Introduction Of New Actors Research Articles

Unfavorable epidemiological situation as an intensifier of digitalization of higher education

The relevance of the article is determined by the need to analyze the changes that occurred in higher education institutions in the area of the use of digital technology during and after the pandemic. Within the framework of this research, we conducted a content-analysis of the websites and curricula of Volgograd higher education institutions and a questionnaire survey of students in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the use of digital technology and e-learning in the modern context. Digitalization came into the process of the management of higher education institutions long ago, however, rapid changes in e-learning have occurred in the last two years, which was confirmed in the results of our study. 70-80% of students' independent work was transferred to electronic form, the classroom workload is replaced with online lessons, the teaching methods change: the use of mixed learning as well as blended and flipped learning increases. The results of the study make us think about the excessive enthusiasm for e-learning, possibilities and risks of its use. Digital education brings significant changes in the role of professors and students in the process of learning, which requires appropriate adaptation and causes changes in the management of the organizations and the introduction of new actors in the educational process. At the institutional level, our conclusions indicate the need to support the academic staff in the area of methodological and technical assistance since the process of digital transformation of higher education institutions is irreversible and its intensiveness continues to grow.

New actors and new learning spaces for new times: a framework for schooling that extends beyond the school.

Taking the ‘breakdown’ in regular schooling as a result of the Covid pandemic as a catalyst to reimagine education, this article formulates a theoretical framework, using design research, that enables a fundamental reconceptualization and introduction of new actors into the space of schooling, which is a learning environment that traditionally has maintained rigid boundaries. Recommendations are proposed for bridging formal and nonformal education for practitioners and policymakers, bringing together teachers and youth workers to co-construct a learning environment. In creating a prototype for learning that involves a more joined-up and connected paradigm in education, as well as bridging the gap between learning in formal and non-formal contexts, we create a shift towards reimagining and recognising the importance of a holistic view of education by re-evaluating and supporting a broader range of actors who can participate in the education of children and young people.

Community Pharmacists and Influenza Vaccination: Opportunities and Challenges From a Public Health Perspective

Context: In Quebec, Bill 31, adopted on March 18, 2020, extended vaccination to pharmacists. Despite many advantages, this new practice comes with public health issues reinforced in the context of COVID-19. Therefore, it is essential to understand the opportunities and challenges of the participation of community pharmacists in influenza vaccination, from a public health perspective by (i) describing the year of 2020-2021 influenza vaccination offer, (ii) its opportunities and challenges, and (iii) its impact on the accessibility of this service newly offered by pharmacists to the most vulnerable people. Methods: This research is a case study from one of the most affected areas by COVID-19 in Canada: Laval. Our method combines documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with health professionals and public health actors (n = 23). Researchers used a thematic analysis to analyze these results. Results: Most partners (pharmacists, public health administrators) underlined multiple opportunities of this new practice, ie, pharmacists who can vaccinate, particularly for chronically ill patients. However, structural and strategical challenges remain. More specifically, vaccination seemed to only rely on a “first come, first served” basis, which questions public health objectives of vaccination, such as equitable access. Conclusion: The introduction of new actors, such as pharmacists, represents a major opportunity to improve vaccination coverage and reduce the burden of COVID-19 on the health system. However, this delegation of a public health activity to the private sector undoubtedly requires closer coordination with public health institutions.

First do no harm: An exploration of researchers' ethics of conduct in Big Data behavioral studies.

Research ethics has traditionally been guided by well-established documents such as the Belmont Report and the Declaration of Helsinki. At the same time, the introduction of Big Data methods, that is having a great impact in behavioral research, is raising complex ethical issues that make protection of research participants an increasingly difficult challenge. By conducting 39 semi-structured interviews with academic scholars in both Switzerland and United States, our research aims at exploring the code of ethics and research practices of academic scholars involved in Big Data studies in the fields of psychology and sociology to understand if the principles set by the Belmont Report are still considered relevant in Big Data research. Our study shows how scholars generally find traditional principles to be a suitable guide to perform ethical data research but, at the same time, they recognized and elaborated on the challenges embedded in their practical application. In addition, due to the growing introduction of new actors in scholarly research, such as data holders and owners, it was also questioned whether responsibility to protect research participants should fall solely on investigators. In order to appropriately address ethics issues in Big Data research projects, education in ethics, exchange and dialogue between research teams and scholars from different disciplines should be enhanced. In addition, models of consultancy and shared responsibility between investigators, data owners and review boards should be implemented in order to ensure better protection of research participants.

Transición ecológica y extractivismo de litio en Chile

El presente artículo plantea analizar la transición ecológica global y sus implicancias en la escala local de la cuenca del salar de Atacama en Chile. Como punto de partida, se reflexiona en torno a la transición hacia la movilidad eléctrica que articula un proceso de extractivismo de litio que genera degradación ambiental, afectando la disponibilidad hídrica y las formas de relación con la naturaleza del pueblo indígena lickanantay. El artículo se divide en cuatro partes: en la primera, fundamentalmente de revisión documental en torno al nuevo modelo de desarrollo sustentable, analizamos cómo este se articula a un proceso extractivista en países de la periferia del desarrollo. En la segunda, examinamos datos estadísticos para comprender la importancia de Sudamérica como fuente de litio en los flujos económicos de escala global. En tercer lugar, profundizamos en el trabajo de terreno en cuanto a un análisis de discurso de la introducción de nuevos actores y la confrontación de estos a la perspectiva del pueblo lickanantay. Finalmente, proponemos un análisis desde la matriz teórica de la ecología política para indagar la gobernanza hídrica e identificar implicancias del proceso de degradación medioambiental constatadas a partir de los relatos de actores indígenas sobre el proceso de transformación.

The Legal Profession in the Era of Digital Capitalism: Disruption or New Dawn?

This article investigates the impact of what we label “digital capitalism” on the structure and organization of the legal profession. We explore whether the rise of digital capitalism is transforming the dynamics of the legal field by the introduction of new actors and ways of practicing law, which might challenge the traditional control (and monopoly) of jurists on the production of law. We find that not only have new service providers already entered the legal market, but also new on-line tools for solving legal disputes or producing legal documents are gaining a foothold. Similarly, we also find that new intelligent search systems are challenging the role of junior lawyers and paralegals with regard to reviewing large sets of documents. However, big data techniques deployed to predict future courts’ decisions are not yet advanced enough to pose a challenge. Overall, we argue that these developments will not only change legal practices, but are also likely to influence the internal structure and organization of the legal field. In particular, we argue that the processes of change associated with digitalization is further accelerating the economization and commodification of the practice of law, whereby lawyers are decreasingly disinterested brokers in society and defenders of the public good, and increasingly service firms at the cutting edge of the capitalist economy. These developments are also triggering new forms of stratification of the legal field. While some legal actors will likely benefit from digitalization and expand their business, either by integrating new technologies to reach more clients or by developing new niche areas of practices, the more routinized forms of legal practice are facing serious challenges and will most likely be replaced by technology and associated service firms.

Tensions in the transition: The politics of electricity distribution in South Africa

This paper argues that the distribution of electricity represents an important yet neglected aspect of the politics of energy transitions. In recent years, South Africa’s electricity sector has seen the introduction of new actors and technologies, including the ‘prosumer’ (producer–consumer) of electricity and small-scale embedded generation from roof-top solar photovoltaics. We analyse these recent developments in historical context and consider implications for contemporary planning, regulation and ownership of electricity. We find that the reconfiguration of electricity distribution faces significant political and economic challenges that are rooted in the country’s socio-economic and racial inequalities and its heavy dependence on coal-fired power. First small-scale embedded generation offers potential opportunities for affordable, decentralised, low-carbon energy, yet disruption to the coal-powered electric grid and the monopoly of South Africa’s electricity utility has been minimal to date. Second, small-scale embedded generation creates tensions between equitable and low-carbon energy transitions and threatens critical revenue from the country’s wealthy consumers that cross-subsidises electricity services for the poor and other municipal public services. Third, the South African experience queries common assumptions about the democratic potential of decentralised governance. Fourth, South Africa provides insights of global significance into how political institutions have responded to social and technological drivers of change, in a context where planning and regulation have followed rather than led infrastructural developments. While energy policy remains unresponsive or resistant to social and technological change, there remain significant political, economic, technical and regulatory challenges to a just and inclusive energy transition.

Contesting Financial Inclusion

ABSTRACTThis contribution critically assesses financial inclusion as an intervention in the development space. It examines the turn from microfinance to financial inclusion, with the introduction of new actors and practices; new ideas and ideologies; new theories of change; and new expectations toward clients. It then considers three key issues and contests the arguments made by proponents of financial inclusion about them: first, the argument that financial inclusion facilitates broader development outcomes; second, the claim that poor people gain poverty alleviation through financial inclusion; and third, the suggestion that financial inclusion is good business. In all three areas, the author highlights shortcomings in the evidence base and argues that high expectations of financial inclusion serving as a core pro‐poor, private‐sector led development intervention lack justification. Rather, financial inclusion should be recognized as a contested and contestable enterprise.

Report from the "What is Publishing?" (1) Workgroup

The mechanisms used for scholarly publishing have remained largely unchanged over time, even as we’ve moved from a print-based world to a digital world. The scholarly communication ecosystem, however, is now undergoing a period of rapid transformation, including the introduction of new actors, new services, and increased pressure to improve the means of scholarly communication in order to meet the growing expectations of an information-rich world. Where to begin? The first question is to ask how scholarly publishing can provide the greatest benefit to global society in a sustainable way. Our two-day conversation about this question led us to the conclusion that the “black box,” monolithic model of scholarly publishing no longer serves most researchers. The most sustainable approach that best responds to the needs of authors and researchers today, and that may also pose the least amount of risk in completely disrupting the system, is disaggregated services—unbundling the products and services that publishers currently provide and letting market forces drive the development of, and demand for, a new and improved à la carte world of knowledge artifacts and knowledge management tools.OSI2016 Workshop QuestionWhat do we mean by publishing in today’s world? What should be the goals of scholarly publishing? What are the ideals to which scholarly publishing should aspire? What roles might scholarly publishers have in the future? What scenarios exist where publishers continue to play a vital role but information moves more freely? What impact might these reforms have on the health of publishers? Scholarly societies? Science research? Why?

Bandas de congo e política oficial: cenários de tradições e transformações estéticas corporais

The objective was to analyze groups of congo in the city of Vitoria – State of Espirito Santo, regarding their structure elements, such as: body expressions, introduction of new actors and their relation with the Government. An open interview was conducted with three leaders and the analysis were guided according to categories and concepts identified in the answers of the interviewees, according to minayo (2007). The results showed that the introduction of new actors in the group caused transformation in the body expressions among these young people and their relation with the Government, which enabled the groups to acquire new body esthetics. Functions and participation of the actor role type in the analyzed groups were identified. Collectively, the body expressions do not have destination of role types, but, individually, congo reproduces it.

Rule tensions and the dynamics of institutional change: From ‘to the victor go the spoils’ to the Stimson Doctrine

When and under what conditions do norms and rules change? Dominant conceptions of institutional change in International Relations theory are based on the idea that it is the result of a shift in power: new actors become able to impose their vision on the world. However, the source of change need not be the power or preferences of actors in society, but could come from the internal dynamics of the rule system governing these actors. This article develops recent research in this area by linking Sandholtz’s model of norm change to recent dynamic institutionalist work and exploring and specifying particular mechanisms, or types of tensions, in rule systems that produce change. Institutions and complexes of rules exhibit rule tensions: inconsistencies, ambiguities, and inadequacies that can lead to disputes over the application of the rules. Actors then have to solve problems or disputes over rule interpretation. Change can thus occur without the introduction of new actors or a shift in the power of existing actors. I apply these ideas to a significant change in the rules of war in the early 20th century: the shift from the rule ‘to the victor go the spoils’ to the Stimson Doctrine, or the rule that states should not profit from aggression.

A MÍDIA E A POLÍTICA EXTERNA NO BRASIL DE LULA

This article looks at this new relationship, in the light of two concurrent trends: the pluralization of actors with stakes in foreign policy; and an active presidential diplomacy (CASON AND POWER 2009). We argue that, more than just a battlefield of ideas, Brazil’s most prominent media vehicles have played an active role against Lula’s foreign policy, although they had but a limited agenda-setting capacity. To this end, the text will be divided in four sections. The first one deals with the recent developments of foreign policymaking in Brazil, and seeks to understand how the introduction of new actors and institutions has affected the political balance behind the country’s external relations. The second provides an overview of Lula’s foreign policy strategies and their relationship with presidential diplomacy. The third offers some data on the behavior of two selected newspapers, Folha de São Paulo (FSP) and O Estado de São Paulo (OESP), on foreign policy issues. The third and final section compares media reactions to Brazil’s relations with the United States, most specifically regarding negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and to some aspects of Brazilian South-South cooperation, and discusses the most relevant results.

The Buenos Aires Central Wholesale Market (BACWN): A Case of Multiple Power

The Buenos Aires Central Wholesale Market is a place where a lot of social and political relationships with different degrees of power are developed. Since this market was opened in 1984, the participating actors have faced several internal and external transformations, such as the implementation of neo liberal policies, changes in the Market’s administrative rules and the introduction of new actors in the retail distribution chain. Therefore, this article shows how international economic processes and policies become embedded in local distribution systems, and focuses on the spatial and social variability, i.e. the multiplicity of local social actors and interests involved in the globalization process. The article aims at exploring the creation of the Buenos Aires Central Wholesale Market as a constructed process linked with different kinds of social and political interests and motivations. In this respect, we combined the theoretical framework of political economy and the actor-oriented approach along with different ethnographic tools. The first one helps us to analyse the macro-dynamics of the market, whereas the second one allows us to analyse how people experience global processes in this particular social space. By doing so, we studied the strategies that actors developed in order to confront changes. Since the opening of the Buenos Aires Wholesale Market, these changes have modified the degree of economic and social relevance of the Market, thus generating different degrees of power in the actors involved

El mercado de trabajo de los cuidados y la creación de las cadenas globales de cuidado: ¿cómo concilian las cuidadoras?

last few years Spain has been developing a new equilibrium in relation to the responsibilities of care. This is based, mainly, on the introduction of new actors to take responsibility of this activity. The new socio-economic reality implies that women not longer take the solely responsibility of these functions and, therefore, it becomes necessary to delegate them to other people: the care workers. A new labour market has consequently been generated, bringing many consequences to the ways families get organized. Migrant women constitute the big majority of the labour force of this new market, and besides being care workers they can also be mothers themselves. In many occasions, their children remain in the countries of origin giving place to an international process of relations known as global care chains.

The Global Compact's Contribution to Global Governance Revisited

The United Nations Global Compact (GC) is an international learning network that links companies with United Nations agencies, labour and civil society. Neither a regulatory regime nor a voluntary code of industry conduct, it is a unique contribution to the process of global governance, where the traditional rules of the political game are being challenged by the introduction of new actors and new methods of political coordination in the political arena. As a first step, this paper examines the origins, mission and objectives of the initiative and relates them to the current organizational structure. As a second step, the progress on organizational and collective learning through the GC is explored. Here, the paper illustrates how the revised organizational structure has helped to improve both organizational and collective learning efforts. However, the potential of the GC's local networks has apparently still not been fully exploited. In summary, the innovative, incomparable and flexible opportunities of the GC's engagement mechanisms appear to simultaneously be the major strength and chief weakness of the initiative. The paper concludes that the future success or failure of the GC will hinge upon the initiative's ability to make substantial progress in quantitative (number of participating companies) and qualitative (value of participation) terms.

Ideas, Bureaucratic Politics, and the Crafting of Foreign Policy

ined by comparing the evolution of the Peace Corps and the State Department Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. J deas have taken on a renewed prominence in the international relations literature. There are several mechanisms through which ideas are supposed to influence preferences and outcomes, but one of the most important is that they are implanted into institutions. Scholars that emphasize constructivism (Finnemore 1996; Checkel 1997), epistemic communities (Hall 1989; Haas 1992), or other approaches (Goldstein 1993; Goldstein and Keohane 1993) have highlighted the role of institutions in pursuing ideational agendas. While this is a plausible explanation for how ideas persist and determine foreign policy, it is incomplete. Nothing is said about the strategies these institutions must pursue in order to survive and thrive in a world of competing ideas and institutions. Such an explanation assumes that once idea-infused institutions are created, the story is over. The bureaucraticpolitics paradigm suggests that the story is just starting. Bloomfield notes, For it is then that an idea, however morally powerful and however authentically grounded in the national political epistemology, encounters the instruments, the forces, and the fallible (or obstreperous) human beings who implement (or thwart) ... foreign policy programs (1982, 2). How do idea-infused institutions survive and thrive? How successful are they at promoting their ideas after their political sponsors pass from the scene? This article will argue that the placement of institutions in the foreign-policy structure helps to determine their ability to survive and thrive, but in contradictory ways. Idea-infused or institutions possessing structural insulation from the influence of other organizations are more likely to survive in a manner consistent with their founding ideas. Insulation permits the agency to develop an organizational culture dedicated to the founding idea, preventing the introduction of competing ideas or tactics. However, this insulation also lessens the missionary institution's influence over the crafting of foreign policy. Preexisting bureaucracies will automatically resist the introduction of new actors into the policy mix and