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Most policy learning literature assumes identifiable lessons, comparable points of consideration, transferable solutions, and expectable performative changes. However, all these assumptions are challenged in the context of crises, where complexity makes learning across contexts difficult, if not impossible. This article aims to bring in policy learning from critical perspectives. It argues that, in the face of complexity, policy learning that can support crisis governance is instead an internal process involving the translation of lessons and the co-evolution of interrelated actors. In this lens, policy learning goes beyond the conventional understanding of lessons, drawing on actual practices within the learning loops of the particular policy cycle. Such loops and cycles, in this view, are not truly present. Grounded in Hyogo, Japan's empowered participatory governance in responding to the crisis, policy learning is instead a complex everyday practice for translating narratives about past actions that, in turn, help frame future directions. With that framework, it can stimulate the co-evolution of state and societal actors without clear changing points, leading to more robust governing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are promoted as a global action plan for transformational change. Through calls to localise the global agenda, local governments have been made key actors in implementing the agenda. In Norway, the government ascribes municipalities a formal role in the national effort to implement the SDGs. Drawing on the concept of policy translation, we explore localisation processes at the strategic level of planning in Norwegian municipalities. Through analysis of municipal master plans and interviews with planners, we find that municipalities use a selective approach, prioritising goals that largely support existing policies, while more challenging goals become lost in translation. We argue that while the Norwegian planning system provides an institutional framework for implementing and following up on the SDGs, new rounds of translation will be needed to also handle difficult goals, if the SDGs are to create actual and much-needed policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), as policy concepts, are globalized, has been a matter of debate. This paper engages with the debate while seeking to move beyond the binary division of global and local scales of analysis. Empirically, it examines the emergence and politics of CCIs in Vietnam, with a focus on its connection with the implementation of the UNESCO 2005 Convention. The paper explores the complexity of the policy translation process, which shows the degrees to which neoliberal ideas can be translated in a post-socialist context. It also examines the role of UNESCO and questions the consistency of its position against the commodification of culture. Conceptually, it brings together different approaches to policy translation from language studies, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and postcolonial studies. The paper suggests that this interdisciplinary framework can further the understanding of both paradigmatic and pragmatic dimensions of policy travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within an educational context, the current aim of policy translation is to achieve policy coherence by strategically and structurally aligning components, enabling whole system reform. While acknowledging the importance of this coherence conceptualisation, the current literature perspective primarily emphasises message conveyance, and lacks a dimension that identifies policy coherence as the result of how individuals, including middle leaders, interpret and translate policy into actions, both individually and collectively. System middle leaders occupy a unique position within organisational structures, as they bridge the gap between executive system leaders and school- based leaders. To investigate how policy is interpreted and translated within their roles and the impact this has on attaining policy coherence, this study employed an interpretivist approach to exploratory case study methodology, grounded in a review of authoritative literature. The aim was twofold; first, to enhance understanding of policy coherence development at the system middle level by exploring the role enactment of system middle leaders within a large Australian government education system; and second, to examine the interconnectedness and impact of leaders' role enactment on policy coherence for system reform. Findings suggest that achieving policy coherence is hindered by a lack of role clarity among system leaders, in relation to policy implementation, stemming from the inconsistent interpretation and translation of policy into system strategy documentation and a deficiency in formal policy interpretation and role induction practices. As a result, individual system leaders often turn to informal policy interpretations and interactions with peers to clarify roles, leading to role tensions, accountability ambiguity and partial policy implementation. As a result, this study concludes that the integration of role theory, policy implementation theory and organisational alignment theory offers an interpretivist insight into the development of policy coherence for system reform, illuminating a theoretical pathway and practical recommendations for systems to attain policy coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global policy discourse promotes teachers as leaders of educational change who should have a voice in policy formation. 'Teaching Scotland's Future', a major teacher education reform in Scotland, feeds off this vision. Taking an Actor-Network Theory inspired Critical Policy Analysis approach, I unpack the participation of human and non-human actors within the National Partnership Group, a network established by the Scottish Government to plan the enactment of the reform. I utilise Callon's four moments of translation and Latour's concept of the token to identify and examine spaces of interest translation. Drawing on interviews with human actors from the network, I discuss the involvement of classroom teachers, and demonstrate the multiple ways that the materiality of the policy process shaped their participation in the network, limiting their ability to inform further development of the policy agenda. I consider the implications of this for education reform and democratic policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban policy mobility literature describes the widespread circulation of policy ideas while highlighting their mutations along the way. At the same time, the literature often analyzes the localization of such ideas by examining their adoption in one or several cities. To better understand policy replications and mutations, we develop theoretical and methodological strategies that provide sensitivity to both local distinctiveness and global variability. We build on the Urban Policy Mobility literature and combine it with ecological theories of conceptual spaces to develop the concept of Urban Model Spaces—a matrix of discursive possibilities evolving from the accumulated replications and localizations of a model. We articulate it via three core properties central to Urban Policy Mobility—Temporality, Scale, and Position—and test how they shape the emergence of policy discourses. To demonstrate the concept we analyze public art policy and the funding mechanism of the Percent for Art ordinance from 26 cities combining Structural Topic Modeling and regression analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing scholarly focus on inter-city policy mobilities there has been insufficient emphasis on understanding the role of municipal institutional factors in enabling global policy translation. This paper argues that the value of knowledge management vehicles in city-to-city learning and 'knowledge-sharing enablers' deserves prominence. The author employs autoethnography as a method of qualitative inquiry, chronicling Durban's Municipal Institute of Learning's establishment, successes and challenges through changing institutional landscapes. In a context where rapid urbanisation has African planners looking to learn from other cities, the story offers both useful lessons in knowledge exchange practice and opportunities for critical scholarly reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, participatory budgeting (PB) has received widespread attention and has been widely adopted and implemented all over the world. Although the vast part of the literature on PB demonstrates the international prestige and diffusion of PB as a research object, little attention has been paid to understanding the endogenous factors that affect PB's functioning and outcomes achieved or the way in which it limits success. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the growing debate by exploring how PB, as a democratic governance tool, has been translated within the public sector. Based on a policy translation framework, this study focuses on Taipei City in Taiwan, which was the pioneer to initiate experiments towards PB. Using several data sources, including personal involvement of PB programmes, document analysis and in-depth interviews with experts, policy planners, and council members, a closer analysis of how the translation took place in Taipei City could help to identify mechanisms underlying the PB construction in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within an educational context, the current aim of policy translation is to achieve policy coherence by strategically and structurally aligning components, enabling whole system reform. While acknowledging the importance of this coherence conceptualisation, the current literature perspective primarily emphasises message conveyance, and lacks a dimension that identifies policy coherence as the result of how individuals, including middle leaders, interpret and translate policy into actions, both individually and collectively. System middle leaders occupy a unique position within organisational structures, as they bridge the gap between executive system leaders and school- based leaders. To investigate how policy is interpreted and translated within their roles and the impact this has on attaining policy coherence, this study employed an interpretivist approach to exploratory case study methodology, grounded in a review of authoritative literature. The aim was twofold; first, to enhance understanding of policy coherence development at the system middle level by exploring the role enactment of system middle leaders within a large Australian government education system; and second, to examine the interconnectedness and impact of leaders’ role enactment on policy coherence for system reform. Findings suggest that achieving policy coherence is hindered by a lack of role clarity among system leaders, in relation to policy implementation, stemming from the inconsistent interpretation and translation of policy into system strategy documentation and a deficiency in formal policy interpretation and role induction practices. As a result, individual system leaders often turn to informal policy interpretations and interactions with peers to clarify roles, leading to role tensions, accountability ambiguity and partial policy implementation. As a result, this study concludes that the integration of role theory, policy implementation theory and organisational alignment theory offers an interpretivist insight into the development of policy coherence for system reform, illuminating a theoretical pathway and practical recommendations for systems to attain policy coherence.

This paper considers the policy problematic of state–citizen relationships, reflecting on renewed calls for citizen collaboration and codesign in the provision of public services in 'new public governance'. Analysing this through recent policy reform in Australian public school governance, we examine how existing policy architectures – in this case school boards/councils – are being rearticulated in relation to such calls. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a range of policy stakeholders, we examine the diverse policy translations of citizen involvement in school governance. Our analysis highlights the contradictions and limitations of a school board/council structure for policy aspirations of citizen collaboration. While stakeholders welcomed school board member (i.e., parent) involvement in governance, this was strongly mediated by distinctions between strategic and operational decision-making, questions about the possibilities for meaningful participation, and tensions surrounding the need for skilled expert board members and community representation – particularly in disadvantaged contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As evidence has become the predominant requirement for decision-making on policy in modern democracies, the importance of experts has increased tremendously. Education reforms are no exception. International organizations have gained power globally in national education policy and politics, particularly through the data they produce and the policy discourses they advocate. However, nationally appointed experts participate in the production of these discourses and advocate for policy ideas in their national context. This article examines the interplay of national and international through a spatiotemporal reading of eleven interviews with experts involved in Finland’s and Norway’s recent curriculum reforms. In their social encounters, experts exchange knowledge that does not show up in the written recommendations for reform but influences their content and focus. The author identifies three positions of experts as translators of policy knowledge that reflect the complexity of education policymaking processes which are rooted nationally, but increasingly influenced by international power structures and transnational social encounters. The author asserts that international organizations derive power not only from the data they produce but the meeting places they facilitate. Who is invited is partly a matter of geopolitics. However, the most exclusive places might only open for those ´at the forefront´ of education reforms.

Abstract Background The current global burden of stillbirth disproportionately affects regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, where Uganda is located. To respond to this burden, policies made at the national level were diffused from the centre and translated into service delivery at the district level, which is charged with implementation under the decentralization of health services arrangement. Variations emerge whenever policy recommendations are moved from national to subnational levels, with some aspects often lost along the way. Tools are available to facilitate knowledge of determinants of policy and innovation implementation within the healthcare system. However, the extent to which these have been applied to explain variations in implementation of interventions to address stillbirth reduction in Uganda remains scant. The aim of this article was to examine the variations in the implementation of interventions to address stillbirth from the national to the subnational levels in Uganda using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Methods The study adopted a qualitative case study design. Data were collected from a purposively selected sample of key informants drawn from both the national and subnational levels. All interviews were conducted in English and transcribed verbatim. ATLAS.ti was used to guide the coding process, which used a codebook developed following the CFIR domains as codes and constructs as sub-codes. Analysis followed a content analysis technique. Results National-level factors that favoured implementation of interventions to address stillbirth included the desire to comply with global norms, incentives to improve performance for stillbirth reduction indicators for better comparison with global peers, and clear policy alternatives as process implementation advanced by champions. Variations at the subnational level revealed aspirations to address service delivery gaps which fell within maternal health routine standard of care and ongoing health systems strengthening initiatives. Coalescing existing networks around maternal and child health was a key mobilization factor for advocacy and programming, with a promise that the set targets would be operationalized at the subnational level. The key champions were defined by their official roles within the district health systems, which enhanced accountability. Feedback and reflection were distinguished from the national to subnational through joint assemblies and formal audit reviews, respectively. Conclusions A heavy influence of the global events directed national-level adaptation of interventions to address stillbirth. Implementation context at the subnational level led to local adaptation and translation of policy provisions from the national level to suit the context, which to a greater extent explains the variations in the final content of policy provisions delivered.

Policy conflicts may cause substantial economic losses. Although a large amount of effort has been spent on detecting intra-domain policy conflict, it can not detect conflicts of heterogeneous policies. In this paper, considering background knowledge, we propose a conflict detection mechanism to search and locate conflicts of heterogeneous policies. First, we propose a general access control model to describe authorization mechanisms of cloud service and a translation scheme designed to translate a cloud service policy to an Extensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) policy. Then the scheme based on Multi-terminal Multi-data-type Interval Decision Diagram (MTMIDD) and Extended MTMIDD (X-MTMIDD) is designed to represent XACML policy and search the conflict among heterogeneous policies. To reduce the rate of false positives, the description logic is used to represent XACML policy and eliminate false conflicts. Experimental results show the efficiency of our scheme.

Place-based policies tackle grand socio-economic challenges through differentiated, context-sensitive interventions. However, they often run the risk of under- or mis-performing. This work studies how grand challenges translate from policy to cross-sector partnerships through place. By focusing on the place-based policy of regional smart specialization (RIS3), I investigate how the setup of science and technology parks mediates the practices of the actors in the translation chain: a transnational policymaker (macro), a regional broker (meso), and a local partnership which served as prototype for the regional policy (micro level). I document two types of practices—emplacement and space configuration—enacted at each level, and show how their interplay transformed the grand challenge from a cautious ideal at the macro level which balances risk and responsibility, to an optimistic and risk-prone approach at the partnership level. The study contributes to the policy and cross-sector partnerships literatures by documenting a two-sided effect of place-based policy and a consequent risk of ethical reversal, from an early attractor bringing partners together to a later accomplice keeping the partners together despite evident signs of failure. By adopting a strong multimodal approach, I also distinguish four types of multimodal outcomes—ideal type, prototype, virtual model, and lived artifact—which perform the two-sided effect and bring about the risk of reversal. Practical implications include a redistribution of the burden of failure from the CSPs implementing the grand challenges to the institutional fields in which these are bred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There has been a “territorial turn” in exploring sustainable development in the past two decades. Sustainability is increasingly seen as rooted in local resources, relationships, and values. Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are a substantial local resource and participants of local development. One of the most important relationships of CCIs is with local municipalities, which usually have an overview of local resources, and a role of redefining national level policy ideas, including those pertaining to cultural and art activities. The paper examines place-based development in Valmiera County as a case of national cultural policy translation, grounded in interpretations of the availability of local resources for change. The paper argues that the trajectories of local cultural development are indeed strongly related to local development agents' interpretations of available local resources, including active CCIs. In negotiating the preferred development paths, the stakeholders tend to respond to one of two strategies carried out by the local municipality: Act (taking upon themselves the role of a cultural operator) or Wait-and-see (enabling other cultural operators, the private and non-governmental CCI sector). The paper also highlights the role of creative intermediaries in negotiation processes. The Wait-and-see approach is seen as preferable and more sustainable in the long run.

Summary: Motivation: Partnerships between governments, private companies, and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly popular tools for policy implementation. Much research attention has been paid to the formation and design of partnerships and how they can improve their development impact but there is little on how partnerships translate into local development policies. Purpose: This article explores how partnerships as a policy idea, embedded in United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, changes as it is translated into local development policies. It traces how such translation processes change the problems that development partnerships set out to solve, and how they aim to solve them. Methods and approach: The article presents a case study of a translation of SDG 17 that took place in interaction between the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) and a policy network. The data set consists of documents and in‐depth interviews with policy network actors. Findings From the UN's perspective, SDG 17 set out to mobilize private sector resources to achieve the SDGs. However, SDG 17 became a solution to partially global, but mostly local issues when it was translated into a Danish development policy, and consequently, a partnership programme. Some discursive alliances between policy network actors were more effective than others in advancing their discourses in the translation process, which influenced this outcome. These findings contribute to research on development partnerships by showing how partnership as a policy idea, embedded in SDG 17, changes through policy translation. Policy implications: Findings from the study highlight the importance of discursive alliances in policy networks when policy ideas are localized into development policies. Moreover, the findings imply that when studying the translation of ideas into development policies, it is important to first disentangle the local conditions under which such processes take place to fully understand how they determine the translation outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Effective integration of evidence and youth perspectives into policy is crucial for supporting the future health and well-being of young people. The aim of this project was to translate evidence from the Access 3 project to support development of a new state policy on youth health and well-being within New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Ensuring the active contribution of young people within policy development was a key objective of the knowledge translation (KT) process. Methods The KT activity consisted of a 1-day facilitated forum with 64 purposively sampled stakeholders. Participants included eight young people, 14 policy-makers, 15 academics, 22 clinicians or managers from NSW health services, four general practitioners and one mental health service worker. Research to be translated came from the synthesized findings of the NSW Access 3 project. The design of the forum included stakeholder presentations and group workshops, guided by the 2003 Lavis et al. KT framework that was improved by the Grimshaw et al. KT framework in 2012. Members of the Access 3 research team took on the role of knowledge brokers throughout the KT process. Participant satisfaction with the workshop was evaluated using a brief self-report survey. Policy uptake was determined through examination of the subsequent NSW Youth Health Framework 2017–2024. Results A total of 25 policy recommendations were established through the workshop, and these were grouped into six themes that broadly aligned with the synthesized findings from the Access 3 project. The six policy themes were (1) technology solutions, (2) integrated care and investment to build capacity, (3) adolescent health checks, (4) workforce, (5) youth participation and (6) youth health indicators. Forum members were asked to vote on the importance of individual recommendations. These policy recommendations were subsequently presented to the NSW Ministry of Health, with some evidence of policy uptake identified. The majority of participants rated the forum positively. Conclusions The utilization of KT theories and active youth engagement led to the successful translation of research evidence and youth perspectives into NSW youth health policy. Future research should examine the implementation of policy arising from these KT efforts.

The government of the Netherlands actively frames the country’s delta planning expertise as a musthave solution for sustainable delta management in other countries. Texts that explain or promote the transfer of delta planning expertise tend to portray it as something that happens because of the intrinsic qualities of this expertise. The starting point of this paper is discomfort with this portrayal. This discomfort importantly stems from the hierarchy it assumes between the country of origin and the country of destination, with the former ranking higher in terms of degree of development and technological advancement. We mobilise insights from the sociology of translation and from the anthropology of development cooperation and scholarship on policy entrepreneurship to explore how the story of policy transfer can be told in ways that are more symmetrical and which recognise the contributions of all involved. Empirical material about the travels of the Dutch Delta Programme to Vietnam and Bangladesh reveals that policy transfer in these cases mainly consisted of two types of work: maintaining or developing alliances and creating political buy-in. The effectiveness of the actors involved in the work does not so much depend on the technical planning or water expertise for which many of them are hired; rather, it depends on their salespersonship, diplomacy, and skills in negotiation and dialoguing. Recognising that this is so provides a good basis for rethinking how capacities for effective transfer can be developed and nurtured, and how these are and should be distributed. It also supports more dialogical ways of writing and talking about transfer, ways that foreground the mutual learning that occurs between 'initiators' and 'receivers'.

As evidence has become the predominant requirement for decision-making on policy in modern democracies, the importance of experts has increased tremendously. Education reforms are no exception. International organizations have gained power globally in national education policy and politics, particularly through the data they produce and the policy discourses they advocate. However, nationally appointed experts participate in the production of these discourses and advocate for policy ideas in their national context. This article examines the interplay of national and international through a spatiotemporal reading of eleven interviews with experts involved in Finland's and Norway's recent curriculum reforms. In their social encounters, experts exchange knowledge that does not show up in the written recommendations for reform but influences their content and focus. The author identifies three positions of experts as translators of policy knowledge that reflect the complexity of education policymaking processes which are rooted nationally, but increasingly influenced by international power structures and transnational social encounters. The author asserts that international organizations derive power not only from the data they produce but the meeting places they facilitate. Who is invited is partly a matter of geopolitics. However, the most exclusive places might only open for those ´at the forefront´ of education reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current global burden of stillbirth disproportionately affects regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, where Uganda is located. To respond to this burden, policies made at the national level were diffused from the centre and translated into service delivery at the district level, which is charged with implementation under the decentralization of health services arrangement. Variations emerge whenever policy recommendations are moved from national to subnational levels, with some aspects often lost along the way. Tools are available to facilitate knowledge of determinants of policy and innovation implementation within the healthcare system. However, the extent to which these have been applied to explain variations in implementation of interventions to address stillbirth reduction in Uganda remains scant. The aim of this article was to examine the variations in the implementation of interventions to address stillbirth from the national to the subnational levels in Uganda using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).Methods: The study adopted a qualitative case study design. Data were collected from a purposively selected sample of key informants drawn from both the national and subnational levels. All interviews were conducted in English and transcribed verbatim. ATLAS.ti was used to guide the coding process, which used a codebook developed following the CFIR domains as codes and constructs as sub-codes. Analysis followed a content analysis technique.Results: National-level factors that favoured implementation of interventions to address stillbirth included the desire to comply with global norms, incentives to improve performance for stillbirth reduction indicators for better comparison with global peers, and clear policy alternatives as process implementation advanced by champions. Variations at the subnational level revealed aspirations to address service delivery gaps which fell within maternal health routine standard of care and ongoing health systems strengthening initiatives. Coalescing existing networks around maternal and child health was a key mobilization factor for advocacy and programming, with a promise that the set targets would be operationalized at the subnational level. The key champions were defined by their official roles within the district health systems, which enhanced accountability. Feedback and reflection were distinguished from the national to subnational through joint assemblies and formal audit reviews, respectively.Conclusions: A heavy influence of the global events directed national-level adaptation of interventions to address stillbirth. Implementation context at the subnational level led to local adaptation and translation of policy provisions from the national level to suit the context, which to a greater extent explains the variations in the final content of policy provisions delivered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) have been characterized by complex implementation and coordination gaps, related to uneven framings in domestic contexts. This study analyzes these framing processes in Brazil and Colombia by examining the translation of global prescriptions into tangible policy instruments. It combines a policy translation analytical framework with the processes of layering, drift, conversion, and replacement. It draws on semi-structured interviews with institutional actors and it examines (i) agenda-setting and elaboration of the NAPs, (ii) the different roles and interactions of sector-based actors in agriculture and land-use, and (iii) the distinct concepts of adaptation put forward and their subsequent policy outputs in relation to national institutional trajectories. In Brazil and Colombia, the initial ambition of mainstreaming climate adaptation into sector-based policies resulted in a divergent patchwork of policies, which is characterized by limited means, capacity and other resources dedicated to coordination and implementation. Key policy insights The study examines the processes through which international prescriptions influence concrete policy outcomes. The ambition of establishing new climate policies resulted in a patchwork of policies, characterized by low levels of coordination and limited means of implementation. In Brazil, adaptation goals were layered in with existing sector-based policies with some operational capacity, while in Colombia the national adoption of several adaptation goals has not translated into implementation. The article addresses the politics of policy transfer, knowledge interpretation, and policy change. It considers the possibility of actors interacting to reframe concepts according to their ideas and interests, while also aiming to assure stability. Climate policy requires efforts to alter policy priorities at the sector level, to create cross-sectoral balances, and strengthen the means of implementation, actions which intimately relate to power relations and institutional settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Malaria is a severe health issue in Nigeria, particularly for pregnant women and children <5 y of age, despite all malaria control programs. From the standpoint of major stakeholders in Nigeria, this study explored both promoting and limiting factors affecting the implementation of malaria policy. Methods From March to June 2019, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 key respondents. Key informants such as malaria researchers, policy advisers and program managers were identified using purposive and snowballing sampling strategies. Interviews were performed in English, recorded, transcribed and analysed using QSR NVivo 11. Results Some of the variables increasing the implementation of malaria policies in Nigeria, according to respondents, were political will, access to funds from donors, and staff commitment. Insufficient planning, lack of commitment, poor finance, manpower shortages, and a lack of synergy between academics and policymakers, on the other hand, were recognized as important barriers to the malaria policy implementation process by respondents. Conclusions Implementation gaps may result from a lack of capability for the policy implementation process and a lack of support for policy objectives. The difficulties in implementing malaria policy in Nigeria were highlighted in this study, and relevant recommendations were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National policies on school digitalisation take shape in their local contexts. Consequently, to understand the outcome of national policy, the local translations must be set within a contextual perspective. This article explores how four contextually different municipalities in Sweden translate national school digitalisation policy. It draws on a comparative cross-case study with data gathered from interviews, and over 150 local documents dating from 2018 to 2020. The results show how contextual aspects affects responses to national policy, and that municipalities approach school digitalisation in two distinct ways. The first, general approach, emphasises competitiveness and the creation of an enabling environment for the teachers. This is manifested in the development of special support organisations, and generous access to digital technology. The second, specific approach, emphasises local consensus in policy translations along with unity in policy adherence. Here, critique of national policy is explicit. The two approaches exemplify how translational power may be distributed differently, the former prioritising individual translational precedency for teachers over a unifying policy translation controlled through local governance. The paper suggests that contextual factors matters in the choice of approaches, one in which size matters. The paper concludes that policy makers need to acknowledge contextual dimensions within governance by weighing translational power in relation to translational coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy has been mostly approached as a rational project of setting goals and establishing rules and roles to achieve them. Alternative approaches to policy have been referred to as post-positivist, critical-reflexive and relational. They all emphasize emergent, co-evolutionary and relational aspects of policy work that cannot be reduced to rational choice and reasoning-based models alone. A shared element of such frameworks is the focus on relationships, which are seen not just in a narrow sense of the "logic of appropriateness," but as a force that shapes actors' identities, interests and power. Following relational analytical approaches, we analyze a triangular development cooperation project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Indonesia in order to strengthen gender mainstreaming (SGM) of Fijian government. Through attention to relationality as it shapes actors' identities and narratives, we demonstrate how a different form of learning employed by each actor facilitated harmony in the project. A key mediating factor in the smooth project co-evolution that we observed, was the ambiguous project design and vaguely articulated goals, supported by fragmented project setup and reporting. Such ambiguity allowed formulation of multiple versions of the project's outcomes for multiple audiences. However, it also resulted in little impact on the ground in Fiji. Our findings support persistent criticism of development aid projects in small island states for rarely addressing problems of target populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Introduction Academic integrity policy that is inaccessible, ambiguous or confusing is likely to result in inconsistent policy enactment. Additionally, policy analysis and development are often undertaken as top down processes requiring passive acceptance by users of policy that has been developed outside the context in which it is enacted. Both these factors can result in poor policy uptake, particularly where policy users are overworked, intellectually critical and capable, not prone to passive acceptance and hold valuable grass roots intelligence about policy enactment. Case description The case study presented in this paper describes the actions of a community of practice (CoP) at a regional Australian university to deconstruct and translate ambiguous academic integrity policy into a suite of accessible academic integrity resources that were intelligible to staff and students, and which assisted academic staff to consistently enact policy. The paper narrates the formation of the CoP, the tangible and intangible value it created, the social learning practices enacted by its members, its grassroots policy work and the material resources produced from that work. Discussion and evaluation An evaluation of the CoP was conducted using a value creation framework to explore its immediate value, potential value, applied value, realised value, and reframing value. These values were considered at each stages of the CoP’s lifespan. The evaluation was a useful process that demonstrated the wide-ranging value created by the CoP. Six insights were drawn from the evaluation which promote understanding of the value created for a university by a CoP, particularly in contributing to academic integrity culture over a sustained period of time. Conclusions This paper contributes to a research gap on specific examples of discretion within rule-based systems. It illustrates how academics and members of the CoP used their discretion to interpret and enact academic integrity policy within a higher education setting. Drawing from the evaluation of the CoP we argue for greater understanding of the grass-roots contribution of academic and professional staff to academic integrity policy translation and enactment.

New Zealand and Australia have both adopted compulsory income management and an actuarially-based "social investment" approach since 2012, suggesting the two countries engaged in "policy transfer" and that their policy settings have converged over the past decade. Focusing on four of the six types of policy convergence identified by Hay [Hay, C. 2004. "Common Trajectories, Variable Paces, Divergent Outcomes? Models of European Capitalism Under Conditions of Complex Economic Interdependence." Review of International Political Economy 11 (2): 231–262.] typology, we tease out differing levels of input, policy, paradigm and legitimatory rhetoric convergence and divergence between these policies. Our findings challenge initial assumptions that policy in the two countries became more similar after 2012 and highlight the need for multi-dimensional analyses examining varied types of convergence across different countries, policies and timeframes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe an historical review of planning documents related to a newly developing high-density locality in Sydney, Australia. The review was undertaken to support the translational component of a larger project investigating how best to include knowledge and experience from the health disciplines to ensure a way of living not hitherto commonplace in Australia is also health-supportive. This article presents (i) key findings from the historical data; (ii) associated learnings about practice, developed to assist the wider translational objectives; and (iii) observations on the potential for such historical reviews to inform better planning practice more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective integration of evidence and youth perspectives into policy is crucial for supporting the future health and well-being of young people. The aim of this project was to translate evidence from the Access 3 project to support development of a new state policy on youth health and well-being within New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Ensuring the active contribution of young people within policy development was a key objective of the knowledge translation (KT) process. Methods: The KT activity consisted of a 1-day facilitated forum with 64 purposively sampled stakeholders. Participants included eight young people, 14 policy-makers, 15 academics, 22 clinicians or managers from NSW health services, four general practitioners and one mental health service worker. Research to be translated came from the synthesized findings of the NSW Access 3 project. The design of the forum included stakeholder presentations and group workshops, guided by the 2003 Lavis et al. KT framework that was improved by the Grimshaw et al. KT framework in 2012. Members of the Access 3 research team took on the role of knowledge brokers throughout the KT process. Participant satisfaction with the workshop was evaluated using a brief self-report survey. Policy uptake was determined through examination of the subsequent NSW Youth Health Framework 2017–2024. Results: A total of 25 policy recommendations were established through the workshop, and these were grouped into six themes that broadly aligned with the synthesized findings from the Access 3 project. The six policy themes were (1) technology solutions, (2) integrated care and investment to build capacity, (3) adolescent health checks, (4) workforce, (5) youth participation and (6) youth health indicators. Forum members were asked to vote on the importance of individual recommendations. These policy recommendations were subsequently presented to the NSW Ministry of Health, with some evidence of policy uptake identified. The majority of participants rated the forum positively. Conclusions: The utilization of KT theories and active youth engagement led to the successful translation of research evidence and youth perspectives into NSW youth health policy. Future research should examine the implementation of policy arising from these KT efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Global calls for renewed efforts to address stillbirth burden highlighted areas for policy and implementation resulting in national level translations. Information regarding adapted strategies to effect policy objectives into service delivery by frontline health workers remains scanty especially at subnational level. The study explored strategies prioritized to mitigate stillbirth risk in the context of operationalizing recommendations from the global campaigns at a subnational level in Uganda. Methods A cross-sectional qualitative exploratory study was conducted among a purposively selected sample of sixteen key informants involved in delivery of maternal and child health services in Mukono district. Analysis followed thematic content analysis deductively focusing on those policy priorities highlighted in the global stillbirth campaigns and reflected at the national level in the different guidelines. Results. Interventions to address stillbirth followed prioritization of service delivery aspects to respond to identified gaps. Efforts to increase uptake of family planning services for example included offering it at all entry points into care with counseling forming part of the package following stillbirth. Referrals were streamlined by focusing on addressing delays from the referring entity while antenatal care attendance was boosted through provision of incentives to encourage mothers to comply. Other prioritized aspects included perinatal death audits and improvements in data systems while differentiated care focused on aligning resources to support high risk mothers. This was in part influenced by the limited resources and skills which made health workers to adapt routine to fit implementation context. Conclusions The resource availability determined aspects of policy to prioritize while responding to stillbirth risk at subnational level by frontline health workers. Their understanding of risk, feasibility of implementation and the desire for optimal health systems performance worked to define the nature of services delivered calling for purposeful consideration of resource availability and implementation context while prioritizing stillbirth reduction at subnational level.

In recent years, the burgeoning literature on transnational dissemination of policies has moved beyond orthodox models to incorporate the institutional context by means of social-constructivist approaches. This article engages in a critical review of the status quo by arguing for the importance of an overlooked key variable in policy transfer research: culture. Particularly, it is contended that culture plays an under-acknowledged role in co-shaping transfer dynamics both as a dependent and as an independent variable and consequently deserves a more thorough embedment in mainstream research. To this end, operational recommendations for how future studies can measure, incorporate, and isolate cultural factors are offered and a feasible research agenda is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a qualitative case study in An Giang province, Vietnam, we mapped the understanding of the 'Living with Floods' (LWF) concept and the implementation of three projects to explain the effectiveness of water governance in Vietnam. We have demonstrated how perceptions on the LWF concept differ per government level and the limits of water governance effectiveness. Diverging perceptions undermine the effectiveness of water governance. A framework and a list of indicators are proposed to measure the effectiveness of floodwater governance. Integrating local and social aspects in LWF policies and vertical coordination may help align short-term benefits with long-term adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government of the Netherlands actively frames the country's delta planning expertise as a musthave solution for sustainable delta management in other countries. Texts that explain or promote the transfer of delta planning expertise tend to portray it as something that happens because of the intrinsic qualities of this expertise. The starting point of this paper is discomfort with this portrayal. This discomfort importantly stems from the hierarchy it assumes between the country of origin and the country of destination, with the former ranking higher in terms of degree of development and technological advancement. We mobilise insights from the sociology of translation and from the anthropology of development cooperation and scholarship on policy entrepreneurship to explore how the story of policy transfer can be told in ways that are more symmetrical and which recognise the contributions of all involved. Empirical material about the travels of the Dutch Delta Programme to Vietnam and Bangladesh reveals that policy transfer in these cases mainly consisted of two types of work: maintaining or developing alliances and creating political buy-in. The effectiveness of the actors involved in the work does not so much depend on the technical planning or water expertise for which many of them are hired; rather, it depends on their salespersonship, diplomacy, and skills in negotiation and dialoguing. Recognising that this is so provides a good basis for rethinking how capacities for effective transfer can be developed and nurtured, and how these are and should be distributed. It also supports more dialogical ways of writing and talking about transfer, ways that foreground the mutual learning that occurs between 'initiators' and 'receivers'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the in‐depth study of the travels of the Dutch Delta Plan—a water‐centered strategic long‐term plan to help prepare for the effects of climate change—to Vietnam and Bangladesh, this article reflects on ways to conceptualize processes of policy transfer. Such processes involve a range of actors and actions, and hinges on the quality of the interactions and (historic) relations between them. All involved contribute experience and knowledge, working in collaboration with each other to somehow—through translation and mutual learning—create a version of the transferred policy that fits its new context. We use the article to imagine policy transfer processes in less hierarchical and more reciprocal terms, not a priori positioning those originating the transfer as superior or more advanced than those on the receiving end. To do this, the article proposes a conceptualization of policy transfer processes as symmetrical conversations: conversations in which many knowers and knowledges are mixed together to co‐produce plans and policies that are relevant and specific. Beyond better acknowledging the importance of the receivers, we hope that this conceptualization will also open up the discussion about what "good" policies (or policy knowledges) are, as well as allow for more explicit reflection about how different knowledges and knowers relate to each other in policy transfer processes. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Planning WaterHuman Water > Water Governance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies network management as a facilitator of effective policy transfer. We reconstruct the unconventional collaboration between Dutch private-sector experts and national governments of Vietnam and Bangladesh to develop multi-sectoral, long-term strategies (‘delta plans’). We identify the network management strategies used by the Dutch actors and use these to explain how problem perceptions of state and non-state actors were aligned in order to define solution pathways. Based on these cases, we argue that network analysis is a tool for policy transfer studies. This paper further concludes that the ‘soft’ nature of the transferred policy (in the form of principles, norms and ideas) increased its transferability, as being ambiguous and abstract left room for interpretation and translation to the local context.

To solve the problem of complex,cumbersome and error-prone configuration of security devices caused by the heterogeneous configuration modes in complex networks,a dynamic template-based scheme for translating and configuring policy was proposed.In detail,considering the code’s features,the code-based template for translating policies was constructed to configure the command line conversion,and the keyword comparison method was used to ensure the accuracy of policy configuration.Experiments show that the scalability and the accuracy of the proposed scheme.

“Learning from abroad” is a widely recognised and used means to innovate and improve strategies and policies implemented by regions and cities. However, literature on knowledge transfer and related concepts, such as policy transfer, policy mobility or lesson-drawing, highlights the limitations of this process, especially when it entails the simple transfer of (best) practices from “place A” to “place B”. Such a transfer may lead to suboptimal solutions particularly when the imported practices concern complex phenomena, involving networks of multiple actors and relying on place-specific dynamics. Departing from this critique, the article sheds light on the process of knowledge transfer in the field of circular economy, taking place between the two metropolitan regions of Amsterdam and Naples. This process is guided by an innovative methodology based on a network of (peri-urban) living labs generating eco-innovative solutions for using material waste and wastescapes as a resource in peri-urban areas. Using participant observation in knowledge transfer workshops, stakeholder interviews and surveys, it investigates how the process of co-creation of knowledge in the relational space of the networked living labs takes place thanks to the participation of stakeholders from both regions. This in turn allows for drawing conclusions on what barriers are encountered in such knowledge transfer, what makes solutions transferable across different contexts, and, finally, how the solutions are adapted as they travel from one place to another.

Introduction: Academic integrity policy that is inaccessible, ambiguous or confusing is likely to result in inconsistent policy enactment. Additionally, policy analysis and development are often undertaken as top down processes requiring passive acceptance by users of policy that has been developed outside the context in which it is enacted. Both these factors can result in poor policy uptake, particularly where policy users are overworked, intellectually critical and capable, not prone to passive acceptance and hold valuable grass roots intelligence about policy enactment. Case description: The case study presented in this paper describes the actions of a community of practice (CoP) at a regional Australian university to deconstruct and translate ambiguous academic integrity policy into a suite of accessible academic integrity resources that were intelligible to staff and students, and which assisted academic staff to consistently enact policy. The paper narrates the formation of the CoP, the tangible and intangible value it created, the social learning practices enacted by its members, its grassroots policy work and the material resources produced from that work. Discussion and evaluation: An evaluation of the CoP was conducted using a value creation framework to explore its immediate value, potential value, applied value, realised value, and reframing value. These values were considered at each stages of the CoP's lifespan. The evaluation was a useful process that demonstrated the wide-ranging value created by the CoP. Six insights were drawn from the evaluation which promote understanding of the value created for a university by a CoP, particularly in contributing to academic integrity culture over a sustained period of time. Conclusions: This paper contributes to a research gap on specific examples of discretion within rule-based systems. It illustrates how academics and members of the CoP used their discretion to interpret and enact academic integrity policy within a higher education setting. Drawing from the evaluation of the CoP we argue for greater understanding of the grass-roots contribution of academic and professional staff to academic integrity policy translation and enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how global governance frameworks and knowledge claims are translated to fit local contexts. It specifically looks at harm reduction initiatives targeting injection drug users utilising the case of Tajikistan. In the 1990s, this post–Soviet Central Asian country became exposed to an inflow of cheap and easily available heroin from Afghanistan. While Tajikistan mainly became a transit country, some parts of the local population also became addicted. To tackle the negative consequences of heroin addiction, starting from the 1990s international donors proposed the country adopt a range of harm reduction measures, including providing access to opioid substitution therapy and establishing drop-in centres where single-use needles and syringes would be distributed. This article discusses how donor-promoted harm reduction initiatives were localised in Tajikistan, why and with what outcomes. It argues that instead of a full acceptance or rejection of knowledge promoted by international actors, a complex translation process can be observed on the ground. International norms are thus localised by taking into account societal attitudes towards injection drug users, the changing nature of legitimate expertise, evolving national legislation and everyday practices, against the background of other conflicting global governance regimes and local geopolitical priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the rising climatic impacts on worldwide urbanized deltas, the Netherlands has strategically and politically framed Dutch water management as a global water solution for improving water safety and flood protection in other countries such as Vietnam. Being renowned for its water management approach, the Netherlands is particularly active in sharing water knowledge, insights, and policies internationally. This paper connects a framing perspective to policy translation studies to understand the role of language and meaning-making in the cross-border travel of policies. Adopting a framing perspective, it presents four dimensions of water policy translation concerning how policy frames are being created and interpreted – during the cross-border travel. The paper follows the process of the Dutch water management approach being 'packaged' as global water solutions and 'translated' to inform the development of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta Plan of 2013. The results show that although similar concepts, metaphors and narratives could be witnessed in this translation process, the local use and interpretation of these concepts remain challenging. Inclusive engagement, shared and comprehensive understanding, and continuous exchange and learning processes could help to improve cross-border policy-making for sustainable delta management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Global calls for renewed efforts to address stillbirth burden highlighted areas for policy and implementation resulting in national level translations. Information regarding adapted strategies to effect policy objectives into service delivery by frontline health workers remains scanty especially at subnational level. The study explored strategies prioritized to mitigate stillbirth risk in the context of operationalizing recommendations from the global campaigns at a subnational level in Uganda.Methods: A cross-sectional qualitative exploratory study was conducted among a purposively selected sample of sixteen key informants involved in delivery of maternal and child health services in Mukono district. Analysis followed thematic content analysis deductively focusing on those policy priorities highlighted in the global stillbirth campaigns and reflected at the national level in the different guidelines.Results: Interventions to address stillbirth followed prioritization of service delivery aspects to respond to identified gaps. Efforts to increase uptake of family planning services for example included offering it at all entry points into care with counseling forming part of the package following stillbirth. Referrals were streamlined by focusing on addressing delays from the referring entity while antenatal care attendance was boosted through provision of incentives to encourage mothers to comply. Other prioritized aspects included perinatal death audits and improvements in data systems while differentiated care focused on aligning resources to support high risk mothers. This was in part influenced by the limited resources and skills which made health workers to adapt routine to fit implementation context.Conclusions: The resource availability determined aspects of policy to prioritize while responding to stillbirth risk at subnational level by frontline health workers. Their understanding of risk, feasibility of implementation and the desire for optimal health systems performance worked to define the nature of services delivered calling for purposeful consideration of resource availability and implementation context while prioritizing stillbirth reduction at subnational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the case study of disability policy in Turkey to investigate how the policy of International Organisations (IOs) influences domestic policy and the ways in which domestic actors 'assemble' or re-'assemble' policies or construct 'hybrid' policy. Sociologists have devoted their efforts to finding reasonable explanations for how influence results in translating the policy ideas of international organisations (IOs) to the domestic context. Historically, IOs have been able to advance global disability policy developments; yet, there has been a significant gap in our knowledge of the detailed mechanisms of how IOs' influence has been exerted at the domestic context. Drawing on both documentary sources and semistructured interviews, we found a combination of inspirational, and both direct and indirect coercive influence of IOs contributed to policy translation in Turkish disability policy between 1980 and 1999. However, there was no evidence for direct influence of neither IOs headquarters nor IOs Turkish offices in the policy translation in disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Representatives of the Dutch government usually refer to the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 as an example of the successful transfer of the Dutch Delta Approach to Bangladesh. Their storyline aligns with theorizations of policy transfer as a process of diffusion. These ascribe the mobility of a policy – or its capacity to travel - to its intrinsic quality. The belief in the quality of the Dutch Delta Approach is anchored in the renowned Dutch ability to deal with its own floods and flood risks. By making the contents of that what travels an important cause of its mobility, diffusion theories make it difficult to see, acknowledge and understand the actions and actors needed to make policy transfer happen. This is why in this paper we theorize policy transfer as a process of translation. Based on an identification of the Dutch and Bangladeshi actors involved in the transfer of the Dutch Delta Approach to Bangladesh, and by re-tracing their actions, we show that the transfer entailed an active process of engagement, negotiation, and contestation. In their attempts to develop a Bangladeshi version of the Plan, the involved actors made active use of old relations of collaboration and friendship, while also developing new ones. In the course of the transfer process, and because of the negotiations and contestations that it entailed, the delta plan became something else altogether. The paper concludes that telling the story of the transfer of the Dutch Delta Approach as a story of translation is useful as it allows recognizing and giving credit not just to those who initiated the process, but to all involved. This, we hope, can in turn provide the basis for a more symmetrical dialogue between 'senders' and 'recipients' in international policy transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]