Institutional Change Research Articles

De‐risking at the Limit? State‐owned Enterprises and the Politics of Financialized Infrastructure Development in Indonesia

ABSTRACTThe need for emerging economies to develop infrastructure in order to drive catch‐up growth has become a common refrain in policy circuits. The dominant norm promulgated and disseminated by global development institutions to countries facing infrastructure deficits is the public–private partnership (PPP) model of project finance, a market‐based model that seeks to transform infrastructure into a financial asset. Institutionalizing this model requires the deepening of market rationality in governance and the establishment of markets for infrastructure projects and infrastructure debt, underpinned by regulatory and institutional changes aimed at de‐risking global investments. However, this model is neither overriding nor monolithic. It is contested, modified and augmented by alternative state‐led models, rationalities and practices, animated by developmental politics. The article examines the embeddedness of the PPP model in Indonesia, where it is selectively appropriated by politicians and bureaucrats in line with state development objectives by mobilizing state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) as developers, insurers and financiers of infrastructure projects. Beyond establishing the conditions for market exchange and de‐risking capital, the state, through SOEs, is an active market participant, competing and partnering with private sector actors, while advancing state‐led alternatives where the market‐based model fails to address development needs. This case highlights the potential for developmental politics to shape the broad use of capital in the face of disciplinary pressure from global finance.

Why federalism matters: policy feedback, institutional variation and the politics of trade policy-making in Canada and Germany

ABSTRACT Sub-federal units in federal systems increasingly participate in international trade policy-making, a domain that historically represents an exclusive jurisdiction of the federal level. A first strand of research emphasised exogenous factors, most notably the changing scope and depth of trade agreements and social contestation, to explain this trend. This study, by contrast, contributes to more recent efforts that focus on endogenous factors to elucidate variation in terms of how and with what implications sub-federal units have entrenched themselves in trade policy governance. The paper makes two contributions. First, it introduces a new theoretical argument suggesting that ideational and institutional feedback effects can explain variation in sub-federal trade policy-making. Second, the paper tests this framework by using two contrasting cases of federalism: Canada and Germany. The study shows that in Canada intergovernmental institutions facilitating sub-federal participation in trade policy-making had to be created through layering, while in Germany existing institutions were activated through conversion. Although both patterns of institutional change have empowered sub-federal units, they differ in terms of their robustness.

Youth representatives as agents of institutional change: the circumscribing effects of role prescriptions in sport governance

ABSTRACT Conceptualising the youth representative as an institutional role, we explore the institutional shaping of youth representatives as change agents in the governance of sport organisations. Focusing on how these shaping conditions who the youth representative can be and what determines the scope of their role fulfilment, including the impact of their work on established institutional orders, allows us to examine the shaping of agency related to governance institutions. Data is drawn from a questionnaire centred on the experiences of young people in sport governance (n = 32) and semi-structured interviews with 10 representatives of organisations affiliated with the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederations of Sports. The role of the youth representatives is scripted in terms of who the representatives ought to be and what they ought to do. The scripting associated with the operationalisation of this ambition into role pre- and proscriptions stands in stark contrast to the ideal of youth representatives as agents of institutional change. Our study of the scripting of institutional roles has theoretical implications because it shows how normative typifications that link notions of actors with actorhood circumscribe institutional work pertaining to change.

Mobilizing against Democratic Backsliding: What Motivates Protestors in Central and Eastern Europe?

Several central and eastern European countries have experienced democratic erosion of different kinds. While the Czech Republic and Poland have faced democratic backsliding, for example, others, such as Bulgaria and Romania, are better characterized as struggling with democratic stagnation. Regardless of the type of democratic erosion, robust protest movements have challenged democratic erosion. What motivates protestors who face different types of democratic erosion to take to the streets? What kinds of political and institutional changes do they seek? In this article, we theorize that protestors experiencing democratic backsliding prioritize changing the government or changing the political practices that have developed over the last decade. By contrast, protestors facing democratic stagnation emphasize the need to change long-standing institutions and practices that have existed since the country transitioned to democracy in 1989. To test our hypotheses, we conducted original surveys of pro-democracy protestors in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania. We found that protestors in states where incumbents have pursued rapid democratic backsliding prioritize changing the government or changing practices that have taken root over the last decade. By contrast, protestors living through long-standing democratic stagnation emphasize changing the practices and institutions that have emerged since the transition to democracy in 1989. Moreover, we found that in all four countries protestors had mobilized to fight democratic erosion. Also, respondents in all four countries believed that the main impact of the protests was to increase political awareness and spread information about democracy.

Rules, organizations, and the institutional origins of the great productivity revolution

AbstractHuman productivity began increasing in the mid‐19th century in a group of societies whose institutional structures simultaneously transformed. This paper develops a general way of thinking about institutional structures and identifies how specific institutional changes that occurred in the mid‐19th century could have caused an increase in productivity across many of the organizations in a society. External rules enforced by one organization but used by other organizations, are central to the argument, as is the emergence of impersonal rules that apply equally to all citizens. The productivity revolution of the late 19th century occurred in an era when a few societies adopted impersonal rules on a broad scale for the first time in human history.

‘There is just nothing to hold on to in this case’: legal technicalities and the use of psychological reports in Chilean domestic violence procedures

AbstractThis ethnographic study examines how Chilean family courts adjudicate domestic violence (DV) cases, highlighting a paradoxical shift away from their intended flexibility towards rigid bureaucratic procedure by examining the undue influence of psychological reports, which are expensive and difficult‐to‐obtain documents, on case outcomes. This research explores the role of these reports as ‘legal technicalities’, serving as both products and catalysts of specific social relations and tensions, and reveals an earnest yet unsuccessful effort to establish judicial authority amid poorly conceived DV reform. The article contributes to an empirical, bottom‐up analysis of authority construction techniques used in recent widespread judicial reforms in Chile, providing fresh insights into the complexities of institutional changes within these contexts.

Zoom out: An intervention on the virtual learning environment improves minority students’ grades in two field experiments in Israel

Closing the achievement gap for minority students in higher education requires addressing the lack of belonging these students experience. This paper introduces a psychological intervention that strategically targets key elements within the learning environment to foster the success of minority students. The intervention sought to enhance Palestinian minority student's sense of belonging by increasing the presence of their native language. We tested the effectiveness of the intervention in two field experiments in Israel (n > 20,000), at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when all classes were held via Zoom. Lecturers in the experimental condition added a transcript of their names in Arabic to their default display (English/Hebrew only). Our findings revealed a substantial and positive impact on Palestinian student's sense of belonging, class participation, and overall grades. In experiment 1, Palestinian student's average grade increased by 10 points. In experiment 2, there was an average increase of 4 points among Palestinian students' semester grade. Our intervention demonstrates that small institutional changes when carefully crafted can have a significant impact on minority populations. These results have significant implications for addressing educational disparities and fostering inclusive learning environment.

Capturing group dynamic faultlines with Yule’s Q

PurposeUnderstanding group dynamics is essential for promoting institutional change. The purpose of this brief article is to introduce the use of Yule’s Q to quantify group dynamics in a way that allows an individual’s tendency to associate with others based on their shared attributes to be captured as they evolve.Design/methodology/approachTwo academic departments at a large public urban university participated in ongoing meetings as part of the year-long change initiative. Field notes of these meetings were recorded for information on participants and the flow of conversations. Yule’s Q was calculated with responsive interaction network and attribute data coded from the field notes.FindingsYule’s Q can be used to quantify group dynamics with a visualization of interactions among group members. The differences in the triggered divisions or faultlines in organizational change initiatives by shared common attributes (e.g. levels of positions within departments) can be related to group interactions and/or disruptions in collaboration.Originality/valueThis study can contribute to broadening the research community’s analytic approaches to utilizing network and attribute data for understanding group dynamics and their patterns across meetings.

The Explanatory Power of Discourse Analysis

This paper discusses the explanatory power of discourse analysis, an approach to typically considered one of the main qualitative methods for data analysis. Although discourse analysis is typically not used to develop explanatory models, some have claimed that discourse models can causally explain social phenomena, such as institutional change. I analyze a case of institutional change to discuss and provide arguments for two claims. First, discourse analysis cannot generate causal explanations of social phenomena. Secondly, discourse analysis can generate non-causal explanations, specifically constitutive explanations of social phenomena. I conclude the paper by discussing possible implications for social research.

“Decolonization” As a Metaphor, Not a Movement, in Communication Studies: A Critical Thematic Meta-Analysis of the Discipline

ABSTRACT In this essay, we theorize how terms like “decolonization” and “decoloniality” have entered into the vernacular of the discipline of Communication Studies and remained largely as metaphors. We connect to a conversation among scholars in Indigenous Studies, Cultural Studies, and others who have turned attention to “decolonial” critiques in academic environments, and how they remain detached from their activist origins. We begin with a discussion of metaphor and the cultural and political implications for adopting and misattributing a term like decolonization. Moreover, this study develops a critical method to make sense of the rapid and vast uptake of the term decolonization as a harmful metaphor in the discipline’s most widely read journals. Our critical thematic meta-analysis is driven by a quantifying tool – we turn our research lens to the body of literature written by the collective of scholars in the discipline who refer to or rely on decolonization in their research to reveal the way in which the term is connoted over the last decade. Our analysis reveals “decolonization” is often used as a liberal abstract concept divorced from material contexts. We critique this reductionism, noting how decolonization becomes a buzzword for institutional change without genuine engagement with anti-colonial movements. We end by inviting scholars to reconsider the study of colonization and those materially resisting it with new energies and orientations.

Институциализация психологической помощи в системе высшего образования Российской Федерации

<p style="text-align: justify;">In the article, psychological assistance in the higher education system is analyzed in the context of its formation and development as a social institution — taking into account various scientific approaches to the definition of the concept of “Social institution”, including within the framework of the economic concept of growing social institutions and directed institutional changes, since this determines the role and place of psychological assistance in the life of society in general and the university community in particular, and also ensures its acceptance, recognition, sustainability and adaptability in changing historical conditions and socio-economic situation. In addition, recommendations are presented for the further development of the institute of psychological assistance in the system higher education in modern cultural and historical conditions.</p>

Inter-Agency Analysis of EU Specialised Administrative Services: Insights from the Republic of Cyprus

Purpose: The Republic of Cyprus is a small EU member state whose domestic administrative structures replicate an enduring tradition of centralisation. This study employs three Europeanisation processes toinvestigate the influence of European integration on EU specialised administrative services and explain possible differentiations.Design: This research employs two methodological tools: a literature review of domestic and international literature on Europeanisation and historical institutionalism, and a field study employing interviews and questionnaires with public servants working within these services.Findings: The results suggest that while Cyprus’s EU membership has played a significant role in the Europeanisation of domestic administrative structures, this process remains incomplete due to historical continuitiesfrom previous eras. These have an enduring impact on formal andinformal institutions, diminishing the role of the examined services and constraining the behaviour of public servants.Academic contribution to the field: This study offers a theoretical contribution by providing a comprehensive understanding of moderate Europeanisation effects on EU specialised structures within the Cypriot administrativeframework. It also highlights the consequences of historical continuities manifested through formal and informal institutional constraints (endogenous characteristics, tangible factors, and conservative attitudes) and their adverse effects on the promotion of institutional and administrative change.Practical implications: The research findings underscore the relevance for future studies. They are particularly pertinent in assessing the effects of European integration and administrative change in other EU member statessharing similar historical experiences with Cyprus, such as Greece and Malta.Originality/Significance/Value: This study is innovative in its focus on specific administrative actors in Cyprus whose role has not been examined so far. It sheds light on tangible and intangible factors that may influence the promotion of institutional and administrative change.

Climate change and credit risk in rural financial institutions: A study based on transition risk

AbstractThis study empirically investigates the impact of climate change on credit risks in rural financial institutions, emphasizing transition risk. We analyzed data from 202 rural financial institutions across, China spanning 2012 to 2020. The empirical findings reveal the following: Firstly, climate change exerts an inverted U‐shaped influence on credit risks in rural financial institutions. Secondly, the inverted U‐shaped relationship is influenced by both the level of digital development and uncertainty in climate policy. Lastly, heightened levels of digital development and increased uncertainty about climate policy can mitigate the negative effects of climate change.

Facilitating conversations about race: staff views on the importance of accountability and trust in a student-led project

ABSTRACT Significant conversations provide a private and safe space for teachers to develop their thinking about teaching and learning. These conversations are important to academic development but may be limited by their privacy, although Roxå & Mårtensson noted that it was possible to create a culture which led to extended networks. This study explores how the concept of such conversations can be developed further to contribute to institutional change and the development of inclusive learning communities. Led by students of colour, a project, ‘The Big Change’, was designed to provide an empowering space for open and non-judgemental conversations between students and staff about the experiences of student of colour in a modern university. The paper explores the experiences of the staff (N = 15) who participated in online focus groups in which they explored their experiences of the project and the complexities of vulnerability and public discourses. Within these focus groups we provided a space for conversations in which trust and accountability were identified as key factors for meaningful change, particularly in a sensitive area of work such as anti-racism. This approach, based on student-led interventions plus safe conversations, provides a model for facilitating cultural change within higher education.

Molecular profiling of metastatic breast cancer and target-based therapeutic matching in an Asian tertiary phase I oncology unit

IntroductionMolecular profiling of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) through the widespread use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has highlighted actionable mutations and driven trials of targeted therapy matched to tumour molecular profiles, with improved outcomes reported using such an approach. Here, we review NGS results and treatment outcomes for a cohort of Asian MBC patients in the phase I unit of a tertiary centre.MethodsPatients with MBC referred to a phase I unit underwent NGS via Ion AmpliSeq Cancer Hotspot v2 (ACH v2, 2014–2017) prior to institutional change to FoundationOne CDx (FM1; 2017–2022). Patients were counselled on findings and enrolled on matched therapeutic trials, where available. Outcomes for all subsequent treatment events were recorded to data cut-off on January 31, 2022.ResultsA total of 215 patients were enrolled with successful NGS in 158 patients. The PI3K/AKT/PTEN pathway was the most altered with one or more of the pathway member genes PIK3/AKT/PTEN affected in 62% (98/158) patients and 43% of tumours harbouring a PIK3CA alteration. Tumour mutational burden (TMB) was reported in 96/109 FM1 sequenced patients, with a mean TMB of 5.04 mt/Mb and 13% (12/96) with TMB ≥ 10 mt/Mb. Treatment outcomes were evaluable in 105/158 patients, with a pooled total of 216 treatment events recorded. Matched treatment was administered in 47/216 (22%) events and associated with prolonged median progression-free survival (PFS) of 21.0 weeks [95% confidence interval (CI) 11.7, 26.0 weeks] versus 12.1 weeks (95% CI 10.0, 15.4 weeks) in unmatched, with hazard ratio (HR) for progression or death of 0.63 (95% CI 0.41, 0.97; p = 0.034). In the subgroup of PIK3/AKT/PTEN-altered MBC, the HR for progression or death was 0.57 (95% CI 0.35, 0.92; p = 0.02), favouring matched treatment. Per-patient overall survival (OS) analysis (n = 105) showed improved survival for patients receiving matched treatment versus unmatched, with median OS (mOS) of 30.1 versus 11.8 months, HR = 0.45 (95% CI 0.24, 0.84; p = 0.013). Objective response rate (ORR) in the overall population was similar in matched and unmatched treatment events (23.7% versus 17.2%, odds ratio of response 1.14 95% CI 0.50, 2.62; p = 0.75).ConclusionsBroad-panel NGS in MBC is feasible, allowing therapeutic matching, which was associated with improvements in PFS and OS.

On the impact of institutional change: Rights reassignment and career length

AbstractRottenberg argued that the reassignment of negotiating rights from owners to players, that would accompany free agency in professional sports, would have little impact on locational or market outcomes. Empirical investigations into such reassignment have produced mixed results. The present paper examines the impact such reassignment had on professional sports athletes' career length. By examining the univariate time series and panel data behavior of Major League Baseball players' average tenure and retention rates, we find that the increased negotiating power associated with the advent of free agency had the impact of shortening average player career length.

We’ve Got a Union, Now What?

Precarious economic conditions, low pay, layoffs, and dwindling job security motivated journalists to organize in record numbers in the 2010s and 2020s. Cohen and De Peuter’s 2020 research on newsworkers’ motives and organizing strategies in digital newsrooms finds that economic, political, and cultural factors play a role. Pay equity, a more diverse and inclusive newsroom, and a voice in editorial and strategic decision-making are often cited as arguments for union membership. This monograph asks how newsworkers assess the effect of unionization and guild membership on their work, working conditions, and culture. Interviews with 45 journalists in 16 U.S. newsrooms with unions, both established and recently organized, suggest that several goals, such as pay equity, diversity, and inclusion, have not been achieved. Nevertheless, the act of organizing and the managerial work accomplished by union leadership in the newsroom is creating both institutional change and opportunity. A parallel organizational culture is emerging that mitigates poor leadership and human resource management and serves as training ground for a new class of journalists.

Responding to economic abuse: An institutional logics analysis of feminist activism

AbstractEconomic abuse (EA)—intimate partners' efforts to control women's economic resources—still suffers from ambiguous legal recognition. Even in countries with legal recognition, state allocation of resources for support remains meager. We suggest that Israeli state welfare organizations (SWOs) employees have developed their professional response to EA along two distinct value sets—a dominant institutional logic in their respective organizations and a more covert feminist institutional logic encountered in collaborations with feminist Non Governmental Organizations. Using a framework of multiple institutional logics, in interviews with 48 SWO employees, we map the multiple institutional logics that cultivate responses to EA survivors and show that elements of feminist understanding and practices on EA permeate SWOs' practices. The existence of a feminist institutional logic creates a path for exploring whether the feminist impact is significant in enabling committed responses to EA even while no institutional change is achieved.

Gender Sensitizing Parliaments: Reflections on Becoming a Feminist Academic Critical Actor

Informed by my secondment to the UK Parliament in 2015–2016, and the production and reception of The Good Parliament report—which offered a blueprint for a diversity-sensitive House of Commons—this article reflects on my experiences becoming a feminist academic critical actor. This new type of critical actor extends the conceptualization first developed by Childs and Krook (2006, 2008). A distinctiveness vis. Chappell and Mackay’s (2021) concept of the “feminist critical friend” is also drawn: In addition to researching institutional change and supporting others in their reform work, the feminist academic critical actor is essential to instigate and institute institutional change. In this, the feminist academic critical actor is engaged in quotidian persuasion work and is both the agent as well as the analyst of research, critically reflecting on the dynamics and actors of institutional status, change, and resistance, including their own acts, in situ and after. In making the case for the feminist academic critical actor, the academic is recognized as doing something different, begging important questions of responsibility and accountability, and the opportunities and costs of engaging in such acts, particularly for minoritized and/or precarious academics. In the latter part of the article, I sketch out some of the dilemmas located in the questioning of my authority and legitimacy, and concerning the harm that I faced as a relatively privileged aspirant feminist academic critical actor, acting to rework the highly masculinized institution that is the UK House of Commons.

Mandate Expansion into and within a New Domain: OECD and Global Health Governance

ABSTRACT International Organisations (IOs) can expand their mandate by employing deliberately chosen strategies. I propose that IOs' mandate expansion follows a two-step sequence: First, IOs branch out into a domain that lies outside of their initial mandate area. Second, IOs further increase their relevance within the domain and move their position from a marginal to a more focal one. To accomplish the two-step expansion, individual IOs use a particular mix of strategies, reflecting their organisation-specific contexts as well as external environments. The two-step sequence is explored in the case of the OECD's growing involvement in the health policy field from the organisation's establishment in 1961 until 2022. I employ a mixed-method approach, combining structural topic modeling and qualitative document analysis. This article highlights the different stages of IOs' mandate expansion and contributes to enriching the research streams of IOs' institutional changes and dynamics in global health governance.