Cooperative Arrangements Research Articles

Historical Aspects of the Cooperation and Collaboration Between the South African Reserve Bank and Other Role Players

Prior to the enactment of the Financial Sector Regulation Act (FSR Act), the regulation of cooperation and collaboration between the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and other financial role players was not done for the purpose of protecting financial stability or promoting market integrity. The SARB, the Financial Services Board (FSB) and the Bank Supervision Department (BSD) were required by the Banks Act to harmonise supervisory actions and to share relevant information for operational purposes. The lack of adequate cooperation and collaboration arrangements to promote, protect, enhance and maintain financial stability and market integrity gave rise to regulatory gaps and overlapping functions in the financial sector. The provisions for cooperation and collaboration contained in the Banks Act, the Financial Markets Act and the Financial Services Board Act, and the establishment of the Financial Sector Contingency Forum (FSCF) were not adequate to foster effective cooperation and collaboration between the SARB, the BSD, the FSB and other financial role players.

Exploring the Viability and Implications of a NATO-like Defense Cooperation Among Turkic States

This paper explores the viability of a NATO-like defense cooperation among the Turkic states. While several challenges such as divergent security perceptions, differing foreign policy orientations, and the institutions’ limited capacities must be overcome, there are also several catalysts that could provide impetus for new security cooperation arrangements. Türkiye’s military capabilities as the only member of NATO in the region is particularly important. Furthermore, an ongoing imbalance in Armenia’s favor, supports the establishment of a security cooperation framework among the Turkic states. The developments in Ukraine and Crimea point to the necessity of a collective defense arrangement amid an increasingly insecure environment for the Turkic states. While initially beneficial, the OSCE has gradually and mostly lost its credibility in the southern Caucasus. The unequal implementation of its own principles and tactics employed in conflict resolution have inevitably led to a loss of trust from the parties involved. Meanwhile, it has ceased to analyze arms control developments in the region, despite UN Security Council Resolutions recognizing their regional dimension. Furthermore, the inadequate response to Armenia’s non-compliance with the above resolution damaged the OSCE’s credibility. Today, the Turkic states are left with few operational security cooperation options. The UN is far too inefficient and does not even have the legal framework to resolve any post-Soviet disputes. The CIS, which exists in the Caucasus in both political and military forms, lacks regional capacity and legitimacy. The GUAM organization created in 1997 at the instigation of the US and the West to pacify the edges of “the Russian World,” has been rendered operationally void. Overall, this paper explores cooperation strategies, assesses key institutional and political challenges, and discusses implications and future developments exploring the viability of a NATO-like defense cooperation among the Turkic states.

Inter‐organizational cooperation, financial constraints, and firm's innovation: evidence from five African countries

The study examines whether to collaborate or with whom to collaborate to alleviate the adverse effect of financial constraints on innovation. It utilizes a survey of 1611 firms from five African countries, using from two merged datasets: the Innovation Follow‐Ups Survey and the World Bank Enterprise Survey. The study uses the 2014 survey waves, the latest innovation survey data for African countries. The result shows that inter‐organizational cooperation effectively alleviates the adverse influence of financial constraints on product innovation, while it only reduces its effect on process innovation. Specifically, cooperation with domestic firms, foreign firms, academic or research institutions, government, and consulting companies alleviates the adverse effect of financial constraints on product innovation. However, except for cooperation with the government, other modes of cooperation reduce but do not completely alleviate the adverse impact of financial constraints on a firm's process innovation. Firms with cooperation arrangements with the government can effectively alleviate the negative effect of financial constraints on both product and process innovation. The study further shows that different modes of cooperation have distinct effects on a firm's likelihood of having product or process innovation. Managers of financially constrained companies can consider cooperation as a coping strategy to mitigate the adverse influence of financial constraints on their innovation performance but should pay attention to partner selection.

The Seed Keepers

Seeds always presuppose cooperative arrangements of tending and care. Seeds are useful to think with because they connect the past, present, and future, carrying old biologies and inherited histories as well as genetic transformations and new possibilities. This essay traces a history of botanical classification in herbariums, photographs, and seed libraries in Palestine that stretches back to the nineteenth century. Through individuation and taxonomic ordering, colonial botanical archives isolated plants and people from history and vanished Palestinians from their land. The colonial archive's formal organization and orientation to preserving dead or disappearing objects also opens space to investigate the proliferation of archive-based artworks by contemporary Palestinian artists such as Larissa Sansour and Jumana Manna. Sansour and Manna's artworks demonstrate that the value of seeds lies in their cultivation, transformations, and local adaptations. The seed is an alternative archive that maintains the vitality of being in the world. The seed is well-suited to planting Palestinian futures that are living, growing, and changing.

Exploring the genuine psychological experiences of novice nurses at emergency resuscitation events: A qualitative interview study

PurposeAn emergency rescue situation is an inevitable challenge in medical work, requiring collaborative efforts from healthcare professionals. Due to a lack of practical experience, novice nurses may encounter difficulties in successfully managing emergency resuscitation events. This study aimed to analyse the authentic psychological experiences of novice nurses participating in emergency resuscitation events by exploring applicable coping methods and management strategies. MethodsThis study utilized a hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative research method. We employed purposive sampling to select 27 Novice nurses from West China Hospital of Sichuan University for face-to-face semistructured interviews. Data collection for this study was conducted from November 2023 to January 2024. The interviews were fully audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were coded, categorized and summarized with the help of Nvivo 20.0 software based on the interpretation of phenomenological research methods. Thematic analysis was performed to deeply analyse and extract corresponding themes. The COREQ criteria were used to guide the reporting of this study. ResultsThe authentic psychological experiences of novice nurses participating in emergency rescue events mainly include six aspects: lack of rescue knowledge reserves and related abilities, psychological and emotional changes, psychological stress after the rescue, rational arrangement of manpower, team cooperation, and postevent reflection and learning. Their authentic psychological experiences directly affect whether novice nurses can effectively respond to emergency rescue events. ConclusionsThis study suggested enhancing novice nurses' knowledge, improving their resuscitation skills, and improving their psychological well-being during resuscitation events. It advocates for organized staffing, effective teamwork, and robust support systems to empower novice nurses and improve their overall capabilities in emergencies. These findings offer valuable insights for future research in this area.

Intermunicipal health consortiums as an institutional arrangement of cooperation and federative coordination for the promotion of health policies in municipalities

This paper analyzes the joint responsibility of federation entities for the promotion of health services, through structuring public policies that allow the reduction of disease risks, universal and equal access by citizens to health protection and recovery actions and services. Health services depend directly on the financial capacity of municipalities. At this point, the intermunicipal health consortia allows to the management carrying out results – efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness, aiming to deliver better quality services to people in the interested community. This work addressed doctrinal elements and positions through the dialectical interpretation method, with a deductive method approach. The aim is to show managers that there is the possibility of exponential gains in the provision of public services, with rational processes and expenses, and the implementation of projects considered unfeasible when carried out in isolation by the municipal entity. The consortium presents itself as an option to underfunding and a government tool for promoting structuring public policies in the health sector.

Partisanship, Cross-Party Coalitions, and Social Policymaking in Brazil

Abstract Brazil is among the few countries where income distribution has become fairer in recent decades. Its Gini coefficient fell significantly in the 2000s while the left-wing Workers’ Party government approved key equity-enhancing reforms in Congress. By analyzing hundreds of news pieces, legislative documents, and secondary sources, I show the strategies that incumbents from the left adopted to build and manage cross-party coalitions that allowed structural changes to materialize. This research is the first systematic effort to detail how three consequential redistributive policies in the areas of conditional cash-transfer programs, education, and minimum wages found their way through a fragmented legislature where the chief executive’s party was minoritarian. Findings add nuance to social policymaking and reveal that partisanship-based approaches to how inequality declined in Latin America require deeper complexification. In the Brazilian case, leftist presidents improved redistribution by investing in multiparty cooperative arrangements while ideology got diluted in the process.

Signing Globally, Implementing Locally: Protecting Endangered Wildlife and the Predicament of Germany’s Federalism

ABSTRACT Germany has signed numerous international treaties for the protection and conservation of endangered wildlife and has transposed these, as well as related EU directives and regulations, into national law over the years with due diligence. It has been traditionally considered one of Europe’s environmental leaders. Yet, despite its reputation, Germany often seems unwilling and/or unable to enforce environmental laws and regulations. Germany’s federalism has led to a patchwork of enforcement of environmental laws, via either centralised, decentralised, or cooperative enforcement regimes. We aim to address this seeming contradiction through the theoretical lens of street-level bureaucracy to understand how federalism expands and/or constrains discretion. Our study relies on a mixed-methods approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative analysis utilises about forty interviews of German street-level bureaucrats (SLBs), other government officials, politicians, and NGO representatives. We corroborate this through multivariate panel regressions on environmental crime outcomes using data regarding crimes recorded and solved at both the municipal (2016–2020) and state (2013–2021) level from the Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA). Our results indicate that decentralisation of enforcement authority down the municipal level has considerable drawbacks, while cooperative and centralised arrangements perform more favourably.

The Impact of Intergovernmental Cooperation and Local Fiscal Autonomy on Environmental Regional Governance: Evidence From China Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Previous research on regional environmental pollution acknowledge that cross-level government cooperation plays an important role in controlling regional environmental pollution. However, the balance between local fiscal autonomy and governance costs has received little attention. To fill this research gap, this paper argues a model of local fiscal autonomy moderating the efficiency of environmental governance, which provides a basis for studying the effect of local fiscal autonomy on intergovernmental cooperative environmental governance. We collected the data set of the China Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, using Tobit regression model to evaluate the effect of local fiscal autonomy on cooperative arrangements and the moderating effect. The results show that higher local fiscal autonomy will positively affect vertical intervention actions and improve the efficiency of environmental governance. In addition, we found that more special funding for environmental projects will weaken the performance of horizontal cooperation on regional environmental governance.

Young Chinese’s Modern Arranged Marriage and Mosaic Familialism in Shanghai

Abstract With rapid socio-economic development over the past four decades, a unique tapestry of Chinese society has unfolded into a mosaic of rapid modernization and resurgent patriarchal tradition. Within this complex temporality, parents still remain salient in young Chinese’ love and marital life. This study uses data from semi-structured interviews with recently married young people and their parents to investigate how young adults and their parents are involved in the marriage formation process. We found that in this joint process of intergenerational cooperative marriage arrangement, young people and their parents play different roles, as accommodating decision-makers and respectful advisers, respectively. They agreed that a modern marriage based on individual, romantic love was also a union between two families and welcomed their parents’ involvement. Moreover, they considered getting married and taking their parents’ opinions and preferences into account in their marriage decision as part of their filial piety towards their parents. We have also found that mothers played a salient and significant role in facilitating the transformation of the traditional and distant patriarchal intergenerational relationship into a warm and supportive family union. There are two sides to the mother’s role: the entrenchment of the traditional gender roles and the elevation of women’s status in the family.

“Measuring the health and fiscal outcomes of solid waste management operations by intergovernmental arrangements: The case of public consortia in Brazil”

This study estimates the health-related and public expenditure impacts of the solid waste services provided by public consortia in Brazilian Municipalities from the enactment of Public Consortia law (2005) to 2019. To conduct the analysis, we applied the econometric method of staggered difference-in-differences to publicly available datasets at the municipality level. The results show that the operation of solid waste services by public consortia had statistically significant effects in reducing hospitalizations caused by Schistosomiasis, Diarrhea/gastroenteritis (up to 5 years age) and other intestinal diseases. The results also indicate a positive impact on the reduction of environmental expenses in treated municipalities, supporting the idea that a Solid Waste Consortium can serve as a local coordinator and improve health and fiscal indicators simultaneously. The findings provide quantitative evidence that policymakers at the local and regional level can use to better understand the benefits of adhering to public consortia when preparing new investments and operation developments for this sector. This paper contributes to the literature of applied research in solid waste by shedding light on the underexplored theme of the intergovernmental cooperative arrangements, which can be instrumental in accelerating and enhancing the development of solid waste services.

What Drives Interlocal Cooperation in Economic Development? A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Interlocal Industrial Parks in China’s Yangtze River Delta

Recent studies suggest that influence of contextual conditions and cooperative arrangements on interlocal cooperation should be best understood as part of configurations. This study enriches this nascent perspective by developing a configurational theoretical framework and explores how contextual conditions (institutional proximity, geographic proximity, organizational proximity) and cooperative arrangements (goal interdependence, resource complementarity, collaborative structure) combine to influence interlocal cooperation in economic development. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis is used to analyze 34 interlocal industrial parks (IIPs) in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The results show two first-order equifinal configurations and six second-order configurations that lead to the success of IIP. The findings underscore that success conditions of interlocal cooperation in economic development work in configurations, not in isolation, and contribute meaningfully to debates pertaining to specific conditions.

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute: implications, negotiations, and mediations

ABSTRACT The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has created disputes between the Nile River's lower and upper riparian zones in North Africa. Ethiopia sees the GERD as a project to prosper, while Egypt considers that it will imperil the country’s economy. After the African Union (AU) failed to resolve the disputes over GERD, the matter reached to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) which, after discussions, stated that the matter should be resolved at the regional level. This paper examines the theoretical and conceptual aspects of transboundary river waters and why riparian states shy away from cooperative arrangements. The paper then discusses the history of water disputes in the Nile Basin region and analyses the history of water distribution and projects in North and eastern Africa. Finally, the paper analyses the role of other countries, the AU, and the UNSC in disputes over the GERD project.

"I Told Him That the French Army Being Auxiliary in This Continent, It Was Up to the American General to Give His Orders": The Paradoxes of French Military Operations in America, 1778–1783

Abstract: On 19 October 1781, at the surrender of Yorktown, the Comte de Rochambeau replied to the British general Charles O'Hara, who wanted to give his sword to Rochambeau rather than George Washington, that the French army was only auxiliary on this continent. This reply corresponded exactly to the mission defined at Versailles the previous year. But it is surprising: how can a great military power take orders from a smaller one? The answer lies in the evolution of the practical arrangements for Franco-American military cooperation between 1778 and 1781. France sent large naval and land forces across the Atlantic. But for success to be possible, the French and Americans had to be able to act together, and French sailors and soldiers had to be able to master combined operations.

Exploring short-wavelength birefringent crystals via triggering cooperative arrangement between different π-conjugated groups.

We herein reported our strategy to assemble planar π-conjugated [B(OH)3] and [C2O4]2-/[HC2O4]-/[C4O4]2- functional groups to explore short-wavelength birefringent crystals. Three compounds, K2C2O4·B(OH)3, Cs4(HC2O4)2(C2O4)·[B(OH)3]2 and K(C4O4)0.5·B(OH)3, which all exhibit a layered structure favorable for generating large optical anisotropy, were synthesized and characterized. The strategy of assembling π-conjugated [B(OH)3] and C-O functional modules shows the potential to explore promising UV birefringent materials.

Pertanggungjawaban Pelaku Usaha Pada Pembtalan Perjanjian Kerjasama Antara Klien Dengan Perusahaan Wedding Organizer

Occasionally, one of the parties involved in the client-wedding organizer company's cooperation agreement will decide to back out of the deal. Specifically, from Article 1446 to Article 1456, KUHPerdata acknowledges and regulates the agreement's termination. But you can't just terminate any old agreement; you have to follow the rules laid out in Article 1320 KUHPerdata.An organization in the service sector, the wedding organizer helps engaged couples or soon-to-be-weds, together with their families, with every step of the wedding preparation and celebration process. Our study's overarching goal is to learn who exactly is at fault when a client and wedding planning company decide to end their cooperation arrangement. This study employed the normative legal research approach, also known as normative juridical research. This research employs legal resources, such as KUHPerdata and Law Number 8 of 1999 Concerning Consumer Protection, to undertake qualitative analysis of the data. First and foremost, according to the research, the laws specified in Articles 1446–1456 of KUHPerdata and Articles 5 and 7 of Law Number 8 of 1999 Concerning Consumer Protection establish the basis for accountability. Second, the debtor is not liable for compensation under Article 1244 of KUHPerdata and Article 1245 of the Force Majeure clause of the contract, which absolves the debtor of such liability. In addition, the twenty percent client reimbursement policy is just that a policy of the company.

Effects of storms on fisheries and aquaculture: An Icelandic case study on climate change adaptation

ABSTRACT Climate change research on fisheries is often focused on changes in species abundance and distribution, yet the impacts of severe weather events are also important. Climate models indicate that storm frequency and intensity may increase in the North Atlantic; however, uncertainties remain and consequences in Iceland are not well studied. This research represents a first attempt to understand local to regional implications of storminess on Icelandic fisheries industries. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the analysis (1) provides regional future wind speed projections in Iceland and surroundings under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) 3–7.0 scenario, (2) documents current local experiences using exploratory interviews with various stakeholders in fisheries and aquaculture, and (3) explores research priorities for understanding climate-change adaptations in coastal communities. Projections show that whereas areas of the west, south, and east of Iceland may experience fewer storm days, the region north/northeast of Iceland features an increase in storm days. Potential adaptations include a flexible management system that does not punish fishers for lost time due to bad weather, cooperative market arrangements among sectors, and job security considerations for fishers and fish processing workers. Future projections are needed for other variables such as precipitation, and future socioeconomic studies should address the predictions and impacts of storminess.

Why has farming in Europe changed? A farmers’ perspective on the development since the 1960s

Farming in Europe has been the scene of several important socio-economic and environmental developments and crises throughout the last century. Therefore, an understanding of the historical driving forces of farm change helps identifying potentials for navigating future pathways of agricultural development. However, long-term driving forces have so far been studied, e.g. in anecdotal local case studies or in systematic literature reviews, which often lack context dependency. In this study, we bridged local and continental scales by conducting 123 oral history interviews (OHIs) with elderly farmers across 13 study sites in 10 European countries. We applied a driving forces framework to systematically analyse the OHIs. We find that the most prevalent driving forces were the introduction of new technologies, developments in agricultural markets that pushed farmers for farm size enlargement and technological optimisation, agricultural policies, but also cultural aspects such as cooperation and intergenerational arrangements. However, we find considerable heterogeneity in the specific influence of individual driving forces across the study sites, implying that generic assumptions about the dynamics and impacts of European agricultural change drivers hold limited explanatory power on the local scale. Our results suggest that site-specific factors and their historical development will need to be considered when addressing the future of agriculture in Europe in a scientific or policy context.

Analysis of teachers’ cooperative learning strategies and practices in physical education

ABSTRACT Teachers as implementers of the curriculum have a vital role in delivering (Casey et al., 2009) reflecting teaching approaches in physical education classes. Cooperative learning is a teaching approach that meets the curricular requirements in Germany as well as considers the increasing heterogeneity of students. However, there is limited research about strategies and practices, which teachers use to implement cooperative learning successfully in physical education. To bridge this gap, our study examines teachers’ perspectives on implementation strategies and application approaches of cooperative learning lessons. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 German physical education teachers based on the principle of contrasting. The interviews were conducted from October to November 2022 as problem-related interviews, guided by a theory-based semi-structured guideline. We used qualitative content analysis to analyse the interview data. Analysis was expanded to identify different types of practicing cooperative learning in physical education. The findings reveal that teachers address and implement forms of cooperative learning quite heterogeneously. Teachers’ implementation strategies were bottom-up, top-down or hybrid. Reactions to difficulties were avoidance, flexibility, implementing rules, training social skills or restructuring. In addition, five different types of cooperative learning practices were determined (‘the avoider’, ‘the quitter’, ‘the student-centred’, ‘the theory-led’ and ‘the flexible one’). While ‘the avoider’ and ‘the quitter’ type teachers stopped using cooperative learning, the other types used this teaching approach often in their physical education classes. ‘The flexible one’ used the hybrid implementation of cooperative learning and reported the lowest difficulties. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of teachers’ strategies and practices to depict how cooperative learning processes in physical education are implemented. Findings can be used to further develop concepts for cooperative learning in physical education. At the same time, this may help to better prepare teachers to realise cooperative learning arrangements and to deal successfully with corresponding challenges.

Design of a Collaborative Vehicle Formation Control Simulation Test System

The purpose of this research is to tackle one of the most difficult issues in the realm of self-driving cars, which is the testing of advanced self-driving application scenarios. Thus, this study proposes a simulation testing system based on hardware-in-the-loop simulation technology. This system can enable data exchange between hardware systems as well as replicate and evaluate the algorithmic operations of the equipment under laboratory conditions. The system can integrate scenario simulation software with MATLAB to evaluate algorithm performance. The vehicle formation control system is tailored for collaborative vehicle formation management scenarios and tested in the simulation test system. The findings display the functional integrity of the vehicle formation control system, the reliability of lane changing and the stability and safety of cruising. It additionally demonstrates that the simulation testing system has the ability to recreate cooperative vehicle arrangement management situations and assess their functionality and performance. In forthcoming research, comprehensive functional and performance assessments will be executed on various typical scenarios for advanced autonomous driving applications in order to authenticate the simulation test system’s applicability.