Bureaucratic Processes Research Articles

Evaluation of Indonesian Government Policies in Addressing Climate Change and Natural Disasters

Climate change and natural disasters pose significant challenges to countries around the world. The Indonesian government has implemented various policies to address climate change issues and mitigate the impact of natural disasters. However, the effectiveness and impact of these policies remain unclear. This research aims to evaluate the current policies implemented by the Indonesian government in addressing climate change issues and mitigating the impact of natural disasters. It also aims to identify the key challenges faced by the Indonesian government in policy implementation and assess the effectiveness of these policies in reducing climate change risks and mitigating the impact of natural disasters in Indonesia. Additionally, potential areas for strengthening and improving government policies will be explored. A qualitative research method will be adopted, utilizing secondary data sources such as reports, academic journals, and government publications. These sources will be analyzed to gain insights into the current policies and their effectiveness. The research finds that the Indonesian government has implemented several policies to tackle climate change issues and natural disaster mitigation. Key challenges faced include limited resources, a complex bureaucratic structure, and difficulties in enforcement. While the current policies have had some impact in reducing climate change risks and mitigating the impact of natural disasters, their effectiveness is hindered by these challenges. The evaluation suggests the need for strengthening and improving Indonesian government policies on climate change and natural disaster mitigation. This includes enhancing resource allocation, streamlining bureaucratic processes, and improving enforcement mechanisms.

On becoming citizens of the ‘non-existent’: document production and Syrian-Circassian wartime migration to Abkhazia

ABSTRACT This paper explores the centrality of passports and identification documents (or their lack thereof) in peoples’ everyday lives and life chances, particularly in the contexts of forced displacement and protracted conflict. While the production of largely internationally unrecognized passports reasserts the logics of the globally dominant modern nation-state order, it also lays bare the problematic, fragile, and performative qualities of that system. I argue that the bureaucratic processes of document production for wartime migrants reveal the racializing effects of codified legal and ethnic classifications. As such, the production of passports and legal identification documents plays a formative role in the ethno-racial exclusions embedded in statecraft projects. This paper invites readers to consider how passports and identification documents affect multiple aspects of life, including access to work opportunities, mobility, and housing—and how people creatively traverse the confinments of these documents and their bureaucratic categories.

“I Thought It Was a Little Risky”: Transfer Barriers for Students with Scholarship Support

ABSTRACT A study of hidden risks, anxieties and barriers to STEM student transfer from community college to a large, comprehensive university is presented. This qualitative study employed a thematic analysis of student responses to a semi-structured interview that asked students about their hesitancy to transfer to a 4-year institution. Participants included students enrolled in a collaborative NSF-sponsored S-STEM scholarship project between three community colleges and a large public university (all in the same large metropolitan area). The project included elements that are well documented in the literature to encourage transfer. These include advising visits by university staff, clear articulation pathways, scholarship support to assist with costs, peer and near peer mentoring opportunities, and cohort-building activities between campuses and on each individual campus. Transfer rates in this group were higher, but still many students with declared interest in transferring did not transfer on time or at all. The authors identified numerous hidden risks and barriers to transfer, in addition to the well-known ones found in the literature. These include additional academic, financial, social, logistical and external/family related barriers. A theme common to many of these barriers was complex bureaucratic processes and events outside of student’s direct control. Many student comments highlighted the importance of in-person connections, mentoring and advising.

State-business relations for entrepreneurial takeoff in Africa: institutional analysis

PurposeReports and experiences suggest that several developing African economies are faced with entrepreneurial-impeding forces such as lengthy bureaucratic processes and poor regulatory space. The study examines a general trend in “doing business performance” among selected African countries and uses the case of Ghana to explore how particular indicators or forces affect the development and deployment of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policies.Design/methodology/approachComparative analysis of six African economies on their ease of doing business score. This is followed by a critical review of the literature to develop a six-point explanatory framework to explore the relative position of the six countries on the ease of doing business scores. Using Ghana as a critical case study, the authors deploy an in-depth case study analysis via in-depth interviews of relevant stakeholders to validate the information from secondary sources.FindingsThe study observes that the nature of leadership, socio-cultural imperatives, economic structure and policy and the role of domestic institutional players and international players have implications for the extent to which the state creates an enabling environment for SMEs and entrepreneurial activities. The role of supportive cultural software that will help drive SME and entrepreneurial growth has been established. The study contends that different aspects of national culture do have implications for the tendency for people to be business-minded or to have the ability to take risks. The demand and supply sides are crucial in promoting SME growth.Originality/valueThe study develops a framework that helps explore elements to help explain ease of doing business scores and the viability of SMEs in Africa. These elements were validated through qualitative interviews as well.

Corporate Experimentation: Antitode or Oxymoron?

Experimentation in entrepreneurship has become the basis for the most influential approaches, e.g., lean startup, to launch and develop new ventures. Recently, the ideas developed around experimentation, strongly rooted in the startup context, have begun to be adopted by incumbent organisations, with the promise that these experimentation approaches can benefit corporate entrepreneurship activities, i.e., entrepreneurship activities in the corporate context, despite the established and corporate bureaucratic processes and practices. While there is a growing and significant body of literature investigating experimentation in the startup context, there is no corresponding research exploring the peculiar implications of experimentation in corporate entrepreneurship. Furthermore, current indications for managers and practitioners on how to exploit the benefits of experimentation approaches in the corporate context appear unclear. This issue is more relevant today when companies have to face fast-changing customer needs and market trends, as well as the design of complex value propositions. Through an exploratory multiple case study - based on semi-structured interviews – involving three incumbent firms, this study explores how experimentation is conducted in incumbent organisations and used as a tool to support corporate entrepreneurship. This study provides detailed empirical evidence on how incumbents can adopt experimentation approaches in the corporate context, together with a set of specific managerial practices. Specifically, we document corporate experimentation challenges at three levels of analysis: (i) experimentation-level challenges; (ii) firm-level challenges, and (iii) network-level challenges. Based on the findings of this study, we contribute to research and practice on experimentation in corporate entrepreneurship.

Analysis of the Impact of Digitalization on the Quality and Availability of Public Services in Ukraine – A Comparative Approach with Insights from Estonia

Abstract This article provides an overview of the current state of digitization of public services in Ukraine, exploring its impact on service quality and availability. The rapid advancements in information and communication technology have created opportunities for streamlining bureaucratic processes and improving service delivery. The study aims to analyze the progress and potential of digitization in public services in Ukraine, comparing it with successful examples in Estonia. The research seeks to identify best practices and address existing gaps and challenges in digitalizing public services. The research utilizes various methods, including a comprehensive literature review, analysis of academic articles, government reports, and quantitative data from primary sources such as surveys and databases. A comparative analysis of Estonia’s digitalization efforts is conducted to gain insights into potential lessons and best practices. The findings show that digitization of public services in Ukraine has emerged in response to advancements in technology and citizens’ demand for user-friendly and accessible services. Initiatives like the Diia platform have positively impacted service quality and availability. However, Ukraine’s level of digitization still lags behind some European counterparts. The Ukrainian government’s commitment to digital transformation is evident through various initiatives and targets to improve the digitization rate of public services. Despite the progress made, ongoing efforts are needed to address challenges and invest in digital infrastructure. Prioritizing digital transformation can enhance service efficiency, transparency, and citizen engagement, ultimately improving the quality of life for Ukrainians and aligning with EU standards.

The Historical Presidency: Rethinking the origins of national security classification

AbstractThis article reconstructs the bureaucratic and legal processes that culminated in the creation of the modern national security classification system in Executive Order No. 10,290, issued by Harry Truman in 1951. It argues that classification was shaped by processes of improvisation endogenous to the federal bureaucracy, which produced the problems of overclassification, definitional vagueness, and ambiguous constitutional status that have haunted the secrecy regime until the present. In so doing, it provides new insight into the development of the modern presidency, the national security state, and American democracy, and suggests possible paths to reform the contemporary pathologies of the classification system.

Shaping Borders: Migrants’ Agency, Time Commodification, and Anticipatory Detention Strategies

This article shows how the organizational activities that filter people through borders are shaped by anticipation of migrants’ agency. Through ethnographic research in the United Kingdom’s two largest immigration detention centers, I analyze implementation practices carried out by frontline workers of the Home Office. I question the underexamined relationship between time and organizational action. I find that implementation practices are systematized, in part, by assessments of the future, and are aimed at anticipating and countering detainees’ responses to the possibility of deportation, even before these responses surface. Detainees’ responses can slow the ideal progression of the bureaucratic processes of detention and expulsion, even as speeding up those processes remains a crucial concern of the Home Office organization, largely because of a political fantasy of cost-effectiveness. I argue that more knowledge about these sorts of implementation dynamics allows for reappraisals of policies that remain salient, despite their failures and costs.

Evaluating the Impact of COVID-19 on the Carbon Footprint of Two Research Projects: A Comparative Analysis

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the carbon footprint (CF) of two research projects. These projects were initiated prior to the onset of the pandemic and subsequently concluded afterward, serving as the Base Case (BC) for analysis. Furthermore, the study seeks to explore the potential applicability of measures implemented during the period of lockdown for future mitigation of CF. The applied methodology, which adheres to the guidelines provided by the GHG Protocol and the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) emission factors, is utilized to examine the CF of the projects under two different scenarios. The first scenario assumes that the projects were implemented without the pandemic, while the second scenario considers that the projects were conducted entirely during the pandemic. Among the two projects under review, one emphasizes innovation and entails a collaboration between academia and business. This project is supported by a limited number of employees, exclusively from domestic partners. The other project is more oriented toward policy-making and involves a larger group of partners from Greece and Italy. Its main priority is dissemination. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with project activities mainly stem from electricity use, material consumption, project-hosted events, project participation in events, employees commuting, and equipment. Results show that in the first scenario, the projects exhibit a more than 40% increase in CO2 emissions compared to the BC, while in the second scenario, the implementation of measures such as teleworking, virtual participation in events, and digitization of bureaucratic processes lead to a reduction in emissions by at least 20%. The study suggests that adopting such measures after the COVID-19 pandemic could significantly decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

Failure of a Multi-Centric Clinical Trial Investigating Neoadjuvant Radio-Chemotherapy in Resectable Pancreatic Carcinoma (NEOPA-NCT01900327)-Which Lessons Are Learnt?

A significant number of clinical trials must be prematurely discontinued due to recruitment failure, and only a small fraction publish results and a failure analysis. Based on our experience on conducting the NEOPA trial on neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy for resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic carcinoma (NCT01900327-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research-BMBF), we performed an analysis of potential reasons for recruitment failure and general problems in conducting clinical trials in Germany. Systematic analysis of environmental factors, trial history, conducting and funding in the background of the published literature. The recruitment failure was based on various study-specific conceptional and local environmental aspects and in peculiarities of the German surgical study culture. General reservations against a neo-adjuvant study concept combined with game changing scientific progresses during the long-lasting planning and funding phase have led to a reduced interest in the trial design and recruitment. Trial planning and conducting should be focused, professionalized and financed on a national basis. Individual interests must be subordinated to reach the goal to perform more relevant and successful clinical trials in Germany. Bureaucratic processes must be further fastened between a trial idea and the start of a study.

Exploring energy efficiency barriers and drivers In the Portuguese water sector

While research, development, and implementation of energy efficiency measures in water and wastewater utilities are accelerating, there has been little research into the barriers and drivers to their adoption within the sector. This study presents the findings of a series of 11 semi-structured interviews conducted to Portuguese water and wastewater utilities. The results show the prioritization of quality-of-service subjects, such as reducing water losses and increasing the resilience of systems, over energy efficiency in this sector. Despite referring to financial barriers as important, the interviewees point out that the major barriers are the lack of human resources, lack of internal technical skills, and the bureaucratic public procurement processes. The main drivers highlighted in this study are the existence of awareness campaigns and dissemination of good practices, the existence of energy service companies, and the availability of funding, either public or specific financing programs with accessible rates. The results of this research can help define sector-oriented policies fostering the adoption of measures and strategies that help improve the energy performance and resilience of water and wastewater utilities worldwide.

Intimate Evictability: Urban Displacement, Familial Violence and Women’s Claim to Home in Urban Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT ‘Evictability’ describes the role urban displacements play in the governance of ‘unwanted’ citizens in Europe where eviction is imminent yet uncertain. This paper proposes ‘intimate evictability’. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the paper illuminates how the governance of the working-class poor via eviction and relocation interfaces with the intimate sphere to produce hostilities between kin. The life-stories of four women illustrate how state policies that discard the poor by denying their right to a home percolate to the home in the form of inheritance disputes and domestic violence. The dual effects of urban displacement and familial violence, the paper argues, is a gendered form of ‘slow violence’ occurring on multiple scales. This paper makes a case for why bureaucratic processes that ‘other’ the poor must be read as existing on the same continuum as acrimonious kinship relations that are about discarding unwanted women from home and family.

“A harrowing and laborious occupation”: preservation in the 1904 General Slocum disaster identifications

ABSTRACT In the summer of 1904, the passenger ship General Slocum caught fire on New York City’s East River, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,021 people. This article examines the city’s formal response to these deaths, specifically investigating the technologies deployed by city officials and employees to help overcome the natural limits of the corpse to increase the likelihood for identification. I argue that these technologies of preservation – corporeal, visual, and written – were motivated not only by the desire to assist the victim’s families but also by a new culture of urban bureaucracy that tasked municipalities with containing urban chaos. As such, this event foreshadowed an emerging modern disaster victim identification paradigm as a state-managed, bureaucratic process that both aided and alienated victims’ families.

Zasady kwalifikacji i brakowania dokumentacji urzędowej w strukturach administracji celnej Imperium Rosyjskiego z 1864 r.

In the first half of the 19th century in the structures of the Finance Ministry’s Department of External Trade in the Russian Empire there were no operating regulations enabling the classification and destruction of documents produced as a result of the operation of state administration offices. A gradual increase in documents resulting from bureaucratic processes had a direct influence on the preparation of rules that enabled the classification of records and files, and assigning them the categories of perpetual or temporary storage in the archives of offices. Furthermore, the regulations issued in 1864 made it possible to destroy documents unnecessary for the further operation of customs offices in the territory of the Romanov monarchy. The rules introduced in 1864 were in force until the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia.

Practice without prospect: The imaginary response to the recording and investigations of sexual assault in prison

This article draws on Incident Reporting System data from the National Offender Management Service over a ten-year period (2004–2014) and limited, small-scale interviews with four custodial managers. Pat Carlen's work (2008) on imaginary penalities provides the theoretical framework for an assessment of the reporting, recording and initial response to sexual assaults in prisons in England and Wales. The article argues that the recording of sexual assaults became part of a response to new management systems that emphasised compliance, process and audit rather than realising safety in custody. Although the data shows substantial levels of initial activity among staff it is, in essence, practice without prospect. The article suggests that outcomes generally for sexual assaults in prisons in England and Wales are uncertain. Incident reporting has become a bureaucratic process ‘or paper shadow’, which Goffman described as showing ‘what has been done by whom, what is to be done, and who last had responsibility for it’ (Goffman 1961: 73).

From the municipality of Lisbon to the crown: discourse and practices in the correspondence about the administration of municipal expenditure (1707-1750)

This article falls within the study of power relations in the context of municipal finances during the early modern period. Historiography has demonstrated that decisions and negotiations between different spheres of power are an important part of financial administration. Thus, this article proposes an analysis of those relations/interactions through the discourse and practices in the correspondence between the municipal administration of Lisbon (the capital of Portugal) and the King D. João V about the management of the city’s expenditure, from 1707 to 1750. The first part of this study refers to a documental selection to analyse the processing of the consultas (petitions) submitted by the city council of Lisbon to the King. This analysis puts forward an explanation of how these documents are structured and assesses the crown’s response time (or the lack of response at all). The second part looks into specific examples of municipal administrative discourses in the context of Lisbon’s city council consultas (petitions). At the same time, decisions/responses of the central administration regarding financial needs from the Portuguese crown and/or the municipality of Lisbon will be discussed. The study of these decision-making circuits highlights bureaucratic and negotiation processes unfolding in constant communication and proximity between the municipality of Lisbon and the Portuguese central administration, especially when it came to the resolution of conflicts arising from insufficient municipal funds. The records also reveal the discourses of different officers in the Lisbon municipal administration as they advance arguments, interpretations, and solutions in the context of the local management of expenditure.

Investigating the Challenges of Medical tourism Development in Affiliated Centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS)

Background: This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the challenges of health tourism development in affiliated centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS).
 Methods: This was a qualitative, descriptive, and applied study. The statistical population included all the stakeholders of health tourism at IUMS. The information was obtained through purposeful sampling until data saturation was reached. 20 experts in health tourism at the IUMS were interviewed. Experts confirmed the validity of form and content and coding was done (1), and the final result was presented.
 Results: 4 general categories were identified as the challenges of health tourism development in IUMS. They included political, social and economic conditions (communication at the global level and economic development), structural and internal organizational conditions (bureaucratic and administrative, supervisory and communication processes), participation (bureaucratic processes, effective communication between government departments and drafting of strategies and operational plans), and promotion (developing a strategic and coherent plan in the development of marketing and services at the global level and advertising).
 Conclusion: While identifying the driving factors and obstacles, It is necessary to develop medical tourism, pay attention to the political, social and economic, structural and intra-organizational conditions, attract participation and improve the existing situation and design services, which are among the challenges of medical tourism development at the Iran University of Medical Sciences.

The Problem of Digital Disability in E-Municipality: A Study on Metropolitan Municipalities

The distinctive feature of the digital society is that it can practically use information and communication technologies in many areas of life, and the digital literacy rate is relatively high. The fact that most of the bureaucratic processes in e-government and e-municipality are transferred to virtual environments increases the importance of such topics as digital literacy and digital disability. One of the basic skills of the digital society is the relatively high rate of digital literacy and the increased ability of the members to use information and communication technologies. For this reason, the absence of digital disabilities and the design of web tools for individuals with disabilities are significant in digital accessibility. Suppose web tools are not designed for people with disabilities. In that case, it is inevitable that a new form of disability, which is unique to the digital society and called "digital disability," will emerge. The primary purpose of this research is to examine the web pages of Metropolitan Municipalities in Turkey according to digital disability criteria. For this purpose, the web pages of 30 Metropolitan Municipalities were analyzed in terms of digital accessibility, digital disability, and access performance. Within the framework of the research problem, sampling was determined according to the sampling method. Descriptive statistics and content analysis methods were used to analyze the data collected from the sample. The research findings show that the web pages of Metropolitan Municipalities have some inadequacies in digital accessibility and performance indicators.

Management Challenges of Students’ Accommodation in Private University in Oyo Town

The provision of student’s hostel is a crucial supplement to education of higher learning, as this is expected to enhance students’ well-being and overall performance. Using a cross-sectional design survey, the study assessed the management of the students’ hostel in Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, a private institution. Through interviews, focused group discussion and questionnaire administration, the study evaluated those responsible for the management of student’s hostel, it examined the management strategies deployed, the challenges in the management, as well as analysed the level of student’s satisfaction with the management strategies employed. The study adopted descriptive statistical approach in the analysis of the data collected. Findings in this study shows that emergency management approach (EMA) to management issues was adopted as against the predictive, corrective and preventive maintenance and management strategy. It was shows that both the Hostel supervisors and the students were strongly dissatisfied with the management strategy adopted in the management of the hostels. The challenges encountered was the bureaucratic process of obtaining permission from the Hostel providers before repairs were carried out on the facilities. The lack of the proper allocation of responsibilities between the service providers and the university management as to who should handle what, posed a great challenge in the management of the student’s facilities and of course non-remittance of funds to the hostel providers. The gradual dilapidating state of some of the hostel facilities led to some antisocial behaviours of some students within and around the hostels. Other notable challenges that affected the management strategy of these student's hostel accommodation were dual ownership and lack of proper and detailed working memorandum of understanding. Others were lack of effective supervisors’ complaint system about deficiencies in the facilities and delay in response to repairs, even emergencies. The paper recommends a total overhauling of the facilities as well as outsourcing the management of such property to Estate Surveyors and Valuers who were competent, skilful and trained in the art and science of real estate management, to avert a total collapse and retain the integrity of the properties. A standard hostel facility with good management strategy put in place, will attract more patronage and enhance academic performance.

Migration in the margins: border bureaucracy and barriers to migrants’ rights during Programa Frontera Sur

U.S. support for border enforcement in Mexico has been ongoing for decades, but in 2014, after the arrival of unprecedented numbers of Central American minors and families to the U.S., even greater pressure was placed on Mexico to seal its border with Guatemala. This paper explores the resulting tensions between Mexican border enforcement policies outlined under Programa Frontera Sur, intended to tighten security and surveillance in the south of the country, and Mexico’s 2011 Migration Law, intended to facilitate the protection of migrants’ rights. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how the borders of the Mexican state are maintained through the (il)legibility of administrative rules and procedures in the context of conflicting immigration agendas. Specifically, this paper explores the precarious paths to legal protection via regularización de estancia por razones humanitarias, a temporary legal status granted to victims of grave crimes. It traces applicants’ circuitous trajectories through bureaucratic processes and evolving enforcement landscapes, noting the costs and contingencies involved in making claims ‘legitimate’ and legible in the eyes of the state. This paper also brings attention to the positioning of migrant shelters at the margins of state inclusion, where formal and informal mobilities often intersect. As a feminist geopolitical study of state bordering practices, this research is useful in understanding lived impacts and responses to more recent strategies of administrative border enforcement, including the MPP and Title 42 programs.