješac. Employing a longitudinal participatory approach, our findings outline the strategy of playing the scales, which involved three key tactics: gathering relevant knowledge from various scales; crafting an alternative narrative; and leveraging this narrative across scales to reshape the dominant organizational logic. The study contributes to the understanding of public value creation by showing how it can be defended by resistance coalitions that are capable of playing the scales. It also sheds light on alternative dynamics of rescaling that, rather than oppositional resistance to higher scales or attempts to scale up micro-practices can also be driven by trans-scalar alliances that inscribe the interests of local communities into dominant discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper models games where the strategies are nodes of a graph G (we denote them as G-games) and in presence of coalition structures. The cases of one-shot and repeated games are presented. In the latter situation, coalitions are assumed to move from a strategy to another one under the constraint that they are adjacent in the graph. We introduce novel concepts of pure and mixed equilibria which are comparable with classical Nash and Berge equilibria. A Folk Theorem for G-games of repeated type is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are underrepresented in business, academic, and political decision-making bodies across the world. To investigate the causal effect of gender representation on multilateral negotiations, we experimentally manipulate the composition of triads in a majoritarian, divide-the-dollar game. We document a robust gender gap in earnings driven largely by the exclusion of women from alliances rather than differential shares within alliances. Experiments with different subject pools show that distinct bargaining dynamics can underlie the same inequitable outcomes; gender-biased outcomes can be caused by outright discrimination, but they can also be driven by more complex dynamics related to differences in bargaining strategies. Although replacing the male with a female majority all but eliminates the gap in one pool, it has minimal effect in the other. These findings show that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution to the gender gap we uncovered and highlight the importance of studying bargaining dynamics in detail. This paper was accepted by Marie-Claire Villeval, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: A. Baranski recognizes financial support from Tamkeen [under the New York University Abu Dhabi Research Institute; Grant CG005]. J. Tremewan acknowledges funding from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche [Grant ANR-21-CE03-0018 (Project ENDURA)]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.01800. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the relationship between education policy change and policy transfer, focusing on Georgia's School Board of Trustees. It analyzes how Western practices have been implemented in the education policies of post-Soviet countries. To achieve this, the article utilizes instrumental case studies and in-depth interviews. It views policy transfer as a tool of education policy change while integrating it with an advocacy coalition framework. The study indicates that advocacy coalitions transform into transfer networks, and their approach is to replicate or emulate foreign experiences. The article also poses new research questions, enabling researchers to build on and scrutinize the proposed assumptions and concentrate on post-Soviet education policy transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]