Local Commitment Research Articles

Recollections of How the Child Marriage Field Has Evolved

Recollections of How the Child Marriage Field Has Evolved

Community Strengths and Challenges Related to Opioid Use Disorder in Rural Counties of East Tennessee

IntroductionAppalachia, particularly Rural East Tennessee, has been and continues to be disproportionately impacted by opioid use disorder and its many tragic ramifications.PurposeCommunity-engaged strategies can inform and support the development of relevant prevention efforts. Hence, people connected to a ten-county rural Appalachian region in East Tennessee were asked to identify and prioritize strengths and challenges related to opioid use disorder (OUD).MethodsAdult community members (n=577) completed a brief survey administered across 11 days in 2019.ResultsOf the respondents, 85.3% never had been addicted to opioids, but 74.0% had someone close to them with OUD. The most frequently selected community strength was support for people with OUD to seek help and the most frequently selected challenge was lack of treatment and recovery services. People with personal OUD experience reported significantly higher mean levels of OUD-related stigma compared to persons without such experience.ImplicationsThe number of respondents indicates a local concern and commitment related to OUD in rural Appalachia. The findings prioritized areas of focus—both in needs to be addressed and strengths on which to capitalize. These community insights will guide the selection and development of OUD-related overdose prevention for this region.

Turismo y organización social como alternativas frente al extractivismo y el despojo territorial en Oaxaca

En el presente artículo se exploran dos acepciones de turismo alternativo. Por un lado, visto como una estrategia de grandes corporativos para posicionar un concepto de turismo responsable con la naturaleza y las comunidades, apelando a discursos de sustentabilidad, cuidado del medioambiente y respeto a las culturas locales, pero desarro-llando prácticas de despojo, desterritorialización y control territorial en contubernio con autoridades. Por el otro, se expone la experiencia de dos procesos que retoman estos conceptos turísticos y a partir de la organización social generan alternativas eco-nómicas fundadas en el cuidado y la protección del territorio desde una perspectiva comunitaria. Se muestra la manera en que el turismo se ha convertido en un campo de disputa por recursos y territorios donde el Estado y la formulación de legislaciones cobran gran importancia para el cuidado o el despojo territorial.

Local Government's Resource Commitment to Environmental Sustainability: Capacity, Conservatism, and Contractual Dynamics

Local governments are leading sustainability efforts through a range of initiatives, often voluntarily. While a spate of research exists to explain what drives these voluntary decisions, we are still limited in understanding how localities follow through with the resources to implement their adopted plans. This is particularly the case for environment and climate protection programs that are transboundary in nature and thus require more innovative and longer-term approaches than those that are relatively low-cost and easier to implement with future savings. This research examines local investment in promoting three of these program areas: air quality, biodiversity preservation, and ecological restoration. It investigates how local governments vary according to resource commitment and what factors explain those variations. We find several factors significant, including community capacity, political ideology, and institutional arrangements for service production and delivery. Variations are, however, found across different types of resource commitment, suggesting a more complex picture of local resource availability for advancing sustainability efforts.

Dignity and worth for all: identifying shared values between social work and Christian faith-based groups’ anti-sex trafficking discourse

ABSTRACT Faith-based organizations are important partners in anti-trafficking efforts due to their familiarity with local threats and commitment to safeguarding their communities. However, differences in values and beliefs can create challenges for collaborations between faith-based organizations, social work, and other sectors. This study used a culturally sensitive qualitative inquiry of Christian anti-sex-trafficking discourse through dialogue with faith leaders, in order to uncover shared values between Christian anti-sex trafficking and social work as a foundation for ethical collaboration, and to identify areas of differences where further dialogue is necessary to promote respect for diverse viewpoints and to advocate for sex trafficking survivors.

Exploring the “Meso-Level”: Genealogy of Civic Commitments and Beyond - G.A. Fine, The Hinge. Civil Society, Group Cultures, and the Power of Local Commitments (Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2021, 263 p.)

Exploring the “Meso-Level”: Genealogy of Civic Commitments and Beyond - G.A. Fine, The Hinge. Civil Society, Group Cultures, and the Power of Local Commitments (Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2021, 263 p.) - Volume 62 Issue 3

Historical manufacturing volatility and local sustainability efforts: A link to the past

Renewed attention to the role of subnational efforts in addressing myriad environmental challenges necessitates a greater understanding of the factors associated with program adoption. Given observed relationships between adoption of sustainability practices and the presence of carbon-intensive industry, and separately the observed persistence of industrial history in a given place, we explore the link between historical manufacturing employment volatility and current sustainability plan adoption at the local level. Our analysis suggests that the magnitude of changes in manufacturing employment is inversely related to the likelihood of sustainability plan adoption. Our analysis further suggests that, given the same pace of change, counties with shrinking manufacturing employment are more likely to adopt sustainability plans than those with growing employment. Lastly, we find that the link between past industrial transitions and local sustainability commitment is moderated by local disaster experience and priority for environmental protection. Collectively, the findings also shed light on potential—and otherwise unobservable—barriers to transitions to sustainable practices at the local level. In particular, the inverse relationship between pace of employment change and plan adoption suggests that minimizing the rapidity of contemporary transitions may counterintuitively ease the eventual adoption of sustainability-related policies.

Biocultural restoration improves delivery of ecosystem services in social‐ecological landscapes

Increasing local people and indigenous communities' participation on restoration programs is widely recommended as a way to increase restoration long‐term benefits and local people's commitment with restored lands. Here, we demonstrate how traditional knowledge can provide crucial information on usefulness of plant species that increases direct value of forest and landscape restoration programs. Our study analyzed secondary data from 73 studies that assessed indigenous and local knowledge regarding plant's utility across the densely populated dry forest of the Brazilian Caatinga. Our results suggest that highly valued plants represent a relatively small number of useful species (52 out of 632 useful species) that account for more than half of the plant services (i.e. functional space represented by the uses people give to plants). Interestingly, these plants belonged to closely related lineages, suggesting that people must select plants based on phylogenetically conserved traits that provide utility. We propose that accounting for indigenous and local knowledge in early phases of restoration process such as species selection can both maximize classical restoration targets (e.g. species diversity) and increase delivery of ecosystem services to forest‐dependent people. Such an interdisciplinary integration moves us a step closer to ambitious targets set for global ecosystem restoration based on fair and inclusive participation of indigenous people and local communities.

Vernacular historical practices on Holocaust non-sites of memory in Poland

The approach employed by memory activists to sites of memory often involves historical practices. This paper presents the results of the examination of historical practices undertaken in locations of Holocaust violence during World War II and the disposal of victims’ remains that were not memorialised properly according to local residents or other groups with an interest in the sites’ past. The analysed practices were observed in the course of field research in various locations in Poland. The goal of the research was to describe these practices, discuss their critical potential, and indicate their distinct features as activities pertaining to contested sites of memory. A central tool for approaching this task is found in concepts of “non-site of memory” and “vernacular historian” as introduced to the debate by Claude Lanzmann and Lyle Dick. As a result, the article presents the cases of four vernacular historians whose practices are experimental combinations of the components of the work of professional historians and ways of working conditioned by local cultural environments, individual experience and commitment to communal life. Although vernacular history is sometimes considered of little value by academic historians, the research shows that the practices in question have the potential to produce new, socially relevant knowledge. Two distinct features of vernacular historical practices in non-sites of memory were observed: these unmarked sites of burial attract activists and prompt them to undertake historical practices; vernacular historians of these locations often undertake unconventional, sometimes experimental activities..

Dark Fun: The Cruelties of Hedonic Communities1

While fun is linked to positive engagement and inclusive community, we explore the connection between fun and cruelty, arguing that acts of aggression and humiliation can also provide pleasurable hedonic experience. In this, we extend the sociological analysis of emotions, emphasizing that emotion work that is broadly rejected can be accepted and desired within the boundaries of local culture as long as interactional commitments exist. These acts, requiring the social support that groups provide, rely on a commitment to cohesion. By examining descriptive accounts of gang activity, bullying, hooliganism, political violence, and military brutality, different in degree of hostility, but similar in rejecting norms of acceptable behavior, we formulate the concept of “dark fun.” In these cases that reveal the establishment of hierarchies of power, the ability to make victims suffer establishes the authority of the group, coupled with the low probability that victims will respond in the situation. However, this rejection of consensual norms occurs in sites of emotional heating. What is deviant in the wider society reveals group belonging. To this end, we advance a meso‐level theory of hedonic cruelty that draws on features of group affiliation based on collective effervescence, local commitments, and moral ordering.

Debt-for-climate swaps: Killing two birds with one stone?

The COVID-19 pandemic has further fuelled problems of debt sustainability in developing countries and has sapped the fiscal resources needed to finance climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. We examine whether “debt-for-climate” swaps, instruments whereby debtor countries are relieved from their contractual debt obligations in return for local climate-related spending commitments, may be helpful in tackling worrying debt levels and climate concerns simultaneously. We point out that debt swaps do not have a great historical track record but that common flaws such as their piecemeal nature, lack of additionality and creation of parallel implementation structures, could be overcome by scaling up and careful design. To realize swaps’ full potential, a distinction needs to be made between situations where debt is clearly unsustainable and where it is high but sustainable. In the former case, deep and comprehensive debt restructuring should be the primary focus, rather than closely matching debt service savings with increased climate spending; in the latter case, stand-alone debt swaps may be used to transfer resources from creditors to debtor countries that are committed to climate investments but lack fiscal space. Another helpful differentiation is that between middle-income debtor countries, where debt swaps could finance climate mitigation interventions, and low-income debtors, where investments in adaption deserve prioritization. Finally, debt swap proposals need to be mindful of creditor incentives, including positive reputational payoffs, achieving greater scale using a multi-creditor set-up, at the same time as carefully considering governance credentials in each country context.

Shifting Dominant Narratives of Teacher Development: New Directions for Expanding Access to the Educator Workforce Through Grow Your Own Programs

Grow Your Own (GYO) programs are designed to recruit high school students, paraeducators, community organizers and parents, and/or career changers from the local community to join the educator workforce. When considering the nontraditional teacher pools that may enter the profession through GYO programs, commonly held assumptions about who teachers are, how they are developed, and what is most important for supporting their growth are challenged. This article reframes conventional narratives in teacher education by exploring the ways in which GYO programs offer counternarratives that reimagine teacher development by valuing (a) intersectional views of ethnoracial diversity, (b) resilience as an important teacher characteristic, (c) multiple modes of assessment as evidence of teacher learning, (d) ethnoracially diverse and community-based teacher educators, (e) culturally responsive pedagogy and place-based learning, and (f) local community school commitment.

The Colorado National Collaborative: A public health approach to suicide prevention

ObjectiveSuicide rates in the United States have risen dramatically during the 21st century despite national, state and local level commitments to prevention, improvements in the development and delivery of evidence-informed prevention approaches, and advances in epidemiological capacity to identify areas for targeted intervention. Complex problems require comprehensive solutions. In Colorado, that solution is a comprehensive, integrated public health collaboration that aligns diverse community and programmatic efforts across the prevention continuum. The Colorado National Collaborative (CNC) is pursuing a real-world test of the public health approach to suicide prevention by helping community coalitions deliver a package of evidence-informed activities in geographically defined community systems. MethodsThe CNC began by identifying six diverse Colorado counties with high suicide rates or number of deaths. Working closely with community, state, and national partners, CNC identified existing community-level risk and protective factors, programs, and policies. This process provided insight on the overlay between existing efforts and identified burden centers and drivers. ResultsThe CNC team identified six components for strategic implementation: (1) connectedness, (2) economic stability and supports, (3) education and awareness, (4) access to suicide safer care, (5) lethal means safety, and (6) postvention. Evaluation is being conducted through a collaborative, participatory, and empowerment approach that incorporates stakeholders as leaders in all aspects of the process. ConclusionThe CNC includes data-driven identification of populations at risk of suicide, community identification of protective factors, and true collaboration between prevention experts at the national, state, and local level in implementing a comprehensive approach to prevention. Lessons learned are discussed.

Establishing Clinical Swallowing Assessment Services via Telepractice: A Multisite Implementation Evaluation

Purpose While research has confirmed the feasibility and validity of delivering clinical swallowing evaluations (CSEs) via telepractice, challenges exist for clinical implementation. Using an implementation framework, strategies that supported implementation of CSE services via telepractice within 18 regional/rural sites across five health services were examined. Method A coordinated implementation strategy involving remote training and support was provided to 18 sites across five health services (five hub and spoke services) that had identified a need to implement CSEs via telepractice. Experiences of all 10 speech-language pathologists involved at the hub sites were examined via interviews 1 year post implementation. Interview content was coded using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and constructs were rated for strength and direction of influence, using published CFIR coding conventions. Results Services were established and are ongoing at all sites. Although there were site-specific differences, 10 CFIR constructs were positive influencing factors at all five sites. The telepractice model was perceived to provide clear advantages for the service, and clinicians were motivated by positive patient response. Strategies used to support implementation, including having a well-organized implementation resource and an external facilitator who worked closely with the local champions, were highly valued. Two CFIR constructs, Structural Characteristics and Available Resources, were challenges for all sites. Conclusions A complex interplay of factors influenced service implementation at each site. A strong local commitment to improving patient care, and the assistance of targeted strategies to support local implementation were viewed as central to enabling implementation.

The dark side of informal institutions: How crime, corruption, and informality influence foreign firms' commitment

AbstractResearch SummaryThis study focuses on three prevalent societal issues—crime, corruption, and informal sector—that constitute the dark side of informal institutions in developing countries. We argue that the dark side of informal institutions has the potential to impede foreign firms' desire and ability to commit to the host countries. The effects of these three forms on foreign firms differ depending on the type of local commitment. Analyzing the World Bank data of foreign firms in 36 developing countries, we find that (a) host country corruption is stronger in deterring foreign firms' long‐term investment, (b) host country informality is stronger in obstructing foreign firms' innovation output, and (c) host country crime is stronger in undermining foreign firms' production capacity utilization. Our analysis also shows that host country's efficient regulatory institutions and foreign firms' non‐market‐seeking motive are two important countervailing forces that attenuate the negative effects of the dark side of informal institutions.Managerial SummaryForeign firms investing in developing countries need to deal with some illegal yet widespread practices in these countries. Specifically, crime, corruption, and informal sector represent the most prevalent and important societal issues that exert informal constraints on foreign firms. This study examines how the negative informal institutions influence foreign firms. Our cross‐country analysis using the World Bank data shows that, among the three negative informal institutions, corruption has a stronger effect in deterring foreign firms' investment commitment, informal sector has a stronger effect in obstructing foreign firms' innovation commitment, and crime has a stronger effect in undermining foreign firms' production commitment. Moreover, these negative effects will be alleviated when the developing country has efficient regulatory institutions or when the foreign firm has a low market dependence on the developing country. Our findings provide implications for managers of multinational enterprises (MNEs) investing in developing countries and offer suggestions for policymakers on how to improve the institutional environment for foreign investment.

The Influence of Budget Participation and Organizational Commitment to the Performance of Regional Government Apparatus

This study aims to determine how much influence of Budget Participation and Organizational Commitment on the Performance of Local Government Apparatus at the Bandung City Government Financial and Asset Management Agency. The method used in this research is descriptive method and verification method with a quantitative approach. The analytical tools used are Multiple Linear Regression, Correlation Analysis Test, Determination Analysis Test, and Partial Hypothesis Test (t test). The sampling technique used is nonprobability sampling technique. The population in this study were employees of the Bandung City Government Financial and Asset Management Agency (BPKA). The number of samples in this study amounted to 30 employees consisting of the Budget Division, the Treasury Division and the Accounting Division. While the method of analysis used in this study is multiple linear regression. The program used in analyzing the data used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) ver.23. Based on the research results, it shows that there is a significant and positive influence between budget participation and the performance of local government officials and organizational commitment has a significant and positive effect on the performance of local government officials.

Ranking local climate policy: assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities

Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are crucial tasks for urban areas and can involve synergies as well as trade-offs. However, few studies have examined how mitigation and adaptation efforts relate to each other in a large number of differently sized cities, and therefore we know little about whether forerunners in mitigation are also leading in adaptation or if cities tend to focus on just one policy field. This article develops an internationally applicable approach to rank cities on climate policy that incorporates multiple indicators related to (1) local commitments on mitigation and adaptation, (2) urban mitigation and adaptation plans and (3) climate adaptation and mitigation ambitions. We apply this method to rank 104 differently sized German cities and identify six clusters: climate policy leaders, climate adaptation leaders, climate mitigation leaders, climate policy followers, climate policy latecomers and climate policy laggards. The article seeks explanations for particular cities’ positions and shows that coping with climate change in a balanced way on a high level depends on structural factors, in particular city size, the pathways of local climate policies since the 1990s and funding programmes for both climate mitigation and adaptation.

Exploring rangers' preferences for community‐based strategies to improve human‐elephant coexistence in African natural corridors

AbstractNatural corridors are essential components of wildlife conservation but, when human‐wildlife conflicts emerge, the participation of local communities becomes imperative to ensure their efficacy and long‐term persistence. Therefore, local people initiatives and commitments (community‐based strategies) promoting human‐wildlife coexistence are urgently needed especially in African natural corridors dominated by elephants (Loxodonta africana). Wildlife rangers represent skilled technical staff who are involved in the monitoring and protection of wildlife but also in promoting human‐wildlife coexistence and community awareness. They are the closest conservation staff to local communities and have broad experience in dealing with elephants around the villages. Therefore, collecting and recognizing the knowledge of wildlife rangers on the suitability of possible local solutions could contribute to the successful planning and implementation of human elephant mitigation measures at farmer level. This study aims to quantify wildlife rangers' preferences for community‐based strategies to increase human‐elephant coexistence in the Selous‐Niassa Wildlife Corridor (Southern Tanzania). In particular, we evaluated wildlife rangers' preferences regarding three attributes: local farm‐based mitigation measures, the implication of technical support in the implementation of those measures and the preferred level of cooperation in the local community for that implementation. In 2019, we conducted a discrete choice experiment by interviewing 63 wildlife rangers (41% of the total rangers working along the corridor). Results showed that the most preferred management strategy included building chili‐oil fences by farmers cooperating at community level and technically supported by external institutions. Other strategies considered were (in decreasing order of importance) crop species selection, beehive fences, crop translocation, cooperation in small groups, and the use of noisemakers. The discrete choice analysis of wildlife rangers' preferences, including the type and level of cooperation, allows quantifying the suitability of different management strategies for mitigating human‐wildlife coexistence challenges.

Mandated Planning for Climate Change

Problem, research strategy, and findings Florida’s 2015 Peril of Flood Act requires that coastal localities incorporate sea level rise (SLR) planning policies into their comprehensive plans. We surveyed planners and reviewed more than 150 plans to determine how communities responded to the state mandate along three domains: planning intelligence, SLR responses, and collaboration. We learned that the mandate spurred SLR planning, but that local SLR planning responses varied widely, ranging from complacent compliance to progressive planning responses. Further research is needed to clarify underlying motivators for these varied responses, as well as connections between policy adoption and implementation. Takeaway for practice Flexible mandates allow for discretion in how localities respond to complex, ever-changing, long-term, and uncertain phenomena like climate change and SLR. Commitment to addressing these challenges can be bolstered by state mandates that provide political cover and an impetus to move adaptation planning forward. Such flexibility can lead to inconsistent and vague policies. Thus, mandates can spur local policy adoption but cannot ensure substantive responses to climate change. Meaningful responses to climate change adaptation still depend heavily on local commitment, capacity, and competence of planners.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: LEARNING FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OF JOGJA AGRO TECHNO PARK

Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) are often seen as an ideal scheme for infrastructure provision when the government is hampered by human and financial resources. Therefore, the government can involve the private sector in playing a role in the successful implementation of infrastructure. This article aims to identify the factors affecting readiness using a public-private partnership (PPP) in the development of Jogja Agro Techno Park (JATP) as a priority development acceleration program in Special Region of Yogyakarta Province. Furthermore, this research uses a descriptive method with qualitative approach. Therefore, the data findings thought in-depth interviews and several kinds of literature. The data findings analysis in this research using NVivo 12 plus software, this qualitative tool is able to provide capture coding rates from interview results that display the intensity level. The result of this research indicated that the dominant variable comes the Local Government Commitment aspects and Institutional Coordination, in which the resulted coding intensity value of Crosstab Query is 28.57%. It is related to the DIY government that has strong institutional level support and its commitment to sustainability in the development of the JATP priority program. Moreover, the high percentage indicators come from the Coordination with Private Sector and Availability of Special Institution. Besides it, other factors found in several aspects of HR Competence and Financial Capacity are did not become play an important role from DIY’s Government in readiness for a PPP scheme in JATP development. This is because financial human resource competencies and also financial capability have been managed by TPSD as an ad-Hock agency devoted to handling PPP schemes. So that the factors of readiness are not necessary to adjust the institutional structure because it has been able to be coordinated based on their respective duties and functions.