Suchergebnisse

Online support communities are gaining attention among child-attracted persons (CAPs). Though research has largely focused on the negative consequences these environments create for potential offending, they may also provide a beneficial alternative to more formal treatment settings. To assess the utility for clinical and therapeutic purposes, this analysis focused on subcultural dynamics to examine self-reported wellbeing outcomes of participation in a Dutch forum for CAPs. A total of 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with moderators, members and mental health professionals involved in the community. Thematic analyses demonstrated that by means of informal social control, bonds of trust and social relational education, the network aims to regulate the behavior and enhance the wellbeing of its marginalized participants. Key outcomes include a decreased sense of loneliness and better coping with stigma, to the point that participants experience less suicidal thoughts. Association with prosocial peers also helps to set moral boundaries regarding behavior towards children, although we cannot fully rule out potential adverse influences. Online support networks offer a stepping stone to professional care that fits individual needs of CAPs, while also providing an informal environment that overcomes limitations of physical therapy and that extents principles of existing prevention and desistance approaches.

AbstractA central collective action issue in agricultural cooperatives is the free‐rider problem, a prevalent form of which arises when members systematically side‐sell to competing chain actors. Despite the plethora of studies on side‐selling's antecedents, little is known about side‐selling's actual consequences, particularly from the standpoint of cooperative members. In two studies, we aim to deliver a member‐based assessment of side‐selling's influence on critical cooperative benefits and explore possible solutions. In the first study, with survey data from 128 members of four fruit cooperatives in Greece, we show that side‐selling has a negative effect on perceived cooperative benefits, even in the presence of other collective action issues (e.g., the influence costs problem). In the same study, we posit and demonstrate that side‐selling's aversive impact on cooperative benefits can be appeased when members think that their cooperative's transparency regarding cooperative activities is high. In the second study, with interview data from 20 members, we find that different punitive (e.g., expelling members) and collaborative (e.g., fostering trust) solutions are considered effective. Accordingly, our article advances extant knowledge of an issue that strikes at the heart of cooperative activity and offers valuable insights to cooperative decision‐makers seeking to confront it.

Blind people have been consistently underemployed in Nigeria. There have been recent policy initiatives, and programmes especially by the federal government and the Lagos state government, aimed at improving the unemployment situation of people with disabilities, but not much success has been recorded. This study explored the views of blind individuals about their (un)employment experiences to understand their challenges and proffer solutions. The study employed a qualitative approach, conducting one-to-one unstructured qualitative interviews with 22 blind and visually impaired adults aged between 18 and 55 years. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analysed using the thematic analysis approach. Four major themes emerged: describing participants' views on discrimination and lack of inclusive processes in recruitment; perceived gaps with policy enforcement; inadequate support systems for vocational skills training and entrepreneurship; as well as general views on life, society, and hopes for future employment opportunities. The most common barrier to employment mentioned by participants was the misconception by employers that being blind meant being unable to work. There was a general lack of confidence and trust in recent policies seeking to address structural barriers to visually impaired people's employment goals. Real solutions and specific policy changes were desired.

AbstractThis paper reviews work that tests (1) how formal and informal institutions, and especially their interaction, affect participation in the shadow economy in transition countries; and (2) how participating in these shadow economies affects individuals' well-being. The key findings are that a clash of individuals' perceptions of formal institutions with their informal institutions increases involvement in the shadow economy. Conversely, a trustworthy relationship with the government and other individuals makes people more inclined to comply. The importance of their social and institutional context also appears in how individuals' involvement in the shadow economy relates to their well-being. These findings complement insights from the rich literature on tax morale, on the exchange between public institutions and citizens and between culture and institutions more generally. The findings also contribute to the institutional economic literature by empirically showing that: (1) focusing on formal institutions alone, that is strengthening the rule of law, is a necessary but insufficient response to the shadow economy; (2) taking informal institutions, such as individuals' trust and tax morale, into account is of equal importance; and (3) most importantly, formal and informal institutions go hand in hand, and their interaction should be an essential part of the new institutional perspective.

AbstractWe provide large‐scale empirical evidence on the effects of multiple governmental regulatory and health policies, vaccination, population mobility, and COVID‐19‐related Twitter narratives on the spread of a new coronavirus infection. Using multiple‐level fixed effects panel data model with weekly data for 27 European Union countries in the period of March 2020–June 2021, we show that governmental response policies were effective both in reducing the number of COVID‐19 infection cases and deaths from it, particularly, in the countries with higher level of rule of law. Vaccination expectedly helped to decrease the number of virus cases. Reductions in population mobility in public places and workplaces were also powerful in fighting the pandemic. Next, we identify four core pandemic‐related Twitter narratives: governmental response policies, people's sad feelings during the pandemic, vaccination, and pandemic‐related international politics. We find that sad feelings' narrative helped to combat the virus spread in EU countries. Our findings also reveal that while in countries with high rule of law international politics' narrative helped to reduce the virus spread, in countries with low rule of law the effect was strictly the opposite. The latter finding suggests that trust in politicians played an important role in confronting the pandemic.

This study explores the origins of pervasive elderly poverty in South Korea, which persists despite the continuous expansion of welfare programs and the consolidation of popular democracy in the country. Predicated upon the historical-institutional details of the development of welfare programs, this article examines and elucidates how the instrumentalization of welfare policy-making since the onset of state-led industrialization and the progress of electoral democracy since the democratic transition have hindered the implementation of effective anti-poverty policies. It argues that the exponential politicization of welfare issues amid the demise of the agenda-setting and implementation capacity of the welfare bureaucracy has resulted in a political preference for low-benefit, quasi-universal solutions without an increase in taxes or contributions, which has crowded out the policy option of imposing sufficiently generous measures targeted at this vulnerable segment of society. As pervasive elderly poverty persists, old-age welfare has been substantially privatized and dualized, compelling seniors to find market-based alternatives or to work in low-paying precarious labour sectors. Consequently, trust in South Korea's public welfare system has declined, impeding the formation of pro-welfare solidarity despite the overall growth of the universalist welfare system and popular democracy. (Pac Aff/GIGA)

Ever since the launch of the World Press Freedom Index almost 20 years ago, Finland has always been among the top fi ve countries of that index. According to the annual Reuters Digital News reports, Finnish people also have the highest level of trust in the news media and one of the highest levels of press readership in the EU. Most of the media companies are doing quite well, while Google and Facebook have a much less dominant role in the advertising market than elsewhere in Europe. In this context, you might expect Finland to have a comprehensive and visionary media and communications policy to support democracy. However, our meta-study of Finnish media and communications policy based on two recent reportsto the Ministry of Transport and Communications, other earlier studies, along with official documents as well as statistical data suggests that is not the case. Our analysis shows that most decisions have been pragmatic ad hoc solutions serving economic interests rather than any specific media and communication policy goals. A closer examination also proves that Finland does not fit into the Nordic Media Welfare State model either, despite a long, shared history and cultural ties.

Historically, the Indian handloom sector has experienced a curious trajectory, from a tradition dating back thousands of years to a craft that severely suffered under British rule. Despite the importance attributed to hand-spun swadeshi cloth during the Indian independence movement, many weavers are barely able to make ends meet today. This has been compounded further by the advent of the digital age and internet technologies. Recognizing this, several technological interventions have been deployed in India's ikat artisan economies during the 21st century. This spans from the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), its flagship program Digital Cluster Development Programme (DCDP), alongside other notable organizations like Microsoft and Tata Trusts. Hence, this paper analyzes the effects of these interventions on India's primary ikat hubs. Examining qualitative and quantitative data surrounding the impact of digital interventions on these communities, it will shed light on how digitalization can empower weavers within the handloom ecosystem, increase their wages, reduce the dominance of middlemen, and equip them with greater agency in the marketplace. This paper will also critically evaluate the approach taken by these interventions, its impact on the livelihood of weavers, and lastly, discuss the broader effects of digitalization within the context of a capitalist paradigm.

Building on the analyses of cultural hegemony in the works of Nancy Fraser
and Wendy Brown, I argue in the paper that the historic bloc (order of
cultural hegemony) of post-Fordist capitalism is characterized by a
particular dynamic between several ?axes? of hegemony that gives rise to the
?paradox of engagement/disengagement?. The ?progressive-expertocratic? axis
of hegemony creates a subject-position of the ?engaged self?, a figure
embodying a certain promise of political agency that is simultaneously
obstructed by other, depoliticizing axes of hegemony. This dynamic is
conducive to the rise of contemporary right-wing authoritarianism, which
purports to fulfill this promise of political agency through a series of
displacements - the counterhegemonic left, I argue, has so far not
formulated an effective alternative to this strategy. In the second part, I
explore the potential of Axel Honneth?s theory of recognition, in particular
his concept of ?interpersonal respect?, for grounding a left strategy of
connecting (mutually articulating) the hegemonic figure of the ?engaged
self? with a progressive politics of social transformation. To that end, I
elaborate Honneth?s perspective by means of an argument about the role of
trust in the context of societal crises that Igor Cvejic, Srdjan Prodanovic
and I have recently formulated.

Digital innovation (DIN) is crucial for managing the growth of resource use in the hospital sector and for providing citizens with services aligned with the requirements of the modern world. DIN includes the co-creation of novel services, such as digital remote care (DRC) solutions. The healthcare sector, with a plethora of applications, is an example of a large digital infrastructure. Our study aims to explore how DRC initiatives can be integrated in large-scale digital infrastructures. Our in-depth case study, which explores 72 different DRC trajectories at 9 hospital health trusts in Norway, reveals the dynamic interplay among 3 key mechanisms – idealistic entrepreneurship, anchoring and remote infrastructure. Our contribution to the DIN literature is a model that shows the interplay among these key mechanisms, which increases the innovation pace, improves the innovations' scalability and provides a robust organisation that constantly implements innovations. As a contributions to DRC practice, lessons learned to speed up the innovation pace are offered: (1) Create a DRC organisational structure. (2) Ensure financial predictability. (3) secure anchoring upward in the governance structure. (4) Make the remote infrastructure appropriate for integration with the current digital infrastructure. (5) Advocate the success across the organisation to spur others to innovate.

Abstract. Background: To date little has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of suicide risk formulation training. Aims: We aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of a new scale measuring clinicians' confidence in assessing, formulating, and managing suicide risk. Method: A total of 128 mental health practitioners from an UK National Health Service Trust completed the scale. Of them, 85 from an Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service did so before and after training in Risk Assessment, Formulation, and Management (RAFM); 28 practitioners from the Older Adults service also completed the measure. For test–retest analysis, a further 15 completed the scale again 1 week after baseline without attending any training. Of the training group, 52 (61%) completed the measure at the 6-month follow-up. Results: Analysis indicated a single-factor structure, good test–retest reliability, and statistically significant increases in confidence between pre- and posttraining and between pretraining and 6 month follow-up. Cohen's effect size values suggest a moderate-to-large effect. Limitations: The relatively small sample sizes indicate that this study should be considered a preliminary investigation of a new measure, which warrants further replication. Conclusion: This measure could be useful in gauging practitioners' confidence in the RAFM approach and in evaluating and developing training.

Combining Schlenker et al.'s (1994) accountability pyramid with the accountability framework formulated by Joannidés (2012), we conduct a qualitative study of a Benedictine community to better understand the nature of accountability in the non-English speaking context and investigate informal accountability practices that helped to sustain Benedictine organisations for more than 1,500 years. The findings suggest that monastic accountability is positive in its nature and can be conceptualised as a social and moral relationship between a believer (an account giver) and God (the highest principal) supported by the monastic leader(s) making sure that account givers adhere to certain standards and fulfil particular obligations in their daily lives. The Benedictines emphasise positive accountability enactment by implementing informal accountability practices based on trust, shared values, and mutual respect. Evaluative inquiries through an open dialogue between parties involved, social control through informal rewards and sanctions, individual appreciation through public announcements, collective discourse through regular input and two-way feedback, and leader accessibility through listening and informal information exchange are examples of informal accountability practices that guide the behaviour of the Benedictines towards the achievement of community goals and can also be adapted by non-religious organisations.

This study presents an integrated model investigating the dynamics of small and medium enterprise (SME) social media adoption and its impact on SME marketing performance. Drawing data from a cross-sectional survey among 234 SMEs operating in various sectors in Ghana, this research employed a comprehensive analysis using the statistical package for the social sciences and structural equation modelling to test 14 hypotheses. While trust and interactivity were significant drivers of social media adoption, the results revealed the cost and complexity influence on adoption was not substantiated. Additionally, the study underscored the crucial role of organisational, environmental, and entrepreneurial factors in shaping social media adoption patterns among SMEs. Moreover, the findings highlighted the positive social media adoption impact on both non-financial and financial marketing performance, with non-financial marketing performance further contributing to overall financial marketing performance. Despite its contributions, this study acknowledges certain limitations, including its focus on SMEs exclusively present on social media in Accra and the potential implications of these findings on SMEs operating in other regions of Ghana. Overall, this research provides valuable insights into the complex interplay between SME social media adoption and marketing performance, contributing to the broader understanding of digital marketing strategies within the SME sector.

Third sector organisations are effective links between Higher Education Institutions and communities in promoting and expediting Community Engagement programmes tasked with raising awareness, fostering social responsibility and civic mindedness in students and, thus, contributing to the common good. In recognition of this, Durban University of Technology (DUT) pre-emptively enabled collaboration between the institution and a cluster of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in 2004. This paper examines one of the partnership programmes between the Gandhi Development Trust and the Durban University of Technology, the Early Childhood Development Values Education Project and the successful Community Engagement partnerships created with three academic departments of DUT. It focuses on the Department of Drama programme based on Bloomgarden's Preparation, Action, Reflection, Evaluation (PARE) framework integrating experiential and academic learning. The study draws on the theoretical lens of Dewey's Democracy and Education and Freire's Critical Pedagogy and uses the case study method to present the data gathered through the PARE phases. Foregrounded in the paper is the impact of democratic education characterised by values such as inclusiveness, participation, reciprocity, and an equality of respect for the knowledge and experience that everyone contributes to education and community building.

Many view cancellation as a method for holding influential personalities accountable for bad behavior, while others think cancelling amounts to censorship and bullying. I hold that neither of these accounts are worth pursuing, especially if the aim is social progress. In this paper, I offer a situated account of cancellation and cancel culture, locating the phenomenon in our exclusionary history while examining the social dynamics of belief. When we situate cancel culture, we can see how problematic instances of cancelling are embedded in ignorance. While combatting ignorance appears to call for a remedy rooted in feminist standpoint epistemology, there are risks in adopting naive practices of deference. Applying criticisms of epistemic injustice and adopting Táíwò's elite capture framework, I explain how well-intentioned cancelling can work against social movements. Since epistemic trust mechanisms discourage self-reflection and belief revision, the relevant tactics for enacting social change—coalition politics and education—seem out of reach. I conclude by sketching cancel culture as a diagnostic tool: cancellation can be used appropriately in marginalized communities, but when it comes to combatting ignorance among privileged folks, we should view cancel culture as a method for determining where our social institutions are failing us.