From Knowledge Utilization to Building Knowledge Networks

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article contributes to the consolidation and synthesis of scholarship on collaborative governance by expanding our knowledge of how the term is used in the academic literature and policy documents in a range of European countries. It adds value to the existing reviews of the field by conducting a systematic literature review on a corpus of over 700 article abstracts and a traditional literature review identifying five key analytical dimensions. The article also provides an exploratory analysis of grey literature hitherto outside the purview of researchers and considers the linguistic and cultural connotations that alter the meaning of the term when translated into new contexts in ten EU/EFTA countries. Findings indicate heterogeneity and fuzziness in the way the concept is used. The article argues that explicit positions with respect to five main analytical dimensions and taking into account the national connotations that the term carries across political systems would inject more clarity into the academic discourse. This, in turn, will help policymakers to make informed use of the concept, especially in multi-national policy-making arenas.</abstract>

The fuzzy concept of collaborative governance: A systematic review of the state of the art

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This article describes an original model developed in the Technology Centre CAS for the estimation of the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the labour market in Czechia. On the contrary to the previous estimates, this model is based on the comparison of projected future technical capabilities of AI with a mix of capabilities needed in different job categories. Both the importance and the level of capabilities are taken into account in order to assess the impact of AI on jobs in three different time horizons. Based on the model calculations, it can be expected that on the five-year horizon the AI will be able to replace more than 50% of the required capabilities in 11 % of the occupations. On the thirty-year horizon, AI can replace over 50% of capabilities in the vast majority of the current professions. At the same time, new professions will continuously emerge, though they will place different demands on their performers and will require different skills and capabilities in comparison to current professions. The model and its results may be effectively used for efficient adaptation of education, lifelong learning and retraining to the changing nature of work, and related new demand for workers’ capabilities.
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Modelling the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the labour market in Czechia

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Empirical evidence related to the effectivity and outcomes of the self-employment programmes in the Central and Eastern Europe is still very rare, despite the important role of entrepreneurship in the economic development of post-communist economies. The main purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the impact of self-employment subsidy for unemployed in the Czech NUTS 3 regions for the period of years 2012–2015 to provide policy makers supportive material useful for policy adjustments. The study applies quantitative research framework, which is based on the construction of econometric models. Estimated regression models with region fixed effects supported the negative association between the amount of supported self-employed and unemployment rates in the Czech regions. This finding is theoretically framed by the theory of necessity entrepreneurship. Positive spillover of the programme (‘a double dividend’), was econometrically tested on the regional employment rates. Obtained estimates found that there is a positive contemporaneous relationship (weakly significant) between the number of supported self-employed and the employment rates but not in the lag. Analysis of the costs revealed that the costs of self-employment programme are not that high, if one takes into account the alternative costs of unemployment benefits paid to the unemployed and social insurance paid back to the state by the newly established self-employed. Therefore, this tool of active labour market policy has a potential of wider usage. Nevertheless, the applied empirical strategy was based on the regional level and has its limitations. Provided results need to be interpreted cautiously, without any causal inference, because the true outcomes of the programme could be analysed only on the level of supported individuals. Future research should therefore challenge the effectiveness of the start-up subsidy programmes in the Czech Republic on the level of individuals, with focus on the survival rates of subsidized businesses and incomes of their formerly unemployed owners.</abstract>

Does the Self-employment Policy Reduce Unemployment and Increase Employment? Empirical Evidence from the Czech Regions

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> Around the world, there is a growing interest among policy scholars and practitioners in the role of knowledge in relation to public policy. These debates are accompanied by some confusion about what is meant by knowledge or evidence, as well as controversies around the role of scientists and suspicions of increasingly technocratic decision making. Our aim is to provide a useful overview of the major debates in this paper, and to trace six dominant discourses in current research that address the role of scientific knowledge or expertise in the policy process. We distinguish evidence-based policy making, knowledge utilisation, policy learning, knowledge transfer, social construction of knowledge and boundaries, and knowing in practice as separate discourses. We show how they differ in their understanding of knowledge, of the problem to solve in terms of the role of knowledge in policy, of practical implications, as well as in their understanding of public policy and in their ontologies and epistemologies. A condensed and structured representation serves as a basis for conducting comparisons across discourses as well as to open ways for analysis of strategic associations between the discourses. We hope to contribute to extending the discussion of knowledge in policy into the realm of epistemic politics and we suggest several avenues for future research that can draw on a range of concepts from across all of the discourses.</abstract>

Comenius University Bratislava, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Institute of Public Policy and University of Applied Science FH Campus Wien, Public Management

Comenius University Bratislava, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Institute of Public Policy

An Overview of Discourses on Knowledge in Policy: Thinking Knowledge, Policy and Conflict Together

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Ekiti State government enacted a new tax policy, the taxation of buildings and landed properties, in order to ensure sustainable development and boost its revenue profile. Although increasing tax revenue represents a vital aspect of developmental policy, knowledge, motivation, and compliance activate tax for inclusive economic development. In line with the fiscal social contract theory and using an exploratory–descriptive research design, this study specifically assesses the citizens’ knowledge and their motivation to pay property tax, and how it affects their level of compliance. Multi-stage, stratified random, and simple random sampling techniques with questionnaires and key informant interviews were engaged. Findings suggested that citizens are not unaware of the property tax and the law backing it up, but due to their lack of trust in the government, their motivation and compliance cannot be improved. However, the government needs to set up practical actions in fulfilling their own part of the contract in order to gain citizens’ trust.
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Property Tax and Sustainable Development in Ekiti State: Citizens’ Perspective

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
<sec><title style='display:none'>OBJECTIVES</title>With the global population ageing, concerns about the incidence, prevalence and prevention of elder abuse have become increasingly pertinent. This study presents a narrative review of empirical research, investigating the elder abuse prevention implemented in public health policies in three selected countries. The narrative review aims to enrich academic critical discussion about the theme and provide insights for policymakers and professional practitioners working towards elder abuse prevention across different regions.</sec>
<sec><title style='display:none'>METHODS</title>Searches in the electronic database CINAHL, Medline, PsycINFO and Web of Science databases were performed to identify and synthesise studies reporting on research aimed at investigating elder abuse prevention. The studies that handle on all prevention levels, had to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, report on empirical research, and are available in full text in Portuguese, Slovak, English or Norwegian and published within a ten-year period (2012 to 2022) were included. A total of 981 studies were retrieved, of which 13 papers met the inclusion criteria for this narrative review.</sec>
<sec><title style='display:none'>RESULTS</title>The evidence indicated that proactive approach within primordial and primary prevention, interdisciplinary cooperation within primary and secondary prevention, and education for healthcare professionals within all forms of prevention were implemented to various extent as elder abuse prevention in Brazil, Norway and Slovakia.</sec>
<sec><title style='display:none'>CONCLUSIONS</title>There is a need to further enhance public awareness of elder abuse through campaigns and advocacy programs; additionally, the routine screening and assessments by healthcare providers for early detection and intervention in suspected abuse cases require improvement; and also, legal and health policy measures must be updated regularly. Elder abuse prevention should be a collective undertaking involving community leaders, healthcare providers, and governmental and non-governmental organisations.</sec>
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Elder Abuse Prevention in Brazil, Norway and Slovakia: a Narrative Review

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Google Trends, despite its controversial nature for some authors, can be considered an illustrative tool in exploring the political inclinations of a given audience. In the current European Union context, understanding the views and opinions of the public is of paramount importance. Through the analysis of search trends, Google Trends can provide valuable insights into the popularity of political parties in the context of the European Union along with other jurisdictions and how these trends change over time. Furthermore, by incorporating fractal dimensions and ARFIMA (Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average) analysis into the data obtained, it is possible to reveal previously non-evident relationships, thereby providing a more comprehensive understanding of the audience‘s political leanings and their interest in specific political parties. The aim of this exploratory study is to assess the potential of ARFIMA, applied to Google Trends data, in characterizing political parties. Preliminary results indicate that this apparatus can be useful for that purpose.
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Google Trends of political parties in Europe: a fractal exploration

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This study aims to analyze the development of research themes in the public–private partnership (PPP) project policy strategy for broadband infrastructure from 2000 to 2021 and identify the most popular research topics. Systematic literature review (SLR) of 927 Google Scholar and Scopus publications, followed by bibliometric analysis, co-occurrence keywords, and in-depth qualitative approaches with content analysis, was performed. Articles are classified based on the source of publication, year of publication, country of origin, journal ranking, and research theme. This study finds that previous studies discussed the development of policy strategies and regulatory theory. Most articles were published in journals indexed under Q1, while only one was published under Q4. This study highlights the importance of government initiatives in developing broadband infrastructure through PPPs. The findings show that the policy strategy, legal framework, and regulations influence the success of PPP schemes. Private sector involvement can reduce costs and provide access to resources and expertise the public sector may still need to gain. This study suggests that policymakers encourage the participation of the private sector in broadband infrastructure projects and provide incentives for them, such as public funding. This study benefits governments or policymakers who intend to implement the PPP scheme to deliver public services.
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Policy Strategies for Public–Private Partnership on Broadband Infrastructure: A Systematic Literature Review

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Local authorities’ financial resources should be commensurate with the competences provided for by the law. However, in most countries, representatives of local self-governments claim that their total revenues are insufficient to deliver allocated tasks at a standard scale and level of quality. Such statements are somewhat problematic, especially in less-developed countries, where cost-center accounting is not used and service standards are not defined. This paper analyzes the relationship between the costs of delegated competences and the resources provided to cover these costs in Slovakia. We found that Slovak municipalities (with some exceptions) do not know the exact costs of delegated competences, and that the state does not cover the total costs of delegated competences, which contradicts the Slovak constitution. Our short comparison in the discussion shows that the Czech situation is very similar, suggesting that the problem might be common for all post-Soviet countries.
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Costs and Revenues Balance: The Case of Municipal Delegated Competences in Slovakia

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
In recent years, gender inequality has been considered the main characteristic of insufficient gross domestic product (GDP) growth. This paper discusses the evolution of GDP per capita in 21 countries of the European Union between 2015 and 2019. Using panel regression, we investigated the change in GDP per capita through five variables. The analysis results showed that female employment rate is the most statistically significant and positive variable on GDP. Gender Equality Index also appeared to be an essential variable. The second part of our analysis consisted of an explanatory spatial data analysis of all variables to examine the spatial dimension of the variables. To explain spatial econometrics, we used selected methods, namely, choropleth maps, Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) cluster analysis, Moran‘s scatter plots, and Moran‘s I statistics. Based on the visualization of choropleth maps, GDP per capita did not change during the observed period, even though the values of the explanatory variables changed. For GDP per capita, the same applies in the case of LISA cluster analysis. At the end of the monitored period, the countries were included in the same cluster as at the beginning. When plotting Moran‘s scatter plot, it was found that GDP per capita did not tend to have positive or negative spatial autocorrelation or no spatial autocorrelation. Moran‘s I statistic showed that GDP per capita values were not randomly dispersed; they were grouped according to a specific formula into clusters.
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The Impact of Gender Inequality on GDP in EU Countries

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The aims of this article were to discuss the position of Czech nurses in the country's health care system, to assess their role in the preventive care and health literacy (HL) promotion and to define main factors, which may negatively impact their involvement in preventive care. We checked by the questionnaire, what is the position of nurses working in the primary care in the Czech health system, how nurses perceive their role in the preventive care and which factors influence their involvement. The expert opinion method was used to discover main barriers limiting the role of primary care nurses in prevention and HL promotion. A total of 204 nurses participated between May and June 2022 in an online survey. The survey was completed by interviews with five experts. Our main finding is that nurses are willing to be proactive in prevention and HL; however, their autonomy and responsibilities in these areas remain rather low. The main factors influencing the involvement of nurses in preventive care are the type of practice, age of nurses, and the administrative burden. The expert interviews propose that nurses are overloaded and that, in many cases, they do not really know their responsibilities in the field of preventive care. The core policy lesson derived from our research is that appropriate definition of roles and responsibilities of nurses and their related empowerment might represent critical measures towards increasing health system resilience and sustainability.
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Factors Influencing the Involvement of Nurses in Preventive Care and Health Literacy in the Czech Republic

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Along with other Central and Eastern European counties, Czechia has invested significant effort in deterring refugees from entering the country during the ‘refugee crisis’. This article sheds light on the role of the media in legitimising anti-refugee policies by analysing the politicised discourse on refugees in 900 articles published in Czech newspapers between 2014 and 2016. The findings indicate that refugees were depicted as a security threat and an administrative burden partly imposed by the European Union. The article discusses the policy implications of depicting refugees in this way and thus broadens the literature on European narratives during the refugee emergency in Europe.</abstract>

A Refugee Crisis Without Refugees: Policy and media discourse on refugees in the Czech Republic and its implications

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The goal of this paper is to identify critical factors in success/failure of public policies focusing on fighting the spread of COVID-19 pandemic using a sample of three countries from Central and Eastern Europe with different results regarding COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates, namely the Czech Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Slovak Republic. Based on comprehensive literature review, three independent variables were worked out: the scope/scale of public policy anti-pandemic interventions, the timing of public policy interventions, and the success of public policies in motivating compliance with anti-pandemic measures. Taking into account the similarity of measures introduced by national governments, the results suggest that the timing of public policy responses and success in motivating compliance may be critical factors in containing the pandemic.</abstract>

Public policy responses to the spread of COVID-19 as a potential factor determining health results: a comparative study of the Czech Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Slovak Republic

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> Central to policies relating to risk governance at the regional and local levels is the interaction between the public and private sectors also referred to as networked governance. At the same time, the role of political actors in general and policy entrepreneurs in particular, in terms of policy change, has gained considerable traction in recent policy scholarship. The purpose of this study was to investigate the change in governance arrangements resulting in the formation of a coordination network in regional flood risk management-the first of its kind in Sweden. Our research is guided by the following questions: first, would the policy change (the establishment of the networks)have taken place if a policy entrepreneur were not part of the policy transfer process? Second, what is the role of policy entrepreneurship in the implementation of the policy after its nationwide adoption? Third, what other factors played a role in the variation of the results in the implemented policy that is, the enforced networks? We find the role of a policy entrepreneur key in the policy transfer from the regional to the national level. In order to investigate the resultant networks, we draw from B. Guy Peters (1998) and his conceptualization of factors which affect the politics of coordination. In addition to the presence of a policy entrepreneur, we compare: (i) pluriformity of network members;(ii) member interdependence; (iii) redundancy of structures, and (iv) degree of formality (in terms of meetings). Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs contribute to the variation in the functionality of the enforced river groups, though other factors play a significant role as well.Most importantly, perhaps, we did not identify entrepreneurs in any of the river groups which were not functional.</abstract>

Policy Entrepreneurship and Policy Transfer: Flood Risk Governance in Northern Sweden

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The article analyses the problems of strategic governance and strategic management of the Czechoslovak Government, as well as the Government of the Czech Republic in the years 1989-2016. It seeks the causes and factors that have caused the low levels of strategic governance and strategic management at the level of the ministries of the Czech Republic. It examines the problem from genetic and historical perspective, and from the organizational and human capacity to exercise strategic governance. The study is based on two pieces of empirical research within the ministries of the Czech Republic. It identifies the main cause of failure of strategic governance and strategic management at the level of the central government of the Czech Republic. These include, in particular, the persistent distrust of the ideas of strategic governance and strategic management held by the right-wing governments and the generally low capacity of governments of the Czech Republic to engage in strategic governance. The organizational structure of the central state administration lacks the strategic units that generate ideas for supporting strategic governance. The empirical research of the ministries of the Czech Republic also revealed that policy workers in Czech ministries dedicate a large proportion of their work time to operational and administrative activities at the expense of analytical and strategic activities. The changes require implementation of reforms within the public administration, which (among other things) will eliminate the existing causes and inhibiting factors regarding the lack of strategic governance in the Czech Republic.</abstract>

Shortfall of Strategic Governance and Strategic Management in the Czech Republic

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Central European Journal of Public Policy

 The Central European Journal of Public Policy (CEJPP) is an open-access, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal with primary focus upon analytical, theoretical and methodological articles in...

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 The Central European Journal of Public Policy (CEJPP) is an open-access, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal with primary focus upon analytical,...