Local Social Structures Research Articles

Enfermeiros e agentes sanitários como impulsores da aderência terapêutica: uma pesquisa etnográfica em Catamarca, Argentina

Objetivos: o objetivo central deste artigo é analisar o papel do enfermeiro e do agente sanitário locais na área de Valle del Cajón, Catamarca, Argentina, estudo que está focalizado em sua intervenção na aderência terapêutica dos pacientes. Desenvolvimento: a partir da utilização de uma metodologia qualitativa de carácter etnográ co, expõem-se os resultados obtidos mediante entrevistas abertas de sessões múltiplas, observação participante, registros fílmicos e diários de campo. A pesquisa mostra que a alta valoração que os enfermeiros e os agentes sanitários possuem para o pessoal local e os demais trabalhadores da saúde; a sua intervenção com resultado favorável nos itinerários terapêuticos; o conhecimento que pos- suem das formas de conceber o processo de saúde e doenças nativas; a sua pertença à organização social local; a sua intervenção como mediadores culturais entre os povoadores e os médicos; a sua perícia na gestão da farmacopeia local e a sua ativa participação em funções que excedem o sistema de saúde, entre outras, constituem instâncias que sustentam a aderência terapêutica. Conclusões: se apresenta que os enfermeiros e agentes sanitários são engrenagens centrais da aps e a sua prática cotidiana no Valle del Cajón constitui um suporte decisivo no referido ao seguimento dos tratamentos terapêuticos.

Presentation, Representation, and Museumification in Heritage Tourism: The Case of Hongkeng Hakka Earth Building Folk Cultural Village

UNESCO’s placement of the large, multi-story communal vernacular buildings known as tulou (土楼, rammed earth building) on its World Heritage List, and the touristic development that followed, has produced great social transformations among the Hakka people of Southeast China who reside in these impressive dwellings. My research explores the impact of UNESCO-inspired tourism on community life in Hongkeng village (Yongding Hakka Tulou Folk Culture Village). In this brief essay, I explore the local reshaping of space and social relationships to illustrate the ways that heritage tourism transforms everyday life and local culture. My special interest in the larger project from which this essay draws is the ways that local people negotiate such transformations. The negotiation process involves local people adapting to the new heritage phenomenon and navigating situations of frequent cultural contact and regular conflicts of interest. On the one hand, heritage and tourism contribute to the museumification of local life and culture. Local government and natives consciously or subconsciously represent their identity and tradition as well as produce localness through the decoration and reshaping of local living space. On the other hand, heritage tourism activities result in new forms of social interaction that challenge local genealogical social structure and family relationships. In such circumstances, new modes and patterns of community interaction and local cultural practices are generated under the transformative forces of heritage and tourism. My investigations into the spatial, cultural, and social spheres of local life in Hongkeng aim to help understand the transformation of an indigenous community while it is engaging in (and with) heritage practices such as listing, landmarking, representation, historical recreation, cultural commodification, and touristic management.

Hábitat III: la participación de la sociedad civil en la construcción de la Nueva Agenda Urbana y el derecho a la ciudad

Este artículo analiza el proceso de construcción de la Nueva Agenda Urbana y propone una discusión relativa a su futura implementación y la concreción del derecho a la ciudad. Estos procesos pueden ser entendidos desde la corresponsabilidad de los ciudadanos y ciudadanas, por medio de las iniciativas de participación local transformadoras. La hipótesis que se plantea es que para que estos procesos sean efectivos, se deben ir construyendo a través de acciones concretas de organizaciones y movimientos sociales locales, y no solo como una dádiva del Estado o de gobiernos locales, ni una imposición de las instancias globales para el desarrollo.

Indigenous migrants negotiating belonging: Peticiones de cambio de fuero in Cajamarca, Peru, 17th–18th centuries

Prehispanic corporate social units in northern Peru, the pachacas or ayllus and the guarangas, continued to structure social life in Cajamarca throughout the Spanish colonial period. They were restructured by Spanish rule, as they had been by the Inca conquest before. Spanish rule also reshaped indigenous migration and the social categorization of the migrants, which was closely intertwined with the regime of land tenure. This article takes a look at the integration of new and old migrants and their descendants into the local social structure and examines how they negotiated their belonging in petitions to change or defend their fuero. The petitioners successfully argued on the basis of their ancestry, whether legitimate or not, and activated personal networks on their behalf. In that, they paralleled mestizo and mulatto petitioners who, like migrants, benefited from fiscal prerogatives, which were however challenged during the course of the 18th century, leading to a partial re-categorization. The redistribution of land was an important motive in these late colonial re-categorizations, but also earlier in the colonial period the absence of bonds to the land was an essential characteristic of being categorized as a ‘migrant.’

Teaching Architecture – Contemporary Challenges and Threats in the Complexity of Built Environment

The complexity of the modern built environment is a problem not only of architectural and urban issues. This issue extends to many other disciplines as well as covering a wide range of social engagements. The idea of writing this paper is generally initiated by the debate which took place in Gdańsk on 22.01.2016, and was prepared in order to meet representatives of the four circles of interest within the architectural sphere: universities, professional architectural organisations and associations, architectural practice (professionals running their own studios, managing projects and leading construction) and local social organisations active in city of Gdańsk. This paper is a comparison of the results of this discussion in relation to the policy and methodology of architecture teaching on the University level. Teaching architecture and urban planning according to the present discussion needs to be improved and advanced to meet the increasing complexity of both disciplines. Contemporary dynamic development of cities creates the necessity of engaging multiple stakeholders, participants and users of architecture and urban space. This is crucial to make them conscious of sharing responsibility for increasing the quality of living in the built environment. This discussion about architectural education is open and has the nature of an ongoing process adapting to a changing environment and is in fact a constant challenge which brings questions rather than simple answers. Transformation of architecture and urban planning, and consequently its education are increasingly entering into the related fields, especially into the professional practice and social environment. The question of how to teach architecture and urban planning and educate users of urban space should take place in the context of a wide discussion. This interdisciplinary debate seems to be a crucial and challenging step towards improving the future education of architecture and urban planning leading to a better life in the city.

Conditions for Successfully Increasing Disadvantaged Adolescents’ Engagement in and Development through Volunteering in Community Sport

A considerable number of adolescents in Western societies live in socially vulnerable situations. Approaches to improve this situation ultimately aim to make institutional changes through a focus on individual development. With regard to the latter, there have been high expectations regarding sport volunteering’s contribution to human capital development. Nevertheless, little understanding of the underlying conditions for, and possible outcomes of sport volunteering exists. This study’s aim was twofold: (1) to assess the conditions necessary to develop the human capital of disadvantaged adolescents through volunteering in community sport, and (2) to assess to what extent human capital can be developed. A qualitative research design was used to attain deeper insight into these conditions within eight community sport programs in Flanders (Northern Dutch-speaking region of Belgium), a setting that is not often used for youth developmental practices. Data were collected on repeated occasions over the course of each program through qualitative methods with local sport services and social partner organizations (N = 26) and participating adolescents (N = 26). Inductive analysis identified two categories of necessary conditions, (1) valuing and recognizing adolescents, and (2) informal and experiential learning. Results further showed the achievement of two types of perceived human capital developmental outcome (i.e., personal and interpersonal competences) through the fulfilment of these conditions. Findings also showed that although two of these programs made use of a more critical pedagogical approach to youth development by encouraging participants, not only to reflect on, but also to critically take part in the transformation of their own position within society; critical youth empowerment was not reached in the majority of the programs.

Separating Sisters From Brothers: Ethnic Relations and Identity Politics in the Context of Indigenous Land Titling in Indonesia

Environmental and social transformations in Jambi province, Indonesia, are inextricably interlinked. Large-scale agro-industrial development and nature conservation policies equally alienate local communities from their agricultural lands and turn land into a scarce resource. Consequently, access to agricultural land becomes increasingly contested, not only between communities and state institutions or companies but also among communities themselves. To secure or restore local ‘indigenous’ land rights against land grabbing and green grabbing by states and companies, indigenous land titling has become a powerful tool all over the world. Ongoing activities of indigenous land titling in Indonesia have been largely perceived as an act of justice by indigenous and land rights activists and affected communities. Yet, a challenging step towards titling is the identification of who is and who is not ‘indigenous’. This highly political process creates ethnicity-based identities tied to rights and possibilities around land as a contested resource. Based on a case study of a national park in central Jambi, this paper shows that what is perceived as an act of justice against the state can also produce injustice among local communities by heavily impacting and transforming local social structures and relations.

Drivers of present and lifetime natural resource use in a tropical biodiversity hotspot

AbstractEffective biodiversity conservation requires an understanding of the drivers of natural resource use. Few studies, however, have examined how motivations of natural resource users and attributes of local social organizations affect resource extraction over time. We aimed to identify which characteristics of individuals (taboos, food security, resource‐related income), groups (village size, ease of access to education, proximity to park), and institutions (presence of enforcement mechanisms) best predicted use of multiple types of natural resources near a protected area during the past 1.5 years and during respondents’ lifetimes. Data were collected in 2013 via semi‐structured interviews with 360 people across ten villages along the perimeter of Ankarana National Park (northern Madagascar). All recent and lifetime uses of natural resources examined were higher in villages close to the park and for respondents with a history of earning money from extracting natural resources. In addition, individuals with ancestral meat‐related taboos were less likely to have extracted natural resources over their lifetime, while individuals who recently consumed meat were more likely to have extracted natural resources over the past 1.5 years. All other variables were less important in explaining the use of natural resources. The results highlight that some drivers can be consistently important in predicting natural resource use and that simple models can have relatively high explanatory power even in the context of the (sometimes) illegal extraction of five different types of natural resources.

Identifying the Relevant Local Population for Environmental Impact Assessments of Mobile Marine Fauna

Environmental impact assessments must be addressed at an appropriate scale of biological organization for the species affected. It can be challenging to identify the relevant local wildlife population for impact assessment for those species that are continuously distributed and highly mobile. Here, we document the existence of local communities of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) inhabiting coastal and estuarine waters of Perth, Western Australia, where major coastal developments have been undertaken or are proposed. Using sighting histories from a four-year photo-identification study, we investigated fine-scale, social community structure of dolphins based on measures of social affinity and network (Half-Weight Index - HWI, preferred dyadic association tests, and Lagged Association Rates - LAR), home ranges, residency patterns (Lagged Identification Rates - LIR), and genetic relatedness. Analyses revealed four socially and spatially distinct, mixed-sex communities. The four communities had distinctive social patterns varying in strength, site fidelity and residency patterns. Overlap in home ranges and relatedness explained little to none of the association patterns between individuals, suggesting complex local social structures. The study demonstrated that environmental impact assessments for mobile, continuously distributed must evaluate impacts in light of local population structure, especially where proposed developments may affect core habitats of resident communities or sub-populations. Here, the risk of local extinction is particularly significant for an estuarine community because of its small size, limited connectivity with adjacent communities, and use of areas subject to intensive human use. In the absence of information about fine-scale population structure, impact assessments may fail to consider the appropriate biological context.

Challenging collaborative urban governance under austerity: How local governments and social organizations deal with housing policy in Catalonia (Spain)

ABSTRACTDuring the decades preceding the 2008 global financial crisis, collaborative urban governance had become hegemonic in many European cities. However, the postcrash austerity era seems to have dampened enthusiasm for network governance. This article examines this proposition by analyzing the evolution of collaborative urban governance mechanisms in local housing policy from 2008 to 2014. In addition, new citizen-led movements are explored, demonstrating how new social and political actors are also challenging established processes of collaborative urban governance. Drawing on 4 local case studies in the Spanish region of Catalonia, we identify different urban governance pathways, which are not simply explained by changes in local government but also by institutional path dependencies and the particular social fabric of each place. We conclude that collaborative urban governance has not been used as a significant response to the effects of the recession. Instead, new social and institutional arrangements may be starting to emerge.

‘Here, we are all equal!’: soccer viewing centres and the transformation of age social relations among fans in South-Western Nigeria

The spread of soccer viewing centres (SVCs) in Nigeria is one of the unfolding legacies of global sporting media in Africa. While, providing access to live broadcast of European soccer competitions, SVCs have developed into supplementary social spaces where culturally defined rules of social relations are contested. Using Goffman's notion of performance and Agbalagba in Yoruba normative system, in conjunction with sociological perspective on space, the study explores the context and processes in the transformation of age social relations in Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria. Data were obtained through participant observation, and 23 in-depth interviews with viewing centre owners and soccer fans. Findings depict the SVC as a constructed space, with conflicting meanings, attitudes and practices, which inadvertently fracture and render fluid, the expectations of norms of age social relations. In conclusion, European soccer drives the spread of supplementary social spaces which impact local social structures in critical ways.

Does landscape connectivity shape local and global social network structure in white-tailed deer?

Intraspecific social behavior can be influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. While much research has focused on how characteristics of individuals influence their roles in social networks, we were interested in the role that landscape structure plays in animal sociality at both individual (local) and population (global) levels. We used female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Illinois, USA, to investigate the potential effect of landscape on social network structure by weighting the edges of seasonal social networks with association rate (based on proximity inferred from GPS collar data). At the local level, we found that sociality among female deer in neighboring social groups (n = 36) was mainly explained by their home range overlap, with two exceptions: 1) during fawning in an area of mixed forest and grassland, deer whose home ranges had low forest connectivity were more social than expected; and 2) during the rut in an area of intensive agriculture, deer inhabiting home ranges with high amount and connectedness of agriculture were more social than expected. At the global scale, we found that deer populations (n = 7) in areas with highly connected forest-agriculture edge, a high proportion of agriculture, and a low proportion of forest tended to have higher weighted network closeness, although low sample size precluded statistical significance. This result implies that infectious disease could spread faster in deer populations inhabiting such landscapes. Our work advances the general understanding of animal social networks, demonstrating how landscape features can underlie differences in social behavior both within and among wildlife social networks.

International environmental NGOs and the politics of genetically modified organisms

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to problematize the resistance role played by international environmental non-governmental organizations (IENGOs) in the governance debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to sustain that some of them are important actors in global environmental governance due to their resistance to transnational corporations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a reflection on the literature review focused on civil society and IENGOs. Accordingly, the political role of IENGOs in GMO governance is highlighted grounded on the negotiation process of the Cartagena Protocol. At the end, the authors stress that some IENGOs act as resistance actors to corporations’ practices.FindingsThe investigation of the political role played by the IENGOs in the negotiation process of the Cartagena Protocol highlighted that these actors use information to influence decision-makers and power holders, often providing know-how and material resources to local activists and social movement organizations at the domestic level. As a result, the political role played by IENGOs in GMO governance places these international actors as highly influential on the international business (IB) domain.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the importance of IENGOs as resistant actors in what regards corporations’ practices. The authors also sustain that the relationships between states, corporations and civil society actors at the governance level should be part of IB’s research agenda to advance the understanding of how civil society mobilizes, articulates and produces consent and coercion in the international domain. Therefore, the paper contributes to foster actors and voices from the margins as a relevant IB research topic.

The Norwegian Academy of Music and the Lebanon Project: The challenges of establishing a community music project when working with Palestinian refugees in South Lebanon

Abstract The Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) has been involved in a community music project for children in the Palestinian refugee camp, Rashedieh, in South Lebanon since 2003. This has grown into a larger music project where local instructors now run music activities and teach music as a permanent weekly activity. Three issues will be discussed in the article, based on perspectives within the field of community music. The first issue concerns how aiming for a culture of equality and cultural democracy can conflict with the ideology of the local culture and social structures. The role of learning and teaching within a community music project is the focus of the second issue. Finally, the role of formalized organizational structures will be evaluated with regard to fostering participation in music activities within the Lebanon project. Hopefully, presenting these perspectives and holding a discussion thereon will contribute to the ability to nuance and challenge underlying ideologies and common practises within the field of community music.

Safety in a Manufacturing Company

Abstract The safety systems include the functioning of the institutions of a state, central, and local government, businesses, and social organizations. Research in this discipline should contribute to the development of the theoretical foundations and systems of national and international security and operating systems in the area of technical safety. Technical safety engineering should deal with a design, build, operation, and decommissioning of technical measures in order to minimize the opportunities and the size of their negative impact on the environment, people, and the good of civilization. With this in mind, the main purpose of the research was to evaluate the safety of technical manufacturing company that uses a wide machine park. A plant manufacturing parts and components for automobiles was the audited company.

Asuwada Epistemology and Globalised Sociology: Challenges of the South

Professor Akiwowo propounded the Asuwada Theory of Sociation in the 1980s as a contextual episteme to explain African social experience. The theory particularly attempts an indigenous postulation to social interactions among Africans in general and the Yoruba in particular. Its concepts attempt to emphasise contextual values of social beings who would contribute to social survival and community integration and development. This theory postulates that among Africans in general and the Yoruba in particular, the need to associate or co-exist by internalising and rightly exhibiting socially approved values of community survival and development, is integral to local social structure, as failure to co-exist potentially endangers the community. A deviant who defaults in sociating values is deemed a bad person ( omoburuku), while the one who sociates is the good person ( omoluabi). This theoretical postulation contrasts western social science theories (especially sociological Structuralist (macro) and Social Action (micro) theories), which rather emphasise rationality and individualism (at varied levels depending on the theory). Western social science ethnocentrically depicts African communal and kin ways of life as primitive and antithetical to development. Western social science theories have remained dominant and hegemonic over the years while Akiwowo’s theory is largely unpopular even in Nigerian social science curricula in spite of its potential for providing contextual interpretations for indigenous ways of life that are still very much extant despite dominant western modernity. This article examines the Asuwada Theory within the context of globalised social sciences and the complicated and multifaceted glocal challenges confronting the adoption of the Akiwowo’s epistemic intervention.

Participatory guarantee systems: organic certification to empower farmers and strengthen communities

ABSTRACTParticipatory guarantee systems (PGS) can provide guarantees to consumers while avoiding the entry barriers of third-party certification. This study investigates farmers’ motivations for, and experiences and outcomes from, participation in PGS. Interviews with 84 farmers from seven countries were analyzed in light of empowerment theory and social process theory. The results suggest that participation in PGS can empower farmers by basing their activities on long-lasting social processes and connection to their communities. Combining tradition and bottom-up collaboration within local level social structures enables PGS to overcome their challenges and ensure their future as an alternative system to third-party certification.

Assessing the Impacts of a Training Program for Women in Peru: Are There Social Networking Effects?

The general goal of this study is to assess the impacts on women’s economic and social participation of a peer-to-peer training program in Canete Province, Peru. We use a quasi- experimental methodology applied to treatment and control groups. The study evaluates three areas of potential effects: (i) participation and returns from economic activities (use of time, labour market participation, family business, savings); (ii) indicators of women’s autonomy, family cohesion and social participation; and (iii) living standards. The impacts we found are mixed. We only detected robust impacts on the propensity to engage in savings and participate in local social organizations by treated women. The channels behind these impacts require more specific research, but we hypothesize that it may be related to expanded social networking. We observe a few specific impacts related to autonomy (negative) and family cohesion (positive), which can be linked to the religious nature of the program. We evaluate differentiated effects by some features of the treatment group as self-assessment of economic usefulness by women as well as trainers’ education and age. In terms of policy, we consider that peer-to-peer programs of this type may have limited impacts in terms of broad development goals like increased income, labour participation and business activity by women, but these can also show some advantages for expanding women’s social networking and access to savings and local organizations. Improved peer-to-peer programs more clearly linked to the economic advancement of women may be more efficient in achieving broader development goals.

Systematic review of literature concerning lesbian and gay work-life balance

Systematic review of literature concerning lesbian and gay work-life balance

Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and Creating Shared Value on Sustainability

This article describes how recently, there has been a shift in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to creating shared value (CSV), filling the gap between the strategies underlying competitive advantage and sustainability. Although the principles of CSR and CSV have been broadly studied and investigated, there is still little academic research focusing on the transitions regarding on economic, social, and environmental sustainability. In this article, literature and a case study were reviewed and analyzed to identify differences and contributing factors towards sustainability, based on value co-creation and collaboration approaches. The authors' findings present that the CSV emphasizing on co-created value with the cross-sector collaboration leads to the sustainability. Working together with local people or social organizations enables deep understanding of local context and understand the real social and environmental issues. The study contributes to sustainability and business literature by investigating insights into the sustainability of CSR and CSV, and strengthening the importance of social involvement.