bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Education Federalism
Authors: Robinson Kimberly Jenkins
Published: April 2020

Education federalism in the United States promotes state and local authority over education and a limited federal role. This approach to education federalism often serves as an influential yet underappreciated influence on education law and policy. This chapter explores how education federalism in the United States has evolved over time, its strengths and drawbacks, as well as how it has hindered efforts to advance equal educational opportunity. It argues that to achieve the nation’s education aims, education federalism must be restructured to embrace a more efficacious and efficient allocation of authority of education that embraces the policymaking strengths of each level of government while ensuring that all levels of government aim to achieve equitable access to an excellent education. The chapter proposes how to restructure education federalism to support a partnership between federal, state, and local governments to achieve equitable access to an excellent education. It also explains how this new approach to education federal could guide the United States toward a more impactful reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The Complexities of Using Mobiles at Work
Authors: Stephens Keri K.
Published: April 2020

Mobile devices have diffused into work by transitioning from being organizational assets to personal communication tools. This chapter examines the perceptions and practices of diverse types of workers, located around the globe, and reveals the often-hidden complexities surrounding mobile use at work. People can use their mobiles to be productive and connected on the job, but they also face challenges. The shift in control over communication means that organizations have reacted by creating bring-your-own-device-to-work policies, banning their employees from using personal mobiles, and practically forcing workers to provide their own devices and be accessible 24/7. Along the way, workers have had to negotiate with co-workers, managers, clients, friends, strangers, and family concerning how and when they use their mobiles. As they try to build bridges between work and personal life, struggles with self-management and temporal mismatches in the form of reachability can emerge.
Self-(Re)presentation in Mobile Communication Practices
Authors: Lasén Amparo
Published: April 2020

Mobile communication entails multiple and multimedia ways of representing the self: of depicting, performing, and making oneself present, to ourselves and to our significant ones, as well as to different connected audiences. This chapter explores how these complex choreographic performances of presentation–representation–embodiment, are the effect of a shared agency between people and mobile media, involving intentions, desires, habits, collective norms and expectations, written and non-written rules, as well as the affordances and constraints of the different digital infrastructures, from mobile devices to apps and platforms, with their commercial and technical requirements. Special attention is given to the choreographic aspect of these performances, for instance, how gender and race are performed in mobile-mediated forms of self-(re)presentation, with aesthetic and ethical implications. These choreographies are forms of current digital labor, where the production of images and visibilities prevails, in mobile practices such as the taking and sharing of selfies and the uses and practices around mobile apps.
Mobile Art
Authors: Hjorth Larissa
Published: April 2020

This chapter surveys the multiple ways in which mobile media art has been defined by outlining some of the ways in which the field has been defined as it moves from media arts and hybrid reality to a more holistic contemporary art practice. It is then considered how mobile art is heralding ways in which to rethink the relationship between the quotidian, the social, and the politics of data. Finally, the chapter reflects on movements by artists (such as Cindy Sherman) to social mobile media as a site for critique and questioning of contemporary culture and everyday life.
Talking, Reading, and Writing on Smartphones
Authors: Baron Naomi S.
Published: April 2020

Mobile phones have increasingly been transformed from speaking technologies to devices for reading and writing. Cost helped drive this shift since written short messages were historically less expensive than voice calls. A second factor was communication preference for texting over talking, especially among younger users. With ready Internet access on smartphones, reading habits began shifting as well. Social networking messages, along with other short texts such as weather reports or news headlines, made for obvious reading material, as did the plethora of longer written documents available online. The e-book revolution enabled readers to retrieve entire books on their phones. Mobile phones are also writing platforms. Developments in hardware and software dramatically simplified the input process. Instead of multi-taps, users now rely on virtual keyboards for easy access not only to alphanumeric characters and punctuation marks but also to sophisticated predictive texting and autocorrection. Interestingly, while technically we are writing when inputting text on smartphones, many users do not perceive such input as real “writing”—a term they reserve for writing by hand or with a computer. Additional writing issues include norms regarding so-called textisms, along with the role of culture in shaping attitudes regarding linguistic correctness. Many organizations are discontinuing voicemail systems in favor of written messaging. At the same time, voice over Internet protocols continue to grow, and small voice-activated social robots designed for home use are proliferating. The chapter closes by asking what the spoken–written balance on smartphones might look like in the future.
The Message Is the Medium
Authors: Aguado Juan Miguel , Martínez Inmaculada J.
Published: April 2020

In the early development of the smartphone ecosystem, Mobile Instant Messaging applications were to play a complementary role to that of the Short Message Service. The evolution of mobile platforms, however, has pushed them far beyond the limits of individual single-message functionalities. Thanks to their unprecedented adoption, chat apps have contributed to changing the fabric of everyday mobile-mediated interactions. They also play a crucial role in the expansion strategy of social media–related mobile ecosystem players. The functional evolution of chat apps and their social adoption is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, with communicational, symbolic, economic, and social-structural implications. On the basis of the limited research literature and reports on chat apps in the mobile communication environment, this chapter examines the recent evolution of mobile messaging apps in a fivefold dimension that marks out different but complementary research fields: (1) the affordances derived from their growing functional complexity, (2) the impact of this functional diversification in mobile-mediated social interaction dynamics, (3) the increasing interest of chat apps as a flow for media and marketing communications, (4) their growing importance in the mobile platform ecosystem, and (5) the critical approach to mobile instant messaging as a new form of affect-based free labor.
Urban Mobility in Context
Authors: de Souza e Silva Adriana , Damasceno Cristiane S. , de Cunto Bueno Daniela , Grandinetti Justin
Published: April 2020

The interaction between transportation systems, Internet connectivity, and location-aware mobile applications is increasingly relevant to urban mobility. Location-based apps not only assist individuals in more efficient movement through urban spaces but also impact the way individuals experience the city. More recently, location-based taxi-hailing apps are also a part of ongoing transformations in urban mobility. These apps are increasingly popular in the United States, and this trend is spreading to countries outside the Global North. While taxi-hailing apps have been studied in the context of infrastructure and planning, law, and regulations, little scholarship exists on the daily uses of these apps and how they are embedded within a context of ongoing surveillance, politics of mobility, and digital literacy. This chapter examines the impact of location-based ride-hailing applications on daily urban mobility in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, one of the largest cities in the Global South. Through a qualitative study including taxi drivers and passengers who use location-based taxi-hailing apps, we investigate how a group of passengers and drivers in Rio de Janeiro integrates ride-hailing apps into their daily routines and how these apps influence mobility within the city. The findings suggest that while location-based services have normally been seen as a threat to privacy, in this group’s case they are a source of security. Furthermore, while taxi-hailing apps were overwhelmingly perceived by the participants as adding convenience to their daily lives, they are still embedded into a politics of mobility, invisibility, surveillance, data collection, and control that is often invisible to passengers and drivers alike.
Autonomous Vehicles in the Mobility System
Authors: von Pape Thilo
Published: April 2020

This chapter discusses how autonomous vehicles (AVs) may interact with our evolving mobility system and what they mean for mobile communication research. It juxtaposes a conceptualization of AVs as manifestations of automation and artificial intelligence with an analysis of our mobility system as a historically grown hybrid of communication and transportation technologies. Since the emergence of railroad and telegraph, this system has evolved on two layers: an underlying infrastructure to power and coordinate the movements of objects, people, and ideas in industrially scaled speeds, volumes, and complexity and an interface to seamlessly access this infrastructure and control it. AVs are poised to further enhance the seamlessness which mobile phones and cars already lent to mobility. But in assuming increasingly sophisticated control tasks, AVs also disrupt an established shift toward individual control, demanding new interfaces to enable higher levels of individual and collective control over the mobility infrastructure.
Aggression Through Mobile Communication
Authors: Walrave Michel , Van Ouytsel Joris , Ponnet Koen
Published: April 2020

Both adolescents and adults use mobile applications to engage in conversations, expand their social networks, and, for some, engage in romantic relationships. While mobile applications offer a range of opportunities for maintaining and expanding one’s social circle, some users are confronted with forms of aggression. This chapter reviews the scientific knowledge on two forms of aggressive behavior through mobile technology within interpersonal relationships: cyberbullying and cyber dating abuse. First, the chapter focuses on cyberbullying, defined as intentional acts through digital media to hurt, socially isolate, or cause distress to a victim, which may occur repeatedly or result in repeated harm by continued exposure. The different types, prevalence, as well as predictors and consequences of cyberbullying are analyzed. Second, the authors review research on what stimulates bystanders to help a victim or, on the contrary, join in cyberbullying. Forms of aggression through digital media may occur not only among friends or peers but also within romantic relationships. The third part of the chapter is therefore devoted to the types, motives, and consequences of cyber dating abuse: digital behaviors that occur to control, stalk, harass, or abuse one’s dating partner. Next to emotional forms of abuse (such as threatening or insulting one’s partner), some forms of cyber abuse are sexual (such as pressuring a partner to engage in sexting). To offer a deeper understanding of these digital forms of dating abuse, the contextual and relational factors of the behavior are discussed.
Mobile Communication to Social Robotics
Authors: Katz James E. , Mays Kate K.
Published: April 2020

This chapter analyzes structural changes arising from both economy‐wide and life course-long applications of mobile communication technology. These changes trickle through all sectors of society, including the domestic sphere, which arguably has been most profoundly affected by it. The chapter highlights some ways in which people have used the mobile phone and its attendant technologies (e.g., social media) to emotional ends and speculates on what may be forthcoming as socially intelligent devices proliferate in people’s everyday lives and relationships. The authors discuss recent developments and delineate controversies concerning the appropriate scope of private and public interaction, data collection, and interpersonal services. They also examine psychological and sociological phenomena arising from their use in human life and social interactions. Finally, the authors explore the longer-term implications of these changes.
Digital Childhood?
Authors: Stoilova Mariya , Livingstone Sonia , Mascheroni Giovanna
Published: April 2020

Mobile devices play a growing role in the everyday lives of children around the world, prompting important questions about their effects on childhood experiences. Exploring the recent global trends in children’s use of smartphone devices, the authors examine the reconfiguring of children’s communicative practices and cultures of connectivity, documenting the opportunities and risks that smartphone technology affords. Throughout the chapter the authors challenge the notion of “digital childhoods,” drawing on the most reliable research on children and smartphones including findings from Global Kids Online, which suggest that digital divides intersect with existing social inequalities, exacerbating the barriers for less privileged children. This raises further questions about the long-term consequences for children’s development, rights, and future access to opportunities and resources.
Climate Change Ethics and the Problem of End-State Solutions
Authors: Brooks Thom
Published: April 2020

How best to response to climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing us all. Proposed solutions come in one of two approaches. The first is conservationist, seeking to minimize these effects by reducing, if not eliminating, them by bringing climate change to a stop. The second is focused specifically on adaptation mostly through technological advances to help us endure climate change by minimizing its effects. The dilemma for these proposed solutions is in their aim of being a solution to the problems that climate change brings. In short, they mistake the kind of challenge that climate change presents us. This is what I call the problem of “end-state” solutions. It is where we attempt to bring to an end a circumstance that might be influenced positively or otherwise by our activities, but beyond our full control. So to claim a so-called “solution” to such an ever-changing problem could make it better or worse without concluding it. If climate change is this kind of problem—and I will claim it is—then end-state “solutions” can be no more than a band-aid and the nature of our challenge is different, requiring an alternative future strategy. This chapter will set out how the problem of climate change is understood through attempted solutions that do not succeed. It concludes with some ideas about why this matters and the arising implications for how we should think about climate change justice beyond the false prism of end-state solutions.
The Human Right to Democracy and the Pursuit of Global Justice
Authors: Gilabert Pablo
Published: April 2020

This chapter addresses two interconnected questions about human rights and the pursuit of global justice: Is there a human right to democracy? How does the achievement of human rights, including the human right to democracy, contribute to the pursuit of global justice? The chapter answers the first question in the affirmative. It identifies three reasons for favoring democracy and explores the significance of those reasons for defending it as a human right. It answers important worries that acknowledging a human right to democracy would lead to intolerance and lack of respect for peoples’ self-determination, exaggerate the importance of democracy for securing other rights, generalize institutional arrangements that only work in some contexts, and tie human rights to specific ideas of freedom and equality that do not have the same universal appeal and urgency. Regarding the second question, the chapter distinguishes between basic and non-basic global justice and argues that democracy is significant for both. It claims that the fulfillment of human rights constitutes basic global justice, explains how a human right to democracy has significance for the legitimacy of international besides domestic institutions, and shows how forms of global democracy and the exploration of cosmopolitan and humanist commitments underlying human rights may enable and motivate the pursuit of non-basic demands of global justice (such as those concerning socioeconomic equality). The key claim in the chapter is that the fulfillment of the human right to democratic political empowerment is crucial for the pursuit of global justice.
Personal Responsibility and Global Injustice
Authors: Tan Kok-Chor
Published: April 2020

On what is called the “institutional approach” to justice, the primary duty that justice agents have in cases where just institutional arrangements are lacking is that of doing their part to help establish these arrangements. This special institutional focus in the context of institutional injustice can appear misdirected and insufficiently demanding. It is misdirected, according to some critics, because it wrongly fixates on means (i.e. institutional mechanisms) rather than ends (i.e. just outcomes); and it seems overly lax because it limits duties of justice to creating better institutions. With global injustice as its setting, this chapter tries to assuage these concerns.
Just Global Health
Authors: Tasioulas John , Vayena Effy
Published: April 2020

This chapter offers an integrated account of two strands of global health justice: health-related human rights and health-related common goods. After sketching a general understanding of the nature of human rights, it proceeds to explain both how individual human rights are to be individuated and the content of their associated obligations specified. With respect to both issues, the human right to health is taken as the primary illustration. It is argued that (1) the individuation of the right to health is fixed by reference to the subject matter of its corresponding obligations, and not by the interests it serves, and (2) the specification of the content of that right must be properly responsive to thresholds of possibility and burden. The chapter concludes by insisting that human rights cannot constitute the whole of global health justice and that, in addition, other considerations—including the promotion of health-related global public goods—should also shape such policy. Moreover, the relationship between human rights and common goods should not be conceived as mutually exclusive. On the contrary, there sometimes exists an individual right to some aspect of a common good, including a right to benefit from health-related common goods such as programs for securing herd immunity from diphtheria.
The Image and Likeness of God
Authors: Arblaster John
Published: April 2020

This chapter examines the subject of humanity as created in the image and likeness of God, a central theme in the Christian mystical tradition. Indeed, the imago Dei forms the foundation of much if not all Christian theological anthropology, and questions of the ‘nature’ and ‘structure’ of the human person are evidently central to questions of the mystical encounter between human persons and God. This chapter first surveys the scriptural background of the imago Dei in both Genesis and the New Testament and then provides a brief survey of current systematic-theological and historical-theological approaches. After providing some background to patristic imago Dei theologies in both the East and West, the chapter focuses in-depth on three lesser-known medieval authors: John of Fécamp, William of St Thierry, and John of Ruusbroec, in an attempt to highlight the rich variation and theological sophistication of their mystical anthropologies.
Theological Epistemology and Apophasis
Authors: O'Regan Cyril
Published: April 2020

This chapter examines the epistemology of mystical theology. It begins with the ‘intellectualist’ line of thinking from Pseudo-Dionysius to Meister Eckhart, paying close attention both to the ‘protocols’ which are required to speak of God both as the ground of our language, beyond naming, and as one who can really be experienced. These epistemological protocols can also be identified in Augustine, and later in the more ‘affective’ line of mystical theology from Bernard of Clairvaux to Bonaventure, though in a rather different form. This renders mystical theology quite different from a quest for Jamesian ‘peak’ experiences and knowledge of them; rather, it entails disciplines of formation, involving regimes of discourse and practice, to learn a language and a subjectivity enabling a more intense relation with God.
The Mystical—or What Theology can Show
Authors: Marion Jean-Luc
Published: April 2020

Access to the ‘notion’ of ‘the mystical’ is treated by many as problematic in an age of scepticism. For a tradition that reverences sacred mystery, and for a discipline like theology—that processes both from and toward this mystery—this scepticism issues an epistemological challenge to the credibility, even the possibility of the discipline itself. In a manner not unlike phenomenology, while unable to speak of the ineffable, theology can reveal that which shows itself whilst nevertheless remaining unsayable. While there are myriad reasons why these disciplines cannot simply be collapsed, there is nevertheless a kind of mutual relationship possible between phenomenology and mystical theology, in which both are increasingly opened to the phenomenality of the mystical, perhaps even to the point of redefining our notions of mystery.
The Trinity
Authors: Van Nieuwenhove Rik , Crozier William
Published: April 2020

This chapter considers mystical theology as a resource for theology of the Trinity today. It consists of two parts. The first part draws mainly on the Trinitarian theology of St Bonaventure to demonstrate that participation in the life of the Trinity is essential to begin to engage in theology of the Trinity: vision implies participation. The second part provides an example of how the writings of mystical theological authors, such as Hadewijch or Ruusbroec, can assist us in solving systematic theological problems. More particularly, we argue that Ruusbroec’s notion of regyratio (i.e. the Holy Spirit as the principle of the return of the divine Person into their shared unity) can circumvent the problem of ‘Trinitarian inversion’ (which refers to the problematic tension between accounts of the immanent processions, on the one hand, and the sequence of historical missions of the Son and Holy Spirit in the economic Trinity, on the other).
Creation and Revelation
Authors: Christie Douglas E.
Published: April 2020

The Christian mystical tradition gives expression to a varied, ambiguous, and shifting understanding of creation. The dialectical tension between kataphatic and apophatic mysticism frames this complex attitude towards creation. On the one hand, mystics regularly affirm the sacramental character of the created world, its capacity to reveal and make present the reality of God. Central to this theological intuition is the presence of the logos, the very principle of creation that also becomes the deep source of sacramental spiritual experience. On the other hand, mystics show deep respect for all that cannot be known, especially all that remains hidden under the shroud of loss and suffering. The image of the crucified Christ and Christ dead in the tomb is not only an emblem of salvation, but also a call to pause, in humility, before all that can never be known or understood of God. Creation reveals. But it also conceals.
The Genealogy of Mystical Traditions
Authors: McGinn Bernard
Published: April 2020

This chapter is designed as a broad road map of the development of Christian mystical theology down to the Quietist Controversy at the end of the seventeenth century and the triumph of the Enlightenment, which took a generally negative attitude toward the mystical element in Christianity. It follows the main genealogies, or historically coherent traditions of mystical theology, from the patristic genealogies of east and west, through the medieval genealogies (monastic, Franciscan, German, Flemish, French and Italian, English), concluding with the early modern genealogies (Protestant and Reformed Catholic, especially of Spain and France).
Satire, social media, and cultures of resistance
Authors: Haugerud Angelique , Ference Meghan , Mahoney Dillon J.
Published: April 2020

Retooled by social media and new communication technologies, the cultural politics of dissent in Kenya has become bolder and more open since the return of multi-party politics in the early 1990s. Tracing such changes, this chapter highlights lively domains of creative expression that disrupts political messages and unmasks political power in ways that upstage dominant news media. Satire, popular music, graffiti art, and cartoons capture rulers’ excesses and vices, as well as citizens’ desires for change. Political humor in post-1980s Kenya does not simply toy with power or inadvertently reinforce it. Instead, the Kenyan case affirms cultural ideologies of satire that value it as subversive or potentially liberatory.
Violence as an election strategy
Authors: Jenkins Sarah
Published: April 2020

Since the colonial and early Independence eras, violence has been used in Kenya as a strategy to manipulate the electoral process and to ensure victory in the polls. It has been employed, in both highly instrumental and more ad hoc ways, by actors at all levels of political agency. This chapter explores Kenya’s legacy of violent electoral politics, reflecting on the causes and motivations that underscore its use, and tracing its manifestations at key historical junctures from the colonial period to the present day. It suggests that Kenya’s susceptibility to violence during election periods is rooted in four interrelated factors: the neo-patrimonial ethnic logic of politics, which creates incentives to utilize violent tactics; the persistent narratives of ethnic territoriality, which serve to legitimize certain forms of violence; weak institutions which both enable and provoke various actors to utilize violence; and the diffusion of armed actors and an embedded culture of violence, which facilitates mobilization during electoral periods.
The protection and promotion of human-rights
Authors: Ichim Irina
Published: April 2020

This chapter explores developments in the protection of human-rights in Kenya post-2002 by examining three interconnected issues: changes in the social and political landscape and how these created or constrained opportunities for activism; changes in the relationship between the state and the human-rights sector, but also within the human-rights sector; and evolving patterns of (non-)state repression of activism. The chapter shows that, against the background of a complex historical experience, and with the help of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution and a reformed judiciary, the human-rights sector in Kenya has grown into a staunch and able defender of civic space in the face of recent government assaults. However, government propaganda and the sector’s institutionalization simultaneously coalesce to disconnect the sector from the public. Coupled with divisions between professional and grassroots defenders, this disconnect risks limiting the sector’s ability to build on the momentum presented by recent achievements.
Land rights and the rule of law
Authors: Manji Ambreena
Published: April 2020

Recent years have seen a proliferation of land laws in Kenya, but these efforts have failed to confront the material consequence of unequal access to land. The legal focus has been on the redistribution of bureaucratic power and institutional change. This can be explained by the dominance of a rule-of-law approach that relies on technocratic solutions to land problems, and which obscures more difficult questions of how to address growing inequality in access to land in the context of long-standing vested interests of powerful political and economic elites. At the same time, the courts have shown a marked reluctance to mediate on the institutional architecture of land administration. As a result, despite new legal frameworks, the prospects for land justice in modern Kenya remain poor.
The financial sector
Authors: Upadhyaya Radha , Totolo Edoardo
Published: April 2020

This chapter traces the evolution of the financial sector in Kenya over the last 10 years. While the rise of Equity Bank and M-Pesa—a mobile money, transfer, financing, and microfinancing service—has led to Kenya being viewed as a champion in the financial inclusion agenda, we show that the story of financial reform has been complex and at times contradictory. In the 1980s and 1990s, liberalization did not lead to the fruits expected in terms of savings and investment. More recent increases in both financial depth and financial inclusion have not led to a reduction in interest rate spreads or increased credit to key sectors of the economy. This chapter shows that debates concerning the best model of regulation of the financial sector and the key methods for regulating interest rate spreads are ongoing. The chapter also discusses the role of the banking sector in election financing, and argues that the patterns of wealth accumulation are more useful than level of liberalization of the banking in explaining the likelihood of opposition parties getting higher levels of finance for elections.
The rise of China in Kenya’s foreign relations
Authors: Makinda Samuel M.
Published: April 2020

In the past few decades, Kenya has benefitted considerably from its improved relations with China. Chinese investments in infrastructure, education, and ICT have opened up greater opportunities for development. Moreover, the availability of diverse and affordable goods has enabled many Kenyans to engage in more commercial activities. This economics-driven diplomacy has been shaped by Kenyan and Chinese political leaders, shifts in the structure of the international system after the Cold War, and the evolving interests of both countries. However, Kenya’s diplomacy is based on a weak knowledge base, as few Kenyan policy makers speak Mandarin and understand China’s diplomatic history. Moreover, China’s investment patterns, which differ from those of Kenya’s traditional Western partners, could negatively impact on Kenya’s commercial domination of eastern Africa. Thus, while Kenya–China relations have promoted some of Kenya’s policy objectives, they also contain the potential to undermine some of Kenya’s other long-range goals.
Nyanza
Authors: Asingo Patrick O.
Published: April 2020

Until 2010, Kenya comprised eight administrative units known as provinces. Nyanza was one of Kenya’s provinces, located on the Equator, around the shores of Lake Victoria. The largest ethnic group in the province, the Luo, traditionally featured a stateless, decentralized, segmentary lineage system, with neither a single overall leader nor a hereditary leadership system. Yet by the 1960s, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had welded Luos into a fervent and united support base. Moreover, when Jaramogi died in 1994, his son, Raila Odinga, took over Luo leadership. It is puzzling how Jaramogi—a mere carpenter’s son—and his son, Raila, successively managed to galvanize this segmentary society behind them. This chapter re-conceptualizes Odingaism as a philosophy, retraces its socio-cultural and political roots, and examines its influence on Luo politics. It also provides a short overview of the clan-based politics of the region’s second largest ethnic group, the Gusii, and considers the influence of devolution on the politics of Nyanza.
Eastern
Authors: Nzau Mumo
Published: April 2020

This chapter sheds light on the nature and dynamics of politics in the eastern region of Kenya. More specifically, it develops the notion of “bridesmaid politics,” which has characterized this region throughout Kenya’s post-Independence experience. This refers to the way in which leaders from the region have never held the presidency themselves but have sustained successive regimes (led by political leaders from other parts of the country) by playing the role of “bridesmaid” while never actually being the “bride.” Through the theoretical lens of clientelism, the chapter elaborates on the region’s political players and intrigues, and discusses the reason that it has yet to secure power in its own right. Further, the chapter discusses how the politics and political theatre of Eastern Kenya has evolved since the advent of the devolved system of government occasioned by the 2010 constitutional and the two general elections (one in 2013 and the other in 2017) that have been held under it. Finally, the socio-political ramifications of devolution are considered, and related to developments in the national political scene over the same period.
The politics of the provincial administration
Authors: Oyugi Walter O. , Ochieng Jimmy O.
Published: April 2020

This chapter traces the evolution and strengthening of the provincial administration as the executive’s instrument of maintaining control from the political center to the local level, which the state has used intensively to intervene in the body politic. The administration has been the eyes and ears of the state—and the president—from 1963 up until the new Constitution was promulgated in 2010. The new Constitution’s attempt to restructure the provincial administration and limit its reach and capability did not come to fruition, as the state succeeded in retaining and consolidating its powers. Therefore, the provincial administration will continue to be the backbone of the state for a long time to come.
Police, reform, and counter-terrorism
Authors: Halakhe Abdullahi Boru
Published: April 2020

The goal of the Kenya Defence Force’s (KDF) 2011 Operation Linda Nchi (Operation Protect the Country) was to dismantle al-Shabaab in Somalia. In retaliation, al-Shabaab made Kenya and Kenyans their primary targets through a series of attacks on government installations and civilian sites. These events coincided with police reforms undertaken following the country’s 2007/2008 post-election violence and the inauguration of a new Constitution in 2010. While these reforms sought to increase accountability, the police response to al-Shabaab undermined the reform agenda as the police continued to commit egregious human rights violations. These abuses went hand-in-hand with a loosening of legal safeguards against police violations, which further derailed the police reform project. At the same time, al-Shabaab exploited the security agencies’ human rights violations as recruitment propaganda. Thus, while Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia is expected to end after the African Union Mission in Somalia winds down in 2019, it will likely negatively impact the police reform trajectory.
The political role of Christian churches
Authors: Deacon Gregory
Published: April 2020

Christianity has been intimately involved with power in Kenya since the country’s birth even though much has changed with regards to what Christianity is and what it does. Today, as during the colonial and early post-colonial periods, the political role of Christian churches includes the activities of individual clergy and organized churches, both of which make periodic public statements, provide public services, and support local and national governance. However, increasingly important is the central place of neo-Pentecostal ideas, concepts, and imagery in Kenyan society, which pervade the political realm. This chapter outlines the role of Christian churches as organizations. It also analyzes the growth and spread of Christianity as a religion and as a discursive institution as well as associated understandings and practices. Together, this analysis contributes to an understanding of contemporary politics in Kenya, including the place of neo-Pentecostalized Christianity in the 2013 and 2017 elections and Jubilee regime.
Social Welfare Policy
Authors: Blau Joel
Published: April 2020

This chapter examines the main themes in social welfare policy. These themes include the assumption that poor people are responsible for their own poverty; a belief in the marketplace as the best means of addressing human needs; and a consequent wariness of federal social welfare interventions. Analyzing social welfare policy’s multiple and conflicting roles, it then traces these themes as they have manifested themselves throughout U.S. history. The chapter concludes by contending that while these historical factors may have all contributed to less comprehensive social welfare policies, their inadequacies effectively reopen the issue of what social welfare should become in the twenty-first century, when neoliberalism and rising income inequality have heightened the fears of so many Americans about their declining standard of living.
Communications and Technology Policy
Authors: Tworek Heidi
Published: April 2020

Federal involvement in communications came early with the development of a national postal system. Yet that involvement was intertwined with and influenced by international developments from the start. This chapter surveys the federal government’s long involvement in communication policy including telegraphy, radio, and the internet. While surveying this involvement, this chapter discusses such issues as antitrust regulation; federal development of communications systems; free speech and restrictive policies; overlapping federal agencies involved in communications; various attempts by the federal government to promote technological development; and the relationship of federal-private technological development.
Environmental and Energy Policy
Authors: Black Brian
Published: April 2020

This chapter explores the interrelated nature of the environmental and energy policies in the United States, particularly since 1900. As new technologies made new sources of energy viable, formal and informal political arrangements and laws were used to prioritize the United States’ ability to acquire necessary supplies. During the twentieth century, the essential need for energy has defined the concept of geopolitics and even served as a rationale for war. By the 1970s and 1980s, a separate policy mandate moved environmental concerns into formal local and federal politics. Although these applications of policy developed distinct from one another, a general chronology of their development from 1900 to the present demonstrates the growing interplay between environmental policy and energy management. In the twenty-first century, a new paradigm of economic development has moved energy and environmental policies together to wrestle with complex issues, including the sustainability of energy supplies and climate change.
Health Policy
Authors: Chapin Christy Ford
Published: April 2020

This article reviews the history of the U.S. health care system and important themes in the scholarly literature pertaining to the subject. It argues that understanding the politics of health care, including the structure of government programs such as Medicare, requires careful attention to the private sector’s economic framework. This essay traces the development of modern medicine, health care systems in the 20th century, private health insurance, and federal and state health care policy.
The Politics of Depression and War
Authors: Smith Jason Scott
Published: April 2020

This essay explores how the Great Depression and World War II shaped politics in the United States. The collapse of the economy brought Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to the presidency; it also brought the New Deal. This essay explores the ways in which the New Deal’s attempts to save capitalism brought about long-lasting political changes, forging an electoral coalition that dominated American politics for decades. The New Deal’s key policy measures, including public works construction and the creation of social security, proved to be effective politics as well. World War II saw FDR and the federal government draw upon the New Deal’s methods, reforms, and bureaucracies in mobilizing the nation’s economy and society. This policy toolkit, the essay concludes, signaled the political power of empirically minded flexibility, ratifying for a generation the legitimacy of the government’s involvement in the economy.
The Rules of the Game
Authors: Reynolds Jack
Published: April 2020

This essay reviews the regulations and customs of elections in the United States since the colonial period. It identifies six historical eras with distinct rules governing the conduct of elections. The earliest electoral contests functioned with highly informal voting procedures and electioneering practices that varied widely from place to place. Voting procedures became more standardized during the nineteenth century thanks to political parties. A broad set of mostly state-level initiatives around 1900 robbed the parties of some of their key functions in the electoral system. Incumbents have used the regulation of elections to better entrench themselves in office. The candidate-centered contests of the twentieth century increasingly relied on money and the mass media. Voting and electioneering practices are now adjusting to the impact of the internet and social media.
The Future of Positive Psychology
Authors: Owens Rhea L.
Published: April 2020

Over the last two decades, research about and applications of positive psychology have grown considerably. From identifying constructs, to developing complex theories, to establishing evidence-based and empirically supported interventions, positive psychology has moved from early inklings of visionary scholars to a recognized, established science among a community of students and professionals worldwide. This chapter discusses three emerging areas that bridge the advances to date with challenging, yet attainable, goals for the future of positive psychology: greater balance, greater attention to children and adolescents, and further expansion globally to diverse populations. Insights from leading scholars and their views on the future of positive psychology are shared as well.
Trends in inequalities in childhood stunting in Ethiopia from 2000 to 2016: a cross sectional study
Authors: Zegeye Betregiorgis , Shibre Gebretsadik , Idriss-Wheeler Dina , Yaya Sanni
Published: April 2020

Background

The decrease in the magnitude of stunting over the past 20 years has been slow in Ethiopia. To date, in Ethiopia, the trends in and extent of inequality in stunting have not been investigated using methods suitably developed for disparity studies. This paper investigated both the extent and overtime dynamics of stunting inequality in Ethiopia over the last 17 years.

Methods

Using the World Health Organization’s Health Equity Assessment Toolkit software, data from the Ethiopia Demographic and Health surveys (EDHS) were analyzed between 2000 and 2016. The inequality analysis consisted of disaggregated rates of stunting using five equity stratifiers (economic status, education, residence, region and sex) and four summary measures (Difference, Population Attributable risk, Ratio and Absolute Concentration Index). A 95% uncertainty interval was constructed around point estimates to measure statistical significance.

Results

The study showed that both absolute and relative inequalities in stunting exist in all the studied years in Ethiopia. The inequality disfavors children of mothers who are poor, uneducated and living in rural areas and specific regions such as Amhara. The pro-rich (R = 1.2; 1.1, 1.3 in 2000 to R = 1.7; 1.4, 2 in 2016) and pro-educated (R = 1.6; 95%UI = 1.3, 1.9 in 2000 and R = 2.3; 95%UI = 1.5, 3 in 2011) inequalities slightly increased with time. Male children bear a disproportionately higher burden of stunting, and the disparity increased between the first and the last time points (PAR = −1.5 95%UI = −2.5, −0.6 in 2000 and PAR = −2.9 95%UI = −3.9, −1.9) based on complex measures but remained constant with simple measures (R = 1; 95%UI = 0.9, 1.1 in 2000 and R = 1.1 95%UI = 1, 1.2 in 2016). Similarly, both the sub-national regional and residence-related stunting disparities generally widened over time according to some of the inequality measures.

Conclusions

Stunting appeared to be highly prevalent among certain sub-groups (i.e. poor, uneducated and living in rural regions). The subpopulations experiencing excessively high stunting prevalence should be the focus of policy makers’ attention as they work to achieve the WHO 40% reduction in stunting target by 2025 and the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals.
Increased expression of the transforming growth factor β–inducible gene HIC-5 in systemic sclerosis skin and fibroblasts: a novel antifibrotic therapeutic target
Authors: Piera-Velazquez Sonsoles , Fertala Jolanta , Huaman-Vargas Gonzalo , Louneva Natalia , Jiménez Sergio A
Published: April 2020

Objective

SSc is a systemic fibrotic disease affecting skin, numerous internal organs and the microvasculature. The molecular pathogenesis of SSc tissue fibrosis has not been fully elucidated, although TGF-β1 plays a crucial role. The Hic-5 protein encoded by the TGF-β1-inducible HIC-5 gene participates in numerous TGF-β-mediated pathways, however, the role of Hic-5 in SSc fibrosis has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine HIC-5 involvement in SSc tissue fibrosis.

Methods

Affected skin from three patients with diffuse SSc and dermal fibroblasts cultured from affected and non-affected SSc skin were examined for HIC-5 and COL1A1 gene expression. Real-time PCR, IF microscopy, western blotting and small interfering RNA–mediated HIC-5 were performed.

Results

HIC-5 and COL1A1 transcripts and Hic-5, type 1 collagen (COL1) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) protein levels were increased in clinically affected SSc skin compared with normal skin and in cultured dermal fibroblasts from affected SSc skin compared with non-affected skin fibroblasts from the same patients. HIC-5 knockdown caused a marked reduction of COL1 production in SSc dermal fibroblasts.

Conclusion

HIC-5 expression is increased in affected SSc skin compared with skin from normal individuals. Affected SSc skin fibroblasts display increased HIC-5 and COL1A1 expression compared with non-affected skin fibroblasts from the same patients. Hic-5 protein was significantly increased in cultured SSc dermal fibroblasts. HIC-5 mRNA knockdown in SSc fibroblasts caused >50% reduction of COL1 production. Although these are preliminary results owing to the small number of skin samples studied, they indicate that Hic-5 plays a role in the profibrotic activation of SSc dermal fibroblasts and may represent a novel molecular target for antifibrotic therapy in SSc.