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Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda Setting
Abstract
The policy literature often mentions the agenda-setting influence of focusing events, but few policy studies systematically examine the dynamics of these events. This article closes this gap by examining focusing events, group mobilization and agenda-setting. Using natural disasters and industrial accidents as examples, most focusing events change the dominant issues on the agenda in a policy domain, they can lead to interest group mobilization, and groups often actively seek to expand or contain issues after a focusing event. I explain how differences in the composition of policy communities and the nature of the events themselves influence group and agenda dynamics. The organization of policy communities is an important factor in agenda setting, but agenda setting and group politics vary considerably with the type of event and the nature of the policy community.
... Three objectives are addressed in this paper. First, it establishes natural hazards as acute stressors that impose both immediate and long-term demands on affected communities [2,8]; second, it clarifies the distinction between natural hazards and disasters; and third, it frames disasters as focusing events that create post-disaster opportunities for building resilience [16][17][18][19][20]. As such, this paper advocates for a paradigmatic shift in disaster planning and design-one that prioritizes strengthening the sense of coherence in individuals and communities. ...
... Kingdon's idea of focusing events suggests that certain occurrences, such as disasters, can rapidly push issues to the forefront of policy agendas [16,17,49]. Disasters often serve as powerful focusing events because they expose existing policy inadequacies or gaps, create a sense of urgency for immediate action, attract significant media and public attention, and create opportunities for policy entrepreneurs to advocate for change [16,17]. ...
... Kingdon's idea of focusing events suggests that certain occurrences, such as disasters, can rapidly push issues to the forefront of policy agendas [16,17,49]. Disasters often serve as powerful focusing events because they expose existing policy inadequacies or gaps, create a sense of urgency for immediate action, attract significant media and public attention, and create opportunities for policy entrepreneurs to advocate for change [16,17]. ...
“Whence the strength?” This compelling question, posed by Aaron Antonovsky in 1979, sets the stage for understanding the role of sense of coherence (SOC), a human-focused psychosocial concept, in fostering resilience amidst escalating climate-induced disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. This paper is the first step in a larger research agenda aimed at exploring how the human experience of disasters, guided by Antonovsky’s SOC framework, can be better integrated into disaster recovery planning and design, laying the theoretical foundation for subsequent studies. This paper examines which supports help people stay resilient during disasters, focusing on the role of SOC in recovery. By integrating Antonovsky’s SOC concept with Hobfoll’s Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, it also draws from other published works on stress and disaster recovery to explore how disaster recovery planning and design can be improved. The findings indicate that the post-disaster recovery phase presents a critical window for implementing policies that address vulnerabilities in disaster-prone communities and enhance long-term resilience. Methodologically, this paper advocates for an interdisciplinary approach, suggesting that both quantitative and qualitative insights are vital for capturing human experiences in disaster contexts. Ultimately, this paper presents a framework for integrating human dimensions of resilience into disaster recovery planning.
... We synthesize several theoretical insights and present a Fickle Prosocial Violence Response (FPVR) model to explain how violence against marginalized groups may elicit prosocial attitudes toward targeted groups. Although the mass public may not strongly empathize with marginalized minority groups (Cikara et al. 2014), violence against marginalized groups may elicit prosocial attitudes if the violence is salient, perceptibly illegitimate, and the media and/or elites respond sympathetically (Birkland 1998;Branscombe and Miron 2004;Harth, Kessler, and Leach 2008;Iyengar 1994;Vossen, Piotrowski, and Valkenburg 2017). However, prosocial attitude adoption may be short-term. ...
... Third, our analysis contributes to the Focusing Event literature (Birkland 1998). Prior research shows salient events shift mass attitudes, but briefly because of eventual salience loss (Birkland and Lawrence 2009;Sigelman et al. 1997). ...
... One expectation is that indirect exposure to onesided violence may not motivate prosocial beliefs. Insufficient media coverage and attention to violent events may not produce agenda-setting effects mobilizing prosocial mass attitudes (Birkland 1998). Additionally, Social Identity Theory (SIT) implies dominant group members garner self-esteem from minority group marginalization (Tajfel and Turner 1982). ...
We present a Fickle Prosocial Violence Response Model to explain how indirect exposure to civilian-perpetrated violence against marginalized minority groups motivates prosocial attitudes toward victimized groups. Although the mass public may not sympathize with marginalized groups, they may adopt prosocial attitudes toward marginalized groups subject to civilian-perpetrated violence if the violence is salient and perceptibly illegitimate. However, the adoption of prosocial attitudes may be fickle. We find evidence consistent with the model. Studies 1–3 show that high-profile violence against LGBTQ+ people increases support for LGBTQ+ rights and reduces negative attitudes toward LGBTQ+ group members. But, the adoption of prosocial attitudes is short-term. Study 4 shows that less salient violence against LGBTQ+ people may not engender prosocial attitudes at the outset. Our findings suggest that violent events must be sufficiently salient to initially motivate prosocial beliefs. Nevertheless, salient civilian-perpetrated violence against marginalized groups may not sustainably motivate prosocial beliefs toward targeted groups.
... Over the last two decades, questions about the relationship between disruption and the policy process have inspired rich public policy literature. The Anthropocene rift has, however, given renewed urgency to discuss the extent to which established theory centred on path dependency (Howlett, 2009), incrementalism (Lindblom, 1959), punctuated equilibrium (Jones and Baumgartner, 2005;Birkland, 1997Birkland, , 1998Collier and Collier, 1991;Hall, 1993) and gradual shift (Mahoney, 2000;Mahoney and Thelen, 2010), is still relevant as a policy analysis tool (cf. B� eland and Powell, 2016;Yuda, 2023Yuda, , 2024. ...
... Likewise, a reworking of institutional orders, which can only be performed within the window of opportunity known as a "critical juncture", "allow[ing] policy entrepreneurs to seize the opportunities it offers [s]" (Bali et al., 2022, p. 93). A critical juncture is a situation where a particular choice is made between two or more alternatives (Jones and Baumgartner, 2005;Birkland, 1997Birkland, , 1998Collier and Collier, 1991;Hall, 1993). ...
Purpose
For over two decades, diverse social sciences disciplines have placed the Anthropocene among the key factors influencing contemporary ontological and epistemological advancements. However, social policy research and literature focus little on the Anthropocene discussion loop. This article, therefore, discusses how debates on the Anthropocene unfold in social policy understanding and practices; and how they challenge core premises in the path-dependence model on which policy processes are explained.
Design/methodology/approach
With a brief reflection on social and public policy studies, we summarise the core literature from the debates regarding the Anthropocene. In this regard, we revisited established policy school traditions that, to our knowledge, have never yet provided a solid basis for responding to the epoch of the Anthropocene rift around the globe.
Findings
The Anthropocene crisis is characterised by constantly evolving social-ecological problems that lack fixed reference points for ending. However, globally, social policy decisions remain bound by conventional practices and ways of thinking developed in static, path-dependency-oriented institutional models. These models and practices ignore the “non-human world”, which has become a central threat to human civilisation and its institutions. As a counter to discourse hegemony, we then present an alternative ontology and epistemology that can navigate uncertainty and socio-ecological relationality, primarily linked to the proposed idea of path-situational. We also emphasise the need for co-production governance that involves meaningful collaboration among various stakeholders within policy-making.
Originality/value
This article contributes to the literature on the intersection between social policy and Anthropocene issues by offering a new narrative that embraces uncertainty and a more assertive political ontology in describing the actual and objective conditions of the crisis. Our argument evolves around two well-established fields of social and public policy scholarship: policy process, policy paradigm and policy practices for outlining future ontological and epistemological elements of policy studies that require researchers and policymaking to move away from static territories (such as path dependency or gradualism) and towards a more dynamic one.
... Disasters can be focusing events, bringing together new coalitions of actors, and fostering positive change in disaster preparedness and safety efforts (Birkland 1998). Public perceptions of disasters such as the 2023 earthquake are shaped in part by media coverage. ...
The February 2023 Türkiye–Syria Earthquake had a profound impact on political, economic, and social life in Türkiye. Despite criticism about government disaster response, the government of Türkiye won an election 3 months later. We examine variance in media coverage of government disaster responses with Structural Topic Modeling of 12,268 articles in five pro‐ and anti‐government newspapers in Türkiye (Anadolu Ajansi, Hurriyet, Sozcu, Cumhuriyet, and Posta) between the February earthquake and the May election. We identify five general topical themes in the data: emotion, science, information provision, government response, and the economy. We conduct sentiment analysis and find little direct criticism of the government's responses, although anti‐government newspapers are more negative on topics related to building structures and damage. The general pattern of positive sentiment among all newspapers regarding government responses to the earthquake may help us understand why the disaster was not as consequential for the election outcome as some observers expected.
... A critical or urgent event sometimes triggers the opening of a policy window. On the other hand, an open policy window occurs due to events such as periodic elections or budget deadlines [4]. Moreover, in certain circumstances, specific actors within the policy subsystem can utilize these policy windows to advance engagement on issues they are passionate about [18]. ...
Indonesia Social Forestry Program was first implemented on the island of Java in the area of the State Forestry Company (Perhutani). “Social forestry” initiatives are emerging to integrate local communities into forest governance. Perhutani implemented the Managing Forest with Community (PHBM) program and formed a Forest Village Community (LMDH) institution. The main aim of this program is to improve the welfare of forest farming communities through tree planting, intercropping, and animal husbandry activities. However, after four decades of implementing the social forestry program, up to fifteen years after the implementation of PHBM, it is considered that it has not answered the challenges of Java’s forests, such as access, poverty in communities around the forest, the ecological crisis, and conflicts over forest area management. In 2017, the Indonesian government introduced a new social forestry scheme in the Perhutani working area, known as the “Social Forestry Forest Utilization Permit” (IPHPS). This research utilizes a qualitative approach, collecting primary and secondary data. This study discusses why and how new social forestry (IPHPS) became part of the government policy agenda. Using the Multiple Streams Framework, this study found complex dynamics surrounding the policy formulation process, leading to the formulation of win-win policies that attempt to cover diverse interests. The political stream is dominant in converging problem and policy streams. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry, acting as a Policy Entrepreneur, utilized the policy window to formulate the IPHPS policy framework and sought to convince other policy actors. This study showed that public issues involving political interests tend to capture attention quickly. Furthermore, it showed that public policy formulation is fraught with contesting various stakeholders’ interests.
... Fonte: Elaborado pelo autor, de acordo com IRaMuTeQ, versão 0.7 Alpha 2 (Ratinaud, 2018;Fernandes, 2023b;Palhares, 2023 (Birkland, 1998;Martirani;Peres, 2016;McCombs;Shaw, 2017 Quadro 5 -Institucional -UNICAMP. O volume de chuva fora do comum em cidades do litoral norte de São Paulo entre a noite de sábado (18) e a manhã deste domingo (19) pode ser classificado como um "evento climático extremo", segundo a meteorologista Ana Avila, do Centro de Pesquisas Meteorológicas da Unicamp. ...
Este estudo analisa as narrativas presentes na cobertura jornalística da Folha de São Paulo sobre as tragédias climáticas que assolaram o litoral norte de São Paulo em fevereiro de 2023. Motivado pela necessidade de compreender como a comunicação midiática representa e influencia a percepção pública de desastres ambientais, especialmente em contextos de vulnerabilidade social e climática, o trabalho objetiva analisar o discurso jornalístico, identificando as diferentes perspectivas (população, instituições e governos) sobre os eventos e sua relação com as mudanças climáticas. Utilizando a análise de discurso como metodologia, foram analisados 21 artigos do jornal Folha de São Paulo, publicados entre 20 e 26 de fevereiro de 2023, categorizados em três grupos: atitudes (população afetada), instituições (órgãos governamentais e especialistas) e estruturas (nível político-administrativo). A análise do corpus textual, por meio do software IRaMuTeQ, revelou que a percepção dominante nas narrativas se concentra no luto, nas perdas materiais e na falta de preparação para o desastre. Embora as mudanças climáticas sejam mencionadas, elas não constituem o foco principal das narrativas. A ausência de planos de contingência eficazes, a fragilidade das estruturas de alerta e a vulnerabilidade social da população afetada são temas recorrentes, demonstrando a necessidade de políticas públicas mais eficazes e integradas na prevenção e mitigação de desastres socioambientais. Conclui-se que a análise do discurso demonstra a urgência de aprimorar a comunicação de risco, promovendo a conscientização sobre os perigos climáticos e a importância da preparação, não apenas em termos de infraestrutura, mas também em termos de conscientização e capacitação da população.
... In democracies, policy change is more likely after collective recognition of a crisis, often triggered by focusing events that provide political openings for existing policy communities that have already recognized remedies 41,48 . Unlike the myriad of climate change-enhanced extreme events (for example, intense heat waves and flooding, widespread wildfires and protracted droughts) that provide a near constant supply of proximal, imminent, crisis-generating potential focusing events, climate tipping points are generally abstract and hard to recognize while they are occurring. ...
Objectives: The police killing of George Floyd energized the Black Lives Matter (BLM) social movement across the United States in the summer of 2020. We test the impact on public perceptions of the fairness and legitimacy of the police and law. Methods: A four-state, three-wave, short-term longitudinal study ( N = 1048; Arizona, Michigan, New York, and Texas) used a novel design focused on differences in change over time to test whether public perceptions changed after the killing of Floyd. Results: Fielding multiple outcome markers, as well as multiple pseudo-placebo comparison variables, we found that perceptions of police procedural justice, distributive justice, and bounded authority, as well as perceptions of the legitimacy of the police and law, declined following Floyd's murder. Levels of trust in science, identification with healthcare workers, and collective efficacy perceptions did not change. As discussed in the paper, the effects varied by participants’ political views. Conclusions: The police killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests seemed to have damaged attitudes towards police and the law.
V članku se bomo osredinili na operacionalizacijo definicije antropogenega fokusnega dogodka za kontekst Slovenije. Koncept fokusnega dogodka je oblikoval Kingdon (1984), nadalje pa ga je razvil Birkland (1997, 2006). Oba avtorja sta koncept razvijala v kontekstu ZDA, ki se od Slovenije razlikuje v več pomembnih vidikih, kar ima lahko pomemben vpliv na raziskovanje z uporabo tega koncepta v Sloveniji. V okviru članka bomo rekonstruirali in operacionalizirali pojem fokusnega dogodka. Definicijo pojma bomo oblikovali na podlagi javnopolitične definicije fokusnega dogodka (slovenska zakonodaja) in akademske definicije fokusnega dogodka (Birkland, 1997). Rezultat bo definicija antropogenega fokusnega dogodka, ki bo dovolj natančna in specifična za raziskovanje na področju Slovenije.
Challenges the common assumption that policy analysts engage in a purely objective technical assessment of policy alternatives. This book argues that what analysts really do is produce policy arguments that are based on value judgements and are used by policymakers in the course of public debate.
Agenda building is the process through which demands of various groups in a population are translated into issues which vie for the attention of decision makers (formal agenda) and/or the public (public agenda). This paper presents three models for the comparative study of agenda building. The outside initiative model describes groups with minimal prior access to decision makers, who must consequently first expand their issues to a public agenda before they can hope to reach the formal agenda. The mobilization model accounts for issues which are placed on the formal agenda by political leaders, who subsequently attempt to expand these issues to the public agenda to obtain the support required for implementation. The inside access model refers to leaders, or to those having close contact with these leaders, who seek to place issues on the formal agenda directly, and for whom expansion to the public agenda is both unnecessary and undesirable.
Propositions are stated about intergroup variation in patterns of agenda building within societies; about variations in success rates for different strategies and probabilities of occurrence for the three models in different types of societies; and about characteristics of the agenda-building process which hold in all three models and in any social setting.
There has been considerable interest in the development of theories of public policy formation, but theoretical efforts to date have not demonstrated adequate recognition of the distinctive qualities of the dependent variable as a focus of research. Facets of public policy are far more difficult to study systematically than most other phenomena investigated empirically by political scientists. Our attempt to test hypotheses with some rigor demonstrated that public policy becomes troublesome as a research focus because of inherent complexity--specifically because of the temporal nature of the process, the multiplicity of participants and of policy provisions, and the contingent nature of theoretical effects. We use examples of policy making taken from the case study literature to show concretely how such complexity makes it essentially impossible to test apparently significant hypotheses as they are presented by Lowi, Dahl, Banfield, and others. Our effort here is to enhance theoretical development by carefully specifying and clarifying the major shortcomings and pointing out the apparent directions of remedy.
Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more warnings and safeguards--fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. He asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. (At Chernobyl, tests of a new safety system helped produce the meltdown and subsequent fire.) By recognizing two dimensions of risk--complex versus linear interactions, and tight versus loose coupling--this book provides a powerful framework for analyzing risks and the organizations that insist we run them. The first edition fulfilled one reviewer's prediction that it "may mark the beginning of accident research." In the new afterword to this edition Perrow reviews the extensive work on the major accidents of the last fifteen years, including Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Challenger disaster. The new postscript probes what the author considers to be the "quintessential 'Normal Accident'" of our time: the Y2K computer problem.