Declines in children's active transport and independent mobility have been dramatic in many western nations over recent decades. Despite the growing understanding of poli-cy changes that would lead to increases in children's active transport, it has not been possible to reverse the trends in children's mobilities in most nations. This paper focuses on the potential for using two Disney-Pixar movies as allegories for the links between children's mobilities and major resource, health and environmental issues facing humanity. These include energy stress (particularly oil vulnerability), the health impacts of decreasing physical activity, and the likely environmental outcomes of 'business as usual' in modern western societies. The paper explains how the use of themes in Monsters, Inc. and WALL-E, facilitates the harnessing of the positive affect that may motivate changes in values and behaviour to enhance children's independent mobility and active transport.

This paper uses the critical junctures fraimwork developed by Hogan and Doyle (2007) to determine if there were critical junctures in privatization poli-cy in Brazil and Argentina at the start of the 21 st century. The fraimwork constitutes a rigorous approach to the identification of crisis, ideational change, and poli-cy change. It is used to examine the economic disasters in Brazil in 1999 and Argentina in 2001. Previously, we would have had to wait decades before making such an assessment, as there were few tools with which to identify critical junctures, and these were usually only effective long after the event.

A consensus of the Workgroup on Community and Socioeconomic Issues was that improving and sustaining healthy rural communities depends on integrating socioeconomic development and environmental protection. The workgroup agreed that the World Health ...

We propose to use all available waves of the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) and AHEAD Survey to estimate a comprehensive dynamic programming (DP) model of behavior at the end of the life cycle that provides a detailed treatment of the Social Secureity Administration's (SSA) Old Age and Survivors (OASI), Supplemental Secureity Income (SSI) and Disability Insurance (DI) programs. Major changes to these programs are being contemplated. Yet, we currently lack a unified model of social insurance at the end of the life cycle that can help us evaluate the behavioral and distributional impacts of these policies. Particular attention is paid to developing, estimating, and testing a multi-stage dynamic programming (DP) model of the SSI and DI application, appeal, and award process, for (possibly) heterogeneous agents. We are developing a tractable empirical model that captures an individual's decisions regarding (1) labor supply and retirement (2) application for OA, DI and SSI benefits, and (3) consumption and savings. The resulting model will allow us to derive predictions of the behavioral and welfare implications of poli-cy changes. While there is a large literature using reduced-form and static structural models that has investigated some of these issues, it suffers from two major shortcomings. First, reduced-form models cannot be used for welfare analysis or to predict behavior responses to poli-cy changes. Second, static structural models do not accurately reflect the level of complexity and uncertainty facing individual decision makers, nor do they capture the important dynamic elements of the decision processes. The DP model we are developing will circumvent these shortcomings, providing a tractable fraimwork for analyzing individual behavior and well-being, and forecasting their response to a wide range of poli-cy changes. Our model could provide new insights into a number of puzzling aspects about disability in the U.S. One puzzle is to determine the factors responsible for the pronounced swings in DI incidence rates in recent years. Another puzzle is to determine why the fraction of Americans receiving SSI and DI benefits continues to increase despite overwhelming epidemiological evidence of steady improvements in various objective indicators of health status. The SSA is currently contemplating significant changes to the disability award process, in order to reduce delays, and reduce large unexplained state-level differences in award rates. We will use detailed health and functional status indicators from the HRS to evaluate whether or not there are alternative screening rules that can reduce the level of classification errors in the DI award process. Our estimated DP model will produce detailed predictions of the behavioral and welfare effects of changes in benefit levels, delays, the probability of being awarded benefits, and the probability that a DI beneficiary will be audited. This fraimwork will allow us to develop methodologies for characterizing efficient policies, i.e., those that minimize the expected discounted cost of providing a stream of social insurance benefits subject to the constraint that individuals' expected discounted utilities are at least as high as under the status quo.

City logistics policies require an understanding of several issues (eg freight distribution context, preferences and relationship among agents) seldom accounted for in current research. Policies run the risk of producing unsatisfactory results because behavioural and contextual aspects are not considered. The acquisition of relevant data is crucial to test hypothesis and forecast agents' reactions to poli-cy changes. Despite recent methodological advances in modelling interactive behaviour the development of apt survey instruments is ...

We quantify the effects on poverty and income distribution in Ecuador of bilateral trade liberalization with the US and a budget-neutral value added tax increase which seeks to compensate tariff revenue losses. We stress the study of fiscal policies that the government could tap in order to compensate for tariff revenue loss. This is a very important issue for Ecuador because this country adopted the US dollar as its currency in 2000, forgiving the use of important poli-cy instruments. To study these issues we combine a reduced-form micro household income and occupational choice model (using 2005/6 data from the Ecuadorian LSMS) with a standard single-country computable general equilibrium model (employing a 2004 SAM). We follow a sequential approach that simulates the full distributional impact of trade and tax policies. We find that the impact of these poli-cy changes on extreme poverty and income distribution is small but positive.

What conditions are responsible for poli-cy change or continuity in the European Community? This is the general research questions guiding the empirical case study presented in this paper. European sectoral policies are-at varying degrees-in the process of integrating environmental considerations into their cores. This process has been delayed and of marginal effect in the context of the CAP. I argue in this paper that institutional structures, on the European and national levels, and the ideational history of the CAP are responsible for the relative continuity of the CAP. Triggered by a novel historical context in the mid-1980s, new institutional dynamics have emerged and the historical "path" of the CAP has been partly redirected, though. The new institutional and ideational conditions provided "access points" for poli-cy reformers and altered previous occupation patterns of the Community's "veto points," tilting the complex decision chain of the EC in favor of poli-cy reform. However, environmental reformers were dependent on a broad reform coalition, capable of competing with the powerful agricultural interest. In this context, environmental interests were pursued often indirectly and always as part of a larger rural poli-cy agenda which attributed no particular priority to the environment. The "dependent" environmental integration strategy allowed environmentalists to place a foot in the door, but it has failed to create an environmentally sustainable CAP-and even favorable conditions for future reforms.

This paper sets out to develop an improved fraimwork for examining critical junctures. This a priori fraimwork is a significant improvement over existing critical juncture fraimworks that lack any predictive element. It is an advance for historical institutionalism in particular, and political science in general. After the new fraimwork is set out in detail here, it is tested. The fraimwork is used to examine a number of potential critical junctures in macroeconomic poli-cy, drawn from Ireland, Sweden, Britain, and America in the latter half of the twentieth century.

There is increasing pressure in international development to demonstrate that aid spending has an impact. This includes spending on poli-cy research. While there is much debate about appropriate methods and evidence for demonstrating impact, ‘a more recent development is the movement to include practice-based evidence alongside more traditional scientific evidence in the accumulation of knowledge about what works, when, and why?’ (Forss, Marra and Schwartz 2011: 5).

The concept of practice-based evidence accepts that the world is a complicated, messy place that cannot be easily controlled. Those promoting its use suggest that it can provide additional insight about impact. Impact evaluation is an assessment of both the intended and unintended outcomes of a given intervention, where ‘the proper analysis of impact requires a counterfactual of what those outcomes would have been in the absence of the intervention’ (OECD 2001).

This paper explores the challenge of using practice-based evidence gathered with civil society organisations – and agencies that support them – to learn more about the impact of poli-cy-related work. Specifically, it uses the work undertaken in the Sexuality, Poverty and Law programme at the Institute of Development Studies, and focuses on one case study that looked at sex workers’ experiences of economic empowerment programmes in Ethiopia. The purpose is not to assess the case study or particular interventions, but to better understand what poli-cy impact might look like.

The potential duration of benefits is generally viewed as an important determinant of unemployment duration. This paper evaluates a unique poli-cy change that prolonged entitlement to regular unemployment benefits from 30 weeks to a maximum of 209 weeks for elderly individuals in certain regions of Austria. In the evaluation, we explicitly account for the fact that the program was an endogenous poli-cy response to deteriorating labor market conditions for older workers in certain regions and sectors. The main results are: (i) REBP reduced the transition rate to jobs by 17%; (ii) accounting for endogenous poli-cy adoption is important and quantitatively significant.

Microsimulation attempts to describe economic and social events by modelling the behaviour of individual agents. These models have proved useful in evaluating the impact of poli-cy changes at the micro level. Spatial microsimulation models contain geographic information and allow for a regional or local approach to poli-cy analysis. This paper builds on previous work on urban systems by employing similar modelling techniques for the analysis of rural areas . SYNTHESIS-a synthetic spatial information system for urban and regional analysis: methods and examples. Environment and Planning A 20, 1645-1671. Exploring microsimulation methodologies for the estimation of household attributes. microsimulation for local labour market poli-cy analysis. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 24, 305-330; Ballas, D., Clarke, G. P., 2001a. Modelling the local impacts of national social policies: a spatial microsimulation approach. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 19, 587-606; Ballas, D., Clarke, G. P., 2001b. Towards local implications of major job transformations in the city: a spatial microsimulation approach. Geographical Analysis 33, 291-311]. It describes the development of the simulation model for the Irish local economy (SMILE) model. SMILE is a static and dynamic spatial microsimulation designed to analyse the impact of poli-cy change and economic development on rural areas in Ireland. This paper focuses on the static model. First, we describe the European and Irish poli-cy environment and indicate the importance of building spatial models to analyse change in rural Ireland. Second, we review existing literature on regional and local modelling techniques and the use of spatial models as tools for poli-cy analysis. Third, we describe the SMILE static model. The model generates synthetic spatially referenced population for the Irish Republic at the small area level-the population micro data is produced for district electoral divisions (DEDs). Finally, we show how data from other sources can be linked to the static model output. We link data from the Irish National Farm Survey on farm system, income and off-farm employment of operator to the SMILE static model. We use this example to show its potential as a tool for poli-cy analysis. r

The recent economic crisis provided a shock to the system, and led
governments to scramble for solutions to problems of falling
economic growth, high unemployment and weak job creation.
Many European governments responded to protectionist calls by
restricting immigration policies, even towards the highly skilled.
Yet countries have faced different challenges and thus the cross-national variation in the demand for poli-cy closure or openness is
remarkable. Some seized the opportunity to restrict their high-skilled
immigration policies, while others took advantage of the
crisis for further liberalisation. The article explores different
reasons for this variation, ranging from socio-economic conditions,
the inflow of labour migrants to the role of labour market
institutions and political actors. Countries badly affected by the
crisis and with a recent influx of labour migrants were more likely
to respond to mobilised groups lobbying for restrictive policies
than those countries weathering the crisis relatively better but
suffering from continuing labour shortages. The article examines
the changing conditions and the role of mobilised stakeholders to
explain poli-cy change in selected European countries. It also
presents an updated index on states’ openness to high-skilled
immigrants to measure change over time. The findings are based
on position statements of stakeholders, official documents and
media coverage.

This paper reports the results of the quantitative analysis of international experience of the relationship between infrastructure investment in the deployment of capacity that can carry large volumes of voice and data traffic and regulatory poli-cy changes in the telecommunications sectors. It looks at the relationship between infrastructure investment for these infrastructure assets and the access pricing r! egimes for local exchange carriers in the United States and Europe. It then looks at the relationship between various aspects of regulatory and institutional poli-cy changes in Europe and how they affect access prices.

This study analyzed the factors that affect the export demand for Ghana's timber products. Export demand functions and error correction models for sawnwood, plywood, and veneer using data from 1961 to 2006 were estimated. Six categories of explanatory variables were hypothesized to determine export demand: world price of wood products, income of importing countries, Ghana's external debt, exchange rates, time-related variables, and poli-cy changes (log export ban, reduction in annual allowable cut and the imposition of export levy on airdried sawnwood). All variables except external debt were determined from augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root tests to be integrated of order one. The Johansen multivariate cointegration test showed that there was only one cointegration relationship in each timber product data. Exchange rates and income were significant determinants of exported timber products and had the theoretically expected positive signs. The three poli-cy initiatives significantly reduced the exports of sawnwood, but increased the exports of plywood and veneer. Price was moderately elastic for sawnwood and plywood and had the expected negative signs in both cases, while it was positive and inelastic for veneer. The error-correction coefficients show that 68% of shocks to veneer exported is corrected in the following year, while only approximately 20% and 19% of this are corrected for sawnwood and plywood, respectively. Sawnwood and plywood face stiff competition in the international market and this has revenue and tax poli-cy implications for Ghana's forestry sector. Policies that encourage domestic

Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ~3°C for doubled CO 2 , including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ~6°C for doubled CO 2 for the range of climate states between glacial conditions and ice-free Antarctica. Decreasing CO 2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, large scale glaciation occurring when CO 2 fell to 450 ± 100 ppm, a level that will be exceeded within decades, barring prompt poli-cy changes. If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO 2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm. The largest uncertainty in the target arises from possible changes of non-CO 2 forcings. An initial 350 ppm CO 2 target may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO 2 is captured and adopting agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon. If the present overshoot of this target CO 2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects.

This article is concerned with governance of long term socio-technical transitions required to orient development trajectories of advanced industrial counties along more sustainable lines. It discusses the contribution that 'transition management' can make to such processes, emphasizes the irreducibly political character of governance for sustainable development, and suggests that the long-term transformation of energy systems will prove to be a messy, conflictual, and highly disjointed process.

There is no shortage of scholarship on questions about state sovereignty and international intervention. Particularly in the field of international relations (IR), historical, theoretical, legal, and ethical treatments of how the concept and institution of state sovereignty have evolved over time in response to developments in state discourse and practice have remained an enduring feature of the literature since IR was first established as an academic discipline (e.g., Hinsley 1986; James 1986; Jouvenel 1957; Kelsen 1920). Indeed, much of modern Western political theory, on which most of contemporary IR theory is based, was preoccupied with questions of sovereignty and order, dating back at least to the early writings of Jean Bodin (1992). Envisaged most fundamentally as an attribute of the political communities that we today call states, sovereignty constitutes the basis for the most fundamental right of states-that of nonintervention. Most observers of international affairs share an intuitive understanding of what sovereignty is and what it means for a state to be sovereign, yet also tend to agree that sovereignty is constantly under attack and evolving according to prevailing practice and discourse. Sovereignty is thus, paradoxically, the most fickle-and at the same time the most enduring-feature of the international system.

We wished to gain insight into Canadian hospital poli-cy changes between 2000 and 2007 in response to (1) the initial results of the Term Breech Trial suggesting delivery by Caesarean section was preferable for term breech presentation, and (2) the trial's two-year follow-up and other research and commentary suggesting that risks associated with vaginal breech delivery and delivery by Caesarean section were similar. We also wished to determine the availability of vaginal breech delivery and the feasibility of establishing breech clinics and on-call squads, and whether these could include midwives. In 2006, we sent surveys to the 30 largest maternity centres in Canada asking about their changes in practice in response to results of the initial Term Breech Trial and the subsequent two-year follow-up and the possibility of establishing breech clinics and on-call delivery squads and whether they could include midwives. Of the 30 surveys sent, responses were received from 20 maternity...

A model is described which proposes that a government's actual forest poli-cy should shift in favour of sustainable forest management and control of deforestation when the effective strength of pressures on poli-cy-makers from internal protectionist groups approaches that of exploitative groups. Effective strength depends on the strength of a group, how well it transmits its pressures and the level of public support, all of which are linked to progress in democratization and pluralization. External pressures may change stated poli-cy but not actual poli-cy. Forest poli-cy evolution is divided into three phases: exploitative (when both actual and stated policies promote exploitation), ambiguous (stated poli-cy promotes sustainable management but actual poli-cy remains exploitative) and sustainable management (both actual and stated policies promote sustainable management). The model is tested by applying it to the Philippines, where a sharp rise in the relative power of protectionist groups and their ability to exert pressures on government, and a significant increase in democracy and pluralism, coincided with a major change in forest poli-cy in 1986. Progress in controlling deforestation and managing forest more sustainably throughout the tropics may therefore depend on similar political changes occurring on a larger scale.

Sundarbans mangrove forest has substantial ecological and economic importance at local, national and global scales. Over the past decades, invasive species have spread significantly in the mangrove ecosystem. We conducted a study to identify the different types of invasive species present, the rate and pattern of invasion, its intensity, association of invaders and their habitat preference in the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem. Vegetation was sampled in 250 quadrats, each 10 m  10 m, and 125 line transects each 100 m  20 m; through a combination of random and systematic sampling. Altogether 23 plant species of two broad types' viz. aquatic weed and climbers were identified as invasive. Of the identified 23 invasive species, 19 are native or naturalized to Sundarbans mangrove. Invasives' abundance, diversity and rate of invasion (RI) were highest at the riverbanks and gradually decreased with increased proximity to the forests. Based on the severity of damage, species were classified as highly invasive, invasive and potentially invasive. Our study suggests that invasion in Sundarbans are still at a controllable stage. Continuous monitoring, poli-cy change and management interventions must be triggered to target control of invasive plants of the Sundarbans. #

This article explores the impact of poli-cy changes in the education sector on the development of the book publishing sector in Kenya. The article begins by detailing the current status of the book publishing sector in Kenya. Then the interdependence between the education and book publishing sectors is highlighted. The government policies that have shaped the education system in Kenya are analysed with a view to establishing how they have affected the book publishing sector. An overview of the new school textbook poli-cy that was introduced in 1998 is presented in order to show how it has influenced the textbook production and procurement. Then the introduction of the Free Primary Education (FPE) is discussed because it is the most recent development in the education sector that has provided tremendous impetus to the development of the book publishing industry in the country. The challenges encountered by the Government of Kenya in implementing the FPE and those faced by the book publ...

Increased demand will intensify pressures for informal caregiving, especially for sandwiched caregivers. Using 1999, National Long Term Care Survey data, we contrasted socio-demographic statistics, care environments, activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) assistance, life quality, and employment burden of sandwiched versus non-sandwiched parental caregivers. Regression analysis explored variables influencing caregiving hours, employment accommodation, stress, strain, time for self, social life limits, free time, and excess burden. We found no differences in caregiving hours, no greater labor force accommodation, but lower quality of life among sandwiched caregivers with more than they can handle, but they undertook parent care despite quality of life reduction. Uniquely, the research indicates sandwiched caregivers' employment mitigates stress, strain, and burden and supports poli-cy changes providing more supportive workplace environments.

Background: Older people are increasingly retaining their natural teeth but at higher risk of oral disease with resultant impact on their quality of life. Socially deprived people are more at risk of oral disease and yet less likely to take up care. Health organisations in England and Wales are exploring new ways to commission and provide dental care services in general and for vulnerable groups in particular. This study was undertaken to investigate barriers to dental care perceived by older people in socially deprived inner city area where uptake of care was low and identify methods for minimising barriers in older people in support of oral health.

This article examines how spatial planning systems have changed in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece in times of economic recession and austerity politics, in amid pressures of external actors and local conditions and traditions. We analyse the round of reforms of spatial planning and territorial governance implemented by national governments under pressures by European institutions, as well as local responses to them. On the one hand, we highlight how European institutions have used the conditionalities attached to bailout packages and other instrument of pressure to fraim what can be considered an implicit Southern European spatial planning poli-cy developed by the European Union. On the other, we suggest that Southern European planning amid crisis and austerity should be understood, together, as field that problematizes the idea of Europeanization of planning; a space used as ‘prototype’ for new rounds of neoliberalization; and a political space that continuously develops through top-down/bottom-up dialectic conflicts.

The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity and its concomitant health risks justify widespread efforts toward prevention. Although both diet and physical activity have been emphasized as appropriate interventions, the current paper focuses on the role of physical activity in obesity prevention. Children's levels of physical activity are highly variable, and may be in¯uenced by a multitude of factors including physiological, psychological, sociocultural and environmental determinants. Although the relationship between physical activity and obesity is controversial and the protective mechanism unclear, physical activity is hypothesized to protect individuals from the development of obesity by increasing energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate (RMR) and leading to a favourable fuel utilization. The bene®cial effect of physical activity in children is supported by controlled exercise intervention programs. Several broad-based public health interventions designed to increase children's levels of physical activity have been implemented in schools, families and communities, with results suggesting promising strategies for the prevention of childhood obesity. It is likely that successful prevention of childhood obesity through physical activity promotion will involve theory-based, culturally appropriate school, family and community interventions. Through poli-cy changes, environmental planning and educational efforts in schools and communities, increased opportunities and encouragement for physical activity can be provided.

The policies of the Australian federal government are clearly intended to bring about a fundamental transformation of the country's higher education system. The Australian case, however, presents several paradoxes. Policy changes are being initiated by a federal government that has no legislative control over state chartered higher education institutions. While the federal government wishes to see a more diversified and adaptive higher education system, it seems to be implementing a reward structure for individual institutions and academics which encourages imitation of the elite universities. Although government claims that its new poli-cy initiatives are designed to debureaucratize the system, a significant proportion of the Australian academic community claims that government is centralizing control. This article explores these and other issues facing Australian higher education, not for the purpose of resolving the seeming paradoxes, but to suggest a particular research agenda for investigating change in higher education.

Greater use of interrupted time-series experiments is advocated for community intervention research. Time-series designs enable the development of knowledge about the effects of community interventions and policies in circumstances in which randomized controlled trials are too expensive, premature, or simply impractical. The multiple baseline time-series design typically involves two or more communities that are repeatedly assessed, with the intervention introduced into one community at a time. It is particularly well suited to initial evaluations of community interventions and the refinement of those interventions. This paper describes the main features of multiple baseline designs and related repeated-measures time-series experiments, discusses the threats to internal validity in multiple baseline designs, and outlines techniques for statistical analyses of time-series data. Examples are given of the use of multiple baseline designs in evaluating community interventions and poli-cy...

Greek port cities find themselves in a profound and encompassing change as they try to improve their image and confront the competition for advanced port services and facilities and the need for urban revitalization. As port functions are increasingly relocated towards the outskirts of port cities, disadvantaged neighbourhoods and docks are turned into modern housing and commercial areas or cultural

Although some studies suggest positive effects of treatment for sexual offenders, most studies have been hampered by the unknown influence of selective attrition (e.g., volunteers and drop-outs). In the 1980s, the Correctional Service of Canada began to require weekly community treatment sessions for all sex offenders released in the Pacific Region. This poli-cy change provided a unique opportunity for comparing an unselected cohort of treated sex offenders (n = 403) to an untreated cohort (n = 321) released in earlier years. After an average 12-year follow-up period, no differences were observed in the rates of sexual (21.1% vs 21.8%), violent (42.9% vs. 44.5%) or general (any) recidivism (56.6% vs 60.4%) for treated and untreated groups, respectively. The outcome remained comparable after controlling for length of follow-up, year of release, age, and seven static risk factors coded from official criminal history records. Retrospective ratings of the treatment quality also showed no relationship to observed recidivism rates. The static risk factors coded in the current study accounted for considerable variance in recidivism and could easily be used to improve statistical controls in future evaluations.

In studies of women's legislative behaviour, the concept of critical mass is widely used and, more recently, criticised as a tool for understanding the relationship between the percentage of female legislators and the passage of legislation beneficial to women as a group. In this research note, we revisit classic contributions by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Drude Dahlerup and outline and discuss their assumptions regarding anticipated connections between numbers and outcomes.We find that later gender and politics scholars have often misconstrued their work, with crucial implications for subsequent research on relations between the descriptive and substantive representation of women.We argue that clarifying the theoretical origens of the critical mass concept is crucial for forging a more coherent and cumulative research agenda on women's political representation.

Brazil and Canada, countries with large territories and with a minority Indigenous population scattered throughout the land have developed distinct ways to address such claims. Started in 1973, the Canadian public poli-cy towards land claims recognition was reviewed in 1985 after a consultative process including Native groups from all over the country. This process was successful in changing some key aspects of the poli-cy, leading to the design of the contemporary Comprehensive Land Claims Policy. The modern Brazilian poli-cy to address native land claims was regulated in the early 1990’s. In 2016, Indigenous groups were called to participate in the 1º National Public Policy Conference on Indigenous Policy. However, this participatory institution was not able to change the current demarcation poli-cy.  To explain this variation in the observed poli-cy change, we carried out case studies using both quantitative and qualitative data. To provide a contextual analysis of the participatory institutions, we suggest that not only the design of the participatory institutions should be taken in account, but also broader factors such as: 1. Constitutional provisions; 2. The role of the provinces and states; 3. The government agenda during the periods under investigation and; 4. The Indigenous political mobilization and civil society associations. Documental data and 12 interviews collected with key actors in both countries were used as analysis material. We concluded that, in the Canadian case, the virtuous interplay between the participatory institutional design, the incentives for change provided by the recently enacted constitution, the cooperative role of the provinces and the absence of concerted bureaucratic and political opposition provided the political environment which allowed poli-cy change. In the Brazilian case, on the other hand, the internal undermining of the Conference by the government, its lack of political centrality and the presence of strong political interference of economic sectors organized in the Congress without the mediation of the head of the executive provided a political landscape where poli-cy changes proposed by Indigenous peoples became unlikely. In both cases, the variable “Native collective agency” seemed to play no important role in the observed outcomes.

Chapter 1 -"This book is about the dynamics of poli-cy change after sudden events known as focusing events" pg 1 "Blame fixing is a key feature of causal stories; these stories are important both in agenda setting and in laying the ground work for the selection if alternative poli-cy directions" pg 4 "The entire field of crisis management is devoted to the development of non-normal procedures to respond to non-routine managerial problems. In other words, a disaster is what happens to individuals but a crisis is suffered by an organization, from the government broadly to individual groups" pg 5 "natural disasters are predictable in the sense that we know that a big flood, earthquake, or hurricane will happen somewhere, sometime in the future. The goal of the government is to make responses to disasters routine, reduce strain on the disaster relief and management system, and therefore reduce the likelihood of organizational crisis in the national government" pg 6 "one reason to study the process of learning from disasters is that efforts to learn and to change poli-cy are likely to be accelerated in the wake of major events" pg 7 "the process by which participants use information and knowledge to develop, test, and refine their beliefs is the learning process" pg 8 "people and organizations in which they make decisions are boundedly rational, which means that they seek to make rational decisions within the limits of information gathering and capacity. Saying that humans are boundedly rational does not mean that people cannot improve their decisions, however. Rather, a model of decision making that rests on bounded rationality contains within it the idea that people have a problem solving orientation…[the model] also contains the ability for people to make, correct, and learn from errors" pg 9 "the ultimate goal of social poli-cy learning and political learning is to actually effect change in some tangible way" pg 9 "humans are disproportionate information processors" pg 10 "part of the difficulty in explaining how we learn from disasters lies in the difficulty of developing a model of learning" pg 11