Institutional Arrangements Research Articles

Healthy public spaces for children within neighbourhoods through urban transformations

ABSTRACT Public spaces have many tangible health benefits for children. This paper draws on the work developed by the authors working closely with UNICEF, UN-Habitat, and WHO to conceptualize, research, and write the principles and guidance of public spaces for children and a compendium of 50 case studies. For this paper, the authors selected eight case studies that directly or indirectly address children’s physical and mental health as a rationale for urban transformations and the development of public spaces within neighbourhoods and local areas using evidence-based health-promoting strategies. The analysis within and across cases understands some of these strategies, and the degree of urban transformation achieved as measured through changes in the physical and social environments and institutional arrangements. The case studies demonstrate it is possible to develop safe and vibrant public spaces within neighbourhoods through equity-focused planning to reduce health disparities for children and adolescents. Lessons are drawn for scaling up niche ideas to create healthy cities and neighbourhoods for children while also addressing the gaps, most notably that of insufficient efforts devoted to moving beyond assumptions of health benefits to actually making visible the health impacts of the interventions.

Commoning education, challenging the state: the radical instability of Bachilleratos Populares in Buenos Aires

ABSTRACT From a neo-Marxist approach, ‘the commons’ are defined as utopian, anti/post-capitalist, and self-managed initiatives created by civil society autonomously from the market and the state, organised as open access, horizontal, and assembly-led spaces. In light of their organisation according to these principles, this article addresses the experience of the Argentine Bachilleratos Populares (BPs) as an example of educational commons. The BPs are popular education experiences created by grassroots social organisations from the social uprisings of 2001 that adopted a school format to ensure a secondary education diploma for their students. Their school format forged the BPs on a radical contradiction between their autonomous politics of destabilising rationality and the state-centric policies of stabilising rationality. Drawing from the policy documents that recognise the BPs as secondary schools and interviews with 16 BPs activists and 4 state managers (politicians and officials) of the Ministry of Education of Buenos Aires City, this article provides a strategic and institutional analysis of the BPs. This analysis delves into the conditions that enabled or facilitated BPs’ origin, their institutional design in interrelation with the state, and the ensuing set of contradictions, limits, and dilemmas that make the BPs a radical institutional arrangement inevitably marked by instability.

Unlocking the tapestry of conservation: Navigating ecological resettlement policies in Nepal

Conservation initiatives involve a complex interplay of various ecological, socio-political, and economic factors. Ecological resettlement (ER), implemented within the context of nature conservation policies, stands as one of the most contested issues worldwide. This study aims to navigate the domain of ER policy in conservation through discursive institutionalism and a policy arrangement approach. Focusing on Nepal's conservation policy pathways over the last seven decades, we critically analyze policy ideas and narratives, trends, patterns of policy development, institutional arrangements, driving factors, and responses to contemporary ER policies. Methods involved a systematic literature review (n = 271), a comprehensive review of policy documents and project reports (n > 150), and expert interviews (n = 20). Over the past 50 years, >7600 households in Nepal have been displaced in the name of ER and are still persisting despite the rhetoric of participatory conservation. With changes in political regimes, conservation policy has shifted from a hunting-focused approach to landscape-level and transboundary conservation. Initially influenced by internal factors such as economic and political governance, conservation policies were later shaped by international conservation discourse. Also, the operational sphere of such policy ideas and narratives ˗ including actors, resources, discourses, and rules ˗ along with trends, priorities, institutional arrangements, and driving factors of ER policies, has changed over time. Further, the exclusion of deprived communities and the capture of conservation benefits by elites have undermined conservation values. This research stresses the importance of a judicious balance between people's welfare and nature's integrity, emphasizing community-based natural resource management models accredited to a conservation standard. We further urge the revision of displacement-oriented conservation policies to secure the rights of Indigenous people and traditional landholders, thereby ensuring conservation and sustainable development at both national and global levels.

Reformy instytucjonalne Unii Gospodarczej i Walutowej po 2010 r. – ocena zasadności i efektywności wprowadzonych rozwiązań na gruncie teorii optymalnych obszarów walutowych

INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS OF THE ECONOMIC AND MONETARY UNION IMPLEMENTED AFTER 2010: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NEW ARRANGEMENTS ON THE GROUNDS OF THE THEORY OF OPTIMUM CURRENCY AREAS The economic shocks over the last 15 years revealed low effectiveness of macroeconomic adjustment mechanisms, as manifested by growing imbalances in the current accounts, public finances, and labour markets of the euro zone economies. The essence of the institutional reforms introduced after 2010 was to improve the mechanisms for stabilizing macroeconomic balances, as well as to increase the resilience of the EMU economies to future disturbances, especially those of a systemic nature. New solutions have a strong basis in the theory of optimum currency areas, as well as in institutional economics. The effects of the new institutional arrangements indicate a substantial improvement in the resilience of credit institutions to economic shocks, however, other macroeconomic risks remain.

KELEMBAGAAN DAN KEWENANGAN PENGADILAN NIAGA TENTANG UPAYA HUKUM KEBERATAN TERHADAP PUTUSAN KOMISI PENGAWAS PERSAINGAN USAHA

Article 24A (5) of the 1945 Constitution regulates the composition, position, membership, and procedural law of the Supreme Court and subordinate judicial bodies. Initially limited to bankruptcy, postponement of debt payment obligations (PKPU), and commercial matters by Law Number 37 of 2004, the jurisdiction of the Commercial Court has expanded through other laws. This expansion raises two key issues: (1) The need for legal remedies for objections to decisions of the Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU), and (2) The competence of the Commercial Court to address these objections. This research uses a normative juridical method, suggesting that legal remedies for objections to KPPU decisions should be regulated in a separate law, addressing decisions from institutions beyond the judiciary’s jurisdiction. The procedural aspects for contesting KPPU decisions, outlined in Article 45 of the Omnibus Law Number 6 of 2023, should first be determined within the competence of the Commercial Court as regulated by law. The current institutional arrangements and authority of the Commercial Court, as outlined in the Bankruptcy and PKPU Laws and laws on Intellectual Property Rights, should be revised through a dedicated Law on Commercial Courts. This law should define the court's structure, powers, procedural rules, and set time limits and sanctions for case resolution at both the Commercial Court and the Supreme Court.

State-led versus market-led: How institutional arrangements impact collaborative governance in participatory urban regeneration in China

Both state-led and market-led institutional arrangements have been experimented in China to form collaborative governance among diverse stakeholders in participatory urban regeneration. Relatively less is known about how institutional arrangements as structural constraints impact the formation of collaborative governance. Building upon Giddens' structuration theory and collaborative governance theory, this paper develops a novel framework that converges on the reciprocity between structural and agency elements and applies it to two residential regeneration cases in Shenzhen. The findings reveal that in residential regeneration, the state-led institutional structure has a greater capacity than the market-led structure to create relational links for community participation. Various factors, including variations in land property rights, path dependencies and institutional certainties, explain the findings. The formation of collaborative governance relies on the shaping effect of structural elements on agents' behaviors in institutional design, including well-designed rules to regulate sanctions, constitute common meaning and premium-allocated resources in accordance with stakeholders’ responsibilities. These findings contribute to a better understanding of collaborative governance and help improve participatory urban regeneration policymaking in China.

Five worlds of social reproduction after the new millennium: placing transitional China in a three-dimensional model of social reproduction

Since the late 2000s, China has accelerated reconstruction of the welfare state against the backdrop of the second transition. Following a typological approach, this study proposes an analytical framework for assessing varieties of social reproduction before delving into a comparative look at China’s national institutional framework, in which China is regarded as a transitional economy and a late bloomer. As represented in three dimensions, countries have production regimes that diverge in the degree of coordination, welfare regimes that differ in the degree of decommodification, and labor reproduction regimes that vary in the degree of depatriarchalization. We investigate the convergence and divergence of advanced economies, transitional economies, and the emerging economies of East Asian countries. Hierarchical cluster analysis and a three-dimensional map illustrate the varieties of regimes at the intersections of production, welfare, and reproduction. With the help of institutional complementarities, five worlds of social reproduction are distinguished: the late blooming, the liberal, the catch-up/transitional, the conservative, and the social democratic. China’s production regime converges with that of continental Europe and Post-Socialist societies based on institutional arrangements of nonmarket coordination; however, limited income maintenance and redistribution policies, the absence of family-friendly policies, and the regendering of the division of labor make China’s institutional mix appear more compatible with East Asian societies than Western ones. The institutional complementarities between the welfare and labor reproduction regimes reveal a social reproduction scenario that is less than purely late blooming.

Stabilization and Service: The Evolutionary Logic of Grassroots Governance in Guilin (1930-1944)

The Republican period was a time of intense social changes and complex conflicts in modern China. The New Gui system ruled Guangxi for 24 years after the rise of the National Revolution in the 1920s, and its grassroots construction experience provided a reference basis for the national government's local governance policy. Taking the removal of Guilin as a county and the establishment of a city in 1940 as the dividing line, the period of grassroots governance exploration in Guilin can be divided into the county government period and the municipal period. The historical background, mission objectives, value orientation, policy requirements, institutional arrangements and governance performance of Guilin's grassroots governance in different periods are different. Taking history as a guide, reviewing the experience of Guilin's grassroots governance during the new Guilin rule period is still of great significance for the current sustained promotion of Guilin's urban development and construction.

How Can Community Autonomy under the Guidance of Party Building be Possible?

Leading Party building is the basic institutional arrangement of community governance in the new era. By constructing a multi-logic analysis framework, taking G community in rural area of Anhui as an example, the paper systematically analyzes how the leadership of Party building promotes the realization of community autonomy. The findings are as follows: political parties break down the contradictions and divide governance boundaries through a series of political mechanisms, so as to achieve the purpose of social integration; At the same time, the assessment target system and personnel system in the government organization provide effective administrative means for the realization of the intention of the ruling party. Finally, through the construction of public space and the cultivation of social organizations to reshape the community governance structure, stimulate the vitality of community governance. Therefore, the essence of community autonomy led by party building is the transformation process of subject behavior from isolation to benign interaction, relationship structure from "atomization" to organic connection, and institutional logic from discrete to co-evolution.

Uncovering REDD Plus in Brazil

This article delves into the evolution of Brazil’s REDD+ architecture. We explore how, despite initial challenges like the lack of a global consensus and the complexities of multi-level negotiations, Brazil has transformed REDD+ into a “boundary object”—a concept that bridges diverse institutions. Consequently, a rich tapestry of institutional arrangements has emerged for Brazilian REDD+ projects. The study, drawing on interviews, literature reviews, and action research, sheds light on a critical aspect: the reliance on auditing firms for project reports. This dependence, the research finds, can introduce inconsistencies, making it difficult to accurately assess project compliance with established standards. By tracing REDD+ from its international negotiation roots to its current operationalization in Brazil, this article aims to illuminate key insights into the mechanism itself.

Framework and Function of Integrated Water Resources Management in Support of Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development Goal 6 addresses water issues, and Target 6.5.1 sets a goal to implement integrated water resources management (IWRM) at all levels. The reporting system shows slow progress, which indicates that changes are needed. The assessments focus mainly on the function of IWRM as a framework of institutional arrangements and less on its function as a process for water resources management, with emphasis on practices like multi-objective planning and stakeholder participation. While IWRM has a rich body of knowledge and wide recognition among water management communities, it is still misunderstood and criticized by some stakeholders, even after 25 years of explanations. While its support base appears stable, indications of fatigue and waning interest in IWRM point to the need for fresh explanations and demonstrations. These can be facilitated by distinguishing the functionalities of IWRM as a framework and a process. SDG data focuses on its framework function, which generally tracks the status of environmental governance in countries. Case studies provide better indicators of its use as a process, but their narratives may not be persuasive. If educators adopt the framework and function model of IWRM advocated in the paper, the narratives can improve and facilitate greater acceptance. Advancement of IWRM implementation to support the Sustainable Development Goals requires continued support by the Global Water Partnership, which might be bolstered by cooperation with international water associations for standardization, accreditation, and credentialing. IWRM’s future implementation will also depend on its adoption among educators and on interdisciplinary approaches.

How does housing affordability affect migration intentions of married migrant workers? Social integration as a mediating variable

Increasing migrant workers’ belongingness to the locality is an important step in accelerating high-quality urbanization. Settlement intention can largely indicate this sense of belongingness, which is crucially affected by housing and social integration. Although the settlement intention of migrant workers has been widely investigated, inadequate attention has been paid to hukou transfer intention, which reflects the unique institutional arrangement in China. As family migration has become a trend, this study aims to investigate the two-dimensional migration intentions of married migrant workers in China, i.e. settlement intention and hukou transfer intention, and the mediating role of social integration between housing affordability and migration intentions. Based on the data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey 2017, the structural equation modelling was employed. Furthermore, four dimensions of social integration were examined (economic, social relation, cultural and psychological). The overall hukou transfer intention of married migrant workers was found to be low, whereas the settlement intention was relatively high. Social integration partially mediated the relationship between housing affordability and migration intentions. The regional characteristics of original and inflow places should be given special attention because they substantially affect married migrant workers’ levels of social integration and migration intentions.

The Construction of Order for Social Organizations to Carry out Social Innovation: Evolutionary Logic, Operational Mechanism and Path Choice

Social innovation refers to the innovative phenomenon of bringing new solutions and development opportunities in the field of social development through changes in the way of thinking, technical means and management mode by means of social forces such as organizations, institutions and social groups. During the 30 years of reform and opening up, the innovation practices led by social organizations and the social networks they build have gradually become an important main body of social innovation in China. The article analyzes the course of change of the management system of social organizations from the perspective of historical institutionalism, places the social innovation led by social organizations in the three-dimensional analytical framework of “system-course-behavior”, and examines the logical evolution of the order of social innovation and the mechanism of social innovation along the trajectory of the interaction between the government and social organizations. Under the operating mechanism consisting of the institutional arrangement of the authoritative body, spontaneous exploration and dynamic strategic choice of social organizations, the benign interaction between the government and society can reduce the cost and risk of social innovation, reduce the loss of resources and vicious competition, and achieve the balance and stability of social innovation order.

Shaping Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan

During the shaping of Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), an environment conducive to the creation of institutional arrangements for socio-centric governance was established. However, these arrangements were not enduring and could not modify the specific path dependency of state-centric governance arrangements. This research presents and analyzes perceptions regarding the extent and way Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) were engaged in the shaping process of Romania’s NRRP. Based on semi-structured interviews with the relevant CSOs, factors that have influenced the involvement of CSOs in shaping Romania’s NRRP about other European fund programming processes, the lessons learned from this process, as well as possibilities of enhancing the current governance regime specific to European funds management were examined.

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

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

Breaking barriers and bridging gaps: the influence of entrepreneurship policies on women’s entry into entrepreneurship

PurposeHow does the interplay between entrepreneurship policies and both formal and informal gender equality affect women’s inclination towards self-employment in contrast to men?Design/methodology/approachThis study introduces and validates a comprehensive multi-level model underpinned by symbolic interactionism, institutional theory, and the nuances of gendered institutions. Employing innovative analytical techniques and leveraging data from 66 countries, we scrutinize how formal and informal gendered institutional arrangements either inhibit or facilitate an environment favorable to women’s entrepreneurial activities.FindingsSignificantly, our research delves into the nuanced effects of specific entrepreneurship policies across diverse nations. While these policies can bridge the gendered resource gap, a profound understanding of broader gender dynamics is crucial for fostering an inclusive entrepreneurial landscape.Originality/valueOur insights advocate for a more integrated approach to bolster women’s participation in entrepreneurship, thus furthering their socio-economic progression.

Employee emotional investment: An institutional logic perspective

Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, institutional logic, and institutional arrangements, this study conceptualized and examined employee emotional investment as an important factor that influenced hospitality employee job and personal outcomes. In Study 1 (N=211), the reliability of the modified employee emotional investment scale was examined. In Study 2 (N=250), first using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) the reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the measure was confirmed. Second, partial-least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis of hospitality employees revealed that their emotional investment affected their work attitudes and behaviors. Organizational service climate and employee hierarchy in the organization were identified as significant antecedents of emotional investment. Emotional investment directly influenced employee resilience, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), organizational commitment, and employee engagement. Emotional investment indirectly affected employee subjective wellbeing, whereas organizational commitment and employee engagement showed full mediation effects. The findings extended COR theory and revealed employee emotional investment as a distinct form of employee organizational behavior. Practical implications for hospitality managers are provided.

How institutionalisation of a movement fosters protest: The case of student protests in France

ABSTRACT This paper explains how institutionalisation can go hand in hand with the use of more disruptive tactics by social actors. Inspired by a feminist conceptualisation of the social movement institutionalisation process, we adopt a fluid definition of the state-society division and attend to show how institutional actors and groups negotiate their relationships at different scales of protest. To illustrate our argument, we take a closer look at the student movement in France. Based on the analysis of higher education policies between 2005 and 2016, and 16 semi-structured interviews conducted with key actors, we identify a process of partial institutionalisation whereby student organisations are regulated by different material conditions depending on the scale of protest. These material conditions, translated trough institutional arrangements, shape the ways in which student organisations build identity boundaries among them, thereby leading to the use of different tactics of protest.

ჰიდრომელიორაციის ინსტიტუციური მოწყობის საერთაშორისო მოდელები და საქართველო

At the current stage of development, special attention should be focused on maximum realization of the country's food potential. It is important for Georgia to overcome food shortage, to provide the population with affordable, diverse, harmless, high-quality and sufficient food. Industrialization of agriculture and its transformation into a high-tech industry stand as guarantee that the country will meet its food requirements. In addition, it is important to take into account that not only expansion of agricultural land is limited, but on the contrary, it is even decreasing due to escalation of urbanization process. The solution lies in the high-performance use of agricultural lands and increasing of per hectare yield. There is only one way to achieve this goal – land use efficiency. In order to make full use of land and secure high yields of agricultural crops, additional human labor and agro-cultural measures are often required to give a specific soil the properties that other soils possess under the best natural conditions. Such lands require significant improvement (melioration). The proposed paper provides an analysis of the current state of agricultural hydromelioration in Georgia. Economic innovative proposals for the use of agromelioration have been developed on the basis of generalization of international best practices. This research dwells upon the experience of foreign countries from the point of view of institutional arrangement. We tried to select the countries based on the principle that the best practices of all continents should be represented. From Latin American countries, we studied the institutional arrangement of Mexico in the field of irrigation, from the European countries – the experience of Portugal, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine; on the Eurasian continent target country was Russia, in the Caucasus - Armenia, in Asia Minor - Turkey, in the Middle East - Israel, in Asia - China, South Korea and Japan, on the Australian continent – Australia proper. Such variegated selection showed us the specifics of institutional structures in different countries, despite their varying development histories and paths taken in the field of irrigation and drainage. From the point of view of institutional arrangement, several distinct classification markers have been identified, highlighting similarities between specific countries and allowing to group them according to these markers. In particular, we can group countries according to the type of institutional arrangement in terms of management - centralized or decentralized.

Making Global Climate Action work for nature and people: Priorities for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience

There is increasing recognition in science and policy that the current nature and climate change crises are highly intertwined, and that these need to be jointly addressed. Within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Race to Zero (R2Z) and the Race to Resilience (R2R) campaigns foster climate action by cities, regions, businesses, investors, and civil society organizations for mitigation and adaptation. The campaigns are part of UNFCCC-backed institutional arrangements linking intergovernmental climate governance with actions beyond national commitments to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement, also referred to as the Global Climate Action Agenda (GCAA). Both mobilization campaigns highlight and promote the contribution of nature to climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. Yet, the integration of nature in climate ambition is more complex than indicated in the calls to action. We here identify key areas of concern in the alignment of climate and biodiversity goals, discussing the biophysical and socio-ecological considerations relative to (i) practices for enhancing land-based and marine sinks to limit warming; (ii) the unpredictability of biodiversity dynamics under climate change; (iii) the spatial scale at which actions can be implemented; and (iv) the types of metrics that can be used for tracking progress. We provide recommendations for the two mobilization campaigns to integrate in their criteria and metrics frameworks to support effective and equitable actions that deliver for climate, but also for nature and people. We then make a call to action for transdisciplinary knowledge production and dissemination that strengthens science-policy interactions.