Local Youths Research Articles

The politics of co-production and inclusive deliberation in participatory research

ABSTRACT This research engages in a methodological analysis of a participatory art project employing PhotoVoice with refugee and local community youths across two distinct sites: Istanbul and Johannesburg. The project aimed to facilitate inclusive deliberations among the youth, thereby promoting capacity building, reconciliation, and peacebuilding initiatives. Our focus is grounded in the concept of co-production as a practice and principle of inclusive deliberation within the research design, addressing a spectrum of issues from participant-driven research agenda setting, to the design and execution of the research, the selection and creation of photographs, and their dissemination. By offering a critical examination of how inclusive deliberation manifests in co-production research, we highlight the potentials, complexities, and tensions it generates. We argue that while co-produced action research embodies transversal politics, it does not necessarily disrupt the entrenched power dynamics and politically driven hierarchies within the public sphere.

Missionaries, Basketball and Stranger-Kings. Modernization and Power in Todos Santos, Guatemala, from 1950 to 1980

ABSTRACT This article explores ethnographically the impact of foreign missionaries in a Maya Mam community of Guatemala between 1954 and the end of the 1970s. As previously evidenced, the development-oriented activities of the missionaries were well received by local youths as they enabled their empowerment before the Ladino population and endorsed rebellion against the civil-religious status quo of communal power. This article proposes that, despite causing a rupture that sometimes escalated into violence, the communal order reshaped by rebellious youths maintained elements of continuity with the past. By analysing the persistent entanglement of power and religion and an emerging relevance of basketball through the lens of Graeber and Sahlins’ reflections on the divine origins of power, we can see how, under the surface of the explicit rupture, there was a hidden attempt to appropriate modernity by placing it within the Indigenous logics of rituality and power.

Institutional Arrangement for Urban Forest Management in Ghana: Assessing the Role of the Local Communities and Youths

Sustainable management and conservation of urban forests are becoming increasingly important to achieve urban sustainability, thus requiring a unified stakeholder collaboration at different levels. Local communities and youth play essential roles in sustainable urban forest management. This study analyzed the institutional arrangement for urban forest management in Ghana and the involvement of local communities and youth. The research involved an in-depth analysis of environmental institutions in Ghana and used qualitative methods to explore community and youth roles in urban forest management. Findings revealed a lack of a specific institution spearheading urban forest management, leading to overlapping responsibilities and administrative conflicts. Despite their potential, local communities and youth are often excluded from urban forest planning and management, resulting in decreased ownership and misuse of urban forests. Recommendations include assigning clear roles to responsible institutions, designating a specific urban forest management body, and adopting a youth-focused participatory approach for effective management.

Sparring with Femininity

This ethnography explores how a group of adolescents—predominantly girls—negotiated a sport-for-development program centred on the traditionally masculine pastime of mixed martial arts (MMA). The ethnographic setting was a youth centre in central Montréal that provides free after-school programming for youths aged 11 to 18 years. Our analysis yielded three prominent themes: 1) ‘girls don’t do MMA,’ in which we discovered how young female pugilists actively challenged residual stereotypes that cast them as ‘too soft’ to play violent sports such as MMA; 2) ‘a mixed bag of martial artists,’ in which we learned how local youths conceived MMA as a vehicle for supporting innovative agendas that extended well-beyond the sport of MMA; and 3) the ‘racialization of self-defence,’ in which we witnessed how self-defence against complex social realities (profiling and marginalization) experienced by many non-white youths in the area were integrated into the teachings of the MMA program. Collectively, these themes raise important questions about the socially significant role(s) that MMA plays in the lives of local youths with respect to their race, class, and gendered identities.

A Study of the Effectiveness of Popularized Perceptions of Religious Culture in the Context of Deep Learning on the Diffusion of Racial Justice Ideas

Abstract In the long historical evolution of humanity, religion has always demonstrated social, and cultural patterns and historical forms and has silently influenced some people’s ideological concepts and moral behaviors at all stages of development. This paper uses deep learning to investigate how the popularization of religious culture affects the dissemination of the concept of racial justice. The LBP-ORB algorithm model is constructed for the popularization method of religious culture, which is based on the improvement of the ORB algorithm, and the cognitive degree of different religious cultures can be improved by feature extraction through the LBP-ORB algorithm model. The model of this paper will be compared experimentally and then through fieldwork. The LBP-ORB algorithm model will be used to extract the features of local religious culture and popularize the local youths. Based on the analysis results, we explore the effect of the popularization of the cognition of religious culture on the spread of the concept of racial justice. After the popularization of religious culture, the college student group and middle school student group’s knowledge of the concept of racial justice increased substantially, with the number of people familiar with the college student group increasing by 88 and the number of people with general knowledge increasing by 122. The number of people in the middle school student population who were familiar with it reached 112, and the number of people with a general understanding reached 92. This paper’s LBPORB algorithm model has significantly increased the dissemination of the concept of racial justice after popularizing religious culture.

Good Governance Practices in Godawari Municipality of Lalitpur, Nepal

Good governance is a state management system which offers well-public service deliveries. This study aimed to explain good governance practices in Godawari Municipality in Lalitpur district, Nepal. We applied the post-positivism research paradigm and institutional/exit poll survey research design. The data were generated from 180 sample respondents who were elected leaders, administrative staff, local intellectuals, and service receivers in the municipality, and these were selected purposively and randomly. We applied reliable self-administered questionnaires (0.91> 0.78 Cronbach’s alpha value) consisting of seven indicators: accountability, transparency, participation, the rule of law, corruption, responsiveness, and effectiveness and efficiency. This study is explained through the theoretical insights from decentralization and the new public management theories. This study found that good governance practices in Godawari Municipality were satisfactory and fair. Participation of local youths in the local government is remarkable, and the women elected representatives are more the men. The educational status of the respondents is good, and their level of education and the transparency score in the municipality are positively correlated. Service receivers perceive that political leaders and administrative staffs are mainly responsible for corruption. There exist between the principles of good governance and the practice in the study area, which nine possible implications of the research can address.

The influence of cultural constraints on entrepreneurial motivations: Exploring the experiences of Muslim women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

This article explores the influence of cultural constraints on entrepreneurial motivations for women entrepreneurs of the Muslim faith. A qualitative approach is taken by drawing from extraordinarily rare interviews with 17 women entrepreneurs who run businesses in the open market in the Northwest region of Pakistan. Push and pull factors were examined in the context of cultural constraints using the lens of post-materialism and dissatisfaction theories. The findings reveal that some entrepreneurs are pulled into entrepreneurship to give something back to local youths and to improve their life chances and/or reduce hardship. In relation to the push factors, some entrepreneurs decided to do something about the harsh circumstances they found themselves in to demonstrate their agency. All were aware of the cultural constraints around them and are highly motivated to overcome these as role models for future generations and to hopefully achieve parity with male peers. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing new insights to the reader in extending the post-materialism and dissatisfaction theories for women Muslim entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Furthermore, it also demonstrates how cultural constraints related to family issues motivate women in a male-dominated society to become entrepreneurs.

Community inclusion in tourism development: young people’s social innovation propositions for advancing sustainable tourism

ABSTRACT Different community groups and members hold varying power positions in tourism development discussions and decision-making. From the sustainable development perspective, tourism planning and management should involve a diversity of voices, including also those with limited political or economic power. This article focuses on relatively little studied young people’s views on tourism development. The article uses the concept of social innovation for analysing local youths’ needs and propositions for transforming tourism towards sustainability. Empirical data is derived from ethnographic research and a design anthropology-oriented workshop for young adults in Kemi, northern Finland. At the workshop, social innovations were used to imagine alternative futures for local life and the role of tourism in development. The participants co-created three social innovation propositions for enhancing the flow of information regarding tourism, developing activities, liveliness and spaces to hang out, and attracting passing-by visitors. These propositions reflect sustainability transformations that recognise young adults’ inclusion in tourism planning, create more inclusive services for locals, and enhance diverse, locally grounded, and socially valuable tourism. Even though the propositions are dependent on existing power structures, they challenge the status quo of tourism planning and development.

Community-Based Narcotics Prevention: An Effective Approach Towards Youth Drug Abuse Mitigation

This study focuses on the escalating issue of narcotics misuse and its deleterious effects on health, families, and society, emphasizing the role of preventive socialization in addressing this crisis. Utilizing a community-based approach, Leihitu District KKN students implemented a "Drug Prevention Socialization" program, targeted at thirty local youths in Ureng Country. The objectives of this initiative were to enhance knowledge about the perils of drug addiction, foster resilience against drug involvement, and instigate motivation for drug prevention among these individuals. Through interactive counseling sessions, the program disseminated crucial information about the legal, health, and societal repercussions of narcotics abuse. Post-program assessments revealed a significant improvement in participants' understanding of drug misuse consequences and strategies to resist involvement. Thus, this study underscores the effectiveness of community-based drug prevention socialization in fostering informed and resistant youth populations, thereby contributing to wider efforts to combat the narcotics crisis.Highlights:
 
 
 
 
 Successful execution of the "Drug Prevention Socialization" program.
 Proven effectiveness of community-based prevention.
 Education-based approach fosters drug resistance.
 
 
 
 
 Keywords: Community-based Prevention, Narcotics Abuse, Youth Education, Drug Prevention Socialization, Substance Misuse

Community-Based Narcotics Prevention: An Effective Approach Towards Youth Drug Abuse Mitigation

This study focuses on the escalating issue of narcotics misuse and its deleterious effects on health, families, and society, emphasizing the role of preventive socialization in addressing this crisis. Utilizing a community-based approach, Leihitu District KKN students implemented a "Drug Prevention Socialization" program, targeted at thirty local youths in Ureng Country. The objectives of this initiative were to enhance knowledge about the perils of drug addiction, foster resilience against drug involvement, and instigate motivation for drug prevention among these individuals. Through interactive counseling sessions, the program disseminated crucial information about the legal, health, and societal repercussions of narcotics abuse. Post-program assessments revealed a significant improvement in participants' understanding of drug misuse consequences and strategies to resist involvement. Thus, this study underscores the effectiveness of community-based drug prevention socialization in fostering informed and resistant youth populations, thereby contributing to wider efforts to combat the narcotics crisis.Highlights:
 
 
 
 
 Successful execution of the "Drug Prevention Socialization" program.
 Proven effectiveness of community-based prevention.
 Education-based approach fosters drug resistance.
 
 
 
 
 Keywords: Community-based Prevention, Narcotics Abuse, Youth Education, Drug Prevention Socialization, Substance Misuse

Multi-Level Participatory GIS Framework to Assess Mobility Needs and Transport Barriers in Rural Areas: A Case Study of Rural Mumias East, a Sub-County of Kakamega, Kenya

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in the application of GIS to community empowerment or new policy development through participatory design, information gathering and implementation. This study, therefore, aims to apply a multi-level participatory GIS (PGIS) framework to assess mobility needs and barriers in rural areas from different available transport modes. This assessment was applied to three sub-locations (Lusheya, Khaunga and Mahola) located in the sub-county of Mumias East, Kakamega, Kenya. The study brings two main contributions: (1) an overview of mobility needs and barriers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and (2) an introduction of a PGIS framework that integrates in-depth local knowledge of rural mobility needs and mobility barriers. This PGIS framework was applied to mobility issues based on three main dimensions: context, process and content. The context in the PGIS framework focuses on identifying the right stakeholders and putting on suitable structures for their training as well as the collection of data. The process considers the collection, analysis and visualization of rural mobility data. The content of the data collected are validated for accuracy in the form of maps and are evaluated for relevance by stakeholders. Local youths with GIS knowledge and digital tools were mobilized along with community people having a solid understanding of the local geographical contexts to collect geographically referenced data related to community resources, transport networks, and mobility barriers. The application of the multi-level PGIS framework has brought to the mainstream daily mobility challenges faced by rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Community members, even those from remote areas, also have access to decision making, reversing the previous structure that strongly relied on often-irrelevant, top-down decision making.

POTENSI KESENIAN JATHILAN UNTUK PENCIPTAAN FILM

Jathilan art as a traditional Javanese dance is still alive today in the countryside. One of them is the Jathilan Tunggal Budhi art community in Gobeh village, Ngadirojo District, Wonogiri Regency which is driven by local youths. The purpose of this study is to reveal the potential of jathilan art as a source of film creation ideas. Research with a focus on the potential contained in this art is a type of qualitative research. Data collection uses the observation method and literature study and is processed by qualitative data analysis. The result of the study shows that jathilan art has the potential to be used as a source of inspiration for film creation, both fiction and documentary. Story, movement, musical rhythm, and properties can be developed in the film creation process. The movement in the jathilan dance and such the wild horse's irregular movement can give a strong impression of mystery and horror, so that it can become interesting adventures through interpretable story plots. The nuances of gamelan accompaniment music can also give strength to the cinematic elements and artistic arrangements of the film. Traditional art that is synonymous with old-fashioned, but in fact young people are involved in it and adaptive to technology and social media can be a special attraction. Film produced is not only for entertainment but can also be a form of Indonesian cultural diplomacy when film is distributed abroad.

Impact of informal institutions on youth agribusiness participation in Southern Benin

The agribusiness sector development is often portrayed as an essential component of economic development. Though Benin is a country with inestimable agricultural potential, the agribusiness sector appears unappealing to the local youths. Prior investigations diagnosed the impeding factors as a paucity of financial resource and a dearth of land and technical knowledge. This article departs from past studies by considering the importance of informal institutions for youth participation in the agribusiness sector. Exploring a rich data set of 478 youths aged 15 to 35, collected in Southern Benin based on the stratified random sampling technique, the article uses propensity score matching to address selection bias and logistic regression on the matched sample to link informal institutions to youth participation in agribusiness. Results highlight that agribusiness-unfriendly informal institutions discourage youth participation in the agribusiness sector. Though easing access to finance is crucial for the youths to initiate agribusiness activities, findings make a case for long-term policies that aim to increase the societal levels of trust and desirability for the agribusiness sector.

Socio-administrative conservation and collection practices of the sacred Thal Kedar forest, Uttarakhand, India

The long-lasting association of humans with the forest is directly linked to the livelihood of natives without cultures, traditions, and beliefs. A survey conducted for the phytodiversity of the sacred Thal Kedar forest, Uttarakhand, India, reveals it as a center of spiritual approach and controlled by moral values rather than regulatory norms for conservation and sustainable benefits. Detailed investigation via group discussions, key informant interviews, observation of participants, and secondary data collection deciphers that the sacred forest plays a potential role in the food and health of the people, both at the local and regional levels. In the present survey, we found that local people are effectively controlled and guided to use all resources through moral duty, beliefs, and worship rituals, an inherited practice for ecological protection, and honesty to the Deity. Forest tourism based on holy baths, a current social demand, has been emerging as a sustainable job for local youths but requires stringent parallel administrative supervision along the established social norms to avoid any materialistic mind deeds to the sacred forest. The impact of climate change and the shift of various species to higher elevations is a matter of advanced strategy to the policymakers to preserve the floristic diversity of the sacred Thal Kedar forest.

Community animal health centre approach and its impact on the delivery of animal health services

The present paper documents the effect of Community Animal Health Centres (CAHCs) on accessibility, affordability and quality parameters pertaining to animal health services rendered by them and subsequent impact on livestock health and productivity. The CAHCs were established in three tribal dominated villages of Banka district (Bihar) which were operated by trained and certified local youths. Ex-post-facto approach was adopted in the study, and data were collected from randomly selected 120 livestock owners in the geographic area served by the CHACs. It was found that, as a result of the CAHCs, the average distance of travel for seeking animal health services has reduced by 71.97%; ease of access has increased by 43.96%; timeliness of services has increased by 44.92%; average cost of seeking each of the animal health service has reduced by 79.71% and transportation cost associated with travel requirements has reduced by 44.92%. The CAHCs have also resulted in reduction in mortality among poultry birds and goats by 19 and 50%, respectively.

Peran Pemerintahan Desa Ulumahuam Dalam Upaya Pengembangan Ekonomi Masyarakat

This research is based on the views of the life of the Ulumahuam Village community, Silangkitang District who are able to adjust the economic conditions for the transformation of the methods of most of the livelihoods towards modernization, digitalization and tactics. However, behind the ability of the local community to deal with this, there is an important role for the Ulumahuam Village Government which previously provided education in various ways such as holding training/workshops, seminars, community outreach, environmental empowerment, distribution of community economic power to local MSME development. This research uses descriptive qualitative analysis research by making several information providers from internal & external Ulumahuam Village Government. The role of the Ulumahuam Village Government is very helpful for the growth and development of the community's economy as it is currently felt, this is frontal because the community can adjust the conditions of the economic cycle after changes in domestic/domestic economic patterns. The government is also sensitive to the attitude of public concern in many ways, including infrastructure that also supports the wheels of the economy and facilitates the needs of arts and sports, especially for local youth. However, there is still homework that needs to be improved and completed, namely rebuilding religious activities for local youths such as the Youth Mosque, one of which has long stopped.
 Keyword : Peran Pemerintahan Desa, Upaya Pembangunan Ekonomi, Masyarakat

Global Enterprises: contemporarisation of khadi products in India

Theoretical basis This paper aims to explain the theory of stakeholder, value chain analysis and triple bottom line sustainability approach. Research methodology The present case was developed from both primary and secondary data sources. The primary sources included visits to Global Enterprises and collected data through a structured interview. The secondary sources included enterprise annual reports and websites. Case overview/synopsis This case presents the innovative approach adopted by a for-profit social enterprise, utilizing locally available resources, changed products and an improved business model to deliver the desired social impact. It highlights the challenges social entrepreneurs face and how the people at the grass-root level are uplifted through the success of a social entrepreneurial venture. The case study is based on an interview conducted with the founder and managing director of Global Enterprises and other stakeholders (farmers, women artisans and employees). An interview schedule was used for conducting the interviews. The researchers tried to understand the business model deployed, stakeholders involved, challenges faced, competencies needed and strategic decisions made by the social entrepreneur that helped the enterprise become sustainable. The social problems identified by the entrepreneur include unavailability of quality raw material at a reasonable price on time; financial scarcity and massive dependence on non-institutional financial sources; lack of product development, market research and production; and the high price of handmade products compared to factory-made products. The case explains how the entrepreneur addressed the problems of cotton farmers, women artisans and local youths through his enterprise. The case also explains how he could make a social venture sustainable in the long run. Complexity academic level This case targets graduate-level students and is designed to be taught in Entrepreneurship, Social entrepreneurship, Rural entrepreneurship, Business administration and Entrepreneurship development. It can also be used for other programmes, where problem identification, opportunity recognition, stakeholder analysis and porter's value chain analysis are taught.

Innovative Community Care and the Sustainable Development of University Social Responsibility in the Post-Pandemic Era

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received increasing attention in recent decades. The concept of social responsibility is being applied in universities. Because universities have goals that differ significantly from corporations, the notion of university social responsibility (USR) has emerged in the academic field. The Ministry of Education in Taiwan has regularly implemented USR practice plans since 2018 (Executive Yuan, Taiwan, ROC, 2019). The core values of these plans are "local coalition" and "talent cultivation". Moreover, these plans encourage universities to use the power of professional knowledge and creation to minimize the gap between learning and application for students and to integrate local resources and hands-on strategies to better collaborate with universities around the world and expand participation in international academic activities. Sustainable development (SD) is a core objective of both CSR and USR. The United Nations has advocated for sustainable development since 1987 and formalized the five-component paradigm (people, partnership, peace, planet, and prosperity, 5Ps) in 2015. UN Agenda 2030 addresses 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), 169 targets, and 3,155 actions, encouraging all national governments to establish national SD action plans (United Nations, 2015). Based on the review of the literature and conceptual frameworks related to USR and SD (Bokhari, 2017), we integrate practice experiences and propose three suggestions for universities: 1) diversities universities could create a campus-wide climate of and comprehensive practice for social responsibility using their professional knowledge; 2) the social, economy, and environment are included in universities SD. The curriculum development of universities links to social practice activities to achieve the goals of talent cultivation to meet social needs; 3) The university projects include specific actions and timeline. The impacts and achievements of USR and SD may be appraised by internal and external experts. Fooyin University is a school of science and technology related to "Big Health". Based on the above theoretical frameworks, the outcome evaluation model of the Center for USR, the Ministry of Education, and the UN's SDGs, we implemented the "Time Wheel Sustainable Model of Social Responsibility at Fooyin University" (Figure 1) and began cooperating with private and government organizations. The model is an intervention and evaluation guideline for the time-dynamic wheel, with the target goal of cultivating health promotion and sustainable development talent. The outcomes and impacts of the model comprise four domains and sixteen indicators. Stakeholders of this model are students/alumni, teaching faculties and administration staff, communities, and the public. USR curriculum designs involve the School of Nursing, School of Medical and Health Sciences, School of Environment and Life Sciences, and College of Humanities and Management. In 2020, 718 faculties and 2,012 students participated in USR projects. In 2021, the participation numbers were 679 faculties and 2,303 students. The Fooyin USR is now firmly rooted in thirty communities. Starting in 2022, The Fooyin USR has collaborated with local private companies (CSR) and local youths and communities (regional revitalization, RR) to launch the 3 R formula framework of the USR. The goal of the 3 R action plan is to use artificial intelligence technology to provide innovative, community-based care. The USR operations of university sustainable development around Taiwan are achieving wonderful results, with even better achievements expected. This special column presents case studies of innovative community care and sustainable development within the context of university social responsibility at four universities, including Fooyin University, Siaogang Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, National Cheng Kung University, and Taipei Medical University. Since 2020, nations around the world have fought off COVID-19. The strategies of national prevention have evolved to better respond to disasters and to live with the virus. Therefore, in the post-pandemic period, universities around Taiwan have been implementing sustainable development practices. These universities are making strong efforts to develop innovative care for communities through academic exchange and publishing in order to accomplish social responsibility.

Evangelism and education: The making of the Zo people into a Christian community

Imparting education by Christian missionaries to the locals of a non-literate society was not an end in itself, rather it was a means to an end. Evangelizing needed to go hand-in-hand with church planting and institutionalisation of the church establishment. To fulfil this mission, it was necessary to deploy locals but first equip them with the ability to read and write, as reading the Bible is necessary for spiritual growth, which necessitated the introduction of education among the local youths. This paper delineates how the Christian missionaries groomed and deployed the local youths for evangelism among the Zo people in the Indo-Myanmar borderland.

Engaging local youths in humanitarian response is not a matter of if but how

Despite being critical responders in humanitarian crises, local youths are continually left out of the humanitarian action agenda. This paper used a qualitative methodology to investigate local youths’ role in humanitarian response and their impacts and assessed how humanitarian actors influence the effectiveness of youth engagement. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with local youths who participated in the Ebola response in Sierra Leone. Findings showed that young people are significantly contributing to crises response. However, they lack an enabling environment and support system to convert their skills into valuable humanitarian resources efficiently. Therefore, despite the rhetoric that many reports and policies reflect, this study establishes that the realities of youth engagement in humanitarian activities are often misunderstood and controlled for the self-interest of different actors other than youths themselves. It advocates for a renewed focus and support for young people’s skills as paramount for effective humanitarian response and building back resilient communities after emergencies. Besides, engaging local youths in tackling crises empowers them with transferable skills and stimulates their passion for participating in development issues within their communities.