Arena Of Action Research Articles

Five Connectivity Areas of the China's Belt and Road Initiative

The article strives to go beyond the common understanding of China's BRI strategy as a set of Eurasian logistics corridors and related investment and transportation projects. Scrutinizing the five integration areas (wu tong), namely foreign policy, infrastructure, trade & economic, financial and humanitarian, one can come to the conclusion that it is a set of activities to support the "going out" of the Chinese commercial firms to the leading positions in various sectors of the world economy. Climbing up the value chain by the "national champions" is a necessary condition for China's entrance to the center of the world economy. The arena of action is the periphery and semi-periphery (so called "countries along the belt and road"), where China is gradually pushing out corporations of developed countries.In addition, the strengthening of China's status in the eyes of the international community and the formation of the image of a great power hold independent importance for the people and leadership. Assessing BRI as the next natural stage of China's foreign economic openness policy at the new stage of globalization and at the same time as a self-valuable tool for restoring the country's prestige on the world stage allows more accurate evaluate Chinese intentions in joint projects.

Analisis Aktor dalam Perumusan Model Kelembagaan Pengembangan Hutan Rakyat di Kabupaten Bogor

<p><br />Bogor regency has an area of 16,945 hectares’ community-forests or 22% of the forest area in the regency. Institutional problems of community-forest management include weak interaction of actors within the organization. Since the organization is part of the institution, its existence becomes an important technical part in securing the operation of the institution. Objectives of this research on analyzing actors and the institution in the community-forest area are: (1) to determine the dominant key actors in community-forests action arena; and (2) to formulate community-forests development institutional models. Qualitative descriptive analysis of actors and institutions employs content analysis. Key actors analysis utilized ISM (Interpretive Structural Modeling) analysis methods. Results of the analysis identified seven key actors in community forest management, namely UPTD BP3K, landowners who lives outside the village, farmer landowners, land tenants, farm labors, lumbermens, and middlemen. Of the seven key actors, four key actors are the most dominant in the community-forest action arena, which are farmer landowners, farm labors, lumbermens and middlemen. There are three models of community-forest management institutions for capacity development actors, namely the institutional model related to venture capital, handling waste of resources, and coordination. This study recommends the necessity to strengthen dominant actors at site level according to the criteria of efficiency, equity, and sustainability. The policy makers need to optimize the capacity and coordination function of government agencies through the institutional coordination model.</p>

A system dynamics model for supporting decision-makers in irrigation water management

Water management is a controversial environmental policy issue, due to the heterogeneity of interests associated with a shared resource and the increasing level of conflict among water uses and users. Nowadays, there is a cumulative interest in enhancing multi-stakeholder decision-making processes, overtaking binding mercantile business, in water management domain. This requires the development of dynamic decision-aiding tools able to integrate the different problem frames held by the decision makers, to clarify the differences, to support the creation of collaborative decision-making processes and to provide shared platforms of interactions. In literature, these issues are faced by concepts such as Ostrom's action arena and Ostanello-Tsoukiàs’ interaction space (IS). The analysis of the interactions structure and of the different problem framing involved are fundamental premises for a successful debate for the management of a common-pool resource. Specifically, the present paper suggests a dynamic evolution of the IS, highlighting its criticalities. It develops an alternative perspective on the problem, using a System Dynamics Model (SDM), exploring how different actions can influence the decision-making processes of various stakeholders involved in the IS. The SDM has been implemented in a multi-stakeholders decision-making situation in order to support water management and groundwater protection in the agricultural systems in the Capitanata area (Apulia region, Southern Italy).

Just transition? Strategic framing and the challenges facing coal dependent communities

Policies designed to hasten the closure of high-emissions coal-fired power stations routinely include reference to the need for a ‘just’ transition in affected communities. But the detail of what a just transition might entail is rarely specified. This article examines how policy interventions in Australia in 2012–2013, as part of the Gillard government’s Clean Energy Future package, approached the problem of a just transition in the case of Victoria’s coal dependent Latrobe Valley. It describes how policymakers framed the issue as transition, adopted a regional scaling, and expanded the territorial arena of policy action. A stakeholder-based multilevel governance committee shrouded this top-down decision-making from public scrutiny. These moves made it possible to conjure a narrative of benign transition governed by market processes. The paper explains how these strategic framings sidelined local interests, misrepresented the issues, exacerbated local disempowerment, and enabled the redirection of re-distributional funding to communities that were not directly affected by the impending closure of coal-fired power stations. The perceived injustice of this process exposes the limitations of climate policy-related strategic issue, scale and place framing.

The muting and unmuting of caste across inter-linked action arenas: inequality and collective action in a community-based watershed group

Governing the commons in the face of socio-cultural heterogeneity is a challenge for academicians and practitioners alike. Some studies find that socio-cultural heterogeneity has negative, positive, or a non-linear relationship with collective action. Another set of studies find that institutions can mediate the effects of heterogeneity that influence collective action for improving natural resource conditions. We build on the second set of studies to identify the underlying conditions under which these institutions promote successful collective action in a socio-culturally heterogeneous group with two different castes. Our case study suggests that under conditions that create equity, accountability, symbolic capital, and member capabilities, institutions can promote successful collective action. By using the concept of interlinked action arenas, we also show that the community-based watershed group chose to mute caste in one action arena for the purposes of collective action, but outside of this action arena, caste-related norms of untouchability are actively practiced. Group members have to continually switch between the muting of caste in one action arena and unmuting of caste in another action arena, which continues to produce, reproduce, and maintain power asymmetries between members of both castes.

МЕДІЙНА ТАКСОНОМІЯ В СИСТЕМІ ГЛОБАЛЬНИХ ПАРАДИГМ

The genesis of the definition of "paradigm" is explored, within which the peculiarities of its evolution and the definition of classification features are determined. The trend character of the transformation of the content of paradigms in the conditions of strengthening the processes of postmodernism, cultural hybridization and growing cosmopolitanism is established. The methodological essence of global paradigms ("Homo oeconomicus", "Homo sociologicus", "Homo ecologicus", "Homo informaticus") and derivatives of it "Homo creativus", "Homo retis" and others are analyzed. The significance of the organizational content of the media paradigm is revealed and its inter-system and interdisciplinary essence is clarified. A graphic model of taxonomic diffusion of the media paradigm was developed and its diagnostics was carried out on the basis of selective indicators (principles, motives, action arena, types of concepts used, analysis tasks, relation to other paradigms), which allows to specify the methodological framework of future research.

Jaunimo dalyvavimas politikoje: Lietuvos atvejis

Straipsnyje analizuojama jaunimo dalyvavimą politikoje lemianti institucinė struktūra. Darbo tikslas – pateikti jaunimo dalyvavimą politikoje lemiančių institucijų aprašą. Institucijos yra suprantamos racionalaus pasirinkimo neoinstitucionalizmo teorijos perspektyvoje. Jaunimo dalyvavimą politikoje lemianti institucinė struktūra yra analizuojama remiantis Elinor Ostrom pasiūlyta institucijų analizės perspektyva. Institucijas išreiškiantys teisės aktai buvo analizuojami naudojant kokybinę turinio analizę. Rezultatai atskleidžia, kad Lietuvoje iš esmės jaunimas gali dalyvauti politikoje. Tačiau jaunimo dalyvavimas politikoje nėra pastiprinamas ir žvelgiant pro racionalaus pasirinkimo teorijos prizmę nelabai motyvuojamas – yra daug išlaidų, susijusių su dalyvavimu, o nauda ir pastiprinimas yra menki.

Energy policy design and China’s local climate governance: energy efficiency and renewable energy policies in Hangzhou

This study probes into climate policy design at city level in China, with Hangzhou’s energy efficiency and renewable energy policies between 2005 and 2014 as a case. The study applies a political action arena approach to accentuate the importance of different normative preferences behind climate change policies in relation to Hangzhou’s emerging urban climate governance regime. Three main categories of policy instruments are identified: i.e. command-and-control, market-based, and collaborative governance instruments, and their development over time is examined. It is concluded that in Hangzhou energy efficiency is a more mature and comprehensive political action arena than renewable energy. The study also finds that there has been a significant shift away from preferences towards command-and-control to more market-based instruments, while cooperative governance instruments are still in their infancy. It finally shows that the design and implementation of local programs, especially the selection of policy instruments, are strongly influenced by the normative preferences of local officials. Thus, the approach of Hangzhou’s government to the design and implementation of climate policies seem to gradually become less authoritarian, more market based, and more accountable, due to the inherent complexity of this political action arena.

THE COLLECTIVE ACTION ON GOVERNING THE COMMONS IN THE SURROUNDINGS OF PROTECTED AREAS

Abstract This work has as its theme the common natural resources and the management models that allow new governance systems in the rural areas in the surrounding of protected areas. In this sense, this paper aims to discuss the collective action of social actors in the management of common natural resources in the surroundings of the National Park of Serra da Bodoquena (PNSB). Based on institutional approach for the study of the self-organisation and self-governance in common-pool resources situations developed by Elinor Ostrom, the investigation sought the theoretical explanation of phenomena. The conclusions point out that the expected mobilisation of groups of individuals in the pursuit of common goals is twofold. In this case, the participants of the action arena create different goals and different collective actions according to their interests.

Management of low-income condominiums in Bogotá and Quito: the balance between property law and self-organisation

Governments in urbanising Latin America encourage low-income homeownership. In practice, this means that low-income urban families become owners of units in condominium properties. While the homeownership dream may thus be achieved, difficulties with maintenance can lead to deterioration. This paper considers condominiums as collective action arenas and applies the Institutional Analysis and Development framework of Ostrom (2005) to explore the links between the characteristics of (1) the communities, (2) governance and (3) the physical environment with the perceived level of maintenance (PML). Using data from a survey of 414 households carried out in 2014, we compare the circumstances of low-income condominiums in Bogota (Colombia) and Quito (Ecuador), two cities with similar housing policies but different horizontal property laws. Our central hypothesis is that the more modern law in Colombia enforces self-organisation and therefore better maintenance outcomes. In line with our hypothesis, the results demonstrate that the maintenance level in Bogota is higher than in Quito. Contrary to our hypothesis, participating in self-organisation in Bogota had a negative effect on PML, while in Quito the effect was positive. This indicates that the law matters but the relationship between the formal arrangements required by law, self-organisation and maintenance outcomes is more complicated than expected.

Presenting a Framework to Analyze Local Climate Policy and Action in Small and Medium-Sized Cities

Academic attention to local climate policy usually focuses on large-sized cities. Given the climate challenges ahead this seems unjustified. Small and medium-sized cities (SMCs) deserve scholarly attention as well. The main question is: What factors influence climate change policy and local climate actions in SMCs? In this article we present an analytical framework to analyze climate change policy and local climate actions of SMCs. The framework addresses different aspects: policy-input, -throughput, -output, -outcome, characteristics of the local environment, local action arenas, influence by higher government levels, and interaction with climate change issue networks. The framework is used to analyze and compare four case studies of SMCs in the Dutch region of Twente (two urban and two rural municipalities, and addresses both adaptation and mitigation). Results show that both ‘localist’, ‘multi-level’ and issue network membership factors influence local climate policy action. Governance modes discerned concern mostly ‘governing by authority’ and ‘self-governing’. When reflecting on the role of SMCs in climate action the study revealed the importance of local capacity building schemes issued by provincial government, inter-municipal network collaboration, and the potential for local governments to mobilize and organize citizen action.

Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia, Germs and Public Health in Dublin, 1862–1882

Studies of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia influenced the formation of ideas about disease transmission in Dublin between 1862 and 1882. Public health officials used their experience with pleuropneumonia to try to understand the media by which diseases might pass between bodies. The story of pleuropneumonia in Dublin shows how practical experience in meat inspection shaped medical ideas. The slaughterhouse served not only as an important arena of public health action but also as a site of knowledge formation. However, attempts to use ideas about pleuropneumonia to push for changes to public health practices fell short of expectations. A number of obstacles slowed change including special interest groups, poor finances, scientific confusion, and the division of duties between civic bodies and Poor Law Unions.

An Institutional Analysis of the Kaipara Harbour Governance Network in New Zealand

ABSTRACTCommon pool resources are increasingly examined through social–ecological systems (SES) lenses to understand multifaceted natural resource issues through interdisciplinary approaches. Using frameworks grounded in environmental governance and SES, we examine the multijurisdictional institutional network of Kaipara Harbour in New Zealand. We find that while the conventional form of regulatory management has persisted until recently, the network has been modified to a more collaborative and cooperative configuration. We argue that although the decision-making capacities of the Kaipara Harbour network are unchanged, the emergence of informal and self-organized subsystems is vital to the successful management of the harbour. This case illustrates the value of combining the governance network framework, allowing us to view the material relationships between actors, and the SES framework, pressing us to isolate those action arenas with the most power, the most legitimacy, and perhaps the more effective role to play in stewarding the region’s natural resources.

Ethical dimensions of mathematics education

The relationships between mathematics, mathematics education and issues such as social justice and equity have been addressed by the sociopolitical tradition in mathematics education. Others have introduced explicit discussion of ethics, advocating for its centrality. However, this is an area that is still under developed. There is a need for an ethics of mathematics education that can inform moment to moment choices to address a wide range of ethical situations. I argue that mathematics educators make ethical choices which are necessarily ambiguous and complex. This is illustrated with examples from practice. The concept of ethical dimension is introduced as a heuristic to consider the awareness of different forms of relationship and arenas of action. A framework is proposed and discussed of four important dimensions: the relationship with others, the societal and cultural, the ecological and the relationship with self. Attending to the different ethical dimensions supports the development of a plural relational ethics. Navigating ethical complexity requires embracing diverse and changing commitments. An ethics that takes account of these different dimensions supports an ethical praxis that is based on principles of flexibility and a dialogical relationship to the world and practice.

THE “INTENTIONALITY MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT” [OR “IMI”]: A COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHOMETRIC INSTRUMENT BASED UPON THE DUAL QUADRANT SCALAR MODEL OF INTENTIONALITY THAT IS DESIGNED TO MEASURE INTENT, MOTIVE TYPE, AND DISPOSITION

The overall aim of this paper is to provide an epistemological rational for the measurement of intentionality. The purposeof this narrative is to identify “Intentionality” as an arena of action in the dispositional learning domain can be measuredusing an “Intentionality Measurement Instrument” [also referred by the acronym “IMI”] based upon a dual scalar modelsimilar to the measurement of the correlation coefficient. The methodology of the “IMI” is to statistically test intentionalityvia specific psychometric instruments. The IMI as an educational science statistical metric has universal applicability andis ideally suited for measurement of purposive content (the subject matter area), purposive capability (the psychomotordomain), and purposive knowledge (the cognitive domain) based directly upon disposition (the affective domain-whichdetermines the will, purpose, and reason behind the identified event). This methodology is a novel approach to muchneeded dispositional statistical data analysis. It adds considerable value to the methods designed to assess rationaleand reason through specific instrument validity and reliability. A sequential computational methodology for IMI statisticalanalysis through a model is provided to clarity the metrics that are procedurally used in a step by step fashion thatillustrates the entire process of intentionality inquiry.

Ruling Big Data Use in Urban Flood Risk Mitigation

This article explores the link between jointly agreed rules and the use of ‘big data’ in the action arena sustainably managing flood hazards in the Denver Metropolitan Area (U.S. State of Colorado) since 1969 - a case that has attracted attention in the past being frequently used as a model to develop similar action arenas in urban areas worldwide. The analysis focuses in particular on the influence of financial reporting rules on the use of ‘big data’ to inform capital investment decisions in the months after the catastrophic 2013 Colorado flood which highlighted the weaknesses of the existing drainage system.

Institutional arrangements for the use of treated effluent in irrigation, Western Cape, South Africa

Wastewater is increasingly regarded as a valuable resource, but to fully and safely exploit the potential, sound institutional arrangements governing its reuse are crucial. This article presents a case study of a self-managed irrigation scheme in Western Cape, South Africa, that uses treated effluent directly, formally and safely. By applying the Institutional Analysis and Development framework, the variables within the context, action arena and patterns of interaction that have enabled this outcome are systematically identified and evaluated. Key variables include: water scarcity; an effective policy and regulatory framework; public pollution prevention awareness; self-organization; and capital-intensive water use linked to profitable markets.

Was ist dezentral an der Energiewende? Infrastrukturen erneuerbarer Energien als Herausforderungen und Chancen für ländliche Räume

Decentralisation is an important catchword of the German Energiewende (energy transition), due to the fact that the renewable energy sources (e.g. solar radiation and wind) are generally found everywhere. Consequently, novel socio-technical systems have become apparent, especially in rural areas. The article describes the institutional changes which have occurred in the large technical system of energy supply as a result of the Energiewende in rural areas and identifies the scalar opportunities for action presented by the infrastructures of renewable energies. In a first step, new energy infrastructures in rural areas are discussed, with particular concern for their role in the ongoing tension between centralised and decentralised solutions. As rural renewable energies are not only a part of regional public services, the decentralised infrastructural system is per se not equivalent to a decentralisation of benefits. The provision of areas for photovoltaic, biomass or wind power systems results in a landscape change closely linked to conflicts. Rural areas can be characterised as “installation sites”, developed on the basis of investment and planning decisions made outside of the respective regions. From this discussion, the second step consists in analysing the opportunities for action on the regional scale and the public interest objectives of stakeholders in creating perspectives for collective action. Accordingly, the engagement of communal and regional stakeholders, in the form of social and economic participation, is deemed necessary to achieve public interest objectives. By connecting collective actors in collaborative networks and regional action arenas, a new scale of renewable energy supply can be established.

Agriculture, Biotechnology and Development

To call a scholarly volume a handbook conveys a promise ofthe authority, completeness and balance that readers expectfrom a reference work. The editors of the Handbook onAgriculture, Biotechnology and Development have taken onan especially challenging task by attempting to compile areference book on such a politically contentious topic. Sincethe emergence of recombinant DNA techniques in the late1970s,theiruseinagriculturalcropimprovementhascometoappear much more complicated than hoped for or expected.Stabilisinganewgenetictraitinacultivarhasturnedouttobethe easy step. Stabilising the new cultivar within a complexwebofsocial,technical,economicandecologicallinkageshasproved to be something much more difficult to accomplish.Assessing the impact of a new technology on agricultureand fathoming the responses of societal interest groups andstakeholders are equally demanding. Succinctness is not anoption. This book extends to almost 870 pages, including ausefulindex,andcomprisesnofewerthan51chapterswrittenby nearly 90 distinguished contributors. The individual chap-ters are generally concise, coherent and packed with informa-tion, many of them providing the kind of topical overviewsone would expect of a handbook. Does the book as a wholeachieve the same clarity and coherence?Let us first look at what has been done to order the terrain.The editors haveadopted a formalframework based on‘threeinterrelated, three-pronged approaches to assessing the rela-tionships between agriculture, biotechnology and develop-ment’ (p.2). The first and third approaches are fairly clearand straightforward, inviting authors to distinguish betweenaccepted science, current research, and ‘speculative pursuits’(pp.2–3) and to be explicit about the models, methods andmetricstheyused.Sofar,somechanical;andtheseproceduralguidelines at least imply that authors were asked to reviewtheir allotted topics fairly broadly.More central and more normative is the second approach,which was to adopt E. Ostrom’s institutional analysis anddevelopment (IAD) framework (Ostrom, 2011)asa‘super-structure’ for the volume (p.3). We find it hard to understandwhy the editors chose this framework, which implicitly de-fines the book’s topic as an abstract institutional,organisational or policy issue. It also implies that publicchoice theory and institutional economics, in which Ostrom’smodel is rooted, are the key tools with which the topic oughtto be approached. This means filtering out some importantpublic, policy and ethical concerns about biotechnology andits interactions with agriculture and development, and demot-ing other disciplinary approaches to a secondary status.The IAD framework shows its value in the chapters whereit is used, but is much less compelling as a justification fordividing the book into three discrete parts, corresponding tothe framework’s three components: exogenous variables, ac-tion arenas and outcomes. For example, the last part of thebook addresses the ‘outcomes’ component, resulting in aninformative set of chapters on the adoption and impacts oftransgenic technologiesinparticularcropsorclassesofcrops.It is in these chapters that the editors’‘models, methods andmetrics’ template makes most sense, and by and large theauthors in this section have conscientiously applied it. How-ever, this means that each chapter devotes space to a discus-sion of the types of econometric models and methods avail-able to assess the impacts of transgenic crops, those thathappen to have been used by scholars assessing the particularcrop or crops under discussion in that chapter, the character-istics, strengths and limitations of these methods, and techni-cal questions about how to handle particular issues arisingfrom the types of transgenic traits under consideration. Thishastheadvantagethatthechapterscanbereadasindependentworksintheirownright,whichmightbeusefulforsomeusers

Institutional Obstacles on the Development of Forest Management Unit: The Case of Indonesian Tasik Besar Serkap

Three years since its establishment in 2010, the forest management unit (Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan, KPH)-Tasik Besar Serkap (KPH-TBS) in Riau Province–Indonesia has not been operated yet due to institutional problem. Therefore, the review on the institutional handicap is necessary. This study uses the Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework to analyze the policy implementation of KPH-TBS development. Analysis was conducted to describe the conditions of exogenous factors and the action arena that obstructing the policy implementation by Riau provincial government (RPG). Conceptually, the policy of KPHs development is institutional changing processes, which are changes in the value system and forest governance. The research found problems that became disincentives on biophysical conditions, such as problems on paradigm, forestry bureaucracy culture and several weaknesses in the rules in use. In addition, structural approach and physical assistance were mostly used by national government for its provincial government. In contrast, knowledge dissemination, communication and mutual trust building were still limitedly used. Former approaches do not address the needs of RPG for information and understanding regarding to the development of KPH. RPG responded to this situation slowly and lack of willingness to cooperate. They took the policy of KPHs development as a mere obligation, and did not get motivated to move by themselves. In addition, the reluctance to cooperate was also caused by the presence of conflict of interest in several government officials. Based on this research, national government need to changes the way of thinking that regulation is not the only instrument to guide the behavior of local participants. Although still needs to be repaired, it must be accompanied by improving of knowledge dissemination, communication and mutual trust building. These actions are highly required not only for resistance solution, but also for controling the paradigms transformation process and cultur of local participants in line with composed new values in the KPH concept.