Description

Journal of Policy and Society (JPS) is a fully open access peer-reviewed journal covering a broad range of topics in Public Policy and Administration. It publishes themed sections that encourage in-depth, critical analyses of specific policy areas. The journal welcomes scholarly papers - both theoretical and empirical - which analyse any aspect of social policy and its relationships with society from different angles. Contributions on teaching and learning issues within the discipline are also welcome.

Latest Articles

  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 2284

    Energy research in a pluralistic system: Bibliometric analysis of SA publications

    by Anastassios Pouris

    Journal of Policy and Society, Vol.3, No.2, 2025;

    This article presents the results of a bibliometric analysis of South African energy publications during the period 2011 to 2021. Bibliometric analyses have the potential to reveal policy issues that cannot be identified easily through other approaches (e.g., peer review). Several findings are important for policy. It is identified that a substantial number of the energy publications produced by South Africans are proceedings papers. Identification of the main funders leads to the assumption that the National Research Foundation funding for conferences has led to the overproduction of proceedings. The most prolific producers of energy research produce approximately the same number of publications. Energy research is distributed to a large number of universities in the country. It is suggested that this may create diseconomies of scale. Comparisons of the organizational outputs of the South African organizations with international entities identify that the country’s organizations are subcritical. Analysis of the international collaborative patterns of energy identifies that collaboration is very light in comparison to collaborative patterns of all disciplines. It is noted that researchers moved towards renewable technologies even though there is no relevant support from the government. The investigation identifies that bibliometrics is a powerful approach for monitoring and evaluating disciplines within systems of innovation.

    show more
  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 2200

    A decade retrospect of Chinese education in the Belt and Road Initiative: Achievements, experiences, and challenges

    by Jinpeng Niu

    Journal of Policy and Society, Vol.3, No.2, 2025;

    Education plays a key role in the Belt and Road Initiative in the new era. Over the past decade, education has promoted the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, constructing a multilateral cooperation mechanism led by the government and dominated by universities, facilitating the training of talents in participating countries, fostering cultural exchanges among countries along the Belt and Road, and developing diversified educational assistance models. Meanwhile, certain experiences have been accumulated, such as implementing province-ministry cooperation and leveraging local advantages, maintaining the opening of education to the outside world and building a higher education community, optimizing the governance system and promoting the internationalization of vocational education, as well as emphasizing the integration of strengths and exploring new models of international educational assistance. However, there are also numerous challenges, such as the need to overcome institutional obstacles of higher education systems among countries along the Belt and Road, the need to deepen educational cooperation and exchange between the participating countries, the need to enhance the level of China’s opening of education to the outside world, and the need to further optimize the “going global” strategy of China’s vocational education. Going forward, countries along the Belt and Road should seek to identify the convergence point of common interest and the greatest common divisor in educational cooperation and exchange, thereby contributing to the steady and long-term progress of the Belt and Road Initiative.

    show more
  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 2800

    Global Solutions & Outreach Programs: Humanity’s best chance to resolve global warming, Part 1: Global warming challenges

    by Richard W. Hutchinson, Thomas E. Rehm

    Journal of Policy and Society, Vol.3, No.1, 2025;

    In June 2024, the world’s largest standalone public opinion poll covering 77 countries, Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024, reported that “89% of people [want] to see more climate action from their governments”. That is all well and good. However, how are policymakers being informed on the viability of climate solutions? Policymakers are typically not engineers or scientists. They must rely on others for advice. Many who provide that advice are influenced by four types of bias: Corporate vested interests, career vested interests, public passions, and political agendas. In combination with business-as-usual, these biases are destroying humanity’s chances of resolving global warming. They are detrimentally affecting current global projects to resolve global warming. To mitigate these biases, the Global Solutions and Outreach Programs (GSOP) proposal will be undertaken by multiple teams of engineers, economists, social experts, and policy experts within each country, using a Wicked-Problem Approach. This work will be done outside of, yet informing, governments, the marketplace, and public opinion. Country action plans will be rolled up to regional and global levels. The GSOP work will be iterated until the global action plan provides a resolution of global warming at the scale of Earth. Part 1 describes the challenges we face and a problem-solving approach to resolving it. Part 2 will describe our GSOP proposal using that approach.

    show more
  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 2457

    Current trends in the development of the Russian economy as a challenge to vocational higher education

    by Valeria Valeryevna Semenova, Ekaterina Anatolyevna Svistunova, Yuri Vasilyevich Egorov, Vladimir Vladimirovich Mazur, Ivan Sergeevich Petukhov

    Journal of Policy and Society, Vol.3, No.1, 2025;

    The article is an analysis of the current directions of development of the Russian economy in the context of sanctions pressure from technologically developed countries (countries of opponents). Sanctions restrictions determine many areas of the development of socio-economic processes in Russian society, acting as a kind of catalyst for the formation of technological sovereignty, rethinking their own capabilities to ensure national interests, and the formation of national mental security. The conditions in which the Russian economy has to develop represent a strategically important transition from the state of consumption of technological innovations that were proposed by the global external environment to the state of creation, production and scaling of its own technological solutions that determine the prospect of strengthening national technological and intellectual sovereignty. The innovative development of the Russian economy in the context of severe restrictions on world interaction and equal exchange of knowledge and resources requests national human capital, since it is he who is the key strategic resource that determines state competitiveness in the field of creating and developing current technological innovations that can provide and maintain the necessary pace of socio-economic development, as well as strengthen intellectual and technological sovereignty. In order for the national human capital to be able to provide the necessary level of socio-economic development in extreme conditions, high-quality vocational education is needed in the course of which highly qualified specialists of a new generation are formed with a set of knowledge, competencies, skills and personal qualities that can ensure technological sovereignty, mental security of the state and effective implementation of national interests.

    show more
  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 2505

    Research on the change of China’s elderly service policies—An empirical analysis based on 117 policy texts

    by Sujun Liu

    Journal of Policy and Society, Vol.3, No.1, 2025;

    Population aging has emerged as a significant global concern. This article analyzes 117 policy texts in China since the reform and opening-up, borrowing Rothwell and Zegveld’s classic policy instrument theory to create a two-dimensional analysis framework. The X-dimension of the framework represents the three fundamental policy tools of supply, environment, and demand, while the Y-dimension consists of internal elements such as service subjects, service targets, service content and methods, and guarantee measures. Using this framework, the elderly service policies are categorized into three stages: the budding stage, the developing stage, and the perfecting stage. The study finds that China’s elderly service policies are primarily driven by environment-type tools, with supply-type and demand-type tools serving as secondary tools. The policy system is structurally imbalanced as a result. Over the long term, the trend is towards an increasing number of issuing subjects for Chinese elderly service policies. Moreover, the number of policies jointly issued by different departments is gradually increasing, and the issuing subjects are becoming increasingly diverse. The positioning of responsibilities among government, market, society, and family has been optimized, and the role of the government is becoming more rationalized.

    show more
  • Open Access

    Article

    Article ID: 2278

    Digitalization’s role in energy demand and renewable energy integration: Evidence from BRICS + countries

    by Samet Gursoy

    Journal of Policy and Society, Vol.3, No.1, 2025;

    This research examines the effect of digitalization on energy consumption and the integration of renewable energy in the energy mix in BRICHS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia) from 2015 to 2023. Panel regression models, including the fixed effects model and the random effects model, were employed to analyze within-country and between country variations. The Hausman test confirmed the appropriateness of the fixed effects model for country-specific analysis. Cointegration tests, such as the Pedroni Panel Cointegration Test and the Kao Residual Cointegration Test, were used to evaluate long-term equilibrium relationships, while Granger causality tests were conducted to identify directional relationships. Robustness checks included the Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity and the Durbin Watson test for serial correlation, ensuring the reliability of the findings. The findings reveal that digitalization contributes to intensive energy consumption, particularly in fossil fuel-rich countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia. However, countries such as Brazil and China interpret this situation differently due to their significant levels of installed renewable energy capacity, which partially offsets the impact of digitalization on energy demand. Furthermore, the increasing use of mobile data has replaced mobile broadband infrastructure in India, a rapidly digitizing economy, mitigating the energy-intensive nature of broadband systems. Thus, this study highlights the need for a balanced view of digitalization, such that technology fosters a sustainable energy transition rather than undermines it. The integration of digitalization with sustainable energy policies offers a greater chance of realizing benefits, minimizing environmental impacts, and achieving a seamless energy transition. This duality presents a significant challenge for policymakers in balancing energy transitions and underscores the need for strategies that maximize the benefits of digitalization while minimizing its adverse effects on energy consumption.

    show more
View All Issues