Institutional Dynamics Research Articles

Editorial: Fact-Checkers Around the World—Regional, Comparative, and Institutional Perspectives

This thematic issue explores the global fact-checking field, focusing on its organizations, practices, and institutional dynamics. Over the past decade, fact-checking has expanded to over 400 organizations, with approximately half operating in the Global South. Fact-checkers have built a solid institutional framework featuring annual conferences, regulatory bodies, and partnerships with big techs and public organizations. Even with this cohesion, the fact-checking movement remains deeply heterogeneous. Organizations range from small local outlets to global media giants, operating within varied media and political systems. These differences shape how fact-checkers define their mission and approach misinformation, and offer a valuable lens for journalism and political communication studies to analyze evolving media systems and digitalization effects worldwide. Given such diversity, our issue addresses the need for research to observe regional and comparative perspectives on fact-checking alongside studies of broader global trends. Recent scholarship has focused on how fact-checkers adapt to diverse environments, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and how the field is evolving. It also examines fact-checkers’ relationships with platform companies, policymakers, and transnational institutions combating misinformation. Contributions employing diverse methodologies, from case studies to large-scale content analyses, are included, with a particular emphasis on understanding organizational and contextual specificities in this crucial area of media and political communication.

Landscapes of state capitalism: Reconciling the vernacular, national development imaginaries, and green capital accumulation

This article theorizes ‘state capitalist landscapes’ as a unique spatial form shaped by state‐owned developers that reconcile economic goals with national development imperatives and symbolic national imaginaries. State capitalist landscapes, I argue, integrate economically productive spaces with natural spaces to symbolize imaginaries of the nation. Through an inductive case study methodology, this article surveys three industrial zones developed and/or under development by state owned developers: Singapore's Jurong, China's Xiong’an New Area, and Thailand's Wangchan Valley. In each of these cases, natural landscapes are integrated into new economic zones in order to construct specific symbolic and/or political imaginaries of the nation: Singapore's ‘garden city’, China's ‘ecological civilization’, and in Thailand the ‘sufficiency economy’. By bringing together work on ‘infrastructural landscapes’ and ‘state capitalism’ this paper provides a concrete material perspective to contemporary discussions of state capitalism, while also bringing more grounded, political and institutional perspectives to landscape infrastructure studies, which has tended to set aside discussions of institutional forms or national political dynamics in a focus on form and materiality of infrastructure landscapes worldwide.

Reindustrialization, Innovative Sustainable Economic Development, and Societal Values: A Cluster Analysis Approach

Our paper explores the challenges of industrial development by examining two contrasting theoretical frameworks: (i) the mainstream economic approach which emphasizes capital accumulation, innovation, and profit maximization within a globalized context, and (ii) the classical institutional economics perspective, rooted in the so-called “Veblen Dichotomy”. The latter contrasts monetary institutions focused on short-term profits with those centered on organizational, social, environmental, and business values that foster long-term technological progress. We analyze reindustrialization processes and assess the hypothesis that the conflict between these divergent institutions and social values plays a critical role in creating an institutional environment conducive to innovation and economic development. Our research highlights how technological advancements contribute to the physical and geographical fragmentation of industrial activities, thereby driving the spatial restructuring of economies. Furthermore, this paper addresses the growing prominence of intangible production, noting how deindustrialization, driven by shifts toward service-based economies, is closely related to the broader processes of globalization. The paper employs cluster analysis to explore the links between reindustrialization, institutional dynamics, and societal values across four groups (clusters) of countries. Our results reveal differences and similarities between these groups of countries and offer policy implications and suggestions for improvements. These results might be of special interest for relevant stakeholders and policymakers, as well as for researchers focused on innovative industrial and economic development.

Mapping the composite institutional dynamics risks and spatial spillover effects on environmental sustainability in 28 Asian economies

This study emphasizes the impact of economic, financial, and political institutions on environmental sustainability across 28 Asian countries from 1995 to 2022. Using a spatial Durbin model, we analyzed the direct effects of these institutional factors within each country as well as their spatial spillover effects on neighboring nations. Our findings demonstrate the interconnectedness of environmental risks and the broader regional implications. This highlights the critical need for collaborative policy initiatives at the regional level to promote environmental sustainability. The results provide important insights for policymakers and international organizations seeking to address environmental sustainability in an increasingly globalized context. By emphasizing the role of institutions and spatial interdependencies, this research offers a nuanced understanding of the drivers of emissions in Asia and the potential for coordinated action to mitigate climate change.

Free VS. Paid Software in Strutural Modeling: Results from Amos and R Studio Lavaan in Organizational Climate Analysis

Objective: The objective of this research was to compare the results of structural equation models with latent variables (SEM) using the covariance-based maximum likelihood method, employing two different software applications for this purpose (Amos and R Studio Lavaan). Theoretical Framework: This article presents the main concepts and theories underlying this research, addressing the use of SEM in organizational climate analysis and its importance in the educational context to evaluate key constructs in institutional dynamics. Method: The constructs were derived from an organizational climate evaluation of a higher education institution in Mexico. The “Organizational Climate Inventory” was applied, selecting five subscales: Satisfaction, Pride and Belonging, Clarity of Goals and Objectives, Collaborative Work, and Efficiency and Effectiveness. Administrative, managerial, academic, and service staff were invited to participate, achieving a sample of n = 801. Results and Discussion: The results from Amos vs. R Studio Lavaan confirmed that there were no significant differences between the SEMs regarding paths, standardized regression coefficients, R², goodness-of-fit indices, and correlation coefficients. Efficiency and Effectiveness (83.0%) was explained by the influence of Clarity of Goals and Objectives (0.11), Satisfaction (0.26), Collaborative Work (0.31), and Pride and Belonging (0.37) based on standardized regression coefficients. Collaborative Work (52.0%) was explained by the influence of Clarity of Goals and Objectives (0.49) and Pride and Belonging (0.29). The instrument demonstrated reliability levels above 0.70, as well as convergent validity greater than 0.50 and discriminant validity above 0.70 across all subscales. Research Implications: Theoretical and practical implications of this study highlight the feasibility of using free software for SEM analysis, offering institutions an efficient and accessible alternative. Originality/Value: This Study Contributes to the Literature by Validating the Use of Free Software as An Effective and Accurate Tool for Structural Analysis in Educational Contexts Without Additional Costs.

Identifying Positive Practices to Institutionalize Social Innovation in the Malawian Health System.

Governments worldwide are increasingly interested in scaling up effective public health innovations, but it is not always easy to institutionalize innovations, arising outside the public health system, as a part of national delivery. Evidence on how country governments can practically achieve this is limited. This article describes the institutionalization of the Chipatala Cha Pa Foni (CCPF, Health Center by Phone) social innovation into the Malawian public health, and identifies positive institutional practices that local actors drew on to achieve this. A positive-oriented interdisciplinary multi-method qualitative case study design was adopted. Data were collected from key informant interviews, observations, and documents over 18 months. A composite social innovation framework, informed by institutional theory and positive organizational scholarship, guided the thematic content analysis. Four clusters of positive institutional practices aided the institutionalization of the innovation: building high-quality relationships; creating opportunities for experiential interaction; cultivating hope; and logic attunement and awareness. We describe how these four practices operated together as a process of 'everyday creativity' to achieve institutionalization. We illustrate the importance of high-quality relationships, marked by respect, mutuality, and appreciation, as the foundation upon which hope can be built and the creativity needed for institutionalization to flourish. National ownership and sustainability of innovations are enhanced when implementation and institutionalization approaches are attuned to the logics inherent in national identity. In this article, we highlight the importance of institutional and interpersonal dynamics in the institutionalization of social innovation in health systems.

Dramatic Change in the Gender Profile of Irish University Presidents: Possible Explanations?

The gender profile of Irish university Presidents changed dramatically between 2020-2023. Since the 16th century, no woman had ever headed up an Irish public university: seven of the 12 are headed by women (58%), compared with roughly a quarter in the EU. Drawing on secondary data, the chapter explores four analytically distinct explanatory hypotheses: ‘glass cliff’; state interventions; the availability of qualified and interested candidates; and the characteristics and dynamics of specific institutions. There is considerable support for the glass cliff hypothesis with 100% of the nine processes run prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) appointing men, while seven of the nine (78%) run post COVID-19 appointed women. State initiatives, and the availability of qualified interested candidates created a supportive context. Indicators in individual HEIs such as a tradition of courses in women’s studies, of gender equality champions, appointments of women at professorial and Vice-Presidential level were also important. Although change in the gender profile of Irish universities is to be welcomed, it does not indicate that gender inequality no longer exists.

Screening for Asylum at Airports: The Implementation of the ‘Manifestly Unfounded’ Filter in France and Germany, 1980–2005

ABSTRACTThis historical paper examines pre‐screening procedures for asylum‐seekers at Western European international airports during the period from the 1980s to the 2000s, with a particular focus on France and Germany as case studies. It highlights the tension between attempts to standardise the application of the ‘manifest unfoundedness’ criterion for asylum claims at the border through intergovernmental harmonisation efforts and the significant variations observed in how this criterion was implemented both between and within Member States of the European Community and later the European Union. By exploring these discrepancies, the paper emphasises the context‐dependent nature of enforcing asylum rules and the influence of local dynamics on the effectiveness of these norms. It begins by providing background on the refugee landscape in the 1980s and the prevalent desire among Western European policy‐makers to reduce the number of asylum‐seekers at the borders. The paper then discusses efforts to harmonise procedures and the adoption of a common, and soon distorted, yardstick pertaining to the ‘manifest unfoundedness’ of asylum claims. Furthermore, the article examines disparities in implementation across countries and within them, shedding light on differences in norms, procedures and institutional dynamics that led to divergent approaches at the local level.

Between coercion, conditionality and abandonment: A descriptive analysis of English mental health spending and provision under austerity

While critical scholarship has demonstrated the harmful effects of austerity on public mental health, relatively little attention has been paid to austerity’s impacts on health services themselves. In response, this paper develops a descriptive analysis of mental health spending and provision in England during the austerity period, from 2009–10 to 2019–20. It examines spending patterns at the national and local level, highlighting a major growth in funding that has been overlooked by prior studies. Then it interrogates national trends in mental health provisioning, utilisation and treatment. The paper argues that austerity has divergent impacts on localities which are best understood as multiple localised austerities. Meanwhile, the overall mental health service landscape under austerity is characterised by three trends, all of which have the potential to harm public health. Inpatient services are utilising more coercion; community services are increasingly conditionalised; and a significant population – too ill for work but judged too healthy for treatment – has been abandoned by services. For critical scholars and practitioners of public health, these findings highlight the complexity of the political, economic and institutional dynamics which distribute spending cuts and therefore mediate austerity’s effects on health.

Reconfiguring Data Relations: Institutional Dynamics around Data in Local Governance

Data infrastructures are major sites through which city government operates and therefore of special interest to critical scholars of technology. Yet ways that these infrastructures are embedded into the institutional fabric of government make them difficult to navigate and often resistant to abstract critique and generalized analysis. We present an ethnographic study of a design effort launched by a team inside a city government to build and deploy a tool with a specific focus on equity and justice. By integrating data from multiple sources and bringing it together in a spatial framework, the team sought to bring neighborhood voices, often marginalized in planning efforts, into the center of the conversation. Tracing the negotiations over data's value in this process, we unveil various tensions involved in this effort, within and between different groups, and how the group of city employees navigated these tensions, mainly by adjusting the relations of the groups around data -- which we call ''data relations.'' Narratives in organizational communications were key in both revealing and mobilizing the data relations constituting the institutional data infrastructure. With the empirical findings, we argue that tracing the data relations can be an effective way for the CSCW community to understand the institutional data politics and make interventions in the systems in power.

Consequences of Technology Path-Dependence and Lock-In for Latecomers in Economic Development

Economic development is generally understood to reflect an expansion of technological capability. Technological change is path dependent. Technology systems lock in on standards. These factors impose constraints on latecoming developing countries, where agents have to master processes that are compatible with established standards in order to integrate into a global technology system. Their integration, furthermore, tends to happen under a specific socio-economic umbrella, to wit the business, economic, and political power structures of the global north. The constraints on latecomers that path dependence and lock-in suggest in this context impose potential obstacles for an instrumental use of the potential that economic development offers for general human development. An integration into global production structures can result in a perpetuation of disadvantaged positions unless specific, for instance geopolitical, factors counter technological and institutional dynamics. This analysis of economic development processes complements results formulated under dependency theory and financialization frameworks.

Explicating collegiality and change management in neoliberalism during the dynamics of higher education institutions: : A Systematic Literature Review using PRISMA Checklist

Background This paper discusses the lack of references that comprehensively describe the changes in universities owing to the ideology of neoliberalism. This research also discusses how a university maintains its function and identity when the great wave of neoliberalism massively erodes collegiality as the original philosophy of the university through a case study of the neoliberalism ideology on higher education. This study also provides a comprehensive framework for higher education management and governance changes. Methods We selected all retrieved sources based on the keywords and analyzed all the documents we obtained. This study obtained data from Scopus retrieved on October 27, 2023, using the following keywords: (TITLE-ABS-KEY ("collegiality") OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ("change management") OR TITLE-ABS-KEY ("neolibelism")) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("higher education"). This study utilized bibliometric analysis to ensure a structured review of the literature on collegiality, change management, and neoliberalism in higher education. Results The findings show that organizational management, leadership, education, technology, curriculum, innovation, organizational change, decision-making, and human beings are significant trajectories of neoliberalism in higher education. Conclusions This study offers other constructs for accelerating leadership success in higher education. This relates to how change leadership can navigate changes resulting from neoliberal ideology.

Blending Borders and Sparking Change

Between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, molecular simulations emerged as a transformative force within materials science. Sidney Yip’s early contributions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alongside his involvement in the 1985 International School of Physics “Enrico Fermi” in Varenna, Italy, catalyzed the convergence of traditional methods with computational techniques and helped drive a redefinition of the discipline’s epistemic and methodological boundaries. This article argues that Yip’s biography and professional trajectory as a Chinese-born engineer and scientist in the United States during the Cold War facilitated the acceptance and advancement of molecular simulations within materials research. His work also attracted the interest of leaders from established fields, such as condensed matter physics and chemical physics, to explore the potential applications of these techniques in materials science. In examining his journey, this study illuminates the dual processes of cultural assimilation and hybridity, and highlights Yip’s boundary work that promoted the integration of diverse epistemic traditions and heterogeneous communities. The analysis traces the epistemological transformations, methodological shifts, and the institutional and disciplinary dynamics that fostered the incorporation of molecular simulations into materials science. This examination foregrounds the co-construction of scientific knowledge and technological practice through Yip’s boundary work, and offers an assessment of his contributions within the broader sociotechnical networks that shaped the field. Recognizing the paucity of existing historiography on the subject, this article aims to establish a framework based on primary sources that can serve as a foundation for future scholarly inquiry.

Multilevel Environmental Governance in Indonesia: Analysis of Implementation Pathways and Institutional Dynamics

This study examines Indonesia's environmental governance framework, focusing on the complex interplay between global environmental imperatives and local implementation challenges. Through a qualitative analytical approach utilizing comprehensive secondary data, the research investigates how Indonesia navigates environmental governance while balancing economic development priorities. The study analyzes the integration of traditional ecological knowledge with modern environmental management approaches and examines the effectiveness of adaptive governance mechanisms in addressing diverse environmental challenges. The findings reveal that Indonesia's multilevel governance system, while facing coordination challenges, demonstrates significant potential in developing comprehensive environmental frameworks. The research highlights the critical role of institutional capacity building and stakeholder engagement in environmental governance, particularly in balancing economic development with environmental protection. The study also identifies key challenges in implementing environmental policies across Indonesia's diverse archipelagic territory, including intergovernmental coordination issues and resource allocation barriers. Furthermore, the research emphasizes the importance of context-specific approaches in environmental governance, particularly in integrating traditional knowledge systems with modern environmental management practices. This study contributes to the broader understanding of environmental governance in developing nations and provides valuable insights for policymakers seeking to enhance environmental governance effectiveness while maintaining sustainable development objectives.

Prize court politics and regional ordering in the Caribbean

Abstract This article analyzes the practices and politics of Caribbean prize courts at the turn of the nineteenth century, in order to better understand the dynamics of these peculiar legal institutions on the ground in one of the most volatile inter-imperial maritime spaces of the period. The focus is on the daily operation of the courts, the relationship between different regional courts (within and between empires), and, importantly, on their role within wider Caribbean networks. The article asks how knowledge about these courts was shared within the trans- imperial networks of the region. Court shopping was a common practice and claimants would often go out of their way to take captures or cases to specific courts, either within a single empire or even in a different imperial jurisdiction, but how did potential claimants come to be so familiar with the characteristics of individual administrations and magistrates? And how did they disseminate this information? The story of Caribbean prize courts is the story of order-making at different, sometimes clashing, levels. While the legal regime around prizes can be seen as an ordering mechanism for interactions between empires, the Caribbean saw its own order-building project driven less by decision-­makers in faraway metropoles and more by individual actors within the region, equally likely to exploit, support, or circumvent the legal mechanisms set up by officials. These regional groups were especially likely to act against the prize regime when it posed a challenge to the sanctity of their private property, be it goods or enslaved.

Responsible innovation across societal sectors: a practice perspective on Quadruple Helix collaboration

ABSTRACT To address societal challenges, research and innovation approaches, involving a wide range of actors, are increasingly promoted by policy communities. This paper explores the practice of Quadruple Helix collaborations for responsible innovation and how these implement the theoretical ambition of including actors from different societal sectors in innovation, including actors from the fields of arts, media and civil society, which is conceptualized as the Fourth Helix in this concept. Referring to cross-sector collaboration literature and based on an empirical investigation, we explore which actors, representing the Fourth Helix, actually engage in innovation collaborations, how this engagement plays out in practice, and the institutional and systemic dynamics involved in output and value creation. We rely on data from three Social Labs in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands, which constitute qualitative, change-oriented research processes, where we researched and engaged with actors from cases constituting- or aiming for a Quadruple Helix collaboration. This was accompanied by a desktop study including qualitative interviews of 51 further cases. We find that the actual engagement of actors from civil society is fragile and that forces beyond Quadruple Helix cases impact these quite firmly in some cases.

Perspectives on Medical School Admission for Black Students Among Premedical Advisers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

There remains a lack of representation of Black physicians in the physician workforce despite decades of national efforts to increase diversity. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) contribute to increasing representation in the workforce in the US. There is limited literature exploring the experiences of HBCU premedical students navigating the journey to medical school. To examine barriers to and facilitators of medical school matriculation among Black students by exploring the perspectives of premedical student advisers at HBCUs. In this qualitative study, HBCU advisers participated in a focus group in October 2019 or in semistructured interviews from January 2020 to March 2021. Using purposive sampling, premedical student advisers were recruited from different educational backgrounds and geographic locations and conducted 1-on-1 interviews. Data analysis was performed from March 2021 to March 2022. The main outcome was the experiences of HBCU premedical students navigating to medical school from the perspective of premedical advisers. An inductive approach to generate codes from the interviews and the focus groups was applied by reviewing transcripts and noting concepts and themes associated with advising strategies and student experiences. Among the 26 participants, 18 (69.2%) were female, 13 (50.0%) had a doctorate degree, and 8 (30.8%) had more than 10 years of experience as advisers. Participants described 3 major themes: (1) the complex institutional relationship dynamics between undergraduate HBCUs and medical schools, (2) concerns about preferential treatment for students from predominantly white undergraduate schools when accessing clinical shadowing opportunities, and (3) the "it takes a village mindset" emphasizing family and peer involvement. In this qualitative study, barriers to medical school matriculation included concerns for the preferential treatment of students from predominantly white institutions when engaging with medical schools and a lack of access to clinical opportunities for HBCU students. The findings suggest that medical schools should continue to build collaborative partnerships with HBCUs to ensure equitable access to opportunities that prepare students for medical school.

Assessing the Role of Economic, Financial, and Institutional Dynamics on CO2 Emissions: Comparative Analysis of OECD and Western Balkan Regions

Assessing the Role of Economic, Financial, and Institutional Dynamics on CO2 Emissions: Comparative Analysis of OECD and Western Balkan Regions

Professionalism lapses in health professions training: Navigating the 'Yellow Card' moments for transformative learning.

Health professions training programmes face increasing reports of professionalism lapses, which can delay, or end, trainee progression. How programmes respond to professionalism lapses to facilitate professional identity development has not been clarified. The objective of this study is to identify factors that facilitate and impair transformations around professionalism lapses in health professions training programmes. We conducted a qualitative study interviewing 5 faculty and 20 trainees with firsthand or secondhand experience with professionalism lapses from a range of health professions training programmes at McMaster University. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we coded verbatim transcripts informed by the lenses of social and transformative learning theories. We constructed themes through iterative and comparative analysis, seeking meaningful variation across professions and triangulating faculty and trainee perspectives. Four themes were constructed. First, lapses are in the eye of the beholder with personal definitions intersecting with institutional and situation norms. Difficulties exist in recognising and convincing trainees to respond to lapses that are perceived to be minor or subject to interpretation. Second, responses to professionalism lapses occurred within power hierarchies, which impacted how trainees reacted to the remediation process, risked superficial trainee responses to concerns and led to concerns around inequitable treatment in how standards were applied. Third, fostering transformation involves building trainee confidence, agency, trust and engagement. Focused support and advocacy for trainees can empower and promote agency in tackling disorienting lapses. Fourth, perspective shifts involve deep engagement over time, including but not limited to self-reflection, structured discussion and seeking support. Identifying and addressing professionalism lapses is complex and requires nuanced and contextual exploration of personal, institutional and situational dynamics at play. By fostering environments that promote genuine reflection and dialogue and focus on building trainee confidence, agency, trust and engagement, health professions training programmes can better support trainees in navigating these complex situations and contribute to the broader goal of socialising to a professional culture and practice.

Art, Ideology and Scientific Knowledge: Louis Althusser’s Philosophical Approach to the Film Analysis: The Battle of Algiers 1966

Objectives: This study discusses the historical accuracy of the film and its portrayal of the battle of Algiers far away from the European and western egocentralism, evaluating the scenes and images and their non-leanear narrative structure and effectiveness in capturing different ideological perspectives when compared to documentary footage and factual depictions, in order to create a sense of objectivity and realism. Methods: Philosophical analysis is used through constructing and deconstructing concepts of the film. Louis Althusser's theory of ideology is applied in this research paper to better comprehend how ideology affects the dynamics of power and social institutions. Additionally, the recorded records from the archives of the liberation of Algeria are utilised. Results: Althusser’s notion of social formation, as a construction, is presented as a construction emerging from roles and central positions. This moving away from the egocentric vision , with no regulating concept, no starting seed, no united whole contradicted to the use of ideology as seeking for completion and wholeness. In brief, despite attempts to utilize what they claim to be scientific knowledge, the endeavor to harness these possibilities led to new technological and scientific analysis. However, its utilization within the framework of state apparatus ideology and social formation bifurcated the film into two levels: film analysis and post-film analysis. Conclusions: linking science to art has become established by means of linking both reality and philosophical fiction. So the distinction between the concepts of science and meta- science, art and meta- art, ideology and meta-ideology became necessary.