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This paper explores the ways ESOL writing instructors implement and assess participatory writing practices in the classroom using digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participatory writing practices are largely sociocultural in nature and thereby resist the notion of standardized and individualized practices to focus on co-creating a shared culture around writing (Jenkins et al., 2016). In other words, they require that students voluntarily enculturate themselves into broader, co-created discourse communities (Johns, 1997). Participatory writing practices and any subsequent assessment of them are complicated by inequitable access to and varying levels of comfort with educational and other digital technologies—a fact which is particularly salient considering that a substantial majority of ESOL courses in California shifted to remote instruction in early 2020. Using several remotely taught post-secondary ESOL writing courses in California as critical entry points for this work, we examine our collective understanding of participation in light of the shift to remote teaching and learning while also pushing back against traditional western notions of participatory writing implementation and assessment to offer a more expansive and inclusive model in which remote students are encouraged to go beyond “pseudotransactional” forms of collaboration (Wardle & Downs, 2020). With these remote ESOL writing courses as examples, we argue that there are innate challenges to supporting students in gaining a new language through participatory writing practices while simultaneously grappling with new technologies and remote learning, but we also suggest that it can be accomplished given appropriate training, tools, and attention to power dynamics.

Critical thinking can be promoted through narratives, puzzles, and riddles. Literature has indicated a need to reactivate African narratives to preserve African legacies for future generations. This study argues that African riddles, puzzles, and narratives should be used in African-themed video games to promote critical thinking and awareness of African culture. It emphasizes the importance of African-centered puzzles as a culturally relevant pedagogy that fosters students' understanding of African cultural values. The study used a participatory culture framework to bring students together to develop an African-themed video game. The game, called Nolwazi, was investigated ethnographically to highlight critical aspects. The study presents the findings of the investigation and analysis. It concludes with a discussion of the importance of using African riddles, puzzles, and narratives in video games. Plain language summary: Critical thinking promoted through African Themed Video Games The study explores the utilization of the rich African narratives, puzzles and riddles as tools in teaching students through video games. This study focuses on video games developed by South African students and how the video games have helped to create cultural awareness and foster critical thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, social work was reestablished in 1988. Despite the number of social work programmes increased very fast throughout the 1990s, there was a huge need for social work-trained educators. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Peking University launched the MSW (China) Programme in 2000 to create a critical mass of social work educators who would assume future leadership in social work development in mainland China. Participatory action research was employed as a methodology to explore how social work education could transform students into catalysts for social work education and social development. Purposive sampling was adopted, and seven cohorts totaling 238 graduates who graduated from the programme were the participants in this research. Data collection and analysis were carried out throughout the action research process. We found the triple capacity building model to be a good pedagogy to foster transformation among participants, and to steer the knowledge co-creation, practice innovation, policy reform, and social change through social work education. In this paper, we will provide an overview of the background, vision, and mission, as well as the teaching pedagogy of the programme and a case study to demonstrate how social work education has an impact on policy and practice innovation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the verbal communicative strategies of engagement of female booktubers from Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. As starting point it reviews the online community of Booktube using the theoretical framework of the participatory culture. Methodologically, a multimodal discourse analysis was conducted but only contemplating the verbal aspects, supported by social semiotics. Results have highlighted how booktubers talk colloquially with their audience, including them in their discourse, taking care of them while encouraging possibilities of interaction or boosting forms of collaborating with third-parties to benefit their audiences without any personal gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the neoliberal era, there is a new phenomenon where numerous fans follow fan leaders’ instructions to make tangible or intangible contributions to support celebrities, which has exacerbated economic polarization. Although past studies have explored fan empowerment in the Internet era, fan leaders’ promotion effect has remained unstudied. This study aimed to discover fan leaders’ role in guiding fans’ contributions in the Chinese fan community. By integrating a two-step flow model and participatory culture theory, it used qualitative content analysis to analyze 410 posts and 972 comments in the Chinese singer Song Yaxuan’s fan community from February 3 to 10, 2023. Through an inductive approach, four main themes were derived from results: (1) task delegation and empowerment; (2) user-friendly instructions and seamless communication; (3) highlighting a sense of crisis and putting pressure on fans; and (4) fostering a collective mindset. The findings revealed fan leaders use different techniques and the top-down structure in the community to encourage fans to give voluntary contributions of money or time to the celebrity’s development. Theoretically, this study showed internal operation logic in Chinese fan community. Practically, the study shed light on how to lessen the harmful consequences of neoliberalism’s features within the Chinese entertainment industry and realize healthy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study elucidates the concept of 'official', frequently used as a counterpart to fans in pop culture fandom using the case of Thai Boys Love drama fandom in Japan. It is necessary to examine the relationship between fandom and hegemony without assuming the potential of participatory culture and fandom as a counterculture. Therefore, this study focuses on how fans construct norms based on the concept of 'official' and internalise this power. Furthermore, it explores the meanings and respective boundaries of 'unofficial' and 'official' as constructed by fans. The results of the participation observations and interviews as an acafan revealed that the unofficial fan club, mass media and other entities were 'officialised' and the boundary between 'official' and unofficial was challenged by both fandom and the 'official' side. The mass media plays the role of the owner of cultural content and provider of norms, and fans expect each other to follow them through the constructed and ambiguous concept of 'official'. The hegemony of 'official' is constructed by the voluntary consent of fans, and internalising these hegemonies leads to self-censorship and self-regulation. Blind overconfidence in fan-created 'official' may reinforce these structures and undermine the freedom and independence of fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s were a period that witnessed dramatic changes in the literary scene in South Korea. Literary production's engagement with digital media was one of the major changes in this period, when the divide, collision, and merge between pre-digital and digital came to affect almost every aspect of the society. This article explores the divergent strands in the development of digital literature, the new affordances of the digital environment that affected the literary serial vis-à-vis the print serial, and a virtual and actual community that readers and writers created through their engagement with literary texts and beyond. Through close analysis of a blog serial of Hwang Sŏgyŏng's Evening Star (February 27–July 21, 2008; 102 episodes in all), which represents one of the significant moments in the early digital serialization of South Korean literature, this article discusses various types of performativity and participatory culture generated by and connected to the blog serial and participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThere has been much enthusiasm around the use of digitally networked information and communications technologies to foster political participation. Given their potential to engage citizens in rural development via online tools and processes, there are particularly high expectations that these technologies will mitigate some disadvantages of nonurban places. Yet, even if these hopes are reasonable, there is little research on the enduring establishment of digital political participation for rural development. In response, our study centers on six exemplary regional case studies in Germany concerning the obstacles to and catalysts of digital political participation. The public administrators, members of associations, businesses, and nonprofits, and citizens we interviewed pointed to the importance of administrative infrastructures, tailored offers, and resourceful citizens. What these factors could, however, not achieve was a culture of participation that may inspire attitudes and lived practices. This has implications for understanding and facilitating digital political participation for rural development. By locating the incentives and barriers to civic engagement within a culture of participation, our work underscores the need for holistic, long-term endeavors to develop and encourage politically involved citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores body–voice entanglements in TikTok through the prism of ventriloquism. It suggests that TikTok is an app of network ventriloquism, that is, an audiovisual technology–based web of dissociations and reconfigurations of users' bodies and voices. Yiddish serves as a case study for how TikTok's features build an infrastructure for language, heritage, and cultural activism. We analyze YiddishToks as an instantiation of the ways TikTokers embody actual technolinguistic and ventriloquistic interconnections as well as bond with past generations. YiddishTokers interlace times and spaces and recontextualize Yiddish media history. TikTok's algorithm participates in this reanimation of Yiddish's past; it is a transparent, audible director that prompts the network off-stage. TikTok is an algorithmic network ventriloquism app that mediates between human and non-human voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores the teaching experiences of two university faculty members who guided their students through the development of digital media artifacts distributed online for an authentic audience. A sociology instructor guided her students in the creation of artifacts documenting issues of racial inequality on campus. Students presented university data on race and ethnicity, recorded videos depicting the personal narratives of students of color, and remixed media from university archives into an interactive map which displayed evidence of racism on campus. After sharing her classroom experience with colleagues in the law school, a second instructor was inspired to conduct a similar project. Law students developed artifacts to educate the public on the difficulties of immigration and the policy barriers which hamper lawful attempts to immigrate to the United States. Each class curated their artifacts online, invited others to explore the materials, and developed accompanying toolkits to encourage reuse of the materials in both formal and informal educational settings. Halverson's design principles for participatory media spaces are used to frame and make meaning of the faculty participants' experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media have reconfigured place-making in tourism so that industry-led place promotion through professionally produced media representations is nowadays intertwined with bottom-up processes involving online influencers and ordinary people. The emergence of wanghongjingdian (i.e. internet-popular tourist attractions) in China is a case in point. This article aims at contributing to our understanding of the production of wanghongjingdian through a focus on the bottom-up negotiation between influential bloggers and ordinary users, especially on the "authenticity" of travel photos. We conducted a virtual ethnography and visual and textual analyses of 290 blogs on Xiaohongshu, a highly popular visual-oriented platform in China. Three authentication strategies, which relate to existing theoretical conceptualizations of authenticity in nuanced manners, are identified, and the negotiation process between influencers and ordinary users is marked by a critical participatory culture, multiplicity of practices, and individuality-in-community. These features help us understand the production of wanghongjingdian on Chinese social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the generation and deployment of visual narratives in Ukrainian and Russian digital participatory cultures, with a specific focus on internet memes in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It analyzes the form, content, and functions of these memes and highlights their similarity in mobilizing and conveying political messages despite variations in their visual components. The study indicates that Ukrainian memes are used not only to promote political agendas but also serve as trauma coping and collective identity construction mechanisms in times of crisis, helping to promote new war narratives that are engaged in the construction of the self and the other.

The article is dedicated to an overview of English-language fan studies as an interdisciplinary research area. In particular, it discusses trends in the development of fan studies, various approaches to the conceptualization of fandom and fans, as well as the phenomenon of “aca-fans” and the specifics of research ethics in fan studies. The author traces the complex path of formation and transformation of fan studies into an independent subdiscipline recognized by the academic community. This path is marked by a series of “waves,” which reflect both different approaches to understanding the subject of study and changes in the status of fan studies as such. The spread of fan practices and communities emerging around objects of mass culture contributed to their normalization and mainstreaming. Fan studies also demonstrates changes in its focus: the issue of stigmatization of fans is receding into the background, and fandom analysis in the context of social inequality, participatory culture and media consumption is becoming relevant. Contemporary discussions within fan studies are aimed at rethinking the key notions and searching for new interpretations and concepts that overcome the limitations of previous approaches. One of the main topics of discussion is whether the focus of fan studies is still on the fan community (a tradition started by Henry Jenkins) or whether it also includes individual fans. In addition to revising the concepts and boundaries of the subject field, the article addresses methodological and ethical problems in this area. Particular attention is paid to the position of “aca-fans”, belonging to both the academia and the fan world. The article also shows how the perspective of fan studies is beginning to be applied in related social science disciplines. Since many communities and movements (political, consumer, cultural, etc.) function in some ways similar to fandom, turning to fan studies theories can deepen our understanding of these phenomena.

Unlike a classic film, which requires the audience’s attention from the first to the last frame, every series is forced to deal with pauses, which constitute the aesthetic specificity of this artistic format. Breaks between seasons, episodes, and sometimes blocks within a separate episode (transitions to advertising) are often carefully thought out by the creators and supported by specific tools that are designed to maintain the viewer’s interest in the work: a cliffhanger, retroactive continuity, the module “in previous episodes,” etc. Using film, television and literary series as a researcher material, the author analyzes the process of the audience’s encounter with a work — both during its direct perception and in anticipation of the next part. High discreteness of the serial rhythm leads the extralong form to a succession of drama crises, forcing it not only to develop the action forward but also to correct its own past, resolve logical inconsistencies, and reinterpret the events that have already happened. The article argues that a series deliberately abandons the fabula (plot) as an eventual given, introduces new unspoken conventions that its devoted viewers must accept, and receives the audience’s feedback, entering an interactive narrative mode.

The era of digital capitalism poses conundrums for communication for development and social change scholarship and practice. On one hand, mainstream social media platforms are an increasingly ubiquitous element of the everyday media practices of growing portions of the global population. On the other, the profit-driven architectures can make these hostile spaces for progressive social change dialogues. While a burgeoning literature exists on the uses of social media as part of hashtag-activism and social movements, much less critical consideration has been given to NGOs' and civil society organizations' uses of capitalist-driven social media platforms in their development and social change efforts, and the challenges and compromises they navigate in this, consciously or not. This paper argues that meaningful uses of social media platforms for social change requires cultivating a hacker mindset in order to find tactics to subvert, resist, and appropriate platform logics, combined with an ecological sensibility to understanding media and communication. This paper analyzes how metaphors, specifically of a recipe, can offer a productive, praxis-oriented framework for fostering these sensibilities. The paper draws on insights from workshops with IT for Change, a civil society organization in India, which is both a leader in critiquing the political and economic power of Big Tech especially in the Global South, and beginning to use Instagram for its work on adolescent empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fandom as an interpretive community is the frontier for rich insights into the multi-layered interactions and practices between individual users, communities and intelligent machines. To understand the challenges and opportunities Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents to contemporary media and culture, we discuss how fans engage with AI, as fandom provides meaningful insights into interactions between individual technology users, the collective and machines. We propose rethinking participatory culture as human–community–machine interactions to understand the wider implications of AI to society and culture. We outline three emerging phenomena and potential consequences of fans' engagement with AI: (1) fan labour made (un)easy, (2) parasocial interactions (un)familiarised and (3) realities (un)settled. Our conceptualisation transcends existing computer science research, which assumes technology users as isolated individuals and also fan studies, which largely focus on text-audience relationships and tend to take digital technologies for granted as the preconditions of fans' creative and playful practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious adult education, characterized as non-formal religious education (RE) that has often been established over many decades, is frequently marked by patterns of institutional separation, local conditions and denominational divisions. This is also the case in Switzerland, where in each canton various church academies and RE organizations generally offer their respective programs along both denominational and cantonal lines. The increasing digitalization of society, and consequently of education, alters the original situation for these actors, both on an individual and organizational level. This article discusses the challenges of religious adult education in navigating the post-digital pivot. It addresses the issues of changing forms of teaching and learning, dealing with shifts in authority, and the growing need for collaboration and shared strategies among RE organizations in post-digital society. A participatory research project involving nearly 60 Swiss RE organizations investigated how these organizations are dealing with digitalization, analyzing the perspectives of the organizational leaders, the teachers, and learners through mixed methods. The findings provide insights into factors influencing the intent to offer or use digital RE courses, as well as factors contributing to the readiness to cooperate in the digital educational field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to place the general thesis for a species-unique “shared” or “we” intentionality, against the theoretical background of the material engagement approach. We will argue that the human ability to enact and share intentions rests upon a relational and participatory foundation of situated activity where intentional transactions between humans as well as between humans and things (in the broadest sense of material environment) are inseparable from the situational affordances of their engagement. Based on that, the paper advocates for an ecological-enactive account of shared intentionality which understands material engagement as central to the evolution and development of human social cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As experiments and models of participatory, sustainable living, ecovillages demonstrate how to enact just, cooperative, and regenerative economic and social constructs, as alternatives to 'unsustainable' capitalist economies and consumerist/individualistic lifestyles. Work is central to these enactments, which provides an opportunity to examine the learning that happens in these spaces, and how that learning may be applied for broader eco-social change. This paper reports on case studies of learning through enterprise work in two ecovillages in the USA. Analysis focuses on what is learned and how it is learned, the role of the learning environment and interactions within the ecovillage on learning outcomes and processes, as well as barriers to learning, and the transferability of learning outside the ecovillage context. Findings evidence a high degree of informal 'on the job' learning, resulting in both job-specific skills and knowledge, and general competencies in eco/ethical business management. Furthermore, participants imbue activities with shared values of ecology and equality, while interacting with oppositional broader market logics, and thus learn to 'trade off' – taking on some aspects of the mainstream economy (e.g. competitiveness, profitability, (self)exploitation), in exchange for 'the greater good.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy decision‐making modes in governance contexts have become increasingly participatory. This raises questions about legitimacy, and how to measure this concept. The current article advances a multifaceted measurement of perceived legitimacy of policy decision‐making modes in participatory governance, capturing the three components of legitimacy (input, throughput, and output) with two items each. This six‐item measure was tested in a vignette survey (total N = 4583), which was administered among four types of democratic stakeholders: politicians, civil servants, civil society, and citizens. Respondents completed the scale for four different policy decision‐making modes (representative, consultative, co‐decisive, and decisive). Our six‐item scale shows excellent internal consistency as an encompassing measure, while at the same time also allowing for fine‐grained analyses on difference patterns in the input, throughput, and output components of legitimacy. As such, it provides a relevant and parsimonious tool for future research that requires a multifaceted measurement of the perceived legitimacy of participatory governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurovision Song Contest is officially a non-political event but has nevertheless been a useful tool for participating nations' public and cultural diplomacy strategies. While Eurovision's diplomatic utility for states is subject to much scholarly attention, little attention has been paid to how fans and audiences participate actively in these processes as political agents and actors. Drawing upon the frameworks of public diplomacy and participatory culture, this article puts forth the portmanteau concept of 'participatory diplomacy' to explain and explore how Eurovision illuminates a particular intersection of public diplomacy and participatory culture wherein the audience actively participates in its cultural platform to shape its political message and meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This article seeks to build bridges between two fields of inquiry and intervention that, at the level of academia and international organizations, were so far unconnected: evaluations with a human rights approach and evaluations of participatory processes. Within this framework, we aimed to build criteria and indicators to evaluate the institutional mechanisms of citizen participation from a human rights perspective. Methodology: We carry out a theoretical and normative review through which we identify the defining characteristics of evaluations with a human rights approach and how to apply them in the evaluation of participatory mechanisms. Results: We develop a conceptual and operational framework to evaluate citizen participation mechanisms from human rights standards and dimensions and we build a matrix of indicators (quantitative and qualitative; objective and subjective; of structure, processes and results) that will allow to incorporate different sources and perspectives into the evaluation of these experiences. Conclusions: These criteria and indicators aim to contribute to international monitoring processes referring to the right to citizen participation and serve the purposes of citizenship to demonstrate and claim in cases of non-compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominating information technology of the present time is digital media. Platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok encourage new types of connection, influencing friendships, family and peer groups, and business relationships while reshaping public involvement and discourse through influencers, memes, and viral media. However, algorithms dictate how social media is consumed, as well as the influence these platforms can have on individuals and society. As a result, the primary goal of this study is to investigate the impact of social media/artificial intelligence on society. This study examines the digital media ecosystem and its interaction with today's customers in depth. Furthermore, we present a theoretical framework for capturing the meaning of digital consumer interfaces. Finally, this study adds to the literature on marketing by expanding theories on technology and society and offering future research paths for academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universum is the property of Instituto de Estudios Humanisticos Juan Ignacio Molina, Universidad de Talca 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.)

Young people form the primary target demographic of new 'buy now pay later' (BNPL) and digital credit services. Despite consistent data showing young people as a cohort are particularly vulnerable to unsustainable levels of indebtedness, little is known about how young people define and make sense of the experience of being in debt through consumer credit services. This paper explores how indebtedness is experienced and understood in relation to wellbeing through a qualitative study using interviews alongside arts-based participatory methods of bodymapping and sandboxing with 24 young people in the Hunter region of NSW, Australia. These methods enabled particular attention to the embodied and affective elements related to the experience of indebtedness to understand debt's significance for wellbeing for young people. The embodied and affective registers of indebtedness are integral for understanding the conditions informing how wellbeing is negotiated and felt in this context. This study considers the role of BNPL services in young people's economic lives as part of broader processes of financialisation, and the significance of extended and ubiquitous forms of credit for young people's wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores truth demands, politics of in/visibility and migration in Morocco. Based on the participatory research project Arts for Advocacy: Creative Engagement with Forced Displacement in Morocco, we argue that narratives that depart from migrants' confessional accounts of victimhood and contest truth demands can shift the in/visibility of migrants. Besides contributing to scholarship on the use of participatory, creative processes in migration studies, this article intervenes in wider debates about the construction of counter-narratives in contexts where representational practices reduce migrants to victims and villains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some scholars have argued that every year, huge amount of financial and human resources are being deployed by international development agencies, and NGOs to improve the living conditions of millions of poor people living in most African countries, yet most of these interventions are not achieving the objectives expected. This study seeks to know the validity of this postulation by exploring the intersection of participatory communication, role-players engagement, and project proposal in achieving far-reaching impact and success of development interventions in Africa. A systematic literature review method was used. The findings showed that 25% of the 48 development interventions evaluated were failed projects, 64.58% projects came midway, and 10.42% projects were successful. The findings support the postulation of Farreach perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excess of mystery and 'meaning' in Twin Peaks: Season 3 (2017) reflects the post-truth ontological dissonance of information overload, tantalising the thirst for answers that dominates digital communication. Combining its clues and codes with payoffs for 'long-term fan investments' (Hills, 2020: 197) situates the series between two modes of fan participation: the curative puzzle-solving of complex 'Quality TV', and cult television's 'hyperdiegesis'. Season 3 is complex cult television, encouraging forensic and creative engagement. Replicating the polarisation of contemporary discourse while simultaneously promoting algorithmic literacy informs Mark Frost's politicised vision for Twin Peaks, and David Lynch's aesthetic experiments amplify this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International heritage management approaches have developed into a more inclusive process wherein public participation is identified as a pivotal tool. Thus, determining how to assess public interests and include the public's ideas in heritage protection has become a technical issue, but relevant research still remains limited. This paper aims to test the digital footprints of social media users as a public participatory tool, with the objectives of identifying industrial heritage landscape attributes and assessing associated values. Targeting the Sanxian industrial heritage landscape of Liangdancheng in China as a case study, in this research the data from user-generated content on social media platforms Ctrip, Weibo, and Meituan were collected and processed with ROST CM 6 and NVivo 12, and content analysis (CA) and importance-performance analysis (IPA) were conducted. Results revealed that the industrial heritage landscape of Liangdancheng encompasses various built, cultural, and natural environmental resources, including both tangible and intangible attributes such as architectural constructions, historic artifacts, cultural events, and plants. These attributes were assessed and categorized into four quadrants of importance–performance characteristics, wherein cultural environmental resources show relatively high performance but built environmental resources need further actions to improve their value perception and interpretation among the public. This research demonstrated that the digital footprints of social media users as a participatory tool can work well in terms of data accessibility, value identification, and public representation, advancing the theoretical framework of Chinese industrial heritage management and global practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Organizations / Revista Internacional de Organizaciones (RIO) is the property of Analisi Social i Organitzativa grup de recerca 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.)

This field notes provide insights into how local officials value different participatory procedures used to inform and invite the public to participation activities, and participatory mechanisms used to solicit public input during budget decision-making processes. The analysis is based on a framework that helps categorize and assess traditional, non-digital participatory practices versus modern, digital ones. Using survey responses from local officials in Oregon, the findings reveal greater value for modern methods like government websites and social media to inform and invite residents to public participation activities, but more traditional methods like public hearings and citizen committees to solicit their input. The author offers practical suggestions for fostering meaningful public engagement, and the need for practitioners is to be adaptable to innovative strategies that guarantees their participatory procedures and mechanisms are inclusive, accessible, and responsive to the changing needs of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovation has been associated with contributing to 'valuable' rural development; however, usually, the impact of social innovation has been identified in the aftermath of its development or implementation. This might be too narrow an approach, as an ongoing social innovation process in itself may already lead to effects that contribute to regional and social changes in a local community and beyond. This paper argues that collaborative valuation processes are embedded in social innovation processes, generating effects that contribute to rural development. Focusing on a case study that exemplifies social innovation processes in agriculture and food production carried out by a rural collaborative community in southern Italy, we demonstrate how three valuation phases, such as contestations and negotiations of norms, symbolic capital accumulation and recognition of actions, as well as re-definitions of values, impact community development through joint sense-making, empowerment and societal change. Our empirical results suggest the close intertwining of both social innovation and valuation processes. The empirical results demonstrate how collective valuation processes have micro-effects on the agro-economic system, on local socio-cultural processes, and on place-making activities. Methodologically, this paper builds on ethnographic methods, including participatory observations, semi-structured interviews, oral histories, and socio-spatial analysis investigating moments of valuation embedded in daily collaborative practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a qualitative investigation that seeks to strengthen community identity by designing symbols that can embody the spirit and identity of the artisan community in Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand. Through heritage design and the explicit promotion of a shared design identity, the study contributes to the broader understanding of the social sources and social effects of design. The researchers used a participatory action research model, with data collection conducted in two phases: documentary review on cultural capital and craftsmanship, and developing products through co-created designs with artisans from four purposively selected local communities. Twelve customs and rituals linked to the traditional Thai lunar calendar were identified and incorporated into design elements, developing local products, and strengthening the shared identity in the artisan communities of Nakhon Pathom. Local stakeholders identified an alternative theme for product designs, emphasizing the importance of local participation in research projects of this nature to ensure that stakeholders retain ownership over their creations and that culturally inappropriate choices are not made by visiting researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 3D conceptual domain model can be used as a prototype to subdivide interior design projects into simpler, more systematized processes that benefit both the user and the designer. The concept of participatory design can be seamlessly integrated into a user-centered framework by creating an environment where stakeholders actively collaborate to co-create the desired outcome. This theoretical model applies decomposition and classification theories to organize and break down knowledge via categories and classifications. These theories, originally used in mathematics and business research, can be usefully implemented in developing built environments. Both the designer and the user can practice this conceptual model on three system levels: human, building, and architectural. The human level represents the interests and needs of the user and informs the research criteria for the project. The response to the human-level system is a set of architectural and building options. This study, which proposes a 3D conceptual domain model, is intended to help interior designers to evolve their methods of research to meet users' emerging needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores the experiences of two university faculty members who guided their students in the development of digital media artifacts in a participatory media space for an authentic audience. A sociology instructor guided her students in the creation of artifacts documenting issues of racial inequality on campus. Students presented university data on race and ethnicity, recorded videos depicting the personal narratives of students of color, and remixed media from university archives into an interactive map which displayed evidence of racism on campus. After sharing her classroom experience with colleagues in the law school, a second instructor was inspired to conduct a similar project. Law students developed artifacts to educate the public on the difficulties of immigration and the policy barriers which hamper lawful attempts to immigrate to the United States. Each class curated their artifacts online, prompting others to explore the materials and encouraging reuse of the materials in both formal and informal educational settings. Halverson’s design principles for participatory media spaces are used to frame and make meaning of the faculty participants’ experiences.

This issue of Tourist Studies features four articles that explore the complex nature of tourism spaces, places, and tourismscapes. The journal takes a critical and interpretive approach to studying tourism as a social phenomenon, examining the behavior of tourists and the structures that shape tourism production. The articles in this issue delve into the connections between tourism and other social fields, highlighting themes such as mobility, authenticity, and resource-based disputes. The first article investigates a land dispute in Mexico, viewing it as a clash between different visions of tourism. The second article explores how social media has influenced place-making in tourism, focusing on the negotiation of authenticity in travel photos. The third article examines the impact of tourism on intangible cultural heritage in China, while the fourth article explores the role of touch in the affective experiences of tourists in the Palestinian West Bank. The journal expresses gratitude to the reviewers, editorial board members, and authors who contribute to creating a critical intellectual space in Tourist Studies. [Extracted from the article]

South Africa is a country of diverse sets of individuals who have different backgrounds and beliefs, there has been a global discussion for the promotion of sustainable development goals, and this paper proposes an approach for the implementation of sustainable development goals 4 and 5 within the South African landscape. (1) The purpose of the research is to discuss the utilization of the African Ubuntu Philosophy through the participatory culture framework for promoting inclusive education. (2) This research was conducted utilizing the 11 components of the Participatory culture framework to practically implement the African Ubuntu Philosophy through the themes defined by Adewale (2023) which included inclusive education, gender sensitization programs, peer support, and mentorship, life orientation curriculum, conflict resolution and restorative justice, student leadership and participation, parent, and community involvement. The utilization of the African Ubuntu Philosophy within a South African University was successful and showed that the approach promoted teamwork and collaboration among the students, it further ensured the provision of leadership roles during classroom activities. The application of the participatory culture framework contributed to the promotion of Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5 within the classroom environment.

The response to the diverse needs along the cassava value chain, the urge to increase genetic gain, and the need for rapid varietal turnover will necessitate not only technological innovations but also transformation of public breeding programs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We developed guiding, flexible and adaptative tools for portfolio management of cassava breeding. The cassava breeding and product development pipeline process was mapped to illustrate activities of each stage, as well as to clarify key decision points. Stakeholders involved at all stages of breeding were identified. This allowed for identification of gaps and new crucial functions. To clarify accountability and reduce complexity in the decision-making at key decision points, the roles were mapped against decision-rights at each stage-gate. Cassava crop calendars for the different regions in SSA were developed to facilitate better planning. A product advancement template was developed to guide product advancement. The tools that have been developed and stage-gate mapping, will support regional efforts to establish more structured, transparent, participatory, efficient, inclusive, and demand-driven cassava breeding in the region. These approaches could be customized to other commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The defining achievement of a multi-marathoner is completing 100 marathons. This study aimed to comprehensively document the phenomenon of multi-marathoning, addressing its demographics, culture and participatory nature, filling a gap in peer-reviewed research on the topic. Additionally, it aimed to provide recommendations for multi-marathon governing bodies, event organisers, health professionals and participants to address identified issues. Methods: A global survey was distributed to participants and individuals interested in multi-marathoning. It was distributed with support from major national and international multi-marathon clubs through their social media channels, email groups and newsletters. The survey was conducted anonymously and online. Results: The survey garnered responses from 830 participants across 40 countries, with an average marathon completion count of 146.54 (SD 201.83) per respondent. Gender distribution showed 60.69% men, 39.3% women and 0.1% gender variant/non-conforming. Respondents' average ages were 51.6 (SD 9.96) years for men, 48.83 (SD 9.15) years for women and 35.00 (SD 8.76) years for gender variant/non-conforming. As participants age, social and travel motivations surpass competitiveness. A majority (57%) of respondents had at least one contravention to the pre-participation screening questionnaire PARQ-+ and 67% reported taking pain relief medication around events. Notably, 93% of respondents reported multi-marathoning as beneficial for their mental health. Discussion: Multi-marathoning accommodates older athletes, but a significant gender imbalance exists in participation levels. Long-term health implications warrant attention from governing bodies, event organisers, health professionals and participants alike. Multi-marathoners should seek medical advice before participation, utilise modern equipment for health monitoring and optimise training accordingly. Conclusion: Recommendations include encouraging diversity at events, ensuring event directors have well-resourced health plans and promoting participants' proactive health management before and during their involvement in the sport. This study not only advances our understanding of multi-marathoning as a sport but also contributes to theoretical frameworks such as SDT and HBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Laweyan Surakarta batik industry center has more than 100 developing batik IKMs. The existence of the Laweyan Surakarta batik IKM has contributed greatly to the revival of the batik industry in Surakarta after experiencing a downturn due to the pandemic. However, the presence of batik artisans in the Laweyan area of Surakarta has not been optimally accommodated, coupled with the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to an 80% decline in the batik trade. The Indonesian Batik Craftsmen and Entrepreneurs Association (APPBI) is still unable to reach all artisans at the grassroots level. Therefore, batik artisans require guidance to maximize their potential in discovering new innovations related to batik handicraft products. The participatory collaborative approach between craft actors (IKM) and educational institutions is expected to increase the bargaining power of batik artisans. The developed batik craft products are still based on local cultural values and strive to improve product quality by adhering to SNI standards. The participatory collaboration model places artisans as actors and educational institutions as partners. This study aims to develop a diversification model for Laweyan Surakarta batik products through a participatory collaborative approach involving educational institutions and batik craft centers to strengthen export potential. This study employs the development research model from Borg and Gall and Mc Kenny's development research, which is then modified into 2 steps. The two steps include (1) the preliminary study stage as a need and contents analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication research is increasingly concerned with the relationship between epistemological fragmentation and polarization. Even so, explanations for why partisans take up fringe beliefs are limited. This article examines the right-wing conspiracy QAnon, which posits that the anonymous poster "Q" is a Trump administration insider who encourages followers ("Bakers") to research hidden truths behind current events. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork on the 8chan imageboard, we position baking as a collective, knowledge-making activity built on the affordances of social media designed to construct specific facts and theories that maintain QAnon's cohesion over time. Bakers demonstrate populist expertise, the rejection of legacy media accounts of current events in favor of the "alternative facts" constructed through their systematic research programs. We emphasize the politically ambivalent nature of participatory culture and argue that baking casts doubt on critical thinking or media literacy as solutions to "post-truth" dilemmas like hyperpartisan media and disinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has discussed the possibilities and opportunities for participation on the internet and social media. A significant portion of this research has been based on technological determinism and technological optimism, and has ignored the fact that mainstream social media platforms are privately owned companies that have achieved a monopoly position. In addition, these companies' active use of targeted advertising systems for commercial purposes has led to the emergence of producer surveillance, which has led to academic discussions of the digital labor of producers. This study, on the other hand, argues that the hegemonic superiority of commercial social media in a monopoly position has led to the formation of a new social stratification between these companies and producers. In this context, the study aims to discuss the position of social media producers and the process of commodifying producers by adopting an economic-political approach. The economic structure, the digital labor of producers, and the transformation of digital labor into material value were discussed specifically for Instagram and TikTok. The results show that both Instagram and TikTok see their producers as tools to achieve their economic goals, that visibility and attention have become purchasable phenomena, and that the possibilities for participation and participatory culture are consumed in such a medium. In addition, it is thought that social stratification has been created between digital workers and monopoly social media companies, and that the most important factor in this is the monopolistic hegemonic position of these companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1948, Article 27(1) UDHR declared the right 'to share in scientific advancement and its benefits'. Since 1966, the right has also been guaranteed by Article 15(1)(b) ICESCR as the right to 'enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications'. This equivocation on the right's name reveals a disagreement about the object of that right, i.e. (actively) participating in the scientific practice or (passively) 'enjoying its fruits' only. While the importance of participation in science has recently been emphasised, no justifications thereof have yet been provided. Drawing on considerations in human rights theory, the present article proposes an interpretation of Article 15(1)(b) ICESCR qua 'right to participate in scientific practice and enjoy its benefits'. It starts with an account of the genesis of the right. Second, it argues that science is best approached as a 'participatory good', both from the perspective of the philosophy of science and of other rights guaranteed by the ICESCR. Third, the article spells out the participatory dimensions of the human right to participate in science including its 'collective' dimensions. Finally, the article explores three institutional implications of the proposed participatory interpretation of the right, both domestically and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the increased commercial awareness of fangirl culture in the last decade, this article critically analyses three books written by prominent woman music and culture journalists: Fangirls by Hannah Ewens (2019), Larger Than Life by Maria Sherman (2020), and Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany (2022). Examining book content as well as promotional author interviews in the music press, I explore themes of legitimacy, emotionality, and academic capital, and consider how authors re-position both fangirls and themselves as "knowledgeable" within participatory music culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use planning (LUP) to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) needs methods and tools that support the identification of best LUP solutions in terms of transitions from current degradative land use (LU) and land management (LM) practices to better LU and LM options. A crucial need is the identification of context specific sustainable land management (SLM) options. Addressing this need must aim at not only reversing/recovering past degradation (e.g., via restoration or rehabilitation in land degradation hotspots), but also avoiding "new" degradation possibly caused by unsuitable LU and LM. This requires SLM planning based on anticipated impact assessment of the LU‐LM transition scenarios set to achieve LDN, which can be achieved through a participatory planning process that integrates interests/needs and knowledge of stakeholders with science‐based supportive tools to identify rational, plausible, and socially relevant options. The geoinformatics Land Use Planning for LDN (LUP4LDN) conceptual procedure and tool have been designed for this purpose. Their aim is to support national and subnational planners by (i) mapping geographic patterns of past land degradation (LD) utilizing the LDN indicators adopted by the UNCCD (SDG 15.3.1 indicator) for user‐defined regions of interest (RoI); (ii) helping users anticipate future LD by identifying land that is unsustainably managed and that will likely become degraded during the planning period; (iii) partitioning the LD areas into spatial domains of socio‐ecological contextual similarity (i.e., contextual similarity units) to which the LU‐LM transitional options will be fitted; and (iv) providing an interactive procedure for participatory LU‐LM transitional scenario development over selected contextual similarity units and timeframes. LUP4LDN uses the Global Database of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), ICARDA's Geoinformatics Options by Context (GeOC) tool, and ELD (Economics of Land Degradation) indicators to identify context‐relevant SLM that are available in the RoI, suggests candidate SLM options, and visualizes related expected levels of impacts on ecosystem services via maps and graphs. The generated maps inform users about trade‐offs upon which users can discuss or negotiate transitional pathways. LUP4LDN has been codeveloped with national stakeholders in Tunisia and Burkina Faso. The piloting implementation in the two countries assessed how LUP4LDN fits with existing LUP processes and the benefits achieved by using the tool to support LUP for LDN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]