Authority Building Research Articles

Architectural design in 1890s Wellington cityscapes

In the absence of landscape architecture as a profession the aggregation and location of architects (and local authority engineers) directly impacted cityscapes where they practiced. As well as the built environment other factors were significant in shaping the cityscape, such as the distribution of population growth, regulation of subdivision and road construction, and land sale practices of the time. The late nineteenth century was a period over which the architectural profession was beginning to consolidate. While still lacking formal structure and regulation, meaning the individuals involved possessed a range of experience, knowledge and ability, architects increasingly became professional office workers with well-staffed offices capitalising on the demand for construction. Using Wellington as a case study, this paper uses local authority building permit records and other sources to determine the location and patterns of architecturally-designed dwellings in the city's streetscapes. Findings suggest that architect's impact on the urban form varied considerably across the city.

City ports as a place for iconic architecture and the meeting point for sustainable ideas: the cases of Antwerp and Hamburg

This article focuses on sustainable development practices used by two major European ports, Antwerp (Belgium) and Hamburg (Germany). The main idea of this research is to analyze which sustainable projects are included in the ports’ activities. One of the main assumptions relies on the possibility of iconic architecture to promote sustainable ideas through city branding. Thus, special attention is given to how iconic buildings construct the connection between can facilitate city branding through sustainable solutions. Urban landmarks are considered an instrument of city branding and a tool for promoting sustainable solutions. The Hamburg Port case and its iconic building, the Elb Philarmonie, and the Antwerp Port case and its iconic building, the Port Authority Building, are analyzed.

Politicisation of the Domestic: Populist Narratives About Covid-19 Among Influencers

The article analyses the proliferation of narratives about Covid-19 as an orchestrated political event among female lifestyle influencers on Czech Instagram. As the Covid-19 pandemic turned even the most basic everyday activities into politically loaded questions, the boundaries between lifestyle, domestic, and political content posted by influencers became increasingly blurred. The article explores this process of “politicisation of the domestic” with a focus on (a) the gendered character of influencer communities on Instagram, (b) the process of authority building within the newly politicised and gendered spaces, and (c) the post-socialist socio-political context of the Czech Republic that frames current political events by symbolic references to a totalitarian past. Empirically, the article builds on data collected using digital ethnography and ethnographic content analysis of selected Czech female lifestyle influencers’ Instagram profiles.

Invited Commentary: Use of Epidemiologic Methods to Guide Comprehensive and Equitable Approaches to Policy.

Despite a dramatic reduction in the prevalence of commercial cigarette smoking in the United States, children are still commonly exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS), which is a cause of various pediatric health problems. Further, SHS exposure is patterned by race and class, exacting an inequitable toll on children from families with lesser social and economic advantage. In this issue of the Journal, Titus et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2023;192(1):25-33) use natural experiment evaluation methods (difference-in-differences) to test whether the recently implemented US Department of Housing and Urban Development policy that forbade smoking in and around New York City Housing Authority buildings affected child respiratory health. The results from their work remind us that policies do not always impact outcomes as we might expect. Given that policy is one of the most potent tools for population health promotion, this work underlines the need for epidemiologists to engage in policy evaluation at all stages of the policy life cycle, in order to discover comprehensive approaches to policy development and implementation that prioritize equity and address structural racism.

Community implications for gun violence prevention during co-occurring pandemics; a qualitative and computational analysis study

This study provides insight into New York City residents' perceptions about violence after the outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) based on information from communities in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings. In this novel analysis, we used focus group and social media data to confirm or reject findings from qualitative interviews. We first used data from 69 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with low-income residents and community stakeholders to further explore how violence impacts New York City's low-income residents of color, as well as the role of city government in providing tangible support for violence prevention during co-occurring health (COVID-19) and social (anti-Black racism) pandemics. Residents described how COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement impacted safety in their communities while offering direct recommendations to improve safety. Residents also shared recommendations that indirectly improve community safety by addressing long term systemic issues. As the recruitment of interviewees was concluding, researchers facilitated two focus groups with 38 interviewees to discuss similar topics. In order to assess the degree to which the themes discovered in our qualitative interviews were shared by the broader community, we developed an integrative community data science study which leveraged natural language processing and computer vision techniques to study text and images on public social media data of 12 million tweets generated by residents. We joined computational methods with qualitative analysis through a social work lens and design justice principles to most accurately and holistically analyze the community perceptions of gun violence issues and potential prevention strategies. Findings indicate valuable community-based insights that elucidate how the co-occurring pandemics impact residents' experiences of gun violence and provide important implications for gun violence prevention in a digital era.

Long-Term Trends in Secondhand Smoke Exposure in High-Rise Housing Serving Low-Income Residents in New York City: Three-Year Evaluation of a Federal Smoking Ban in Public Housing, 2018-2021.

In July 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development passed a rule requiring public housing authorities to implement smoke-free housing (SFH) policies. We measured secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure immediately before, and repeatedly up to 36 months post-SFH policy implementation in a purposeful sample of 21 New York City (NYC) high-rise buildings (>15 floors): 10 NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings subject to the policy and 11 privately managed buildings in which most residents received housing vouchers (herein "Section 8"). We invited participants from nonsmoking households (NYCHA n = 157, Section-8 n = 118) to enroll in a longitudinal air monitoring study, measuring (1) nicotine concentration with passive, bisulfate-coated filters, and (2) particulate matter (PM2.5) with low-cost particle sensors. We also measured nicotine concentrations and counted cigarette butts in common areas (n = 91 stairwells and hallways). We repeated air monitoring sessions in households and common areas every 6 months, totaling six post-policy sessions. After 3 years, we observed larger declines in nicotine concentration in NYCHA hallways than in Section-8, [difference-in-difference (DID) = -1.92 µg/m3 (95% CI -2.98, -0.87), p = .001]. In stairwells, nicotine concentration declines were larger in NYCHA buildings, but the differences were not statistically significant [DID= -1.10 µg/m3 (95% CI -2.40, 0.18), p = .089]. In households, there was no differential change in nicotine concentration (p = .093) or in PM2.5 levels (p = .385). Nicotine concentration reductions in NYCHA common areas over 3 years may be attributable to the SFH policy, reflecting its gradual implementation over this time. Continued air monitoring over multiple years has demonstrated that SHS exposure may be declining more rapidly in NYCHA common areas as a result of SFH policy adherence. This may have positive implications for improved health outcomes among those living in public housing, but additional tracking of air quality and studies of health outcomes are needed. Ongoing efforts by NYCHA to integrate the SFH policy into wider healthier-homes initiatives may increase policy compliance.

Democratic legitimacy and authority in times of Corona: Angela Merkel’s address to the nation (18 March 2020)

This article explores the discursive and argumentative procedures that build the legitimacy and authority of Chancellor Angela Merkel in her first TV address on Covid-19. Establishing a necessary distinction in these two correlated and often confused notions, the analysis uncovers a global “rhetoric of the coronavirus”: staging of institutional legitimacy reinforced by the unity of the rulers (an all-encompassing “we”) and building of authority by the argument of epistemic authority (experts); justification of anti-Covid measures by pragmatic arguments or by historical examples; construction of an ethos that ensures credibility. The analysis also reveals procedures specific to emergency situations: enhancement of an absolute and illusory political consensus, at the expense of open democratic deliberation; reduction of scientific discourse to the discourse of experts likely to provide certainty to decision-makers, transformed into managers; calls on the public to accept of its own free will measures already enacted. Finally, the article highlights the specificities of Merkel's speech on this occasion: the meta-discourse that tackles head-on the relationship to democracy, but also to argumentation, the insistence on human values considered superior to the democratic values violated, the posture of proximity supposed to contribute to moral legitimation and to strengthen the authority of the Chancellor. The ethical dimension of the discourse is all the more salient because it relies heavily on pragmatic arguments. Another characteristic of Angela Merkel’s singular self-presentation is the confession of her own fragility, the image of a sensitive woman who unites reason and feeling, the emphasis on an ethic strongly imbued with affectivity that gives her a very human accent and calls for “solidary action” rather than for mere obedience.

Designing data governance in Brazil: an institutional analysis

Data governance is a decision-making process focused on authority building to specify decision rights and accountability that encourage desired behaviors regarding data use, security, integrity, and availability. The emergence of big data technologies to design public policy and deliver public services requires governments to design data policy and governance. This paper analyzes the dynamics of data governance design in the Brazilian Federal Government, based on institutional analysis and policy development. The paper reports a series of interviews with Brazilian Federal Government policymakers to frame the data policy design dynamics. The paper concludes that the policy design dynamics to data governance are path dependent and shape actions situations that reinforces previous institutions. In the case of the Brazilian Federal Government, the institutional framework is ambiguous, creating situations of conflict and ineffectiveness in the design of the data policy.

Proposing a hybrid metaheuristic optimization algorithm and machine learning model for energy use forecast in non-residential buildings

The building sector is the largest energy consumer accounting for 40% of global energy usage. An energy forecast model supports decision-makers to manage electric utility management. Identifying optimal values of hyperparameters of prediction models is challenging. Therefore, this study develops a novel time-series Wolf-Inspired Optimized Support Vector Regression (WIO-SVR) model to predict 48-step-ahead energy consumption in buildings. The proposed model integrates the support vector regression (SVR) and the grey wolf optimizer (GWO) in which the SVR model serves as a prediction engine while the GWO is used to optimize the hyperparameters of the SVR model. The 30-min energy data from various buildings in Vietnam were adopted to validate model performance. Buildings include one commercial building, one hospital building, three authority buildings, three university buildings, and four office buildings. The dataset is divided into the learning data and the test data. The performance of the WIO-SVR was superior to baseline models including the SVR, random forests (RF), M5P, and decision tree learner (REPTree). The WIO-SVR model obtained the highest value of correlation coefficient (R) with 0.90. The average root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the WIO-SVR was 2.02 kWh which was more accurate than those of the SVR model with 10.95 kWh, the RF model with 16.27 kWh, the M5P model with 17.73 kWh, and the REPTree model with 26.44 kWh. The proposed model improved 442.0–1207.9% of the predictive accuracy in RMSE. The reliable WIO-SVR model provides building managers with useful references in efficient energy management.

Evaluation of Secondhand Smoke Exposure in New York City Public Housing After Implementation of the 2018 Federal Smoke-Free Housing Policy

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is associated with many health conditions in children and adults. Millions of individuals in the US are currently exposed to SHS in their homes. To investigate whether a federal ban on smoking in public housing settings was associated with a decrease in indoor SHS levels in New York City public housing developments 12 months after the policy's implementation. This cohort study tracked indoor air quality longitudinally from April 2018 to September 2019 and used difference-in-differences analysis to examine SHS exposure before vs after implementation of the 2018 federal smoke-free housing (SFH) policy in 10 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings vs 11 matched low-income buildings not subject to the SFH policy (ie, Section 8 buildings). Federal SFH policy implementation, beginning July 30, 2018. Comparison of nicotine concentration levels from passive, bisulfate-coated filters before vs 12 months after implementation of the federal SFH policy. Secondary outcomes included changes in particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter, measured with low-cost particle monitors, and counts of cigarette butts in common areas. Air quality was measured repeatedly in a total of 153 NYCHA and 110 Section 8 nonsmoking households as well as in 91 stairwells and hallways. Before the SFH policy implementation, air nicotine was detectable in 19 of 20 stairwells (95.0%) in NYCHA buildings and 15 of 19 stairwells (78.9%) in Section 8 buildings (P = .19) and in 17 of 19 hallways (89.5%) in NYCHA buildings and 14 of 23 hallways (60.9%) in Section 8 buildings (P = .004). Nicotine was detected less frequently inside nonsmoking apartments overall (26 of 263 [9.9%]) but more frequently in NYCHA apartments (20 of 153 [13.1%]) than in Section 8 apartments (6 of 110 [5.5%]) (P = .04). One year after policy implementation, there was no differential change over time in nicotine concentrations measured in stairwells (DID, 0.03 μg/m3; 95% CI, -0.99 to 1.06 μg/m3) or inside nonsmoking households (DID, -0.04 μg/m3; 95% CI, -0.24 to 0.15 μg/m3). Larger decreases in nicotine concentration were found in NYCHA hallways than in Section 8 hallways (DID, -0.43 μg/m3; 95% CI, -1.26 to 0.40 μg/m3). The findings suggest that there was no differential change in SHS in NYCHA buildings 12 months after SFH policy implementation. Additional support may be needed to ensure adherence to SFH policies.

Political Sociology of Peacebuilding Organizations. Introduction

ABSTRACT This special section turns its gaze inwards to explore how legitimate authority is constructed in the field of peacebuilding. Authority building in peacebuilding has attracted much research interest since peacebuilding efforts have become unending ‘transitions' from war to peace. Commonly, the main reference point of these debates is Max Weber’s distinction between bureaucratic, traditional and charismatic legitimacy. Drawing on the articles in this special section, the introduction discusses the limits of a Weberian approach and suggests a number of amendments in order to better frame research into the political sociology of global institutions of peace.

Self-reported Secondhand Marijuana Smoke (SHMS) Exposure in Two New York City (NYC) Subsidized Housing Settings, 2018: NYC Housing Authority and Lower-Income Private Sector Buildings.

The percentage of adults in the United States reporting current marijuana use has more than doubled, from 4 to 9% between 2002 and 2018, suggesting that exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke (SHMS) has probably increased. Few studies have characterized the extent to which residents experience SHMS, particularly those living in multi-unit housing. It remains unknown how recently-implemented smoke-free housing policies (SFH) targeting cigarette smoke in public housing authorities (PHAs) will affect SHMS exposure. We sought to characterize prevalence of self-reported SHMS exposure among residents living in two different subsidized housing settings prior to SFH policy implementation in PHAs: New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings and private sector buildings where most residents receive Section8 subsidy vouchers (herein 'Section8' buildings). Residents were recruited from 21 purposefully-selected buildings: 10 NYCHA and 11 Section8 buildings (> 15 floors). Survey responses were collected during April-July 2018 for NYCHA residents (n = 559) and August-November 2018 for Section8 residents (n = 471). Of 4628 eligible residents, 1030 participated (response rates, 35% NYCHA, 32% Section8). Overall, two-thirds of residents reported smelling marijuana smoke (67%) in their home over the past year, higher than reports of smelling cigarette smoke (60%). Smoking status and smelling SHS were both strong predictors of smelling SHMS (p < 0.05). Nearly two thirds of residents perceived smoking marijuana and smelling SHMS as harmful to health. Our findings suggest that,immediately prior to SFH rule implementation in PHAs, SHMS was pervasive in low-income multi-unit housing, suggesting SFH policies should expand to cover marijuana use.

Application of Artificial Neuron Networks as energy consumption forecasting tool in the building of Regulatory Authority of Energy, Athens, Greece

The liberation of the Greek electricity market by the law 4426/2015 started a new area for the producers and the consumers of electricity, in order to improve energy efficiency and saving, promotes competitiveness and finally leads to the protection of the environment.The main objective of this work is the development of a forecasting tool with the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), in order to forecast the energy consumption in the building of Regulation Authority of Energy (RAE) in Athens city, Greece. More specifically, nine different scenarios and artificial neural networks respectively developed and trained in order give a sufficient prediction for the consumption of electricity, the consumption of natural gas during the cold period of the year and finally the chilling loads during the warm period of the year, 24hours ahead in hourly basis.For this purpose, hourly meteorological data from the nearest meteorological station belonging to the National Observatory of Athens as well as energy consumption data from the specific building in hourly bases were used.Results showed that ANNs present a remarkable forecasting ability to predict the energy consumption of the specific building 24hours ahead.

Model of Indonesian Traditional Market Revitalisation: Case Study of Five Metropolitan Cities in Java Island

The existence of Indonesian traditional market in the post reform order has a lesson learn of survival community. Traditional market represents a micro-economy, which ontribute the national economy stability during the crisis. Most of traditional market in Java island is influenced by ancient Mataram Kingdom as figure out on the relief of Borobudur Temple. Mechanism of transaction in traditional market, such as bargaining process and selling culture has a distinctive local wisdom of Indonesia. The revitalisation of public market in Indonesia has a mediocre performance in general. Most of revitalisation projects among traditional market did not given a strategic bargaining position of previous market vendors to involve for market development process. This research focuses on modelling the revitalisation of traditional market in Indonesian context. A case study in five metropolitan cities was adopted. The findings underline that the pattern of Indonesian Traditional market in each metropolitan city on Java Island revealed that transportation access, distinctive local food and sociology aspect influencing the revitalisation process. This research suggests the model of Indonesian traditional market revitalisation to encourage the local authorities in sustainable community. The proposed model has a strategic issue, in terms of public building policy and capacity building of local authority.

Introduction: Authority Building in International Administered Territories

ABSTRACT This introduction to the special section on “Authority Building in International Administered Territories” begins by summarizing the relevant literature on international administrations. To conceptualize authority building as an ongoing process in which international and local actors confirm – or refuse – authority claims, secondly, two types of authority are differentiated: ‘interpretative authority’ and ‘performing authority’. This sociological conceptualization of authority building allows, thirdly, a discussion on the restrictions and challenges that international administrations face in their attempts to establish authority on the ground. Finally, an overview of the section’s articles is provided.

International Transitional Administrations and the Politics of Authority Building

ABSTRACT This article critically examines authority-building practices of international transitional administrations (ITAs) engaged in statebuilding, and evaluates authority building as a framework for understanding the practices of statebuilding operations. It argues that war-torn states rarely lack actors claiming authority, but that these claims are often competing and mutually exclusive, and frequently not widely recognized. Building authority, therefore, requires ITAs to choose between different actors, recognizing the authority claims of some and withholding recognition from others, seeking ways to strengthen their ability to justify their authority claims vis-à-vis domestic and international audiences. Through authority-building practices, external actors directly become part of the political competition and dynamics of war-affected societies. The discussion of authority building by ITAs proceeds in three steps. The first section outlines the concept of political authority, in particular in the context of fragile states and of ITAs, and discusses relevant methodological issues. The second section then examines three distinct aspects of authority building by ITAs: claiming and justifying their own authority, recognizing and validating the authority claims of local actors, and strengthening the capacity of local actors to justify their authority claims. The final section concludes the paper with some reflections on political authority and authority building.

Exploring the Effective Authority of International Administrations from the League of Nations to the United Nations

ABSTRACT This article analyses the concept of international administration by a multilateral organization through the lens of the effective authority of example missions, arguing that the United Nations Interim Administration of Kosovo (UNMIK) and the United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor (UNTAET) are very specific and distinct attempts at statebuilding. The article’s main argument is that the two most-cited cases in the interwar years – the Saar Territory and the Free City of Danzig, as well as the international administration of West New Guinea by the United Nation (UN) – while presenting interesting parallels with and providing useful insights into the challenges faced by the contemporary international administrations of Kosovo and Timor-Leste, are in fact drastically different endeavours in terms of the effective authority exerted on the ground. The article builds on this special section’s contribution on authority building, analysing the five international administrations through the prism of claimed, recognized, and exercised authority.

Wybrane zagadnienia dotyczące kompetencji pedagogicznych nauczyciela-muzyka

This article refers to selected issues related to the pedagogic competence of a musician-teacher. Every musician undertaking work in education comes across a lot of problems. It is essential to possess theoretical knowledge concerning both the child, his development and capabilities, as well as the very person of a pedagogue. Dynamization of the child’s capabilities and potential depends on the teacher’s personal qualities. The issues raised in this article concern the ways of developing teacher’s personality, his building of authority and the ability to discover the meaning of his pedagogic activity.

Finding Thomas Merton

Finding Thomas Merton

Property rights, urban land markets and the contradictions of redevelopment in centrally located informal settlements in Bogotá, Colombia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina

ABSTRACTFollowing rapid urban growth over the past four decades, informal settlements originally located in peripheral areas of large Latin American cities are now occupying increasingly valuable land in the central city. As a result, these communities are facing intense redevelopment pressures with important implications for housing accessibility. Although this situation is common in the region, central city redevelopment assumes a variety of forms depending on shifting approaches to land titling under different urban governance regimes, resulting in variegated, formal, and informal land markets. This comparative historical case study of Bogotá, Colombia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, suggests that urban redevelopment planning has drawn on two contrasting discourses of property rights: one privileging private market approaches based in the economic theory of Libertarianism; the other favouring state authority and redistribution building on the ethics of Utilitarianism. In both Bogotá and Buenos Aires, however, de facto land-titling policies have shifted between the principles of Libertarianism and Utilitarianism under different political regimes, and neither market- nor state-oriented approaches have served to safeguard low-income residents’ access to housing. Instead, the shifting influence of each discourse has structured formal and informal land markets in ways that complicate long-standing debates surrounding land titling in informal settlements.