Get Your Hands Dirty

In recent years there has been increasing attention to the transition toward a bioeconomy. From comparable transitions toward sustainability, we know that transitions require integral, inclusive approaches toward developing a long-term strategy, focusing not only on technological innovation, but also on involving the public. This is not easy. Public engagement encompasses diverse forms of public and civil society participation, and it is crucial to understand the specificities of these interactions and their effects on potential transition pathways. We present a conceptual-analytical paper where the focus lies on understanding sense-making practices in the construction of publics in the bioeconomy. Using a case-study approach, this article describes five partialities of the constructed public in the bioeconomy and analyzes the orchestration, productive dimensions and effects of these constructions. Our analysis offers a new perspective on, and appreciation of, the partiality of different forms of public participation, and varying degrees in which possibilities of system change in the bioeconomy transition are inclusive or exclusive toward differentially constructed publics. This offers an alternative, constructive way of exploring actor dynamics and politics in system change. We aim to contribute to a more nuanced and integral interpretation of public engagement in sustainability transitions, which is relevant to actors from academia, policy, industry and other spheres relevant to the bioeconomy transition.

The 1930s are of special importance for establishing museum theory and practice. The paper emphasizes the understanding of the term museography, thus allowing the author to characterize innovations in the development of many trends in museum activities during this period. Displays and exhibitions in museums of all kinds could boast of considerable achievements. Among other things, they are explained by the development of another trend in museum practice – interaction with visitors, including a completely new public, including the working class. Museography development is analyzed based on French periodical publications, in which prominent figures in the fields of culture, the arts and museums presented their views and ideas. This material is introduced for the first time into scholarly discourse in Russian. The parallel development of European and Soviet museums in the 1930s seems important, evaluations by French museum workers of the museum experience in the USSR matter a lot for the history of Russian museum affairs and studies.

Globally, more than one billion people live in urban informal settlements and experience suboptimal access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Participatory approaches are increasingly being promoted in WASH interventions, but the key elements of these approaches are not well-defined. The Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) program launched in 2017 uses a participatory approach to co-design water-sensitive infrastructure with residents of 24 urban informal settlements in Makassar, Indonesia and Suva, Fiji. Our objective was to identify key mechanisms of a gender and socially inclusive participatory approach for engaging diverse people in RISE. We conducted and analysed semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDIs) with 49 RISE program staff; IDIs with 29 residents from RISE settlements in Indonesia and Fiji; and 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) with RISE residents in Fiji in 2020–2021, after participatory design activities were complete. Resident participants were purposively selected for representation of women and men; high and low participation in RISE; and different levels of disability/impairment. The question guides were informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), which defines 39 constructs (grouped into five domains) that describe an intervention. The IDI and FGD transcripts were analysed thematically with deductive codes based on the CFIR. For each of the five CFIR domains, the construct that was most relevant to mechanisms for the engagement of diverse people was used for the final analysis. The findings identified several key mechanisms for engaging diverse residents in programs like RISE. Four of these are recommended for future implementation and scale-ups of RISE and similar programs: engaging with residents at the household level (and potentially the individual level); incorporating flexibility and adaptability throughout the program; having a diverse team; and maintaining regular contact and positive rapport between the staff and participants.

This study discussed the concept of sustainable tourism development which used participation-based of local communities in northern Bali, especially in Ambengan village in accordance with the concept of community-based tourism (CBT). To achieve the objectives of the research, this study has identified potential Ambengan village as a community-based tourism products, which consists of; attraction, accessibilities, amenities, ancillaries, activity, and community involvement. Followed by observation method, which were analyzed by using a life-cycle model of destination, it is known that Ambengan village as a tourist destination are in phase with the attitude of the community involvement is at euphoria. However, for determining the form of community participation, this study using in-depth interviews were subsequently combined with secondary data, and then be assessed in accordance with the principles of community-based tourism (CBT). The research results indicate that this form of public participation in the management Ambengan village is at the level of participation Degree of Tokenism (informing, consultation, and placation) of goverment. Ambengan villagers have not totally get involved, and then by developing the concept of CBT, hopefully it will be able to packaging tourism products at Ambengan village with better and in accordance with the character of the village.

In British Columbia, Canada, the practice of archaeology has been strongly influenced by issues of First Nations rights and the ways government and industry have chosen to address them. In turn, this situation has affected academic (i.e., research-based) and consulting (i.e., cultural resource management) archaeology, which have had to respond to changes in the provincial Heritage Conservation Act (HCA) and to the implementation of archaeological overview assessments (AOAs) and traditional-use studies (TUSs).1 Protocols also encourage or require archaeologists to consult with First Nations regarding project design and implementation. However, the regional archaeological site assessment strategies and predictive models that are part of the process of heritage resource management have been viewed by First Nations as having mixed results, often falling short of either achieving a representative view of past land use activities (and a deeper understanding of their meaning) or adequately recognizing and protecting valued sites. While the consultation process has been politically motivated, it does encourage archaeologists to consider new research directions regarding past land use and its meaning. Worldwide, the incorporation of Indigenous explanations of past land use has often been used to verify existing theories based on objective observations of the archaeological record. Traditional knowledge provides archaeologists with essential information for locating and interpreting both individual archaeological sites and the larger social, settlement, and subsistence patterns they reflect. On the other hand, paying closer attention to traditional knowledge may lead to challenges of those theories or at least offer alternative explanations or greater awareness of non-Western ways of thinking about landscapes. Furthermore, what has often gone [End Page 350] unrecognized is the very restrictive relationship archaeologists have had with Indigenous peoples. While they have consulted with First Nations to obtain permission to work in their homelands and to acquire information on the past and present lifeways and have even begun to develop meaningful collaborations in recent years, the practice of archaeology has been politically dominated by non-Indigenous stakeholders.2 In this article I explore some of the implications of these developments for the study of precontact and historic Aboriginal land use. To what degree may Indigenous perspectives and politics constrain, channel, or encourage the development and application of archaeological method and theory in land use studies? I explore the situation in British Columbia, where First Nations' contributions to AOAS, TUSS, and the archaeological permitting process have influenced the development of predictive and explanatory models. There, as elsewhere, the increasing role of descendant communities in participating in or directing landscape-oriented studies—in a sense, decolonizing the archaeological process—clearly will influence how archaeologists need to perceive past cultural landscapes in the future. My choice of landscape as an organizing feature of this article is deliberate. Not only are landscape-scale studies a useful heuristic tool for archaeologists, but many Indigenous peoples contend that archaeological sites cannot be divorced from their larger environmental and cultural settings. The first part of this article examines the nature of archaeological landscapes and their importance in organizing and interpreting evidence of past human behavior. I next examine the historical context of archaeology in British Columbia over the past century and discuss how it has contributed to the colonization of First Nations through heritage legislation, archaeological resource management strategies, and the very limited ways in which traditional perspectives of the cultural landscape have been incorporated. In the final section, I outline four ways First Nations are seeking to decolonize the archaeological landscape, which include educational initiatives and the development of alternative resource management strategies. Understanding Past Cultural Landscapes The ways and means by which people have situated themselves on the landscape and behaved over space through time has always been a major [End Page 351] dimension of archaeological research, providing the means to explore relationships between people and their environmental/ecological settings.3 Understanding the various ways that people organized themselves...

What are the consequences of using the discourse of archaeological knowledge in cult ural heritage management (CHM)? In this article the inter-relationship of archaeological theory and practice, CHM and the politics of identity is analysed, using as a case study the history of archaeological and CHM practice in south-eastern Australia. A critical reading of Foucault's 'governmentality' thesis illustrates how archaeological knowledge has come to play a role in the regulation and arbitration of Aboriginal cultural identity in south-eastern Australia. In effect, archaeological knowledge becomes mobilized by public policy-makers as a 'technology of government' and becomes implicated in the governance of cultural identity. Further consequences of this process are that material culture, as 'heritage', becomes a resource of power in the politics of identity and archaeological practice, and theory itself, becomes regulated, or 'governed', by its inclusion in CHM.

The paper featuring the project Tactile Heritage, implemented in 2015 at the Open-air Museum “Old Village” in Sirogojno, revises the process of inclusion of blind and visually impaired people in the program activities of the open-air museum. The current museum practice in Serbia shows that insufficient attention is paid to the groups of people for whom the museum activities are partially (or fully) (un)avaliable and those who do not take part in museum activities (by their or other people's will). The aim of the paper is to draw attention to the possibilities of improving availability and quality of museum content to people with disabilities. However, due to the studious presentation, the paper provides general overview of the legal and statutory regulations as well as specific and important concepts that are key to the system of general museology, which in their totality contribute to the improvement of modern museum practice. In accordance with the principles of new museology that attempts to break the two-century long tradition of exclusivity and elitism of museological work, the project Tactile Heritage demonstrates that the museum communication can (and must) balance between the peculiarities and constraints of users as well as specificities and possibilities of the new media.

Student mental health and wellbeing are critical topics in higher education. In response to broader societal shifts in thinking around mental health and wellbeing, there are calls for universities to take a more proactive and holistic approach, working in partnership with students to embed mental wellbeing throughout learning, tuition and curricula. This paper presents two participatory projects from different United Kingdom higher education institutions, both of which took holistic, proactive and inclusive approaches toward supporting student mental wellbeing in higher education, using online and technology-based approaches. The first project is the digital “Wellbeing Pedagogies Library” at the University of Warwick, a digital repository co-designed with students to foster the sharing of pedagogical practices that support student wellbeing, and to offer a practical support to students and staff who want to create and/or sustain wellbeing-inducing teaching and learning environments. The second project is the “Mental Wellbeing in Distance Learning” project at the Open University, which piloted five digital subprojects, led by different practitioners in partnership with students, aiming to address barriers to wellbeing in different aspects of distance learning. This paper presents the participatory methods and approaches from each project, explores stakeholders’ perceptions of the value that participatory approaches added to the projects, and comparatively evaluates the projects’ outcomes in order to draw conclusions that can inform future participatory research. In doing so, it explores different types of participatory approaches that can be taken in different contexts, and how terms such as “holistic,” “proactive,” and “inclusive” may be interpreted and applied in practice. Drawing on the findings, it posits that participatory approaches and partnerships with students should be considered a priority when designing digital resources, interventions and solutions to support student mental wellbeing.

This article considers the digital communication practices of ethnographic museums. The study aims at examining the interaction of online audiences with content in the communities of the ethnographic museums located in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation: the Museum of the History and Life of the Kola Sami (Lovozero, Murmansk Oblast), the Komi Izba House Museum (Muzhi, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), and the Zhivun Nature and Ethnographic Park and Museum (Khanty-Muzhi, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug). A cybersurvey of subscribers to the online communities of these ethno-museums was conducted to determine their level of involvement in museum activities. The results demonstrated a high level of awareness among respondents of their ethno-cultural heritage and the positive impact of museum activities on their perception of their ethnic identity. The current ethnographic exhibitions are also positively assessed, and preferences for presentations of ethno-cultural heritage are identified. A detailed analysis of online groups of ethno-museums enabled to create a “portrait” of the average subscribers, these are women aged 30 to 49, living near museums, and preferring Russian for online communication. Modern forms of online communication include views, likes, reposts, and comments. According to quantitative data, the most attractive museum events for subscribers are festive events with an ethnic component (national cuisine), complemented by visual materials, as well as personalized congratulatory posts and the testing of new forms of communication.

The paper provides an overview of the block of biographical articles in the encyclopedia “Literary Museums of Russia”. Both well-known and little-studied names are represented in the articles. In the course of collective work on the encyclopedia, the list of personalia was supplemented. The vast majority of additions were initiated by museums articles about which have been already included in the encyclopedia. It indicates the notable interest of the museum community in this project. Attention is emphasized on the importance of presentation in the largest group of personalia — of museum employees representing both leading federal and regional and also small literary museums (municipal, library, school and public museums, libraries-museums), as well as now defunct museums — not only organizers and directors, but also heads of departments and other museum staff members. A conclusion has been made that the data from these articles is essential for understanding the history of domestic museum practice and also promising for use as material for prosopographical analysis with the aim of creating a collective portrait of an employee of a Russian literary museum. The author states the relevance of the ideas of museologists in the articles about them. Names of researchers representing different humanities who are not straight involved in museum activities were included due to interdisciplinary approach. The biographies of private museum creators, and also the collectors and museum givers serve the purpose of a more detailed display of the history of preservation and popularization of literary heritage. Particular interest for the reader will be aroused by articles about those who had familiar or friendly ties with the commemorated writers, as well as about writers involved in the organization and activities of the museums.

Using a case study of the recent history of archaeology in Australia, the paper details how Cultural Heritage Management, in addition to protecting the archaeological data base, actually protects archaeological access to it. In offering this protection, archaeologists involved in Cultural Heritage Management become the regulators of archaeological practice and theory. Here archaeology comes into direct contact and conflict with governments and a range of interest groups, notably the Aboriginal community, with a stake in material culture. In effect 'doing' Cultural Heritage Management is 'doing' archaeology.

Citizen journalism in the 2024 Regional Head Election in Wakatobi Regency is an interesting phenomenon as a form of public participation in the democratic process. With the development of digital technology, people no longer only act as consumers of information, but also as producers of political information through social media and digital platforms. This research aims to identify the role of citizen journalism in increasing public participation in the implementation of Regional Head Elections in Wakatobi Regency. This research uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive study design. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and content analysis of citizen journalism circulating during the 2024 Regional Head Election campaign period. The research subjects involved citizen journalism actors, active voters, and stakeholders. Data analysis techniques were carried out through data reduction. The results showed that citizen journalism contributed significantly to increasing transparency, political education and social control during the Wakatobi Regional Head Election. People were more active in voicing issues of violations, political discrimination, and mass mobilization through videos and social media posts. However, the main challenge remains low digital literacy and the risk of spreading disinformation. Synergy between professional journalists and citizen journalism is needed to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of information. With citizen journalism, the people of Wakatobi have shown a role transformation from passive voters to active actors in maintaining the integrity of the democratic process. This research recommends the need for increased media literacy capacity and multi-stakeholder synergy so that citizen journalism can become a tool for strengthening inclusive and responsible local democracy.

Some cities in Indonesia which are located on Southern Java Island are susceptible to tsunamis. However, the application of participatory GIS for the assessment of building vulnerability to tsunamis remains rarely evaluated. The aims of this research are 1) to obtain the parameters of building vulnerability to tsunamis using the participatory approach, and 2) to evaluate the results of building vulnerability assessment using participatory GIS. A tsunami inundation map was constructed based on numerical modelling using the Hawke's Bay equation. Participatory approaches were taken to establish the parameters that affect the vulnerability of buildings to tsunamis using in-depth interviews. Respondents were selected using the purposive sampling technique. A geographic information system (GIS) was then applied to build a geodatabase and to perform analysis. The results show that six parameters were obtained from local people’s participation, namely building materials, the number of stories of the buildings , orientation, preservation condition, building row, and natural barriers. All the parameters were identified and interpreted using aerial photos. A field survey was conducted to complete the information on building characteristics. Many buildings near the beach were classified as having high and moderate vulnerability. The main benefit of participatory GIS is that the role of the community makes a significant contribution to providing vulnerability information. It also raises public awareness and improves preparedness for disaster risk management. The drawback is that parameters based on participatory approaches are dynamic and may be different in other areas.

In 2003, the UK government passed the Licensing Act for England and Wales. The Act provides a framework for regulating alcohol sale, including four licensing objectives with local governments having devolved responsibility for granting licences to sell alcohol. Members of the public can make representations of oppositions to licence applications. Applying the theories of the policy process, we explored the practices employed by licensing authorities when deciding on alcohol licences in situations of conflict between licence applicants and members of the public. Qualitative study comprising a framework analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews and application of the theories of institutionalism, the advocacy coalition framework and role of ideas. Eleven local authorities in five regions in England in 2019. Purposive sample of 15 licensing officers, licensing subcommittee chairs, public health leads for licensing and police licensing officers. The interview schedule included mechanisms of public involvement in licensing, parties involved, the subject of conflicts and how licensing authorities made decisions. When members of the public opposed licence applications, licensing authorities employed three key decision-making practices: procedural fairness, partnership working and framing. The normativity of procedural fairness was an important institutional structure within which conflicts were resolved. Licensing authorities also worked in partnership with the involved parties, who often appeared as advocacy coalitions that shared beliefs and advanced specific issues to determine mutually acceptable solutions. At times, licensing authorities framed issues through ideational processes to solve problems. Licensing decision-making under the United Kingdom's Licensing Act for England and Wales appear in many cases to focus on resolution of conflicts between licence applicants and members of the public rather than on promotion of licensing objectives. This raises uncertainty regarding the impact of public involvement on reducing alcohol availability, but ultimately represents a pragmatic process that seeks to restore balance in powers, improve transparency in decision-making and empower communities.

Transparency and public participation are important ingredients to achieve effective water governance. Since the Rio Conference, diverse international instruments advocate access to information and public participation in river basin management. At the European Union level, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes specific obligations for member states to include the public in the planning and management of river basins processes. In addition, the WFD Guideline on Public Participation includes three forms of public participation: active involvement, consultation, and provision of information. At the present moment, Spain has a legal and institutional framework that allows a very limited participatory process: only water users holding an economic stake can participate in the management of Spanish river basins. Concerning transparency, the law establishes the right to accede to information but this right has two different levels: for the general public and for water users. In the Iberian shared river basins regulated by the 1998 Luso-Spanish Convention, mechanisms allowing public participation in the terms of the WFD are not in place yet. It is necessary to reform the legal and institutional framework to facilitate real participation and to achieve effective water governance.