26 research outputs found
The Europeanization of Interest Representation: A Strategic Decision-Making Analysis of UK Business and Environmental Interests
No full textThe point of departure for this paper is that the European Union (EU) has affected national politics, policies and polities. This process, labelled Europeanization, has led to changes in two interconnected political dimensions. First, it has led to modifications in the relationships between state and non-state actors within the national arena. Second, it has changed the interactions between the sub-national, national and supranational actors (state and non-state). To explore these propositions the paper conducts an analysis of the interest representation patterns exhibited by non-state actors. The paper compares firms (in the telecommunications, gas and electricity sectors) and environmental groups (focused on nature conservation or biodiversity policy), both based in the United Kingdom (UK), in order to determine how, to what extent and why Europeanization has affected their interest representation behaviour. The activities displayed by the two sets of interests are compared and contrasted in terms of chosen lobbying targets (i.e. national government departments and EU institutions), routes and allies (i.e. direct contact or via intermediaries such as Euro-groups) and the timing and character of the contact. Ideas and tools drawn from management science (i.e. strategic decision making analyses) are employed to assist in deriving the causal explanations for the Europeanized patterns of behaviour. It is argued that a combination of the three strategic decision making factors (i.e. internal organizational resources, objectives (and perceived rewards) and external political environments explain the contrasting behaviour of the firms and environmental groups
Connecting the Dots: Case Studies and EU Implementation Research
No full textThis paper is an accompanying text to the Compliance Database – the database of case studies of transposition, implementation, and compliance with EU law. (stract http://www.eif.oeaw.ac.at/compliance/). The database contains the results from the literature survey in a form that enables detailed overviews of individual studies as well as easy comparisons across studies. The database has been developed with the support of the Institute for European Integration Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and it is a free and regularly updated resource. The conclusions of this paper are based as much on the inferences that the database offers, as on the original articles and books that have been reviewed.implementation; political science
"Coordinating Regional Policy in the EU"
No full text[From the Introduction]. EU regional policy is an instrument to promote development in economically weaker areas of Europe as well as to facilitate integration and ensure the success of the single market (European Commission, 2003). The territorial nature of EU regional policy demands complex coordination among various levels of government as well as across several policy sectors. Coordination, however, is often unsuccessful. Vertical coordination, inherently necessary for regional policy, is often precluded due to power struggles among supranational, national and regional governments. Likewise, conflicting policy goals and competing interests across policy sectors curtails the achievement of cross-sectoral coordination. Challenges to cross-sectoral coordination often arise since regional policy, based upon redistribution and Keynesian economics, has found itself at odds with underlying principles of the EU, namely neo-liberalism and free market competition
The greening of the EU: the Common Agricultural Policy and the Structural Funds
No full textThe degree to which environmental concerns areintegrated into 'non-environmental' policies such as economicdevelopment, agricultural, transport, and energy policies provides a bettermeasure of the 'real' performance of European Union (EU) environmentalpolicy than does the total amount of legislation adopted. The author investigates the extent to which the environmental integration principle is appliedin the EU's regional development, cohesion, and agricultural policies.Differences in the levels of integration achieved across these policyareas is determined by the 'goodness of fit' with preexisting policy philosophies and institutional structures, and the type of strategies pursuedto achieve integration. Although indirect strategies are principally problematic, defensive strategies may succeed in conjunction with some activepolitical or legal pressure.
The Myth of a Green Europe
No full textUnlike most nation-states, the EU faces the challenge of actively creating and sustaining myths about its polity. In this article we explore if and under what conditions the story of a 'Green Europe' represents a successful new myth on the European project, which is appealing to present and future generations and capable of generating legitimacy for EU politics. Exploring the narratives of policy leaders (storytellers) we trace the functional role of environmental policy for the EU polity as a whole, establish the legitimating role of environmental policy for the EU and search the extent to which the environmental narrative is constructed as an identity-building story. We argue that, while the actual performance of the EU in environmental policy might raise some doubts about the credibility and hence sustainability of the Green Europe myth, 'green' has become a brand attribute of the EU to the European public and carries a high level of legitimacy and potential for identification. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation (c) 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
An Exploration of the Dynamics of Consensual Approaches in Biodiversity Planning for the Wider Countryside: Evaluating the Usefulness and Applicability of Actor-Network Theory
No full textThis research examines the usefulness of applying theoretical principles from the Sociology of
Translation and Actor Network Theory to the scenario of biodiversity planning in Oxfordshire
between the early nineteen nineties and 2001. It develops a model derived from a social
constructionist approach to considering Nature, and seeks to apply it to empirical data on the
development of Oxfordshire's Local Biodiversity Action Plan. The data is considered in relation
to the four poles of the model which are the 'scientific knowledge or technical' pole; the
'institutional' pole; the 'production of practices' pole and the 'nature protected' pole. The idea
that is applied is that scientific knowledge that is generated for a purpose becomes the accepted
wisdom and consequently is institutionalized. From this acceptance of the importance of
scientific or technical authority, practices will then be generated (for example, land or water
management strategies) and these then protect particular elements of nature; essentially what
society, and more specifically, the actors involved with problematising the issue deem as being
elements that are important to preserve.
Also, there is a time and space dimension built into the model since the author builds on the
ideas of actor-network theorists who argue that a network is not a flat shape but that actors may
act at a distance (e. g. global actor) but still be linked into a localized network. Similarly, actors
may be incorporated from different times but may be held into place within a given network
because their views or actions are part of a stable agreement (e. g. text/intermediary object) that
has encapsulated a number of different actors.The actor-networks presented in this thesis are
heterogeneous in nature in that they incorporate elements of nature and the human world as
different actors represent the views of others. The research explores stable and unstable
networks that are founded within consensual approaches through partnership working between
many different types of organisation
Cerebrospinal fluid leaks following intradural spinal surgery—Risk factors and clinical management
No full textBACKGROUND: Cerebrospinal fluid leakage (CSFL) following spinal durotomy can lead to severe sequelae. However, while several studies have investigated accidental spinal durotomies, the risk factors and influence of clinical management in planned durotomies remain unclear. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent planned intradural spinal surgery at our institution between 2010 and 2020. Depending on the occurrence of a CSFL, patients were dichotomized and compared with respect to patient and case-related variables as well as dural closure technique, epidural drainage placement, and timing of mobilization. RESULTS: A total of 351 patients were included. CSFL occurred in 4.8% of all cases. Surgical indication, tumor histology, location within the spine, previous intradural surgery, and medical comorbidities were not associated with an increased risk of CSFL development (all p > 0.1). Age [odds ratio (OR), 0.335; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.105–1.066] and gender (OR, 0.350; 95% CI, 0.110–1.115) were not independently associated with CSFL development. There was no significant association between CSFL development and the dural closure technique (p = 0.251), timing of mobilization (p = 0.332), or placement of an epidural drainage (p = 0.321). CONCLUSION: CSFL following planned durotomy pose a relevant and quantifiable complication risk of surgery that should be factored in during preoperative patient counseling. Our data could not demonstrate superiority of any particular dural closure technique but support the safety of both early mobilization within 24 h postoperatively and epidural drainage with reduced or no force of suction
[Review of the book, Understanding environmental policy convergence: The power of words, rules and money, edited by Helge Jörgens, Andrea Lenschow and Duncan Liefferink]
No full textThe Puzzles and Paradoxes of Europeanisation - Lessons from the Scottish Experience
No full text[Introduction]. In recent studies of Europeanisation the word ‘puzzle’ has proved to be a frequent visitor. In essence, this puzzle is seen to revolve around the belief that while membership of the European Union (EU) has wrought tremendous impact upon the shape and direction of national policies and policy processes, the impact upon the bureaucratic infrastructure of domestic government systems has by comparison been somewhat limited. Of late, however, a means of resolving this puzzle has been put forward. In short, the preoccupation of historical-institutionalist analysis with largely structural, institutional and procedural-based aspects of change may, it is argued, have led to the apparently divergent or contradictory paths taken by the respective policy-related and bureaucratic-administrative forms of Europeanisation. A less puzzling interpretation of developments might flow if, in addition to the purely institutionalist perspective, more attention were to be focused upon broader cultural factors and the role played by individuals within the context of bureaucratic adaptation processes. This paper attempts to follow the latter course by drawing on a historical-based study of the long-term impact of bureaucratic Europeanisation on a government department across a period of some twenty-five years. The focus is upon the relative depth of Europeanisation experienced in that particular case and the extent to which that Europeanisation was in fact influenced not only by structural and procedural aspects of the UK administrative system but also by cultural, actor-based and departmental-specific factors
Childhood Memories of Valdemar Lenschow, Morten Jørgensen, Rose Hallmann and Lasse Holmelund
No full text<p>This is a student project, not meant for proper publication, but for testing and learning the techniques and uses of data management.</p><p> </p><p>The following dataset is based on childhood artifacts or memories. The Data collected was made by four students at the Aarhus Universitet in the year 2023.The four authors have chosen widely different objects, such as childhood toys, artifacts with personal meaning, family photos associated with childhood memories etc. <br>The idea is the data can be expanded by other users, who in turn have to fill out a data overview document, in which they follow already existing categories, as well as filling out metadata and keywords, to make the data usable by researchers. <br>The significance of each chosen data is individual for each author, but with both context and significance for their respective childhood.<br><br>As for the naming of the files we decided to start with the person the item belonged to, which we found relevant as the digital collection only have items belonging to the four of us. Then a number for the item, as to make the digital sorting easier to handle and sort ind. Then a category description such as manga, video, picture to further ease categorizing, sometimes more to further ease categorizing. Finally, a name, number or description for the specific item, or page, again sometimes more to ease access.</p>
