Collective Interests Research Articles

Transitioning young people into employment in the Australian construction industry: the trust-building role of project-based intermediaries

PurposeConstruction is one of Australia’s largest employers of young people and the industry is facing a major labor shortage, with young people expected to account for much of the shortfall. Surprisingly however, there been little research into the pathways for young people into construction employment. The aim of this paper is to address this gap in research by exploring whether project-based intermediaries can support the development of disadvantaged young people’s trust in the often-problematic systems which are meant to help transition them into employment in construction.Design/methodology/approachEmploying an in-depth case study approach, this research mobilizes theories of personalized and generalized trust to report the results of interviews with 15 sectoral leaders; focus groups with 12 young people working in construction; and interviews with 11 young people being transitioned into construction employment through a unique project-based intermediary developed by a major Australian construction company as part of its social procurement requirements.FindingsFindings show that project-based intermediaries can play an important trust-building role in transitioning disadvantaged young people into work in construction. They do this by bridging a young person’s strong social ties (family and friendship) and weak social ties (with government and construction industry organizations), both of which can be problematic when used in isolation to seek employment in construction. By performing a crucial bridging role between a young person’s individual self-interest in acting alone to find work and their collective interest in being part of a collaborative group, the project-based intermediary creates a new form of linking social capital, enabling social procurement policies which target young people to work while also addressing wider systemic problems in Australia’s employment systems.Originality/valueThis research addresses the lack of employment research into young people in construction and the paucity of theory in social procurement research more broadly. It takes an original approach in aligning theories related to a duality of personalized trust and generalized trust seen against the duality of individual intentionality and agency (self-focused) and shared intentionality and agency (group-focused). By doing so it provides new conceptual and practical insights into the important role that construction project-based intermediaries like the one studied here can play in providing innovative cross-sector and collaborative solutions to the world’s growing youth unemployment crisis.

Human and Society in the Nature State and Civilized State from Hobbes Point of View

The Enlightenment philosophy, particularly the ideas of Thomas Hobbes and his concepts surrounding the State and Society, serves as a philosophical foundation for numerous subsequent discussions in the fields of social and political sciences. Hobbes’ perspective on human nature and his portrayal of the natural state versus civilization are undeniably among the central tenets of modern thought. He characterizes humanity as the ‘wolf-man’ and underscores the necessity of a social contract-based civilized state to ensure security and safeguard collective interests. Hobbes is primarily concerned with peace, and his political framework, rooted in a modern scientific sense, is designed with the explicit goal of establishing and preserving peace. In the natural state, where humanity exists in an uncivilized condition, each individual is self-interested and disconnected, resulting in a landscape fraught with danger and insecurity. However, a glimmer of hope arises from the fact that human awareness of this predicament serves as the very genesis of contemplation and thought directed towards salvation. The cornerstone of security in the natural state is the equality of all individuals within it. According to Hobbes, society does not represent the spontaneous formation of a fundamental condition for collective life but, rather, the conscious regulation of a potentially volatile state perpetually on the brink of conflict. Through surveys, Hobbes asserts that a majority of people within a society willingly delegate their power and authority to an individual or a group, enabling them to consolidate the various wills into a unified collective will through a voting process. This article aims to explore a fundamental shift in ethics as we transition from classical ethics centered around ‘good’ to modern social ethics founded on ‘security’ and ‘stability.’

Shared Goals, Diverging Paths: Saudi-Emirati Alliance in Yemen Conflict (2015-2023)

This article explores the intricacies of the Riyadh- Abu Dhabi alliance in Yemen and the potential impact this has had on the conflict. Specifically, it adopts the theoretical framework of Intra-alliance politics, which integrates considerations of individual and collective interests in coalition, and examines how divergent interests and strategic preferences between the two major regional actors shape the dynamics of the alliance and evolving competitions within it. Further, it also assesses the implications of the discord between the two regional powers on Yemen’s stability. The article concludes that beyond distinct national interests, the inability to achieve the coalition’s primary objective of reinstating the government in Sana’a has further fuelled this divergence. While the coalition has undergone a transformation, the situation does not spell the end of the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi alliance, as they have been able to, in many instances, compartmentalize their disagreements for larger gains. Nevertheless, an increasing divergence between these two States in their Yemen policy is likely to be counter-productive to their shared goal of stabilizing Yemen.

The collective dimension of platform work

The present research aims at inquiring if a collective dimension exists and how to strengthen it in platform work. Firstly, the consistency of the characteristics of platform work with the collective dimension of labour law is verified from a theoretical point of view. Even if difficulties in building a collective dimension emerge, it is then shown that some collective initiatives, taken by self-organised and non-unionised movements but also by Trade Unions, have been occurred in working on-demand via apps, especially with reference to the food delivery sector. A different story can be told about crowdwork where the collective dimension is completely neglected, with the exception of few original experiences, supported also by Trade Unions, put in place online, due to the virtual character of the crowdwork workplace. However, these initiatives are considered not sufficient in order to build a collective dimension, as they are not enough to guarantee the communication among workers from which a collective interest can rise. For this reason, the Proposal of the European Union requesting platforms to provide crowdworkers with specific virtual infrastructures on the platforms themselves, enabling a communication among workers similar to that which takes place in the physical workplace, is pivotal to facilitate discussions and exchanges of ideas among workers, from which a collective organisation, holding a collective interest, could slowly develop.

Shared Perspectives: Collective Interests and Respective Roles for Anesthesiologists in the ABA and ASA

Shared Perspectives: Collective Interests and Respective Roles for Anesthesiologists in the ABA and ASA

Investigating the Components of Transformational Leadership: A Qualitative Study on the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company (NIOTC)

Objective: This study aims to investigate the components of transformational leadership within the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company (NIOTC), providing insights into how this leadership style can be effectively implemented to enhance organizational outcomes in the oil and gas sector. Methodology: This qualitative research employed semi-structured interviews with 19 experienced managers and academic experts from NIOTC. The participants were selected using a theoretical sampling approach until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data was collected through detailed interviews and analyzed using NVivo software to identify key themes and patterns related to transformational leadership. Findings: The analysis revealed several critical components of transformational leadership at NIOTC, including creating a dynamic organizational vision, setting elevated goals, supporting organizational learning, transforming cultural values, fostering organizational trust, linking individual and collective interests, providing inspirational motivation, stimulating intellectual engagement, enhancing followers' adaptability, and considering individual needs. These components align with existing literature on transformational leadership and highlight the importance of vision, motivation, trust, and adaptability in driving organizational success. Conclusion: The findings of this study provide a comprehensive understanding of transformational leadership within NIOTC. Effective transformational leaders at NIOTC emphasize creating a compelling vision, fostering a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and trust, and aligning individual and organizational goals. These insights can guide leaders in similar contexts to implement transformational leadership practices that enhance organizational performance and employee development. Future research should explore these components in different organizational and cultural settings to further validate and expand on these findings.

Caracterização e identificação das demandas das câmaras setoriais do agronegócio paulista de 2011 a 2020.

Sectorial Chambers (SCs) are forum made up of different links in the production chains that discuss collective interests. These may be forwarded by the SCs as demands to the public power and, thus, become public policies. The objective was to understand the functioning of the São Paulo agribusiness SCs, their effectiveness in subsidizing the formulation of public policies and identify the main claims of each one of them. For this, based on the reading of the minutes of the meetings from 2011 to 2020, the subjects addressed in each CS were categorized into groups wich were classified into themes and sub-themes, totaling 1,781 records, systematized in a database. We found: irregularity in the frequency of meetings and predominance of discussions on general themes, to the detriment of claims, and a low number of resolved demands. These lead to reflection on why the SCs have problems implementing solutions for the production chains, not fulfilling their primary role of proposing policies.

Cooperative societies of collective interest (scic): inspiration for the brazilian cooperativism of the future?

Resumo Este trabalho analisa as caraterísticas e funcionamento das sociedades cooperativas de interesse coletivo (Scic) francesas e suas possíveis contribuições para o aprimoramento do cooperativismo brasileiro. De natureza qualitativa, a metodologia emprega uma abordagem descritiva e exploratória, com uso de dados primários e secundários, visitas a organizações sociais e entrevistas realizadas na França entre 2022 e 2023. Desde o final do século XIX, diversos fatores fizeram as cooperativas multissocietárias, na qual diferentes tipos de público formam seu quadro social, praticamente desaparecerem do cenário cooperativista mundial. Em 2001, o parlamento francês resgata a multissocietariedade cooperativa, por meio da lei das Scic. Os resultados desta investigação indicaram que as Scic estão em plena expansão nos espaços urbanos e rurais franceses, mobilizando pessoas físicas e organizações públicas e privadas em torno de empreendimentos coletivos. As Scic estão gerando inovações no modelo estatutário cooperativo e no modo de governança, favorecendo a criação de diversos tipos de negócios, muitos dos quais de caráter intersetorial e de abrangência territorial. Conclui-se que uma adaptação desse formato organizacional ao quadro jurídico-institucional brasileiro estimulará projetos cooperativos inovadores em várias áreas, com destaque para iniciativas focadas na transição ecológica dos sistemas alimentares e no desenvolvimento sustentável dos territórios rurais.

Challenges Facing the East African Comunity in the Effective Implementation of Human Trafficking Laws within the Region

This article identifies some of the challenges faced by the East African Community in effectively implementing human trafficking laws within the region. It relies entirely on secondary data from documentary and online sources to reveal these emerging challenges. The findings show that to be relevant, strict adherence to the existing instruments, the establishment of more rigorous border checks to prevent the commodification of human beings and alignment of national legislation with comprehensive provisions in areas where human trafficking laws lack appropriateness and effective implementation should be taken into consideration. Furthermore, the EAC should establish a supranational legislative organ, similar to the European Commission, with the exclusive power to propose bills. This would contribute to a more centralized and efficient legislative process focused on serving the collective interests of the EAC community.

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP: Building a Positive Academic Culture

In the organizational context, leadership assumes a pivotal role as a foundational element in executing functions and wielding authority. Occupying positions of prominence and wielding significant authority, leaders possess the capacity to effectively oversee and guide the organization. The leader's strategic positioning is indispensable, rendering them a key ally in advancing the collective interests of the organization's various echelons, ranging from the grassroots to the uppermost tiers, with a steadfast commitment to objective-oriented pursuits. This research endeavors to scrutinize the responses, perceptions, and evaluations of lecturers regarding the leadership exhibited by heads of study programs, thereby furnishing a comprehensive and contextual comprehension of the intricacies of leadership dynamics. The study was conducted at Pamulang University, focusing on the Undergraduate Management study program within the Faculty of Economics and Business. Primary respondents comprised level one lecturers who concurrently served as developers of the study program. Employing a simple random sampling technique facilitated by the distribution of direct questionnaires, the research data underwent analysis through qualitative descriptive methods. Findings from the research reveal that the leadership style demonstrated by the head of the Undergraduate Management study program at the Faculty of Economics and Business embodies democratic characteristics. This is evidenced by the active involvement of developer lecturers in all facets of the tri dharma activities and the decision-making processes inherent to the study program.

The climate-nature emergency and higher education

The Climate-Nature Emergency (CNE) is an existential crisis that makes urgent the need to fundamentally transform the dominant model of social and economic development. Amid the wreckage created by competitive accumulation and hyper consumption, the crucial need is to develop a sustainable moral order, embodying constructive human-nature and human-human relations. Following Durkheim, the main components of a moral order are the state, which is the crucial repository of collective interest, and individuals who take responsibility for self-improvement and the implementation of social values. The CNE foregrounds the capacity of states everywhere to both organise centrally and foster devolved community agency that can effectively address local problems and disasters. Working with government, higher education has a central role to play in advancing and defending science, fostering skills and knowledge in government, and in developing reflexive agents effective in social action in all of the local, communal, national, regional and global scales. The CNE also calls up the need to overhaul the curriculum to render it consistent with ecological survival. Higher education has an advanced capacity to cooperate across national borders and can assist nation-states in the difficult but vital process of building stable global cooperation. In addressing these issues, China and higher education in China have strong endogenous traditions, ancient and recent, on which to draw, including the consensual role of the Sinic state, which when functioning effectively draws on widespread public support; governance through deep devolution within the framework of central policies; Confucian self-cultivation with its capacity to foster consciously reflective lifelong learners; and tianxia an approach to global cooperation founded in moral values and norms of conduct rather than coercion. When combined with the Western respect for personal freedom and initiative, these qualities have much to offer in addressing the CNE, not only in China but across the world.

Maslow e o Meio Ambiente: Integrando Representação Social e Teoria das Necessidades e Motivações

Abstract In his Theory of Needs, Maslow argues that in the self- actualization stage the individual would have more developed B- values, which would involve, among other characteristics, the tendency to be mostly dedicated to causes of collective interest to the detriment of individual interests. It would also be in the self- actualization stage that the environment would have an intrinsic value, an important aspect if we consider the need for developing solutions to socio-environmental problems. Would the Social Representation of the environment have a relationship with the different stages of needs proposed by Maslow in his theory? Could the self-actualization stage reveal an individual with a globalizing representation of the environment? To answer these questions, an study was conducted with 134 participants adapting and using the Environmental Motivation Profile Test instrument and the results showed a significant correlation between the stage of self- actualization and a globalizing representation of the Environment.

Cathodal HD-tDCS above the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex increases environmentally sustainable decision-making.

Environmental sustainability is characterized by a conflict between short-term self-interest and longer-term collective interests. Self-control capacity has been proposed to be a crucial determinant of people's ability to overcome this conflict. Yet, causal evidence is lacking, and previous research is dominated by the use of self-report measures. Here, we modulated self-control capacity by applying inhibitory high-definition transcranial current stimulation (HD-tDCS) above the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) while participants engaged in an environmentally consequential decision-making task. The task includes conflicting and low conflicting trade-offs between short-term personal interests and long-term environmental benefits. Contrary to our preregistered expectation, inhibitory HD-tDCS above the left dlPFC, presumably by reducing self-control capacity, led to more, and not less, pro-environmental behavior in conflicting decisions. We speculate that in our exceptionally environmentally friendly sample, deviating from an environmentally sustainable default required self-control capacity, and that inhibiting the left dlPFC might have reduced participants' ability to do so.

THE COLLECTIVE INTEREST – WHERE DID IT STAND AT THE UNIVERSITY OF POZNAŃ IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR?

A historian’s contribution to considerations of the collective interest is a study of a particular case: that of one of Poland’s universities in the aftermath of the Second World War. The university is a collective that is also a community. It is a community in the sense that it is a body defined by its institutional framework, with a complex structure headed by the president, who in Poland is traditionally known as the rector. It is a community in the sense that it is united by a consensus on its goals and on the values that determine the means by which these goals are achieved. These goals are the acquisition of knowledge (research) and its transmission. After the Second World War, which was particularly devastating for Poland, the academic community – in this case, that of the University of Poznań – was trying to rebuild itself. At the same time, it was threatened by the plan to replace it with totalitarian power, in accordance with the nature of that system. Within the university community, a confrontation was taking place between the traditional community and the external political forces that were infiltrating it – a confrontation that shed new light on the question: what was the collective interest, and where did it lie?

COLLECTIVE INTEREST IN COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISES: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH

This paper proposes a sociological approach to the notion of collective interest, based on a survey of Scops, cooperative enterprises owned by their employees. While these enterprises are intended to defend the collective interests of their members, the content of these collective interests is determined only gradually, following a learning process. It is also formed through confrontation and adjustments between the divergent conceptions of the members of the cooperative.

THE COLLECTIVE INTEREST OF WORKERS IN EUROPEAN UNION LAW

The notion of the ‘collective interest of workers’, i.e. the interest of a group of workers, cannot be found in European Union labour law. Although collective representation and collective bargaining are important pillars of the European social model, this absence of the notion can be explained by the (ultra)liberal market philosophy of the European project, which favours an individualistic approach to labour relations and an irenic conception of collective labour relations. Nevertheless, the notion of ‘collective interest’ can be found in other contexts, referring to the interests of the members of an entity or the users of a service. This idea infuses the EU collective labour law. Actors defending the interests of a group of workers are recognised as legitimate actors, albeit partial and fluctuating. It appears that, without being named, the collective interest of workers was first established in the functioning of the ECSC and the EEC, which became the EC and then the EU. The role of trade unions was institutionalised: they were involved in the development of European social policy. It was only at a later stage that Community law, and then EU law, took up the interests of workers as a group within the company, in the context of the harmonisation of legislations on the prerogatives of their representatives.

DATA REFUSAL FROM BELOW: A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING, EVALUATING, AND ENVISIONING REFUSAL STRATEGIES

Amidst calls for public accountability over large data-driven systems, feminist and indigenous scholars have developed refusal as a practice that challenges the authority of data collectors. However, because data affects so many aspects of daily life, it can be hard to see seemingly different refusal strategies as part of the same repertoire. Furthermore, conversations about refusal often happen from the standpoint of designers and policymakers rather than the people and communities most affected by data collection. In this paper, we introduce a framework for data refusal from below—writing from the standpoint of people who refuse, rather than the institutions that seek their compliance. We characterize refusal strategies across four constituent facets common to all refusal, whatever tactics are used: autonomy, or how refusal accounts for individual and collective interests; time, or whether refusal reacts to past harm or proactively prevents future harm; power, or the extent to which refusal makes change possible; and cost, or whether or not refusal can reduce or redistribute penalties experienced by refusers. We illustrate each facet by drawing on cases of people and collectives that have refused data systems. Together, the four facets of our framework are designed to help scholars and activists describe, evaluate, and imagine new forms of refusal.

THE COLLECTIVE TERRITORIAL INTEREST, A NEW PARADIGM FOR TERRITORIAL PUBLIC ACTION?

The segmentation of the public interest through the specialisation of the powers of local authorities has made public action more complex. The concept of collective territorial interest could be an interesting way of collectively reorganising the ways in which public institutions act. The territorial collective interest is based on the idea of a new conception of the territory, seen as dynamic and evolving. It is based on cooperation between all the public and private players in the area. It is organised around open, collaborative governance and is formally embodied in a regional project co-constructed with civil society. More than just the sum of local public interests, it would give new meaning to the actions of local authorities and improve their effectiveness in meeting the needs of local residents and stakeholders

COLLECTIVE INTEREST IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

The article attempts to answer the question whether the category of collective interest, known to other branches of law, is also justified in the area of administrative law. The analysis of the content of various categories of interests in the legal system against the background of the axiology of administrative law leads to the conclusion that the concept of collective interest is not needed in the area of this law. The functions it could fulfill in theoretical considerations and in the processes of implementing law do not go beyond the limits of the functions performed by the categories of individual interest and public interest collectively recognized in administrative law.

IS THE ENVIRONMENT A FACTOR IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE COLLECTIVE INTEREST IN LABOUR LAW?

Act no. 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021, known as the “Climate and Resilience” Act, has made the environment a new subject for social dialogue, which may take the form of negotiations at branch or company level, or as part of consultations by the Social and Economic Committee. The social partners, employee representatives and the employer are involved in building a collective interest that extends to new issues, raising the question of the functions of the company. The recent introduction into European law of the due diligence is a case in point. As companies are (perhaps) no longer limited to the pursuit of profit, they could act to protect the environment, or at the very least, not contribute to its destruction or to global warming.