Context-specific Practices Research Articles

Design phase collaborative risk management factors: a case study of a green rating system in South Africa

PurposeWe explore the design risk factors and associated managerial practices driving collaborative risk management for design efficacy in green building projects. By illuminating project design risk as an important project risk category in its own right, the study contributes to our understanding of optimising design efficacies for collaborative project risk management.Design/methodology/approachThe study comprises exploratory interviews conducted with 27 industry project practitioners involved in the design and delivery/implementation of Green Star-certified building projects in South Africa.FindingsThe findings discursively highlight seven sources of design risk. We also identify seven specific collaborative risk management practices for design efficacy emerging from a consideration of how risk environments vary in the Green Star-certified projects, each with its own project design risk implications.Originality/valueThe study advances our understanding of how collaborations emerging from particular relational yet context-specific practices can be optimised to strengthen project risk management.

Reproductive health among women of child-bearing age after surgery for rheumatic heart disease in Rwanda

ObjectiveTo determine maternal and fetal outcomes in postoperative women with rheumatic heart disease who become pregnant after valve surgery and evaluate current anticoagulation management during pregnancy. MethodsData from the Rwandan rheumatic heart disease cardiac surgical registry identified all female patients who underwent valve surgery before or during childbearing age since 2006. In total, 136 participants completed a mixed-methods questionnaire detailing each pregnancy after surgery, including anticoagulation regimen and outcomes. ResultsWe found that 38.2% (n = 136) of patients reported at least 1 pregnancy after surgery, of which more than one half were unintentional (53.9%, n = 52). Among those patients with mechanical valves, most remained on warfarin alone during pregnancy (58.5%, n = 53) whereas one third were switched to low molecular weight heparin during the first, second, or third trimesters (5 vs 4 vs 7, n = 18). Women with bioprosthetic valve replacement or valve repair were more likely to experience live term births (84.6% vs 45.3%, P < .01) and less likely to report spontaneous abortion (3.9% vs 30.2%, P < .01) compared with women with mechanical valve replacement. Excessive bleeding was the most common complication during pregnancy (9.1%, n = 79), and 2 infants were diagnosed with congenital defects associated with warfarin embryopathy (4.8%, n = 42). ConclusionsDespite preoperative counseling discouraging conception, many women with prosthetic valves still become pregnant after surgery. The results of this study will inform evidence-based and context-specific practices for anticoagulation during pregnancy in Rwanda and the region.

Humanitarian-Development Nexus: strengthening health system preparedness, response andresilience capacities to address COVID-19 inSudan-case study ofrepositioning external assistance model andfocus.

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the establishment of a new transitional government in Sudan with rejuvenated relations with the international community paved the way for external assistance to the EU COVID-19 response project, a project with a pioneering design within the region. The project sought to operationalize the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, perceiving the nexus as a continuum rather than sequential due to the protracted nature of emergencies in Sudan and their multiplicity and contextual complexity. It went further into enhancing peace through engaging with conflict and post-conflict-affected states and communities and empowering local actors. Learning from this experience, external assistance models to low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) should apply principles of flexibility and adaptability, while maintaining trust through transparency in exchange, to ensure sustainable and responsive action to domestic needs within changing contexts. Careful selection and diverse project team skills, early and continuous engagement with stakeholders, and robust planning, monitoring and evaluation processes were the project highlights. Yet, the challenges of political turmoil, changing Ministry of Health leadership, competing priorities and inactive coordination mechanisms had to be dealt with. While applying such an approach of a health system lens to health emergencies in LMICs is thought to be a success factor in this case, more robust technical guidance to the nexus implementation is crucial and can be best attained through encouraging further case reports analysing context-specific practices.

Developing and Validating the Competency Profile for Teaching and Learning Research Integrity

Since research integrity is not external to research but an integral part of it, it should be integrated into research training. However, several hindrances regarding contemporary research integrity education exist. To address them, we have developed a competency profile for teaching and learning research integrity based on four assumptions: 1) to include all levels of study (BA, MA, and PhD); 2) to integrate research integrity into research education itself; 3) to address research integrity issues in context-specific practices; and 4) to pay particular attention to the ‘grey zone’ or questionable research practices. To assess the validity of the content of the competency profile and to determine if some adjustments to the profile are needed, we translated the competencies of the profile into items of a measurement instrument (a questionnaire) and conducted a survey amongst University of Ljubljana students that allowed us to 1) obtain information about students’ attitudes toward issues of integrity in research; 2) analyse differences in these attitudes among BA, MA, and PhD students; and 3) statistically validate the competency profile and suggest possible improvements. The results showed that 1) students are highly aware of research integrity issues, as scores were high on all items assessed. However, there were some deviations to lower scores, especially in relation to questionable research practises, confirming our assumption that the ‘grey zone’ issues are those that should be particularly addressed and given special attention in contemporary research integrity education. 2) The differences in the attitudes of BA, MA, and PhD students showed that higher-level students showed significantly more awareness of integrity issues than lower-level students did, suggesting that research integrity issues should be given special attention at the BA study level. 3) The measurement characteristics showed that the reliability of the questionnaire was very high, suggesting a good overall structure of the competency profile. The principal component analysis also confirmed the four-field structure of the Competency profile (Values and Principles, Research Practise, Publication and Dissemination, and Violations). However, the analysis also showed that the substructure of the four main areas of the profile did not fully match the results of the factor analysis, suggesting that the distribution of competencies in the competency profile could be reconsidered, especially in the area of Research Practice. The most recent developments in the field of research integrity also suggest that the competency profile should be updated with issues regarding the impact of artificial intelligence on research integrity.

Health risks of solid waste management practices in rural Ghana: A semi-quantitative approach toward a solid waste safety plan

Inadequate solid waste management (SWM) can lead to environmental contamination and human health risks. The health risks from poor SWM can vary based on specific practices and exposure pathways. Thus, it is necessary to adequately understand the local context. This information, however, is rarely available in low-resource settings, particularly in rural areas. A solid waste safety plan could be helpful in these settings for gathering necessary data to assess and minimize health risks. As a step in developing such a tool, a semi-quantitative health risk analysis of SWM practices in nine Ghanaian rural villages was undertaken. Data on SWM in each village were collected through qualitative field observations and semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders. SWM-related health risks were assessed using the collected data, similar case studies in the scientific literature and dialogue among an assembled team of experts. The analysis identified context-specific practices and exposure pathways that may present the most substantial health risks as well as targeted solutions for mitigation risks. A risk assessment matrix was developed to quantify SWM risks as low, medium, high, or very high based on the likelihood and severity of identified hazards. The highest SWM risks were identified from dumpsites and uncontrolled burying of solid waste. More specifically, a very high or high risk of infectious and vector-borne diseases from SWM in the villages was identified, both in the disposal of solid waste in dumpsites and uncontrolled burying of solid waste. Additionally, a very high or high risk of inhalation, ingestion or dermal contact with contaminants was found in the disposal of solid waste in dumpsites, open burning of waste and reuse of waste from dumpsites as compost. The results demonstrate the potential value of a solid waste safety plan and a parsimonious approach to collect key local data to inform its contents.

Large-Scale Learning for Local Change: The Challenge of Massive Open Online Courses as Educator Professional Learning

How can large-scale open online learning serve the professional learning needs of educators which are often highly localized? In this mixed-methods study, we examine this question through studying the learning experiences of participants in four massive open online courses (MOOCs) that we developed on educational change leadership (N = 1,712). We observed that educators were able to integrate their learning from the online courses across a variety of educational settings. We argue that a key factor in this process was that the design of online courses was attentive to various levels in which participants processed and applied their learning. We therefore propose the “Content-Collaboration-Context Model” (C-C-C) as a design model for designing and researching open online learning experiences for professional learning settings where participants’ work is highly localized. In analyzing learner experiences in our MOOCs, we apply this model to illustrate how individuals integrated the de-contextualized content of the online courses into their context-specific practices. We conclude with implications for the design and research on open online professional learning experiences.

Assessment of Practices in Integrating Environmental Education in the Teacher Education Program

The study aimed to assess the mainstreaming of environmental education in the Teacher Education curriculum. It used descriptive research design using qualitative approaches. Data were gathered using a rubric, documentary analysis, class observations, focus group discussion, and interview. Respondents and informants consisted of faculty-implementers, students, officials and administrative personnel. Each class in the different disciplines was observed by three class observers. The focus group discussion involved 35 students and the informal interview involved randomly selected class observers and key persons involved in the implementation of the project. Three dimensions were considered such as programmatic practices, organizational practices and context-specific practices. Assessment reveals the good practices in programmatic practices in terms of needs assessment and program design, in organizational practices in terms of governance, and context specific practices in terms of instructional materials development, delivery of the lesson, interaction with students, and assessment. Good practices serve as enabling factors for the successful mainstreaming of environmental education in the Teacher Education curriculum. Recommendations are provided to sustain the good practices and address those needing improvement.

Reducing drug-use harms among higher education students: MyUSE\xa0contextual-behaviour change digital intervention development using the Behaviour Change Wheel

BackgroundDigital harm-reduction interventions typically focus on people with severe drug-use problems, yet these interventions have moderate effectiveness on drug-users with lower levels of risk of harm. The difference in effectiveness may be explained by differences in behavioural patterns between the two groupings. Harnessing behavioural theories to understand what is at the core of drug-use behaviours and mapping the content of new interventions, may improve upon the effectiveness of interventions for lower-risk drug-users. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically apply the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) approach to understand the components, influencing capabilities, opportunities, and motivations (COM-B) of higher education students to change their drug-use behaviors. It is also the first study which identifies specific patterns of behaviours that are more responsive to harm reduction practices through the use of the Theoretical Domain Framework (TDF).MethodsWe employed an explanatory sequential mix-method design. We first conducted an on-line survey and a Delphi exercise to understand the factors influencing COM-B components of higher education students to change their drug-use. Subsequently, we mapped all evidence onto the COM-B components and the TDF domains to identify clusters of behaviours to target for change, using a pattern-based discourse analysis. Finally, a series of multidisciplinary group meetings identified the intervention functions—the means by which the intervention change targeted behaviours and the Behavioural Change Techniques (BCTs) involved using the behaviour change technique taxonomy (v.1).ResultsTwenty-nine BCTs relevant to harm-reduction practices were identified and mapped across five intervention functions (education, modelling, persuasion, incentivization, and training) and five policy categories (communication/marketing, guidelines, regulation, service provision, and environmental/social planning). These BCTs were distributed across eight identified saturated clusters of behaviours MyUSE intervention attempts to change.ConclusionsThe BCTs, identified, will inform the development of a digitally delivered behaviour change intervention that focuses on increasing mindful decision-making with respect to drug-use and promotes alternatives to drug-use activities. The findings can also inform implementation scientists in applying context-specific harm-reduction practices in higher education. We present examples of how the eight identified clusters of target behaviours are mapped across the COM-B components and the TDF, along with suggestions of implementation practices for harm reduction at student population level.

Bringing evidence to bear for negotiating tradeoffs in sustainable agricultural intensification using a structured stakeholder engagement process

ABSTRACT Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) has the potential to increase food security without detrimental effects on ecosystem services. However, adoption of SAI practices across sub-Saharan Africa has not reached transformational numbers to date. It is often hampered by lack of context-specific practices, sub-optimal understanding of tradeoffs and synergies among stakeholders, and lack of approaches that bring diverse evidence sources together with stakeholders to collectively tackle complex problems. In this study, we asked three interconnected questions: (i) What is the accessibility and use of evidence for SAI decision making; (ii) What tools could enhance access and interaction with evidence for tradeoff analysis; and (iii) Which stakeholders must be included? This study employed a range of research and engagement methods including surveys, stakeholder analysis, participatory trade-off assessments and co-design of decision dashboards to better support evidence-based decision making in Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. At the inception, SAI evidence was accessible and used by less than half of the decision makers across the three countries and online dashboards hold promise to enhance access. Many of the stakeholders working on SAI were not collaborating and tradeoff analysis was an under-utilized tool. Structured engagement across multiple stakeholder groups with evidence is critical.

The land–energy–water nexus of global bioenergy potentials from abandoned cropland

Bioenergy is a key option in climate change mitigation scenarios. Growing perennial grasses on recently abandoned cropland is a near-term strategy for gradual bioenergy deployment with reduced risks for food security and the environment. However, the extent of global abandoned cropland, bioenergy potentials and management requirements are unclear. Here we integrate satellite-derived land cover maps with a yield model to investigate the land–energy–water nexus of global bioenergy potentials. We identified 83 million hectares of abandoned cropland between 1992 and 2015, corresponding to 5% of today’s cropland area. Bioenergy potentials are 6–39 exajoules per year (11–68% of today’s bioenergy demand), depending on multiple local and management factors. About 20 exajoules per year can be achieved by increasing today’s global cropland area and water use by 3% and 8%, respectively, and without production inside biodiversity hotspots or irrigation in water-scarce areas. The consideration of context-specific practices and multiple environmental dimensions can mitigate trade-offs of bioenergy deployment. Bioenergy from grasses is a key option to mitigate climate change. This study finds that recently abandoned cropland could help meet 11–68% of today’s bioenergy demand.

Communication Scenarios of Misunderstanding

Introduction. The proposed paper discusses communication situations of mutual misunderstanding up to mutual rejection of each other by the parties. The research assumption is that misunderstanding in human communication is not necessarily accompanied by its overcoming. “Miscommunication communication” forms a communicative space that reveals the diversity of practices of personal self-realization, intergroup and intercultural interaction, while retaining the perception of the other side as incomprehensible.Methodology and sources. The methodological framework for analysis is a social constructionalist approach to the study of social reality, offering a conceptualization of the practical and observable actions of individuals or, in other words, “what people do when they act”. According to pragmatically oriented methodology, we cannot make an exhaustive conclusion about the internal reasons that motivate people to act in one way or another, but we can consider linguistic and non-linguistic actions that are perceived and interpreted by them as having a certain meaning and, therefore, trigger a certain response. The meanings that communicators give to a message are not pre-defined, but are created, produced, and constructed in a communicative interaction through contextspecific discursive procedures and practices, while also triggering specific socially recognizable types of contexts.Results and discussion. The variant of classification of various types of cognitive and communicative experience acquired by people in situations of misunderstanding is offered. Empirical data are the records of interviews, conversations, and comments that are at our possession. The basis for distinguishing between communicative scenarios of misunderstanding is the values in the range of “expanding one's own experience” ↔ “isolation from others' experience”. The structure of description of the selected situations includes: communicative status of the participant; verbal formulas that determine the choice of vector by the participants of the communication; characteristics of cognitive and communicative experience generated by a situation of misunderstanding; examples and illustrations containing replicas, comments, description of life situations of collision with misunderstanding, corresponding to a specific communicative scenario.Conclusion. Situations of misunderstanding are developed in scenarios that provide their participants with the resources to cope with the threat of risk to their personal or group (cultural) identity. The range of cognitive and communicative practices ranges from recognizing the value of cultural (social) diversity for social and personal development to discriminating against others, including violence and the exclusion of the incomprehensible from interaction. Discussion of the issue of “understanding misunderstanding” makes it possible to fit misunderstanding into the social fabric of human behavior practices as a vital resource for any social community.

Authoritarian Innovations: Crafting support for a less democratic Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT Contemporary democratic backsliding typically unfolds gradually, as elected incumbents slowly and relentlessly subvert democratic institutions without openly questioning the principles of democracy. This suggests that more attention should be devoted to studying the new practices through which authoritarian actors undermine democratic institutions and mobilize consensus for their agendas. In focusing on authoritarian practice, this Thematic Collection emphasizes the dynamism, the fluidity and the transformative potential of various sophisticated tactics employed by authoritarians to stifle opposing voices, demobilize dissent and erode the foundations of representative democracy. We name such practices “authoritarian innovations”, and we study them in the context of Southeast Asia, a region that has provided several examples of democratic erosions in recent years. Contributions in this thematic section offer an overview of trends of regime change in the region, as well as studies of authoritarian innovations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. These cases indicate the urgency of focusing on various actors who may collude with authoritarians in the state to assail spaces of democratic contestation and participation, and on the various context-specific practices that they skillfully implement.

Digital collaboration in design education: how online collaborative software changes the practices and places of learning

ABSTRACT This article provides a snapshot of the digital collaboration practices in a postgraduate master programme studio, focused on service and interaction design. It presents and discusses research from a student survey focused on evaluating the usefulness of the online collaborative software (OCS) ‘Slack’ and how it relates to a broader media ecology, which is comprised of contemporary and legacy computer digital technologies, including smartphone applications and email. Affordance theory and the concept of polymedia are combined to account both for the inherent capacities of new communication technologies used in the learning context, and their relational, contingent aspects, which are given shape as part of complex and context-specific communicative practices. In conclusion, it is suggested that there is much potential for further research into how the changing boundaries between everyday life and work – in part a consequence of OCS and mobile computing – are also changing the way students communicate with each other and educators.

Making music in divided cities: Transforming the ethnoscape

AbstractIn the phenomenon of the divided city – urban environments partitioned along ethno-religious lines as a result of war or conflict – projects seeking to bring segregated people together through community music activities face many operational and psychological obstacles. Divided cities are politically sustained, institutionally consolidated, and relentlessly territorialized by competing ethno-nationalist actors. They are highly resistant to peacebuilding efforts at the state level. This article uses an urban peacebuilding lens (peacebuilding reconceptualized at the urban scale that encompasses the spatial and social dimensions of ethno-nationalist division) to examine the work of community music projects in three divided cities. Through the examples of the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Mitrovica Rock School in Mitrovica, Kosovo, and Breaking Barriers (a pseudonym) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, we consider the context-specific practices and discourses that are deployed to navigate the local constraints on inter-communal cooperation, but that also contribute to the broader goal of building peace. We find that music-making is a promising strategy of peacebuilding at the urban scale, with both functional and symbolic contributions to make to the task of transforming an ethnoscape into a peacescape.

Cultural policy and participatory art practices in Flanders

PurposeIn Flanders, the subventions in the cultural sector are mainly divided and decided upon within the framework of the Arts Decree. Within this policy framework, art organizations may choose in their funding applications for “participation” as one of the five possible functions to describe their artistic and cultural practices. However, questions need to be raised about the different interpretations of the notion of participation within this policy framework. The growing trend of evidence-based policy-making implies that participation risks to become a “target” that needs to be achieved instrumentally, which paradoxically ignores the fact that participatory practices within culture and the arts are very often diverse, multi-layered and context-specific practices. Starting from this paradox, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the current policy framework is translated into different “participatory” art practices by art organizations and specifically how cultural practitioners themselves conceptualize it.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors discuss the results of a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with cultural practitioners about how they grapple with the notion of participation within their organizations and practices.FindingsThe results clearly show that practitioners use micro-politics of resistance to deal with different, and often conflicting, conceptualizations of participation in relation to this cultural policy framework.Research limitations/implicationsThe implications of the findings are vital for the discussion about cultural policy. These micro-politics of resistance do not only have an impact on the development of individual participatory art practices but also on the broader participatory arts landscape and on how the function of participation is perceived within the renewed policy framework.Originality/valueThe original contribution of this paper is to explore the perspective of practitioners in cultural organizations about the function of participation in the Arts Decree in Flanders and specifically how the notion of participation is operationalized in their practices in relation to this cultural policy framework.

Los gobiernos corporativos como pilar de la sostenibilidad: Un desafío pendiente en Latinoamérica

Changes in society have positioned companies as highly relevant actors in the satisfaction of people’s needs. This fact, together with the phenomenon of the penetration of social networks and consumers frustrated due to corporate abuses, places companies on a new stand from where they are exposed to unprecedented scrutiny. Thus, new challenges and opportunities for companies around the world are posed. Corporate sustainability refers to the set of practices necessary for adequately addressing those challenges and seizing such opportunities. Based on a systematic study of relevant literature and considering the conditions of Latin American economies, this article suggests concrete, realistic, and context-specific practices that may contribute to making companies in the continent sustainable from a corporate standpoint. These practices prioritize business management based on principles of high performance, high integrity, and sound risk management.

Making Cells Worthwhile: Calculations of Value in a European Consortium for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Banking

ABSTRACTThe StemBANCC consortium was a large European consortium bringing together scientists from academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of the consortium was to produce 1500 induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from participants with a variety of common, complex diseases. These cell lines were intended to help develop iPSC as tools for screening small molecule drug candidates and modelling human diseases in vitro. The scale of investment in this and other biobanks presents iPSC as a valuable commodity. However, StemBANCC was also mandated to make its making cells and data available to European researchers on a not-for-profit basis. To understand how making this quantity of stem cells and data available is configured as a valuable and worthwhile investment for the consortium partners, research materials (project documents, scientific literature and interviews with scientists working on StemBANCC) were analysed using theoretical tools from Valuation Studies. Combining STS and economic sociology, valuation studies analyse how the worth of things, ideas and phenomena result from context-specific practices of assessment and evaluation; worth incorporates moral, financial, scientific, economic. social and cultural registers of value. In this sense, practitioners evaluate the worth of the StemBANCC cells and data at a variety of sites, from participant recruitment to online databases. This provides an alternative to biovalue and similar conceptual models for theorising the generation of value in the Life Sciences.

In search of behavioural and social levers for effective social housing retrofit programs

Our study proposes to analyze from a social practice and behavioural economics perspective the factors that influence a mismatch between energy behaviour and retrofit efficacy in the context of social housing. Retrofit interventions not only have the potential of improving energy efficiency of buildings, but they also change the context in which individuals live, therefore improving their wellbeing at home. However, the surrounding social context might suggest some context-specific practices and cognitive biases that negatively influence energy behaviour, creating a gap between expected and actual energy performance.Addressing the context-specific practices and cognitive biases is especially necessary when it comes to social housing. Social housing neighbourhoods are not only low-energy efficient, but also socially vulnerable. This context might shape specific practices and make salient specific cognitive biases which require special consideration within an energy retrofit program.The ambition of this study is to understand the context-specific practices and cognitive biases that characterize the pre-refurbishment phase of a retrofit program and to identify the ones that can be used as behavioural and social levers to enhance retrofit efficacy. To this aim, we analyze the results of a questionnaire administered to the tenants of a social housing district through the lenses of social practice theory and behavioural economics. Our results show that analysing tenants’ behaviour through an interdisciplinary social science approach allows to identify a range of context-specific variables that can be used as levers to align behaviour to retrofit interventions.

Natural Resource Management in the U.S. Arctic: Sustainable Organizing Through Communicative Practices

This study advances a theoretical framework of sustainable organizing, grounded in the communicative practices of key organizational actors. I situate this study in the enactment of natural resource management (NRM) in the U.S. Arctic, drawing on qualitative fieldwork and in-depth interviews. The theoretical framework hinges on four iterative sensitizing concepts—stakeholder embeddedness in local–global ecologies, constitutive role of d/Discourse, rhetoric–practice tensions, and systemic risk–resilience—that guided data analysis. Findings revealed that participants communicatively constituted NRM in terms of structural challenges and best practices. NRM’s structural challenges were rooted in discursive closure of key perspectives through past events, routinization, and design; othering of important stakeholders; and framing institutional tension as conflict. Nevertheless, participants emphasized key decision-making, relationship-building, and risk-managing clusters that enabled NRM best practices benefiting both human and natural stakeholders. The empirical study thus extends the proposed theoretical framework by demonstrating context-specific practices that enact sustainable organizing.

Leadership, Innovation Outputs, and Business Performance: A Mixed Methods Study of Senior Managers in the Attractions Industry

ABSTRACTThis mixed-methods study responds to the need for empirical studies of innovation in the experience industry context. A multisource approach was used to gather data from 189 attractions across the United States. The relationships between strategic leadership practices and various innovation output dimensions were examined at the organization level. Qualitative data in the form of innovation output examples complemented the quantitative results. Findings provide a snapshot of innovation in the attractions industry and reveal some of the “tensions” of leading innovation in organizations whose main economic offering is an experience. A list of context-specific leadership practices and innovation activities provide a starting point for self-assessment and integration of experience-economy concepts at the business unit level.