Grassroots Practices Research Articles

Community-led vs. subsidised housing. Lessons from informal settlements in Durban

Rapid urbanization, poverty and socio-economic inequalities are causes of the backlog of informal settlements in South Africa, as dwellers cannot access formal housing schemes. Such unplanned settlements often need more basic services, social facilities and adequate housing. Nevertheless, informal settlements are core parts of the urban form rather than places for eradication. This article examines self-building and community-led upgrading practices in three case studies of partially and non-serviced informal settlements in Durban. It adopts action research participatory methods to coproduce knowledge and map various perspectives around community-led housing upgrading, building materials and construction skills in an effort to enhance community resilience and self-reliance. The findings reveal the key drivers and challenges associated with self-building, informal procurement and overall project management of the housing process. Successful grassroots practices demonstrate community ownership and dweller control beyond the physical upgrading per se. The lessons learned call for inclusive, participatory, and incremental approaches for effective community organization, self-reliance, social capital and livelihood development.

Социальные факторы территориального развития в российском нормативно-правовом регулировании

The article delves into the modern Russian legislation on territorial development in relation to its human-centeredness at the levels of goal-setting and implementation. It states the existence of a problem in the man-agement of territorial development, which consists in its lack of effectiveness in overcoming the demographic compression of peripheral and semi-peripheral territories. To describe the problematic situation, the author’s concepts of action landscape and action landscaping of territorial development are proposed. Apart from this, the author presents the results of the retrospective analysis of the semantic content of the terms development and management in specialized normative-legal documents, scientific and reference sources. Legislative acts on the management of territorial development are considered in terms of their involvement of the population in the relevant processes on the ground. It is concluded that the current specialized legislation on territorial devel-opment takes into account social factors of territorial development, including the residents’ own vision of the future, grassroots practices and initiatives for its realization, the potential of direct participation of social actors and local communities in the development of territories is insufficient. The prospects for solving the problem are associated with the actualization of the National Projects of Russia.

Putting Outcomes into Practice: The Implementation of a Framework of Outcome Measures within a Child and Family Service

Abstract Of utmost concern for effective child protection and child and family services is evidence-based practice. There is an onus of accountability on providers of therapeutic services to establish the merit and cost efficiency of their work. Developing standardised evidence-based outcome measures for children and families, towards which the service provider can strive, is assuredly required as a yardstick against which progress can be measured and modified. Yet, outcome measures will only work in conducive organisational conditions. Specifically, to operationalise a suite of outcome measures into a complex organisation, from administrative policy to grassroots practice, requires understanding of barriers and facilitators of implementation. Through funded research, we investigate these factors within the implementation of a new outcomes framework in a European child and family service. Following a literature review exercise, qualitative research findings from two focus groups targeted, respectively, at the managerial and front line practitioner level, illuminate complex conditions and underlying mechanisms, as well as attitudinal, resource and knowledge factors upon which implementation is predicated. We conclude with recommendations around establishing sustainable conditions and arrangements in organisations, to ensure outcome measures act as effective instruments, rather than costly and dispensable paper exercises.

Application of virtual diagnosis and treatment combined with medical record teaching method in standardized training of general practitioner.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of virtual diagnosis and treatment combined with the medical record teaching method in standardized training of general practitioners. Eighty students who had standardized general practice training, from March 2020 to March 2022, in the grassroots practice base of general practitioner training in the affiliated Hospital of our Medical College were retrospectively analyzed and divided into 2 groups according to the teaching method that they received. The differences in assessment scores, critical thinking, clinical thinking ability, learning autonomy ability, and classroom teaching effectiveness were compared, and the students' satisfaction with teaching was investigated. The scores of theoretical knowledge, skill operation, medical history collection, and case analysis in the study group were notably higher (P < .05). In the study group, scores in truth-seeking, openness to knowledge, analytical ability, systematic ability, self-confidence, curiosity, and cognitive maturity were significantly higher (P < .05). A notable improvement was observed in the study group's scores on systematic thinking ability and evidence-based thinking ability, as well as the scores on critical thinking ability after teaching (P < .05). The scores of learning interest, self-management, plan implementation, and cooperation ability improved notably after teaching (P < .05). Learning target, learning processes, learning effects, classroom environment construction, teaching strategy, and technology application in the study group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < .05). The satisfaction rate in the study group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < .05). Virtual diagnosis and treatment combined with case-based learning teaching has a very good effect in the standardized training of general practitioners. Students are generally satisfied with their learning experience, which can improve their critical thinking ability and clinical thinking skills. This teaching method is worth further popularizing.

A history of arts and health in South Australia: Policy and practice

This article traces the history of arts and health in South Australia, using an interview-based methodology to detail how grassroots practice developed into formal arts and health policy. The project interviewed 47 arts and health stakeholders, including former state government ministers, artists and health professionals. South Australia has a long history of arts and health work. However, interviewees describe a lack of momentum for the field since the endorsement of the 2013 National Arts and Health Framework, largely because it did not contain binding commitments which left the field vulnerable to changes associated with political leadership. South Australia thus represents both a case study of how grassroots support can maximize political interest in arts and health to create formal policy as well as a warning on the challenges that occur when this interest wanes.

Platform-based diffusion-proofing: Digitally mediated discursive practice and China’s prevention of protest spillover during Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill Movement

Based on the example of mainland China’s online diffusion-proofing practices against Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, we identify a platform-based tactic of diffusion-proofing. We argue that this tactic manifested the orchestration of top-down statist governance and bottom-up grassroots practices, as well as within-border and cross-border discursive dynamics. Facilitated by the technical affordances of social media platforms, a faction of netizens both from mainland China and Hong Kong followed the state and its agents online to co-construct discourses for preventing the potential spillover of the Movement to mainland China. We further suggest that this tactic was enabled by the hybridization of both technical logic and discursive logic. The platform affordances, especially different types of hashtags, allowed the state and its agents to practice digitally mediated discursive production, reacting to the momentum of the Movement. As a result, a discourse was constructed, which delegitimatized protest actions and ignited nationalistic sentiment for the purpose of diffusion-proofing.

Li Zishu’s Hidden Transcripts of Post-1970s Malaysia: Literature and Religion in Land of Floating Customs

The sinophone Malaysian writer Li Zishu's recent novel about class stylistics, popular religion, citizen subject, and ritual belonging in postcolonial Malaysia can be better understood if we translated its title's Chinese term liusu as floating customs, instead of vulgar and worldly, for example. Translating liusu as floating customs reveals the constant negotiation between state and minority viewpoints in the institutional and grassroots practices of popular Daoism and Hinduism, and their evolving sociological, legal character as outsourced spaces for democratic imagination. This also makes Li's novel an argument about Malaysian literature and religion as an intertwined formation.

Introducing the Critical Making Responsibility framework for analyzing responsible innovation processes in grassroots practices

This paper introduces the Critical Making Responsibility Framework. The framework has been developed by the Critical Making consortium in order to analyze responsible innovation processes in grassroots innovation, specifically in the practice of making. The paper builds on a literature review to highlight the shortcomings of current Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) frameworks’ relevance towards grassroots innovation practices, and conversely, the lack of scientific understanding on ethics and responsibility in making. To fill the gap, this paper proposes a combination of the dimensions of the Grassroots Innovation Movements (GIM) analytical framework and the RRI capacity dimensions. Finally, the outlook reflects upon how the framework will be utilized in hands-on ways to support the work of academic and non-academic co-researchers of reflexive maker practices.

The Urgency of Interreligious Ecotheological Praxis to Protect the Earth and the Vulnerable

Interreligious ecotheological praxis is urgent and most needed as a real form of dialogue between science and religions to overcome the increasingly severe current ecological crisis. This paper focuses on interreligious ecotheological praxis to maintain the integrity of creation and environmental sustainability. The aim is to explain the meaning of interreligious ecotheological praxis and its urgency in protecting the Earth and the vulnerable. To achieve this goal, this study qualitatively examines the grassroots practice of caring for the Earth and the vulnerable by Muslims, Catholics, and Sedulur Sikep in Pati and Rembang Regencies, Central Java, Indonesia. The results provide a new reference on interreligious ecotheological praxis for the Earth care movement, especially from the perspective of Islam, Catholicism, and Sedulur Sikep. This work suggests everyone move together in facing and overcoming the ecological crisis that befell the Earth and defending as well as protecting the vulnerable people most affected by environmental destruction.

Study on the Promotion of College Students' Returning Home Development on Rural Revitalization

The key to rural revitalization lies in talents, and innovative college students are an important force to promote agricultural modernization and industrialization, extend the value chain of agricultural products, and enhance rural cultural taste. College students returning to their hometowns to start businesses can not only solve their own employment problems well, but also display their talents, test their learning and temper themselves in grass-roots practice. At the same time, they can help develop rural industries and lead the villagers to get rich. This paper focuses on the significance, problems and strategies of young college students' returning home. On the research subject, we pay more attention to the problem of college students' returning to their hometowns, and think that in the process of national modernization, we should strengthen the mission responsibility of young college students, encourage more young college students to return to their hometowns for employment and entrepreneurship after graduation, contribute their own intelligence and wisdom to the beautiful picture of rural construction, and at the same time enhance their own value.

Home Remedies as Agency in the Face of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe

Research questions: Why have Zimbabweans relied on home remedies during COVID-19? What are some of these remedies? How are they used? How are they received by the people comparative to medical and scientific approaches? Purpose of the study and methods used: Using narratives from below obtained from repeated conversations with 10 people as well as extensive social media observation spanning a year, this article explores Zimbabweans’ use of home remedies during COVID-19. Findings: It finds that home remedies (the most fashionable being steaming and Zumbani tea) are used simultaneously with western medicines. This is amid a hopeless health system, a ravaging and incurable pandemic, growing distrust of western institutions and vaccines, and the need to be mobile in daily livelihood activities performed in a distressed economy. These home practices are criticized by people demanding respect for the severity of COVID-19 who reproof “unscientific” grassroots practices, conversations, and conspiracies on the pandemic. Nevertheless, equally observable are daily testimonies of victory, healing, and hope. Conclusion: The study concludes that home remedies are used in Zimbabwe as a form of agency to respond to the uncertainty brought by COVID-19.

Social innovation in South Africa: building inclusive economies?

PurposeSocial innovation (SI) acknowledges socio-economic challenges as opportunities to make communities more sustainable and cohesive through inclusive grassroots practices. The question remains, however, as to whether and how socially innovative practices can be effectively supported in developing inclusive economies. Drawing on the findings from two South African in-depth case studies, This paper aims to discuss how social innovation ventures may be supported to drive inclusiveness.Design/methodology/approachThis paper purposively sampled two social enterprises (SEs) and conducted in-depth case studies through interviews and secondary data review.FindingsThe SEs selected promoted digital, economic and social inclusion. Despite the diversity of the two organisations, they shared similar challenges in undertaking their practices mostly deriving from South Africa’s lack of legal recognition and policy framework for social purpose-driven businesses.Originality/valueApplying Moulaert et al.’s (2007) SI classification criteria to the case studies in focus, this paper seeks to extend our understanding of the challenges that innovative SE organisations face in tackling exclusion and contributing to build inclusive economies in the South African context.

Environmental Practices of Waste Management in the Small Towns of the European Part in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation

Introduction. The relevance of the study is determined by the negative consequences for the environment from the constant increase in the amount of municipal solid waste. The most vulnerable in this situation are small towns in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The remoteness, inaccessibility, as well as the difficult socio-economic situation of these settlements are serious obstacles to achieving both the effectiveness of the implementation of the reform of production and consumption waste management, and the goals of sustainable development of the region. The purpose of the article is to identify the value foundations prevailing in environmental consciousness and the prevailing types of environmental behavior of the population of small towns in the European part of the Russian Arctic in the field of solid waste management. Materials and Methods. The article presents the results of an empirical study conducted by a questionnaire survey in August-November 2020 in the Arctic territories of the Republic of Karelia and the Murmansk region. The number of respondents is 1303. The questionnaire method is used to carry out a mass representative survey of residents of the Arctic territories on the problem of municipal solid waste. Statistical methods for processing quantitative data makes it possible to identify the main correlations between variables in relation to grassroots practices in the management of municipal solid waste by gender, age and place of residence of the respondents. Results. The paper shows the findings of a sociological study, during which the peculiarities of the perception of the population of small towns in the Republic of Karelia and the Murmansk region of environmental problems were identified and an assessment of the degree of threat to the environment from illegal dumps and household waste was given. The authors studied the direct practices of handling household waste and the willingness of respondents to change the traditional poorly environmentally oriented behavior to environmentally conscious actions. Discussion and Conclusion. The study showed that the problem of the increasing amount of MSW is relevant and causes a high degree of concern among the population. At the same time, the majority of respondents implement behavioral practices that indirectly affect the environment. The decisive problem for the population of remote areas of the Russian Arctic is the poor organization of the waste management process: lack of investment attractiveness for business, low level of infrastructure development, little funding, which determines low motivation and mobilization of the population to master various environmental practices. The results obtained can be used by regional and municipal authorities, regional operators and specialists of environmental nongovernment organizations.

Український міський вернакулярний сад: переосмислення в умовах повномасштабної війни

The paper contents a cultural analysis of the vernacular garden as a phenomenon of popular urban culture, as well as the transformation (politicization) of its role and perception in the conditions of martial law. The garden analysed at different levels: individual (gardening is an individual practice of a citizen), local (features of the local community, its values, lifestyle, common practices, problems, etc.), as well as at the level of tradition and culture. Structural analysis of the garden as a multifunctional space allows us to identify individual functions of this phenomenon. After all, by creating a home-made garden, a city dweller satisfies his needs in this way, and not only needs for products, but most often those of a social and cultural nature. The main characteristics of the vernacular garden were revealed: structure, non-utilitarianism, procedure. The main functions of the garden are socio-political, humanitarian, food, aesthetic, educational, unifying, educational, and entertaining. Ukrainian vernacular gardening is compared with other formats of urban gardening, which have a combination of different goals and corresponding functions: "community garden", Victory gardens and guerrilla gardening. In contrast to guerrilla gardening, vernacular gardening does not initially have political intentions – to fight against the state of neglected urban areas, to draw the attention of local citizens to the problems of the district. It was determined that the individual vernacular garden acquires a new meaning in the conditions of martial law: it becomes one of grassroots initiatives, practices of resistance, stability and steadfastness. Vernacular horticulture as an individual grassroots practice is a bright and promising mediator of important social and political processes that Ukrainian society is going through in times of full-scale war. The political aspects of urban vernacular gardening also touch on feminist issues. Usually, women are gardeners, and this fact is worth a separate study, because it is women who implement these practices and, accordingly, changes in the urban landscape, according to their botanical and aesthetic preferences, favourite plants and cultures.

The Articulated Involvement of Stakeholders in Social Innovation Research. The CHILD-UP approach

The article focuses on the role of stakeholder involvement in social innovation research, exploring the reasons, strategies and difficulties associated with the dialogue between researchers and stakeholders. More than an original research article, it has the modest ambition of making a contribution to the current debate on the role of stakeholders in social research, based on the approach and results to date of an ongoing research project on the integration of migrant children, CHILD-UP, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Programme in the period 2019–2022. In contrast to major contributions that focus on the relationship between researchers and policymakers, this article refers to many different categories of stakeholders, some of which are only active at the level of grassroots practice. Rather than focusing on the direct relation between researchers and decision makers, CHILD-UP has adopted a broader, predominantly bottom-up approach to how research results can influence current practices and future policies. After a general introduction referring to mainstream contributions on the subject, the articulated and decentralised approach of the CHILD-UP Project is described and discussed in the central part of the article. The purpose of this part is not to present the project in itself, but to illustrate how the general approach to stakeholder involvement has been translated into structures and activities that are considered an integral part of the research project. The final sections report results of interviews with project researchers and build on formative evaluation exercises conducted as the project has concluded its first two years of activity. According to these conclusions, the dialogue between researchers and stakeholders, although recognised as necessary and useful, it still has to overcome a number of difficulties of different nature and requires further efforts to produce all its potential benefits.

Mind the Gap: Admin Activism, a Thought Piece in Process

In this article, I describe the methodology I understand as admin activism within the context of cultural institutions to consider how we may generate sustainable, productive and enjoyable relationships in decolonial work. Admin activism includes specific priorities, behaviours, and strategies associated with decolonial resistances that can be mobilized by people working within art galleries, museums, and universities. Drawing from scholarly and grassroots practices of settler responsibility and Indigenous methodologies, my professional experience as a curator and educator, as well as important lessons learned from friends, colleagues and family, I intend this article to contribute to growing toolboxes for institutional change.

The Shaping of Environmental Identity in Germany and Italy: Actors and Practices

One of the important components of environmental policy in recent years is the formation of environmental identity. This article analyzes the German and Italian practices of ecological identity formation, identifies the actors of such a policy, and evaluates the prospects of ecological identity formation in the European Union. Based on case studies and in-depth interviews, the author describes the experience of implementing the Zero Waste concept in the Italian municipality of Capannori and the coastal German city of Kiel. The conclusion that the success of measures to form an environmental identity is influenced by the nature of political culture, the level of economic development, regional development features, but also by targeted environmental education initiatives and the success of grassroots practices in the environmental sphere, is substantiated. As the research has shown, in promoting eco-practices at the local level in Italy the leadership factor plays a large role, including in the framework of protest eco-activism, in Germany ‒ the self-organization of local communities in cooperation with the city authorities. The politicization of environmental identity contributes to the consolidation of citizens around environmental priorities. However, factors such as generation gaps and uneven regional development, as well as the rise of populism, can contribute to deepening divisions and confrontations around the environmental agenda.

Land speculation by villagers: Territorialities of accumulation and exclusion in peri-urban China

Speculation in land and real estate has become a chief means of revenue generation in cities across the world. The literature on speculative urbanism has discussed how the advent of land markets transformed government strategies and created new partnerships between state and capital for rent extraction. Far less attention, however, has been paid to grassroots practices of speculation among residents of peri-urban and rural areas, whose neighbourhoods are often dramatically transformed by the rapid appreciation in land prices brought about by urbanization. Based on fieldwork in a Chinese urban village, this paper demonstrates how land commodification gave rise to competitive territorialization and forms of "intimate exclusion" within the community. The boom in property prices amplified inequalities between villagers, as those with greater access to capital, authority and social networks were better positioned to reap gains from the market while those without land rights were excluded. The desire to capitalize on market gains furthermore sharpened intra-community conflicts, creating tensions between neighbours and family members over issues of ownership and distribution. By focusing on everyday practices of territorialization at the neighbourhood level, this paper sheds light on how land speculation and rentiership could contribute to deepened differentiation at the urban frontier.

Between the developmental state and popular nationalism: the pure Hangul movement in the early history of the Korean internet

Many Western social scientists have believed that South Korea, as one of the typical East Asian developmental states, was greatly influenced by state-led IT development, at least in its early technological development. However, both the 80s and the 90s were autonomous and exceptional periods for computer geek communities and start-ups, which were relatively free from developmental state initiatives. The present study calls attention to the little-known and undervalued historical phase of grassroots computing culture in the early history of the Korean Internet, which can be characterized as a pure Hangul (Korean) movement, even under the dominant paradigm of the developmental state. By investigating the socio-cultural history of that period, the present study aims to articulate the double-sided national motive of compromising the developmental desires of the state and the grassroots practices of the early computing culture in the midst of IT development in Korea. In doing so, the present study delineates how the early computer amateurs and tech-savvies were highly distinctive in localising non-commercial and reciprocal IT drives, and how their PC culture became a historical prelude to the civic hacking culture.

Pirate mentality: How London radio has shaped creative practice in grime music

Grime music is an Afrodiasporic performance form originating in London. While artists such as Stormzy and Skepta are now international stars, its gestation took place within a grounded network of record shops, radio stations and raves. This article argues for grime pirate radio’s role as both an oppositional channel and site of creative practice. Based on empirical work undertaken from 2017 to 2019 in London’s grime scene, it demonstrates how artists harness radio’s communicative power to engender a Black counterpublic, before outlining a framework for creative agency: afforded by a network of stations and practitioners; made meaningful through its community of listeners; and realized through improvisatory practice. Existing studies focusing on pirate radio often present these fora as domains for dissemination. In grime, however, its creative function highlights the potentiality of radio as a performance medium: a space for quotidian belonging and co-presence, but also for musical development and grassroots practice.