Local Actors Research Articles

Transforming agricultural land into agrotourism area: Environmental, economic and socio-cultural perspectives

This study investigates the impacts of converting agricultural land into agrotourism areas on environmental, socio-cultural, and economic perspectives within Batukliang District, Central Lombok Regency, Indonesia. With a case study approach, this qualitative descriptive research employed interviews with three target groups: local farmers, residents, and tourism actors. The findings revealed seven key points identified as influences affecting the socio-cultural aspects of land change, including community impact, cultural preservation, cultural identity loss, community dynamics change, local cultural commercialization, cultural heritage loss, and traditional livelihoods. The results also unveiled nine financial impacts, 8 of which were associated with economic implications such as economic challenges, risk management, brand building, costs and investments, market access, increased revenue, and income diversity, which contribute positively to local economic development. The study concluded that integrating community involvement empowerment strategies, income diversification, sustainable farming promotion, and land-use regulation is crucial for developing a successful sustainable agrotourism destination.

No one-size-fits-all: Multi-actor perspectives on public participation and digital participatory platforms.

This paper explores the perspectives of different urban actors regarding public participation in the context of the increasing incorporation of digital technologies and urban platforms. The study is based on three workshops with local governance actors, six semi-structured interviews with academics in the fields of public participation and digital technologies and a citizen survey with 260 respondents. The results provide multi-perspective insights into the challenges of participatory processes and are synthesized into three contributions: (i) guidelines for effective public participation, including factors that encourage or discourage citizen engagement; (ii) guidelines for designing participatory platforms, highlighting specific features that promote digital engagement (i.e. social media, gamification and user-friendly interfaces), and (iii) a typology of digital participation platforms to connect the diverse needs of actor groups with the various possibilities provided by new technologies. The guidelines provide concrete recommendations to support both urban practitioners and interface designers in designing participatory strategies and platforms, respectively. Recognizing that there is no-one-size-fits-all platform, the typology provides a framework for the assessment and further development of digital platforms for public participation.This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'.

Digitising the Physical: The Evolving Role of Collaboration Tools in Citizen Participatory Design Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in Seoul

This case study investigates how the digital transformation of urban design governance following the COVID-19 outbreak has led to changes in approaches to citizen participatory design in Seoul, South Korea. Drawing on empirical data from the Seoul Citizen Design Bureau – an annual participatory program initiated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government since 2015 – and interviews with facilitators and participants, the study ethnographically examines the emergence of new local design actors amid unforeseen circumstances like the pandemic. The research sheds light on the diverse capacities and intermediary roles of digital collaboration tools such as ZoomTM and MuralTM, which not only enabled citizen involvement in design during the pandemic but also challenged established practices in institution-driven participatory design in Korea. By contextualising this analysis within a turbulent historical juncture, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of remote ethnography in uncovering the influence of “more-than-humans” in participatory design within the unique sociocultural setting of South Korea.

Writing about the Middle East in a Postmodern Era. A Critique

In this paper the complexities of ongoing conflicts in the MENA region are scrutinized through a critical lens. Acknowledging the influence of multiple actors and factors in shaping political history, the paper challenges the prevailing use of postmodern and post-colonial paradigms in framing and assigning responsibility for these conflicts. While recognizing their contributions, the paper argues against their limitations in providing a nuanced understanding of the underlying dynamics and roots of MENA conflicts. The paper argues that postmodern and post-colonial lenses oversimplify conflicts by presenting them in binary terms and focusing solely on the role of Western colonialism. Instead, it advocates for a broader perspective that considers the complexities of the region's history, including the legacies of the Ottoman Empire and local social structures and actors. It suggests a contextual realist approach analysing conflicts at both internal and external levels, examining state formation processes and regional dynamics. While acknowledging the challenges, it asserts that with the right analytical and methodological tools, a deeper understanding of the region's conflicts and the underlying dynamics of its political landscape is possible.

Pendampingan Inventarisasi Atraksi, Aksesibilitas, dan Amenitas Desa sebagai Komponen Penilaian Anugerah Desa Wisata (ADWI) Kemenparekraf

Tukamasea Village in Maros Regency, South Sulawesi, has significant potential to be developed as a tourist village. However, this potential has not been fully identified and utilized optimally. This community service project aims to provide guidance in the inventory and development of tourist attractions, accessibility, and amenities in Tukamasea Tourist Village. The methods used include field observations, focus group discussions (FGD), and training for the local community. The inventory results show that Tukamasea Village has various potential tourist attractions, such as Dolli Bathing Tourism, Galung Dolli Tourism, Jodoh Hill, and the Red Flower Seed House. Accessibility to the village and between tourist sites is generally good, although some road sections still require improvements. Basic amenities like mosques, schools, and health centers are available, though tourism-supporting facilities still need enhancement. This project also involves empowering the community in tourist village management, including training for Pokdarwis members and local business actors. Development recommendations include improving infrastructure quality, diversifying tourist attractions, strengthening institutions, and implementing more effective promotional strategies. Through this activity, it is hoped that Tukamasea Village can optimize its tourism potential, increase tourist visits, and ultimately boost the local economy. The sustainability of this program needs to be maintained through ongoing collaboration between local government, academics, and the local community.

‘In a village, everybody knows the stranger’: Constructing local belonging of refugees in rural areas in Germany

AbstractThis article explores the local belonging of refugees in rural areas in Germany from the perspectives of both migrants and local integration actors. It analyses the development of a personal sense of belonging and the construction of the politics of belonging, with the aim of understanding belonging as a socio‐spatial process. The analysis is based on 64 semi‐structured and semi‐narrative qualitative interviews conducted in eight rural communities and small towns in different regions across Germany. The findings indicate that the sense of belonging to rural localities among refugees is influenced not only by personal and biographical experiences but also by overarching policies and administrative practices. They also reflect the expectations of the receiving communities, which imply imaginaries of rural communities. In addition to convivial everyday experiences, the demarcation of boundaries in everyday life appears to be particularly powerful for a sense of belonging.

Understanding Behavioral Drivers of Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation and Vitamin A- and Iron-Rich Food Consumption among Women and Adolescent Girls in Niger.

This study examined drivers and barriers to iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation and consumption of iron- and vitamin A-rich foods among women of reproductive age (WRA) and adolescent girls in Niger. This was an exploratory qualitative study using focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. This study was conducted in the rural areas of three districts in Maradi and Zinder regions of southern Niger. The study included a purposive sample of 56 WRA (15-49 years), 34 non-pregnant adolescent girls (10-14 years), 105 family members and community leaders, 32 health workers, and 12 national and regional level stakeholders. Respondents demonstrated widespread knowledge of recommendations for IFA during pregnancy and had positive attitudes toward supplements. However, supply barriers were significant, and adherence was limited by side effects, among other constraints. Despite knowledge about and positive attitudes towards micronutrient source foods, respondents reported that limited food access was an overriding constraint to increasing consumption. WRA were seen as nutritionally vulnerable, however husbands were often not able to provide sufficient nutritious food and there was a cultural expectation that wives serve themselves food last. Adolescent girls were not seen as nutritionally vulnerable and there was little family support for their consumption of nutritious foods. Projects should work with local actors to develop multi-pronged solutions that address supply and access barriers for IFA and micronutrient-rich foods and to improve social support for nutrition.

Navigating environmental fragility: (Mal)coping and adaptation strategies in the socio-environmental system of the Mtendeli Refugee Camp, Tanzania

The study conducts a systems analysis of coping and adaptation strategies in Tanzanian refugee camps, focusing on the Mtendeli camp as a case study. It explores the environmental changes during the stages of the camp's establishment, development, and closure, along with the responses of local actors. Employing qualitative interviews and remote-sensing data analysis, the research reveals a spectrum of strategies employed by the camp management, host community, and refugees. The findings highlight the interdependence of these strategies and stress the need to address both structural limitations and individual agency, considering the concepts of structural ambivalence and temporal dynamics. Notably, the concept of ‘(mal)coping’ is introduced to describe coping strategies that have short-term benefits but contribute to long-term environmental degradation. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of coping and adaptation dynamics in refugee camp environments.

Ant logic and necrolocutors

As environmental research increasingly values and foregrounds traditional knowledge in a reinvigorated participatory turn, many of the original problematics and harms re-emerge through ostensible collaborations with knowledge-holders. These issues are not just instances of ethical oversight; they are the result of ant logic: narrow, spatialized conceptualizations of power, knowledge, and death as contained and fixed within bodies and space and preoccupations with visibility that produces ontological conceptions of local communities, traditional knowledge-holders, state actors, and neoliberal forces. This article unwinds the tight Foucauldian grip with which environmental social sciences are held to reveal power, knowledge, and death as vibrant, immaterial actors and explores the role of ant logic as an actor itself. In doing so, another key environmental actor is uncovered, one who leverages the death-centric form of articulation to define power and knowledge: the necrolocutor.

Configuring social assistance: conceptualizations and implications of the adoption of robotic process automation in the Swedish personal social services

ABSTRACT Many European countries’ public organisations have turned to digital automation as a strategy to enhance the efficiency of their service delivery. One example of this is the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the provision of Social Assistance (SA) in Sweden. Swedish SA is a means-tested subsidy intended as a last resort for the economically most vulnerable persons, and caseworkers exercise a high degree of discretion when deciding on clients’ eligibility for the benefit. Based on semi-structured interviews with stakeholders at the national and local levels, this study explores how these actors conceptualise and rationalise the adoption of RPA in the SA context and discusses how this relates to the mutual configuration of RPA and SA. The results show that RPA is framed as a simple technology to alleviate caseworkers’ administrative workload so that they can instead focus on supporting clients towards self-sufficiency. However, local actors describe RPA adoption as a challenging process with modest outcomes. As such, the study suggests that stakeholders’ simplified conceptualisation of RPA allows them to shift responsibility for its practical adoption to local PSS organisations, which ultimately pushes the PSS organisations towards configuring their SA casework processes around the limited capabilities of the technology.

Modeling The Evolution of Community Structure by the Dynamic Network Analysis: Sustainability Transition in Kyoto Eco-School Districts, Japan

Sustainability transition increasingly relies on local institutional settings and community-based efforts where local agencies play pivotal roles. A significant gap lies in understanding the dynamic interplay among community-based organizations over time that shape evolving strategic collaborations in different stages to drive local institutional change. This study adopts a dynamic network approach to map the evolving community structure, identify key organizations, and detect collaboration patterns among local actors by the case study of Kyoto, Japan. Furthermore, it explores the influence of significant events and policies on the network evolution. The study uncovers three main findings. Firstly, a three-stage evolution of the local network is concluded that presents incremental change towards an expanding, decentralized community structure, forming collaborative governance. Secondly, five collaboration patterns and their dynamics are revealed, reflecting evolving strategic alliances that play different roles in leveraging resources throughout the process. Thirdly, the effects of policies and events on the network are well reflected and explained through matching the time series data. The Kyoto case uncovers hidden community dynamics that illuminate local pathways to sustainable practices, offering guidance for policymaking and practices that resonate more broadly with globally relevant contexts.

Water Troubles: Peruvian Capitalists, Mining Infrastructure, and the First Copper Bonanza

This essay examines struggles over a water drainage tunnel as a window into the politics of mining, infrastructure, and national development in early twentieth-century Peru. It argues that the Peruvian mining elite operated as an organized network of entrepreneurs, mobilizing capital, environmental technology, and the power of the state to challenge the rising hegemony of US interests in Peru's copper corridor. Unlike the classic literature on nineteenth-century mining in Peru, which has presented Peruvian mineowners as a struggling bourgeoisie, this study focuses on this group's innovations and dynamism in the wake of the copper bonanza. It also studies its discursive strategies, which appealed to preexisting skepticism of free trade and anxieties about foreign influence. Altogether, this essay contributes to the literature on US imperialism and capitalist penetration by centering local actors and studying US hegemony as a contentious and contingent process.

How Effective Are Civil Society Promotion Laws? Mixed Patterns from 3 Mexican States

Abstract Policies constraining nonprofit and civil society activity have been documented in multiple countries. A less widespread phenomenon, but one that is also worth exploring, is the enactment of laws intended to promote civil society. What happens when laws are enacted to promote these organizations? How effective are these laws? Building on insights from the literature on nonprofit formation and organizational ecology, this paper adopts a quasi-experimental approach, to analyze the effect of passing a state-level law of Civil Society (CSO) sector promotion on the number of newly-constituted CSO organizations. Using data from Mexico, between 1990 and 2018, the paper uses the synthetic control method to examine this effect, separately, in 3 Mexican states, against a pool of 13 states which had not enacted a law of this kind during the period under study. The results show quite different effects across states, and point to the need of exploring in depth the policy process surrounding the passing of the law. These mixed patterns also call for further examination of the broader context where CSO laws take effect, and the incentives and disincentives local actors may perceive in the content of the laws.

The Role of Ngos in Localizing UN-REDD+ In Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia

This study explores the role of national and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in localizing the UNREDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) norm in Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia. UN-REDD+ aims to mitigate climate change by promoting sustainable forest management in developing countries. Sulawesi Tengah was selected as a pilot province due to its extensive forest cover and relatively undisturbed deforestation activities. However, despite international support, the initiative encountered resistance from local communities, influenced by national and local NGOs. This research examines the complex interactions among international, national, and local NGOs by applying Acharya's norm localization theory. While international NGOs provided technical expertise, local NGOs significantly shaped the community perspective. These local NGOs raised concerns about the potential exploitation of forests and disruption to indigenous cultural values, fuelling opposition to the program. Consequently, the localization failed, and UN-REDD+ was discontinued in Sulawesi Tengah in 2012. The findings highlight the importance of considering local actors and their concerns in global environmental governance. Local NGOs, closely connected to communities, played a decisive role in rejecting the program, underscoring it, and addressing local values and governance issues.

(Re)shaping politics: displaced people from Ukraine in Prague, political subjectivities, and solidarity relations

ABSTRACT When migrants and displaced people make claims about their rights to be political and become acting political subjects, they challenge conventional notions of political and political communities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Prague with Ukrainian citizens displaced by the 2022 Russian invasion, this article brings into conversation critical citizenship studies and literature on solidarity with refugees to explore the political acts of displaced Ukrainians and the solidarity practices of local activists. By doing so, the article focuses on the intricate transformations that (re)shape politics in terms of new subjectivities and social relations. When displaced people from Ukraine disrupted presumptions about their political invisibility and formed synergetic solidarity relations with local activists, their actions made new ways of relating and caring possible. This further transformed their political subjectivities from claimants of rights to Czech society (and its institutions) to claimants of rights within Czech society.

Guangdong’s New R&D Institutes

In pursuit of technological development, China has created new organizations to promote innovation. This brief examines New Research and Development Institutes (NRDIs), which are designed to foster knowledge transfer to industry. NRDIs were pioneered in Guangdong province in the 1990s, and have gained prominence in China’s national science, technology, and innovation policies since the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020). NRDIs are defined by their market orientation and extremely flexible organizational form. They work by establishing “innovation platforms” with local governments and private knowledge actors to carry out research and development (R&D), commercialize scientific and technological achievements, incubate local technology industries, and cultivate high-end talent. NRDIs have been instrumental to regional development in Guangdong, and especially Shenzhen, where they have succeeded in attracting talent from outside the region. NRDIs have important policy implications for international competition for talent. Understanding NRDIs is crucial for other countries that want to improve their own inter-regional innovation resources and respond to the challenge of China’s drive to attract global talent and knowledge resources.

Training on Optimizing Digital Marketing to Improve Marketing for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Mantrijeron District, Yogyakarta

The training activity aimed to provide knowledge and skills on implementing digital marketing. Conducted on Saturday, September 7, 2024, in Mantrijeron District, the training included 40 participants consisting of local MSME actors. The event utilized a combination of lectures and hands-on practice. It began with an opening and introduction to digital marketing, followed by a presentation on the concept of digital marketing, discussions on common challenges faced by MSMEs, explanations of foreign terms related to digital marketing, and concluded with a practical session. As a result, participants acquired valuable insights into digital marketing, and many expressed a desire for assistance with business capital to support their growth in the region.

Community Co-creation through knowledge (Co)Production: The engagement of universities in promoting rural revitalization in China

The global discourse on the role of universities in rural revitalization has gained significant attention. The proposition is to leverage university expertise and resources to support rural development, including knowledge (co)production, community co-creation, and volunteerism – a practice that essentially bridges local actors and their knowledge with external actors and their knowledge. As advocated by UN Habitat III, the collaboration between universities and rural communities is an initiative exemplified by China's “Jointly Create a Beautiful Environment and a Happy Life” to enhance the built environment. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the implementation and outcomes of the “Rural Four Small Gardens” projects, which serve as a vital community development initiative within the Hongtang Village in Fengqing County, Yunnan Province, China. The research discusses those processes, observing opportunities for knowledge (co)production across diverse stakeholders in line with neo-endogenous rural development thinking. By exploring the co-creation approach employed in these projects, we seek to unravel how academia and local communities collaborate to address multifaceted challenges in rural areas. We argue that: 1) The engagement of rural communities through collaborative planning workshops serves as the fundamental cornerstone for university paired-up assistance; 2) the co-creation model for improving rural settlement necessitates the collective efforts of multiple stakeholders; 3) university faculty and students play pivotal roles during the process of service learning, practice research, and knowledge (co)production with villagers; and 4) Knowledge (co)production entails a dynamic process of co-construction, co-governance, and resource sharing, exemplified by co-creation initiatives of home development, farmyard enhancement, and infrastructure projects. The research offers insights for global universities seeking to engage in similar paired-up assistance initiatives, underscores the significance of co-creation in rural development, and enlightens planning education in practice and service.

Strategy and dynamics in sub-regional governance and planning: Lessons from Eastern England 2010 to 2020

This article extends analysis of sub-regional governance dynamics, focusing on local institutions in Eastern England in the period from 2010 to 2020. Building on Third Phase Institutionalism and the growing interest in the impact of agency, the paper shows how the narratives, practices and rules of governance institutions both shape and are shaped by the varied strategic ambitions of local actors. Thus when particular objectives of ‘recognition’, ‘investment’ and ‘control’ were pursued by local actors there was a reinforcing relationship with positive narratives, collaborative practices and stable rules. Alternatively, though, institutional constraints may emphasise other strategic objectives such as preserving or advancing the power of preferred institutional structures, together with an associated limiting of narratives and practices.

Multi-level governance and modal thinking: Tensions in electric mobility transitions in European cities

Innovations around electric vehicle (EV) technology are viewed as a promising pathway to rapidly decarbonise transport systems in transition studies. However, the mobility histories and path dependencies that shape these transitions are spatially uneven both horizontally across different geographies and vertically between different scales of authority and responsibility. As such, they are rooted in the assumptions and power relations that underlay the policy processes of city and metropolitan governance. This study takes the novel approach of comparing these processes both horizontally between cities and vertically between levels of government. The analysis is based on 50 expert interviews with local and national actors involved in delivering policy related to electric mobility in four European cities: Bristol, United Kingdom; Oslo, Norway; Poznań, Poland, and Utrecht, Netherlands. In all four cities, national, inter- and supra-national pressures generate a perception among some interviewees that the transition to electric mobility, and particularly the electrification of private cars, is inevitable. Yet because modal thinking permeates urban transport policymaking, the majority of our experts define sustainable and just urban mobility as that involving modes other than the private car. A key contribution of this study is revealing this tension between national EV priorities and urban aims to reduce car traffic, which subconsciously influences local policymakers’ perceptions of the transition to electric mobility. The study also offers new insights into how city and metropolitan policymakers can be more inclusive, innovative, and locally-responsive in shaping policies for accommodating both EVs and new modes like e-scooters.