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Successfully advancing the redevelopment of urban villages can unlock land resources for high-quality urban development. This study attempts to explain the heterogeneous outcomes of urban village redevelopment projects in China. A comparative case study method is adopted to analyze the transaction costs and the processes applied under distinct institutional arrangements. The analysis of four cases demonstrates how institutional arrangements affect transaction costs by creating a power structure that encompasses the different participants, who represent the different interests of constituent groups in exchanges of land and housing. This study demonstrates that institutional arrangements are not immutable. In addition to transaction costs, changes in the external institutional environment can alter institutional arrangements. Changes in relative prices and ideologies can also induce institutional changes. Subtle factors, such as issues indirectly linked to the redevelopment, can increase the transaction costs of achieving a consensus if policymakers ignore them in the initial policymaking stage. The findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of the heterogeneous outcomes of urban village redevelopment in China and will encourage local governments to take effective measures to ensure smooth urban village redevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthetic control method (SCM) represents a notable innovation in estimating the causal effects of policy interventions and programs in a comparative case study setting. In this paper, we demonstrate that the data-driven approach to SCM requires solving a bilevel optimization problem. We show how the original SCM problem can be solved to the global optimum through the introduction of an iterative algorithm rooted in Tykhonov regularization or Karush–Kuhn–Tucker approximations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main reason for the research significance is misconceptions arising in the field when implementing Sekolah Penggerak Program, which started in 2021. Thus, the objectives of this study are to describe programs for enhancing exceptional human resources, and to explore the Kurikulum Operasional Satuan Pendidikan (Education Unit Operational Curriculum), and the Merdeka Curriculum learning. Four elementary schools in Indonesia's urban and rural areas served as the research unit for analysis, which used a qualitative comparative case study design. The results demonstrate that the programs of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for improving human resources, which includes training and mentoring, have a favourable effect on both rural and urban primary schools. However, only one out of four schools examined the context of the educational unit while creating education unit operational curriculum documents, and every school simply used education unit operational curriculum as a prerequisite for administrative fulfilment. Based on the available components, all teachers developed teaching modules for the Merdeka Curriculum. It was found, nevertheless, that the students were not genuinely exposed to the content of these modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questioning mechanisms such as Prime Minister's Questions in the United Kingdom and Question Time in Australia are notoriously adversarial. Much less is known about whether and how questioning facilitates conflict in other legislatures. This question is particularly important given the criticism that excessive adversarialism may hinder the performance of accountability, and hence may be detrimental to the work of legislatures. Building on legislative studies literature, this article presents the first comparative study of conflict in oral parliamentary questions; in so doing, it explores patterns of conflictual remarks in questions addressed to prime ministers in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It posits that institutional culture, party discipline, government and opposition status and the authority of the Speaker are key factors in explaining the performance of conflict, and that rules of procedure alone are not enough to curb the manifestation of conflict in legislatures where questioning is a known opportunity for criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration and spatial planning have adopted a new participatory approach in recent decades, highlighting the importance of integrating the community in urban decision-making processes, especially in disadvantaged and socially excluded areas. In this context, the sociogram emerges as an essential tool for collaborative governance, allowing the visualization and analysis of the dynamics between the different actors involved. This study employs a comparative case study approach in three disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Córdoba, Spain, to examine how the sociogram can facilitate more effective and democratic participation in urban planning. Using heat maps, scatter plots and average analysis, relationships between actors are identified and characterized, providing a solid basis for more inclusive and equitable planning decisions. This analysis not only reveals the practical utility of the sociogram in participatory research but also underscores its theoretical relevance in building resilient and cohesive communities. Findings confirm the sociogram's effectiveness in mapping stakeholder dynamics and enhancing participatory governance, ultimately fostering more informed and inclusive urban planning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successfully advancing the redevelopment of urban villages can unlock land resources for high-quality urban development. This study attempts to explain the heterogeneous outcomes of urban village redevelopment projects in China. A comparative case study method is adopted to analyze the transaction costs and the processes applied under distinct institutional arrangements. The analysis of four cases demonstrates how institutional arrangements affect transaction costs by creating a power structure that encompasses the different participants, who represent the different interests of constituent groups in exchanges of land and housing. This study demonstrates that institutional arrangements are not immutable. In addition to transaction costs, changes in the external institutional environment can alter institutional arrangements. Changes in relative prices and ideologies can also induce institutional changes. Subtle factors, such as issues indirectly linked to the redevelopment, can increase the transaction costs of achieving a consensus if policymakers ignore them in the initial policymaking stage. The findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of the heterogeneous outcomes of urban village redevelopment in China and will encourage local governments to take effective measures to ensure smooth urban village redevelopment.

Working time reduction (WTR) is back on the agenda, but there is no systematic knowledge of key actors in the WTR debate, their motives, the forms of WTR advocated, and their approach. Therefore, this article examines the promotion of WTR in Germany, Spain, and Ireland, countries with different industrial relations regimes. The comparative qualitative content analysis shows that WTR's promotion varies: it is an individual worker issue in Germany, a political initiative in Spain, and a social campaign in Ireland. The primary motive is workers' well-being, with additional emphases on economic, environmental, and societal aspects. These findings have implications for WTR's future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generating evidence on health inequalities (HI) is necessary to raise awareness of these issues, describe and monitor their evolution, analyze their causes, and inform interventions aiming to improve health equity. Yet not all cities and countries have the capacity to produce this type of research. Recent research provides new contextual and causal insights into this research production process, and in-depth understanding on why and how this type of research is produced in certain settings. This article aims to analyze two recent case studies that have uniquely explored this process in two high producers of HI research and high-income country settings to identify learning and distil recommendations, which may be insightful for other settings. Expanding and investing in this line of research is critical, particularly in places with lower HI research output and related capacity, in order to identify key contextual conditions and mechanisms that may enable or hinder this process. This new knowledge could guide the development of new HI research capacity strengthening strategies to foster this research in different settings, worldwide. More understanding is also needed on the relationship between HI research, policy, and action in order to tackle HI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating treatment (or policy or intervention) effects on a single individual or unit has become increasingly important in health and biomedical sciences. One method to estimate these effects is the synthetic control method, which constructs a synthetic control, a weighted average of control units that best matches the treated unit's pre-treatment outcomes and other relevant covariates. The intervention's impact is then estimated by comparing the post-intervention outcomes of the treated unit and its synthetic control, which serves as a proxy for the counterfactual outcome had the treated unit not experienced the intervention. The augmented synthetic control method, a recent adaptation of the synthetic control method, relaxes some of the synthetic control method's assumptions for broader applicability. While synthetic controls have been used in a variety of fields, their use in public health and biomedical research is more recent, and newer methods such as the augmented synthetic control method are underutilized. This paper briefly describes the synthetic control method and its application, explains the augmented synthetic control method and its differences from the synthetic control method, and estimates the effects of an antimalarial initiative in Mozambique using both the synthetic control method and the augmented synthetic control method to highlight the advantages of using the augmented synthetic control method to analyze the impact of interventions implemented in a single region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration and spatial planning have adopted a new participatory approach in recent decades, highlighting the importance of integrating the community in urban decision-making processes, especially in disadvantaged and socially excluded areas. In this context, the sociogram emerges as an essential tool for collaborative governance, allowing the visualization and analysis of the dynamics between the different actors involved. This study employs a comparative case study approach in three disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Córdoba, Spain, to examine how the sociogram can facilitate more effective and democratic participation in urban planning. Using heat maps, scatter plots and average analysis, relationships between actors are identified and characterized, providing a solid basis for more inclusive and equitable planning decisions. This analysis not only reveals the practical utility of the sociogram in participatory research but also underscores its theoretical relevance in building resilient and cohesive communities. Findings confirm the sociogram’s effectiveness in mapping stakeholder dynamics and enhancing participatory governance, ultimately fostering more informed and inclusive urban planning processes.

South–North policy learning faces many obstacles and often leads to missed opportunities or distorted translations. Given the pariah nature of the Chilean dictatorship, international learning happened against all odds. Drawing on several sources – media content, parliamentary debates, and some background interviews – the article illustrates how the Chilean pension reform became "repackaged" in two ways. First, it was concealed, meaning proponents avoided referencing Chile. Second, it was imperfectly translated, which led to several distortions, such as avoiding a reflection on the political prerequisites for stable pension reforms. Some general lessons are derived for South–North policy learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The method of synthetic controls is a fundamental tool for evaluating causal effects of policy changes in settings with observational data. In many settings where it is applicable, researchers want to identify causal effects of policy changes on a treated unit at an aggregate level while having access to data at a finer granularity. This article proposes an extension of the synthetic controls estimator that takes advantage of this additional structure and provides nonparametric estimates of the heterogeneity within the aggregate unit. The idea is to replicate the quantile function associated with the treated unit by a weighted average of quantile functions of the control units. This estimator relies on the same mathematical theory as the changes‐in‐changes estimator and can be applied in both repeated cross‐sections and panel data with as little as a single pre‐treatment period. It also provides a unique counterfactual quantile function for any type of distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the practice of holding prime ministers to account in four case studies: Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Using text analysis, as well as research on prime ministerial responsibilities, it investigates oral questions asked in parliamentary procedures where prime ministers are questioned together with ministers (Question Period in Canada and Question Time in Australia) versus procedures where they are questioned individually (PMQs in the United Kingdom and Oral Questions to the Taoiseach in Ireland), and explores the degree to which they are questioned for matters that are within their remit. It argues that the practice of prime ministerial accountability is decisively shaped by procedural features such as whether written notice is required for questions, as well as by the broader role of the questioning mechanism in the political system, and less by the collective or individualised nature of questioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes a perspective on work-integrated learning (WIL) through the lens of South-North collaboration. The research question was: How might sharing experiences of WIL in different contexts enhance WIL practice in a local context? The purposive sample of twelve case studies; South Africa (n=6) and Ireland (n=6), represented business, engineering, biopharma and health sciences disciplines. Activity theory was drawn on to analyze data on program content, mechanisms and processes, and outcomes and challenges across the case studies. Key findings include: student support requirements, curricular modalities and assessment practices, levels at which WIL is offered, resourcing for WIL and understandings of WIL as enhancing students' employability and as a societal contribution. The data revealed similarities and differences in WIL practices within and across the two countries. Partners developed insights into their own and one another's practices, showing the potential of international collaboration to enhance learning and practice in local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complexity has long been recognised as a key feature of agri-food systems. Yet, it remains largely theoretical or poorly addressed in practice, hampering the potential of international development projects to address agriculture and food-related challenges in the Global South. The paper identifies and examines six sources of complexity that can manifest in projects, namely: unpredictability; path dependencies; context-specific dynamics; power relations; multiple temporal and spatial scales. It then proposes and tests six agri-food system principles that could be drawn upon to more successfully navigate this complexity. The aim of the paper is to illustrate how these principles could help projects respond to the changing circumstances and unpredictable turns of agri-food systems contexts in a different way, which flexibly embraces complexity. This flexibility is essential in an age of uncertainty and transformation. Comparative case study analysis of six projects implemented by the CGIAR: aflatoxin control in groundnuts in Malawi (1), pigeonpea in Eastern and Southern Africa (2), sorghum beer in Kenya (3), sweet sorghum for biofuel in India (4), precooked beans in Uganda and Kenya (5), Smart Foods in India and Eastern Africa (6). The projects aimed to either increasing smallholder farmers' incomes or addressing food and nutrition security, or both. They were specifically selected as all they were affected by some of the sources of complexity, which hampered the projects to different extents. This makes the cases relevant for not only illustrating manifestations of complexity, but also help reflect on alternative strategies to tackle it. The analysis of the case studies reveals how complexity can frustrate objectives of development interventions under several aspects. It also serves to discuss how complexity can be more successfully navigated (within but also beyond the selected cases) by applying the set of proposed agri-food system principles. The principles are also presented as ways future interventions could avoid clinging to what is "known to work" and instead venture into more powerful pathways of change. The following complexity-aware principle are proposed: Welcome surprises and openly discuss trade-offs; Shun orthodoxies; Engage with context-specificity; Expose patterns of power; Embrace the lengthy nature of change; Understand the multi-scale (in terms of space and time) nature of agri-food systems contexts. These principles could be used by project designers and implementors to cope with the complexity and uncertainty that will inevitably be encountered in agri-food system interventions, and can no longer be ignored. [Display omitted] • Complexity is a core feature of agri-food systems, but it is unclear how to tackle it in development interventions. • Comparative case study analysis to reveal multiple manifestations of complexity. • Six complexity-aware principles identified to show how complexity could be better navigated. • Principles to make development interventions equipped towards uncertain and ever-evolving agri-food system contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketisation has brought complex changes to the education sector that have become a concern both in the literature and among the public. However, few studies have empirically investigated how private school teachers' professional identities might differ from those of state school teachers. This study compares how 16 teachers in two state schools and two private schools negotiate their professional identities in County Nanqi (a pseudonym) in China. A constructivist perspective guided the choice to employ a qualitative approach in this study. The research findings suggested both common and differing teacher professional identity (TPI) characteristics among state and private school teachers and developed a typology of professional identities based on the analysis. This article focuses on the two 'positive' types of professional identities, namely, developmental and structural, to extend the existing forms of professional identity construction and discuss the comparative characteristics of teachers' work and lives in state and private schools in China. The results reveal the need for longitudinal research to further facilitate the comparative perspective and contextualisation of both 'positive' and 'negative' TPIs in diversifying school contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: concentration of undertakings; merger review; economic analysis methods; EU; China; comparative case studies EN concentration of undertakings merger review economic analysis methods EU China comparative case studies 37 99 63 05/19/22 20220401 NES 220401 1 Introduction Nowadays, economic analysis has become part of the investigation of non-cartel competition cases in all leading jurisdictions and continues to be employed by other antitrust authorities ([61]). See http://www.samr.gov.cn/fldj/tzgg/ftjpz/202005/t20200515 315255.html. SP 51 sp Announcement (2021) - Review Decision on Conditional Approval of the Equity Acquisition of Acacia Communication company by Cisco System company, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) of the People's Republic of China, released on 19 January 2021. Section 2 is a review of the literature on the economic analysis methods employed in Chinese merger control enforcement, and the remainder is related to economic analysis in merger investigations in the EU and China. The Similarities and Differences in the Application of Economic Analysis Methodologies by Antitrust Authorities in the EU and China in Merger Investigations The three in-depth case studies introduce all the economic analysis methods utilized in each situation. [Extracted from the article]

This paper proposes a Bayesian alternative to the synthetic control method for comparative case studies with a single or multiple treated units. We adopt a Bayesian posterior predictive approach to Rubin's causal model, which allows researchers to make inferences about both individual and average treatment effects on treated observations based on the empirical posterior distributions of their counterfactuals. The prediction model we develop is a dynamic multilevel model with a latent factor term to correct biases induced by unit-specific time trends. It also considers heterogeneous and dynamic relationships between covariates and the outcome, thus improving precision of the causal estimates. To reduce model dependency, we adopt a Bayesian shrinkage method for model searching and factor selection. Monte Carlo exercises demonstrate that our method produces more precise causal estimates than existing approaches and achieves correct frequentist coverage rates even when sample sizes are small and rich heterogeneities are present in data. We illustrate the method with two empirical examples from political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insider-outsider politics approach conjectures that moderate unions and centre-left parties safeguard the interests of insiders and neglect outsiders in labour market reforms. This article challenges this hypothesis. By comparing the positions taken by centre-left parties and moderate union confederations during labour market reforms in Portugal and Spain (1975–2019), it shows that while they may indeed protect insiders, they sometimes do the opposite. To explain this, the article argues that more attention must be paid to the configuration of left parties and confederations. In Portugal, where communist and radical left parties were strong, the centre-left was afraid of losing outsiders' electoral support, and thus it did not follow a pro-insider strategy. This was reinforced by the fact that the centre-left had to face the opposition of a strong class-oriented confederation that was not willing to commit to two-tier reforms. This was not what happened in Spain. The centre-left, supported by a union confederation, undertook a two-tier reform in 1984 because there was a different configuration of left parties and confederations. Notwithstanding, this was not a stable equilibrium because this confederation changed its position over time when it realized the negative consequences of these reforms. Henceforth, their strategy became more pro-outsider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The first two decades of the 21st century had a significant increase in e‐waste generation. While improper recycling technologies applied to this type of waste pose severe risks to the environment and human health, several e‐waste management legislation has been recently enforced worldwide, reaching 78 countries and covering 71% of the global population. In common, most of them aim to recycle minerals and plastic from the disposed waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) to reinsert them in the industry, promoting the so‐called circular economy. From the comparative case study of countries that integrate the world‐system in different social and economic conditions – the United Kingdom (as core or developed country), Brazil (as semi‐periphery or emergent country), and Ghana (as periphery or developing country) –, this article aims to understand to what extent the national legislation on e‐waste management in these territories align with the Sustainable Development Goals 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, and 15. This research has an exploratory approach and is methodologically structured as a controlled comparison of most different cases. Results reveal that selected legislation has different levels of alignment with SDG, ranging from generic mentions of social‐environmental topics to description of legal instruments to be enforced regarding environmental preservation, improvement of population's life quality, and changes in the unsustainable production, consumption, and disposal patterns. The article also seeks to contribute to the geographical debate by establishing the relation between e‐waste legislation and SDG, considering the territorial particularities of the case studies.

The first two decades of the 21st century had a significant increase in e-waste generation. While improper recycling technologies applied to this type of waste pose severe risks to the environment and human health, several e-waste management legislation has been recently enforced worldwide, reaching 78 countries and covering 71% of the global population. In common, most of them aim to recycle minerals and plastic from the disposed waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) to reinsert them in the industry, promoting the so-called circular economy. From the comparative case study of countries that integrate the world-system in different social and economic conditions –the United Kingdom (as core or developed country), Brazil (as semi-periphery or emergent country), and Ghana (as periphery or developing country) –, this article aims to understand to what extent the national legislation on e-waste management in these territories align with the Sustainable Development Goals 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, and 15. This research has an exploratory approach and is methodologically structured as a controlled comparison of most different cases. Results reveal that selected legislation has different levels of alignment with SDG, ranging from generic mentions of social-environmental topics to description of legal instruments to be enforced regarding environmental preservation, improvement of population's life quality, and changes in the unsustainable production, consumption, and disposal patterns. The article also seeks to contribute to the geographical debate by establishing the relation between e-waste legislation and SDG, considering the territorial particularities of the case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthetic control (SC) method is widely used in comparative case studies to adjust for differences in pretreatment characteristics. SC limits extrapolation bias at the potential expense of interpolation bias, whereas traditional matching estimators have the opposite properties. This complementarity motives us to propose a matching and synthetic control (or MASC) estimator as a model averaging estimator that combines the standard SC and matching estimators. We show how to use a rolling-origin cross-validation procedure to train the MASC to resolve tradeoffs between interpolation and extrapolation bias. We use a series of empirically based placebo and Monte Carlo simulations to shed light on when the SC, matching, MASC and penalized SC estimators do (and do not) perform well. Then, we apply these estimators to examine the economic costs of conflicts in the context of Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with local approaches to innovation in two former industrial cities and explores how these can be explained. It focuses on local debates that have contributed to locally dominant narratives and the ideas embedded in these narratives about the possibilities and conditions for taking innovative paths. Conceptually, the authors pursue an interpretive approach that emphasizes that it is not (seemingly) given objective conditions that determine innovation, but rather the communication-based interpretation of these conditions in terms of possibilities and limits of action by local actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Agency is a missing link between institutions and regional development. • Local institutional context conditions the activation of change agency. • Change agency is not merely a product of policy change, people matter. • Regional growth models obscure intra-regional differences in agency. How do regions change their development path? We contribute to the growing literature on agency in regional development by combining it with a focus on the institutions that shape, support and constrain change agency in pursuit of different types of development paths. We answer the call for micro-level perspectives on regional economic change, using an in-depth and comparative case study approach. The labour market region of Olofström-Karlshamn in South East Sweden experienced a period of exceptional decline following the economic crisis and crisis in the automotive industry in 2008, when more than 1000 jobs were lost in a labour market of 46,000. Within this single labour market, two municipalities perceived, experienced and handled the crisis very differently. In Olofström, this triggered the formation of new collaborations that enabled local actors to upgrade their development path, whereas the crisis did not greatly affect the already ongoing efforts aimed at path importation in Karlshamn. To explain this difference, our comparative study shows that the layering of formal and informal institutions produced unique institutional contexts at the local level, which guide the behaviour, collaboration and vision of local actors. We build on original, micro-level material from 23 interviews and supporting documents to make the following contributions to the growing literatures on the role of agency and institutions in shaping regional development paths: (i) Local institutional context conditions the activation of change agency; (ii) Change agency must be investigated – and performed – in close connection to its geographical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grazing livestock on commonly managed pastures is a widespread practice in post-socialist countries such as Azerbaijan and Georgia. Despite the value of livestock as an important income source for rural households, commonly managed pastures frequently show signs of degradation, pointing to shortcomings in the joint management of common pool resources in those countries. Among other factors, the success of common management crucially depends on the cooperation and self-organization capacity of stakeholders. Especially in post-socialist countries, their capacity and willingness to cooperate in natural resource management is said to be low due to previous experiences of forced cooperation during the socialist period. In this paper, we investigate stakeholders’ capacity to cooperate in natural resource management in two post-socialist countries drawing on a framed field experiment for common pasture use. The analysis of group and individual participant performances show that groups are indeed capable of managing experimental pastures sustainably, especially if participants have the possibility to communicate which, in addition, is positively affecting cooperation. However, we find significant differences in participant performances and decisions between both countries, pointing to differing experiences with real-world pasture scarcity, common pasture management, as well as to differences in social capital endowment and cultural context factors.

As conservators of heritage and protectors of patrimony, museums are key players in public discourse about national identity and collective memory. The cultural roles and meanings of the museum as an institution are changing in relationship to local and global currents. Factors include the adoption of digital technologies, the repatriation of cultural artifacts, and the opening of new blockbuster museums. This special issue of Museum Anthropology builds upon a nodal taxonomic model for classifying museum practices, audiences, and the organization of evidence. The collected articles juxtapose cross‐cultural case studies drawn from Africa, Europe, and the United States. Topics include the use of evidence in the global circulation of popular African art, discussions of repatriation and decolonization in German museums, the "museum boom" in Poland's new political climate, and the development of a unique local museum based on minimalist art near the US–Mexican border. The comparative cases demonstrate how museums of different types respond to civic contestations, public debates, and institutional transformations. Curatorial narratives support the use of evidence in contrasting ways as museums build and revitalize their collections. These shifts influence the interpretation of evidence and the display of artifacts both within individual museums and across the global museum landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grazing livestock on commonly managed pastures is a widespread practice in post-socialist countries such as Azerbaijan and Georgia. Despite the value of livestock as an important income source for rural households, commonly managed pastures frequently show signs of degradation, pointing to shortcomings in the joint management of common pool resources in those countries. Among other factors, the success of common management crucially depends on the cooperation and self-organization capacity of stakeholders. Especially in post-socialist countries, their capacity and willingness to cooperate in natural resource management is said to be low due to previous experiences of forced cooperation during the socialist period. In this paper, we investigate stakeholders' capacity to cooperate in natural resource management in two post-socialist countries drawing on a framed field experiment for common pasture use. The analysis of group and individual participant performances show that groups are indeed capable of managing experimental pastures sustainably, especially if participants have the possibility to communicate which, in addition, is positively affecting cooperation. However, we find significant differences in participant performances and decisions between both countries, pointing to differing experiences with real-world pasture scarcity, common pasture management, as well as to differences in social capital endowment and cultural context factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health systems globally are still struggling to roll out system-wide models of integrated health and social care. While pockets of innovation exist they often remain stuck within single jurisdictions, or, worse yet, never expand beyond the pilot phase. Researchers, providers, managers and health system leaders could learn from the experiences of other countries facing similar challenges, however lack a standardized comparative method to take findings from different contexts and relate them back to their own. Aims and Objectives: This workshop will walk participants through one approach to conducting comparative program summaries originally developed by the Commonwealth Fund in the United States and applied to cases of integrated care across three different countries. The template captures key components of integrate care including client access and eligibility, care coordination and transition processes, information management systems, self-management and caregiver supports, program maturity, measures of success, and evaluation. Audience members will learn about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of adopting this type of comparative work, drawing on the examples presented by a panel of international researchers who have applied the Commonwealth Fund template on integrated care to their original studies SUSTAIN (Netherlands) and iCOACH (Canada, New Zealand). Participants will have the opportunity to go through the exercise of adopting the approach. Participants will be broken up into small groups and given short-form templates that can be applied to their own models of integrated care. Groups will go through the exercise and engage in a facilitated discussion on: 1) whether it can be applied to their contexts; 2) what they can learn from this type of exercise to improve and build on existing or new models; and 3) what is missing and what are the challenges when we try to learn across borders. Target audience: This workshop will be of interest to providers, manager and decision-makers seeking to learn from other examples as they adopt, grow, or spread their own models of care. Researchers will also benefit from this workshop as we tackle the methodological and conceptual challenges of complex comparative case analysis, using a case summary templates as a starting point. Learnings/Take away: Participants of this workshop will learn: How to apply a standardized template to analyze their local contexts. Methods to share knowledge across international borders as a means to further their programs and models of care The values and challenges in engaging in cross-national comparative case analysis

This research note reflects on the methods (as distinct from methodology) used in a five-year interdisciplinary and multi-site research project in global environmental law, and their links to questions of research ethics. We highlight the iterative processes that proved necessary to compare five case studies on local communities engaged in varied discussions on fair and equitable benefit sharing in different regions of the world and their implications for international environmental law. The note recommends explicit reflection on research methods and ethics to acknowledge and address power relationships in global environmental law research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex social-ecological systems (SES), especially systems with common pool resources, often exhibit system dynamics characterized by emergence, where system properties cannot be fully explained by input variables. This causes challenges when it comes to explaining resource use problems because problem dynamics can differ from case to case despite similar input variables. Archetype analysis with its focus on identifying building blocks of nature-society relations might provide a means to tackle emergence and complexity in the analysis of resource use problems in SES. Using data from inter- and transdisciplinary research investigating comparative case studies on common village pasture management in the Caucasus region, we use the archetype approach with a focus on system archetypes that place particular emphasis on recognizing recurrent structures and internal dynamics. We apply three system archetypes, the Tragedy of the Commons, Shifting the Burden, and Success to the Successful, to different aspects of interlinked management problems that occur repeatedly in the case study data. Using SES variables characterizing the cases, we discuss variable combinations that may trigger specific dynamics. Moreover, we explore interlinkages between archetypical problems and discuss possible solutions based on self-governance. We find that the archetype approach with a focus on system archetypes resulted in consistent explanations of problem dynamics leading to important additional insights into root causes and internal archetypical dynamics compared with existing knowledge. Regarding problem solutions and policy recommendations, we show that viewing archetypical problems as interlinked in their actual case-study context leads to different recommendations than when each archetype is viewed on its own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The subjects of this comparative case study are Orenco Station, a transit-oriented development (TOD) in the Portland region, and Station Park, a transit-adjacent development (TAD) in Salt Lake City region. The peak parking demand at Orenco Station is less than one half the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) suburban parking supply guideline. Also, vehicle trip generation rates are about half what is suggested in the ITE guidelines. Vehicle trip generation rates at Station Park show a smaller reduction but still substantial due to the mixed-use nature of Station Park. Parking generation rates are also lower than the ITE guidelines. In terms of metrics often associated with transportation performance, the large-scale TOD dramatically outperforms the large-scale TAD. The adjacent rail station appears to have little effect on the performance of the TAD, but a substantial effect on the performance of the TOD. Highlights • The peak parking demand at Orenco Station TOD is less than one half the ITE suburban parking supply guideline. • Also, vehicle trip generation rates at Orenco Station are about half what is suggested in the ITE guidelines. • Vehicle trip generation rates at the Station Park TAD are lower than the suburban average due to a mix of land uses. • Parking generation rates at Station Park are also lower than the ITE supply guideline. • Regarding metrics associated with transportation performance, the large-scale TOD outperforms the large-scale TAD. • The adjacent rail station may have a substantial effect on the performance of the TOD but little effect on that of the TAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]