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Decentralisation, also referred to as administrative decentralisation, has gained wide recognition as a governance model associated with efficient use of resources and innovative public service delivery. Thus, it is no surprise that many unitary countries and transnational governments have embraced this public governance model. Most recently, the discourse on decentralisation of public governance has become intertwined with digital transformation within the public sector. The rationale is that digital transformation was found to support the decentralisation of public governance, improving overall organisational efficiency and the creation of added public value for citizens. Based on a systematic literature review and fifteen semi-structured interviews with public sector experts, the paper discusses how digital transformation enables the decentralisation of public governance. Digital transformation supports public organisations' efforts to gain the most out of public governance decentralisation as it improves the efficiency of local and federal governments, citizen participation, citizen empowerment, public trust, and continuance of public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship among Research and Development (R&D) expenditure, government effectiveness, and voice accountability in 15 Latin American countries. R&D expenditure is a crucial driver of innovation and economic growth, and effective governance and voice accountability are essential for promoting transparency and citizen participation in decision-making processes. The study utilizes a panel dataset from 2002 to 2021 and employs computer data analysis to estimate the effects of changes in government effectiveness and voice accountability on R&D expenditure. The findings reveal a positive impact of government effectiveness and voice accountability on R&D expenditure. A 1% increase in government effectiveness is associated with a 0.618% increase in research development expenditure, while a 1% rise in voice accountability corresponds to a 0.625% increase. These results highlight the importance of effective governance and citizen engagement in fostering R&D investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The election of corrupt politicians remains a crucial global problem, yet our knowledge regarding factors determining electorates' tolerance for corruption remains extremely limited. This paper explores individual characteristics and macroeconomic factors determining an individual's likelihood to (1) vote for her preferred political party even if that party was involved in a corruption scandal, and (2) abstain from voting even when an established non-corrupt party exists. I identify several individual characteristics, such as education and income levels, gender, employment status, political leaning, and trust in local media, and macroeconomic factors, such as income per capita, country-level corruption, and political rights, significantly influencing an individual's voting choice. A few implications emerge. Corruption can be self-sustaining and may undermine democracy by discouraging political participation. While education promotes political participation, it does not reduce citizens' tolerance for corruption by their preferred political parties. Corruption might widen income and gender inequality by lowering the political participation of the poor and women, and extreme political leaning can promote political corruption. • Politicians with corruption and criminal charges continue to get elected. • I study voting behaviors in response to an individual's preferred political party's involvement in corruption. • Voting behaviors vary significantly across different socioeconomic and demographic groups. • Political corruption can widen socioeconomic inequalitiies. • Political corruption might weaken democracy by discouraging political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings the narratives of the environmental activist groups Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Fridays for Future into conversation with Critical Anthropocene Theory and Indigenous environmentalism to interrogate pathways for and limits of environmental political action under planetary conditions marked by nonhuman shaping power. Critical Anthropocene Theory, the paper argues, can problematise the simplistic positivism and managerialism of the new 'extinction activism'. However, the conversation with Indigenous environmental practices, which flexibly manage tensions within human-nonhuman relations and centre radical social impact, reveals the political limitations of both extinction activism and critical Anthropocene thinking. The paper distinguishes the logic of fast change within existing socio-political parameters, which drives extinction activism, from Critical Anthropocene Theory's focus on ontological change as a precondition for a non-exploitative environmental politics, which deprioritises activist practice. Different from both, the paper argues that Indigenous environmental activism is marked by a yet different pragmatic approach, where both modern and non-modern political means are mobilised towards radical change. Indigenous environmentalism is marked by the dynamic co-evolution of cosmology and politics and moves flexibly between modern/nonmodern boundaries, highlighting new pathways for political action in the relational Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses urban walking during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 as an object of urban planning in Helsinki. The paper investigates planners' experiences of planning for temporary spatial solutions during a time of exceptionality in urban life. The paper is motivated by the wish to determine the influence of residents' environmental critique on official urban planning processes. Analysis is primarily based on walk-along interviews with urban planners and residents in the densest eastern downtown neighbourhoods of Helsinki. Supplemental data, including a survey, chat group discussions and planning documents, are used to deepen analysis. Results discuss the politicisation of planning and the delicate relationship between public planners and the political steering of planning in a Nordic welfare planning system. The paper discusses how the politicisation of planning imposes barriers to participatory planning by tying planners' time and attention to organisational tensions, but also by not being able to direct public attention to contentious planning topics. To analyse the role of planners in advocating for pedestrian planning and citizen participation, the study incorporates concepts from organisational communication and urban governance: tensions, rational ignorance and guerrilla governance. • Temporary pedestrian planning in Helsinki became a politicised planning topic amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. • An approach of rapid qualitative research utilised multi-method data gathering. • Urban planners experienced tensions in planning which impeded participatory planning processes. • Residents themselves portrayed rational ignorance and scepticism towards their participatory agency. • Planners used hidden tactics of guerrilla governance to advance the pedestrian agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of continuous calls to democratize futures research and practice, this paper reports the results of a systematic literature review of the involvement of publics in participatory futuring processes. The paper considers three key research questions: Who participates in public futuring processes? Why are publics included in these processes? And what roles do they occupy? By considering practices of participation in futuring, we aim to build a comprehensive picture of the participatory futuring landscape and highlight elements of process design that may enhance or diminish a process's democratic potential. We conclude by suggesting directions for possible future research that could serve the field's continuing desire to democratize and further integrate participatory and critical approaches to futuring. • Most participatory futuring is only inclusive of experts and professionals. • Majority of participatory futuring with publics involves them alongside experts and professionals. • Processes are limited in their consideration of what makes a group of participants diverse. • Identity position of 'subject of the future' could foster generative approach to participant identity. • Participatory futuring may empower in ways that Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation does not capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the emergence and implementation of a specific policy option in a national plan aiming to reduce pesticide consumption: the substitution of biological substances for chemicals. I argue that substitution is a singular method of handling the removal of pesticides and analyze the political consequences of this approach. Empirically, this work is based on a three-year qualitative investigation (2015–2018) into the French policy plan for pesticide use reduction (Ecophyto). Drawing on the literature on categories and classifications, I show that making substitution a viable policy option relies primarily on categorization processes and on the establishment of clear distinctions. By shedding light on the specific type of administrative and technical intervention substitution as a policy option requires, the aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the political dimension of transitions. • Substitution is not only a complex sociotechnical process but also as a specific course of action in policymaking. • Making substitution a viable policy option relies primarily on categorization processes. • The establishment of such boundaries and categories is a political activity involving various actors. • As substitution relies on boundaries, this policy option is weakened when the practices of field actors challenge them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper develops a trust-based framework of participation in the energy transitions context. • We test the framework in the case study of a national energy deliberative polling in Japan in 2012. • We found that distrust in information, motives, and competence were three key dimensions in the trust gap. • The co-existence of the vertical, horizontal, and temporal dimensions revealed the complexity of trust gap. • The design of the deliberative principles, the distrust context, and the politics of energy policy-making were found to be the three critical factors that impeded gap-closing processes. A global decline in public trust has created a strong need for governments worldwide to engage citizens in order to enhance policy legitimacy and ensure effective post-Fukushima energy transitions. Deliberative policy-making – an advanced form of participatory policy-making that emphasises dialogue and debate – is widely regarded as an intervention that can enhance trust and subsequently legitimacy of energy transitions policies. However, the potential and limits of deliberative policy-making remain the subject of debate. This paper contributes to this debate by exploring deliberative policy-making from a trust perspective. We develop a trust-based systems framework of deliberative policy-making in the energy transitions context to understand, examine, and conceptualise the quality of such policy-making processes. Our framework is tested and applied to a case study of a national deliberative poll (DP) on energy held in Japan in 2012. This study draws on qualitative and quantitative data derived from the DP, in particular from a two-day deliberative forum involving 285 citizens. The findings indicate that the existence of a trust gap may jeopardise the quality of deliberative processes where citizen participation is considered as an input and enhanced policy legitimacy as an output of a policy-making system. We also show that the trust gap is a complicated concept consisting of three dimensions (trust in information, motives, and competence) and three types of directional dynamics (vertical, horizontal, and temporal). Our study identifies the context of public distrust as well as the broader political environment as two critical contextual conditions that may inhibit the closure of the trust gap. Our study contains rich insights on deliberative policy-making in the energy context, arguing that it carries no guarantee of enhanced policy legitimacy. Policy-makers in the energy transitions field need to focus attention on creating the conditions to build public trust in order to enhance policy legitimacy and thus realise the potential benefits of deliberative practices of policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of place attachment in motivating residents of rural communities to form community land trusts (CLTs). CLTs are non-profit community-led organisations formed and managed by volunteers. Their objectives typically relate to the provision of affordable housing. Using qualitative interview data collected from 8 CLTs in rural England, this paper highlights the ways in which their founding members mobilise place attachments to form CLTs, define and target beneficiaries, and acquire resources to facilitate affordable housing development. Founding members perceive CLT housing as a vehicle through which visions and attachments of place can be articulated, using restrictions on resales, lettings and use to enhance and maintain place attachments whilst challenging conventional logics of market housing provision. While CLT objectives are explicitly derived from a desire to maintain, protect and enhance social and functional bonds to place, strong emphases on place attachment in the planning and allocation of rural housing may deny housing opportunities to those without such attachments. • Social, cultural, environmental and functional aspects of place attachment stimulate citizen participation in CLTs. • CLTs challenge conventional logics of housing provision, using restrictions on resales and lettings to retain affordability. • CLT housing is often prioritised for residents who hold social and/or functional attachments to place and community. • Place attachment helps CLTs acquire land and resources from those who share concern for and attachment to place and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Area-based initiatives (ABIs) set out to improve livability and living conditions in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods by making use of extensive citizen participation. ABIs are often criticized for constituting a form of undemocratic tokenism; this creates the illusion that residents have a say over urban development because citizens are only given consultative power. This paper takes a different perspective. We follow the 'systemic turn' in democratic theory, which addresses how direct citizen participation can reduce problems of inclusion, communication, and collective action created by defects in representative democracy. We find evidence that our case, the Grønland-Tøyen ABI in Oslo, Norway, at its best, is able to include new, previously marginalized groups in formulating a collective will that eventually impact city government policy. We argue that these cases show the potential of ABIs to enhance government effectiveness, as the participatory process creates preferable solutions to those produced by city experts. We also argue that it is the narrow scope of the participation schemes, rather than the lack of power devolved to citizens, that limits the ABIs contribution to urban democracy. This hinders the ABI's ability to address social justice and puts the legitimacy of the participatory arrangements at risk. • The paper argues ABIs have the potential to enhance urban democracy by including marginalized groups in decision-making. • The Grønland-Tøyen ABI in Oslo includes marginalized perspectives in policy formulation through targeted recruitment. • The narrow scope of participation schemes limits ABIs' ability to address social justice issues. • The paper argues that this narrow scope, rather than limited citizen power, hinder ABIs contribution to democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the democratization process in China progresses, an increasing number of Chinese citizens have been participating in various political activities. This paper explores the impact of the political participation of Chinese citizens on their satisfaction with the local government (abbreviated as government satisfaction) and the possible heterogeneity of this effect across different groups. In this study, political participation is considered an intervening variable for government satisfaction. Based on data from the 2021 China Social Situation Comprehensive Survey (CSS 2021), political participation is operationalized as a three-level qualitative variable, including supportive participation, rights-defending participation, and mixed participation. The analysis shows that, on average, supportive political participants have the highest level of government satisfaction while rights-defending participants have the lowest. Furthermore, a modified causal forest model reveals that the effect of political participation varies across multiple covariates, with statistically significant heterogeneity observed in terms of citizens' gender. In detail, the effect of females is significantly higher than that of males. However, for some specific groups, it is still worth noting, such as men, young people under the age of 27, and people with low socioeconomic status and political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift from centralized to decentralized energy, with the development of renewable energies, is giving rise to new energy models. Some of these models aim to increase the citizens participation in the energy transition, such as the energy communities. This concept has recently emerged in Europe to encourage the development of local projects and raising citizens' awareness. Our aim is to better understand how such communities emerge to foster them, and to propose a tool for B2T (Business to Territory) Business Developers. We have developed a generic methodology to follow the formation of sociotechnical systems based on a modeling of the Actor-Network Theory. We use the concept of Socio-Energetic Node and propose a model of it to apply our generic methodology to Local Energy Communities. Preliminary results are presented at the end of this paper on a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Indigenous-led research reframes the impacts and response to environmental disasters in the context of acid mine spills in rural communities of the Southwest United States. The collaborative research project addressing the Gold King Mine Spill (GKMS) designed qualitative methodologies that center Indigenous worldviews and contribute to broader understandings of environmental justice. The research team, led by Diné scholars and community leaders, gathered qualitative responses from 123 adult participants in twelve focus groups from three rural communities on the Navajo Nation. The project incorporated fluent Diné speakers and cultural consultants to lead focus groups in a manner consistent with cultural worldviews. The analysis of the focus group data resulted in original findings that reframe previous understandings of environmental harm by broadening the boundaries to include: 1) social relations across time; 2) social relations across space; 3) spiritual relations; and 4) restoring balance. The findings allow for greater insight into the colonial context of disaster on rural and Indigenous lands and confronts colonial-rooted disasters through Indigenous-informed political action. • An Indigenous led research team initiated a new process of framing environmental harm. • Research methods were aligned with the Diné worldview and guided data collection. • Indigenous EJ highlights relationality and the settler colonial context. • Participants desire new forms of healing beyond monetary compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper analyses the effects of economic crisis and labour market flexibility on youth and adult unemployment in Italy. • The empirical strategy is an Autoregressive Distributed lag model. • Empirical results show that economic crisis has hit mainly young workers. • There are evidence that higher flexibility has detrimental effects on youth and adult unemployment. The rise in the unemployment rate across European countries has been one of the most evident effects of the economic downturn. The aim of this paper is to investigate: 1) the impact of economic crisis on youth and adult unemployment in Italy; 2) whether the labour market reforms have mitigated or strengthened the negative effect of the economic crisis on youth unemployment; and 3) which economic and institutional variables contribute to reducing unemployment. Econometric results, using data from the twenty Italian regions from 2001 to 2016, confirm that the economic crisis has had detrimental effects mostly on young people. Moreover, the paper shows no evidence that greater labour market flexibility improves youth unemployment outcomes. Regarding the other control variables, the regional export, ALMPs, regional political participation, increase in average wages, private investment and regional productivity contribute to mitigating the impact of a recession on youth and adult unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Political and social activism increases cross-class network diversity. • Position in the middle of the social hierarchy opens up room for class heterophily. • Cultural omnivores have a wider class range of social and friendship ties. The research on social network analysis established the existence of class homophily, the tendency that personal networks are homogeneous in the class sense, as one of the governing patterns. This is explained via two main mechanisms: choice homophily and induced homophily. But the literature focused less on the question how can class boundaries be transgressed and what are the channels of class heterophily. This paper explores class heterophily on Croatian data acquired through position generator, which measures social capital (resources captured in social relations) by exploring the range of different occupational positions which are accessible to an individual (extensity index). Network variability is thereby taken as proxy for class composition of personal networks. The paper concludes that that political participation and sociability enable cross-class ties, since this offers an opportunity to meet and befriend people from all walks of life; and that people on the middle of the social hierarchy have the most diverse social networks. The hypotheses that social mobility can represent a vehicle for class heterophily; and that class heterophily is more pronounced in smaller settlements, where society networks show more overlap between social circles; were confirmed only partially, and require further investigation. These findings concern class boundaries related to the notion of choice homophily. As for induced homophily, the paper concludes that here too the boundaries are not watertight, as cultural omnivores have a wider range of class contacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have often found socioeconomic factors like income and education to be determinants of political participation in advanced democracies. However, past studies have claimed that in emerging democracies and hybrid regimes like those in Africa, education and income do not predict participation. If so, what determines participation in the region? This study examines the determinants of citizen engagement and political participation in sub-Saharan Africa; and argues that political attitudes differ depending on who provides the basic goods and services. Specifically, non-state provision of goods reduces political participation and leads to a weak state. I argue that when the state provides, citizens are more likely to participate; whereas when non-state actors provide, citizens are less likely to participate in politics. I also examine the effects of various non-state actors. This paper draws on data from an original survey experiment and fieldwork in Nigeria. This paper sheds light on subnational governance, democratization and citizen-state relationships. Further, the project contributes to the literature on political institutions and institutional analysis of public service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are increasingly looking to nature-based solutions to not only tackle climate change, and biodiversity loss, reconnect people with nature but also make just transitions to sustainability. However, some scholars argue that normative framings that drive the implementation of NBS continue to reinforce hegemonism and neoliberalise nature. Furthermore, while cities increasingly foreground climate adaptation and green growth actions in social and economic inequality considerations, the drive for growth and profit can lead to issues of inequality being side-stepped or even reinforced. Consequently, normative framings can lead to uneven distribution of the benefits of NBS, but also, opportunities to engage in fair and just participatory processes are missed. This has led to calls for the framing of NBS to be revised to support social change by moving away from hegemonic framings to focus on a more inclusive, collaborative, and interconnected framework. However, few papers have examined how the pattern of interaction between governance, and participatory engagement relates to equitable, democratic and diversity considerations that are needed to transition to just cities through NBS and how this pattern relates to the beneficiaries of NBS and the quality of life outcomes in cities. Drawing on statistical relational methods to analyse data published in the Urban Audit and Urban Nature Atlas, this paper unpacks the interplay between different types of governance, participation and citizen involvement, and the beneficiaries of NBS and relate to different social and economic conditions that influence quality of life in cities. • City-citizen interactions that characterise NBS hinder transitions to just cities. • Governance and management of NBS frequently exclude disadvantaged groups. • Quality of life outcomes rarely relate to city-citizen interactions. • Just NBS must discourage socially exclusive governance processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering citizens as a significant group of stakeholders, a need to study their attitudes and antecedents of engaging in city matters becomes evident. Therefore, the paper aims to determine which determinants impact citizen participation (both online and offline) in city branding in Georgia and Poland. By approaching city branding as a governance strategy, this paper reflects on the participatory and collaborative approach in which local authorities engage in citizen relations. The study develops a conceptual research model that identifies the determinants that affect citizen participation in city branding in the example of two cities Poznan (Poland) and Kutaisi (Georgia). A web survey (CAWI) results demonstrate that technological, relational, and attitudinal drivers affect citizen participation in city branding in the studied cities. The invariance analysis enables comparing the relations between variables in two diverse country contexts. • Citizens act as co-creators of the city brands. • Intensive use of digital tools encourages citizens to participate in city branding. • Factors influencing citizen participation: technological, relational, and attitudinal • City branding as a governance strategy. Paper reflects on the participatory approach. • Confirmation of measurement invariance in the two CEEC countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet use has resulted in the flow and interweaving of risks and increased the difficulty of risk governance. Strengthening public risk perception research can not only make up for the shortcomings of traditional government-centered risk governance research but also improve the ability of risk governance. By employing data from Chinese Social Survey (CSS) and the mediating test with the process plug-in in SPSS, this paper tries to explore the influence mechanism of Internet use on public risk perception, as well as the mediating effect of different types of political participation. The results show that Internet use has a significantly positive impact on comprehensive public risk perception. Network political participation has significantly enhanced the public risk perception, while traditional political participation has significantly reduced the public risk perception. Besides, network political participation plays a mediating role in the relationship between Internet use and public risk perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture-led urban regeneration projects can be an answer for tackling current depopulation challenges in specific regions due to aging and outward migration. Existing literature stresses the importance of citizen involvement in culture-led projects for successful urban regeneration. However, traditional top-down business approaches, including the dominance of external accountability, often limit our ability to hear local citizens' voices. Therefore, comprehensive reporting on practices of citizen participation may bring value to future culture-led regeneration projects. In this viewpoint paper, we investigate the case of the European Capitals of Culture and analyze their own evaluation reports understand to what extent and how citizen participation is described in evaluation reports of culture-led regeneration projects. We use an established framework to classify citizen participation by the degree of citizens' right to decide and exercise power in decision-making. We demonstrate that smaller cities that need urban regeneration tend to mobilize cultural initiatives as an arena for citizen engagement. Although we do not find evidence of citizen participation in larger ECoC cities, their participation is still essential for local value creation. We finalize our viewpoint with policy recommendations that can be relevant globally for initiatives that aim at urban regeneration. • Creation of local value is essential for initiatives aimed at urban regeneration • Smaller cities mobilize cultural initiatives as an arena for citizen engagement • Larger cities do not report on citizen participation in cultural megaprojects • Recommendations on practices and challenges of citizen involvement are of value [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a comprehensive discussion of changes in the Philippines' South China Sea strategy under the Marcos Jr. government. Since his election in June 2022, the Philippines has implemented a diversified strategy regarding its South China Sea policy and related disputes with China. In striving for its interests and activities in the South China Sea, the Philippines aims to launch hard and soft checks and balances on China at multiple levels, for example, through multilateral military cooperation with the United States, international arbitration, and applying propaganda tactics. This study attempts to deconstruct the specific actions and overall logic of the Philippines' South China Sea policy by comprehensively analyzing international dynamics and domestic changes. It sheds light on the intricate way global geopolitical contests, particularly the intensifying rivalry between China and the United States, are influencing political sentiment and actions within the Philippines. Concurrently, it examines the Philippines' strategic deployment of its South China Sea policy to catalyze international reactions, such as support from the United States, and how this involves recalibrating its internal political and economic landscape. Overall, the paper shows how the Philippines' South China Sea policy seeks an optimal balance among various forces while facing many uncertainties and challenges. • Analysis of transformations in the Philippines' South China Sea strategy under the Marcos Jr. government. • Reveals the implementation of the Marcos Jr. government's multidimensional strategies. • Analyzes the internal logic of the Marcos Jr. government's South China Sea policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing call for heritage management to decentralise and involve stakeholders outside of the sphere of governance. This research focuses on participatory conservation of heritage resources and the value of narrative in heritage conservation and tourism development. The case study is situated in the city of Makhanda, which was established in 1812 and possesses a significant number of individual built environment heritage resources and historic streetscapes. These urban features have been identified as assets to the city by various stakeholders and institutions, but they remain under threat. Utilising semi-structured interviews with owners of historic residential properties in the city, the paper argues that homeowners are an underutilised resource in the management of the historic urban fabric. The study found that homeowners held an appreciation for and identified the value of the historic features of their properties, and it argues that this appreciation can be harnessed in heritage management. Interviews revealed, however, that homeowners faced many challenges in managing and maintaining their historic properties and received little support in this regard. Citizen participation in heritage conservation was limited and a top-down approach to heritage resource management predominated. • Local built environment heritage resources linked to the character of the city. • The conservation of these heritage resources is threatened. • Residential property owners value historic buildings, but face challenges. • Property owners are not consulted, supported or empowered. • Top-down heritage management needs to shift towards citizen participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we build on the decolonial integrational linguistic perspective proposed by Makoni and Pablé. Based on integrationist principles, through which we avoid all-encompassing interpretations and methodologies that do not adequately engage with local experiences and voices, we construe decolonization as an ongoing project that interrogates the epistemological and political boundaries that isolate the Other from the common world. We argue that public or shared experiences recognized as 'Global South/s' can contribute to our ways of approaching the common and expand our understanding of the meaning of development. We provide an overview of the notion of the common and discuss the role played by languages and Southern epistemologies in its construction. We then propose an active and dynamic notion of the common that recognizes our capacity to build collective and plural spaces through common acts of learning and sharing. • Decoloniality helps us to illuminate the political nature of knowledge production. • For decolonization and southern epistemologies to succeed, we need notions of political action. • Language plays a relevant role in transforming mass indifferentiation into a space for plural relationships. • Southern perspectives are engaged with a politics of recognition that subverts the colonial will of representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the Chinese government, to win political support of the young people is to win the future and hope of China. How to measure the Chinese youth's political attitudes? Their political enthusiasm, participation in major political events, and recognition of government work, can reflect their political attitudes to some extent. In recent years, their attitudes towards anti-corruption issue are a measure of their most critical political attitudes. Based on a survey experiment frame, this paper examines their attitudes towards China's anti-corruption and influencing factors on it. From aspect of the young individuals, the young people with different demographic characteristics take on different attention to anti-corruption, and then produce different evaluations of it. To investigate the influence of external factors, the study designs a controllable factor - media coverage on anti-corruption. This empirical study shows that, the effect of media coverage on the young people's evaluations dependents on their individual characteristics. In the end, this paper suggests the government care about the young people who make low evaluation of anti-corruption situation and take strategies for inspiring their political enthusiasms and improving their political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work finds that a decline in the incumbency advantage coincides with the rise of partisanship as a determinant of congressional electoral outcomes. While this work updates our view of congressional elections, it is unclear if this holds in the more candidate-centered and high-information electoral context of the U.S. Senate. In this paper, I address these two considerations by evaluating a theory positing that polarization conditions the influence of incumbency and partisanship as Senate election determinants. Using data on the entire direct-election Senate era and survey data, this paper finds that: (1) polarization provides a partisan advantage for candidates running in states in which they are members of the partisan majority and (2) polarization positively conditions the incumbency advantage for Senators representing states that favor the other party. These findings suggest that Senators may still successfully cultivate a personal brand in the face of growing ideological differences between the parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper uses a critical framework integrating Capability, Feminist and Critical Pedagogic theories to challenge the reductive focus within sustainability discourses on the physical environment, and education's typical 'development' focus on economic growth. The paper presents three main arguments. First, it argues for holistic or ecological concepts of both 'development' and ESD, focusing on enlightened political participation, emancipation and social transformation as the basis of ecological sustainability. Second, it challenges the limitation of such agendas to wealthy countries while 'development education' thinking applied to poorer countries is almost entirely economic. Third, it explores the political educational mandate that flows from this position. The three arguments are developed by examining successes and shortcomings in emancipatory educational projects in South Africa, Latin America and the Arab world. These projects, previously documented, are analysed using comparative 'glocalization' tools to reveal context-specific ways that innovative vertical and horizontal collaboration has created responsive new forms of educationally-mediated politically sustainable 'development' – focusing on equality, particularly gender. The analysis shows that educating for ecologically sustainable development based on enlightened and equal political participation has no less a place in 'developing' countries than it does in richer ones although constraints, and therefore means, may be situationally distinctive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Our paper explores the link between women's self-help groups and public entitlements. • It further examines the effect of SHG membership on social networks and mobility. • Empirical strategy employs matching methods to correct endogeneity of SHG membership. • Using data from rural India, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. • SHG members are more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members. • SHG members are also more likely to avail of these public entitlement schemes. • SHG members also have wider social networks and greater mobility than non-members. Abstract Women's self-help groups (SHGs) have increasingly been used as a vehicle for social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for service delivery. Although a growing body of literature shows evidence of positive impacts of SHGs on various measures of empowerment, our understanding of ways in which SHGs improve awareness and use of public services is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper first examines how SHG membership is associated with political participation, awareness, and use of government entitlement schemes. It further examines the effect of SHG membership on various measures of social networks and mobility. Using data collected in 2015 across five Indian states and matching methods to correct for endogeneity of SHG membership, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. We also find that SHG members are not only more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members, they are significantly more likely to avail of a greater number of public entitlement schemes. Additionally, SHG members have wider social networks and greater mobility as compared to non-members. Our results suggest that SHGs have the potential to increase their members' ability to hold public entities accountable and demand what is rightfully theirs. An important insight, however, is that the SHGs themselves cannot be expected to increase knowledge of public entitlement schemes in absence of a deliberate effort to do so by an external agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing organisation and governance of healthcare work represents a persistent focus of micro-politics. Whilst there is a developed literature describing the micro-political struggles that occur amongst healthcare occupations, there is little understanding about how, when and why actors become politically aware and active. Framed by research on political activation and the concept of identity work, this paper reports on a narrative interview study with 65 people, specifically doctors, nurses and managers, working in the English healthcare system. The narratives show that healthcare workers become increasingly aware of and engaged in micro-political activities through incremental stages based on their accumulating experiences. These stages are opportunities for identity work as actors make sense of their experiences of micro-politics, their occupational affiliations and their evolving sense of self. This identity work is shaped by actors' changing views about the morality of playing politics, the emotional implications of their engagement, and their deepening political commitments. The study shows that political socialisation and activation can vary between occupations and rather than assuming political affiliations are given or acquired the papers highlights the reflective agency of healthcare actors. • The study shows how healthcare workers become politically active. • Political activation develops through accumulated experiences of micro-politics. • Political activation involves identity work to construct a coherent sense of self. • Identity work centres on questions of morality, emotion and ideology. • Hybrid roles complicate political activation and affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to investigate how a blockchain-based platform for citizens' participation in urban planning should be developed adopting a Value Sensitive Design approach (VSD). VSD can be considered as an overarching methodological framework for new technologies development which takes into account moral and human values of all the direct and indirect stakeholders which might be impacted by the technology. By considering the perspectives of the different involved stakeholders, the paper specifically addresses the call for more research about blockchain-based services which adopts a human-centred approach instead of technocentric. The paper is based on the empirical analysis of a DApp called BBBlockchain which was specifically created with the purpose to improve citizens participation in urban planning decisions in two major residential development projects in Berlin, Germany. BBBlockchain is a proof of concept which is currently running on its own in-house test network but it can run on every EVM compatible blockchain. From the analysis of the information layer of participation, it can be argued that the most important values include transparency, inclusiveness and confidentiality. • Value Sensitive Design proved to be a good approach to develop a blockchain-based platform for citizens' participation in urban planning. • The most important values include transparency, inclusiveness and confidentiality. • Taking the perspective of the different involved stakeholders, the paper adopts a human-centred approach instead of technocentric. • Stakeholders' values should be incorporated into the design of the platform to enhance stakeholders' adoption. • Conflicts among stakeholders' values have emerged and they have been addressed through platform's design and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new approach to study fear of isolation (FOI), with special attention to psychological motivations/gratifications sought in the online sphere (opinion congruency-seeking and anonymity-preference), which may lead to political expression via social media. We posit that individuals with FOI will display a tendency to want to match their opinions with the majority and will also actively utilize online platforms as they offer anonymity. This empirical study collected data from a random sample of 1107 participants in South Korea, a frontrunner in terms of political expression on social media. The results demonstrated that FOI is associated with opinion congruency as well as anonymity-preference and further, political use of social media which prompts offline political engagement. Findings of this paper goes beyond conventional paradigms on political psychology (selective exposure based on partisanship or ideology) and contribute to a better understanding of how anonymous, online behaviors generate political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving beyond the usual engagement of geographers with the work of Carl Schmitt, this paper utilises his conceptualisations of the political, depoliticisation under liberalism, and political order as spatial division to investigate the situated practices of depoliticisation of asylum seekers. The paper takes as its case-study the recent systemic shift in the Italian system of reception, from containment in reception centers CARA to urban dispersal reception SPRAR. Drawing on interviews and focus groups involving seventy asylum seekers, we identify one practice of depoliticisation connected with urban dispersal: atomisation. This spatial division of asylum seekers from each other results from three mechanisms: tensions with the local community, the allocation and management of asylum seekers in flats by SPRAR organisations, and the individualisation of reception programs. In so doing, we find the foreclosing of the political in the asylum seekers being precluded from a collective way of life and, consequently, a collective capable of political action. As they cannot constitute the public enemy, asylum seekers only remain as private adversaries, which effectively evades the friend-enemy distinction and the risk of political disorder and conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a long-term decline in the frequency and lethality of famines, 2017 has witnessed resurgent international concern over the issue. This paper examines the trends in famine over the last 150 years, with particular attention to the fusion of famine with forcible mass starvation. It identifies four main historic periods of famines, namely: the zenith of European colonialism; the extended World War; post-colonial totalitarianism; and post-Cold War humanitarian emergencies; and asks whether we may be entering a fifth period in which famines return in new guises. The paper explores structural causes of famine vulnerability, the overlapping but distinct causes of food crises and excess mortality in those crises, and the proximate triggers of famine. While noting that almost all famines have multiple causes, with no individual factor either necessary or sufficient, the paper focuses on the growing significance of political decision and military tactics in creating famine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that sustainable Smart Cities cannot be delivered by profit-driven visions, but through a process that integrates the diverse aptitudes and needs of the city stakeholders. The study uses mixed methods to examine democratic participation in governance and the emerging notion of Smart City Citizenship in the context of India. Benchmarking and assessment of 21 smart cities reveals the existing participatory processes being "tokenistic" and a substantial deficit in democratic stakeholder participation mechanisms. A deeper assessment in Kochi and Nagpur exposes the existing barriers to citizen participation and reveals that the capacities of capable stakeholders and citizen groups can be channelised more effectively. This study promotes advancing the notion of 'citizenship' beyond the market to the commons. It suggests transforming urban governance into a more accountable and collaborative governance model with a stronger role and power to local government, residents, and democratic stakeholders. • Benchmarking and assessment of 21 smart cities and case studies of Kochi and Nagpur reveal that the existing participatory processes being "tokenistic" and a substantial deficit in democratic stakeholder participation mechanisms • The cities need to break the barriers of bureaucracy, corruption, marketisation, and capacity limitations. • This study promotes advancing the notion of 'citizenship' beyond the market to the commons. • The study suggests transforming urban governance into a more accountable and collaborative governance model with a stronger role and power to local government, residents, and democratic stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Focus on community work for the betterment of floating children. • Use social network analysis within a Bourdieusian lens. • Analyse social groupings and the structures behind them. • Look at "small things" that are sociologically meaningful for social change. Drawing on Bourdieu's sociology, the concept of space in particular, this paper discussed the positions and dispositions of floating children in the urban space. It used social network analysis to test the homophily hypothesis that socially similar agents are physically proximate. Data were collected from 45 floating children and urban children in a community school in China. The results rejected the homophily hypothesis, calling for collective activism for small-scale but sociologically meaningful change to disrupt the correspondence between the physical and social distance established through the "site effects" of the hukou (household registration) system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical consumption is routinely promoted as a form of individualised responsibility taking whereby citizen-consumers consciously engage in morally/politically directed purchasing decisions. This has been heavily critiqued as a neoliberal reduction of civic engagement to market choice. It has also been contested by way of a shift to problematizing the consumer as moral agent; where attention is drawn instead to networks of agential entities - advocacy organisations, certifying bodies, marketing discourses, retail spaces, packages, household routines, and so on - that configure consumption alternatives as practice and performance. In reflecting on these concerns, this paper qualitatively explores the enterprising (rather than consumer enactment) of the ethical. Drawing on a multifaceted, three-year study of alternative consumption in Australia, the paper attends to the framing of ethical enterprise through business language, to the often ambivalent deployment of various commercial models and marketing strategies in the doing of ethical business, and to how a contestatory commerce is being imagined, especially in terms of its relations to a politics of social and economic change and to a commercial mainstream. Informed by work on markets as pragmatically assembled and on the economy as multiple, emphasis is placed throughout this article on ethical enterprise as a space of political ambiguity and as a gesture towards an alternative commerce that displaces an understanding of ethical consumption as resting on the actions of the virtuous consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We examine autodemarcations by traditional beiradeiros and Indigenous Munduruku using the concept of 'co-becoming.' • Co-becoming unseats colonial identities via mutual recognition between two peoples while claiming rights from the state. • Co-becomings demonstrate radical potential of auto-demarcations beyond physical marking of boundaries and maps. This paper explores autodemarcations on the Tapajós River, Brazilian Amazonia, wherein a traditional community — the beiradeiros (riverbank inhabitants) — and the Indigenous Munduruku together mark the boundaries of their lands and remove invaders in their struggles for the recognition of territorial rights from the state. We approach autodemarcations on the Tapajós as a form of co-becoming: unseating colonial identities and generating mutual recognition within and between these two peoples (turning inwards) while also claiming rights from the state (turning outwards) in the face of expanding extractive frontiers. While legal recognition is well represented in the literature on Indigenous peoples' and traditional communities' struggles over land and countermapping, intersubjective recognition is an omission. Our contribution is to show the importance of the turn inward and contend that it is within this 'turn' that autodemarcations hold radical potential. Such possibility lies in challenging colonial categorizations through novel forms of relationality, namely " wuyḡuybuḡun ," a Munduruku neologism meaning "those who live like us, plant like us, fish like us, but cannot hear like us" which began to be used by the Munduruku to refer to the beiradeiros during autodemarcations. We argue that what matters more than the physical boundary (autodemarcation), or the map (countermapping), is the emergent set of social relations: the co-becoming of two distinct peoples. Autodemarcation and other struggles for recognition of territorial and civil rights form part of larger acts of community resistance and popular political participation. They are grassroots democratic state-building processes that should be supported by state institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Theorizes "styles" of media and political behavior as a corrective to media effects research. • Uses latent class analysis (LCA) to identify styles of media and political behavior. • Empirically identifies a class of "armchair citizens"—people who are highly engaged in politics on social media, but not political engaged offline—which previous research has missed. • Uses LCA regression to show that feelings of ontological insecurity is predictive of membership in the armchair citizen class. • Armchair citizens may be more common that "actives"—those that are highly engaged in politics on social media and offline. Media effects research has established a positive relationship between media and news consumption and political action—a "more-more" pattern. This paper identifies a coexistent "more-less" pattern in which more political engagement on social media is associated with limited political behavior offline. Traditional approaches that treat media behavior as an independent variable and political behavior as dependent miss this finding. Instead, this paper treats configurations of media and political behavior as styles, identified through latent class analysis (LCA). The data come from an original survey of American citizens about their encounters with political content on social media, their media habits, and their online expression of political attitudes to assess whether and how these media behaviors undermine their political and civic engagement offline. The latent class analysis of these data reveals three styles, which we label "actives," "passives," and "armchair citizens" (i.e., more-less). We then seek to make sense of this armchair citizen style—who would choose this style of media and political participation? An LCA regression model predicting membership into the armchair citizen class suggests that armchair citizen style is associated with experiencing what Giddens' called "ontological insecurity." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) has been widely adopted in the US States in the last decade. Early research on this innovation suggests positive consequences for diversifying and increasing voter rolls and voter turnout (McGhee and Romero 2019; Gronke and Seljan 2020). This paper examines an additional, unintended consequence: effects on party registration. Examining the state of Oregon, a state with back-end AVR, we document a significant decreases in partisan voter registration rates. We achieve a causal estimate of this decline by making use of a natural experiment: due to historical statute, individuals with even birth years are more likely to be registered via AVR in even-numbered years compared to individuals with odd birth years. In addition to calculating a negative effect on partisan registration, we track voters registered by AVR over time to gauge the extent to which the absence of party registration is corrected over subsequent years. The conclusions of our paper have significant implications for participation in closed political primaries as well as wider partisan mobilization efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizens' role evolved to become active agents in decision-making. However, existing policy definition procedures are still not tailored to engage citizens and the participation of specific groups. Moreover, it is vital to understand citizens' interests and motivations to set the methods and build democratic methodologies that make them feel comfortable and willing to participate. In this context, this paper explores how policymakers view the role of citizens in policymaking. Specifically, it looks at the obstacles outlined by policymakers to the involvement of citizens in the policy definition. Second, it explores how citizens view their participation and the respective challenges. This study was conducted within the Portuguese context, following a methodology supported by mixed methods research, which combined interviews with policymakers and questionnaires applied to citizens. Furthermore, this research shows detailed data about how the Portuguese population and how particular groups wish to engage in decision-making. Guidelines are presented in the following areas: willingness to be identified, subjects, topics, methods, and channels to participate. The findings suggest there is significant heterogeneity on the engagement modes. Therefore, to promote the inclusion of different groups of citizens, policymakers should tailor participatory methodologies to these, in line with the guidelines of this paper. • Study of the methods to engage citizens and the participation of specific groups • Comparison between policymakers and citizens perspectives in the Portuguese context • Citizens' preferences differ according to the age, gender and educational attainment. • Guidelines on identification, subjects, topics, methods and channels of participation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The political empowerment of women is a societal process crucial to development and progress. The V-Dem women’s political empowerment index (WPEI) provides information about women’s civil liberties, civil society participation, and political participation globally. Spanning from 1900 to 2012, three dimensions of empowerment, and over 170 countries, it is among the most comprehensive measures of women’s empowerment available. This paper presents a conceptualization of women’s political empowerment and provides an overview of the construction of the index and operationalization of its three sub-dimensions: Women’s civil liberties, civil society participation, and political participation. Compared to other indices measuring women’s empowerment, such as the GDI, the GEM, the GII, and the CIRI data on human rights, the V-Dem index allows more precise measurement and is superior in temporal scope and coverage of countries of the Global South. The paper demonstrates the benefits of this new index and its sub-dimensions through several empirical illustrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substantial gap in electoral participation between upper and lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups has long been a vexing problem for modern democracies and one that demands explanation. Following separate bodies of scholarship that suggest (1) socioeconomic disadvantage diminishes health and (2) poor health demobilizes eligible voters, this paper proposes that health serves as a pathway through which social inequality manifests in disparities in electoral participation. This paper tests this hypothesis by analyzing U.S. presidential election data, in which structural equation modeling was used to decompose the association between SES and turnout, through health. Results show that health mediates approximately 20% of the relationship between SES and electoral participation. These findings imply a political explanation for the endurance of population health disparities; they may self-sustain by disproportionately limiting the political voice of the disadvantaged, for whom more egalitarian social and health policy would be most beneficial. • Individuals of low socioeconomic status vote at lower rates and are in worse health. • Individuals in poor health vote at lower rates. • Health explains roughly 20% of the association between social status and voting. • Health disparities may endure by reducing participation of the disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristic features of some of the methodological strategies adopted in scientific research in agroecology are discussed. They reflect that agroecology, as an approach to scientific research, is inextricably entangled with the other strands of agroecology (farming practice, social movement, political project); and that adopting agroecological strategies, and upholding the values of environmental sustainability, food sovereignty, social justice and democratic participation, mutually reinforce each other. After outlining the kinds of questions that agroecological research addresses so that it can produce knowledge that informs agroecological farming practices and the long term aspiration of agroecological movements to create an alternative agricultural/food system, and then making summary remarks about methodological strategies in general, three characteristic features of some agroecological strategies are introduced and discussed. The paper concludes with comments on the value of agroecological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affective polarization, or relative dislike of opposing partisans, is associated with several negative outcomes for democracy. However, a number of studies argue that affective polarization has one positive democratic consequence: it spurs political participation. However, political participation, especially voting, is habitual, and the factors that spur people to start participating are not the same as those that sustain participation once it is initiated. Existing work does not address this distinction. Leveraging large-scale survey data linked to validated measures of turnout as well as panel data, this paper shows that affective polarization mainly serves to sustain existing habits of turnout. In contrast, there is little evidence that affective polarization motivates people who did not previously participate to begin doing so. These results indicate that instead of improving democratic outcomes, affective polarization exacerbates existing inequities in political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances theories of public administration, geographies of policy, and transportation planning via an analysis of 17 in-depth interviews conducted with transportation policy elites in the State of New Jersey (USA). In the case studied, these elites sought to facilitate the public's transition to electric vehicles, reflecting a policy change initiated by the state government. However, they were affected by organizational traps that existed beyond the bureaucratic institution in a constellation of related field activities. Using qualitative analysis techniques, the data revealed that organizational traps diffuse alongside policy actors as they themselves sought to diffuse policy. The result revealed barriers that kept public engagement relatively circumscribed, even as elite policy makers believed they were achieving their policy goals via participation of the communities that they intended to serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local actors are recognized as key drivers for climate action. Making climate change relevant and possible to act on in local contexts is thus a critical undertaking for both researchers and society at large. Connecting climate change to people's known surroundings and experiences, and framing climate action in relation to everyday practices in the local context, might then be crucial to making climate change relevant and actionable on the local level. In this paper, we explore the potential of forests to serve as such a connection. We have worked in close collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders in two case study locations in Sweden to explore potential courses of action for local climate action in relation to forests. We critically analyze these local articulations of climate action and examine the assumptions underlying them, with the aim to assess the effects and consequences of different problem representations. Our results illustrate the challenges of thinking and acting outside of the prevalent business-as-usual or more-of-everything discourses, of recognizing the importance of politics and choice, and of overcoming perceived barriers to action. We find tensions in the allocation of responsibility in both time and space – but also potential room for more local action in assumptions of un- or underused potential for political and civil action on the local level. • Dominating global discourses tend to limit space for local climate action. • Local stakeholders articulate local and regional level as central actors for change. • To further enable local climate action, need to discuss its conditions and premises. • Gap between local actor's perceptions of own potential to act and own power to act. • Addressing it could unlock capacity for local climate action, bottom-up solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains variation across countries in the effect of democratization on child mortality rates? Democratic transitions, on average, improve health outcomes but there is substantial variation across countries in whether democratization leads to lower-than-expected child mortality post-transition. As yet, there is no convincing quantitative explanation for this variation. In this paper, we argue that whether you have a protest-led or violence-led democratic transition alters the trajectory of child mortality post-transition. Our paper makes two contributions. First, we offer a more detailed account of how the type of resistance movement promoting regime change affects health post-transition. We also draw on novel data to categorise the movements producing democratic transitions as violent or peaceful, moving beyond earlier work which operationalised peaceful democratizations in terms of battle-related deaths. Second, we extend earlier research by examining whether the nature of the democratization movement constitutes a necessary cause of higher or lower-than-expected child mortality following democratization. Across 51 transitions, countries that have a protest-led transition have lower-than-expected child mortality rates after the transition to democracy than countries with other kinds of movements (β = −0.17, p = 0.003). Countries with violence-led transitions, meanwhile, have, on average, higher-than-expected child mortality rates after their transition (β = 0.20, p = 0.001). These associations hold when we adjust for covariates (including all possible combinations of various confounding variables). We also find evidence that protest-led transitions may be a necessary condition for avoiding increased child mortality post-transition. Finally, we conduct a deviant case analysis of transitions that appear to be contrary to our theory, finding that these cases are likely instances of measurement error. Democratization may not always improve health, but such health improvements are more likely when regime change is protest-led. This is because such movements are more likely to build broad coalitions committed to consensual politics post-transition, a critical feature of successful democracies. • The effect of democratization on child mortality varies across contexts. • We argue that protest-led democratization lowers child mortality post-transition. • Countries with protest-led transitions do, in fact, have lower mortality rates. • Indeed, protest-led transitions may be a necessary cause of mortality reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizens are a crucial factor in the sustainability of the cities because they are one of the pillars for balancing their environment. Smart city projects can offer citizens an opportunity to understand how they contribute to their city's sustainability. Furthermore, an interactive smart city system can create synergies that benefit both the citizens and the city itself. This paper presents the Green Bear smart city platform, an IoT Human-in-the-Loop system that uses LoRaWAN nodes to gather information on city green spaces, bike lanes, and recycling depots. A user-centered mobile application that allows for active user participation, feedback, and incentivization is used to close the loop with humans. This system allows citizens to evaluate their participation in aspects that improve the city's sustainability through a gamification scheme, obtaining points for different activities in the city's public spaces and personal activities to improve their quality of life. This solution is being implemented in the city of Coimbra, Portugal. After an overview of the system, the paper describes each main system module. The Green Bear prototype was subject to functional and technological assessment, and the results are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a deeper understanding of the outcomes to firm-level political activities in general, there are very few papers that address this relationship in transportation studies. In this paper, I empirically test firm-level rent-seeking through corporate political activity (CPA) in the air transportation industry. I find, in a sample of 46 firms over 15 years, that lobbying intensity and political connections are positively related to subsequent profitability in both fixed-effects and random-effects estimations. I also test the interaction of these two main effects and find mixed support for the moderating effect of political connections on lobbying intensity. This paper contributes to the theoretical literature on political rent-seeking and the topical literature on political action in air transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common theme in studies of voter turnout in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is that the legacy of communism attenuates electoral participation. It is argued that socialization and the political habits that emerged under communism impeded democratic development by not motivating citizen activism. This paper examines this claim for voter turnout in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland for all general elections since 1990 using cohort analysis on pooled crosssectional post-election surveys from given countries. This paper shows that socialization and political habit formation under communism have had no discernible effect on voter turnout in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary between 1990 and 2013. Generational effects are evident in Poland suggesting that this country's political history is qualitatively different from that of its neighbours. This research is important in highlighting that citizens' political development within non-liberal democratic regimes does not always lead to lower levels of voter turnout. Consequently, the decline in turnout in CEE is likely to have attitudinal rather than generational origins where contemporary rather than historical political developments are most important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unequal turnout, namely that educated citizens are more likely to vote, has been a long-standing pre-occupation of scholars of political participation and has been shown to exist across established democracies in varying degrees. Using pooled cross-sectional individual level data covering the period from 1990 to 2007 across 12 post-communist new democracies, this paper examines the applicability of existing explanations for unequal turnout in the Eastern European context. The paper shows that while voting procedures explain some cross-national variation in unequal turnout, turnout inequality is likewise shaped over time by processes related to the transition from communism, primarily the fading of initial excitement with democratic elections. The mechanism of learning among mature voters rather than generational replacement dominates the latter process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]