Legitimate Means Research Articles

Distorted policy transfer? South Korea’s adaptation of UK social enterprise policy

ABSTRACTThis study draws upon communicative processes in policy transfer to consider the ways in which policy may be adapted to context or distorted. The theoretical framework is used to investigate exactly what the South Korean government borrowed from UK social enterprise policy. Despite claims that the UK was the source of both the general policy direction and the particular regulatory device, the Korean government did not learn about the specific contexts of the British policy, nor attempt two-way communication with domestic stakeholders. Rather, the UK policy was interpreted in accordance with the Korean government’s own ideas about how to utilize social enterprise. Historical legacies of top-down decision-making played an important role in this process, as did the state’s role as a regulator which mobilizes the private sector to achieve policy goals. The consequences have been negative for those organizations refused social enterprise status under the Ministry of Labor’s strict approval system, as well as for the original target population: the socially disadvantaged and vulnerable. It is suggested that the model advanced may help to illuminate the reasons why some borrowed policies differ considerably from the originals, and the use of policy transfer as a means of legitimization.

Justifying Coproduced Policeability: Restrained Creativity and New Modalities of (Dis)Agreements in the Swedish Police

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the justification of coproduced policeability using the “order-of-worth” framework suggested by Boltanski and Thevénot. Building on previous research describing how tensions limit the legitimacy of public services, the analysis illustrates how persistent tensions shape the justification of coproduced policing. Drawing on both fostering and responsive modalities, reluctant adaptability allows police to cope with tense value logics and justify new coproduced solutions as legitimate means of maintaining policing practices. The analysis is based on documents and semi-structured interviews. Results imply that coproduction can result in persistent tensions that public authorities have to handle.

This time it’s different: lithium extraction, cultural politics and development in Bolivia

As governments throughout Latin America have increased their dependence on resource extraction, the debate around extraction-based development has been reinvigorated. This article argues that, despite historical failures and recurrent conflicts associated with extraction-based development, the way in which development is experienced and conceptualised at the subnational level demonstrates why extraction continues to be perceived as a legitimate means for development. These findings show that, as resource extraction continues to play a critical role in the overall development transition of Latin America, the process must be understood and theorised in relation to the experiences and expectations of actors at multiple scales.

The Effects of CSR Reporting Frameworks and Financial Conditions on Managerss Willingness to Invest in CSR

This study contributes to the literature through its focus on how CSR disclosure impacts on the decision making of internal users of this information. Specifically, we investigated the impacts of CSR reporting frameworks and companies’ financial conditions on managers’ willingness to invest in a CSR project. Our findings supported our hypothesis that managers are significantly more willing to invest in a CSR project when their companies can disclose their CSR activities using a standalone CSR reporting framework. We also found that an integrated reporting framework did not incrementally affect managers’ willingness to invest in a CSR project relative to the financial statement disclosure framework. Moreover, we found that companies' financial conditions did not affect the likelihood of managers investing in a CSR project. Our findings extend legitimacy theory by suggesting that the means of legitimation, via standalone reporting frameworks, have varying impacts on managers’ behavior.

The national-dynastic monument in the Kingdom of Serbia the monument to Prince Milos Obrenovic in Pozarevac as a case study

The monument to Prince Milos Obrenovic unveiled in 1898 embodied the concept of national-dynastic monument in the Kingdom of Serbia at the end of the nine?teenth century. The statue in the manner of academic art by Djordje Jovanovic, a prominent Serbian sculptor, may be seen as a creative transfer of European practices in designing majestic monuments to rulers. Set up in downtown Pozarevac, the monument to Prince Milos was intended to act as a place of collective remembrance and a means of legitimation of King Alexander Obrenovic. Forming part of the process of constructing the cult of Prince Milos, the monument may be seen as a visual testimony to the attempt of the shaken dynastic regime to define its own ideological model by using the image of its charismatic founder. The unveiling ceremony, pervaded with a military spirit, confirmed the place of the Pozarevac visual topos on the map of patriotic geography, pointing to the power of the visual work in the system of the representative culture of the state and the nation in the late nineteenth century.

‘A literary phenomenon of the non-literate’: classed cultural value, agency and techniques of self-representation in the ghostwritten reality TV star memoir

ABSTRACTThe wide readership and commercial power of the ghostwritten celebrity memoir are indicative of its cultural significance, yet it remains a critically overlooked, much-derided genre. With some of the most popular texts being associated with female celebrities, both the books and their female author-subjects are ‘bad objects’: viewed as inauthentic due to visible mediation and thus denied authority. This article seeks to demonstrate that, far from being a legitimate means by which to invalidate the genre, the ghostwritten status of celebrity memoir is a source of complexity that rewards critique, and, indeed, makes it an exemplary site for the study of the wider dynamics of the construction and circulation of celebrity. This reading accounts for both the collaborative authorship and the industrial conditions of these texts’ construction without dismissing them as the solely cynical manufacture of corporate merchandise. Contrasting the memoirs of Paris Hilton and Jade Goody (and their respective ghostwriters where visible) offers a productive interplay between polar class positions that enables a reading of the ways in which access to certain capitals inflects the celebrity’s status as subject of her own life story. This shows the ways in which agency in self-representation is multiple and negotiated within gendered parameters.

Of Research Pings and Ping–Pong Balls

Communicating research information to stakeholders can be challenging, but it increases research uptake and impact beyond the academic audience. Using art-based methods to convey research results has been shown to be very effective in reaching diverse audiences. The project reported herein used Forum Theater to convey study results on different perspectives about water security. Performances included built-in data collection procedures, which verified previous research findings from more conventional study types. Postperformance focus groups examined the efficacy of Forum Theater for research communication. Audience members suggested that the play was very engaging and a salient, credible, and legitimate means of communicating research results. Implications for researchers, policy makers, and stakeholders are discussed.

Class, violence and citizenship in the Arab uprisings: assessing deeper forms of transition

The article connects the literature on transitology with a comparative analyses of the Arab uprisings (also known as the “Arab Spring”). These uprisings should not only be assessed against the backdrop of institutional changes (elections, the writing of new constitutions, the emergence of party systems, etc.). Rather, we need to consider the revolts as a set of historical events sharing a common aspiration towards a renewed and reactivated sense of citizenship from below, that is, from spontaneous forms of civil society, in conjunction with innervated trade union movements, and the emergence of new coalitions pushing for a more participatory politics. The article concentrates on two features of citizenship: the role of the middle class in fighting for larger political enfranchisement and the attempts by the sovereign people to reappropriate the legitimate means of violence.<br />

Non-conformism or nationalism? Yuriy Butsko and his “Russian dodecaphony”

During most of the Soviet era, it was considered ideologically suspect — and anti-nationalistic — to perform, compose, or study any kind of sacred music. How some composers who identified with Orthodoxy conveyed their spirituality through their art in spite of official prohibitions illuminates an interesting way of expressing Russian identity through heritage revival. This paper explores a unique compositional technique that bridged liturgical experience and the concert stage by means of a rather calculated but inspired methodology that expanded the znamenny chant structure into a 12-tone row. Starting with his Polyphonic Concerto (1969), composer Yuriy Butsko (1938–2015) successfully adapted the old chant to modern times while preserving its religious meaning. “Butsko’s row” indigenized a transnational compositional technique (dodecaphony) by kneading principles of Russian chant scale into its core. In the midst of the Cold War a Russian composer reached out to the world by globalizing an inherent pre-Soviet musical element. At the time (though seemingly without any explicit intent on the part of the composer) this could be considered a non-conformist gesture against the regime. Paradoxically, however, Butsko’s system marked his desire to validate his music as a legitimate means of the Russian national representation. Butsko’s utilization of the znamenny chant could have supported the state, had the state patronized the Orthodoxy.

Trade Secrets – Looking for (Full) Harmonization in the Innovation Union

The impulse to harmonize trade secret protection at the EU level falls within a broader and more comprehensive strategy aimed at ensuring that the Single Market for intellectual property functions smoothly. In such a perspective, the recent Proposal for a Directive on trade secrecy, complemented by the compromise draft of the Council Presidency, is a welcome one in so far as it invokes the unfair competition paradigm as the EC answer to balancing the request to secure confidential information and trade secrets with the need to leave third parties free to develop and use the same information obtained by legitimate means. As far as the advisable level of uniform protection is concerned, a final position has not been reached, yet. While the Commission has not clearly identified the harmonization strategy it will endorse, a minimum standard requirement, already applied at the international level, has proven to be inadequate to create a level playing field where equivalent rules, obligations and guarantees apply. Such regulatory failure, together with the request to encourage inter- and intra-sector cooperation, as well as international spin-off/start-up activities, suggests fostering a homogenous level of trade secret protection with more determination. In conclusion, the time seems ripe to deviate from the minimum harmonization technique embraced by the Council Presidency and to replace the current patchy system with a fully harmonized environment, as a sound solution to satisfactorily contribute to the Innovation Union policy.

‘It’s not the test, it’s how it’s used!’ Critical analysis of public response to NAPLAN and MySchool Senate Inquiry

Public education is commonly perceived as a social good endowed with the capacity to equalise western citizens’ chance of ‘success’. In 2008 Australia introduced standardised testing and reporting procedures to improve educational quality and equity through two policy tools (NAPLAN/MySchool). Ensuing public debate culminated in two Senate Inquiries. Qualitative critical analysis of all (N = 268) submissions to Inquiry One evidenced two major themes: marketisation and data (mis)use; and competition, commodification and practice. Marketisation’s hegemony shaped discourse and recommendations, with institutions and individuals promoting/engaging in self-aggrandising performance-driven activities seeking market advantage, often whilst simultaneously objecting. Submissions largely opposed MySchool and supported NAPLAN despite detailing maladaptive impacts and recommending changes. Drawing upon Latour, we suggest actors’ interactions with these tools (re)produced and re-enacted marketisation principles. Where marketisation, commodification or political rhetoric drives educational change, one ought to be cautious authentic approaches are not truncated by stakeholders lacking legitimate means to compete for resources or social status.

In Pursuit of a ‘Single Source of Truth’: from Threatened Legitimacy to Integrated Reporting

This paper explores one organisation’s journey into non-financial reporting, initially motivated by a crisis in public confidence that threatened the organisation’s legitimacy to the present with the organisation embracing integrated reporting. The organisation’s journey is framed through a legitimation lens and is illustrated by aligning internal reflections with external outputs guided by predominant paradigms of good practice, such as the GRI guidelines and more recently integrated reporting 〈IR〉. We find that the organisation’s relationship with external guidelines has evolved from pragmatic adoption as a means of seeking external legitimation to the present position where those that prepare external reports are informed by the organisation’s strategic positioning and not constrained by the promulgation of voluntary guidelines. From the case study, we suggest that the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) may face two hurdles: First, organisations may define social norms based on a broader definition of stakeholders than the definition currently published by the IIRC. The second hurdle is to convince report preparers that adopting integrated reporting 〈IR〉 will positively impact on capital flows.

Das Volkslied im Schaffen der slowakischen Komponisten zwischen 1830–1918 / Ljudska pesem v ustvarjalnosti slovaških skladateljev med letoma 1830 in 1918

Folksong was an important phenomenon in the formation of Slovak national music in the nineteenth century and also became a new legitimate means of innovation that contributed to enriching the style of both functional and autonomous music. Folksongs were often harmonized and used in many artistic compositions. These adaptions partly served popular-education, cultural, and political aims on the one hand, and partly artistic and aesthetic aims on the other.

Place and exclusion in New York City’s Jamaica Bay

New York City’s Jamaica Bay estuary, part of the National Park Service’s Gateway National Recreation Area, sits along the outer edge of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Along the shores of Jamaica Bay, many residents have developed strong attachments to their neighborhoods, in large part because of the Bay’s folklore as a fishing and tourist spot. Several families of German, Irish, and Italian heritage claim generational attachments to the Bay, while more recent newcomers stake their claim to the Bay through their hard work in New York City’s blue-collar workforce and their wise investment in private property. Although these place attachments have been important for cultivating residents’ relationships to nature along the Bay, the idea of “place” often rests, either intentionally or not, on the exclusion of “others.” Racial tensions and sentiments are largely rooted in the fear that “outsiders” might destroy the character and benefits of “their place.” Although residential segregation is no longer a legitimate means for excluding others, local residents and government officials have mobilized National Park Service land management policies in such a way as to reinforce a sense of belonging, or exclusion, along Jamaica Bay. In so doing, local residents reinforce the relationship bewteen otherness and pollution and create a sense that certain groups, particularly Hindu practitioners, do not belong in “their place.” The exclusionary potential of place, coupled with the legacy of residential segregation and urban infrastructure development, has meant that local residents are able to maintain their access to the waters of Jamaica Bay by erecting and enforcing social distance. Even those residents and visitors not actively engaged in exclusion still benefit, as fewer people feel welcomed to exploring the “National Park experience” at Gateway.

Perfect competition, methodologically contemplated

:The concept of perfect competition embodies a formal contradiction, precisely as would that of “the largest integer.” The ascription of legitimate meaning to the concept, as in George J. Stigler’s well-known 1957 essay, “Perfect Competition, Historically Contemplated,” is demonstrably circular, hence methodologically unacceptable. Mathematical problems arising from the concept are explored and it is these that give rise to the contradiction, as is demonstrated. Paradoxically, the elimination of perfect competition and its supporting canon comes at no cost to a scientific, that is, empirically oriented economics.

Open and Distance Learning (ODL): A Strategy of Development through its Potential Role in Improving Science &Technology Knowledge

Open and distance learning is now seen as a legitimate means through which an effective science and technology education can be disseminated. There are many factors which support this argument. With the advancements of information and communication technologies (ICT), have given rise to new opportunities for sharing information, resources, and experiences, as well as providing networking opportunities with student peers, tutors, and the institution. All these factors suggest that ODL may be the solution for overcoming the gap between those who have had access to science and technology (S&T) education and those who have not. It is now proven fact that scientific knowledge is a pre-requisite to solve each country’s pressing social and economic problem, to transform their societies and to have positive impact on the standards of living and quality of life of the poorest of poor any society. In present situation S&T capacity building is an indispensable tool for promoting sustainable and inclusive globalization. In the proposed paper, an experience from IGNOU in delivering science programme through ODL mode is shared.

Mismanaging Unethical Behaviour In The Workplace

What constitutes unethical behaviour and its mismanagement is the focus of this article. This includes the transgression of moral norms by employees such as greed, corruption, antisocial behaviour and the abuse of company assets for personal enrichment. A salient feature of this case study is its focus on the workers lack of adherence to its ethics policies, and a conscious flagrant disregard for the organizations moral codes by its employees. The research question that inevitably arises is whether the employees resort to unethical behaviour because they fail to achieve their goals through legitimate means, or whether it is simply a flagrant disrespect by them of organizational ethical policies that enunciate the moral norms for all its employees. This exploratory study used the mixed methods approach to investigate this problem. The research findings of this study strongly suggest why the sustainability of an organization can be threatened by reported cases of poor administration, weak management of human and non-human resources, and inappropriate job behaviour and performance of its employees. A key finding is that organizations should not leave managers and their employees to solely rely on their moral intuition and good judgement, but to create a culture with the aid of a performance management system in which there is a clear distinction between ethical and unethical behaviour. This research therefore provides further insight into the need for organizations to develop effective management strategies in order to prevent, detect, and respond forcefully to stamp out unethical behaviour of its employees.

Twentieth-century wars in history teaching and public memory of present-day Croatia

Discussions about representations of World War II and the 1990s war in history curricula and textbooks have had a deep impact on the teaching of history in Croatia. Both wars were (and still are) considered as a starting point for the emergence of the (new) state, socialist Yugoslavia in 1945 and present-day Croatia at the beginning of the 1990s. Since 1945, both topics have been used as a means of political legitimization and as an instrument to promote patriotism. The 1941-1945 war was the topic of particular significance in communist Yugoslavia because it was meant to provide the basis of legitimacy for the Yugo-slav Communist regime. During the 1990s, the teaching of this topic underwent dramatic modifications – the manner in which this entire question was treated served as a strong impetus for historical revisionism. In the last couple of years another war has come into the focus of debates about the content of school’s history education: the 1991-1995 war, which is called in Croatia the “Homeland War”. The conflicting viewpoints of these wars have caused several public debates which have continuously reflected the clash of interpretations and a divided memory that exists in the Croatian society.

Издавая «СоцИс», или Проблема легитимности в советской социологии

In this article, we consider journals as organizations from neo-institutional organizational theory (W. Powell, P. DiMaggio, J. Meyer, and B. Rowan). An editorial office as an organization has to solve the problem of legitimacy. In the case of the Soviet journal “Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya” (“SotsIs”), the only specifically sociological journal in the USSR, it was done by matching journal headings to the official ideology of Soviet sociology. Drawing on an analysis of the journal headings for the Soviet period (1974-1991), I argue that structural divisions of the journal space reflected legitimate meanings of the Soviet sociology as a discipline which was created for increasing the ideological and administrative efficiency of the Soviet government. Journal categories were a signal of loyalty, which was required for the organization’s survival. During years of social and political changes, the role of the journal has changed. The journal has tried to attract general educated readers as well as visibly demonstrate this commitment to public issues by imitation of the evident features of ‘thick’ magazines and newspapers. In spite of all its changes, the journal has continued to depend on the meaning of sociology as a study of social problems. Externally given classifications have played a principal role in choosing an organizational form for searching and evaluating manuscripts. When the editorial office has clear tasks related to the content of the journal, the most appropriate form is the network form of governance because external reviewing makes it difficult to fill journal space. The organization has to use quasi-reviewing, which performs the function of bringing ‘raw’ manuscripts to contribute to the facade of the journal. The history of the Soviet “SotsIs” is a history of an organization, in which the content was tightly controlled, while control of the evaluation of manuscripts remained on the periphery.

Accounting for Intimate Partner Violence: A Biographical Analysis of Narrative Strategies Used by Men Experiencing IPV From Their Female Partners.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious social issue which affects the medium- and long-term health outcomes of many individuals worldwide. The cost of IPV on the physical and psychological well-being of individuals, in addition to its wider economic costs in responding to abused persons, is significant. Presently, there is a lack of understanding about the nature of female-initiated IPV and how men account for their experiences of it. This study examined male victims' life stories of their IPV experiences from their intimate partners. Using the biographical narrative interpretive method, three cases were analyzed from a social constructionist perspective to examine what narrative strategies men used to account for their experiences of being abused by their female partners. Three dominant narrative strategies were used by respondents: the fatherhood narrative, the good husband narrative, and the abuse narrative. The abuse narrative had a unique narrative form, which reflected respondents' disassociation between their identities as men and also as abused persons. Dominant conflicting discourses of masculinity and intimate partner abuse disadvantaged men in identifying IPV and secondly in responding appropriately. This study found that men prefer to use dominant discursive identities as legitimate means from which to disclose IPV experiences. The findings from this study illustrate that broad questioning by professionals regarding fatherhood may be most helpful in promoting disclosures of IPV if this is suspected.