Governance Approach Research Articles

Natural resources, digital financial inclusion, and good governance nexus with sustainable development: Fuzzy optimization to econometric modeling

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the complex interplay between natural resources, digital financial inclusion, good governance, and sustainable development outcomes, employing a hybrid methodological approach which combines fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), necessary condition analysis (NCA), and econometric modeling. Drawing on data from 18 countries spanning 2013–2019, the study unravels the impact of these factors on sustainable development (SD) and explores the moderating role of governance. The findings reveal positive effects of digital financial inclusion, natural resources, and good governance on SD, with governance quality enhancing the relationship between digital financial inclusion and development outcomes. However, governance does not significantly moderate the link between natural resources and sustainability, which illustrates the need for tailored governance approaches in resource‐dependent contexts. Theoretical implications highlight the relevance of institutional theory in understanding the dynamic nature of development processes, while practical implications offer actionable insights to foster holistic and resilient pathways to sustainable development. Thus, the study contributes to advancing our understanding of the intricate relationships shaping SD outcomes and informs evidence‐based policy interventions in this critical domain.

The varying effects of benefit types on community members' views of whether they gain from wildlife

AbstractCommunity‐based conservation (CBC) is a popular governance approach that asks rural populations to sustainably manage local wildlife resources. CBC programs often rely on the distribution of wildlife benefits to communities to foster tolerance of wildlife, with the idea that those benefits can offset costs arising from human‐wildlife conflict. A survey of residents in four Namibian CBC areas found that different benefit types varied significantly in their relationship with whether respondents felt that wildlife improved their lives. Some higher monetary value benefits evidenced a negative and/or non‐significant relationship with respondents' perceptions, whereas meat‐based benefits were associated with a greater likelihood of residents feeling that they benefited from wildlife. These findings suggest that the impact of different benefit types in CBC programs may depend on a host of cultural/social, psychological, and community‐specific factors. From a practical standpoint, the form of direct monetary benefits may matter, and cultural considerations likely play an important role in determining which and when specific benefits are more effective.

Introduction to the special issue: Urban governance and policy

At a time when urbanization has become a topic of public concern, it is highly important to consider the impact of governance approaches on our understanding of the urban and urban policies. Urban areas are vibrant, multifaced, and interrelated systems that require nuanced governance and thoughtful policy-making to thrive. Effective urban governance and policy are essential for tackling issues like infrastructure development, affordable housing, environmental sustainability, and social equity. This special issue delves into the complexities of urban governance and policy, exploring the strategies, frameworks, and innovations that can help cities manage growth and improve the quality of life for their inhabitants. We organized this special issue around the theme of urban governance to highlight the critical importance of these topics for ongoing progress in urban studies.

Polycentric governance, epistocracy and the limits of policing knowledge in preparing for the climate crisis

ABSTRACT The last two decades have seen an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, placing complex demands on police and emergency services in the UK. Despite the growing recognition of the cascading and multidimensional threats, there is limited understanding of how policing and local governance actors are preparing for the climate crisis. In this paper, we argue that polycentric governance approaches, such as the Local Resilience Forums (LRFs), provide an essential focal point for emergency planning and disaster response activity that is rooted in localised contexts. However, while the LRFs are designed to benefit from the inclusion of a broad range of actors, dominant mentalities, knowledge hierarchies and powerful actors may limit their epistemic potential. We propose that a pathway towards a resilient and adaptive policing agenda for the Anthropocene necessitates acknowledging the limits of policing knowledge, expertise and traditional command-and-control mentalities. We draw on the notion of epistocracy to propose a policy and research agenda for police and partner agencies to harness the epistemic potential of LRFs. By adopting approaches to leverage pluralised forms of knowledge and identifying strategies for co-opting community-based actors in emergency planning and response activities, police and partner agencies can strengthen local capacity-building and better promote local resilience and adaptation efforts.

Peran Diaspora Armenia dalam Konflik Nagorno Karabakh Tahun 2020-2022

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from 2020 to 2022 highlights the significant role of the Armenian diaspora in supporting Armenia across various dimensions. The research aims to determine the extent to which the Armenian diaspora's support influences the Armenian government's capacity to handle the conflict. The study utilizes theories of public diplomacy and diaspora engagement, employing a mixed-methods approach that includes qualitative data from secondary data processing such as journals and written results containing data about Armenian Diaspora, official website of the Armenian government, and quantitative data from financial contributions and diplomatic records. Findings indicate that the Armenian diaspora's political lobbying and advocacy efforts have secured significant diplomatic support, while economically providing substantial remittances, investments, and humanitarian aid. Socially, the diaspora has shaped international public opinion through campaigns and cultural activities, and intellectually, it has offered strategic insights enhancing the government's approach to the conflict. Additionally, the mobilization of human resources by the diaspora has provided direct assistance in Armenia. This research offers a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics between the Armenian diaspora and the Armenian government, demonstrating the substantial impact of multidimensional diaspora support on the government's capacity to manage the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Toward better pandemic governance and preparedness: South Korea’s whole-of-nation approach to COVID-19

BackgroundThe profound impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to an increased demand for sustainable pandemic governance practices. This study explored emerging hybrid governance practices that provide robust evidence on how to address the complex challenges of pandemics effectively. South Korea, which was severely affected by COVID-19, has implemented a novel governance approach using a whole-of-nation (WoN) model. This hybrid pandemic governance approach, which integrates both whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches, has enabled synergistic and cohesive multi-sectoral coordination among all stakeholders (public authorities, private enterprises, and civil society) to address multifaceted challenges collectively and strengthen their resilience capacity. This study investigated South Korea’s WoN practices and their embedded context and identified key governance enablers facilitating this approach.MethodsThis study employed a case study design based on an extensive analysis of policy and program documents, drawing on South Korea’s publicly available data from January 1, 2020 to March 30, 2023. It assessed six system-level collaborative pandemic governance practices and key enablers, all of which were intended to fortify the country’s pandemic response.ResultsThe primary areas of the country’s WoN governance practices for COVID-19 control were (i) whole-of-government policy-making and response, (ii) COVID-19 testing system, (iii) digital surveillance of COVID-19, (iv) COVID-19 triage and treatment system, (v) domestic vaccine production, and (vi) community engagement. Key governance enablers for implementing the WoN model were establishing a legal foundation, ensuring decisive and strong governance and leadership, increasing public investment, applying a whole-of-health approach with augmented investment in public health, enhancing crisis communication, and mobilizing local leaders and civil society organizations in the national public health response.ConclusionsIn exploring innovative approaches to pandemic governance for increased efficacy, responsiveness, and impact, the WoN approach emerged as highly relevant. This example of emerging practice allows policy-makers to re-evaluate their governance strategies and initiatives to improve multi-agency partnerships across the country in their pandemic-preparedness planning.

Mapping actor networks in global multi-stakeholder initiatives for food system transformation

There is growing recognition that global food system transformation requires a fundamental shift in norms, perspectives and structural inclusion and exclusion of different actors in decision-making spaces. As multistakeholder governance approaches become increasingly common, significant concerns have been raised about their ability to deliver such change. Such concerns are based on case study findings repeatedly highlighting their susceptibility to corporate capture. This study goes beyond individual case studies, examining global multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) whose stated aim is to drive a healthier and more sustainable food system. It identified and categorised actors within these MSIs, drawing on social network analysis to provide insights into actor centrality, power structures, and how this might impact MSIs’ potential to drive transformative change. Thirty global MSIs were included in our sample, including a total of 813 actors. Most actors were based in high-income countries (HIC) (n = 548, 67%). The private sector (n = 365, 45%) was the most represented actor category, comprising transnational corporations (TNCs) (n = 127) and numerous others representing their interests. NGOs, affected communities and low- and middle-income country actors remain underrepresented. The central involvement of TNCs which rely on the production and sale of unhealthy and unsustainable commodities represents a clear conflict of interest to the stated objectives of the MSIs. These findings lend weight to concerns that MSIs may reflect rather than challenge existing power structures, thus serving to maintain the status quo. This indicates a need to critically examine the use of multistakeholder governance approaches and their ability to drive global food system transformation.

Shared challenges, divergent practices. The impact of institutional frameworks on area-based initiatives in Barcelona and Paris

ABSTRACT In recent decades, the persisting inequalities in European cities have spurred the implementation of area-based initiatives (ABI) in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This paper investigates how the interplay between diverse institutional frameworks and housing ownership regimes influences the design and execution of ABI policies in France and Spain. Focusing on the specific cases of Pla de Barris in Barcelona and Contrat de Ville in Paris, the study elucidates the strengths and limitations of different urban renewal strategies, emphasizing the imperative of a multi-level governance approach for effective ABIs.

Corporate Political Activity in Areas of Limited Statehood – A Governance Approach

Corporate Political Activity in Areas of Limited Statehood – A Governance Approach

Soft power in complicated and complex education systems: Gender, education and global governance in organisational responses to SDG 4

This article examines how the distinction between complicated and complex education systems contributes to our understanding of global governance and how “soft power” concerned with gender is used in international development organisations’ responses to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, the global goal for education. Four global governance approaches which shape these organisations are distinguished: partnership building, gender mainstreaming, gender activism and contestation by global feminist movements. These strands of soft power have implications for how meanings of gender, education, power and accountability are interpreted. The work of three organisations – the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the Gender at the Centre Initiative (GCI) and the Malala Fund – are reviewed to exemplify these global governance approaches. The analysis draws on a close reading of the organisations’ published documents to build a history of how the gender concerns of SDG 4 came to be interpreted, negotiated, contested or ignored. The activities of the three organisations show considerable interplay between concepts of complicated and complex education systems. The discussion raises questions regarding what kind of work soft power in gender and education does in a context of huge and growing global inequalities and insecurities. In addition, the question is posed why there is still no institutional base to articulate a global feminist politics which confronts and seeks to dismantle unjust structures of power.

The Counter-Issues of Tanah Datar Government Regarding the Coverage News of Terrorism

Tanah Datar, known for its rich Minangkabau cultural heritage and dedication to the philosophy of Kitabullah, is facing a disturbing trend. Despite its deep-rooted religious values, Densus88 has reported that the city has the second-highest number of NII terrorist personnel in West Sumatra. This revelation exposes a stark contrast between Tanah Datar's cultural identity and terrorism reports. The government must act to prevent further misconceptions. This research aimed to evaluate the distribution and focus of content related to terrorism on internal and external media sources and the government's approach to countering these issues. The study employed content analysis to examine the news by the Tanah Datar Regency government. This study applied a content analysis approach by Kripendorff, which involved three stages: crawling, coding, and abstracting. In the first phase of analysis, the study found 50 units of data from internal sources and 229 from external sources. The research findings indicated that news related to terrorism in Tanah Datar is only found in external media sources. The top three counter-issues pursued by the government include government branding with 158 posts (69%), and tourism impressions with 16 posts (7%). and health literacy with 11 posts (4.8%). The government has adopted an unconventional approach to address terrorism issues. Rather than reporting such issues on official channels, they opt to utilize media partners, offering an alternative strategy to tackle terrorism.

E-Governance and Social Media in Terms of Governance Processes

The main purpose of this study is to reveal that the governance process opens the doors of paradigm change in terms of overcoming the limitations of traditional bureaucracy in citizen participation in local administrative processes through e-governance and social media platforms developed on the basis of information and communication technologies. Habermas' theory of "communicative action" provides us with useful conceptual tools to explain these processes. In this study, the governance process is explained by making a literature review with the content analysis method. The phenomenon of governance is explained as the ground of realization of communicative action and cooperation in the intersection of governance approaches, electronic governance and social media.

Cultural approaches in state border governance of the Republic of Indonesia–Democratic Republic of Timor Leste in Napan village

Cultural approaches in state border governance of the Republic of Indonesia–Democratic Republic of Timor Leste in Napan village

The soft channels of policy diffusion: Insights from local climate change adaptation policy

AbstractDiffusion has become both an important concept for studying policy spread and a popular governance approach, particularly where direct coercion is unavailable or undesirable. However, the prevailing mechanism‐centered concept is difficult to measure and poorly captures the governance potential of policy diffusion. To address these issues, this article presents a new channel‐centered framework that distinguishes between six soft policy diffusion channels: autonomous, collaborative, exemplary, persuasive, organized, and funded diffusion. The framework is probed by studying local climate change adaptation policy using original survey data collected from the administrations of 190 municipalities located in the central German state of Hessen. The regression results indicate that the local institutionalization of adaptation in Hessen is associated with several interventions by higher levels of government, including the provision of a policy model, a municipal climate network, and grant programs. However, the density of concrete adaptation measures is associated with noninstitutionalized exchanges between municipalities. External grants are also found to be more effective in institutionalizing adaptation in larger municipalities. These results demonstrate the usefulness of the framework for distinguishing and comparing different diffusion channels and suggest that different types of interventions may be required to effectively support adaptation policy development at the local level.

An Analysis of The Role of Law In The Formation of Social Identity In Urban Communities

Regionally-Owned Enterprises (BUMD) have the goal of managing strategic sectors for the regions, supervising, and ensuring the benefits of resource management in order to achieve optimal community welfare. PT. PITS is engaged in the provision of drinking water, but in reality it has not yet achieved its goals. The post-positivist approach is used so that this research can combine theory with phenomena found in the field. The results of this study show that there are problems in the dimensions of shared values, styles, and skills. These problems are expected to be solved by using a collaborative governance approach. PT. PITS must be problem-driven first, when the problem has been solved, PT. PITS must also be opportunity-driven. With the involvement of non-state actors , it is hoped that it can help the performance of PT. PITS in achieving its goals.

Recentralization, reconfiguration, and re-marketization in China’s city-region-building: Multi-relational rescaling in Jiangbei state-level new area

This paper unravels the new multi-relational rescaling of state-level new areas (SNAs) in China’s up-to-date city-region-building. These nationwide SNAs have created an unimpeded governance pathway among multi-level governments and multi-scalar localities. As proofed by our empirical study on the establishment history of Jiangbei SNA, this new pathway has consolidated the re-centralization, reconfiguration, and re-marketization tools that can be adopted as comprehensive governance approaches by the state to resolve the long-term dilemma in city-regional governance since the incremental development in the 1990s characterized by frequent failure on administrative intervention, ungrounded regional strategies, and disordered inter-city competitions. Furthermore, the successful practice at Jiangbei SNA can function as a positive reference for developing China’s city-regions towards a region-in-becoming so that national initiatives in city-region-building can be dynamically adjusted accordingly.

The psychology of volunteer moderators: Tradeoffs between participation, belonging, and norms in online community governance

Online communities rely on effective governance for success, and volunteer moderators are crucial for ensuring such governance. Despite their significance, much remains to be explored in understanding the relationship between community governance processes and moderators’ psychological experiences. To bridge this gap, we conducted an online survey with over 600 moderators from Reddit communities, exploring the link between different governance strategies and moderators’ needs and motivations. Our investigation reveals a contrast to conventional views on democratic governance within online communities. While participatory processes are associated with higher levels of perceived fairness, they are also linked with reduced feelings of community belonging and lower levels of institutional acceptance among moderators. Our findings challenge the assumption that greater democratic involvement unequivocally leads to positive community outcomes, suggesting instead that more centralized governance approaches can also positively affect moderators’ psychological well-being and, by extension, community cohesion and effectiveness.

Advancing the Moral legitimacy of digital platforms as gatekeepers: a critical analysis from a political corporate social responsibility perspective

This study focuses on digital platforms, such as Google or Meta, that function as “gatekeepers” that dominate their respective markets. They face serious moral legitimacy issues, due to their power to act as private rule-makers in underregulated digital spheres. Such legitimacy issues have remained underexplored thus far, as have gatekeepers’ options for addressing them. Yet moral legitimacy represents a vital resource for organizations, as a justification of their essential right to exist. Drawing on recent advances in political corporate social responsibility theory, this study offers a systematic conceptualization of how gatekeepers can exhibit ethical responsibility in their efforts to gain, maintain, and sustain their moral legitimacy. This systematic conceptualization encompasses different agreement-seeking procedures, online deliberation, a hybrid governance approach that combines regulation and self-regulation, and the provision of public goods.

Investigating drivers of information technology governance in South African public healthcare sector

As organizations continue to heavily invest in Information Technology (IT), effective information technology governance is critical to make sure that IT spending leads to the fulfilment of organizational goals and delivery of expected value. The purpose of this study is to determine IT governance drivers in public healthcare in South Africa. The study applied exploratory mixed methods research, through semi-structured interviews and an online survey questionnaire with selected IT and business decision-makers. Data were analyzed through thematic data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis. Through the lenses of the technology organization environment (TOE) framework, findings indicate that organizations are driven by internal and external context-based governance imperatives, which manifest as trigger events and pain points, necessitating new or changed IT governance policies. The implication is that organizations require specifically tailored IT governance strategies that respond to their specific governance needs. The study calls for policymakers and implementers to be conscious of their IT problem context. In the absence of IT governance drivers’ contextualization, organizations may fail to tailor IT governance initiatives, and risk investing in costly IT governance practices that do not address their specific needs. The study contributes to reflective and pragmatic IT governance approaches in developing economies.

Exploration of Rural Governance Approaches under the Strategy of Rural Revitalization

Exploration of Rural Governance Approaches under the Strategy of Rural Revitalization