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Tibetan medicines are key material objects for medical treatment and have become part of a global trend of 'pharmaceuticalisation', playing increasingly important political and socio-economic roles in an 'alternative modernity'. As I argue in this paper, they also have become key 'sites of contestation' between different epistemic values and styles of practice related to efficacy and safety that are reproduced in and through specific formulation regimes. Based on my multisited ethnography of production, prescription, and use practices of Tibetan medicines in China and Europe, this paper conceptualises three distinct formulation regimes, offering a heuristic model for transnational comparison—a classical, an industrialised or reformulated, and a polyherbal regime. The first two are the major orientations while the polyherbal is a conjoint hybrid with either the classical or the industrialised formulation regime. Globalised national drug safety regulations legalise and confer legitimacy to industrialised Tibetan formulas that follow biomedically defined efficacy, safety, and disease categories, while classical formulas produced by private physicians or small-scale cottage pharmacies are increasingly marginalised as producing 'unsafe' and at times illegal medicines, and need to find new ways for adapting and circulating their formulas.

The Yearbook series alternates between a biennial volume tracing recent theological discussions on topics in bioethics and a biennial volume tracing recent regional discussions in bioethics. Volume 4 provides a comprehensive single-volume summary of recent international and regional developments on specific topics in bioethics. To give uniformity to the discussions all authors were asked to report on the following topics: new reproductive technologies, abortion, maternal-fetal conflicts, case of severely disabled newborns, consent of treatment and experimentation, confidentiality, equitable access to health care, ethical concerns raised by cost-containment measures, decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment, active euthanasia, the definition of death, organ donation and transplantation, and a final broad category of other issues. The internationally respected contributors report on the following 16 areas: the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Germany/Austria/Switzerland, Spain/Portugal/Italy, Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Australia/New Zealand. The commentators draw on three sets of resources: Statutes, legislative proposals, and regulatory changes that directly influence or have implications for, areas of bioethical concern; Case law and court judgments that shape, either decisively or suggestively, recent legal interpretations of particular issues of areas in bioethics; Formal statements of governmentally appointed commissions, advisory bodies, and representative professional groups, as well as less formal statements and recommendations of other organisations. In addition to providing timely summaries of recent developments, the volume offers rich and useful bibliographical references to a wide array of documents, many of which would be difficult for readers to learn about, given the lack of centralized international collection of such documents. The Yearbook will be widely consulted by all bioethicists, public policy analysts, lawyers and theologians

Environmental problems are very serious and complex to be resolved through science approach, technical and legislation solely. Hence, the inclucive and active involvement and participation of civil is wanted. Civil society is inter parties interested and sure they involved directly with every planned development project and practiced at area they. Earlier study has proven that public societal involvement in environmental issue is still low and minimum. The study conducted in Jajahan Kuala Krai, Kelantan is intended to find out how far population knowledge in study area on environmental issues and the level of involvement the in said issue. This study involved 174 respondents. The study between demographic factor with respondent knowledge in environmental issues shows that is a significant relationship between respondent income and education with value of p respectively 0.039 and 0.036. The association between demographic factor with respondent's knowledge in local environmental issue on the other hand shows that there are significant relationship between gender, age, income, education and resident period with the value of p respectively 0.045, 0.000, 0.029, 0.046 and 0.000. For demographic factor in association with environmental issues, has shown that there is a significant relationship between age, income, education and resident period with the value of p respectively 0.036, 0.041, 0.001 and 0.001. The results that found respondent income factor and education did influence on respondents knowledge level and involvement in environmental issues. As a conclusion, an actively engaged society in related environmental issues is very important due to the assurance of environmental quality that always will be protected.

Economic shocks test the resilience of families around the world. Lockdowns, extended periods of unemployment, and inflation challenge the capabilities of private households to maintain their living standards whilst keeping their budgets in balance. Asset poverty is a concept invoked frequently to measure the capacity of private households to mitigate income loss by relying exclusively on their savings. In contrast to conventional asset poverty measures, we quantify the combined cushioning effect of private and public safety nets. Highlighting the importance of public safety nets and familial networks, this article devises a modified concept of asset poverty: Rather than purely simulating a household's asset decumulation without replacement income, the modified indicator accounts for replacement income in a static setting. The empirical assessment of modified asset poverty in Europe and America combines harmonised microdata on household finances with simulations of institutional rules set by social insurance systems. Our results reveal how differences in social relations and institutional rules shape cross‐country variation in the vulnerability of private households. We find that, in contrast to the US, where the asset poverty of families is particularly low, households in most European countries are less vulnerable because generous social security systems coexist with low private assets. However, in some European countries, benefit generosity decreases the longer income losses last, exposing time dynamics in vulnerability. Complementing social insurance mechanisms, in countries such as Greece, households are more likely to receive financial support from family or friends. Cross‐national heterogeneity in vulnerability suggests that a shock may have different implications across countries.

Public procurement fulfils an important role in the economy and public expenditure of a country and can be regarded as a critical indicator of the e ectiveness of a government, because it is a central aspect of public service delivery. Notwithstanding various reforms made to date to public sector procurement in South Africa and the application of Supply Chain Management as a strategic policy strategic instrument, the South African public procurement system still faces several challenges and has been strongly criticised. This paper aims to understand the current public procurement environment in South Africa, its dilemmas and challenges, and to propose that public procurement be refocused towards a strategically placed business process, implemented by well-trained and competent procurement o cials. The purpose is to provide a theoretical foundation as well as practical guidance regarding the role of public procurement in the South African public sector. The methodology involved an intensive literature study and document analysis to evaluate various o cial policy documents and o cial publications to determine the status of South African public procurement. The study found that the majority of challenges faced by public procurement in South Africa can probably be attributed to the implementation of the system, rather than to the system itself. In the shorter and longer term, the public procurement system in South Africa will have no choice but to emerge as a stronger, more resilient, streamlined and e cient provider of goods and services for the greater good of all. ; http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability ; am2021 ; School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA)

AbstractWhile the literature on regulatory compliance is extensive, little scholarly attention has focused on how companies respond to conflicting regulatory requirements. As a case in point, gas pipelines and networks—deemed monopolies—are subject to economic regulation to emulate the price pressures of competition and encourage "efficient" expenditure. Technical (safety) regulation of the same infrastructure also addresses an expenditure trade‐off with safety, potentially drawing different conclusions as to the most appropriate balance. This article reports on a study—drawing on 49 interviews, document review and case studies—analyzing if these two regulatory regimes, as enacted in Australia, are in conflict. We find a significant tension between the two regimes, exhibited through the impact that economic regulation has on a company's planned safety‐related expenditure and thus, long‐term public safety outcomes may be at risk. Australian safety regulation is performance‐based, requiring "reasonably practicable" measures are in place to minimize risk to the public. The San Bruno California disaster, in which eight people died as a result of failed gas infrastructure in the US, shows that such regulatory conflicts also exist in jurisdictions that have adopted prescriptive forms of safety regulation.

Strategic Management in Public Services Organizations takes a comparative and international view on the appropriate use of strategic management models that are affecting the way public services organizations are managed. In an era of New and post New Public Management reforms, public managers at all levels are expected to respond to these new approaches,which profoundly affect their work practices, skills, and knowledge bases. Choosing a promising strategic management model and implementing it in a way that works for the organization or inter-organizational network in question also depends on an understanding of local politico-administrative and cultural contexts: this book helps the readers identify how to successfully tailor strategic management approaches to their specific circumstances and needs. This second edition builds upon the successes of the well-received first edition. Thoroughly updated to help public managers meet the challenges of a new decade, it has a refreshed collection of mini-cases and now includes chapter summaries. It also includes a new chapter on collaborative strategy and co-creation, in response to the growth of interest in more open forms of public policymaking. This is an advanced textbook aimed at the postgraduate level, particularly students on MPAs and MBAs with a public sector option or MScs in public policy and public management.