bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Japan and Economic Regionalism in Asia
Authors: Yoshimatsu Hidetaka
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines Japan’s commitments to economic regionalism to address two research questions: How has Japan committed to the development of regional institutions for managing economic affairs, and what factors have driven Japan to make commitments to economic regionalism in Asia? Japan has maintained an important status in developing regional institutions through commitments to the development of APEC, functional institutions under the ASEAN+3, and regional institutions for infrastructure investment. In such commitments, great power transition in the form of the rise of China and the waning of the United States constituted a crucial factor that encouraged Japan to adopt positive engagements. The Abe administration implemented measures for economic regionalism as responses to business interests, and dampened opposition from societal and political circles under the Kantei-centered policymaking system. Significantly, the Abe administration reformulated external economic policies by embedding them into a new diplomatic frame of proactive contribution to peace.
Humanitarian Operations and Supply Chain Management
Authors: Wagner Stephan M.
Published: December 2020

The need for humanitarian assistance is documented in the news on a daily basis. Functioning supply chains are a critical factor in providing disaster relief and humanitarian aid to people in need. Therefore, the humanitarian sector has developed organizations, processes, procedures, and tools that support the specific situation facing this sector, which is in several ways different from a commercial setting. This chapter discusses some challenges of humanitarian operations and supply chain management (HumOSCM) for humanitarian assistance, provides an overview, and lays out some good practices and recent developments of HumOSCM. Better scholarship and practice of HumOSCM will contribute to solving grand challenges as conveyed in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Political Ideologies in the Middle East and North Africa
Authors: Browers Michaelle
Published: December 2020

This review of research on political ideologies in the Middle East and North Africa analyzes both historical connections among ideological traditions and the conceptual particularities of and variations among the development of some of the main ideologies in the region over time. The author critically engages some of the predominant narratives about the course of ideological thinking in the region, including varying accounts about its onset and sources and debates over whether it has ended and, if so, the character of what has followed. Methods proposed for studying regional ideologies and scholarship that employs conceptions of non-ideological movements and ideologies as dispositions or everyday practices are also examined.
Labor Migration to the Persian Gulf Monarchies
Authors: Babar Zahra R.
Published: December 2020

The six oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf together form one of the most concentrated global sites of international labor migration, with some of the highest densities of non-citizens to citizens seen anywhere in the world. A somewhat unique feature of the region is that while it hosts millions of migrants, it allows almost no access to permanent settlement. Gulf states have hosted large cohorts of migrants for more than half a century but have done so without efforts toward formal integration through citizenship. Although labor migration as a phenomenon is both permanent and prominent, the Gulf states’ mechanism for governing migration systematically reinforces the temporariness and transience of their migrant populations.
LGBTQI Rights in the Middle East and North Africa
Authors: Tolino Serena
Published: December 2020

This chapter presents an overview of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, intersexual) rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, focusing in particular on three case studies: Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia. After a general introduction on LGBTQI rights in the MENA region, the chapter addresses the issue of Islamic law and homosexuality. It then focuses on anti-homosexuality laws in these three countries, their history and their implementation, showing how each country has a different approach to homosexuality. The Lebanese Penal Code, for example, has an article criminalizing “any sexual act against nature,” while the Tunisian Penal Code has an article criminalizing liwat (sodomy) and sihaq (tribadism). The Egyptian Penal Code does not criminalize specifically homosexuality. However, a law against “male prostitution” is applied to punish gay men. Finally, the chapter looks at LGBTQI organizations in these three countries.
The New Islamic State
Authors: Khosrokhavar Farhad
Published: December 2020

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.
Colonialism in the Region
Authors: LeVine Mark
Published: December 2020

This chapter offers a decolonial historical sociology of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), one focused on the historical as well as contemporary colonialities of power as a core discourse of governance across the region. After critiquing research grounded on subaltern and postcolonial studies for failing to capture the colonial dynamics operating in post-independence political systems across the MENA, the author explores how Timothy Mitchell’s seminal analysis of the state as an discursive effect of power relations, as well as the present-day relevance of the idea of ahl al-hall wa-l-‘aqd (“those who have binding authority”) in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, can together promote a more perceptive and illuminating discussion of the dynamics of political power across the region.
Strategies for Collecting Social Network Data
Authors: adams jimi , Santos Tatiane , Williams Venice Ng
Published: December 2020

This chapter provides an overview of social network data collection strategies. We begin by outlining the primary principles of sampling and measurement design, then describing how those combine into what is labeled the “boundary specification problem” for social network research. We accompany these definitions with examples of how these elements are applied across ego, partial, and complete network designs. Next, the chapter turns to the primary ways that network data have been evaluated, highlighting both the implications of those evaluations for their use in network analyses and various strategies for how the identified limitations can be leveraged for optimal data and analytic quality. The chapter concludes by addressing some of the ethical considerations that are unique to the gathering and analyses of social network data.
The Continued Relevance of Ego Network Data
Authors: Smith Jeffrey A.
Published: December 2020

Ego network data have a long history in the social sciences, acting as a bridge between traditional statistical techniques and network analysis. Ego network data provide personal network information, as the data are based on a sample of individuals. This chapter details the basic features of such data, describing the advantages, disadvantages, and potential applications of using ego network data. Ego network data remain a popular choice, despite the growing availability of full network data sources. This is in large part because ego network data are easy to collect but still provide a surprisingly large amount of network information. Ego network data are also quite flexible, with past work using the same basic data structure for widely different purposes. Given the ease of collection and the flexibility of use, there is every reason to believe that ego network data will continue to be a useful option for network scholars.
Case Studies in Network Community Detection
Authors: Shai Saray , Stanley Natalie , Granell Clara , Taylor Dane , Mucha Peter J.
Published: December 2020

Network communities typically correspond to cohesive subgraphs that contain a prevalence of edges within each subgraph and relatively few edges across boundaries between subgraphs. The development of community detection methods has occurred across disciplines, with numerous and varied algorithms proposed to find communities. As this chapter presents via several case studies, community detection is not just an end unto itself, but rather a step in the analysis of network data, which is then useful for furthering research in the disciplinary domain of interest. These case study examples arise from diverse applications, ranging from social and political science to neuroscience and genetics, and they have been chosen to demonstrate key aspects of community detection and to highlight that community detection, in practice, should be directed by the application at hand.
Modeling Network Dynamics
Authors: Schaefer David R. , Marcum Christopher Steven
Published: December 2020

Given that social networks are inherently dynamic phenomena, characterizing their structure, precursors, and consequences can be improved by methodologies that incorporate such dynamism. This chapter discusses several longitudinal network modeling approaches that seek to understand the process of network change, on one hand, and to predict future network states, on the other. These include the relational event model (REM), exponential random graph model (ERGM), and stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM). These models focus on different temporal resolutions and differentiate instantaneous events from relations with longer durations, among other distinctions. The chapter identifies commonalities and unique features of each model, both conceptually and via an application to a longitudinal network dataset of dominance interactions within a herd of Eurasian red deer. Throughout, the chapter emphasizes each modeling framework’s assumptions, data requirements, and parameter and model interpretation.
Computational Social Science, Big Data, and Networks
Authors: Abrahao Bruno , Parigi Paolo
Published: December 2020

The emergence of Big data and a quantified social space has prompted the birth of a new science, computational social science (CSS), whose roots are founded in research aiming to describe social processes using computational models. Big data now fuels rapid advancements in the field, providing the basis for building models and algorithms of human behavior. New sources of massive amounts of data fundamentally reflect interactions, and, in this context, networks are intuitive abstractions to model our social life, especially that mediated by technology. The chapter introduces several examples of empirical and theoretical CSS research employing network analysis, machine learning and online experiments. It concludes with a list of challenges confronting CSS practitioners, in and outside of academia.
Demography and Networks
Authors: Merli M. Giovanna , Curran Sara R. , Le Barbenchon Claire
Published: December 2020

Demographers have incorporated social network concepts and measures into contemporary demographic research as determinants of demographic behaviors; they have invoked structural properties of networks to improve descriptions of hard-to-survey populations; they have relied on network data and measures to estimate population size and parameters under conditions of sparse information. This chapter illustrates how social network concepts and models are integral to the development of explanations of fertility and migration behaviors and of population-level characterizations of demographic systems. It highlights productive ways for advancing demographic research that rely on the adoption of a wider array of network data and tools to link structural characteristics of networks to the mechanisms involved in shaping demographic behavior, understand how demographic behaviors structure networks, and map social network structures in data collection for more efficient and cost-effective population enumeration and parameter estimation.
The Neuroscience of Social Networks
Authors: Parkinson Carolyn , Wheatley Thalia , Kleinbaum Adam M.
Published: December 2020

From its beginning, the study of networks has drawn on a variety of disciplinary perspectives. For much of its history, research on social networks has assumed that social networks behave like other similarly large, interconnected structures. However, the nodes that make up social networks—human beings—think and behave in flexible, complex, and often seemingly irrational ways. A deep understanding of social networks, therefore, requires not only analysis at the network level but also an understanding of how such networks shape and are shaped by the psychological processes of their members. In recent years, psychology has begun to make inroads into the network literature, but while neuroscience is an increasingly important area of psychology, research on the neuroscience of social networks remains scarce. This chapter reviews extant research pertaining to the neuroscience of social networks and sketches a research agenda to augment this already interdisciplinary field with insights from neuroscience.
Social Capital and Economic Sociology
Authors: McDonald Steve , Benton Richard A.
Published: December 2020

Social relationships are critical for understanding work and workplaces. Classical sociological research emphasizes the importance of worker solidarity, intragroup dynamics, and community relations as key determinants of economic outcomes. Contemporary scholarship on social networks and work tends to view interpersonal relationships as a resource that promotes the opportunities and productivity of workers. These resources are conceptualized as social capital and can be transmitted or conferred through interpersonal relationships or derived from abstract properties associated with network structure. This chapter describes the state of research on social capital and economic outcomes. Specifically, it summarizes theory and research on how access to and mobilization of social capital resources affect labor market and workplace processes and outcomes.
The International Trade Network
Authors: Zhou Min
Published: December 2020

This chapter discusses key contributions social network analysis (SNA) has made to knowledge about the international trade network (ITN). The existing literature applies SNA to the ITN in three distinct directions. The first line of inquiry attempts to substantiate the hierarchical structure of the ITN envisioned by world system theory. The second line of inquiry describes the topological structure and evolution of the ITN. The third line of inquiry employs various modeling techniques to explain why the ITN takes place as observed. The existing literature largely builds upon the gravity model borrowed from international economics but makes some improvements. It also makes use of estimating methods developed for network data such as the multivariate regression quadratic assignment procedure. In future research, instead of relying on the gravity model, it is promising to directly use such SNA models as the exponential random graph model to explain the ITN.
Criminal Networks
Authors: Smith Chris M. , Papachristos Andrew V.
Published: December 2020

Social network analysis identifies and explains criminal behavior and criminal groups as an outcome of social relationships that are structured beyond the characteristics of individuals engaged in crime. This chapter takes stock of research using social network analysis to study criminal organizations and groups of criminals, considers the innovations in measuring criminal groups, discusses the limitations of criminal network data, and classifies theoretical orientations used in the field. The chapter discusses the implications of criminal networks research on policy and intervention efforts. The chapter concludes with a proposal for future directions to advance inquiry into criminal networks.
Networks, Status, and Inequality
Authors: Martin John Levi , Murphy James P.
Published: December 2020

The notion that there is a single class of objects, “networks,” has been a great inspiration to new forms of structural thinking. Networks are considered to be a set of largely voluntary ties that often span organizational boundaries. Despite being divorced from formal hierarchies, they make possible other forms of differentiation, such as status. It is common for network data to be used to produce measures of the status of the nodes (individuals, organizations, cultural products, etc.) and the distribution of these statuses to describe a backdrop of inequality that may condition action or other processes. However, it is also important that network researchers understand the backdrop of various forms of potential inequality that may condition the collection of network data.
Historical Network Research
Authors: Erikson Emily , Feltham Eric
Published: December 2020

This chapter introduces the field of historical network research. Many historical outcomes of interest to social scientists are greatly affected by network processes. These include revolutions, segregation, increasing inequality, party polarization, market development, state centralization, and the rise and fall of institutions. The chapter considers the current state of historical network research across these and other outcomes by focusing on six different network phenomena: cross-cutting ties, informal social ties, associational and organizational networks, narrative networks, cohesion, and brokerage and centrality. Extant research has presented some contradictory findings about the relationoship of these findings to major social outomes, suggesting further specification is necessary. The goal of this chapter is to provide a synthesis that illuminates a pathway to maximize future contributions.
Biblical Prophecy and Popular Fantasy and Science Fiction
Authors: Garber David G.
Published: December 2020

Prophets and prophecy pervade American popular culture, particularly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. The history of reception of prophetic literature through a dominant Western Christian paradigm has described prophets as liminal characters who perform specific functions in the narrative, often as guides to the central protagonist (e.g., The Matrix Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings). Sagas such as A Song of Ice and Fire and Star Wars often treat prophecies as plot devices dependent on patterns of prediction and fulfillment. Sometimes, however, popular culture itself assumes the prophetic task of speaking truth to power and critiques aspects of the biblical tradition. Some episodes of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series, for example, critique the tendency to ascribe evil to a femme fatale in a manner similar to how feminist biblical critics have approached misogynistic traditions within the biblical prophets.
Scenes from the End of the World in American Popular Culture
Authors: Sheinfeld Shayna
Published: December 2020

This chapter examines the influence of biblical apocalyptic literature in popular culture. After exploring the problems of terminology and definitions, it examines four examples of apocalyptic in popular culture: two of these, Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, 1990) and the television series Supernatural (created by Eric Kripke, 2005–2020) draw directly from the biblical apocalypses, especially Revelation. They also change details from Revelation in order to better fit their agenda. Two additional examples are explored: the movie 2012 (2009) and Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy. Both focus on end-time scenarios that do not derive directly from the biblical apocalypses but instead use the flood narrative from Genesis 6–9 to highlight their eschatology. This chapter argues that the shift in popular culture from drawing directly on biblical apocalypses to drawing on other narratives—specifically the flood—derives from a turn toward environmental concerns in contemporary Western culture.
Heaven after the Loss of Heaven
Authors: Galbraith Deane
Published: December 2020

The chapter analyzes American pop-cultural constructions of heaven as attempts to deal with the symbolic loss of the traditional (biblical, Jewish, and Christian) conceptions of heaven. Accordingly, American pop-cultural heavens take the following forms: (1) heaven as the place for protagonists to “relearn the world” and so reestablish identity and achieve self-fulfillment following loss; (2) heaven as apotheosis of dominant ideologies such as the American Dream or neoconservative militarism, and so paradoxically both retaining and transforming our symbolic bonds with the ethereal realm; (3) heaven as intrinsically relational, a place of reunion with family and pets; (4) heaven made immanent on earth via near-death experiences, mind uploading, and virtual reality; (5) satirical and blasphemous heavens, combining resentment and anger at heaven’s irrevocable loss with an impossible desire for its renewal.
Genesis 1-11 in the Qatsi Film Trilogy
Authors: Robbins Gregory Allen
Published: December 2020

This chapter explores the ways cinema appropriates biblical motifs and transforms them, and how those motifs might be received and experienced by viewers. Insofar as it engages more fully film criticism and theory and inquires about audience reception, it reflects the so-called third wave of religion and film studies. While films have taken their inspiration from biblical narratives and characters since the medium’s invention, this contribution, following Adele Reinhartz’s lead, directs our attention to films whose biblical elements may be apparent only to those familiar with the Bible and its cultural interpretation. It focuses on Godfrey Reggio’s critically acclaimed Qatsi trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi), which represent cinematic transformations of the primeval history of Genesis 1–11. The ordering of the Cosmos, God’s declaration of its goodness, the command to the first humans to conquer and hold sway over it, human disobedience, the devolution of the created order into increasing violence, and the transgression of boundaries, including the building of the tower of Babel, are all echoed in these films. The films are transformations in the sense that they do not merely allude to the Genesis story or touch upon it in passing; they stay with the passages to which they allude, drawing out the implications of the text, wrestling with interpretive possibilities, offering visual metamorphoses that tantalize the modern imagination. While the character of the original story remains recognizably familiar, the cinematic vesture provides for dazzling transfigurations.
Television and the Bible in American Popular Culture
Authors: Collins Matthew A.
Published: December 2020

This essay examines the Bible in American television, focusing in particular on the twenty-first century. It suggests that there are three broad categories which may helpfully illustrate and encompass the diverse ways in which the Bible appears and/or is utilized: (1) educating about the Bible (e.g., documentaries); (2) dramatizing the Bible (renditions of biblical stories); and (3) drawing on the Bible (the impact or use of the Bible in other television programs). Examining each of these in turn, this essay highlights the prevalence of the Bible on television and thus in American popular culture more generally, as well as considering some of the myriad ways in which it has been read, used, and interpreted. In particular, it endeavors to show how the medium can function as a tool for both reflecting and promoting levels of biblical literacy among its audience.
The Bible in Pop and Rock Music
Authors: Gilmour Michael J.
Published: December 2020

The Bible is ubiquitous in pop and rock music of the 1960s through to the present. This is surprising given that the art forms subsumed under these catchall categories are typically oppositional in nature. They resist the status quo and are often antiestablishment in posture, and by their very nature inclined to push back against the conservative values and authoritarian tendencies of organized religion. This chapter examines reasons why biblical and religious language is so persistent a feature in the popular music of recent decades, emphasizing the collective memory of the biblical story among songwriters and their audiences and the fragmentary nature of these “readings” of sacred texts and traditions.
Nonbiblical Comics Engage the Bible
Authors: Coody Elizabeth Rae
Published: December 2020

This chapter offers a sketch of the general relationship between comics understood as “nonbiblical” (or not directly portraying biblical material) and the Bible. Although comics are still recovering from a Cold War–era reputation for being “lowbrow” in the United States, they are an important window into the reception of biblical material. Comics that treat near-biblical material in particular are an intriguing area for study. They offer a set of visual languages whose translation and evaluation give insight into the text of the Bible and its interpretation. Attention to the visual can yield suggestive insights in a traditionally textual field of study. This chapter introduces the concept of the Bible as an icon and gives a brief demonstration of the use of a particular set of closely related but nonetheless nonbiblical comics to reflect on biblical characters, and concludes by offering questions that might benefit from further study of these texts.
The Book of Jonah in Graphic Novel Adaptations of the Bible
Authors: Elliott Scott S.
Published: December 2020

This chapter defines graphic Bibles in relation to comics and graphic novels, identifying key aspects that impact the reader’s experience of the biblical material. Graphic Bibles are adaptations of biblical material that reflect a form of visual narratology. Through a comparative analysis of how four graphic Bibles (Testament, The Manga Bible, The Action Bible, and The Lion Comic Book Hero Bible) treat the story of Jonah, the chapter illustrates certain trends among graphic adaptations of the Bible. In every instance, whether or to what extent something is gained or lost in these productions vis-à-vis the biblical source material depends largely on one’s underlying perceptions of what sort of text the Bible is in the first place.
The Material Dimension of the Bible from Print to Digital Text
Authors: Rakow Katja
Published: December 2020

The chapter addresses the material dimension of the Bible in the discourse and practice of evangelical and Pentecostal Christians. According to surveys commissioned by the American Bible Society, announcements from big Bible publishers, and my own observations among contemporary evangelical and Pentecostal Christians in America, digital Bibles and Bible apps are on the rise. The transition from print culture to digital culture has not gone uncontested, and the discussions among Christians about the appropriateness of digital Bible media for religious practices points toward a contestation of the materiality of the medium through which God’s Word, and thereby God, is made present to religious practitioners. Thus the first part of the chapter introduces the frame of material culture studies and the approach to materiality in the study of religion. The second part discusses an analytic model suggested by the material religion scholar David Morgan along which a material analysis of religious objects should be developed. It will subsequently be applied to explore the relation between the Bible and its concrete materiality with a comparative focus on print and digital versions of the Bible.
Publishing in Bible and American Popular Culture
Authors: Seesengood Robert Paul
Published: December 2020

This essay is an examination of scholarship on the Bible and (American) popular culture. It reviews the history and assumptions of cultural studies and maps how this body of work influenced biblical scholarship after 1990. It surveys an array of examples of scholarship on the Bible and popular culture and concludes with some suggestions for future work. Specifically, this essay asks the following: How has interest in Bible and popular culture affected academic publishing? How did these trends emerge, and what assumptions prompt them? What new journals or series or reference works have appeared that are specifically devoted to this broad topic, and what are some ways that the Bible and popular culture have been treated therein?
The Biblical Theme of Covenant and American Popular Culture from Colonial Times to Comic Books
Authors: Clark Terry R.
Published: December 2020

American civil religion incorporates a nostalgic version of biblical Israel’s covenant with their patron deity, Yahweh, imagining the United States as a new Israel. This new myth reflects early Puritan hope for a new foray into a new wilderness of promise, while also promoting a romantic notion of the providential founding of the United States, national innocence, and national purpose, upholding an ideal of pure democracy and divine favor for establishing it universally. This form of Christian nationalism has a tendency toward a new form of imperialism in the modern era that is heavily supported (at least subconsciously) by a vast array of popular culture products. Yet some pop culture media (including comic books) occasionally call into question the concept of human beings living in a covenant relationship with a divine creator, as well as the validity of America’s status as a divinely chosen and divinely guided nation.
Crucifixions, Cosplay, and Participatory Fan Cultures
Authors: Clanton Dan W.
Published: December 2020

This chapter analyzes the bodily self-mortification practices (e.g., flagellation, crucifixion) of some Christians in the Philippines during Holy Week by comparing and contrasting them with a range of practices centered around cosplay (especially “enacted cosplay”) performed by some members of participatory fan cultures in America. The phenomena have multiple points of overlap, including the reenactment of a fictional or mythic text via costume and/or bodily modification in the hopes of replicating or imitating the prized values, behaviors, and actions embodied by a specific character within that text for the purposes of individual benefit and communal good. The chapter ends by considering the value of such a comparison vis-à-vis the academic study of religion.
Queen Esther Imagined as a Disney Princess
Authors: Low Katherine B.
Published: December 2020

This chapter applies a Disney princess mythology to depictions of Esther in biblical fiction. Five novels from female Christian authors are discussed to reveal how the popularity of the Disney princess franchise impacts the ways the authors impart values to the biblical story of Esther. The fictional accounts diverge from the Bible by creating an older female antagonist who attempts to thwart Esther’s happiness and determine that the Queen of Persia lives “happily ever after.” To contrast with the Christian sources that romanticize her marriage, the chapter concludes with popular ways Jewish communities engage Esther in light of Purim festivities and celebrations of Jewish survival.
Ezekiel and Israelite Literary Traditions
Authors: Callender Dexter E.
Published: December 2020

This chapter argues, following Pickering’s notion of material agency, that literary devices are material agents, with which humans collaborate. This accords with the traditum–traditio distinction employed by Fishbane, a dialectic in which tradents seek to appropriate divine authority and power in managing the vital significance of tradition. The chapter applies this model initially to Ezekiel’s image of “not good” laws given by Yahweh, suggesting that the prophet and his editors present these laws as emblematic of an ongoing dialectic they perceived in the management of the Israelite traditum, the community’s complement of devices for living successfully. The chapter argues that the array of scholarly interpretations of the laws supports this assessment and provides an optic for considering the relationship of the entire book to the Israelite traditum and the ways scholarship has engaged it. These include questions regarding non-native ‘foreign’ elements; genre and design features; literary variants; and the adaptation of existing material.
How States Fund Education
Authors: Srikanth Ajay , Atzbi Michael , Baker Bruce D. , Weber Mark
Published: December 2020

In the United States, the vast majority of funding for K–12 education is provided through state and local governments to school districts. Throughout history, school districts have remained highly segregated both by income/wealth and by race, leading to reduced levels of funding available for higher need districts compared to wealthier districts. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze funding disparities within states and to determine differences between states with respect to funding equity. First, the chapter begins with a discussion of the sources of revenue for education at the state and local levels. Second, it explains the purpose and design of state aid formulas to reduce funding disparities between districts. Third, using data from the School Finance Indicators Database, the chapter calculates funding effort and progressivity indices for each state. Fourth, it provides case studies on two states with more progressive and less progressive funding, New Jersey and Illinois. Finally, the chapter concludes with policy recommendations on how states can improve their school finance systems to provide adequate levels of funding for higher need districts.
Fraud and Abuse Law in the United States
Authors: Krause Joan H.
Published: December 2020

This chapter focuses on healthcare fraud, which remains a significant problem in the United States despite years of increased fraud enforcement. It describes the US federal government's anti–fraud activities, which include expanding the range and severity of laws targeting healthcare fraud. It also points out the role played by the United States' lack of a centralized, universal program of health insurance, which causes healthcare to be paid for by a variety of public, private, and hybrid sources. This chapter mentions the strategy of capitation as the strictest mechanism for managing care, in which a primary care physician receives a fixed per–patient payment in return for meeting the patient's healthcare needs during a set period of time. It also looks at changes made to Medicare reimbursement under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that reward providers for the “value” rather than the volume of services provided.
Reimagining Intersectionality and Social Exclusion in South Africa
Authors: Kubeka Khosi M. , Rama Sharmla
Published: December 2020

Combining the theories of intersectionality and social exclusion holds the potential for structural and nuanced interpretations of the workings of power, taking systemic issues seriously but interpreting them though social relations that appear in local contexts. An intersectional analysis of social exclusion demonstrates to what extent multiple axes of social division—be they race, age, gender, class, disability or citizenship—intersect to result in unequal and disparate experiences for groups of youth spatially located in particular communities and neighborhoods. A common reference point is therefore power and how it manifests at the intersection of the local and global. A South African case study is used to explore the subjective measures and qualitative experiences of intersectionality and social exclusion further. The unique ways that language intersects with space, neighborhood, and race in the South African context, enables opportunities in education and the labor market, with profound implications for forms of social exclusion.
Mapping Social Change through Youth Perspectives on Homosexuality in India
Authors: D’silva Keshia
Published: December 2020

Social representations theory (SRT) is considered a theory of social change, accounting for democratic transformations in knowledge. However, its applicability in the Global South, where there is a long history of subjugation, has not been sufficiently explored. This essay integrates the contributions of postcolonial theorists with the tools of SRT to track changes in knowledge structures among Southern youth. In doing so, it shows the limits imposed by an enduring colonial legacy and modern cultural imperialism on Southern youths’ ability to challenge hegemonic representations on their own terms. This is further illustrated by a case study on youth perspectives on homosexuality in India which utilizes data from interviews conducted in Bengaluru with three generations of middle-class families representing India’s three major religions. While the youth accepted homosexuality, elders displayed their resistance. Yet tolerance was perceived as a Western import, revealing an East-West divide in understandings of homosexuality.
Social Movements, Parties, and Political Cleavages in Morocco: A Religious Divide?
Authors: Lawrence Adria
Published: December 2020

The primary political cleavage in predominantly Muslim countries often appears to reflect an Islamist-secular divide. This chapter considers cleavages in electoral authoritarian regimes. It argues that, in this setting, the Islamist-secular cleavage is neither as divisive nor as important as it seems to be. It makes three broad claims. First, it argues that ideology—whether secular or religious—matters less than the stance an opposition group takes toward the ruling regime. The primary political question is not whether religion should guide politics, but whether to adopt a more cooperative or confrontational approach to the regime. Second, this analysis stresses the need to consider both formal political parties and social movement organizations (SMOs) when analyzing cleavages under electoral authoritarianism. The most critical actors are typically opposition SMOs, not political parties who participate in authoritarian electoral institutions. Including both allows us to see the limited importance of ideology in authoritarian politics. Third, this chapter suggests that opposition groups do not need to choose between religious and secular frames, but can incorporate elements of both. In a predominantly Muslim society, secular organizations may justify and propose policies on religious grounds, and Islamist groups can support secular aims. Religious and secular frames are not mutually exclusive alternatives. This chapter draws on the history of politics in Morocco to illustrate these claims.
Comparison within Multi-Level Polities and Governance Regimes
Authors: Ziller Jacques
Published: December 2020

Administrative law comparison plays a specific institutional role in the framework of the League of Nations/United Nations (UN) on the one side and in the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) on the other. Further enquiry into the methodologies used might show how comparison in the EU framework is developing in the direction of H Patrick Glenn’s proposals of a new aim for comparative law. The use of comparative law methodology remains, generally speaking, rather weak in the framework of global governmental organizations, even in international administrative tribunals. It is, on the contrary, quite developed in the framework of the Council of Europe, with limitations due to the intergovernmental nature of the organization. In the framework of the EU, administrative law comparison has had a paramount role since the 1950s in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and is constantly developing in legislation and rule-making.
Negotiating Language Barriers
Authors: Chiti Edoardo
Published: December 2020

This chapter approaches the issue of language barriers within the field of comparative administrative law. It first presents an outlook of the state of the art to give a sense of perspective on an ongoing comparative administrative law (CAL) discussion, with a view to providing the basis for further research in the field. The chapter next argues that the existing framework may be enriched by developing a further approach to the language issue. Such an approach emphasizes the cultural dimension of language barriers. Moreover, it is potentially functional to the maturation of CAL studies in a time of intense change and transformation of administrative law. Here, the chapter attempts to point to a potentially fruitful direction for future research, with a view to strengthening the role that CAL scholarship may play in the study of administrative law in transition.
Comparative Administrative Law and Public Administration
Authors: Bertelli Anthony Michael , Cece Fiona
Published: December 2020

This chapter explores, critically and systematically, contemporary public administration scholarship as it pertains to national administrative law. It aims to understand how contemporary public administration scholarship thinks about administrative law. The ‘bureau-centric’ studies reviewed here focus on the interaction of government agencies with politicians as well as with organized and unorganized constituencies. The chapter’s systematic literature review assesses the current distribution of this bureau-centric literature in leading international public administration outlets, learning four things from the exercise. First, the role of administrative law is to constrain particularistic behaviour of administrative officials as they interact with organized constituencies. Second, these studies tend to view the role of administrative law as shifting towards the promotion of a kind of pluralism as administrative officials interact with unorganized constituencies. Third, while the bureau-centric literature is robust within the confines of particular national administrative law systems, comparative studies are entirely absent from the important outlets surveyed. Fourth, the American case dominates the literature in leading international public administration outlets. The chapter concludes with an agenda for future research.
Comparative Administrative Law
Authors: Lindquist Stefanie A. , Searle David M.
Published: December 2020

This chapter concerns positive political theory (PPT) within the context of comparative administrative law. In general, PPT posits that governmental actors—whether elected or appointed—have preferences over policy outcomes, respond rationally to incentives produced within their political and institutional environments, and anticipate the actions and preferences of other influential players in the policy-making game. In this light, the chapter first describes the application of PPT to the delegation of discretionary power to administrative agencies in the US. It then reviews the literature that has extended PPT to understand the design and performance of administrative agencies in other governmental systems and through comparative analysis, including in parliamentary and authoritarian governments. Lastly, the chapter addresses issues of corruption and transparency in government, and concludes with recommendations regarding fruitful avenues for future research.
Comparative Administrative Law and Economics
Authors: Garoupa Nuno , Amaral-Garcia Sofia
Published: December 2020

This chapter provides a rational choice theory to explain why features of administrative law vary across jurisdictions. It relates these varying features of administrative law to economic performance (as measured by macroeconomic variables or more specific variables such as rule of law, judicial effectiveness, governance indicators, or quality of legal institutions). The chapter also reveals a normative dimension related to the inevitable question of which arrangements or institutions produce better results. To that end, it reviews the current economic models of administrative adjudication. The chapter next takes a look at some more specific topics: specialized agencies, specialized courts, and state liability. Finally, it looks at the role of the interaction between administrative and constitutional law as well as rule-making and other types of executive policy-making.
Diffusion, Reception, and Transplantation
Authors: Prado Mariana Mota
Published: December 2020

This chapter looks at how diffusion, reception, and transplantation offer a window into change promoted by legal transfers. Legal systems interact and such contact may sometimes trigger reforms. Analyzing these cross-fertilization processes allows one to understand mechanisms that destabilize legal systems, identify which actors play a role in the process, and compare and contrast how each system reacts to novel legal arrangements. But there are important disciplinary divides in the use of these concepts. The chapter thus illustrates how comparative administrative law, as a nascent field, has resorted to these concepts without any systematic reflection on whether and how to use them. It calls for a clear determination of the boundaries and goals of comparative administrative law, as this could help scholars assess the suitability of these conceptual tools.
Accountability
Authors: Psygkas Athanasios
Published: December 2020

Key debates in administrative law often play out within the contours of ‘accountability’. This chapter suggests that the concept of accountability is normatively and analytically useful in comparative administrative law, provided that there is clarity as to the level of abstraction at which the term is used. The chapter proposes a three-tier approach to the concept of accountability—accountability as a political ideal (‘level 1 accountability’), as a specific set of normative commitments (‘level 2 accountability’), and as an empirical phenomenon (‘level 3 accountability’). It argues that the usefulness (and contestability) of comparative approaches will vary as one moves from one tier to the next. Next, it discusses three case studies that illustrate specific institutional manifestations of accountability and demonstrate how the operation of accountability differ based on the background constitutional structure. Finally, the chapter presents certain key challenges to accountability that implicate different tiers of accountability.
National Executives and Bureaucracies
Authors: Ruffert Matthias
Published: December 2020

This chapter starts from the ‘classical’ divide between the political and non-political and presents how national administrative organization is described and compared in its hierarchical and independent emanations. Both hierarchy and independence are conceived as ideal-types of the relationship between the political executive and bureaucracies and within bureaucracies. The chapter then shows how this ideal developed and is applied in some administrative jurisdictions, and how it carries elements of unitary thinking and centralization into these jurisdictions. It also addresses the legitimacy issues of independence, in particular with respect to democratic legitimacy and accountability. In its conclusions, the chapter tries to identify elements of comparison that may be helpful for the mutual understanding of administrative legal systems but also for building common administrative units such as in the EU.