Community Ownership Research Articles

Ebola and slum dwellers: Community engagement and epidemic response strategies in urban Sierra Leone

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa (2013–2016) was a learning process for all – the population, health experts and practitioners, as well as government structures. Learning occurred in all stages of the response, from the initial lack of clarity and denial of Ebola's existence that contributed to public confusion; to the eventual acceptance of the existence of the Ebola threat whereupon fear and stigmatization reigned; to the later stages in which community engagement and ownership of the response arose. In this paper we describe how two urban poor communities in informal settlements in the Western Area of Sierra Leone responded to Ebola Virus Disease and how they deployed efficient strategies like the development and implementation of by-laws for monitoring and surveillance, thus helping to curb the epidemic. For future public health emergencies, we recommend that community engagement be pursued earlier and that efforts are made to ensure two-way knowledge exchange between responders and community stakeholders.

Featurest he right to joint ownership of territorial communities

Certain features of the right to joint ownership of territorial communities fixed in the legal framework of Ukraine have been studied. An opinion is expressed regarding the existence of restrictions on the right of joint property of territorial communities as a type of communal property right.
 The author established that the legislative system of Ukraine has undergone at least three attempts to define the concept of joint property rights of territorial communities, which had a number of common and different approaches. Analysis conducted.
 The proposal regarding the expediency of introducing the possibility of applying the institutions of joint and joint partial ownership to the legal regime of property currently in the joint ownership of territorial communities, on behalf of and in the interests of which regional and district councils act, is supported, with the need for an in-depth and detailed analysis from the point of view of the consequences, for the relevant councils, as direct entities exercising the authority of the owner in relation to the relevant objects of communal property.
 The author noted that none of the previous attempts to determine the right of joint ownership of territorial communities was successful in regulating the mechanism for determining the shares of each of the territorial communities that is a co-owner of the property, which, as a result, makes it impossible to implement a number of powers that, according to the law, are conferred on such co-owners . It is noted that there is no declaration of any objective evaluation criteria for such a determination, taking into account the need to maintain a balance of interests of all territorial communities that are co-owners of such property.
 It is proposed to define such features of the right of joint ownership of territorial communities as a special administrative and management subject; the special status of objects belonging to the right of joint ownership of territorial communities; limited participation of individual territorial communities in the implementation of co-owner powers.

Change of Ownership of the Waqf in the area of Gornji Rahic in the Socialist period (1945-1990)

One of the important measures of the communist government after the Second World War was the change of ownership of private property and the property of religious communities. For the mentioned changes in the field of ownership, numerous regulations were passed, which related to the nationalization, confiscation and expropriation of real estate. The regulations were for the purpose of the legitimate action of the state in terms of changing the ownership of real estate. With these measures, the entire waqf property, which until then was outside the scope of state interventions regarding the change of ownership, came under attack. The aforementioned processes were carried out in a short period of time and very radically, whereby in many cases the established legal procedures adopted by the communist authorities were not followed. Through nationalization, confiscation and expropriation, significant property of the Islamic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina was usurped. The usurpation of property significantly weakened the Islamic community economically, which had an impact on the work of its most important institutions. Due to additional government measures, the most important religious and educational institutions of the Islamic community, such as madrasahs and sharia courts, ceased to exist, while the number of schools was significantly reduced. With the usurpation of property, the Islamic community lost a significant economic support, which had an impact on its further functioning and influence on the wider masses, which to a good extent were very quickly affected by the process of atheism, which was one of the important goals of the communist government. The Islamic community in the Brcko region had significant waqf property at its disposal. It was about various properties, which were of great importance in the religious, educational, economic and social segments in the places where the waqfs were located. The Islamic community in the area of the municipality of Gornji Rahic, which was located in the Brcko region at the time, had significant waqf real estate, especially land holdings. Until the establishment of the communist government, they were used to support religious buildings in this area. With the establishment of the new government, according to the available data of a significant land area, four waqfs in this area were hit by the measures of the new communist government. It was about the foundation of the Gornji Rahic mosque, the foundation of the Ograđenovac mosque, the foundation of the Iptidaija school in Gornji Rahic and the Fatima Kujundzic foundation. The aforementioned waqfs came under attack based on the Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonization, because they had more land than was determined by the said regulation. Therefore, already in 1946, the government carried out the process of expropriation of the land of the mentioned waqfs and took a total of 66 dunums of land and 320 m2 from them, while leaving a total of 17 dunums and 532 m2 of land to the Islamic community, i.e. the mosque waqf in Gornji Rahic. The Islamic community sent a series of complaints to the competent institutions regarding this attitude of the authorities, which were not accepted. So it was left without an important economic basis necessary for its continued existence. The aforementioned expropriated land was included in the land fund as state property, which was allocated to various users: agrarian interests, agricultural cooperatives and other state institutions. It is interesting that the waqf property, which had the status of a cemetery (cemetery), was the subject of expropriation in this case. In the process of cadastral marking of expropriated land, numerous mistakes were made, which in the later period represented a problem in the implementation of the process of registering the allocated land in the ownership of agrarian stakeholders. The mentioned problem in the paper is treated on a micro level, but the available facts indicate that it was an established practice of the communist government, which was widely used immediately after the Second World War, related to the change of property ownership of religious communities, including the Islamic community. In this way, the economic strength of the Islamic community was significantly reduced, which will have an impact on its overall status in the time of socialism, which was also shown in the example of the usurpation of the Islamic community's waqf in the municipality of Gornji Rahic in Brcko county.

Condominiums facing delinquency: stringent remedies from a comparative perspective

Purpose With the aim of monitoring the existing regulations that are applicable to community of owners facing delinquency, in view of the importance of this issue for the achievement of the Urban Agenda, the present study aims to analyse the most stringent and controversial measures available for the community of owners facing delinquency from a comparative perspective. Design/methodology/approach The present work addresses the recent legislative amendments that have taken place at national level in this field in several countries and analyses to what extent they have addressed the delinquency problem faced by community of owners. Findings The current paper shows that, in the end, legal certainty, the prospective legal and economic effects on mortgage lending and constitutional concerns are the underlying reasons behind the reluctance to implement some stringent measures to face delinquency. It also shows that recent amendments concerning alternative dispute resolution mechanisms are a missed opportunity. Social implications Community of owners plays a key role in cities for the achievement of the Urban Agenda, so the periodical contributions from co-owners are paramount to the proper implementation of urban regeneration, energy efficiency and accessibility policies. To this end, the paper analyses existing regulations that are applicable to community of owners facing delinquency, which may increase in the coming years due to the current socioeconomic context. Originality/value This paper builds on existing research and goes one step further by addressing the recent legislative amendments that have taken place recently at national level in this field. These measures may serve as an inspiration to other EU legal systems.

Body mapping: feminist-activist geographies in practice

Body mapping is an intimate cartographic process that involves tracing the body and exploring one’s embodied experience. This visual, arts-based process is highly reflective, designed to empower communities to express and share stories – often those difficult to utter. Steeped in various activist and feminist traditions, body mapping is also a practice of care. It is not just about producing a map but is also about coming together to tend to the body and build solidarities to generate change. Our article seeks to expand creative conversation around the value of body mapping for geographers as both a research method and pedagogical tool which may enable multiple bridges to be crossed: activist and academic, generational, and linguistic. This article centers body mapping where it was first articulated as a research method – South Africa – and reflects on a 3-day workshop with the Waterberg Women Advocacy Organization to map the gendered impacts of extractive industries. By insisting on community ownership of both the mapping process and maps themselves – where and how they get used – data sovereignty remains at the heart of this method. This data sovereignty is not insignificant, given the persistent landscapes of extraction in the Global South. Perhaps most critically, the feminist ethos underpinning body mapping explored here provides tangible ways in which our work as geographers can cultivate spaces of care with and for communities who regularly experience the abdication of care.

Rethinking Communities, Land and Governance: Land Reform in Scotland and the Community Ownership Model

Rethinking Communities, Land and Governance: Land Reform in Scotland and the Community Ownership Model

Applying and Assessing Participatory Approaches in an Environmental Flows Case Study

Environmental flows (e-flows) management takes place within a complex social-ecological system, necessitating the involvement of diverse stakeholders and an appreciation of a range of perspectives and knowledge types. It is widely accepted that incorporating participatory methods into environmental flows decision-making will allow stakeholders to become meaningfully involved, improving potential solutions, and fostering social legitimacy. However, due to substantial structural barriers, implementing participatory approaches can be difficult for water managers. This paper assesses the effectiveness of an e-flows methodology that combines elements of structured decision-making and participatory modeling, whilst constrained by project resources. Three process-based objectives were identified by the group at the start of the process: improving transparency, knowledge exchange, and community ownership. We evaluated the success of the approach according to those objectives using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. In evaluating how well the participatory approach achieved the process objectives, we found that at least 80% of respondents expressed positive sentiment in every category (n = 15). We demonstrate that the values-based process objectives defined by the participant group are an effective tool for evaluating participatory success. This paper highlights that participatory approaches can be effective even in resource-constrained environments when the process is adapted to fit the decision-making context.

In danger of co-option: Examining how austerity and central control shape community woodlands in Scotland

Community ownership and management of land has gained prominence in environmental policy discussions, especially within land restoration debates. Within Scotland, community land ownership is promoted as a means to give communities greater say over land use decisions, receive a greater share of the benefits from land, and help deliver a just transition to the government of Scotland’s net-zero targets. These goals are supported by legal mechanisms that enable appropriately constituted community bodies to buy or lease erstwhile private and public assets to deliver a wide range of social, environmental, and economic objectives. Drawing on interviews and secondary data, we inductively explore the transfer of public forests to communities in Scotland, examining the context of these transfers, the challenges in acquiring and managing forests, and broader implications of asset transfers for community empowerment. We find that community woodland groups operate in a political context shaped by public sector austerity, increasingly stepping in to provide services that local governments have withdrawn from. Our distinct contribution is to demonstrate the ways in which formalization and standardization can have a centralizing effect on place-based initiatives. Both these trends, we argue, can lead to uneven outcomes for community groups. As communities increasingly become part of global environmental agendas, we argue for a critical political geography of’community empowerment’, one that pays attention to the relationship between political processes and uneven outcomes.

The contributions of urban horticulture to cities' liveability and resilience: Insights from Singapore

Social Impact StatementThe importance of urban horticulture, a practice of growing plants in an urban environment, is increasingly recognized. It is widely acknowledged that such initiatives contribute towards liveable, sustainable, and resilient cities. Based on Singapore as a case example, this study highlights how urban horticulture programs, informed by research and implemented at a national level, bring about important benefits to urban dwellers including health and well‐being, and social cohesion through people and plant interactions. They support Singapore's vision to be a City in Nature, in addition to promoting food security. The experience in Singapore holds useful lessons for other cities.SummaryOver the past few decades, there has been widespread recognition of the importance of urban vegetation to support cities' goals to be liveable, sustainable, and resilient to disturbances brought about by climate change. In this opinion article, we further highlight the importance of urban horticulture and its role in fostering the vision of Singapore to be a green city. Through the discussion of four national level programs, we illustrate how urban horticulture initiatives contributed to the social imperative to cultivate community ownership of green estates, community ties, and interest in horticulture. Community gardens offer distinct platforms for people to get together. Allotment gardens in parklands enable individuals to engage with nature through the various gardening activities and reap produce. The Gardening with Edibles program encourages home gardening through provision of resources. Lastly, specially designed therapeutic horticulture programs engage target groups to receive benefits from the facilitated nature‐based activities. The involvement of relevant governmental agencies, driven by taking an expanded view of urban horticulture targeted at delivering social objectives and achieving the environmental and ecological objectives of city greening, has contributed to the growth and expansion of the initiatives.

Why airdrop cryptocurrency tokens?

A cryptocurrency token airdrop is a novel means of distributing rights over a blockchain project to a community of users and owners for free. The market value of these airdrop giveaways is often upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars. This paper considers why projects might choose this unusual and costly means of token distribution. It considers a selection of high-profile airdrops as case studies between 2014 and 2022. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the rationales and mechanisms of Web3 token airdrops. We find that two primary rationales for airdrops are marketing (to attract new users and to maintain a community) and decentralisation of ownership and control of a project (building community, providing regulatory protection, and enhancing security). The paper contributes to an understanding of business practice and strategy in the emerging cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.

"Give up your mic": Building capacity and sustainability within community-based participatory research initiatives.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships strive to promote community capacity building and sustainability, yet initiatives often suffer when grants or relationships with academic partners end. To address these concerns, researchers hoping to develop truly sustainable CBPR partnerships should consider factors that promote the development of community capacity and, ultimately, independence. In this first-person account, using perspectives gathered from FAVOR, a Connecticut-based family-led advocacy organization and an academic researcher, we examine the practices and experiences of the members of a CBPR partnership focused on using community voice to inform changes in the state's children's behavioral health system of care. These practices ultimately led to FAVOR developing the necessary skills to assume full ownership of the community data-gathering initiative, ensuring that the initiative would be sustained. Through the perspectives of five FAVOR staff and an academic researcher, we describe the factors that contributed to the organization being able to develop the capacity to independently continue their community data-gathering initiative, including description of the training process and staff members' perspectives on training, autonomy, community value, and lessons learned. We use these stories and experiences to provide recommendations for other partnerships striving to promote capacity building and sustainability through community ownership of the research process.

Innovative Leadership Strategy to Strengthening Community Health Education in Remote Areas

Indonesia is one of 57 countries worldwide that are facing a human resources crisis in the health sector. The shortage of health workers is particularly acute in underdeveloped areas, hindering Indonesia's overall development. This situation is further compounded by the low retention rate of health workers in these areas. This study aims to analyze innovative leadership strategies that can strengthen public health education in remote areas. This study used descriptive research methods. The results indicate that the implementation of innovative leadership strategies in Indonesia faces many ethical and legal obstacles. The development of innovative leadership is not aligned with the current regulations. However, creative social innovation approaches can enhance access to and quality of health services for vulnerable remote areas, while also increasing agency among intervention communities. This process promotes empowerment, which supports the sustainable strengthening of community systems and the achievement of community health goals and beyond. To revitalize primary healthcare efforts, strengthening community health systems should prioritize increasing health financing and innovative investments, strengthening logistics management systems, and fostering community ownership and partnerships. The government should sustain their actions aligned with global and regional sustainable initiatives to ensure that no one is left behind.

Community-based conservation in Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot- a case study

Biodiversity resources of southern bank of Yarlung Tsangbo river valley in South Tibet and Bumdelling-Tawang corridor in the eastern Bhutan are less explored by tourism and urbanization. Institutional initiatives for the conservation of these rich biodiversity areas under the traditional ownership of local communities of Arunachal Pradesh led to a community-based conservation model of Community Conserved Areas (CCA). Spontaneous participation of the stakeholders in these CCA was lacking because conservation objective was conflicting with traditional livelihood practices. To create new livelihood opportunities, the village institutions mobilized community-based leisure models and aligned these alternate livelihood objectives with ecological conservation. These economic initiatives met the challenges of bureaucratic administration, restricted access being close to international boundary with Bhutan & China, ineffective promotion by government agencies, and, the threats caused by the hydroelectric dam project. Strategy implementation was flawed because of the information sharing mechanism between China-India and India-Bhutan is constrained due to international borders. Internal challenges of indigenous CCA were limited customer integration, skewed societal acceptance of leisure-based livelihood practices, and capital cost of conservation capacity. Marketing of tourism in CCAs of Thembang and Zemithang as nature tourism destination requires all-weather road, sustained technical and financial support, and distribution linkages. This research discusses the critical success factor of Zemithang as an expanding CCA and limitations of Thembang CCA in mobilizing host community support. The authors argue that the community-based biodiversity conservation in the western Arunachal Pradesh must be supported by a participatory format of alternate livelihood opportunities.

Civic Engagement in a Citizen-Led Living Lab for Smart Cities: Evidence From South Korea

Smart cities have emerged in the hope of solving growing urban problems. In addition, unlike past citizen participation in tokenism, new technologies in smart cities have shed light on creating cities with high levels of civic engagement. However, contrary to expectations, technology-centric smart city development has resulted in a lack of opportunities for citizen participation. Consequently, smart cities are increasingly adopting a citizen-centric living lab methodology. Previous research on living labs has emphasized the significance of civic engagement and the potential as a collaborative platform for governments, businesses, and citizens. However, keeping individuals engaged and motivated during the living lab process might be challenging. This study examined the significance of citizens’ active participation and determined the elements that influence the level of participation in a living lab. In this study, the first citizen-led living laboratory in South Korea was selected as the subject of a case study. An empirical analytic approach was adopted and a survey was conducted among living lab participants regarding their level of participation and the sociocultural elements that may impact it. Our findings revealed that living lab activities were associated with enhanced civic self-esteem and positive attitudes toward smart cities. Moreover, they display the socioeconomic elements that influence the degree of participation. This study offers evidence that living lab activities encourage citizen engagement by giving participants a sense of empowerment during the co-creation process with multiple stakeholders, boosting civic competency through learning activities, and improving a sense of community ownership.

How social solidarity affects the outcomes of rural residential land consolidation: Evidence from Yujiang County, South China

Rural residential land consolidation (RRLC) has long been an important instrument that aligns with rural development in transitional China. Given the uniform institutional framework, limited research has investigated how social solidarity in rural communities relates to RRLC practices. Following Williamson’s four-level social analysis framework, this paper assumes endogenous social solidarity as a cornerstone for determining RRLC model adoption and relevant outcomes. The hypothesis was examined by the self-organised RRLC practices in Yujiang County, which is one of the national-level pilots for homestead system reform (HSR). Through in-depth field surveys on two RRLC cases, a comparative study was conducted to investigate how social solidarity resulted in differentiated outcomes. The results indicated that although the local government’s empowerment and active mobilisation catalysed the formation of self-governance structures, endogenous social solidarity rooted in natural villages underpinned the self-organised RRLC model. Social solidarity enabled rural communities to undertake official empowerment and rebuild the collective action ability necessary for RRLC implementation. The case comparison revealed that strong social solidarity facilitated the compatibility of property ownership, governance power, action capability and moral responsibility of rural communities, creating the smooth implementation and anticipated performance of RRLC. This study provides fundamental insights into understanding the variability of RRLC models and valuable policy implications for rural transformation in contemporary China.

Critical success factors for high routine immunization performance: A case study of Senegal

BackgroundThe essential components of a vaccine delivery system are well-documented, but robust evidence is lacking on how policies and implementation strategies are operationalized to drive catalytic improvements in coverage. To address this gap, we identified success factors that supported improvements in routine immunization coverage in Senegal, especially from 2000 to 2019. MethodsWe identified Senegal as an exemplar in the delivery of childhood vaccines through analysis of DTP1 and DTP3 coverage data. Through interviews and focus group discussions at the national, regional, district, health facility, and community-level, we investigated factors that contributed to high and sustained vaccination coverage. We conducted a thematic analysis through application of implementation science frameworks to determine critical success factors. We triangulated these findings with quantitative analyses using publicly available data. ResultsThe following success factors emerged: 1) Strong political will and prioritization of resources for immunization programming supported urgent allocation of funding and supplies; 2) Collaboration between the Ministry of Health and Social Action and external partners fostered innovation, capacity building, and efficiency; 3) Improved surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation allowed for timely and evidence-based decision making; 4) Community ownership of vaccine service delivery supported tailored programming and response to local needs; and 5) Community health workers spearheaded vaccine promotion and demand generation for vaccines. ConclusionThe vaccination program in Senegal was supported by evidence-based decision making at the national-level, alignment of priorities between governmental entities and external partners, and strong community engagement initiatives that fostered local ownership of vaccine delivery and uptake. High routine immunization coverage was likely driven by prioritization of immunization programming, improved surveillance systems, a mature and reliable community health worker program, and tailored strategies for addressing geographical, social, and cultural barriers.

Communication strategies to improve human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation uptake among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectivesDeveloping countries face the greatest cervical cancer disease burden and mortality with suboptimal immunisation uptake. This review explores the communication strategies adopted, successes, challenges and lessons learnt in sub-Saharan countries...

Paddling Together: Water Trails as Innovative Public Health Strategies.

Blueways can help improve health and quality-of-life by providing places for exercise, recreation, and community gatherings. The Rouge River Watershed is an industrialized region in Southeast Michigan with high rates of chronic disease and historic disinvestment in social and environmental conditions. The purpose of this article is to describe the process taken to develop an equitable, community-driven vision and approach for developing a water trail along the Lower Rouge River and to identify the key elements that emerged. Project leaders incorporated community-driven planning, community outreach, and community ownership strategies. The Rouge River Water Trail Leadership Committee engages the public, those affected by decisions, with a transparent, fact-based process. The public is given equal status and shares decision-making authority. This approach led to the development of a Water Trail Strategic Plan, community-informed recommendations for capital improvements, development of key relationships, and coalitions that provide a vehicle for ongoing community engagement and ownership. Five main elements, considered through an equity lens, go into building a water trail: (1) creating access points, (2) water quality monitoring, (3) woody debris management, (4) signage, and (5) developing a safety plan. Water trail development should consist of (1) environmental change through the creation of access points and safe, navigable waterways and (2) opportunities to utilize the infrastructure through programming and initiatives to make the trail accessible to all communities.

Forest Security Appraisal of Community Management Interventions Against Threats of Forest Commons at Offinso North District in Ghana

The paper examines the viability of community forestry and how community participation affects the effectivenessof forest resource security and management. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques with stakeholders’observations and perceptions of managers’ responses to major threats of forest commons were employed in thisstudy. The paper establishes forest security through comparative analysis and discourse of solely governmentmanagement intervention, solely community (private) management intervention and government-communitypartnership for forest management arrangements which are occurring in the Offinso Forest District of Ghana.The paper concludes that, community involvement in forest management interventions delivers better protectionof forest commons; and the extent and autonomy of local community to participate actively in forest resourcemanagement significantly influences resilience against threats of forest commons. Hence, stronger communityparticipation enhances the effectiveness of forest security efforts. Nevertheless, viability of communityparticipation to deliver effective forest resource security is influenced by adequacy of resources in support ofcommunity forestry, empowerment and sense of ownership of communities for forest common management.

Impact of Community Service on Tourism Development

Community service has become an essential aspect of sustainable tourism development, especially in developing countries where tourism is a significant source of revenue. This study aims to examine the impact of community service on tourism development in Bali, Indonesia. Using a case study approach, data were collected from various sources, including interviews with tourism stakeholders, community leaders, and tourists. The findings show that community service initiatives have a positive impact on tourism development in Bali. These initiatives contribute to the improvement of local infrastructure, the preservation of cultural heritage, and the promotion of eco-tourism activities. Moreover, community service projects increase community involvement in tourism, enhance community pride and ownership, and foster a sense of responsibility towards sustainable tourism development