Designing policy: collaborative policy development within the context of the European capital of culture bid process

ABSTRACT

How do ideas become policies? What route do they take from inception to implementation and what criteria are used to evaluate one set of proposals against another? This paper examines the development of the Creative Work Fellowship policy proposal in Limerick, tracing the origins of the idea, itself a contended and negotiated object, from discussions between academics and policy-makers through to scoping, pitching and scaling the policy to its eventual users. This policy idea was designed during the Intelligence Unit (IU) commissioned by Limerick2020 as part of the city’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2020. The IU took the form of a policy think-tank, tasked with generating insights, ideas and policy proposals into the place of culture within Limerick city and region. The IU structure created a set of actors and an epistemic community capable of both generating and using ideas effectively, chiefly through two mechanisms. The first involved a robust critique and rebuilding process that every element of the policy was exposed to; the second involved feedback from interested parties at specific stages in the process. This created a series of “policy entrepreneurs” capable of taking a fully costed and modelled policy suggestion to government. The findings presented in the paper include an analysis of the collaborative nature of this policy development process, Based on this framework, we also consider the role of the European City of Culture bid process as catalyst for policy development in a regional context, and present findings on this subject.     

Recreational angling tournaments: participants' expenditures

Fishing tournaments are a common feature in recreational angling across a wide range of target species in both fresh and salt waters. Tournaments are organised for a number of purposes, including as commercial enterprises; as fund-raising initiatives for angling clubs; for economic development purposes (e.g. tourism); as well as improve participants' skill levels. Most tournaments are confined to geographically small areas and usually occur over a small number of days, which can mean a pulse of economically significant activity in the local area. This paper analyses the nature of expenditure associated with angling tournaments, including travel, food and accommodation, and angling-related expenditures as a function of socio-economic and angler characteristics. Analysis based on 106 tournaments across Ireland during 2013 finds a clear 80/20 segmentation between ‘high’- and ‘low’-spend anglers and that the segmentation occurs across all fish target species considered. The analysis also finds that British coarse anglers participating at Irish angling tournaments spend considerably more than other anglers irrespective of target species or angler country of origin.     

Never the gentleman: caste,class and the amateur myth in English first-class cricket, 1920s to the 1960s

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the near-impossibility, for the duration of the amateur-professional divide, of cricketers born into working-class families being admitted to amateur status and, thus, to county captaincy, in the English first-class game. Its principal argument is that the hegemony achieved in the latter half of the nineteenth century by the English upper class (the aristocracy, major landowners and leaders of financial capital and their families) had one of its most visible manifestations in the culture of first-class cricket. The hegemony of this group (represented by the Marylebone Cricket Club) was sustained by a specific myth of amateurism that was rooted in caste-like social relations. By the late 1930s these relations had become unsustainable and hegemony was maintained by a subtle and unacknowledged switch to relations of class. The article charts this process, using four case studies of working-class professional cricketers, each of which brought the ideological reality of the amateur myth into sharp relief.     

Exposing athletes to playing form activity: outcomes of a randomised control trial among community netball teams using a game-centred approach

This study evaluated whether exposing junior netball players to greater amounts of competition relevant activity (playing form activity) had an effect on game play outcomes and session involvement. A group-randomised controlled trial in one junior netball club in the Hunter Region, NSW, Australia. Ninety female athletes (mean age = 9.04 years, SD 1.53) were randomised by team (n = 11) into the intervention (n = 41) or 9-week wait-list control (n = 49) condition. The Professional Learning for Understanding Games Education into Sport (PLUNGE into Sport) programme was undertaken in the first half of nine training sessions (9 × 30 min). The intervention exposed athletes to playing form activity through a coach development programme within training sessions. Athletes’ decision-making, support and skill outcomes during a small-sided invasion game, and session involvement (pedometer step/min), were measured at baseline and 9-week follow-up. Linear mixed models revealed significant group-by-time intervention effects (P < 0.05) for decision-making (d = 0.4) and support (d = 0.5) during game play, and in-session activity (d = 1.2). An intervention exposing athletes to greater levels of playing form activity, delivered via a coach education programme, was efficacious in improving athlete decision-making and support skills in game play and increasing athlete involvement during sessions.     

The effects of mental fatigue on cricket-relevant performance among elite players

This study investigated the effects of a mentally fatiguing test on physical tasks among elite cricketers. In a cross-over design, 10 elite male cricket players from a professional club performed a cricket run-two test, a Batak Lite reaction time test and a Yo-Yo-Intermittent Recovery Level 1 (Yo-Yo-IR1) test, providing a rating of perceived exertion (RPE) after completing a 30-min Stroop test (mental fatigue condition) or 30-min control condition. Perceived fatigue was assessed before and after the two conditions and motivation was measured before testing. There were post-treatment differences in the perception of mental fatigue (P < 0.001; d = ?7.82, 95% CIs = ?9.05–6.66; most likely). Cricket run-two (P = 0.002; d = ?0.51, 95% CIs = ?0.72–0.30; very likely), Yo-Yo-IR1 distance (P = 0.023; d = 0.39, 95% CIs = 0.14–0.64; likely) and RPE (P = 0.001; d = ?1.82, 95% CIs = ?2.49–1.14; most likely) were negatively affected by mental fatigue. The Batak Lite test was not affected (P = 0.137), yet a moderate (d = 0.41, 95% CIs = ?0.05–0.87) change was likely. Mental fatigue, induced by an app-based Stroop test, negatively affected cricket-relevant performance.     

Editorial statement

Grounded in the interdisciplinary educational work of Cultural Studies, this paper examines the pedagogical potentials of narrative and performance for the teaching of writing as a mode of public discourse. Guided to address a wide readership, students engage in critical communication aimed at linking self inquiry and narrative discourse to the contextual analysis of the social. Drawing on research findings derived from the undergraduate teaching of cultural criticism as a genre of public writing at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, we look at how educational drama mediates the work of narrative and performative acts involving the young learner-writers and contributes to the shaping of a dialogic mode of address and communication, thus articulating the process and impact of writing to the public-oriented discourse in Cultural Studies education. In light of such acts in critical discourse and imagination targeted at the potential reader, we show how the young writers' own engagement with critical thinking and communication are opened up by drama-in-education adopted in the class, and argue how, in this sense, both writing and its learning process become effective stages in the making of the kind of cultural criticism we want to help students to learn.     

An objective method for depicting team performance in elite professional rugby union

Using a two-study approach, we examined a methodology for objectively depicting team performance and form in a professional rugby union side. Study 1 developed standardized indicators to examine a team's performance in a single match relative to their previous matches over a domestic season via a performance report and form chart. This resulted in standardized performance indicators that provided instant and coherent feedback on the team's performance relative to previous standards. Study 2 then utilized this methodology to compare a match between two professional sides, played the following season, to assess the extent to which the performance by one team affected that of the other. Comparison of the two teams' performances, for the match they played against each other, identified a drop in relative performance (against previous standards) for both teams on the same performance indicators. This appeared to be due to the match being a close, hard-fought contest particularly in the tackle and around the gain-line. The findings of the two studies suggest an accurate and viable methodology for depicting team performance that is superior to the global measures previously adopted. Presenting teams' current standardized performances (i.e. form) on a single visual scale also has utility for coaches within an applied setting. Future research should further investigate the effect of one team's performance on another through both individual and team outcomes.