Legitimation Process Research Articles

Key perceptions associated with attitudes towards water reuse in a Swedish town

Abstract As climate change and urbanization affect current water management systems, new solutions and approaches rooted in public acceptance are needed to ensure future water supply. In this study, we examine public attitudes to reuse of recycled water and associated worldviews, values, and perceptions in a site without historical water issues. A survey of 143 randomly sampled residents in the municipality of the growing Swedish town Knivsta revealed that 81.4% of the respondents had a positive attitude towards using recycled water in general. The results did not indicate any differences in attitudes between those living in and outside the municipality's urban areas. Perceived benefits and risks were found to be significantly related to both attitudes towards using recycled water in general and to the extreme case of using it for drinking purposes. Additionally, trust in public authorities was highly predictive of attitudes towards drinking recycled water. Furthermore, attitudes were found to be related to an environmental worldview and underlying biospheric, altruistic, and hedonic values. This indicates a need to consider the intended purpose as well as engaging with underlying values as part of the technology legitimation process for improving the chances of successful implementation of water recycling technologies.

The art of (self)legitimization: how private museums help their founders claim legitimacy as elite actors

This article explores private art museums’ role for elite legitimization processes. Based on interviews with founders, directors, and curators of Germany-based private museums, I explore the discourses participants invoke to legitimize museum founders as actors in the artworld and as elites generally. I draw out a two-pronged legitimation strategy. First, respondents posit private museums’ increasingly important role for today’s art ecosystem, implying logics of discursive innovation and organizational flexibility vis-à-vis public museums. Second, interviewees construct intra-group status hierarchies via notions of the autonomous and ethical collector-founder versus other ostentatious private collectors and unethical wealth elites more widely. Together, these narratives effectively conflate seemingly opposite discourses of private entrepreneurialism and authenticity, allowing interviewees to signal legitimacy for founders over both public and other private actors. This elite legitimation work is performed by both founders and those institutionally connected to them, showing how legitimization can be a complex and institutionally mediated process.

Advancing co-production for transformative change by synthesizing guidance from case studies on the sustainable management and governance of natural resources

Co-production has become paramount for scientists, practitioners and social groups of Indigenous peoples and local communities of rural and urban areas to deliver transformative changes that enhance sustainability. Co-production should result in knowledge that is credible, legitimate and usable to enable sustainable outcomes effectively. However, this is not always the case due to challenges related to differences between scientific and Indigenous and local knowledge, as well as inherent power imbalances. The literature emphasises that these challenges are often triggered by rigid scientific theories and postures, dominant practices, and time-money limitations that co-production projects involve. This happens despite the adoption of guidelines recommended in the literature. We investigate the role of these challenges and guidelines in the generation of credible, legitimate, usable, and effective knowledge. We analyse this role in 13 co-production cases focused on sustainable transformative changes linked with the management and governance of natural resources across the globe. Despite challenges varying between groups and contexts, credibility, usability, and effectiveness are promoted simultaneously, especially when co-production empowers social actors via legitimate processes. Scientists and practitioners do so, through creative and flexible reshaping of existing knowledge and worldviews with a focus on common goals that link sustainability and livelihoods. They conceptualise a mutual understanding of knowledge and that is deemed trustworthy feasible to use in their socioecological context. Our findings complement existing scholarship on co-production, exploring the credibility of situated knowledge and its practical effectiveness together with its commonly addressed legitimacy and usability. A focus on the practices of different actors, including dynamics that are external to co-production, and changes in the scientific and social status quo, are needed to advance co-production effectiveness.

Granting legitimacy from non‐state actor deliberation: An example of women's groups at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

AbstractNon‐state actors (NSAs) have been widely recognized as important participants in the global climate regime. Their participation is considered to have the potential to enhance the democratic legitimacy of global governance institutions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). What is the mechanism through which NSAs grant legitimacy to the institution? This study connects NSA legitimation with their deliberation at multilateral venues. I argue that, while NSAs do not have formal voting or decision‐making power, evaluating their participation in deliberation activities, such as the Side Events at the annual Conference of Parties, can shed light on our understanding of whether there is equality in their participation and who gets to contribute to the institutional legitimacy of the UNFCCC. Drawing on the example of women's groups at the UNFCCC, I demonstrate their increasing participation in deliberation. Quantitative analysis and interviews suggest that their participation is relatively inclusive with a diverse range of actors and viewpoints. Although Global Northern NSAs enjoy some advantages in participation, the effect is balanced by NSAs' social embeddedness, especially for the Southern groups, and the robust collaborations between the North and South. These features are likely to enhance the legitimacy of UNFCCC. Future research should consider how to understand and assess legitimacy in global governance regimes and who may be left out in the legitimation process.

Antecedents of successful diffusion of breakthrough innovations past the formative phase: Perceptions of innovation-engaged practitioners

Many promising breakthrough innovations (BTIs) fail to diffuse beyond the formative phase, adversely impacting social and economic outcomes. Why this is the case is unclear. We advance knowledge by identifying the general antecedents of innovation success - irrespective of innovation type or phase - shared between at least two of the four principal innovation theories. These shared general antecedents of success underpin a survey instrument used to identify antecedents of successful diffusion of BTIs past the formative phase and the nature of their contribution from the perspective of two different types of practitioners – innovation-engaged entrepreneurs and R&D executives. Ascertaining the views of practitioners is pertinent to determining the utility of theory and its practical applicability. Our analysis points to: (a) the practical utility of the theoretical antecedents of innovation; and (b) the disproportionate influence of some of the general antecedents of success on the diffusion of BTIs past the formative phase. We found that characteristics of interaction, legitimisation process, trust, and catalytic actors play a critical role. On the other hand, effect of formal and informal institution and power asymmetry was ambiguous. Finally, there were differences between perceptions of practitioners pointing to the importance of practitioner type as a contextual factor.

The Impacts of Performance Appraisal on Employee’s Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior

The implementation of performance appraisal is widespread, and it is a significant tool by which organizations can maximize the potential of human resources. The purpose of this study is to investigate how performance appraisal affect employee’s job satisfaction and organizational behavior. The methodology used for this research is a qualitative-library research, entailing the data collections and analyses from published resources such as books, journals, and internet databases. Based on the results, it was found that the experience of a positive performance appraisal raises not only workers’ sense of accomplishment but also self-worth and fosters the trust in the legitimacy process. Furthermore, appraisal assists employee retention by highlighting the company's dedication to address their requirements and support the development. In order to increase job satisfaction and organizational behavior, the study emphasizes the values of giving feedback to employees, defining goals, encouraging employee involvement, and carrying out efficient performance appraisal.

Religion upon the Mountains: From Christianisation to Social Actions against Summit Crosses in Italy

In Italy, the debate regarding the presence of crosses and crucifixes in public places is long-standing and involves their detractors, supporters and defenders. Over time, these conflicting positions have gained media resonance, becoming a sociopolitical controversy that has led to lawsuits at various levels, including the European Court of Human Rights. In the social sphere, the issue has oscillated between the recognition of the universal value of religious symbols and advocacy for secularism, even in open spaces such as mountaintops. During the last few decades, several initiatives have been undertaken in the Italian Alps, driven by ecological concerns and opposition to the presence of crosses on the mountains. These initiatives have resulted in collective actions against the positioning and erection of crosses, and there have even been attempts to diversify the Italian peaks. By providing a historical overview of the Christianisation of Italian mountaintops and focusing on the mobilisation against the presence of crosses, this article contributes to the understanding of the role of such symbols in Italian public opinion, which is intertwined with the vitality of the Catholic Church and the sociopolitical implications of these initiatives. The research questions will investigate the process of legitimisation and delegitimisation of Christian symbols. The cross on the mountaintop serves as an example of culturalised religion, where this cultural object can become a “passive religious symbol,” polarising claims for the defence of the natural environment and the sustainability of religion in the mountains.

Approach to the Method of Myths Analysis (according to R. Bart Methodology) as a Tool for Studying the Process of Legitimation of the Political System on the Example of the Rethinking of the Historical Experience of the USSR in Contemporary Russia

In this article, the author attempts to analyze several basic myths that are based on the events or peculiarities of the historical events of the USSR period, but at the same time have a direct impact on the process of legitimation of the modern political system in Russia. The relevance of this topic is conditioned by the need to scientifically comprehend the existing experience both scientifically and analytically in the formation of the ideological foundations of the statehood of Russia, considering the request for the analysis of the “genetic code” of the Russian political system. As a material for analysis, the author of the article uses generally accepted ideas and artifacts of Russian modernity. The author identified the following three myths for the analysis: St. George’s Ribbon as a symbol of the victory of the USSR over fascism, the Gagarin Monument as a symbol of the breakthrough technological heritage of the USSR and Russia as the successor of this heritage; Economic growth as a symbol of economic determinism embedded in the ideology of Marxism. The identification and determination of the mechanism for the formation of myths based on the historical experience of the USSR has made it possible to identify promising directions for the development of myths in the future.

POSTRESEARCH!

The article addresses the situation of research in art institutions and its contradictions. Can postresearch become a critical impulse for artistic research? The proposition of “postresearch” was first introduced in the European context of artistic research when the 9th Bucharest Biennale, “Farewell to Research”, curated by Henk Slager in 2020 was announced. The philosopher Peter Osborne consequently analyzed the concept of postresearch and its self-contradictory claim of wanting to leave the research paradigm.1 He emphasized that artistic research must fulfil a non-administrative function, as does the “concept of art” by neglecting or revising its form. In comparison, higher education standards and academic legitimation processes of artistic research follow stricter standardization rules (e.g., written supplements). If artistic research neither competes with the “concept of art” (whatever that is?) nor acts as a legitimate science or discipline and furthermore does not escape administration, should these practices reclaim their status as art? Within the unresolved question of how to position artistic research between art and science – or more specifically in the humanities – lies also its attraction, its character or junction for crossing disciplines and critical studies. Artistic research has what the theorist Natalie Loveless called a polydisciplinamorious character which can lead future debates from methodo- logical introspection to collaborate in postresearch practices.

Commentary: Visual Cultures, Publication Technologies, and Legitimation in the Life Sciences.

This paper comments on five articles in the special issue "Circulating Images in the Life Sciences." It sees the papers as unified by two themes. The first is their attention to the processes of legitimation. The second is the embedding of the images in textual cultures, which changed over time from the mid-nineteenth century to the very recent past, most notably with the recent advent of digital culture.

Carbon emissions, carbon disclosure and organizational performance

This study draws on the multi-perspectives of organizational legitimacy theory to investigate the simultaneous association between corporate carbon emissions, carbon disclosure and organizational performance. Based on a sample of 62 UK Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 firms in carbon-sensitive sectors during 2010–2017, we find that carbon emissions are negatively associated with organizational performance, but firms with higher carbon emissions tend to employ more disclosure as a communicative legitimacy process to manage the legitimacy threat in order to conform to institutional pressures and protect the firm value. Cumulatively, carbon disclosure plays a mediating role in the relationship between carbon emissions and organizational performance. Most importantly, this legitimacy effect is more pronounced following the introduction of the UK mandatory carbon reporting regulation in 2013, as a result of the increased corporate capability of carbon disclosure. This study fills the literature gap in the value-protective attribute from resource-based view of organizational legitimacy by providing important insights into corporate carbon disclosure strategy over time.

Making Markets out of Vice: Gambling, Cannabis, and Processes of State Legitimation and Formation in Canada

The legalization of gambling and cannabis and the transformation of these practices/substances into consumer markets are processes of state legitimation, naturalization, and (re)formation in Canada. This article examines the moral-cultural transformation of gambling and cannabis over the last 50 years and analyzes these transformations in terms of state-culture dynamics. Where lotteries were legalized in the context of the welfare state, the expansion of gambling beyond lotteries in the 1990s has occurred as the federal state ceded jurisdiction of gambling to the provinces. The consequence has been the direct role of the provinces in the creation of gambling markets. Notwithstanding the monopolization of cannabis by some provinces, the opening of cannabis to private industry (e.g., sales) has occurred relatively quickly. In its central role in market making, the state, paradoxically, appears to disappear. However, the legalization and expansion of gambling and cannabis represent an increased positioning of the state at the nexus of civic and consumer cultures. State formation around consumption of gambling and cannabis centers on state entrepreneurialism and depends on retaining, yet reinventing, notions of harm with a shift from a generalized morality of nation and national spirit to individual risk calculation.

Dynamics and Constraints of the Start-Up Legitimation Process: Role of Organizational Identification

Dynamics and Constraints of the Start-Up Legitimation Process: Role of Organizational Identification

Re-Examining Auditability through Auditors’ Responses to COVID-19: Roles and Limitations of Improvisation on the Production of Auditing Knowledge

SUMMARY Drawing on Power’s theorization of the logic of auditability as a multidimensional system (Power 1996), we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on auditors’ year-end work from January to April 2020. Based on 24 semistructured interviews with auditing and accounting professionals located in China, we find that all four dimensions of the logic of auditability were destabilized at once. To restore the conditions of auditability during the pandemic, auditors improvised a deviant system of audit knowledge by rearranging the timeline of audit procedures, altering the substance of audit processes, and designing alternative control mechanisms. As the audit profession continues to evolve and more institutional decomposition (or reconfiguration) of the logic of auditability is expected to occur, this study contributes to our understanding of how auditors improvise in the backstage and produce comfort when they have to operate outside the protective umbrella of legitimate processes during sudden change of circumstances.

Egypt’s diaspora policy in the post-June 2013 era as a transnational mechanism of regime legitimation

ABSTRACT This article seeks to explore the question of why and how autocrats update their diaspora policy. Building on scholarship that deals with states’ motivations to engage with ‘their’ diasporas, alongside scholarship that has focused on authoritarian regimes’ durability, the article demonstrates how a regime’s legitimation process takes place in the transnational sphere and illuminates how authoritarian consolidation strategies maintain a constant interaction with the transnational sphere and are fed by it. Presenting an extended case study of Egypt’s diaspora policy under ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, this article demonstrates how the updated policies and discourse, which include positive and negative engagement, are part of regime legitimation strategies and are designed to mobilize support for the post-June 2013 regime and its narrative, both domestically and abroad, and constitute part of the regime’s strategies for consolidating its power.

Theorising political legitimisation: From stasis to processes

Legitimacy remains a key concept in political sociology, and perhaps even more so in lay understandings of political processes and structures, as evidenced by conflict over territories and regimes around the world. However, the concept suffers from a rather static representation, and even when addressed in processual form, in terms of specific moments in the process, such as conditions favouring legitimacy or its effects. Building from an Eliasian perspective, we argue for a more processual concept of legitimisation to encompass the dynamic social networks (figurations) that constitute the more unintentional context for deliberate legitimation claims. As networks expand and intensify, processes of legitimisation incorporate changing and more diverse bases for legitimacy claims, as well as a greater variety of such claims and counterclaims. As the power relations between contending groups change, legitimation practices become part of the integrating functions of the state, shaping figurations and the social habitus.

Literacy in the legitimation process of inclusive education in East-Timor

Neste artigo, buscamos compreender, na ótica da Análise de Discurso Crítica (CHOULIARAKI; FAIRCLOUGH, 1999; FAIRCLOUGH, 2001, 2003; MAGALHÃES, 2012) e dos Estudos do Letramento (STREET, 1984; 1995; 2014)), o currículo nacional do Ensino Básico (2014) de Timor-Leste como prática de letramento. Problematizamos a aplicabilidade das orientações do referido currículo. A metodologia é a Análise de Discurso Textualmente Orientada, adequada ao estudo da educação inclusiva no contexto social diversificado daquele país. Os resultados demonstram um currículo permeado de ideologia, relações de poder, valores e concepções diferencuiadas. Palavras-chaves: Timor-Leste. Discurso e Letramento. Práticas sociais. Texto oficial. Análise de Discurso Textualmente Orientada.

Eternal Blue Vulnerability

Abstract: Many organizations have experienced the damage caused by cyberattacks exploiting Windows vulnerabilities. For operational reasons, the parameters of Windows are still used, especially in the enterprise management system (ICS). In this case, attackers can torture them to spread the disease. Specifically, the vulnerability in MS17-010 was used in attacks to spread malware such as WannaCry ransomware and other malware. Many systems for example, electronic newspapers, payment centres and car manufacturers are used around the world and there is a security vulnerability in Windows that causes serious problems. Since tools like Eternal Blue or Eternal Romance are published on the internet, attackers can easily exploit these vulnerabilities. This tool attacks legitimate processes running on Windows systems. It can be difficult for employees to see the signs of a struggle. Attacks can be mitigated using security updates; however, security updates are sometimes difficult to implement due to their long lifetime and stringent requirements. There are many ways to identify attacks that cause vulnerabilities, such as intrusion detection systems (IDS), but they are sometimes difficult to use because they require prior service. In this research, we propose a method to identify the attack that exploited the vulnerability in MS17-010 by analysing Windows built-in event Logs. This method can detect attacks against almost all supported versions of Windows. It can also be easily integrated into the production environment as it only uses the standard Windows operating system.

Find their country-of-origin Facebook and cross the threshold of overseas legitimacy: a multi-case study of Chinese enterprises

PurposeOwing to dual constraints including liability of foreignness and liability of origin when emerging multinationals internationalize, they inevitably face the challenge of overseas legitimation. However, few studies have explored how latecomers cross the threshold of legitimacy in the dynamic context of transnational operation. The purpose of this paper is to unravel the evolution process, triggers and specific strategies of overseas legitimacy threshold crossing of emerging multinationals.Design/methodology/approachThrough the longitudinal case study of Haier Group and Goldwind Sci & Tech Co., Ltd, this study investigates the periodical characteristics of overseas legitimacy threshold crossings and the co-evolution among critical factors influencing the legitimation process in the host country.FindingsFirst, it summarizes that the legitimacy threshold in the host country experiences a sequential process from pragmatic legitimacy to normative legitimacy, and finally cognitive legitimacy. It is an inevitable choice for emerging multinational enterprises to realize and sustain legitimation from passive adaptation to active creation. Second, it reveals that the triggers for crossing the threshold of overseas legitimacy include periodically dynamic factors – international network linkage and resource system reconfiguration, as well as cross-stage spiral interaction effects. Third, it determines the specific strategies for crossing the threshold of overseas legitimacy, namely, replacement, upgrading and reconstruction of organizational identity, and reveals the important role of insisting on the country-of-origin Facebook in promoting the legitimation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study enriches the legitimacy threshold crossing literature from an evolutional perspective, especially the traditional static legitimacy research. This study also reveals the key impacting factors – international network linkage and resource system reconfiguration – and their evolution process interacted with the legitimation process.Practical implicationsThe emerging multinationals should break the stereotypes from developed markets in that only creating new cognitive patterns through active legitimate strategies can they truly cross the legitimacy threshold in the host country. The emerging multinationals also need to retain their own home country legitimacy traits – Facebook and balance the relation between the image of the home country and the image of host country.Originality/valueThis paper investigates the process of overseas legitimacy threshold crossing for emerging multinationals in a dynamic context of transnational operation, particularly with respect to the evolutionary role played by international network linkage and resource system reconfiguration.

Identity and elites in developmental politics: a case study of the “Gorkha” and “Gorkhaland” movements in the eastern parts of India

ABSTRACT This article draws attention to the “Gorkha” as a constructed identity, given or adopted by Nepali-speaking community. The idea of “Gorkha” in general and the demand for the territory of “Gorkhaland” of India have remained an elitist project, and the employment of this idea/term “Gorkha” has been a political instrumentalization that failed to bring any form of development. The period of 1980s gave rise to the “Gorkhaland” movement in India for its subjugation and alienation, which sparked questioning about the identity of the Gorkha in Indian politics. The question arises: Why Nepali people are mobilized as “Gorkha” in its history? How is the “Gorkhaland” movement in India a developmental problem in contrast to ethnic politics? This paper is divided into two parts, such as (1) “Gorkha” and its origin in general and (2) Indian “Gorkha” and the “Gorkhaland” demand. The process of such movement led by elites brings both domestic and international attentions due to cross border and regional politics. This paper uses a thematic approach in analyzing the leader’s role in relation to the last Shah King, a recruitment policy of colonial British raj, and legitimization process by the “Gorkha” leaders in the “Gorkhaland” Movement.