This study sought to determine the feasibility of introducing bamboo as a raw material to supplement the dwindling stock of traditional timber species for Ghana's forest products industry. First, the CEOs of the leading exporters of tertiary and panel products in the industry were canvassed to assess the current situation. Using descriptive statistics, it was discovered that the companies studied consume logs 12% in excess of the annual allowable timber harvest for the whole industry. There has been a drop in raw material availability and a 30% increase in raw material costs in the past five years. Harvest of lesser-used species in place of traditional species has also increased. Smaller companies have lost customers and are more restrained in raw material procurement. Next, barriers to the adoption of bamboo as a raw material perceived by the CEOs and institutional heads were identified. The major barriers perceived by CEOs include lack of information (e.g., on bamboo plantation management, products, processing, machines and markets) and lack of capital for investment. Institutions lack adequate information about bamboo technology and policy; they have research needs, (e.g., training, funding, laboratory equipment) and collaboration from all stakeholders. Institutions have done little to promote bamboo. Smaller companies were found to be more innovative in product development than larger companies. Companies located in the Ashanti region show higher propensity to engage in process innovation and product development. Companies appear to be receptive to initiatives that encourage bamboo adoption. In the current situation, few companies are willing to adopt bamboo but most companies are ready to adopt in the future if the existing barriers are mitigated. In the current situation, it is difficult for the industry to adopt bamboo until the government officially specifies roles for institutions and other stakeholders to make a compelling case for bamboo. Suggestions made for policymaking and change management include strategies for the creation of awareness, desire and knowledge for bamboo. Others include providing resources to enhance the ability of companies and institutions to adopt or promote bamboo, and reinforcing the change from timber to bamboo. / Ph. D.

This thesis aims to investigate how the major U.S. and UK think tanks perceive and convey the military prowess of Russia and Ukraine following the Russia-Ukraine war from February 2022 to October 2023. The study uses poststructuralism and discourse analysis to examine blogs and reports from the major U.S. and U.K. think tanks to identify their perceptions and attitudes. In scrutinizing their perceptions, this paper has limited itself to examining three dimensions of military prowess those being; morale and leadership, offensive capabilities, and the logistics and equipment. The relevance of recognizing how the major U.S. and UK think tanks perceive and convey the military prowess of Russia and Ukraine from a poststructuralist lens is due to the think tanks' influence in shaping domestic and foreign policymaking, as well as public debate. Something which could impact not only the trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine war, but also have national, regional, and global repercussions. The major findings of this thesis show that although the major U.S. and U.K. think tanks, which say they are non-biased actors, still prescribe and convey negative and subjective undertones and themes. Portraying for example Russia as having “incompetent” leadership and moral stature with its material advantage being its “only” cause for “success”. Whereas, for example, Ukraine's leadership and morale are praised for being the driving force for the “success” they have “enjoyed”. Whilst simultaneously being reluctant about its future, as it is described as the “only” factor for its “success”. Based on the findings, the thesis suggests future research on the issue in other domains is needed due to its relevancy in this and other fields.

No description available.

What is the most effective problem solving method at the environmental policy table in the context of a radical diversity of worldviews? I answer the question in the dissertation by developing a theory that accommodates diversity in policymaking. My line of reasoning is as follows. In Chapter One, I survey the diverse discourse about Global Climate Models in detail. I demonstrate that a radical diversity of worldviews is expressed in the discourse. In Chapter Two, I advance a model of language that is an accurate foundation for discourse in policymaking. In Chapter Three, I consider the best policymaking strategy in view of the language model: idea-based policymaking. I then demonstrate that the policymaking strategy is weakly theorized. I introduce a theory of its operation at the end of Chapter Three, and develop it in detail in Chapters Four and Five. Because there is not currently a model, I consider an analogue model in play and explain the analogy in Chapter Four. I apply the analogue to the policy table in Chapter Five and fully develop an operational theory to explicate the problem solving method in policymaking. The force of the dissertation's contribution is made in Chapters Three to Five. Chapters One and Two are a ground of the argument. In Chapters Three to Five, I argue that idea-based policymaking is a promising form of policymaking practice because social learning is the operative problem-solving mechanism. In social learning: (1) the worldviews of the actors are leveraged in discourse and (2) power relations are dynamically distributed among actors (Hajer). The result is a fortified problem solving operation. This is because in (1) the heterogeneous problem solving resources of the group members are distributed and in (2) social learning shifts power relations by dislodging, mediating, and subsuming a new power regime. In summary, the dissertation is a contribution in applied philosophy. I comprehensively demonstrate that an effective policymaking method will manage the incommensurability of worldview and stipulate a problem solving method that engages the basic condition of policymaking--radical diversity--rather than denies it. / Philosophy

This dissertation is exploratory in design and employs an electronic survey and comparative case studies to examine the factors that shape the impact of a non-traditional data source that measures the market power of urban neighborhoods, the Social Compact Neighborhood Market DrillDown, on the policymaking process of local government officials concerned with neighborhood economic development. The four case studies are: Baltimore, MD, Louisville, KY, Detroit, MI, and Tampa, FL. The study examines the conditions that affect decision-making at the different stages of information use and considers instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic uses of information. The observation of seven variables (applicability to agenda of lead sponsor, congruence between findings and prior preferences, trust of information producer, availability of alternative information sources, information sustainability, costs of production, information as private sector "lure") provide the context for theory and hypotheses on information impact in which three factors are found to be significant (applicability to agenda to lead sponsor, information sustainability, and information as private sector "lure"). Overall, the study finds evidence that information use is inherently a political endeavor in which its use is dominated by the preferences of those who sponsor its production and use information toward initiatives that are important to them. / Political Science

The farm to school movement is partially supported by unofficial actors in the policymaking process who promote legislation to encourage activities such as local procurement, school gardening, and agricultural education. However, farm to school legislation can vary in its level of effectiveness and implementation throughout the United States. Research shows that Virginia has a low level of support and advocacy for farm to school activities when compared to other states. Unofficial actors, such as advocates, producers, and school nutrition professionals are uniquely qualified to identify challenges, opportunities, and suggestions on improving the policymaking process, due to their experiences with farm to school. This study addressed a gap in scholarly literature as there is limited research on the role that unofficial actors play in promoting farm to school during the legislative process. In this qualitative, case-study, the Stages Heuristic Model was used as a theoretical framework to explore unofficial actors' experiences as they participate in the agenda-setting and policy formulation stages of policy cycle in the Northern Virginia Region. The findings uncovered experiences that unofficial actors believed either prevented or made their engagement in policymaking more challenging. Opportunities and successes during these stages of advocacy were also examined. Further, participants provided suggestions to all policymaking actors to improve the process in the future. Key findings revealed the importance of themes such as collaboration, connectedness, and relationship building in the policymaking process. Additionally, unofficial actors generally found success in the "small wins'' of advocacy, such as increasing farm to school awareness, as opposed to more extensive legislative outcomes. / The farm to school movement is partially supported by active citizens in the policymaking process who promote legislation to encourage activities such as purchasing local foods, school gardening, and agricultural education. However, farm to school legislation can vary in its level of effectiveness and implementation throughout the United States. Research shows that Virginia has a low level of political advocacy for farm to school activities when compared to other states. Individuals such as advocates, farmers, and school nutrition professionals are uniquely qualified to identify challenges, opportunities, and suggestions on improving the policymaking process, due to their experiences with farm to school. This study addressed a gap in the academic community as there is limited research on the role these individuals play in promoting farm to school during the legislative process. In this study, a policymaking model was used as a foundation to explore individuals' experiences as they participate in the farm to school legislative process in the Northern Virginia Region. The findings uncovered experiences that respondents believed either prevented or made their engagement in policymaking more challenging. Opportunities and successes during these stages were also examined. Further, respondents provided suggestions to all policymakers for improving the process in the future. Key findings revealed the importance of collaboration, connectedness, and relationship building in the policymaking process. Additionally, respondents generally found success in "small wins," such as increasing farm to school awareness, as opposed to more extensive legislative outcomes.

Yes / The relationships between policies, their values, and outcomes are often difficult for citizens and policymakers to assess due to the complex nature of the policy lifecycle. With the opening of data by public administrations, there is now a greater opportunity for transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision making in the policymaking process. In representative democracies, citizens rely on their elected representatives and local administrations to take policy decisions that address societal challenges and add value to their local communities. Citizens now have the opportunity to assess the impact and values of the policies introduced by their elected representatives and hold them accountable by utilizing historical open data that is publicly available. Using a qualitative case study in a UK Local Government Authority, this article examines how e-participation platforms and the use of open data can facilitate more factual, evidence-based, and transparent policy decision making and evaluation. From a theoretical stance, this article contributes to the policy lifecycle and e-participation literature. The article also offers valuable insights to public administrations on how open data can be utilized for evidence-based policy decision making and evaluation.

L’expertise scientifique joue un rôle croissant dans la fabrique du politique dans les démocraties. Elle contribue à façonner et orienter les problèmes publics et leurs solutions, de façon relativement autonome par rapport à l’élection des décideurs. Ce rôle est justifié par la complexité grandissante des problèmes et solutions dans les sociétés techniques. Dans cette thèse, nous investiguons les fonctions de l’expertise scientifique jugée crédible par les décideurs. A contrario des prétentions universalistes de la Knowledge Literature et de l’Evidence-Based Policy, nous construisons une théorie de moyenne portée des usages spécifiques, d’une forme d’expertise particulière, dans un contexte donné. Un tel triptyque permet de réconcilier deux approches contradictoires de l’usage de l’expertise. L’une « externaliste » promue par l’analyse des politiques publiques explique son utilisation par le contexte. L’autre « internaliste » défendue par une variété de courants, la justifie par les caractéristiques propres de l’expertise. Pour ce faire, nous investiguons l’utilisation que font en France dans les années 2000 les ministères de la santé et de l’agriculture des expertises collectives INSERM et INRA – méthode d’expertise proche des revues systématiques de la littérature. Dans cette perspective, nous objectivons successivement : les critères d’appréciation des expertises collectives tels qu’utilisés par les décideurs, les types d’usages qu’ils attendent et font de ces expertises, les contextes dans lesquels ils les mobilisent. Notre investigation est aussi l’occasion de clarifier les indicateurs des types d’usage en même temps que les facteurs contextuels les favorisant. Nous mettons en lumière les effets d’autorité et de vérité des expertises collectives sur les acteurs du débat public et de cadrage sur les problèmes publics et leurs solutions. Nous rendons aussi compte de la façon dont l’expertise gagne sa crédibilité scientifique (et son producteur une légitimité scientifique ou réputation) auprès des décideurs. Croisant les travaux de la sociologie des sciences, et des études de la communication, nous établissons que la crédibilité de l’expertise dépend de la conjugaison d’investissements de forme et de fond. Nous montrons que ces dispositifs rhétoriques et pratiques ne sont pas librement accessibles mais exigent des connaissances et compétences particulières. Renouant avec la sociologie de l’expertise, nous constatons que la nature et la réputation de la méthode et des instituts sont le produit d’une histoire longue dans laquelle les chercheurs – leurs positions et représentations, leurs réflexions, actions et interactions – jouent un rôle clef. Sur un plan empirique, notre thèse constitue une des pièces du puzzle de l’émergence des expertises collectives et revues systématiques de littérature en France au cours des vingt dernières années.D’un point de vue méthodologique, notre thèse mobilise une variété de méthodes : qualitative (entretiens individuels, observations ethnographiques, travail d’archive, études de cas) et quantitative (statistiques descriptives, analyse de correspondances multiples et classification hiérarchique ascendante). / Scientific expertise plays a growing role in the policymaking process in democracies. It shapes public problems and their solutions relatively autonomously from the election process. This role is explained by the increasing complexity of problems and solutions in technical societies.In this thesis, we investigate the function of scientific expertise that is deemed credible by policymakers. Unlike scholars in the Knowledge Literature and the Evidence-Based Policy movement, we do not intend to express universalist claims. Instead, we build a middle range theory: one of a type of use of a specific kind of expertise within a particular context. This triptych (type of use-type of expertise-type of context) permits us to reconcile two contradictory approaches of the use of expertise: one “externalist” explains the type of use of expertise by the particular context in which it is used, another “internalist” explains the type of the use by the intrinsic qualities of the specific kind of expertise.In order to do this, we investigate how policymakers within the French ministries for Health and Agriculture use INSERM and INRA collective expertise – an expertise method close to systematic literature reviews.We successively display: the specific criteria policymakers use to assess the credibility of expertise, their intended and effective use of such knowledge, the context in which they order an experts’ report. Our investigation allows us to test and organize a set of indicators and contextual factors of the type of use.We demonstrate that these INSERM and INRA collective expertise appear as an authoritarian and truthful discourse to actors involved in the public debate. They frame public problems and their solutions.We also explain how expertise gains its scientific credibility in the eyes of policymakers. On the basis of recent works in the fields of science and technology studies and communication studies fields, we establish that the credibility of INSERM and INRA collective expertise derives from the implementation of rhetorical and practical devices in their production. We show that such devices are not ready-to-use: their implementation requires a set of knowledge and know-how.We also demonstrate that the very nature and reputation of the expertise and its producers are the result of a long process in which researchers play a key role: their career, position, representation, thoughts, actions and interactions.This thesis constitutes a missing piece in the systematic exploration of the growth of collective expertise and systematic literature reviews in France in the last twenty years.It is based on a variety of qualitative methods (interviews, observations, archive, case studies) as well as quantitative methods (statistics descriptive, factor analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis).

abstract: This study examines the factors that shape the timing of a passage of a piece of controversial gender equality legislation by conducting a case study of the abolition of the family-head system in South Korea. This study draws on the method of process tracing with the data collected from the archives and the interviews. The case study mainly compares the legislative processes for the bills on the abolition of the family-head system in 16th and the 17th National Assemblies, in which the bills resulted to opposite outcomes. This study argues that the institutions of the legislative process mediate the impact of relevant actors for gender equality policymaking. In the bill initiation stage, only a small number of the elected officials are required to introduce a bill, and women representatives serve a vital role as they are more likely to introduce feminist bills than their male colleagues. This study argues that 1) the background of the women influencing their commitment to feminist agendas, 2) strong women’s movements contributing to issue saliency, and thereby the policy priorities of the issue, and 3) the resources and constraints inside the party for feminist policymaking influenced by party ideology, shape how active women representatives will be in advocating controversial gender equality agendas. In the later stages of policymaking, the efforts of a small number of women members are offset by that of political parties. Emphasizing the positive agenda control of the majority party and the negative agenda control of the minority parties, this study suggests that party issue positions are critical for the outcome of the bill. To explain the party issue position (re)shape, this study underlines 1) public opinion, 2) the emergence of new voter groups leading to the decline of the cleavage politics, 3) new party entry, and 4) women in the party and the party leadership. The findings highlight that the major parties’ issue positions shift in the 17th National Assembly greatly contributed to amplifying the bargaining power of the key allies and weakening the institutional leverage of the opponents, leading to the successful legislation of the bill. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2019

This thesis explores the influences of provincial grant programs on Canadian streetscape camera systems. Using qualitative interviews (N=32) and document analysis, the study explores the policymaking processes and outcomes of six Ontario cities that have engaged with the Civil Remedies and Proceeds of Crime grants. Grant programs have not only provided the financial support to facilitate the establishment or expansion of camera systems, but they have also encouraged particular patterns of implementation, design and operation of Canadian streetscape systems through the processes and conditions of the grant program, as well as through the encouragement of regional networking, policy learning and policy diffusion via policy tourism. While the Civil Remedies and Proceeds of Crime grants have influenced some similarities in streetscape camera systems, variation exists, particularly concerning privacy policies, due to idiosyncratic interpretation and adoption of diffused policies and an ambiguous and unclear privacy protection framework. / Graduate / 0626 / 0627 / dennymah@uvic.ca