Arena Of Change Research Articles

Housing as an Arena for Change – From Eco-Efficiency to Sufficiency in the Swedish Housing Sector

ABSTRACT The housing sector in Sweden, as elsewhere, faces major transitions to meet far-reaching sustainability targets. Eco-efficiency has tended to dominate the sustainability discourse, with a reliance on incremental improvements. This paper explores what is needed to reach a system-level framing of sustainability transformations in housing and home-related structures and practices. Based on previous research and empirical insights from workshops with diverse actors in the Swedish housing sector, we explore different narratives of what needs to change and perspectives on agency and collective action. Shifting the narrative from efficiency to sufficiency, and from a focus on technology and behaviour to complex interactions between actors and systems, offers opportunities as well as tensions in the sector. While the current paradigm offers limited space for action, the emergence of perspectives, policies, and practices concerning, for example, living smaller, simpler, and sharing posits the housing sector as an arena for socio-ecological transformations.

Computational framework of MHD radiative heat transfer to Carreau nanofluid with Soret‐Dufour effects and activation energy

AbstractRecently, the superior rheological, thermo‐physical, and tri‐bological aspects of nanofluids are appropriate for heat transport properties and lubrication in autos. Nanofluids in autos have promising uses for instance a furnace coolant, machine oil, air conditioning structure lubricant, engine oil, foot‐brake fluid, and shock absorber. The thought of nanofluid has made influential devotion from researchers everywhere in world owing to their exceptional thermo‐physical properties and numerous potential assistances and uses in crucial fields for instance, thermosphere, vitality, CPU equipment, and bio‐medicine. Here the article reports the features of heat transport, possessions and persuading parts of fluid, influencing procedures and mechanisms of nanofluids. Furthermore, the purpose of this article is to explore the latest research outcomes in the undeveloped workings on nanofluids, so that scientists in the arena of energy change have a more exhaustive and clears sympathetic view of the energy alteration properties and uses of nanofluids. The 3D Carreau fluid with diverse properties of heat/ mass transportations, that is, MHD, mixed convection, radiation, heat sink/source, Soret‐Dufour impact, zero mass flux and activation energy are examined with bvp4c approach. The Dufour and thermal Biot factors enhance the temperature field; similarly, thermophoretic and Soret factors exaggerate the field of concentration. The larger value of Brownian factor decays the concentration field.

Courts as an arena of societal change? The Italian Constitutional Court's self‐restraint facing the legislator's uncertain discretion in seabed mining: A concrete counter‐example

AbstractThe article explores the difficult balance of interests in the Italian field of seabed mining. In recent years, the regions, bearers of the local communities' social demands, claimed greater attention to sustainability, while the State almost always privileged productivity. The Constitutional Court always took an attitude of self‐restraint, basically adhering to State reasons. Given this starting point, it is not entirely certain that the European Court of Justice's 2022 ruling, which included the environmental interest alongside economic concerns, will bring concrete developments. Indeed, although environmental protection falls under constitutional principles from 2022, there is a complex framework of interests involved in the sector, from which political power suffers above all. Consequently, the reception of social demands makes the effort of only the Court insufficient. The Italian case thus illustrates some of the constraints that can weigh on courts, especially constitutional courts, in their ability to constitute an arena of societal change.

Guest editorial: Courts as an arena for societal change: An appraisal in the age of “environmental democracy”; In this issue

Guest editorial: Courts as an arena for societal change: An appraisal in the age of “environmental democracy”; In this issue

Courts as an arena for socioenvironmental change: Lessons from the Argentine courts

AbstractTrends in the Argentine courts indicate a judicial preference towards flexibility in light of possibly serious environmental consequences, particularly in relation to mining. Through a liberal interpretation of constitutional provisions where collective environmental rights are threatened, the courts have expanded access to justice, leading some to view the Argentine judiciary as “interventionist” or “political”. However, judicial decisions emphasise compliance with constitutional mandates without necessarily encroaching on policy‐making realms. The constitutionalisation of environmental rights has had a strong influence on the judiciary's approach, but in combination with other factors, particularly civic mobilisation, institutional changes and an evolving public ethos on environmental protection. Proactive judicial engagement with the full extent of its powers to ensure that policy‐makers meet their constitutionally mandated obligations can compel policy‐makers to address sustainability issues and rethink strategies. This positioning of the judiciary as a catalyst for more effective environmental governance offers useful insights for European courts.

What climate litigation reveals about judicial competence

AbstractIn recent years, the US and the Netherlands have been on opposing sides of the spectrum regarding climate litigation. Dutch courts, in several revolutionary climate cases, have been an arena of societal change, whilst climate claims in the US have been largely unsuccessful. In a way this difference seems strange, because the US judiciary has the power of constitutional review, whilst the Dutch judiciary does not. Against that background, this paper extensively compares the doctrines of judicial competence regarding political questions in both jurisdictions. As a comparative framework, this paper uses three judicial phases, namely: the institutional phase, the substantial phase, and the remedial phase. Climate litigation reveals that the Dutch doctrine of judicial competence is focused on the substantial and remedial phases, which has allowed it more freedom in reviewing climate litigation. On the other hand, climate litigation reveals that the US doctrine of judicial competence is focused on a strict institutional phase, dominated by the Political Question Doctrine (PQD). The main contribution of this paper to the constitutional debate is that climate litigation reveals fundamental differences in doctrines of judicial competence. This is not only an important takeaway for future climate litigation, but also, in terms of the Radbruch formula, for other potential gaps between the executive and justice.

Enabling spaces for bridging scales: scanning solutions for interdisciplinary human-environment research

To tackle the twenty-first-century challenges for sustainability, a deeper understanding of their complexity is needed. Hence, interdisciplinary human–environment research integrating knowledge, perspectives, and solutions across scales is crucial. Yet, questions of ‘scale’ and ‘scaling’ continue to challenge human–environment research. Despite substantial scholarly attention to scales, no unified definitions and understanding exist, causing confusion among researchers. In this paper, we aim to provide clarity to the challenges and potential solutions to bridging scales in interdisciplinary human–environment research as well as identify leverage points and arenas of change that would enable it. We used a three-step methodology to (a) identify the challenges and solutions based on a survey of 82 interdisciplinary researchers, (b) prioritise the challenges and solutions based on expert elicitation, and (c) organise the solutions according to their potential for leveraging change at three system arenas: individual researchers, institutions and organisations, and the wider academic structures. The main challenges ranged from issues related to differences in research approaches, lack of resources for deeper collaborations, or conflicting perspectives on problem and scale definitions, to miscommunication. The specific solutions linked to these challenges were predominantly related to the potential of improving the research process through open communication, data sharing, or new techniques for upscaling or downscaling results. We argue that bridging scales requires open and humble conversations across disciplines on scale understandings as well as improved collaboration through data sharing, method development, result dissemination, and contribution to theory. Facilitating such collaboration requires enabling spaces of interaction across three systemic arenas: the individual researcher’s personal commitment to open communication and reflection, the research institution’s capacity to enable interdisciplinary spaces, and the wider academic system valuing and supporting interdisciplinary and cross-scale initiatives.

Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility in the Arena of Climate Change: A Study in Socio-Legal Aspect

Climate change is an environmental challenge confronting all countries across the globe in varying degrees of intensity. It, directly and indirectly, interferes with the enjoyment of all human beings including – the right to life, housing, water and sanitation, food, health, development, security of persons and an adequate standard of living. Industry and business play a crucial role with regard to climate change, accounting for approximately one-third of the world’s energy consumption and 36 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, industry and the global business community have a responsibility to join national and international efforts to lower their greenhouse gas emissions. Across Asia, Europe, Africa, and North and South America, the adverse effects of climate change have manifested over the years as ozone layer depletion, continental global warming, a shower of acid rain, extended fires, melting ice, rise in sea level and other extreme events which call for urgent action at national and international levels. A self-regulating approach that makes manufacturing organisations socially responsible and responsive to environmental issues in their operating countries can be pragmatic in climate-change mitigation, and strengthen existing governmental policies on climate change. A number of affirmative actions and recommendations has been formulated at national and international levels to regulate climate change including eco-vigilance, adoption of green, conservation of the flora and fauna, zero-tolerance of gas flaring, socially responsible investment, carbon emission reporting and disclosures and adoption of environment-friendly manufacturing techniques. Therefore, the present study not only focusses on the theoretical aspect but also on the socio-legal aspect filling the gap in both theory and practice related to the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on society.

Power and Politics in Different Change Discourses

Background: The purpose of this article is to examine how different views on power and politics manifest in organizational change, and how they can be integrated into a single model. Methods: Our research was based on an extensive literature review about power and politics and their relationship with organizational change. We used the systems model of organizational change developed by Maes and Van Hootegem to map the different views on power and politics in organizational change. This systems model integrated different change discourses and allowed us to post the various aspects of power and politics in organizational change. Results: Using the systems model as a reference to look at power and politics from different angles led to a better understanding of the role they play in organizational change so that actors can enter the political arena of change better prepared and play the game of change at a tactically higher level. Conclusions: The analysis contributes to the study of power and politics in three respects. First, using the metamodel of organizational change to map the different views on power and politics offers a more detailed and varied understanding of the use of power and politics in organizational change. Second, looking at power and politics from different discourses can accommodate greater complexity and nuance. Third, it shows that change projects rarely run smoothly but are constantly traversed by all kinds of obstacles and barriers that require specific political astuteness. Members of an organization, who have been introduced to political skills, will be better able to navigate the pitfalls of organizational change and its rhetoric and thus be better agents of change or better able to resist unreasonable change.

Public pedagogy and leadership in sports organisations: Futebol dá força for sustainability?

Sport is a key educational and leadership arena for societal change and today’s sustainability challenges. Sports organisations have the potential to provide, initiate and create processes, situations and spaces for learning, socialisation and meaning making that go beyond traditional schooling and lead community change and capacity building towards sustainable development. This article is located in the research fields of public pedagogy and the intersection of leadership and sport for development, and contributes knowledge about how sports organisations’ public pedagogical practices and leadership support community change towards sustainability. The study is confined to soccer and the non-governmental sports organisation Futebol dá força (Football gives strength). The approach of public pedagogical leadership is developed and used to analyse and reflect on the function of sports organisations’ pedagogical leadership in community change and capacity building towards sustainability.

Rustad för morgondagen?


 During the last couple of decades, the state of the Swedish welfare society has deteriorated. Political decisions concerning the labour market, housing and education have significantly increased precarious conditions for many people. Income inequality and economic difficulties have increased. Changes in the welfare system make it harder to receive adequate support, while the repressive elements have also increased. We argue that critical and radical perspectives in social work can help reverse this negative development. What students learn in their social work education will affect their ways of understanding social problems, their practice, and their ability to work for change. We therefore regard social work education as an important arena for social change. But what is the state of such perspectives at our Swedish universities? This article examines the presence of critical and radical perspectives in the Swedish social work curriculum and attempts to answer the question ”How well equipped are future social workers to work in a critical and radical way?” The study shows that a critical perspective is common in the social work curriculum of some universities, but that critical and radical perspectives in general are absent. We argue that this

Singing from the same song sheet? Exploring “civil society” through the eyes of NGO practitioners

ABSTRACT Although historically a contested concept, it has been argued that civil society has become a victim of its own ubiquity in development; its potential for radicalism and innovation blunted by donor-driven narratives and the unquestioning acceptance of those narratives by donor-dependent NGOs. Donor influence is charged with weakening civil society as an arena for political debate and citizen-driven change. This article presents findings from qualitative research undertaken with forest sector civil society organisations in the Central African Republic. It unearths and examines perceptions of the roles and values of civil society among practitioners themselves and the underlying drivers of consensual or contested understandings.

Integrating political and technological uncertainty into robust climate policy.

As climate change is unlikely to follow a linear path, climate policies should anticipate varied outcomes and be flexibly responsive. The case for such “robust policy” is compelling. However, advocates of robust approaches to policymaking often understate the challenge, as the variability of climate is just one of at least three interactive arenas of uncertainty that require attention. Emerging technologies will have a significant but indeterminate impact on climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. Uncertainty is also heightened because politics is an arena of disruptive change. The development of robust climate policy given the convergence of unknowns in the climatic, technological, and political realms entails three components: (1) diverse, distributed, and transparent participation; (2) safe-to-fail experimentation; and (3) exploratory foresight.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO MANAGEMENT MAKING IN AN INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE

Radical changes in the domestic economy, structural changes associated with the development of market relations, have contributed to the introduction of information technology, which has significantly changed the conditions of enterprises in various industries. This poses new challenges for companies - to seek effective development strategies aimed not only at implementing social functions, but also to find effective mechanisms for management decisions. Regarding the theoretical and methodological principles and areas of management R. Fatkhudtinov proposed an alternative classification of approaches [289]: complex, integration, marketing, functional, dynamic, reproducible, normative. But their separate practical use is impractical. It is necessary to integrate them into established approaches to enterprise management and management decisions. F. Taylor is considered to be the founder of the concept of scientific management [274]. He was the first to conclude that management work is a specialty and that an organization will benefit if each group of employees does the job it can best do. At the same time, the world of industrial production became an arena of rapid change. These and other factors have led management representatives to become more aware of the existence of external factors in relation to the organization. For this purpose, new approaches to the study of management science and practice were developed: system, process, resource, situational approach, and the result of scientific research of domestic and foreign scientists in the field of management theory and practice was the emergence of synergetic and reflective approach. At the heart of the systems (cybernetic) approach, there is an assumption that any system (object) is a set of interconnected elements that has an input, output, communication with the external environment and feedback. The development of a systems approach, which gives the specialist new opportunities for the study of management, today is a synergetic approach. The given analytical review of the basic approaches to management and acceptance of administrative decisions in economic systems has shown, that there is no uniform generally accepted theory of management. Moreover, there is an increasing differentiation of research on management problems. At the same time, the tendency of mutual integration of different schools and directions on the basis of separate common concepts is clearly manifested.

"I'm a Mother Who Always Tries to Give My Children Hope"-Refugee Women's Experiences of Their Children's Mental Health.

Background: The prevalence of mental health problems is high among refugee children. Childhood mental health problems have long-term negative consequences and costs both for the individual child and society. The present study aimed to explore refugee parents’ experiences of their children’s mental health. Methodology: A qualitative explorative study was conducted. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with nine refugee mothers who have been in Sweden less than 5 years and with at least one child in the ages 8–14 years. Data were analyzed inductively using thematic network analysis. Results: The global theme that emerged from the analysis was Navigating the moving landscape of forced migration, which described the refugee mothers’ experiences of the previous adversity the family went through, the ongoing transition in the new context, and, lastly, the pathways to promote their children’s mental health. Two organizing themes described mothers’ and children’s navigation of the forced migration: Previous adverse events and new suffering and Promoting children’s well-being. Mothers described aggression and frequent conflicts, or refusal to play or eat, in their children related to living conditions at asylum centres and social isolation. This improved when children started school and possibilities of social relations increased. Mothers’ own mental health and lack of language skills could also have a negative impact on the children. To focus on the present and have hope of the future was helpful to the children. Encouragement and social support from parents, teachers, and friends promoted children’s well-being. Conclusion: The role of the host country in the promotion of the mental health of refugee children is emphasized. Interventions aimed to improve peer relations and reduce discrimination are needed, and these point to the school as a potential arena for positive change. Parental support groups were also mentioned as helpful in understanding the children’s need for support.

Indigenous mental health: the limits of medicalised solutions.

The excess burden of mental disorders experienced by Indigenous Australians is complexly overdetermined. Social and political factors contributing to the intransigence of vulnerability are reviewed, and the wider arena of neoliberal political change considered. The dynamic relationship between disadvantage and mental health vulnerability requires that practitioners should be attuned to both the 'big picture' and 'modest and practical ways' to contribute to reducing the developmental embedding of social disadvantage and transgenerational vulnerability.

Continuity and Transformation in Environmental Governance

Almost since the modern era of environmental regulation began in the 1970s, there have been arguments for replacing it with something else. Surely, critics argued, it was possible to improve on a rigid hierarchy from the issuance of federal uniform standards to state implementation to firm compliance. Conventional regulation, it has been said, is too clumsy, too slow, too inefficient. The critics offered various replacements for federal “command and control” regulation, including use of alternative regulatory tools such as emissions trading or collaborative governance and a massive shift of regulatory authority to the states. There have been significant incremental changes, but little in the way of transformation – except in the arena of climate change. States, cities, and private firms have all undertaken aggressive climate change initiatives. This paper argues that the complex national and international networks and interactions involving these efforts are best understood as constituting a governance ecosystem.

Urgently Needed: Climate Lawyers

We argue that climate law has specific features—including scientific complexity, a strongly transboundary nature, and long-term effects—that make it more challenging to study than other more traditional domains of environmental law. As a consequence, an interdisciplinary perspective may be needed even more for climate law than for the traditional study of environmental law. Climate law is to some extent underestimated by scientists, who should realize that for effective mitigation of greenhouse gases and adaptation to climate change, an optimal design and enforcement through climate law is necessary. Climate law can be expected to become more important with the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and for that reason climate lawyers should receive a more prominent position in the international policy arena of climate change.

Micro and Small Village Enterprises (MSVEs) An Alternative Paradigm for Cooperation and Development

This paper aims at appreciating the need for and relevance of understanding conceptual paradigm of Rural entrepreneurship, Rural Entrepreneurs and the creation of Micro and small village enterprises. Enterprises in rural environments are operating in an arena of extreme and rapid change. However, despite the recognition that entrepreneurship is one of the primary facets through which rural economic development can be achieved, empirical research on rural entrepreneurship is relatively sparse and this concept remains largely unknown. The emerging Domain of Rural Entrepreneurship envision itself as a body of knowledge To accelerate the process of Rural Industrialization in the country along the lines of Gandhi an vision of sustainable and self reliant village economy and to provide S&T support to upgrade the products of rural industry so that they gain wide acceptability in the local and global markets. Rural entrepreneurship is currently at the focus of much theoretical, practical and political interest. Rural entrepreneurship stands as a vehicle to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment. Village enterprises are the creation of rural entrepreneurs and such enterprises have been defined differently in different countries. The present study uses the term Micro and small village Enterprises (MSVEs) broadly to include any enterprise that involves relatively few individuals or employees engaged in activities in the rural context. This paper draws upon a broader research work based on the doctoral dissertation about the Appraisal of Rural Entrepreneurship Development that makes a focused attempt to appraise the role and impact of selected Entrepreneurship Development institutions and the developmental programmes meant for developing, supporting and sustaining micro and small village enterprises (MSVEs). This paper attempts to address the issues pertaining to the development of micro and small village enterprise (MSVEs) as an emerging paradigm and the role of various Entrepreneurship Development Institutions fostering rural entrepreneurship and development of micro and small village enterprise (MSVEs) in Haryana and evaluation of various governmental efforts and schemes intended for rural industrialisation through rural poverty alleviation programmes aiming at entrepreneurship development in the rural areas of the economy.

Small towns and rural growth centers as strategic spaces of control in Rwanda’s post-conflict trajectory

ABSTRACTSince the 1994 genocide, the government’s vigorous pursuit of security, development and poverty alleviation has been translated into its strategy for urban development. With urban population growth rates rocketing in the period following the genocide with the return of both new and old caseload refugees, urban security became a critical focal point for the new government, which takes an active role in the planning and managing its urban trajectory to bring about secure and orderly development. Whereas the growth of Kigali has often been studied as a critical site in the context of post-conflict reconstruction and securitization, the dynamics at play in small towns and urbanizing centers have been less in the picture. This paper focuses on the role of small towns and emerging urban centers in the debate on the politics of urbanization in post-conflict settings. It investigates the significance of rapidly growing small towns for development in the post-conflict context of Rwandan society by analysing two cases of emerging urban centers. Presenting small towns and rural growth centers as strategic spaces of control, the paper argues that the process of rural urbanization in Rwanda can be understood as a potentially contested arena of change.