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Top tier academic journals claim to publish the most rigorous, peer reviewed research. This evidence based found therein is utilized to support decision making for sustainable development. In parallel, many journals that are published in the Global South are accused of being lower quality or disregarded as 'predatory'. This article explores an example of a 'foreign fiction' written about Ethiopia and published in a top tier academic journal. The narratives and evidence from that top tier journal are contrasted with research published in Ethiopian journals. This case study shows that Ethiopian scholars have produced important research and contributed evidence, but have largely been ignored, or silenced, perpetuating foreign fictions. This is important because policy and law seeking to enable development are informed and influenced by the research produced in top tier journals. Based upon this, this article critiques assumptions about "top tier" journals as well as those about Ethiopian journals, and further about the continued colonial power imbalances that exist within knowledge production systems. This has implications for universities and scholars, which continue to privilege a particular set of journals that are largely based in the Global North and wherein contributing authors are also largely based in the Global North. The reproduction of colonial relationships within global knowledge production systems calls for much broader critical reflection about whose voices are privileged as authentic conveyors of knowledge and how these privileges are institutionalized.
Keywords: Ethiopia; Foreign Fictions; Knowledge Production; Power; Narrative; Sustainable Development; SDGs

Journal rankings are important for evaluating research output, for academic promotions, and for allocating funds. Examining the assignment of economics journals to different quartiles of citation-based rankings, the authors found that about 60% of journals remain in the same quartile and about 95% of journals remain in the same or move in a neighborhood quartile within 5- to 10-year intervals. Top journal rankings exhibit even more inertia, which is a desirable property for decisions on promotion, tenure, or institutional evaluation. A reexamination of journal assignment to different quality categories every 5 or 10 years, therefore, suffices for practical evaluation purposes.

This article reports concerns among disability community members that the implications of genetic research will be driven by mistaken beliefs about genetics and negative attitudes toward disability as identified in a qualitative study funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute. In addition to reporting the nature and the context of disability community concerns related to perceptions of disability and of human genetics, the authors discuss the historic role of attitudes toward disability and science in popularizing eugenics in early 20th century America as evidence of the seriousness of these concerns.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to take a fresh look at some of the contemporary operations management (OM) research issues in the automotive sector in order to identify potential future research directions. It addresses the question of what remains to be investigated after so many decades of enquiry.Design/methodology/approachA review confined to recent articles published in some of the most mainstream OM journals, seeking to identify research gaps in the field.FindingsThe paper reviews some of the most prevalent misperceptions about Japanese production management (JPM) and the Toyota production system. It observes that much of contemporary OM research in the automotive industry still wrestles with the complexities of JPM approaches, whose richness of nuance and complexity appear to be always just beyond the authors' grasp. Argues for the use of alternative theoretical lenses to help uncover novel insights.Originality/valueThe paper reaffirms the author's overarching research mission which is to contribute to the improved practice of OM by conducting rigorous research in the field. It underscores the need for novel approaches to OM research in the automotive sector. This is particularly apposite at a time when the differences between production systems seem to be disappearing and when some recent empirical evidence suggests that lean management may only be skin deep in many companies which rely too heavily on consultants to the detriment of depth of knowledge and employee involvement.

There has been an increasing focus in the UK on the support provided to the Armed Forces community, with the publication of the Armed Forces Covenant (2011), the Strategy for our Veterans (2018) and the first ever Office for Veterans' Affairs (2019). There is also an important body of research – including longitudinal research – focusing on transitions from military to civilian life, much of which is quantitative. At the same time, the UK has witnessed a period of unprecedented welfare reform. However, research focused on veterans' interactions with the social security system has been largely absent. This article draws on the authors' experiences of undertaking qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) to address this knowledge gap. We reflect on how QLR was essential in engaging policy makers enabling the research to bridge the two parallel policy worlds of veterans' support and welfare reform, leading to significant policy and practice impact.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is the central executive authority on migration and integration policy in Germany. Vinzenz Kratzer analyses the Federal Office's research output between 2005 and 2015 with a joint perspective of Ethnography and Political Science. In the wake of political reforms after the »paradigm change« around the turn of the millennium, the development of practically relevant knowledge can be traced. While governmental researchers were able to establish themselves in the bureaucracy with some success, they bought this influence with uncontroversial, depoliticized knowledge production, while the production of seemingly politically irrelevant knowledge - most importantly on racism and discrimination - is underdeveloped.

Indonesia has made impressive progress in reducing income inequality and improving living standards since the Asian Financial Crisis but the decline in poverty has slowed in recent years while inequality has risen and a large part of the population remains vulnerable. The Government of Indonesia has recognised the potential of social protection to address these challenges and to underpin a long-term development strategy based on more inclusive economic growth. As a consequence, social assistance programmes have grown significantly in recent years while social insurance has undergone major reforms. The Government is gradually realising its vision of a system of social protection, based on comprehensive and coherent coverage for all age groups.The Social Protection System Review of Indonesia charts the evolution of social protection. It explores the current context for social protection and how this is likely to evolve in the future, analyses the extent to which existing programmes are aligned to those needs and how effective these programmes are at reducing poverty. It also examines the financing of social protection. Finally, it proposes policies to enhance the social protection system across a number of dimensions, including programmes, institutions, financing and information architecture.

There are estimated to be almost 60 million people living in poverty throughout the European Union. This bleak statistic underlines the value of this important book which explores the nature and extent of poverty and social exclusion in six European countries, namely: Austria, Germany, Greece, Norway, Portugal and the UK. The book focuses on four 'life course' groups who might be considered particularly at risk: young adults, lone parents, the sick and disabled, and the retired.

There has been very little research into sickness absence in Vietnam. This article reveals how the labor market might adjust to more generous illness benefits offered by the Vietnam Social Insurance Law. In the study, we combined the difference‐in‐differences and matching techniques and used data from four waves of the Vietnam Labor Force Survey. The results indicate that the generosity of the benefits positively links to both the incidence and the duration of sick leave. The article also sheds light on the mechanism underlying the relationship by disaggregating the effects on gender, income, and job tenure groups. The results support current government efforts to enhance the public social insurance system.Key Practitioner Message: • Sickness insurance affects sick leave incidence and duration; • Low‐income workers and female workers are sensitive to sickness benefits reform; • There is a link between job tenure and sick leave.

The study examines the determinants of social expenditure in Sri Lanka for the period 1970–2010. The data are from a new data set assembled by the authors. The social spending data are collected from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on education, health, and also on welfare spending. The study explains the determinants of social spending considering the demand‐side and the supply‐side driving forces and finds that inequality issues have been a major concern of social policy in Sri Lanka. Similarly, this study implies the influence of political behavior to satisfy voters as explained by the fiscal illusion theory. The globalization is not significant for social expenditure as commonly assumed in developed countries. Even the consequences of the self‐interested behavior of bureaucrats are not evident in the Sri Lankan welfare sector.

Style-based subcultures, scenes and tribes have pulsated through the history of social, economic and political change. From 1940s zoot-suiters and hepcats; through 1950s rock 'n' rollers, beatniks and Teddy boys; 1960s surfers, rudeboys, mods, hippies and bikers; 1970s skinheads, soul boys, rastas, glam rockers, funksters and punks; on to the heavy metal, hip-hop, casual, goth, rave, hipster and clubber styles of the 1980s, 90s, noughties and beyond; distinctive blends of fashion and music ha...