Grassroots Projects Research Articles

Value tensions and actionable knowledge in grassroots innovation: a study of invitational ambiguity and implementation challenges

Purpose This research paper explores how grassroots innovation initiatives address and resolve the challenges of translating broad and inviting values such as sustainability, inclusiveness and aesthetics into practical and actionable structures. This study examines the tensions and difficulties projects face in operationalizing these values, revealing the gap between idealistic goals and real-world implementation. Moreover, this paper analyzes how role expectations and the concept of invitation ambiguity affect top down and bottom up approaches, offering insights for improving mechanisms to support grassroots innovations. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an exploratory qualitative methodology with an embedded case study design, focusing on the New European Bauhaus (NEB) and its award-winning projects. Data were collected through online self-assessment surveys, secondary data analysis, and semi-structured interviews with project owners and NEB Unit representatives. Findings The findings reveal significant challenges in translating broad and inviting values (sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics) into actionable outcomes for grassroots projects. Key issues include the need for clearer role definitions, tailored support, and adaptability. Conflicts between those values and a mismatch between expectations about stakeholders’ contributions highlight the need for designing more flexible and robust frameworks and robust frameworks. Originality/value This research explores the effects of invitational ambiguity within grassroots innovation, revealing how broad values ‐ like sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics ‐ are operationalized in real-world settings. By applying collective action theoretical frameworks to the unique case study of NEB projects, this study provides fresh insights into the dynamics between top-down European policies and bottom-up grassroots practices.

Common good in the urban context – insights from theoretical frameworks

The objective of the study is to analyse the role of the concept of common good in the contemporary field of urban studies. Through an interdisciplinary literature review, the basic explanation of the concept or common good is presented with a focus on common good in the urban environment. This work examines how urban commons became significant in scientific and public debates, translatable into tangible projects. The research results prove the academic and policy discussions focus on urban commons both in theoretical and engaged implementation of experiments in local urban governance. The notion of common good in the urban context, applied in territorial governance practices as commons, has an expanded international geographical reach, popularised within theoretical and more empirical approaches. The findings reveal a correlation between the discourse on urban commons and the proliferation of thematic debates and models; grassroots projects, demonstrating varied impacts by local social, cultural and policy contexts. In conclusion to the study of consecutive contemporary theories, the need to provide accurate elaboration on an urban commoning framework can be stated. This is a gap to bridge for enabling practical sustainable applications.

Towards abolitionist agrarian geographies of Kentucky

This agrarian geography of Kentucky begins on the streets of the state's largest city, in the throes of antiracist struggle. It tracks the state's lingering colonial settler power dynamics through the racism of plantation, extraction, and carceral geographies. It then traces how resistance to these exploitations take root in place-based agri-food initiatives unfolding through urban-rural solidarity against white supremacist policing, prison systems, labor exploitation, and extractivism. It begins with a brief overview of the scale of reference of Kentucky itself. Situating the state entails addressing the trauma and topophilia (love of landscape) of its agrarian past and present. It draws upon bell hooks’ literary invocations of Kentucky-based agrarian visions, as well as place-based political ecology scholarship (seven years of Kentucky Agrarian Questions practitioner panels at the Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference at University of Kentucky). Following Black and abolitionist geographies, this agrarian geography traces rural and urban shared struggles for food sovereignty, environmental justice, and liberation from racism of carceral systems. It introduces Kentucky grassroots projects connecting and uniting rural and urban struggles against carceral violence and the racism therein, such as Hood to the Holler (a political initiative emerging from Black Lives Matter mobilizations for Breonna Taylor). The essay ends with reflections on the political-ecological contradictions and imperative of working through and beyond a settler-colonial-state scale of reference like Kentucky. To extricate from and dismantle plantation modes and carceral legacies, abolitionist agrarian geographies recover the reality of Black and Indigenous agrarian history, presence, and futures. As such, rooted in place-based reckoning, resistance, and responsibility, they offer hope.

Towards an integrated garden. Gardeners of all types, unite!

Urban gardens are focal in metropolitan social-ecological infrastructure and yet they are spaces often threatened by urban development. In Berlin and Warsaw, major urban changes have prompted citizens to alter their attitudes toward the use of existing garden areas. This study tackles the socio-spatial phenomena of emerging grassroots projects and practices jointly implemented by groups of allotment and community gardeners, which are instrumental in envisioning new forms of common management and protection of garden spaces along urban transformations. The article investigates how cooperation between gardeners of different backgrounds influences allotments’ patterns of property and public accessibility. The focus is on a possible change of perspective regarding the use of closed allotment structures and the conceptualisation of a new form of hybrid urban landscape: an integrated garden. Our findings fit into the general debate on gardens as commons and new forms of green space selfgovernance.

To Enter the Crater

Sean Connelly is a Pacific Islander American artist in Honolulu, O‘ahu where he/they were born and still live and work. Connelly creates work that focuses on material, place, and time. They work primarily in sculpture, architecture, and installation, but are also active in experimental cartography, filmmaking, design theory, architectural history, urban sociology, land planning, data analysis, and visual arts like new media, bioculture, and land art. Through this work Connelly creates clarity around the physical and spiritual conditions of the built environment. They engage the built environment and its effects on their community to decolonize and address the traumas of settler colonialism, militarization, and modernism embedded physically in the environment in architecture and in everyday life. Professionally, Connelly operates under the imprint AFTEROCEANIC and directs a range of client-based and parainstitutional grassroots projects as a Pacific laboratory for applied theory and culture in design and built environments.

Female Genital Cutting or Circumcision

Woman genital slicing additionally referred to as woman genital mutilation or circumcision, is a deeply rooted cultural exercise that entails the partial or overall elimination of outside lady genitalia for non-scientific reasons. Despite being extensively criticized for its bodily and psychological fitness dangers, as well as its violation of human rights, the practice persists in various parts of the sector, specifically in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Female genital reduction is regularly justified inside communities as a ceremony of passage, a method of maintaining purity, or a way to control ladies’ sexuality. However, its effects are long-lasting and negative. The system can result in severe pain, bleeding, infections, and long-term period complications, which include urinary issues, headaches throughout childbirth, and mental trauma. The ethical issues surrounding this practice are obtrusive, as it infringes upon physical autonomy, sexual well-being, and gender equality. Efforts to eliminate female genital slicing span scientific, legal, and social dimensions. Several worldwide groups and governments have denounced the practice and enacted legal guidelines against it, specializing in cognizance campaigns, education, and community engagement. Grassroots projects inside affected groups have proven effective in transferring perceptions and hardening the deeply ingrained beliefs that perpetuate the exercise. To put off lady genital slicing, a holistic method is vital-one that includes not only the best criminal measures but also complete sex schooling, female empowerment, and collaboration with cultural and religious leaders. By addressing the underlying social norms and offering alternative cultural practices, societies can safeguard the rights and fitness of girls and women, letting them lead lives free from the bodily and emotional burdens of female genital reduction.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Japanese Official Development Aid in Myanmar: A Case Study of the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects in the Chin State Education Sector

Abstract: Japanese Official Development Assistance has benefited educational development by hook or by crook. Japan has been providing grant aids for grassroots development in Myanmar for more than half a century, which has had a significant degree of effectiveness for the recipients. The Japan Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects has specifically benefited the education sector in Chin State, Myanmar, especially in building infrastructures for schools, including providing buildings, desks, and plumbing facilities. It is suggested that there are still quite a few primary factors requiring development to access quality education in Myanmar. Based on extensive research among educators and relevant officials in Chin State, this research surveys existing issues for educational infrastructure in the state and assesses some of the challenges for educational development in the region. It also assesses how Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects has assisted the barriers. The scope of this research is from 2015 to 2020.

Sport Diplomacy in the European Union: The Development of a Soft Power Strategy

This paper examines the emergence of sport as a tool of the European Union’s (EU) soft power, due to its popularity and cost-effectiveness. Public diplomacy is gaining momentum and is increasingly used by state and non-state actors as means to influence the behaviour of others. The EU is developing its sport policy, laying the foundations for what could become a formal sport diplomacy strategy in the future. Using a qualitative methodology combining content analysis, case studies and interviews, this paper studies the benefits of an EU sport diplomacy strategy and the form it should take. It argues that for the EU to gain a comparative advantage over other state and non-state actors, it should adopt a hybrid sport diplomacy strategy that is based on soft and smart power and reflects its norms, values, and unique structure. Key actions it should consider are collaborating with international (sport) organisations and developing grassroots projects. This thesis also provides recommendations for a future EU sport diplomacy strategy.

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF TRAINING FOOTBALL CAMPS IN BULGARIA FOR THE PERIOD 2015-2019

For the period 2015 - 2019 in Bulgaria, a significant number of children’s football camps were organized in partnership with some of the biggest football clubs in Europe. These events aroused great interest among children, adults, and media, because for the Bulgarian audience clubs such as AC Milan, FC Inter, FC Barcelona and Juventus FC are the embodiment of world football. This article aims to review, describe, and analyze football camps in Bulgaria in terms of their history, management, and organization, which in turn will contribute to increasing the number and quality of football grassroots projects. This type of event is increasingly finding its place in the field of sport, which suggests a more in-depth study.

Surviving Through Community Building in Catastrophic Times

Over the last twenty years, China has gained recognition for its efforts to reduce pollution and remediate the effects of industrialization within its borders. To mitigate the adverse effects of this reality, communities are returning to grassroots projects that present an alternative to unchecked globalization.

Conventional versus grassroots innovation outcomes in developing country makerspaces: governance and its determinants in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Makerspaces (MS) are widely considered to be sites for democratizing innovation outcomes away from conventional commercial and educational agenda of the entrepreneurial and scientific elite towards a grassroots and inclusive agenda. However, MS can reproduce elite-driven innovation outcomes as much as it can transform such towards a grassroots agenda, as is most evident in developing country contexts. Based on comparative case research of 10 selected MS in the Philippines, this study examines the variation of innovation outcomes among MS. Cases selected represent the heterogeneity of MS innovation outcomes in both material and cultural terms. The study finds three types of innovation outcomes that are research-based projects and elite culture, commercial-oriented projects and service culture, and creative and grassroots projects and maker culture. It further finds that MS governance, as determined by variation in host organizations, MS capabilities, and cluster dynamics, shape innovation outcomes. It highlights that grassroots innovation outcomes are most effectively facilitated by MS independence, design capabilities, and diverse and high-skilled clusters. The study’s main contribution lies in its empirical exploration of the factors and dynamics that shape diverse innovation outcomes in MS. Policy implications for grassroots innovation are discussed.

University-Community Engagement: Formation of New Collaboration Patterns in Participatory Budgeting Process

Abstract Promoting public participation in urban processes has long been a critical issue in discussions about urban governance. However, despite the advantages of more progressive and inclusive city governance, participatory budgeting (PB) often faces challenges in ensuring collaboration between different stakeholders involved. Not always do the involved parties have adequate resources to lead the brainstormed ideas to a tangible project application. In recent decades universities are supporting partnerships, grassroots projects and media conversations to take an active part in the development of cities. In addition to the wish of making research results available to a wider public and increasing the chances of making use of them, universities are also interested in the co-production of knowledge with non-academic groups. This makes universities an important stakeholder with a potential of supporting community engagement processeses. Thus, through the analysis of participatory budgeting processes in the cities of the Eastern Baltic Sea region and a detailed case study of participatory budgeting in Riga, this research explores the limits of current PB programs, motivations and advantages of involving university in this process.

Feminism and the ecosystem catastrophe: Feeling alternative futures

This article builds an ecofeminist lens from community efforts as a form of feeling alternative futures in Hawaiʻi, with broader application for elsewhere. Women and children are critical groups on the front lines of climate-related crises, including food and housing insecurity, and the fight for environmental justice. Drawing upon personal experience, in this article, I highlight several grassroots projects that I have been connected to on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi that exemplify community-based efforts to conceptualize, build and feel sustainable alternative futures. In the face of compounding human existential crises, it is women’s grassroots community organizing, Indigenous knowledges and traditional Hawaiian practices that are leading the way to sustainable food production, community building, and resurgent Hawaiian sovereignty. Through practical community-engaged experience, and learning from these communities, we can feel ecofeminist alternative futures and enact sustainable practices that challenge the current climate emergency.

Portraits of Change: Photo-Storytelling Across Bangladesh, China and Australia

Trained in art photography, I initially hoped that my own photography would inspire positive environmental change. However I soon felt uncomfortable with putting my energy towards conventional nature photography, which tends to rely on simplified and polarised emotions of either fear in images of despoiled landscapes or hope in the form of pristine wilderness (Manzo 206) that can serve to reproduce essentialised ideas of nature and culture which are becoming increasingly untenable in the Anthropocene era. In contrast, I gradually found through research, and my own grassroots projects that participatory photography methods—such as photovoice—have the potential to generate rich locally-grounded photo-stories which open up deeper engagements with the complexities of nature-culture relations (Gustafson and Al-Sumait 9).

Pioneers’ Insights into Governing Social Innovation for Sustainable Anti-Consumption

Transcending the conventional debate around efficiency in sustainable consumption, anti-consumption patterns leading to decreased levels of material consumption have been gaining importance. Change agents are crucial for the promotion of such patterns, so there may be lessons for governance interventions that can be learnt from the every-day experiences of those who actively implement and promote sustainability in the field of anti-consumption. Eighteen social innovation pioneers, who engage in and diffuse practices of voluntary simplicity and collaborative consumption as sustainable options of anti-consumption share their knowledge and personal insights in expert interviews for this research. Our qualitative content analysis reveals drivers, barriers, and governance strategies to strengthen anti-consumption patterns, which are negotiated between the market, the state, and civil society. Recommendations derived from the interviews concern entrepreneurship, municipal infrastructures in support of local grassroots projects, regulative policy measures, more positive communication to strengthen the visibility of initiatives and emphasize individual benefits, establishing a sense of community, anti-consumer activism, and education. We argue for complementary action between top-down strategies, bottom-up initiatives, corporate activities, and consumer behavior. The results are valuable to researchers, activists, marketers, and policymakers who seek to enhance their understanding of materially reduced consumption patterns based on the real-life experiences of active pioneers in the field.

A Dirigisme Approach to a Monetary Policy Jobs Guarantee and the Green New Deal

This article applies institutional analysis to H.R. Con. Res. 109, 2019 for the Green New Deal (GND) and a key section of the Federal Reserve Act to imagine new fiscal-monetary policy instrumentalities for community-driven economic transformation. Complementing this technical examination, dirigisme supplies philosophical grounding for the construction of a spatial Development Finance State model (DFS). The foundational program of the model is a monetary jobs guarantee (MJG) that redefines meaningful work as collateral for open labor market operations. GND mobilization advances beyond the buffer stock with communities securitizing their labor collateral to acquire direct financing for grassroots projects. To provide operational clarity, a thought experiment outlines a case study vision of this process juxtaposed with New Monetary Consensus utilization of DFS liquidity provisioning tools during the financial crisis. From this comparison, two design features improve DFS performance for the GND. First enhanced transaction transparency is achieved through digital ledger and spatial analysis technologies, while reflexivity between fiscal policy and local development goals emerges by engineering anchor institutions into the monetary architecture. Together these design features are hypothesized to democratically alter the proto-aesthetic of money and bring forth a political economy of care.

Autoconstrução Redux

Este artigo recupera o conceito de autoconstrução como uma heurística para o método e a teoria antropológica. Com base no uso original do conceito nos estudos urbanos, eu sugiro que a autoconstrução oferece uma visada capaz de dar conta não só dos projetos de base que mobilizam recursos, materiais e relações de um modo inventivo e transformador das ecologias urbanas, mas que também ajuda a delinear a forma como a teoria, em si, é autoconstruída: as operações de problematizações por meio das quais situações são navegadas e projetadas em métodos de investigação e exploração. Em outras palavras, eu tomo a autoconstrução como uma descrição empírica e teórica e, ao mesmo tempo, uma forma de auto-heurística para pensar a cidade como um método. O argumento é ilustrado por um relato etnográfico do trabalho com coletivos de arquitetura e contraculturais de guerrilha em Madri, focalizando, particularmente, nas transformações de um terreno abandonado no coração da cidade em um projeto comunitário auto-organizado, explorando de que modos os ativistas problematizaram a cidade como um método.

From Civic Group to Advocacy Coalition: Using a Food Policy Audit as a Tool for Change

‘Food democracy’ suggests that building a policy environment within which a community food system can thrive relies on a politically engaged citizenry. Across North America, civic-oriented groups are conducting grass-roots projects to develop community food systems. Projects are addressing issues such as local food security, healthy food access, and agriculture economic development. Local governments are paying increasing attention to this new policy arena; however, policy environments that support these projects are often lacking. Using the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), this paper presents the case of Franklin County, Ohio to illustrate how a civically-oriented group transitioned into an advo­cacy coalition. A food policy audit was used as a tool to develop technical knowledge that translated the Franklin County Local Food Council’s mission and objectives to political asks, resulting in a policy agenda. Through the audit process, the council identified and secured additional coalition mem­bers and increased the local governance capacity to create a healthy food policy environment. The ACF provides evidence-based framework that can be used elsewhere to evaluate the policy readiness of an FPC. Further, from a practical standpoint, I further the discussion about the utility of a local food policy audit.

Industrial spaces for grassroots creative production: spatial, social and planning facets

ABSTRACTFormer industrial premises provide material and symbolic resources for grassroots creative production, but planning is complex as these sites are transitory and excessive intervention may stifle creativity. This paper analyses the transformations of La Ribera (Bilbao), a mixed-use peninsula waiting to be redeveloped, where, in the meantime, creative-based grassroots projects have settled. Drawing upon relevant planning documents, documentary material and interviews with key actors, the paper explores (i) the spatial and built form advantages of these spaces, (ii) their impact on neighbourhood life and (iii) the contradictions faced in the planning process. The analysis suggests that spatiality plays a critical role, but it is threatened by market pressures, local governments’ interest to encourage the city's reputation and neighbours’ mistrust for the changes they may trigger. As a result, we contend that art spaces’ institutionalization in the neighbourhood is decisive for their sustainability, but the conflicts that arise for the symbolic appropriation of space should be considered. Regarding policy, governance approaches that preserve users’ autonomy and spaces’ built form and atmospheric qualities are rather suitable responses if they are part of a comprehensive agenda that includes local socio-economic conditions and neighbours’ aspirations.

Auto-Construction Redux: The City as Method

This article recuperates the concept of auto-construction as a heuristic for anthropological theory and method. Drawing on the concept’s original usage in urban studies, I suggest that auto-construction offers a handle for grasping not only how grassroots projects mobilize resources, materials, and relations in ways that are inventive and transformative of urban ecologies but that it also helps outline how theory itself is auto-constructed: the operations of problematization through which situations are navigated and designed into methods of inquiry and exploration. I read auto-construction, in other words, as both an empirical and theoretical descriptor, a sort of auto-heuristics for thinking of the city as method. The argument is illustrated by an ethnographic account of work with guerrilla architectural and countercultural collectives in Madrid, focusing in particular on the transformation of a vacant open-air site in the heart of the city into a self-organized community project, exploring how activists variously problematized the city as method.