Experiences Of Citizens Research Articles

Local responses to disasters: recent lessons from zero-order responders

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define and discuss the concept of zero-order responders (ZOR). It explores the potential lessons and the additive value that assimilation of responses of disaster-affected people into disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disaster risk management (DRM) programs can provide. Design/methodology/approach In order to support this concept, the authors review two recent extreme hydrometeorological events, illustrating how local populations cope with disasters during the period before external support arrives. Additionally, the authors address their under-leveraged role in the management of recovery. The empirical evidence was collected by direct observations during the 2017 El Niño Costero-related floods in Peru, and by the review of press following 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria destruction in Puerto Rico. Findings During disasters, there is a window of time before official and/or external support arrives. During this period, citizens must act unsupported by first responders – devising self-coping strategies in order to survive. In the days, weeks and months following a disaster, local populations are still facing recovery with creativity. Research limitations/implications Citing references arguing for or against the value of documenting survivor methods to serve as a testimony for the improvement of DRR programming. Practical implications DRR and DRM must integrate local populations and knowledge into DRR planning to improve partnerships between communities and organizations. Social implications The actions and experiences of citizens pro-acting to pave fruitful futures is a valuable commentary on improvements for DRR and management. Originality/value This paper proposes a citizen-centered contribution to future disaster risk reducing actions. This approach emphasizes the reinterpretation of local responses to disasters. DRRs and DRMs growth as fields would value from heralding ZOR coping and improvisation skills, illustrated under stressful disaster-related conditions, as an additive resource to programming development.

A relational perspective on deliberative systems: combining interpretive and structural analysis

ABSTRACT Deliberative systems theory suggests that a democratic society works well when citizens’ experiences and views, as expressed in various forms and sites of communication, are connected and taken up by other citizens as well as policy-makers. Pluralism, which is not always easily reconciled with high-quality deliberation in every instance, is seen as instrumental to the realization of democratic values and sound decision-making. This perspective raises new methodological challenges, such as (1) identifying sites of communication that serve important functions in a deliberative system, (2) connecting different sites and (3) assessing their impact. Recent scholarship has found that these challenges can be fruitfully met by applying interpretive methodology, which, like deliberative systems theory, aims to understand social interactions on their own terms, and not by measuring their correspondence to theoretical ideal-types. However, for theory development, as well as to help improve actual deliberative systems, researchers also need to make generalizable inferences. This paper develops a relational approach that combines interpretive methods with structural theory, which allows researchers to assess and explain the deficiencies, as well as the opportunities, that citizens experience. The principles of relational analysis are illustrated by research on citizen deliberation about urban riots.

Coping with water supply interruptions: can citizen voice in transdisciplinary research make a difference?

ABSTRACTDespite explicit legal and policy commitments, many South African residents do not have reliable access to potable water. Resident dissatisfaction with municipal water service delivery is evidenced by frequent civil protests. We consider how gathering and understanding the lived experiences of citizens could influence official responses to water interruptions. We take a transdisciplinary, problem-focussed, research approach to the experience of, and responses to, water interruptions, reflecting on the limitations of research to effect change in the lived experience. As transdisciplinary research praxis increasingly seeks expression in social outcomes, it is vital to confront both opportunities and limitations.

Vulnerable Rights: The Incomplete Realization of Disability Social Rights in France

While disabled people embody a classical figure of vulnerability, this paper shifts the focus of attention to the vulnerability of their social rights. I address this question normatively and empirically. From a normative point of view, a common framing of disability rights as civil rights, under the influence of the Americans with disabilities Act (ADA), has tended to impede the discussion on disability social rights. By re-asserting that social rights are fundamental human rights, the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) contributes to bringing them back to the forefront of disability research. However, the realization of disability social rights also needs to be empirically assessed. Based on theories of social rights as well as on Weberian sociology of law, I point to two major ideal-typical characteristics of social rights: they are expected to reduce uncertainty, especially regarding the evolution of one’s autonomy, and to foster a sense of citizenship. I then study the reception of two types of disability benefits in France, the Adult disability benefit (AAH) and the Disability compensation benefit (PCH), to assess to what extent these promises of social rights translate into the experiences of disabled citizens. My analysis is based on 30 biographical interviews with people with either visual or mobility impairments, conducted between 2014 and 2016. The results show the persistent vulnerability of disability social rights in France, pointing to the importance of the procedural dimension of rights realization.

Not all classrooms have four walls: Analysing experiences of senior citizens using novel smartphone technology

Not all classrooms have four walls: Analysing experiences of senior citizens using novel smartphone technology

Beyond Picturesque Decay: Detroit and the Photographic Sites of Confrontation Between Media and Residents

This article contributes to scholarship on urban visual culture by advancing understandings of how visual imageries may become (online and off-line) sites of confrontation between dominant media perspectives and the lived experiences of urban citizens. Based on participatory photography amongst local residents in Detroit, this article provides transformative insights by contrasting sense makings of Detroiters with dominant media portrayals of a “decaying” city. Residents were asked what images they would use to “see” and represent the city. Photo elicitation interviews revealed interlaced lived experienced and narrated reminiscences of local life and the material urban fabric beyond the prevailing narratives of mere neglect and abandonment. This study develops further knowledge of how photography can simultaneously operate as a critical socio-spatial research subject and an empowering tool for research participants. Through shifting the hegemonic locus of media agents toward residents’ positionalities, findings indicated potentials for redressing the misunderstood spaces of the everyday life of ordinary people.

Participatory Public Service Design by Gov.3.0 Design Group

Citizen satisfaction levels with public service have become a key indicator in evaluating a nation’s policy capability; as such, it has become important to realize citizen-centered public service that enhances the satisfaction of citizens. Governments need to adopt new and creative methods to respond to changes and redefine the conditions of their policy processes. This study reviews the effectiveness of utilizing open innovation by design thinking for policy processes, and aims to detail the conditions for a policy process geared towards citizen-centered public service. The study reviews open innovation as a means of overcoming the insular tendencies of organizations, and also reviews the advantages of design thinking in identifying the diversified needs of citizens and coordinating their interests. Based on those, we conducted a case study and applied open innovation by design thinking for policy processes. The results revealed that key conditions include cooperation among designers, the diversification of communication channels between internal and external organizations, the joining of citizen experiences, repeated verification of citizen needs, and visualization of the whole progression. Such conditions are principal factors that contribute to citizen orientation and participation, and are expected to play a conducive role in the realization of citizen-centered public service in the future.

Meaningful dissemination produces the “long tail” that engenders community impact

PurposeLack of understanding of the needs of older LGBT individuals is a global issue and their needs are often ignored by health and social care providers who adopt sexuality-blind approaches within their provision. As a result, public services can find it difficult to push the LGBT equalities agenda forward due to resistance to change and underlying discrimination. The aim of this paper is to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis report considers how a body of participatory research concerning the needs and experiences of older LGBT people was used to create innovatory dissemination tools, which then engaged communities through public engagement to learn about the needs and experiences of older LGBT citizens. Good research has a “long tail” – (in statistics, “a large number of occurrences far from the ‘head’ or central part of the distribution”). The report considers how a film and a method deck of cards, presented to service providers in several workshops over time, offered opportunities to learn and critically reflect upon an informed practice.FindingsBecause of the on-going feedback from our workshops, the authors, in turn, learned the importance of having a champion within a community organisation to take forward the LGBT agenda. A report of one such outreach champion is included here.Originality/valueConsideration is given to challenges involved in creating impact through research, and how participatory community processes may enhance impact to develop over time.

Murale jako medium ucieleśnionej partycypacji w przestrzeni miejskiej

The article covers the issue of somatic aspects of street art. The author discusses murals as a source of multi-sensual experience for citizens and also a medium of urban participation. Street art is being presented there as a sphere of dialogue between objectified and social sphere of urban life and private, embodied experience of citizens.

Reflections on “Memories of War”: Project-based Learning among Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language (JFL) Students at a Malaysian University

Author(s): Shibahara, Rika | Abstract: This study examines Malaysian learners’ reflections on the discourses of the Asia-Pacific War in Malaysia and Japan after engaging in “Memories of War” project. The project, which was implemented in an advanced Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language (JFL) class at a Malaysian university, aimed to improve learners’ ability to grasp power relations underlying the social discourses on the Asia-Pacific War. It also sought to help them develop a more critical and comprehensive understanding of the war as responsible global citizens. The study finds that learners’ exposure to the wartime experiences of Japanese citizens largely prompted learners to view Japanese citizens as victims and war leaders as victimizers, though multiple victim-victimizer relationships were also identified among the citizens at the time. Learners also came to realize that race, social-economic status, and gender influenced Malaysian locals’ experience of the war. The discovery of the disturbing, “unfair” facts by students in the ethnically mixed class often brought about uncomfortable categorizations of self and others as victims, betrayers, or bystanders. Nevertheless, awareness often remained unspoken, and the mere appreciation of the status quo was expressed. The author consequently argues that the teacher has an important role to play in guiding learners to connect the past and the present.

Notas en torno al análisis dramatúrgico de experiencias desiguales de corrupción a pequeña escala

En las últimas dos décadas el tema de la corrupción ha tomado relevancia mundial, ya que es un problema que daña la economía y la legitimidad en las instituciones del Estado, entre otras cosas. Varios estudios se han focalizado en la investigación de la macrocorrupción, profundizando en sus causas y consecuencias. Sin embargo, la corrupción a pequeña escala no ha sido examinada con la misma intensidad, por lo que se propone un marco teórico-metodológico para su análisis dramatúrgico con el objetivo de mostrar que es una interacción estratificada, es decir, que la corrupción es una experiencia desigual entre los ciudadanos, ya que depende de su posición social.

Measuring and reporting campus sexual assault: Privilege and exclusion in what we know and what we do

AbstractAs awareness of and national attention to campus sexual assault in the U.S. has grown, efforts to study and respond to the problem have increased. While these efforts are to be applauded, they have yet to fully challenge or correct the privileged and exclusive perspectives and assumptions regarding student experiences of campus sexual assault. Specifically, the experiences of white, heterosexual, cisgender, middle‐class, and American citizens who are students at primarily elite, traditional colleges and universities are taken as the norm, while experiences of students of color, LGBTQ students, and international students are neglected. Here we examine two primary sources of information regarding campus sexual assault: large‐scale self‐report surveys and individual reporting to authorities. We first review the content of select large‐scale surveys used to gather and measure self‐reported data from students on the scope, prevalence, and character of campus sexual assault, and identify areas of omission and neglect regarding marginalized students. We then review literature on barriers to reporting to authorities specific to these groups that further exclude them from our understanding of the problem. We end with recommendations for improved efforts to study and respond to campus sexual assault that are more inclusive and comprehensive.

Citizen experiences of smart learning in China\u2019s cities

Citizen learning experiences can be understood as their perceptions, responses, and performances to learning resources, learning approaches, in different fields in the city. This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of citizen learning experiences of smart learning in cities, as well as the influencing factors of citizen learning experiences. Data were collected through the telephone interview, and 13,600 individuals from 68 cities were involved. Pearson correlation analysis, crosstab analysis, and chi-square analysis were used to analyze the collected data. Findings revealed that there are strong correlations among learning engagement, learning approach, and learning achievement. However, there is a weak relationship between city’s per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and learning engagement. Also, results showed that gender and age influence citizens’ perceptions of learning experiences.

Protecting the capital? On African geographies of protest escalation and repression

This article centres the role of Cairo's popular forces in the 2011 revolutionary Uprising in Egypt. It does so by bringing to focus the relationship between these forces' everyday spatial practices and forms of contention, on one hand, and revolutionary activism and protests in central places like Tahrir Square, on the other. It demonstrates that everyday life in popular neighbourhoods of Cairo is constitutive of a political domain in which ordinary citizens cultivate resources, dispositions and capacities for collective action and mobilisation of the kind witnessed in the January Uprising. It also shows how the lived experiences of ordinary citizens in the city's popular neighbourhoods are formative of the oppositional subjectivities enacted in the context of this revolutionary mobilisation.The article identifies and illuminates two primary paradoxes of revolutionary mobilisation. The two paradoxes arise out of a disjuncture between modalities of action pursued by Tahrir-oriented revolutionary activists (al-thuwwar) on one hand, and popular forces' tactics, strategies and conception of the Revolution, on the other. Tracing the engagement of popular forces in the context of the Uprising, this contribution reveals that in enacting their oppositional subjectivities popular forces articulated their own conception of the Revolution. More specifically, the article expounds on how they did so by shifting the locale of revolutionary action from Tahrir Square to Cairo's streets and popular neighbourhoods, and by widening acts of urban insurgency to advance rights claims to the city.

Suburbanization, National Space and Place, and the Geography of Heritage in the UAE

This article describes how the idea of the “national” as a spatial category emerged in the United Arab Emirates through integrative and segregative processes exemplified in the experience of suburbanization. While other works have focused on UAE’s physical boundaries, this article focuses on “national” circulations of narratives, symbols, and identities rooted in the spatial experience of UAE citizens. These are illustrated with reference to suburban architecture, popular memory, and non-state heritage practices.

Co-production of community mental health services: Organising the interplay between public services and civil society in Denmark.

Co-production involves knowledge and skills based on both lived experiences of citizens and professionally training of staff. In Europe, co-production is viewed as an essential tool for meeting the demographic, political and economic challenges of welfare states. However, co-production is facing challenges because public services and civil society are rooted in two very different logics. These challenges are typically encountered by provider organisations and their staff who must convert policies and strategies into practice. Denmark is a welfare state with a strong public services sector and a relatively low involvement of volunteers. The aim of this study was to investigate how provider organisations and their staff navigate between the two logics. The present analysis is a critical case study of two municipalities selected from seven participating municipalities, for their maximum diversity. The study setting was the Community Families programme, which aim to support the social network of mental health users by offering regular contact with selected private families/individuals. The task of the municipalities was to initiate and support Community Families. The analysis built on qualitative data generated at the organisational level in the seven participating municipalities. Within the two "case study" municipalities, qualitative interviews were conducted with front-line co-ordinators (six) and line managers (two). The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded using the software program NVivo. The results confirm the central role played by staff and identify a close interplay between public services and civil society logics as essential for the organisation of co-production. Corresponding objectives, activities and collaborative relations of provider organisations are keys for facilitating the co-productive practice of individual staff. Organised in this way, co-production can succeed even in a mental health setting associated with social stigma and in a welfare state dominated by public services.

Vulnerable consumers and satisfaction with public services: does country matter?

Within Public Administration, increased attention is being paid to ‘vulnerable citizens’ – groups of citizens who, for reasons beyond their control, are disadvantaged in comparison to other citizens – when consuming public services. Initial research focused on how citizens’ socio-economic background shapes their behaviour and satisfaction. Citizens, however, take decisions within a context, but we know little about how their experiences differ depending on their country of residence. We comparatively analyse the experience of vulnerable citizens in telecommunications and electricity markets in three large European Union countries, selected to represent ‘advanced’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘laggard’ stages of reform. We first establish that citizens’ socio-economic characteristics matter for patterns of expenditure and perceptions of service affordability and then show how citizen vulnerability differs depending on country context. Results are useful to practitioners seeking to target regulation to improve the experiences of vulnerable citizens. Points for practitioners Practitioners recognize that public service reform has brought with it greater market complexity and choice, and that this poses challenges to citizens, particularly vulnerable citizens. Initial empirical work demonstrated that citizens’ socio-economic background affects their satisfaction; however, we know little about how this vulnerability is shaped by country context. We analyse electricity and telecommunications markets in three large European Union countries, establishing that consumers’ socio-economic background matters for citizens’ expenditure and perceptions of service affordability, and then demonstrating that country context also influences these experiences. Less-educated, elderly and non-employed citizens experience more frequent problems with these services than other citizens, and the country context conditions these experiences significantly.

Low-literates’ support needs for societal participation learning: Empirical grounding of theory- and model-based design

Specialized learning support software can address the low societal participation of low-literate Dutch citizens. We use the situated Cognitive Engineering method to iteratively create a design specification for the envisioned system VESSEL: a Virtual Environment to Support the Societal participation Education of Low-literates. An initial high-level specification for this system is refined by incorporating the societal participation experiences of low-literate citizens into the design. In two series of user studies, the participant workshop and cultural probe methods were used with 23 low-literate participants. The Grounded Theory method was used to process the rich user data from these studies into the Societal Participation Experience of Low-Literates (SPELL) model. Using this experience model, the existing VESSEL specification was refined: requirements were empirically situated in the daily practice of low-literate societal participation, and new claims were written to explicate the learning effectiveness of the proposed VESSEL system. In conclusion, this study provides a comprehensive, theoretically and empirically grounded set of requirements and claims for the proposed VESSEL system, as well as the underlying SPELL model, which captures the societal participation experiences of low-literates citizens. The research methods used in this study are shown to be effective for requirements engineering with low-literate users.

THE BELL OF FLIES

Fighting corruption is world wide a main issue. At stake is the human right on a decent state, rule of law and accountable government. In my paper I focus on our struggle to curb corruption in one of the major cities of Ukraine, Lviv. In that I highlight the unexpected power of moral learning as a critical leverage to curb corruption.In fighting corruption it makes sense to distinguish between high level and low level, survival corruption, in Russian called Blat. Survival corruption requires a »corrupted« mind: a strategy of moral learning of civil servants. This is not the mind of a malicious, greedy or corrupt civil servant, but a moral strategy to accommodate to (post) totalitarian and oligarchic political institutionalizing in Ukraine. The tragedy of the »corrupted« mind is that it not only helps to survive conditions of corrupt oligarchic political institutions, but also tend to reproduce them. Installing a process of moral learning to deconstruct the Ukrainian, Lvivian moral narrative, and design an alternative moral discourse with civil servants, seems therefore paramount.Based on seminars on moral learning with about 1500 civil servants in Lviv I first reconstruct this »corrupted« mind as a set of imperatives of organizational moral learning in Lviv City Council. Second I show that these imperatives are path dependent on three critical junctures of political institutionalizing in Lviv: totalitarian, oligarchic and national-democratic. In the 'oligarchic democracy', as Ukraine is called, the experience with totalitarianism still has its hold on the mind of the civil servant, although the totalitarian political institutions in itself no longer exist. This is reflected in the defensive moral reasoning shown in the »corrupted« mind, which I call the Bell of Flies. The thin and selfish morality of the oligarchic path leads only to further delegitimizing and erosion of trust in political institutions in contemporary Ukraine and Lviv, and a possible increase of low level and high level corruption. This makes plausible that breaking this spell of the Bell of Flies, and developing an alternative account of moral learning is crucial for lowering corruption and creating a decent local city administration, rule of law, and accountable City Council.The national-democratic path, going back to the Ukrainian independence in 1991, the Orange Revolution of 2004, and the Maidan uprising in 2013, is also reflected in the imperatives of the »corrupted« mind. It is the fertile ground for breaking up this self-defeating strategy of moral knowledge and learning and developing a new moral compass with civil servants of Lviv. By this moral learning in Lviv improves the national-democratic role of the civil servant, improves the legitimacy and trustworthiness of the civic administration, and leads to stronger and more just local political institutions.The main lesson learned from the Lviv experience is that fighting corruption has to be adjusted to the history and local experience of citizens and civil servants. On the one hand by creating communities of moral inquiry in communities of communal practice. On the other hand by historical institutional analysis, reconstructing the path dependence of experiences with corruption. Being a scholar and practitioner - a street scientist - is, so I argue, crucial in winning the fight against corruption.

THE PROBLEM OF ELECTION ADMINISTRATION PROFESSIONALIZATION IN MODERN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN UKRAINE

The crisis of confidence in the authorities in Ukraine is largely caused by the lack of public confidence in the bodies performing public functions. Especially, it is true for election process which accumulates problems of political choice and legitimacy. In most cases, voters’ disbelief in the election results and fair ballot is caused by non-prefessionalism of election commissions. Since the elections in Ukraine have become a permanent phenomenon, there is a contradiction between the nature of the authorities of the election commissions and lack of professionalism of the members of these commissions which otherwise would facilitate the strict observance of electoral procedures and rules. This institutional problem of the current political spheres of society leads to negative trends in political life. Meanwhile elections at all levels are characterized by the experience of Ukrainian citizens of elections participation to seek earnings during campaigns. Commercialization of the election process creates the phenomenon where political power delegated to the election commissions as collegiate bodies performing public functions to legitimize power, is executed by not professionals but politically loyal mercenaries who stand not for compliance with election law but for earnings. The solution is seen in as wide as possible professionalization of election commissions of all levels. This will improve the system of election administration, increase public confidence in the election results and eliminate the tendency to commercialize the process.