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The purpose of this paper is to quantify the implications of China's recently adopted agricultural policies on domestic and international commodity markets.

A systematic, quantitative analysis is applied to address whether China's recent trade and production policies distort China's domestic and international commodity markets. The paper provides a clear picture of how trade‐restricting policies affect markets using a 42‐country partial equilibrium global dynamic agricultural simulation model.

The paper shows that recent agricultural policy reforms increase China's production slightly, causing imports to decrease while exports decline because of input subsidies, export taxes and the reduction of export value added tax rebates. Domestic prices to consumers decrease in real terms. The effects on world markets are small as the set of policies adopted partially offset each other in the international arena.

The paper indicates that the adoption of the policy reforms lower price levels domestically and benefit lower income urban and rural households, whose diets are largely based on rice and wheat as staple foods. Future model enhancements should include measures of producer and consumer welfare in order to capture the total impacts of policies and policy changes in China.

The paper quantifies the potential implications of the recent agricultural policy reforms in China. This contributes to the investigation of the effects of these policies implemented by the Chinese Government to achieve the country's policy objectives. Owing to the dynamics of China's policy implementation an in‐depth analysis sheds light and contributes to capturing the impacts of policy reforms on the domestic and international markets.

The collision between climate science and climate policy was strikingly manifested during the Bush–Cheney Administration. Based on both the documentary record and direct observation, this chapter reviews multiple means by which the Administration controlled the flow of climate science communication from federal scientists and research programs when Administration officials saw a need to conform science communication with Administration politics. Government secrecy imposed via information control was evident, for example, in the editing of climate program reports; the suppression of official reference to an existing major climate impacts assessment; selective application of control over contacts between government scientists and the media; alteration of congressional testimony; shutting down of government Web sites; “stealth” release of reports to minimize public attention; and concealing a Supreme Court-mandated scientifically based draft document that would have triggered regulation of greenhouse gases to protect public welfare. With these political interventions, the response from the ranks of federal career science managers and research scientists varied, ranging from open criticism, anonymous leaks, and whistleblowing to silence, self-censorship, and active complicity.

The purpose of this paper is to present a first exploration of governmental duty of care towards scientists involved in science diplomacy by focusing on disaster research.

The method is a conceptual exploration, using specific case studies and potential scenarios within theories and practices of science diplomacy and duty of care, to raise questions and to suggest policy recommendations for government. The focus on disaster research links the analysis to disaster diplomacy, namely, how and why disaster-related activities (in this case, science) do and do not influence peace and conflict.

From examining case studies of, and outputs and outcomes from, disaster-related science diplomacy, governments need to consider duty of care issues in advance and develop a science diplomacy strategy, rather than responding after the fact or developing policy ad hoc.

Policy recommendations are provided to try to ensure that governments avoid simply reacting after a crisis, instead being ready for a situation before it arises and drawing on others’ experience to improve their own actions.

Improved interaction between science and society is discussed in the context of diplomacy, especially for disaster-related activities.

Governmental duty of care has not before been applied to science diplomacy. The focus on disaster-related science further provides a comparatively new dimension for science diplomacy.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the image and associated impression of atmosphere created by independent theatres at two fringe festivals namely, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Melbourne Festival Fringe.

The paper contains a content analysis of promotional materials produced by the independent theatres for their involvement in their respective fringe festival.

The atmosphere created is of fringe festivals replete with serious experimental theatrical productions, with independent theatres being the home of alternative ideas and the performers being skilled in the production of the art form.

The atmosphere created by the independent theatres is similar to that projected by the fringe festival overall.

The paper highlights the importance of the fringe festival organisers establishing a strong working relationship with the managers of independent theatres to ensure the most appropriate promotional material is used to attract the desired target audience to the fringe festival.

This paper is of value as most festival‐related literature provides only a passing mention to atmosphere whereas this paper investigates atmosphere in more depth. The paper adds to the limited research on fringe festivals.

Knowledge sharing is a fundamental source of competitive advantage. Social networks are thought to play an important role in knowledge sharing, but are presumed to create a trade-off such that a network can be optimized to promote either knowledge seeking or knowledge transfer, but not both. The trade-off, however, is premised on, and representative of a broader tendency to treat, brokerage and closure as contradictory network forms. We challenge this assertion and propose a theory of knowledge sharing with brokerage and closure as compatible and complementary. Evidence from a contract research and development firm broadly supports our theory. We also report the results of a simulation analysis, which illustrate that only in the extremely rare case when a network is characterized by nearly complete balance do brokerage and closure begin to create a trade-off.

In 1984, Local P‐9 of the United Food and Commercial Worker's Union (UFCW) launched a publicity campaign to protest wage cuts at the George A. Hormel Company of Austin, Minnesota. This corporate campaign was followed in August, 1985, by a bitter strike. After P‐9 had been striking for nearly a year, the international officers of the UFCW placed the local P‐9 union in trusteeship, replaced its officers, and negotiated a new labor contract.

Weather and climate have a strong impact on tourism. However, because meteorological forecast information is considered a public good, people often overlook its market value. This study uses the contingent valuation method (CVM) to evaluate the economic value of a stargazing forecast system and assessed whether such a system would increase the public's willingness to stargaze. The results demonstrate that the economic value of the proposed stargazing forecast system is NT$ 0.2–2.5 billion, and the total value was 0.27–3.5 billion when protest responses are excluded. In addition, a stargazing forecast system could increase the public's willingness to engage in stargazing, indicating that both the system and meteorological information have a tremendous nonmarket value. Accordingly, this study suggests that the government could develop a stargazing forecast system and partner with famous stargazing destinations to popularize stargazing to propel the growth of the tourism industry.

Purpose – This chapter provides an overview of the importance of seeing personal troubles as public issues when examining the mass incarceration of people of color, specifically Black Americans in the United States. A response to the mass incarceration of Black Americans unrooted in a sociological understanding may lead to victim-blaming. This chapter demonstrates how personal problems are often intertwined with public issues. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the importance of shifting blame away from the victim and appropriately addressing systemic challenges.

Methodology/approach – This chapter applies sociological theories to examine high rates of incarceration of people of color that get attributed to personal problems. The authors based the analysis on previous research and governmental reports.

Findings – Sociological theory can offer new solutions to transforming the criminal justice system to alleviate injustices in communities of color. The criminal justice system has negative consequences, but resistance to accepting new ideas perpetuates inequality and limits opportunity for social change. The authors recognize that policy changes must occur at the institutional and structural levels to expose social injustice.

Originality/value – A dearth of research examines the approach of framing personal troubles as public issues to reduce mass incarceration. The authors intend to expand the discourse on how personal troubles intersect with public issues and how the authors must examine mass incarceration as the typical response.