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Data for: Covenants without the sword? Comparing prison self-governance globally
No full textThis is an Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI) data project. The annotated article can be viewed on the publisher's website.
Why does prison social order vary around the world? While many of the basic characteristics of prisons are similar globally, the extent and form of informal inmate organization varies substantially. This article develops a governance theory of prison social order. Inmates create extralegal governance institutions when official governance is insufficient. The size and demographics of the prison population explain why inmates produce extralegal governance institutions in either decentralized ways, such as ostracism, or through more centralized forms, such as gangs. Comparative analysis of Brazil, Bolivia, England, Scandinavia, and men’s and women’s prisons in California provide empirical support
High performance school-age athletes at Australian schools: A study of conflicting demands
No full textProject Summary: The purpose of the original substantive study was to enhance understandings of the way that high-performance school-age athletes deal with their situations and predicaments. This study explored the competing demands on young people who are both high performance athletes yet are still at school.
The research question thus focused on two aspects: first, how these young people cope with their dual lives, and second, what are the models of schooling that may best support them in their endeavours. Using 39 in-depth interviews and document analysis the researcher sought to give primacy to these young peoples’ views and to develop the notion of their so-called “conflicting demands” concerning combining study and sport commitments. The project was completed in the form of a doctoral dissertation in the field of Education.
The participants included 19 athletes (former and current), 10 parents and 10 teachers. Participants were selected from across Australia, according to school types and the level of high performance sport. For this study it was at the National, World and Olympic level of competition.
The original set of interviews was later re-purposed for a separate, pedagogical project. Namely, the researcher adapted several of the analytical steps she used as part of her dissertation work in the qualitative data analysis tools NVivo ™ to produce training materials outlining a helpful approach to using the software for analysis in four distinct stages: descriptive, topical, analytic and the drawing of conclusions. Additionally, from the actual research items such as journals, social media, newspapers, blogs that the researcher used in developing her literature review thematic analysis , a teaching Endnote file has also been developed that contains 21 items. Both substantive outputs based on the initial data collection, and subsequent training materials – especially in the ebook called The NVivo Toolkit – are listed as “Related Publications” and Endnote sample for this deposit. This has now been further developed into a website, ebook, Youtube channel and publication that outlines a N7+1 pedagogical digital learning framework for literature and systematic reviews that is now being taught using a ‘flipped classroom’ approach.
Unlike the traditional singular-problem approach in related literature, the approach in this study was to integrate the problems that a school-age high performance athlete may encounter when combing dual endeavours of sport and study. Time may be the over-riding problem for these athletes because so many of their demands impact on the limited number of hours in a day, but fatigue, both physical and psychological, resulting from training and competition demands may temper an athlete’s motivation to engage in a high level of academic undertaking as well.
Additionally, intense psychological and physical demands were associated with drug and alcohol abuse leading to depression and anxiety. Female athletes indicated being bullied, but not one of the male participants mentioned this issue. Additionally, the question of ‘Are you being bullied?’ was never asked, only the female athletes spoke of this problematic issue. The parents’ perspectives suggested home issues of sibling rivalry, disruption and separation of family life. Teachers’ perspectives centered on empathy for such students and the concern of guiding them into education that would provide short- and long-term benefits, e.g. career transitions after sport.
The outcome of the study was to develop characteristics of schooling that may help these individuals to cope better in their demanding lives. An ‘athlete-friendly’ approach is proposed that has its primary focus in developmental pastoral care. This approach embellishes the notion of the child being able to flourish with this pastoral element of the school, with personalised learning to meet the individual needs of the student athletes. Young people attempting to combine dual endeavours of sport and study need resilience and this can be provided to them by their pillars of strengths – parents, teachers and coaches.
Data Abstract: All interviews were originally audio-recorded and then transcribed verbatim. A Livescribe pen was used to record and then converted to .mp4 for transcription in NVivo™. Observations were noted about each participant only during the interview. For the purposes of sharing the underlying data, all transcripts have been anonymized using pseudonyms, used throughout the text and as part of the files naming convention. Additionally, a letter code preceding the pseudonym in the file titles stands for A (athlete), P (parent), T (teacher). In the few cases where an interviewee had two or three of these designations, the primary category was selected (ex: a parent who was also a former athlete was labeled "P", while a teacher who happened to also be a parent of one of the students, was labeled as "T"). Pattern codes which were converted from excel sheets are included to demonstrate the thematic pattern coding for the group known as athletes.
Additionally, there are two examples of individual word queries in NVivo, including the word tags “bullying”, as well as “tired and sore”. As individual word queries, these depict pieces of conversational analysis. A document depicting word frequency query is also present, as an example of cluster analysis outputs that can be created in NVivo, which serves to visualize a number of themes across all interviews. Finally, there is an example of a manually abstracted transcript, as an image. This document provides an example of how to interrogate data prior to their input in NVivo software. The hand-written notes on the left list concerns about tensions and feelings. The notes on the right indicate broad initial themes that the researcher identified. With that, this process reflects a first step in providing greater transparency to the study prior to the second step of aggregating and entering it into the software.</p
A question of respect: A qualitative text analysis of Canadian parliamentary committee hearings on PCEPA
No full textProject Summary: The overarching research question that we address in our paper, “A Question of Respect: A Qualitative Text Analysis of the Canadian Parliamentary Committee Hearings on The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA),” forthcoming Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique (December 2017), centers on whether parliamentary committee members treated witnesses fairly and respectfully.
To address this question, we engaged in a qualitative text analysis of the hearing transcripts of both the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on this bill that took place in the summer and fall of 2014. We found in this study that, on the whole, the vast majority of questions met this baseline, but that committee members were biased toward witnesses in agreement with their position and against witnesses in opposition to it. Our approach was based on grounded theory, and we inductively developed codes from an interpretation of the data. In this appendix, we present our coding scheme, including key assumptions, units of analysis, conceptualization and coding process, reliability and agreement measurements, and core and evaluative codes. We hope that other qualitative researchers will use and develop our codes.
Data Abstract: Our data took the form of PDFs of official English-language transcripts of parliamentary hearings by both the House and Senate committees on Bill C-36. More specifically, our data units were questions posed by committee members to witnesses as articulated in the hearing transcripts.
The hearings on Bill C-36 took place in July 2014 (House) sand September and October 2014 (Senate), and the transcripts are publicly accessible on government websites (full list of links provided in documentation). Our data collection strategy involved downloading PDF versions of each of the Commons and Senate hearings on the bill. We conducted an initial read of the transcripts to identify questions posed by committee members to witnesses (please see our coding scheme for a detailed discussion of how we identified questions for analysis). We organized the questions (i.e., our units of analysis) by assigning to each a unique number. This enabled us to systematically code each question in terms of its content, tone, and nature (see coding scheme for more details on our coding definitions).
This deposit consists of our coding scheme, which we hope will provide other researchers with definitions of respectful/disrespectful, positive/negative/neutral tone, and sympathetic/combative/fair questions and with an approach to conducting qualitative text analysis of legislative hearings. It also consists of links directly to the hearing transcripts for Bill C-36, as well as the full-text version of all the transcripts we analyzed.<p/
Understanding and measuring responsiveness of physicians in rural Bangladesh
No full textProject Summary
Introduction: Responsiveness of human resources for health (HRH) is defined as the social actions that health providers do to meet the legitimate expectations of service seekers. It may dissuade patients from early care seeking, diminish their interest in adopting preventive health information, decrease trust with health service providers, and marginalize at-risk population groups. The overall goal of this research was to examine HRH responsiveness in rural Bangladesh, to develop a scale to measure the responsiveness, and finally to demonstrate the application of the measurement method.
Methods: Data collection took place in rural parts of Khulna, a southwestern division of Bangladesh. The qualitative portion consisted of in-depth interviews (IDI) with physicians (seven public, five private, five informal), in-depth interviews with clients (n=7), focus group discussions (FGD) with clients (two sessions each with males and females), and observations in consultation rooms of public, private, and informal sector healthcare providers (one week in each setting). The quantitative research consisted of structured observation of 393 physicians (195 from public and 198 from private sector). This data was collected for developing a scale of responsiveness through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), involving 64 items (generated through the qualitative part of this project). Inter-rater reliability was assessed by same three raters observing 30 consultations, using the scale (later named as Responsiveness of Physicians Scale or in short ROP-Scale). Study data were collected between August 2014 and January 2015. Qualitative data were analyzed by the framework analysis method. World Health Organization’s (WHO) health systems responsiveness framework was modified, based on literature review and expert opinions, to include the following domains for qualitative analysis: Friendliness, Respecting, Informing and guiding, Gaining trust, and Optimizing benefit. Quantitative data were analyzed by EFA, followed by assessment of internal consistency by ordinal alpha coefficient and inter-rater reliability by intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). For comparing responsiveness of public and private sector physicians two sample t-test, multiple linear regression (MLR), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA) were used.
Results: User and provider perceptions of responsiveness of physicians in rural Bangladesh often overlapped but at times diverged. Due to high patient load, physicians in the public sector usually failed to spend enough time with patients for proper history taking, asking questions, examining, and reassuring. Although not satisfactory, according to patients in qualitative part of the research, physicians in the private sector were more responsive towards the patients, especially in terms of conducting examinations with care, asking questions, and giving little reassurance. Most of the patients complained that physicians in general (i.e., both in public and private sectors) were not responsive, especially in terms of talking to them enough, compassionately touching them (for examining, for giving reassurance), and explaining their condition. They also complained of losing trust in physicians, as they seemed not to be caring, but businesslike. Patients demanded that, in order to be responsive, physicians should not only be prescribing drugs, but also be sensitive to patient’s financial status. Physicians should tell them the cost of treatment, try to understand whether patients can afford it, and if necessary, tailor the treatment accordingly. On the other hand, physicians also acknowledged their inadequacies, but attributed these to the overall health systems constraints, patient loads, lack of proper training on responsiveness issues, and often abuse by the patients. Psychometric analyses identified 34 items grouped under five domains (or subscales) to constitute the Responsiveness of Physicians Scale or, in short, ROP-Scale. The five domains, derived through EFA and later named through discussing with the relevant experts, are as follows: Friendliness, Respecting, Informing and guiding, Gaining trust, and Financial sensitivity. The scale has a very high internal consistency with ordinal alpha coefficient of 0.91. Inter-rater reliability was also very high with intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) (2, 3) of 0.84. The scale also demonstrated face validity (through expert consultation), content validity (through qualitative research and literature review) and criterion validity (concurrent validity by correlation coefficient of 0.51 with consultation time; and known-group validity by comparing public and private sector physicians’ responsiveness with private sector scoring 0.18 higher mean score). The study found the mean responsiveness score of public sector physicians to be1.98 and that of private sector physicians 2.16; and the difference statistically significant in t-test with t statistic of -6.04 (p-value
Conclusions: This study demonstrated the detailed process of development and application of a psychometrically validated ROP-Scale. In this process, I reviewed the earlier work on health systems as well as HRH responsiveness, defined the HRH responsiveness, discussed caveats in different aspects of understanding and measuring responsiveness, proposed a conceptual framework to examine HRH responsiveness, identified five domains of HRH responsiveness, presented the findings across the domains of responsiveness, and compared the responsiveness of public and private sector physicians’ responsiveness.
Data Abstract: The qualitative part of this research consisted of in-depth interviews (IDI) with physicians (seven public, five private, five informal), in-depth interviews with clients (n=7), focus group discussions (FGD) with clients (two sessions each with males and females), and observations in consultation rooms of public, private, and informal sector healthcare providers (one week in each setting). The quantitative research consisted of structured observation of 393 physicians (195 from public and 198 from private sector). First, I approached the respondents after preparing a list of all physicians working both in public and private sectors in the district. For IDIs with clients, I followed heterogeneous purposive sampling, with maximum variation in age, gender, level of education and occupation. I generated a list of potential respondents with inputs from local residents (personal contacts) and contacted them. Selection criteria for respondents were: >18 years age, consulted a physician at least twice in lifetime, with the last consultation within one year. For FGDs, I followed homogenous purposive sampling, attempting homogeneity in terms of gender (and also profession in case of females). Female FGD respondents were selected from the female employees of two local educational institutions (a school and a college). Selection of sites for observation was based on principles of convenience sampling (feasibility of travel at different times of the day) as well as purposive sampling (ensuring coverage of both public and private sectors). For quantitative data collection, a list of all physicians in Khulna district who were likely to be present during the data collection period was prepared beforehand. I chose the census method, as there were not sufficient physicians for sampling.
The qualitative data were collected in order to explore the perceptions and practices of outpatient healthcare users and providers (physicians) regarding the elements of responsiveness of physicians in rural Bangladesh. In order for triangulation, data were collected from both the service providers and the service seekers. From among the service providers, in-depth interviews were done with the following types of respondents: 1. In-depth interviews with seven public sector physicians 2. In-depth interviews with five private sector physicians 3. In-depth interviews with five informal providers (village doctors) From among the service seekers, both in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were done: 4. In-depth interviews with seven patients 5. Focus group discussions with four groups of patients (two sessions each with males and females) In addition, observations were conducted in the following manner: 7. Observation in the consultation settings of public sector physicians for seven days 8. Observation in the consultation settings of private sector physicians for seven days 9. Observation in the consultation settings of informal providers (village doctors) for seven days Quantitative data were collected through structured observation of 195 consultations in the public sector and 198 consultations in the private sector. These data were consulted as these persons (physicians from different sectors and patients) are the direct stakeholders in understanding responsiveness of physicians. Other potential respondents would be the policy makers, district health managers, medical teachers, etc. They were not consulted due to time and resource constraint, and also because, it was not essential to address the research questions. These data are being shared as we believe that sharing the research data would improve the transparency. This would also allow other researchers to take advantage of the data and conduct further analysis. Two Research Assistants (RA) helped in data collection and transcription. One of them was a male anthropology graduate, and the other was a female with same background. The male RA conducted four In-depth interviews, and the female RA conducted two focus group discussions with the female respondents; out of a total of 24 interviews and four FGD sessions. They prepared all the transcripts and Word processed the field notes from the observations of three weeks duration. In quantitative part of the research, 20 RAs collected data by structured observation method.
In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were audio recorded. These were all transcribed verbatim. Detailed notes were taken too. Field notes of observations were taken as well. Notes were taken during the interviews, FGDs, and observations. Observation field notes were elaborated later, within 24 hours of the observation. We are sharing only the qualitative data in this platform. We will share the quantitative data in other relevant repositories. Due to human participant constraints, only a subset of the qualitative data (interviews with providers) can be shared. Consent obtained from other participants precludes sharing of observations and interviews.</p
Monstrosity and dehumanization in the 2016 U.S. presidential contest
No full textProject Summary: In this article, I argue that monstrosity was used as a metaphor to convey the dangerous potential of the candidates and to challenge their moral standing. Monstrosity is also a mechanism for dehumanization – the “act of perceiving or treating people as if they are less than fully human” which involves “denials of humanness” to individuals and groups (Haslam and Stratemeyer, 2016, 25). Social psychologists generally take a quantitative approach to the study of dehumanization, while recognizing that dehumanization has qualitative variants – animalistic, mechanistic, subtle, and blatant (Haslam and Stratemeyer, 2016; Kteily et al 2015; Pacilli et al 2016). Using the data collected here, I explore how monstrous characterizations of the candidates map on to the quantitative measures of dehumanization employed by this literature and in my own research (Cassese 2017). The results highlight the external validity of these measurement approaches and their clear relevance for capturing the dehumanization of political groups and candidates.
Data Abstract: The text and images included in this collection were gathered on an ad hoc basis as examples of monstrosity and dehumanization in the discourse surrounding the 2016 Presidential race. They demonstrate the emergence of a “monster” narrative framework, which either characterized the candidates explicitly as monsters (e.g. “Trump is the GOP’s Frankenstein monster”) or more implicitly as abnormal, deviant, and warped (e.g. an “abomination”). The data consist of political cartoons, memes, screenshots from television programs, as well as headlines and excerpts from mainstream news sources and political blogs. They also include comments from public officials, political advisors, journalists, and political analysts. Data collection began during the 2016 presidential primary race and concluded shortly after the inauguration. Preliminary observations about the data were published in The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage in an article called “Here are 3 insights into why some people call Trump a ‘monster’” (Cassese 2016).
Works Cited
Cassese, Erin. 2016. “Here are 3 insights into why some people call Trump a ‘monster.’” The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/31/here-are-3-insights-into-why-some-people-think-trump-is-a-monster]
Cassese, Erin. 2017. “Dehumanization and Partisan Polarization in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Race.” Manuscript under review.
Haslam, Nick, and Michelle Stratemeyer. 2016 “Recent Research on Dehumanization.” Current Opinion in Psychology 11: 25-29.
Kteily, Nour, Emile Bruneau, Adam Waytz, and Sarah Cotterill. 2015. “The Ascent of Man: Theoretical and empirical evidence for blatant dehumanization.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(5): 901-931.
Pacilli, Maria Giuseppina, Michele Roccato, Stefano Pagliaro, and Silvia Russo. 2016. “From Political Opponents to Enemies? The role of perceived moral distance in the animalistic dehumanization of the political outgroup.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 19(3): 360-373.<p/
Hate speech and France's court of cassation
No full textProject Summary
This project was designed to identify the factors that influenced French Court of Cassation (the Supreme Court for criminal law) decisions in hate speech cases. We identified all 103 substantive hate speech cases reviewed by the Court of Cassation between the inception of a major anti-racism law in 1972 and the end of 2012. We then identified categories of interviewees distributed across different types (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, NGOs, academics). We combined the information gathered from these interviews with information from the written court decisions as well as archival information detailing some internal deliberations of the court. The main conclusion of the research is that French judges are influenced to a significant degree by the social identity of the victim group, but that this influence has shifted over time. In general, the court has been much more apt to uphold convictions if the targets of the hate speech were understood as vulnerable minorities who are victims of "true racism" than if the targets were societal majorities such as whites, Catholics, Christians, or "French."
Data Abstract
Interviewees were selected according to procedures outlined in Bleich & Pekkanen (2013). Interviews were conducted in France, primarily between July 2014 and July 2015. Most were done in person, though some are phone interviews and some were email exchanges. Most interview records submitted here are the author's summaries of the interviews rather than transcripts. They are based on simultaneous note-taking supplemented by post-interview additions and edits. A few have been edited after the fact based on the interviewee's reading of the notes and amendments. The interview data was one key portion of evidence assembled to address the question of how the French high court decided hate speech cases. Written French court decisions are typically short, and do not contain as much information as, for example, US Supreme Court decisions, nor do they contain information about divisions within the court. So the interview data reveals information that goes beyond what is available in the written record. In addition, I relied on information on internal deliberations by court-appointed representatives (judges and prosecutors) derived from an archive for which I was granted access permission. I do not have permission to share this information, nor to reproduce the original court decisions.</p
Energy democracy in northeastern North America
No full textThe data project has been initiated for research on energy democracy initiatives (EDI) and their transition narratives, and more broadly on social-ecological-technical systems related to renewable energy transition in the region of northeastern North America to strengthen initiative-based practice and learning and support diverse and participatory analytical approaches. Documentation and metadata for this research include contextual information about the study, research methods used, variable definitions, units of analysis, format and file type of the data, a description of the data capture and collection methods, data source inventory, explanation of data coding and analysis performed and details of who has worked on the project and performed each task.
A Methods and Data Management Plan is used to organize the documentation and metadata needed to support this research
A qualitative study of perspectives on postnatal care referrals by Traditional Birth Attendants in Ebonyi State, Nigeria
No full textProject Summary: While 79 percent of Nigerian mothers who deliver in facilities receive postnatal care within 48 hours of delivery, only 16 percent of mothers who deliver outside facilities receive postnatal care within this period. Most maternal deaths can be prevented with access to timely and competent health care. Thus, the World Health Organization, International Confederation of Midwives, and International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics recommend that unskilled birth attendants be involved in advocacy for skilled care use among mothers. This study explores postnatal care referral behavior by TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants) in Nigeria, including the perceived factors that may deter or promote referrals to skilled health workers. We find that differences in TBA referral before, during, and after delivery appear to reflect the TBA’s understanding of the added value of skilled care for the client and the TBA, as well as the TBA’s perception of the implications of referral for her credibility as a maternal care provider among her clients. We also found that there are opportunities to engage TBA’s in routine postnatal care referrals of their clients to facilities in Nigeria by using incentives and promoting a cordial relationship between TBAs and skilled health workers. Thus, despite the potential negative consequences TBAs may face with postnatal care referrals, there are opportunities to promote these referrals using incentives and promoting a cordial relationship between TBAs and skilled health workers. The study was conducted in July 2016 in Ebonyi State, South-Eastern Nigeria, where about 1 in 2 mothers does not receive postnatal care within the first two days of childbirth. In addition, while 71 - 97 percent of mothers in other states in the South-Eastern region receive skilled birth attendance on average, coverage falls to 62 percent in Ebonyi State.
Data Abstract: This study collected qualitative data using focus group discussions (FGD) involving 28 female health workers, TBAs, and TBA delivery clients. The study conceptual framework drew on constructs in Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of reasoned action onto which we mapped hypothesized determinants of postnatal care referrals described in the empirical literature. As part of a larger mixed methods study, the study team purposively selected 128 wards in Ebonyi State that had at least one primary health care facility with a health care provider offering maternal postnatal care. We identified these wards using the national facility census list and via consultations with officials in the State Ministry of Health. Each selected ward also had to have at least one TBA who lived and worked there. We recruited FGD participants from these wards. The recommended sample size for focus group discussions is 6 - 12 participants, as group interviews are difficult to manage above 12. The study team decided on FGD participant categories based on the key stakeholder groups involved in referrals for postnatal care. Thus, we purposively selected 10 TBAs, 10 TBA clients (mothers who had been delivered by TBAs), and 8 health care providers from communities that had primary health care facilities offering postnatal care services by a skilled provider and at least one resident TBA (we intended to interview 10 health care providers, 2 of whom arrived at the interview venue after the discussion was held). At recruitment, potential participants were informed that the study was aimed at understanding postnatal care practice in their communities. Health care providers were recruited face-to-face through a monthly meeting in the primary health care board in the state capital. TBAs were identified in partnership with health care providers, and recruited face-to-face in the 2 cases where they were based in the state capital. Recruitment over the phone was done for 8 TBAs who lived outside the state capital. We recruited TBA clients by asking recruited TBAs for the name of at least one past client, who was then contacted by the study team. Recruitment over the phone was done for 8 TBA clients who lived outside the state capital. TBA clients were required to be beyond 42 days after the culmination of their first pregnancy so that they would have had the opportunity to choose to attend at least one postnatal visit. TBA clients with multiple past pregnancies were therefore qualified to join the study as well. None of the recruited participants declined the invitation to the study. Discussions were held in a quiet, secluded location in the State Teaching Hospital.
We held one FGD with 8 health workers, another with 10 TBAs, and a final FGD with 10 TBA delivery clients (9 of whom came for the discussion with their newborns). All the participants were female. The focus groups lasted an average of 75 minutes (64 – 87 minutes). Most participants (39 percent) were between 30 and 39 years of age. A slightly lower proportion (36 percent) were between 20 and 29 years of age. Focus groups were conducted in either English or Igbo language depending on participant consensus. The discussions were audio-recorded with the consent of participants and facilitated using topic guides by an experienced qualitative researcher. The topics in the discussion guide were informed by the review of the empirical literature and study conceptual framework and differed by participant type. The topic guides for this study were developed in line with the study conceptual framework, which drew on constructs in Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of reasoned action, to which we mapped hypothesized determinants of postnatal care referrals described in the empirical literature. In the discussion, we linked study themes to the study conceptual framework, to explain variation in traditional birth attendant referral behavior across the maternal continuum, from the antenatal to postnatal period. All focus group discussions were audio recorded and one of the members of the two-man research team took notes during discussions. The research team translated the audio-recordings in Igbo language into English language, and transcribed all the recordings verbatim in Microsoft Word. We will share the anonymized transcripts of audio recordings in English Language. The audio recordings, in both English and Igbo language, will not be shared as participant identities cannot be protected as agreed under the ethical review. We analyzed the transcribed data thematically, and linked themes to the study conceptual framework in the discussion to explain variation in TBA referral behavior across the maternal continuum, from the antenatal to postnatal period.
Researchers involved in the project: Adanna Chukwuma (Principal Investigator) Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Conceptualized and designed the study, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. Chinyere Mbachu Health Policy Research Group, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu, Nigeria Involved in analyzing and interpreting the data, drafting of the manuscript, and revision of intellectual content of the manuscript. Jessica Cohen Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Involved in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and revision of intellectual concept of the manuscript. Margaret McConnell Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Involved in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and revision of intellectual concept of the manuscript. Thomas Bossert Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Involved in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and revision of intellectual concept of the manuscript.</p
Data for: "Blame avoidance and policy stability in developing democracies: The politics of public security in Buenos Aires"
No full textProject Summary: This research project intended to explain the simultaneous stability of criminal justice policies and erosion of police reform in developing democracies by the logic of blame avoidance. We propose that politicians implement and state officials, such as judges, enforce tough penal policies to avoid blame for rare yet politically damaging events. We chose Argentina because it is a case of an upper-middle income country yet with weak formal institutions. During the thirty years since the return of democracy, it has undergone the contradictory processes of criminal justice reform and implementation of punitive policies, on the one hand, and repeated attempts to implement police reform which have often been eroded or reversed. In particular, we selected Buenos Aires because of its political importance within the country, and because, given that it is not the province with less independent judiciary, we could expect that pressure on the judiciary from the government -one of our mechanisms of interest- would not be exceptionally high.
Data Abstract:This project has relied on both qualitative and quantitative data. With respect to qualitative evidence, we have reviewed four national and one local newspaper in reference to criminal justice and police reforms occurring in the province of Buenos Aires during the period under consideration (1997-2012). We are depositing a list of these articles as well as their respective URLs.
We have incorporated into our publicly available archive our records of interviews that could be fully anonymized. These take the form of notes from the interviews, since the interviews themselves were not recorded. To anonymize the data we have removed all personal or geographic references that could reveal the identity of the informant.
We have also conducted interviews with various public officials, such as former governors, security ministers or judges who have been prosecuted. These interviews with critical actors are impossible to anonymize without eliminating details that are crucial to the narratives described by the authors and the understanding of the causal mechanisms involved in the studied process. Contrary to the previous group of interviewees, the population of possible respondents that could have been interviewed is sufficiently small such that they could be more easily identifiable. While our interviewees agreed to be recorded and cited throughout the paper, they did not explicitly agree to have the entirety of the interview be made publicly available. Therefore, we wish to respect their wishes in this regard and are not sharing these interview transcripts in any form.
The article also relies on quantitative data, which we have included in this QDR dataset. These include time-series data on the crucial variables (mainly state-level incarceration rates, convicting sentencing rates, proportions of the prison population that is unconvicted, and crime rates for specific crimes such as homicides, violent crimes and property crimes) obtained from the Argentine National Penitentiary System annual reports and from the Center of Legal and Social Studies (CELS), an NGO specialized in human rights and criminal justice reform. Other types of qualitative data (newspaper articles, reports) have been prepared so as to be presented in the form of a spreadsheet containing all the basic information – newspaper, title, date, by-line (when relevant) – and their specific URL. (QDR has added, in the spreadsheet, a stable URL version of these links as well.) We sought articles concerning the implementation of the most relevant criminal justice and police reforms enacted in the province between 1997 and 2012, to complement and contextualize the information provided by our interviewees. We checked three of the main national print newspapers (La Nación, Clarín, and Página12) and one of the main national digital newspapers (La Política Online, www.lapoliticaonline.com), as well as the leading provincial newspaper from the provincial capital (El Dia). We also consulted newspaper articles on police and criminal justice reform in our two shadow cases -Venezuela and El Salvador- to complement scholarly research on these areas in each case, where required.
Our quantitative database on prison population required no special preparation for sharing in this deposit, beyond the necessary compilation involved in the original collection process.</p
Between interests and law: The politics of transnational commercial disputes
No full textProject Summary: This project seeks to explain variation in the institutions traders have used to resolve commercial disputes in the global economy. Conventionally, we think of the public courts of the state as the key providers of contract enforcement. In practice, however, private arbitral institutions are commonly used to adjudicate cross-border disputes between firms. Moreover, countries have made the decisions of these private courts binding in public law, a policy enshrined in international treaties. The result is a fascinating hybrid institution that performs one of the most basic functions in the world economy. The analysis seeks to determine the extent to which dispute resolution institutions have been shaped by A) the material interests of traders and B) legal norms diffused by epistemic communities of experts. It concludes that the former have been of greater importance in the lifespan of the regime, but that the latter have become predominant in recent decades.The larger implication of the study is that a key institution of the global economy does not take the "traditional" intergovernmental form IR theory predicts. Instead, it is a heterogeneous system incorporating many transnational actors and institutions.
Data Abstract: The project employs mixed methods. Statistical analysis is used to perform descriptive inference on the use of private arbitration at the global level and in the national case studies (using newly compiled data), and to explain the diffusion of the regime in the postwar period. The core of the study, however, relies on 4 case studies (each divided into several chronological sub-cases) of the global regime (1900-1960), the United States (1700s-2012), Argentina (1700s-2012), and China (1800s-2012). The study brings several key historical episodes, and their associated documents, into the literature for the first time. These case studies employ chiefly archival and interview sources.
Archives: Accessed the national archives of the US, UK, Argentina, and China, as well as archival sources from the New York Chamber of Commerce, various London-based commercial entities, and the United Nations.
Interviews: The researcher spoke with 50 policymakers, business people, lawyers, and academic experts in the United States, UK, China, and Argentina. Telephone interviews were also conducted with individuals in France. There are written notes of each interview, but not recordings or verbatim transcripts.
Compilation of data: Compiled archival data from the Chinese government, the International Chamber of Commerce, the New York Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, and the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange arbitral mechanism. These data are kept as Excel spreadsheets. The data here encompass all original data sources for the project. Nothing has been excluded.</p