3659 research outputs found
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Resistance Across Borders: Belarusian Civic Activism in Exile under (Trans-)National Repression
Get PDFThe mass protests following the rigged 2020 presidential elections in Belarus led to unprecedented repression, resulting in the liquidation of over 1,600 NGOs, the imprisonment of hundreds of activists, and the displacement of thousands. After relocating, these activists continued to mobilize resources and use digital platforms to sustain and expand their support networks across borders. Urban activists played a pivotal role in this transformation, though they acutely felt the challenges of relocation due to their dependence on physical urban spaces and their ties to support networks and governmental bodies. This paper investigates the challenges faced by urban activists, post-relocation, as well as their resource mobilization strategies, utilizing surveys of 47 Belarusian NGOs and conducting 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with urban development experts. It contributes to the understanding of civic activism in exile, emphasizing the strategic use of resources to reorganize activity and resist transnational repression of authoritarian regimes
Success Factors of the Consultant Selection Stage of the Ghanaian Public Construction Projects: The Road Sector’s Perspective
Get PDFThe success of the Ghanaian public road construction phase and other preconstruction phases have been studied. However, the success of the Ghanaian public road project consultant selection phase has not received any attention, even though it is prone to corruption. The goal of this study is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) that, from the standpoint of a developing country, affect the success of the Ghanaian public road consultant selection phase. Data on the degree to which key success criteria identified in literature have an impact on the success of the Ghanaian public road consultant selection phase from the viewpoints of 156 sector practitioners in Ghana were acquired using a self-administered questionnaire. After that, the relative importance index was used to analyze the data. According to the study, external environmental, project management, and procurement-related factors influence the success of the Ghanaian public road consultant selection phase. The government and organizations that administer public construction projects will now have a better grasp of the CSFs that affect the performance of the Ghanaian public road construction project consultant selection phase and be able to use them as a guide to improving the effective and efficient delivery of public road construction projects. In managing public road projects, the study\u27s findings will be useful to both industry professionals and the Ghanaian government. The study is limited to the consultant selection phase of Ghanaian public road construction projects.
Keywords: Critical success factors, construction, consultant selection phase, construction management, relative importance index
Gentrification-related buyouts and sustainable public low-income housing delivery in Lagos, Nigeria
Get PDFThe dynamics of neo-liberalised housing market skew distribution against low-income earners who have to be assisted with varying degrees of subsidies for equity. In Nigeria, this results in building public housing estates for low-Income earners. This group form the bulk of the society, running the wheels of economic and productive processes in any urbanisation. As an indicator of the success of such subsidy regime, this study explored the extent to which the targeted poor had permanently benefited, taking Surulere Rehousing Estate (Scheme I) in Lagos, Nigeria as case study being typical of low-income Estates in Lagos. The study explored both primary and secondary data sources. A sample of 251 was systematically taken from the estate’s household population of 1,356 for service of structured questionnaire. The questions centred on identified variables of gentrification and related buyouts. The data were processed with SPSS version 20.0 with the outcome in descriptive statistics. The study detected 53.4% buyout rate aside from 11.2% rental cases, especially because of locational advantages including central accessibility of the estate to most parts of Lagos City-State. Most historic low-income allottees, assisted with subsidy had largely yielded ownership and possession to other higher socio-economic class. These confirm that the initial subsidy had largely ended up in the wrong pockets of a class which could ordinarily afford housing without it. The study has highlighted the possible futility and therefore, non-sustainability of public policy efforts at subsidising low-income housing in its current form, in Lagos Nigeria. Administrative, legal and possible taxation measures were proffered for sustainable subsidy practice in future projects
Stroke Community Rehabilitation Centre (SCORE): A community transformation program
Get PDFStroke is the second most prevalent disease in Malaysia, so promoting awareness of stroke is essential as it is preventable and treatable if action is prompt. Long-term rehabilitation at the community level is also crucial to reducing congestion in acute care hospitals. Hence, establishing an evidence-based community rehabilitation centre would help educate the community and support the welfare of stroke survivors.
This article discusses a community-engagement initiative launched by experts from University Malaya Rehabilitation Medicine in partnership with Pusat Pemulihan Kesihatan (PERKIM), a religious and social welfare organisation in Malaysia, to transform an existing non-functional community centre run by PERKIM into the Stroke Community Rehabilitation Centre (SCORE). This was achieved through the provision of expert input into how to improve service provision, knowledge transfer to the community, and implementation of more thematic and creative components to the model of care currently offered. Importantly, under this new model, stroke survivors and the wider community would be considered learners and active participants in their own care, not mere passive recipients of charity.
Since its inception in 2016, the number of patients has almost doubled, increasing to over 100. Thus, the Stroke Community Rehabilitation Centre benefits the stroke community by providing resources and education to facilitate recovery at a reduced cost to hospital-based care. With its adherence to the recommended features of the community-based rehabilitation model, as outlined by WHO, the success of SCORE is an exemplary model for future stroke community rehabilitation centres in Malaysia
Complicated Pasts, Promising Futures: Public History on the Island of Ireland
Get PDFThis overview article explores the nature of public history on the island of Ireland, discussing current trends in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Family history and digital history are highly popular ways of engaging with the past, both on the island and among the Irish diaspora, who have a voracious appetite for engaging with their heritage. Given that the island contains a postcolonial society (Republic of Ireland) and a post-conflict one (Northern Ireland) attention is given to the ways that these difficult pasts are engaged with by communities, through examining the histories of Mother and Baby Homes, The Troubles, and dark tourism. This article also briefly comments on who is involved in public history. Academic historians are engaged at state and local levels, and are often turned to as experts in the field, but grassroots public history projects which offer participatory ways of doing history are growing. This article emphasizes the high levels of engagement Irish and Northern Irish publics have with their history, however, it also suggests that public history as a radical method of ‘doing history’ is still in its relative infancy.  
Prosuming History in China: a Paradigm Shift
Get PDFA diverse and dynamic range of public histories has emerged and rapidly evolved in China during the past two decades. Why do such amateurish, mostly unpaid forms of history possess such a mobilizing effect upon ordinary Chinese people? This article addresses public history in China from the perspective of prosumption, and argues for a new model of historical inquiry from four key respects, i.e., the goal, process, means, and structure. Prosuming history, a fresh social fact, a consciously collective phenomenon, an intricate code system of signs, has initiated a paradigm shift in the field of history in China
Social Responsibility of Construction Company as Strategy for Sustainability in Island Territories
Get PDFIn the last years, the increase in urbanization and the volume of construction has accelerated. This situation requires systematizing the use of limited resources, especially in island territories. The construction sector contributes to the depletion of these resources and has a significant impact on society, which is why it is necessary to change its strategy and decision-making. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may be the strategy to develop a socio-environmentally responsible production model that replaces the traditional model. A socially responsible construction company closes the cycles of construction materials, gives value to the waste generated, minimizes the impact that buildings have on the environment, makes responsible use of energy and water, uses innovations to improve the process and adequately manages its human resources. The aim of this work is to analyze the socially responsible behavior of companies in the construction sector in a limited and fragmented territory as is the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and to compare the importance that companies give to actions (environmental, social and economic) of CSR depending on whether they have been implemented or there are plans to implement them in the future. Quantitative and qualitative tools are used. The results indicate that aspects related to environmental sensitivity and social contribution contribute to a greater extent to the implementation of a CSR strategy, while economic aspects have a negative influence. In the case of companies that plan to implement a CSR strategy in the future, the aspect related to social contribution is the most influential
The Full SPECTRUM: Developing a Tripartite Partnership between Community, Government and Academia for Collaborative Social Policy Research
Get PDFProblem: In Canadian society, public policies guide the development and administration of social services and systems, including the public education system, the justice system, family services, social housing and income support. However, because social services are often planned and implemented in a ‘siloed’ manner, coordination and collaboration across departments, sectors and organisations is sorely lacking. Data and resource constraints may prevent services being evaluated to ensure they meet the needs of the people for whom they are intended. When the needs of individuals are not addressed, the result is poor outcomes and wasted resources across multiple areas.Our Response: In 2018, we formed the SPECTRUM Partnership in response to a recognised need for collaborative cross-sector approaches to strengthening the policies that shape social services and systems in our country. The tripartite SPECTRUM partnership comprises representatives from community organisations, government and academia, and is an entity designed to conduct social policy research and evaluation, incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives and expertise from its members. Guided by community-driven research questions and building on existing data resources, SPECTRUM seeks to address specific knowledge gaps in social programs, services and systems. New research findings are then translated into viable public policy options, in alignment with government priorities, and presented to policy-makers for consideration.Implications: In this practice-based article, we describe the key steps we took to create the SPECTRUM partnership, build our collective capacity for research and evaluation, and transform our research findings into actionable evidence to support sound public policy. We outline four of SPECTRUM’s achievements to date in the hope that the lessons we learned during the development of the partnership may serve as a guide for others aiming to optimise public policy development in a collaborative evidence-based way
‘Can you put down your mission and plug into mine?’ How place-based initiatives leverage collaborations with academic institutions to enhance their ABCD and CBR potential
Get PDFPlace-Based Initiatives (PBIs) involve efforts to mobilise and coordinate local resources, services and expertise across multiple organisations and sectors in order to strengthen the social, structural, physical and economic conditions of historically disinvested neighbourhoods. While promising, these initiatives have had some documented challenges, and some are leveraging partnerships with academic institutions to address those challenges. In this article, we explore perspectives of leaders and staff from three PBI organisations in Charlotte, NC to better understand the benefits of PBI-academic partnerships and the conditions under which they are most effective. Thematic analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews revealed that PBIs leverage partnerships with academic institutions to accomplish two key goals. First, these partnerships stimulate asset- based community development (ABCD) by connecting community organisations and neighbourhood residents with academic resources and by strengthening PBI service delivery. Second, some partnerships give rise to community-based research efforts that help address external accountability challenges and inform PBI programming. The findings also illuminated several pitfalls in academic-PBI partnerships, sometimes rooted in conflicting priorities and approaches of academic researchers and non-profit practitioners. Finally, insights delineate key recommendations for improving PBI-academic collaborations, including countering academic exploitation by plugging into PBIs’ mission and respecting PBI expertise
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