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This paper explores how participatory science helps address water supply challenges in developing countries suffering from water shortages. In the absence of technical capacity to monitor the water supply system, this participation constitutes an excellent alternative to involve citizens in data collection and evaluation of the quality of the water service. The paper presents the design and implementation of a participatory science platform that enables data about the quality of the water supply in the city of Kharas in Palestine to be collected. Thanks to significant citizen participation, the study demonstrates that participatory science enhances the management of the water supply system and public awareness and engagement. Temporal and spatial analysis of collected data helped us to better understand the water supply system and identify the causes of the water service degradation. The study shows that the success of citizen participation requires cooperation between the water staff and citizens, including continuous dialogue and training and the construction of a friendly citizen participation platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the course of the Spanish Civil War, Francoists set up special teams to seize documents from organizations which had backed the Popular Front government. In the immediate wake of occupation, these squads would frequently enter towns and cities and appropriate lorry loads of paperwork which they ferried to Salamanca. Nationalist officials trawled through their copious bounty in order to scout out the names of opponents who could be punished for their activities in favour of the Republic. For good reason historians have viewed the Salamanca Papers as a stark example of state directed plunder. By focusing on the role of volunteers in willingly providing information to the authorities, this article seeks to complement the focus on the role of the state. The article also shows that the authorities exploited the information they gleaned to pick out and reward supporters as well as identify and punish enemies. The article further discusses some of the efforts made by Salamanca officials to return documents to Francoists. By examining the Salamanca Papers from these perspectives, the article seeks to throw light upon the close ideological and emotional identification between Francoist state officials and some of their eager supporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including freedom, work and organization.

A political movement is a group and association movement to fight for something by campaigning, urging and participating in elections to gain the power to achieve what is being fought for. Political movements include groups based on leaders, associations and political parties that have leadership lines, organizations, goals of struggle and activities towards achieving the aim they strive for. Therefore, the objective of writing this article is to analyze the evolution and dynamics of geopolitical and sociopolitical of the political movement in Malaysia since before independence till present. The writing of this article uses a qualitative information interpretation approach from secondary sources, namely journal articles, academic books and conference papers based on the evolutionary theme of the political movement in Malaysia which is then analyzed based on geopolitical and sociopolitical impacts. Findings show that the geopolitics or power of the political movement is based on the state of political rulers at certain time while the socio-political of political movements show that the people's participation in political movements at certain time is based on current issues, developments of information communication technology, leadership and current socioeconomic conditions. Thus, the evolution and geopolitical and sociopolitical dynamics of the political movement in this country is very interesting to study and can be used as a guidance by all parties to create a peaceful and stable political situation of the country as well as a strategy to gain the support of voters and all parties in achieving their respective political struggles based on the provisions set by law and the Federal Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of political strategy in organizations and its impact on various aspects of strategy and organization. It highlights that political activity within organizations can influence decision-making processes and goals, while political activity outside organizations can affect their influence and legitimacy. The article presents ten papers that contribute to the understanding of these topics, covering areas such as technology in managing internal politics, firms' response to activism, taking advantage of rivals' misfortunes, shareholder dynamics, corporate political activity, the relationship between CSR and firm value, lobbying and government contracts, and the appointment of directors with political connections. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for a multidisciplinary approach to studying politics in organizations and its implications for strategy and organization theory. [Extracted from the article]

Growing inequalities are one of the most pressing issues for cities, threatening the fulfilment of the rights of millions of urban residents. With three-quarters of cities now more unequal than in 1996, urban inequality has increasingly been recognized as a key global challenge.([1]) The Sustainable Development Goals and the UN-Habitat New Urban Agenda have recognized that addressing growing inequality has to be a priority for local and national governments, establishing global commitments that are in dialogue with localized efforts of urban transformation towards more equal futures. Importantly, this paper invites us to see the pandemic experiences and responses as a part of the expression of state power and wider classist inequalities which served to exclude vendors from public space and life, and which might in turn create trajectories that exacerbate inequalities. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Al-Bahith Al-Aalami is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the papers of John William Colenso, the first Anglican Bishop of Natal, South Africa, and his family, which date from the 1850s through the 1930s, but most extensively cover the period 1874 to 1910. It comments on the family's efforts to defend the Zulu people of Natal and Zululand in South Africa, particularly noting Colenso's protests over the trial of Natal Zulu chief Langalibalele. His relations with colonial officials and with the Aborigines Protection Society (APS) are noted. The author also describes the location of archival materials in Great Britain and South Africa and comments on their use and value in historical research.

The local government elections in Scotland in May 2007 used the single transferable vote system of proportional representation to elect 1,222 councillors to 32 councils. The Election Rules specified the Weighted Inclusive Gregory Method for transferring surpluses. This was the first time this method had been used for public elections anywhere in the world. The votes were counted electronically, the first time this had been done for public elections on an all-Scotland basis. This paper provides a detailed description of the counting procedure in accordance with the rules adopted in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration is a contested topic in Singapore's public discourse. One such area is integration through state-sponsored grassroots community volunteerism. Little is however known about such experiences of grassroots volunteerism to integration outcomes. This paper addresses the gap by exploring how new citizen and permanent resident grassroots volunteers make sense of their experiences through 'integration taxes' and 'gestural integration'. In doing so, this paper argues that while grassroots volunteerism offers lower barriers to entry for new citizens, it constraints the diversity of integration by and through new citizen volunteers due to discrimination, marginalisation and staged integration faced in grassroots work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can market competition between intermediaries improve the quality of citizen‐state interactions? I test this question in the context of a public‐private partnership (PPP) policy that created a network of digital intermediaries ‐ individuals authorized by the state to submit online applications on behalf of citizens. I use the overtime and staggered expansion of the intermediary network to identify the relationship between greater competition among digital intermediaries for the share of citizen applications and the quality of citizen‐state interactions. I find that having an increased presence of intermediaries in a jurisdiction does not improve the citizen experience in engaging with the state. Why doesn't an increase in the presence of intermediaries positively impact the quality of citizen‐state interactions? I argue that digital intermediaries selected by the state have limited incentives to compete in the market for citizen applications. To establish the incentives of digital intermediaries, I juxtapose their functioning against informal intermediaries, who submitted paper‐based applications before the state moved citizen applications online. Based on qualitative interviews and data on the transition from paper‐based to online applications, I show that the PPP policy by formalizing the citizen‐state interface disrupts informal mediation arrangement and limits market competition. The lack of relationship between the expansion of the intermediary network and the quality of citizen‐state interactions has important implications for how low and middle‐income countries deploy information technology for digitizing citizen interfacing governance processes. I conclude by outlining how formalization of citizen‐state interface can be implemented in a manner that can improve citizen experience engaging with the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Quarterly is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The following article aims to analyze the legal position of the student movement of the time which dynamism the process of the pre- constituent who gave birth to the 1991 politic constitution, this towards the initiative seeking of a second presidential reelection in the Colombian constitutional system; the Constitution of 1991 was a tough race in constitutional control model and this participative exercise safeguard the Political Constitutional letter; the analysis focuses on the close execution plans to the High Court ruling roaches; the article seeks to generate a sense of reflection in regards to the constituent derivative and primary on this Colombian Constitution history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pulp mill conflict between Argentina and Uruguay is a topical environmental local-global dispute including various time-space levels (local-regional-national-global). It is also a politico-economic battle among business, civil society and governments in the two South American countries. This article highlights the widely analysed Argentine and Uruguayan perspectives, but it also brings to the fore the Finnish case (of mass media, the global Finnish paper industry, Finnish NGOs and the government). The article seeks to come to an understanding of the characteristics of the conflict as portrayed by the media in Finland and, critically, to examine the effects of the stereotypical Finnish image — 'iconic model' — on Argentina and Uruguay.The article is a study of the discussions in the Finnish mass media, mainly in Helsingin Sanomat (HS), the key national newspaper, and in the television coverage of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE.The analysis shows that the Finnish media, too, have created stereotypes that harden attitudes and make conflict resolution more difficult. What is virtually absent in the Finnish media is a democratic multicultural learning culture that fosters and itself is fostered through a more transnational and interdisciplinary perspective. The global and national media have an increasingly important task in such situations of cultural conflict resolution, situations which are also attached to the recent discussions of corporate social responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a tribute to the late Steve Crook who shared with us the excitement of research on environmentalism. As we predicted, environmental activism in Australia remains socially circumscribed, but its scope, and the scope of environmental concerns, have been widening. Differentiation and proliferation of environmental issues combine with social diffusion and routinization. The pro- portion of people who see the environment as a salient issue continues to be relatively high, in spite of an increasing competition from new issue concerns, including security and illegal migration. The new `white' environmental issues enter the public arena reflecting widespread (though less urgent) concerns about genetic modification of food-crops and cloning of human tissue - all interpreted as `interference with nature'. The `white' environmental issues attract the concern of new social categories of `conscience environmentalists' who are more likely to be women, tend to be older, religious; and less attracted by green organizations. They are also less metropolitan in their location, and not as leftist and postmaterial in their value preferences as their `green' and `brown' predecessors. The formation of the `white' environmental issue cluster and constituency opens the way for new ideological reinterpretations of environmental outlook - and for new political alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios Politicos (01215167) is the property of Universidad de Antioquia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The strength of Meek's book lies in the extensive interviews with MST activists, educators, and others, that illustrate the diverse journeys of the residents of 17 de Abril and the surrounding areas. Agrarian social movements hold the potential to advance understanding and practices of food sovereignty. In the final chapter, Meek summarizes the book by reiterating the importance of political economy in understanding how the history of southern Pará influences the land of the 17 de Abril settlement, resource distribution, and knowledge systems. [Extracted from the article]

This paper investigates the role of social media in mobilizing environmentalism amid authoritarian restrictions, focusing on the Vietnam coastal pollution of 2016. It contributes to current academic debates by showing how elements that are apparently mundane and irrelevant become the stage for political action within social media. We examined the interface of connective actions (social media activism) – collective actions (protests) and the role of food symbolism in translating digital activism into physical resistance that bridges the distance between rural and urban areas. Data were collected from Facebook and Twitter, as well as semi-structured interviews, policy documents, and national newspapers and broadcasts. Food symbolism, exemplified by #ichoosefish, helped personalize grievances and materialize protest actions amid the government's countermeasures. The results further show that by using social media, especially Facebook, the activists managed to rationalize their political engagement in a non-participatory context and mobilize protests during political restrictions by arguing that their 'apolitical' actions were motivated by food-based grievances associated with personal, environmentalist and nationalist concerns. Food symbolism is thus essential in transitioning from connective actions to collective actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a theory of democratic pluralism instead of democratic minimalism developed by Shadi Hamid in his book "The Problem of Democracy". Democratic pluralism will leverage pluralism to create a possibility for reconciliation between liberalism, secularism, religion, and democracy. It presents a framework of democratic pluralism based on four key elements: (1) a conception of democracy that includes performance and political action in the public sphere beyond electoral participation; (2) recognition of diversity and intercultural dialog, alongside the agonistic dimension of pluralism; (3) moderation of individual autonomy and identity politics; and (4) pluralistic accommodation of religion. The paper critiques Hamid's monolithic notions of liberalism, secularism, and democracy, suggesting that more nuanced approaches to these concepts are necessary. It contends that rather than abandoning liberalism and secularism, exploring compatible versions of liberalism and Islam within a pluralistic framework offers a more promising path for reforming religion and polity in the Muslim world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Citizen participation among children and adolescents is key for the development of society. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the legal and ethical recognition of public, education, and social policies for children is vital for ensuring an active and critical society. The aim of this research paper is to analyse the characteristics and challenges of citizen participation during childhood as an educational process. The methodology employed was a systematic review carried out using the WOS, SCOPUS, and ERIC databases, taking into account the PRISMAS 2020 protocol. The results show that the incorporation of a culture of participation in children and adolescents will guarantee the persistence of democratic systems, although there are still challenges to overcome. The conclusions suggest that it is crucial that educational institutions, families, and society as a whole commit to promoting the philosophy of citizen participation at an early age in formal and non-formal educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many citizens feel excluded from political decision-making, which, in their eyes, is dominated by an unresponsive political elite. Citizens with high populist attitudes perceive the world through a populist 'lens' and therefore yearn for more popular control and for 'the people' to be included in the political process. Participatory budgeting should be particularly suited to address populist demands due to the fact that it is focused on giving citizens actual influence on policy-making. However, so far, no study has examined the effect of participation in a democratic innovation on populist attitudes. This paper empirically assesses if and to what extent participation in a participatory budget affects populist attitudes, and whether citizens with high populist attitudes are affected differently than citizens with low populist attitudes. We analyze panel data on participants of four local participatory budgeting events in the Netherlands before and after participation and find that citizens with high populist attitudes decrease these attitudes significantly after participating in a participatory budget, whereas citizens with low populist attitudes are not significantly affected. Moreover, the significant difference in change between these two groups suggests that citizens with high populist attitudes go 'through the looking glass' and become less populist after participating in a participatory budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Rural & Community Development is the property of Brandon University, Rural Development Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Examining the entanglement of democracy and social justice in education and the relationship to social mobility, this paper critiques the individualising nature of social mobility in policy discourse as inimical to human flourishing and education as a public good. The rhetoric of social mobility which responsibilises individuals for their success, without due regard to the systemic changes needed to enable this and the societal barriers to social mobility experienced disproportionately by some groups in society, is detrimental to social justice. A conception of education as a pathway to social mobility must be located in a wider vision of civic engagement in a more inclusive and fairer society. Yet civic engagement in education at the local level has been eroded, as illustrated in this paper by the example of an evolving model of school governance in England. As a corporatist, market driven reform, this model exemplifies how local democratic ties between schools and engagement with their communities can be undermined. Social mobility to enable opportunities, access and participation in democratic civic society becomes a fantasy when society is riven with systemic inequalities, lacks the necessary conditions to enable human flourishing and links to community engagement in education for democratic renewal are downplayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I argue that the national political environment can meaningfully affect variation in aggregate demand for partisan media. I focus on the relationship between the political context—namely, political advantage and disadvantage derived from elections—and media demand in the form of partisan newspaper circulations. Using a data set that characterizes the partisan slant of local newspapers and their circulation levels between 1932 and 2004, I find that when parties are electorally advantaged in presidential contests, demand for their affiliated newspapers decreases relative to demand for papers affiliated with disadvantaged parties. I uncover evidence of similar patterns in a case study of Florida newspapers, and I also compare the power of presidential versus congressional outcomes in shaping feelings of advantage and disadvantage. Taken together, these results provide evidence of a negative link between political advantage derived from presidential elections and the relative demand for partisan news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a proliferation of experiments in deliberative democracy, with much focus on the internal workings and throughput legitimacy of such innovations as mini-publics. The research on the links between such mini-publics and the public is still in its infancy and there is a strong debate around the legitimacy of extending the outcomes of small-scale deliberation to the public. This Special Issue addresses the questions of legitimacy mainly from two broad perspectives; the input and the output legitimacy while some papers provide insights on throughput legitimacy as well. Input refers to the representativeness of participants from demographic, attitudinal and intersectional points of view. Output refers to whether the mini-public outputs reflect what the broader electorate would think and how representatives and policymakers deal with their outputs. The papers provide both theoretical and empirical discussion on participants' representativeness in mini-publics and politicians' potential involvement as well as issues of the whole process and how citizens perceive the legitimacy of mini-publics. Analysis also focuses on issues of attitudinal congruence of participants and its importance while other papers examine the impact of mini-publics to the wider electorate by also considering the role the preferences of policymakers have in the whole deliberative process. Theoretical contributions in this special issue analyze the theoretical implications of these democratic innovations for our understanding of democracy and the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has been well used (and abused) as "buzz-word", label or language token for certain behavior and action in political, organizational and increasingly in individual communication. Based on critical approaches in language, discourse and communication studies, the paper explores potential processes of normalization of sustainability as a new norm, discusses new theories and methodological variations that can be applied to better understand sustainable development, and offers a theoretical concept for cultivation of sustainability as a dialectic process of questioning and stabilization in transformation and change processes. Complemented by a communication for development and social change perspective, the paper lays the theoretical foundation for an understanding of sustainability as organizing principle in socio-ecological change processes, which is further elaborated in the contributions of this Special Issue, which are introduced at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation is a popular mantra in contemporary governance. Participatory mechanisms have been analysed extensively. The systematic study of how, where and why public authorities implement them is, however, under researched. The paper aims to fill this gap by focusing on participatory budgeting (PB) processes in the Belgian context (Wallonia and Brussels). First, we critically assess the 'participatory' feature of PB by comparing who decides in such processes. Second, we identify the contextual and political factors that trigger the establishment of PB. Findings suggest that PB has become a widely diffused institutional practice for authorities with different ideological orientations and across different municipal contexts. However, the way the participatory ideal is put into practice reveals distinct dynamics. In some cases, the use of the participatory rhetoric is a way to requalify an old practice without significantly transforming how the budget is allocated. Overall, this study seeks to offer a better understanding of the integration of democratic innovations in contemporary governance. Points for practitioners: The paper unveils the diversity of practice behind the label 'participatory budgeting'. It provides a new typology of PB processes by focusing on the decision phase. It offers a systematic study of PB establishment in the Belgian context by analysing the role of municipal context, ideology and the electoral drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Early Years' Learning Framework aspires to put democratic participation at the centre of policy and practice by positioning children and families as able, and children as contributing citizens from birth. Examination of current pedagogical efforts to achieve this aspiration are needed to expand knowledge of the supports and challenges experienced in positioning early childhood education settings as democratic learning spaces. This paper contributes to this endeavour by exploring the participatory pedagogies exercised by adults and children to re-imagine mealtimes in an Australian birth-five setting. The research employed relevant aspects of Dewey's experiential education theory, case study and multiple perspectives to provide a holistic view of participants' various lived experiences. The paper critically examines elements within early childhood educators' professional identities and discourses that enabled and constrained one setting's reimagining and transformation of their micro-everyday practice of mealtime. Findings demonstrated how bringing multiple perspectives into dialogue was significant to participants' journey in prioritising democracy in mealtime experiences. This research also highlights the importance of recognising the pedagogical role of the physical environment, and the leveraging of positional leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any narrative on the current pandemic is necessarily a fiction. What can be offered are some words of the late Vaclav Havel, former dissident and last president of Czechoslovakia, written in an entirely different context: Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. [Extracted from the article]