1,720,963 research outputs found
Network structure, institutional frameworks, and social change : the case of nonprofits that support asylum seekers in Ireland
No full textTHESIS 11350The steep rise in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland since the late 1990s has presented a novel set of challenges to the Republic?s nonprofit sector. Legal instruments and statutory policy that have developed since that time have created a particularly vulnerable population from this set of newcomers. The system of direct provision and dispersal, in combination with the trauma and hardship that is part and parcel of seeking international protection, creates a population with a diverse and at times extreme set of needs, which nonprofit organisations across the country seek to address. Coordination among the nonprofits that support asylums seekers is a necessary, but not trivial, undertaking. This field consists of a combination of new organisations and organisations that support asylum seekers as a part of the wider population. Their work towards social change, whether through service that supports asylum seekers individually or advocacy that addresses their needs and rights as a group, faces two major challenges. One the one hand, these organisations work in tandem with the state in service provision, while on the other hand, the state and its policies are their primary focus in advocating for change. Additionally, divergent stakeholder interests create tensions in the field. These challenges raise the question of how nonprofits in this field manage their conflicting social roles as well as the question of how they hope to change the very social context in which they work. Collaboration in the field creates opportunities to share information and resources as well as to create new ways of working to support asylum seekers. The social network structures and institutionalised meanings that condition collaboration shed light on how these relationships enable and constrain social change. Therefore, this thesis undertakes to answer the following question: How do collaborative relationships, particularly the social network structures and institutional frameworks that constitute them, enable and constrain social change in the field of nonprofits that support asylum seekers in Ireland? This thesis draws on existing social network theory and neo-institutional theory of organisations in order to illustrate the meso-level social order of network structure and institutionalised meaning that conditions social change and micro social interactions. From this vantage point, it is possible to observe the emergence of social change from microlevel interactions. Meanwhile, the neo-institutional theory of social skill animates an otherwise static social infrastructure by drawing attention to actors? creative use of the structures and meanings that undergird their collaborations. As a result, this research provides a multi-level framework for analysing the emergence of social change in a field of organisations. The data for this study were collected through a mixed methods social network approach, which included a quantitative whole network study and qualitative personal network interviews with the members of two case study organisations. An online questionnaire garnered network structures as well as descriptive statistics from the entirety of the field. Then, computer-assisted personal network interviews with the members of both a national and a local hub organisation revealed the institutionalised understandings and roles that pattern social action in the field. In conjunction, these two data sources offer a holistic view of the structures and meanings that condition relationships and shape the possibilities of social change. This study contributes to the growing body of mixed methods social network literature by offering the theoretical and methodological grounds to observe and theorise social action within the confines of relationship structures. This study also demonstrates the value of embedding personal network interviews within a field-wide network study in order to create a multi-level view of the mechanisms of social change, inclusive of relationships that extend beyond the field in question. The results of this study demonstrate that creative actors take advantage of differences in the field while they encourage unity through network structure and institutional meaning. Divergent structures that emerge from service and advocacy collaborative relationships encourage diversity in service provision and unity in advocacy efforts, respectively. Meanwhile, templates for interorganisational collaboration underscore differences between organisations and offer common grounds for joint working. Within the case study organisations, institutionalised understandings of the work at hand as either rights- or needs-based constrain the network location of each organisation and create institutional space for potentially conflicting activities. Seeming contradictions between the service and advocacy roles and across stakeholder interests present opportunities for actors to access and generate new resources and institutions. Members of case study organisations bring this same skilful opportunism to the institutionalised constraints generated by other fields, namely the state and funders. Creative responses across relationships within and beyond the field demonstrate that social change emerges from conscious efforts to create, bolster, and diminish the existing social order as necessary
Networks of democracy : lessons from Kosovo for Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond /
No full textIn 1999, the United Nations embarked on a massive intervention in Kosovo. This book compares the fate of two adjacent municipalities two years into that intervention. Though similar in all key respects, by 2001 the municipalities were headed down markedly different paths& one making progress toward institution-building, democratization, and reconstruction, the other stagnating. Drawing on extensive field research, the author shows that the successful municipality was able to bring together international organizations and local populations as part of a & network& organization. The lack of progress in the second municipality was due to the same organizations staying behind bureaucratic walls, and keeping local populations at a distance. In both municipalities, information and communication technologies contributed in surprising ways to the success or failure of the international efforts. This book has relevance for interventions around the world, most obviously for the challenging situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the author develops policy recommendations in the concluding section. No other book on nation-building or democratization examines the daily behavior in an international intervention to answer the big question: How do you get from the chaos of a post-conflict society to one with functioning institutions?Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-214) and index.The UN mission in Kosovo as a network organization -- Two municipalities in Kosovo -- Information and communication technologies -- Members of the network.In 1999, the United Nations embarked on a massive intervention in Kosovo. This book compares the fate of two adjacent municipalities two years into that intervention. Though similar in all key respects, by 2001 the municipalities were headed down markedly different paths& one making progress toward institution-building, democratization, and reconstruction, the other stagnating. Drawing on extensive field research, the author shows that the successful municipality was able to bring together international organizations and local populations as part of a & network& organization. The lack of progress in the second municipality was due to the same organizations staying behind bureaucratic walls, and keeping local populations at a distance. In both municipalities, information and communication technologies contributed in surprising ways to the success or failure of the international efforts. This book has relevance for interventions around the world, most obviously for the challenging situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the author develops policy recommendations in the concluding section. No other book on nation-building or democratization examines the daily behavior in an international intervention to answer the big question: How do you get from the chaos of a post-conflict society to one with functioning institutions
Confronting global capital: Trade union organising for higher wages in Cambodia\u27s garment and footwear industry
No full textAfter almost a decade of declining wages in Cambodia?s garment and footwear industry, worker incomes have steadily improved since 2013. Minimum wages increased from 80USD a month to 170USD a month in just 4 years, an average annual increase of almost 13% above inflation. This is an unusual and unexpected development for the global garment and footwear industry because power imbalances across the supply chain strongly favour capital over labour. The highly competitive environment has allowed brands and retailers to reduce the prices they pay to suppliers which in turn has led to suppressed wage growth for workers. This thesis is interested in how these structural barriers can be overcome and so the core research question addressed here is how are trade unions and their allies organising for higher wages in the Cambodian garment and footwear industry? The research is based on a global ethnographic study design, which enabled an in-depth engagement with global and national trade unions and the wider network of activists and organisations working on improving wages in Cambodia. Data was gathered through in-depth interviews, participant observation during trade union strategy workshops and protests, attendance at the International Labour Conference and engagement with the new ACT initiative on living wages, as well as garment and footwear factory visits. The thesis shows how the Cambodian wage campaign in 2013/2014 was successful because the national trade unions and NGOs together with a network of global activists engaged in a well-coordinated, confrontational, global campaign demanding that brands and retailers, as the most powerful actors in the supply chain, deliver higher wages. The research argues that in the aftermath of the campaign, however, the Cambodian state began to develop a ?hegemonic labour control regime?. Under this regime trade unions are asked to partake and consent to the reformed, but state controlled minimum wage setting process while simultaneously being restricted in their abilities to strike, demonstrate and organise workers. The research further explored the pathways through which global unions and NGOs supported the wage campaigning and industrial relations work in Cambodia, arguing that decades of global campaigning have led to a transformation in the understanding of responsibility in global supply chains. This has culminated in the ongoing attempt by IndustriALL and a group of brands to develop a supply chain industrial relations framework on wages through the Action Collaboration and Transformation (ACT) process. The ACT process is examined in detail in the Cambodian context. Finally, the thesis examines how the various ?campaign coalitions? between national and global unions and national and global NGOs, which were so effective in 2014, deteriorated and transformed as the focus shifted from a confrontational campaign to engagement in industrial relations institutions. The thesis concludes by arguing that effective coordination between national and global trade unions and national and global labour NGOs is important in building leverage across the entire global supply chain and pressuring brands and retailers, factory owners and states into a position where the structural barriers to higher wages in global garment and footwear manufacturing can be overcome. This is crucial if supply chain industrial relations frameworks like ACT are to deliver sustained and substantial improvements for workers
Ambivalence and Acquiescence: Gender and the Cosmopolitan Class in Cairo
No full textSocioeconomic and demographic transformations have led to the decreased occurrence of marriage, chipped at the link between sexuality and marriage, and increased the liminal period of ?waithood? in Egypt. However, there is a dearth of studies examining women and men?s experiences in and around these phenomena. My research fills this empirical gap by adding to existing knowledge on masculinities and femininities in Egypt, especially in and around premarital relationships an area that is difficult to study due to its sensitive and socially taboo nature. The aim of the dissertation is to examine what tensions are produced by the clash between class preservation strategies grounded in specific gender dynamics and greater desire for autonomy and expectations for equality held by women and men of the cosmopolitan class, and how these tensions are managed. Previous research has largely focused on low-income communities and women?s gender strategies. This dissertation adds to the body of literature by gaining a better understanding of women and men?s changing gender construction and roles, particularly in premarital and marital relationships in upper class communities, specifically the cosmopolitan elite in Cairo. Moreover, my findings contribute to understanding the intersection of class and gender and the role appearances and consumption have in reproducing existing gender hierarchies. My theoretical framework consists of a synthesis of Bourdieu?s theory of practice with feminist discussions on agency, reflexivity, and social change to gain a better understanding of men and women?s experiences of the intersection of class and gender and the impact on gender roles in premarital and marital relationships in this segment of the Egyptian population. I utilize a case study research design to move beyond the essentialized and ahistorical notions of ?Arab women? and ?the Arab family? based on general theories presented in development reports and to conduct an in-depth study that offers insight into the diversity and complexity of social life. In order to capture women and men?s experiences I conducted 40 semi-structured interviews among educated Cairene men and women between the ages of 20 and 35. To elucidate the contradictions between what was articulated during the interviews and actual behavior and feelings, I conducted participant observation of weddings, engagements, dinner parties, social outings, and family gatherings. Interview transcriptions and ethnographic notes were then analyzed using a grounded theory approach. My results illuminate the different ways in which class interacts with these ideological terrains through concrete day-to-day behavior within relationships before and after marriage. Global economic and cultural flows and women?s increased education and labor force participation has resulted in increased autonomy and questioning of traditional gender expectations prior to marriage, however after marriage a preoccupation with status leads to a reinforcement of the traditional gender regime. Women?s increasing bargaining power and men?s decreasing financial power has led to a proliferation of symbolic processes that trivialize and misrecognize women?s financial contributions. While circulating images of masculinities and femininities are associated with assumptions about progress, modernity, and development; I posit the struggle for authenticity in which gender roles and beliefs play a large role is not simply a struggle between modernity often interpreted as anything associated with ?the West? and a sense of Arab-ness and/or Egyptian-ness. While internal dilemmas may exist regarding issues of identity and selfhood, I found men and women in the study community continuously negotiated different masculinities and femininities depending on the context; different gender strategies were utilized in different contexts to ensure their place in Cairo?s socialscape in terms of class hierarchies. In practice, these men and women did not fully reject gender strategies indexical of contexts outside of Egypt but rather carefully mediated or ?brokered? gender practices to ensure seamless local translation. The interviews suggest that this ?brokering? was commonly conducted with the aim of ensuring positions in local class hierarchies, indicative of a preoccupation with status and distinction rather than one with religion or nationality
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Developing science, technology and innovation (STI) capacity through networks : the case of a development network organisation in Mozambique
No full textTHESIS 10300Science, technology and innovation (STI) is once again high on the international development agenda (Chataway et al, 2005; Leach and Scoones, 2006). Some authors have highlighted the role of new networked forms of organisation emerging in the field of development as mechanisms through which organisations in resource-poor contexts access useful knowledge and other resources not easily available in the local context (see Chataway et al, 2005). They have thus raised the question: Can these new networked organisational forms be utilised as mechanisms for accelerating STI-capacity development? What is new about these organisational forms is that they are mission-driven and are characterised by high levels of interdependence and interconnectivity. I call these new organisational forms \u27development network organisations\u27 (DNOs). In attempting to address this question, I encountered two problems: 1) a paucity of theoretical literature on DNOs and STI, especially in low-income countries in Africa, and 2) a lack of appropriate approaches for analysing these network organisational forms
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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