Mobilization Efforts Research Articles

«Гайдар и сегодня в строю…» (о каноне советского детского чтения и его ресайклинге)

The article is devoted to the problem of demand and concomitant reinterpretation of the Soviet literary heritage in the 2000s. The work of Arkady Gaidar, recognized as the best Soviet children’s writer during his lifetime and as an author who fully expressed Soviet values — heroism in the struggle for the establishment of Soviet power and collectivism — in the Soviet period was widely available to readers-children. Both the print runs of his works and the number of reprints (including in school anthologies) were very significant: he was in the top ten in terms of the size of print runs and the regularity of reprints. Based on a study of the history of the publication of Gaidar’s texts from 1926 to 1984, publishing and pedagogical preferences in the selection of works for reprinting have been identified: most often, “The Tale of a Military Secret” was reprinted in impressive numbers, as its ideological content glorified heroic sacrifice in the name of establishing Soviet power. The story “Timur and His Gang” had the same number of reissues as “Military Secret”. In the 1990s, reprinting of Gaidar’s works was sharply reduced, and the choice of what was published also changed: the first place is occupied by “Chuk and Gek”, which depicted everyday family life. In 2000–2022, the story “Timur and His Gang”, which emphasizes the values of class mutual assistance and collectivism, becomes the most reprinted. Publication of other works by Gaidar also demonstrates a noticeable change in emphasis: there is a sharp drop in reissues of the stories “School” and “R. V. S.”, which have temporal contextualization in the historical events of the October Revolution and the Civil War. This allows us to say that the mobilization narrative, which is generally characteristic of Gaidar’s works, is losing its historical conditionality (the Revolution and the Civil War). At the same time, the reprinting of works about peacetime, which takes place in the immediate vicinity of hostilities that require mobilization efforts by both adults and children, have been renewed in the current book offerings for young readers. Recent initiatives to bring Gaidar’s works back into the school curriculum also testify to the reactualization.

Laying the foundation for iCANmeditate: A mixed methods study protocol for understanding patient and oncologist perspectives on meditation.

People with cancer experience heightened levels of stress and anxiety, including psychological or physical. In recent years, digitally delivered complimentary therapies, such as meditation, have gained attention in cancer research and advocacy communities for improving quality of life. However, most digital meditation resources are commercially available and are not tailored to the unique needs of cancer patients (addressing fears of recurrence). As such, this study lays the foundation to co-design a publicly available digital meditation program called iCANmeditate that contains cancer-specific meditation content. To understand: (1) cancer patients' perceptions and practices of meditation, as well as their needs in addressing the stress that accompanies their cancer diagnosis and (2) current knowledge of meditation and prescribing trends amongst oncologists in Canada. A mixed-methods design comprised of online patient and oncologist surveys and interviews with patients will be used. Survey data analysis will use multivariate logistic regressions to examine predictors of: (1) interest in using a meditation app among patients and (2) prescribing meditation among oncologists. Patient interviews will gather insights about the contexts of daily living where meditation would be most beneficial for people with cancer; this data will be analyzed thematically. The results of this study will inform iterative co-design workshops with cancer patients to build the digital meditation program iCANmeditate; interview results will be used to develop vignettes or "personas" that will supply the initial stimulus material for the iterative co-design workshops. Once the program has been finalized in partnership with cancer patient participants, a usability and pilot study will follow to test the functionality and efficacy of the tool. Results from the oncologist survey will form the basis of knowledge mobilization efforts to facilitate clinical buy-in and awareness of the benefits of meditation to cancer patients.

Fostering Active Citizenship: Facebook's Role in Youth Civic Engagement

Social media platforms (SMPs) have revolutionized social networks by facilitating connections and shaping the landscape of social interactions. The role of SMPs in contemporary civic participation, both online and offline, is undeniable. However, to understand the beliefs that drive young adults to use popular SMPs such as Facebook for civic engagement, fresh perspectives must be considered. This study extends the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by conducting a questionnaire among 209 university students who actively use Facebook. Our results show that both expectancy and social influence gave a significant impact on students' intentions to use Facebook for civic engagement. We also identify Facebook mobilization efforts via smartphones as a strong predictor of both intention and use of Facebook for civic engagement. These findings indicate that Facebook is a valuable tool for young people to engage and participate in online social and political movements. While we acknowledge the limitations of this study, our analysis underscores the immense potential of SMPs as means for political participation.

Should we stop referring to the pandemic of antimicrobial resistance as silent?

Referring to the ongoing antimicrobial resistance crisis as a 'silent' pandemic has gained popularity, but there are mixed views on whether such a phrase should be used in public health communication. Some researchers have argued that using the term 'silent pandemic' may lower the perceived threat and hinder mobilization efforts to tackle the problem. I investigated the impact of the phrase 'silent pandemic' on perceived threat levels and mobilization intentions. In three experiments (n = 1677), participants from the UK's general adult population were randomly allocated to either a 'pandemic' or 'silent pandemic' condition, where the different terms were embedded in statements (Experiment 1) or brief information materials (Experiments 2 and 3). The term 'silent pandemic' was also presented with a brief description of its intended meaning (Experiment 3). The participants expressed their perception of the threat and their mobilization intentions. In Experiments 1 and 2, referring to the pandemic as silent did not significantly affect the perceived threat (Cohen's d = -0.06; Cohen's d = 0.08, respectively) or mobilization intentions (Cohen's d = -0.07; Cohen's d = 0.11, respectively). However, in Experiment 3, the term 'silent pandemic' decreased the perceived threat and mobilization intentions (Cohen's d = 0.27; Cohen's d = 0.35, respectively). Describing the pandemic as 'silent' yielded no measurable effects on perceived threat and mobilization intentions but it showed depreciating effects when accompanied by its intended meaning. Taken together, it is advisable to avoid the term.

What Do Practitioners Want from Research? Exploring Ugandan and American Development Practitioners’ Interest in Research

Are development practitioners interested in research? If so, what kinds of research interest them, and for what purposes? Is the research they have access to meeting their needs for program design and management? These questions are central to understanding why research is used (or not), yet they are often overlooked by efforts to promote development research use. I interviewed practitioners in Washington, DC and Uganda to explore how they relate to research, and I identified six types of interest in research. Understanding practitioners’ diverse interests in research, and better aligning research agendas and knowledge mobilization efforts with them, may lead to more research use and more informed development practices.

Explaining mobilization for revolts by private interests and kinship relations.

Mobilization for revolts poses a significant challenge for rational choice theory because revolts are vulnerable to free-riding, which disincentivizes rational actors from mobilizing. Strong, informal relations such as kinship ties have been identified as factors that can shift the rational calculations of individuals and lead to mobilization for revolts. In social networks that are polarized by the presence of mobilized individuals, such as rebels, and actors opposing the mobilization effort such as the elite, kinship relations have not only a bridging effect but also a diverging one. Building on Tullock's private interest theory, we develop a framework in which kinship relations determine the extent of individual's payoffs and costs of mobilization for revolts against an elite. We posit that distant kin of the elite expect high payoffs of mobilization for revolts and face the lowest costs of mobilization for revolts by virtue of their position in the network of kinship relations. Using a unique, hand-collected dataset that reconstructs a revolt in Basel, Switzerland, in 1691, we test our framework and contribute to a better relational understanding of the mechanisms that lead rational actors to mobilize for revolts. Our analyses show that mobilization for revolts is mainly driven by distant kinship relations to the ruling elite rather than close kinship relations to the rebels.

South Africa’s Savings and Economic Development Linkage: Causal Relationship Examination

South Africa dreams of eradicating poverty and achieving equitable distribution of its scarce resources among its citizens by 2030. Economic growth sustained over time is crucial in achieving its developmental goals. Domestic savings provide a cheap source of resources for investment that would sustain economic growth. This study explored the relationship between South Africa’s aggregate national savings and aggregate national income from 1987 to 2021. The study utilized Solow’s bivariate model and error correction-centered causality to ensure the robustness of the study results while testing the relationship between saving and economic growth. The study confirmed that aggregate national saving was positively related to South Africa’s economic growth. In the short run, deviations from the long-run paths were partly corrected in the present period. In addition, the study found aggregate national saving Granger caused short- and long-term economic growth. The general policy recommendation is that the Government of South Africa should remove bottlenecks to aggregate national saving mobilization efforts by implementing pro-saving fiscal and monetary policies. High saving rates will stimulate income growth through investments in productive sectors, reducing poverty and inequality.

A five-year case study analysis of USAID local governance programming and public investment spending in post-earthquake Haiti

In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the central government operations were paralyzed, and municipal officials became even more important as they were more readily able to respond to their constituents’ needs during this time of crisis. The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) five-year post-earthquake Limyè ak Òganizasyon pou Kolektivite yo Ale Lwen (LOKAL+) program aimed to bolster the capacity of municipalities – beyond this disaster event – through revenue mobilization activities, within quake-affected and non-quake affected areas. The intended outcome of this effort was to improve local public service delivery throughout Haiti.Nearly all participating LOKAL+ municipalities experienced increased local revenue collection, particularly in property and business taxes, from 2012 through 2017. However, the impact of these increases on public investment spending was not evident even though this was a stated objective of the program. To evaluate whether public services improved in two of the nine LOKAL+ localities, due to USAID’s local revenue mobilization efforts, I employed a case study analysis using descriptive statistics, in-depth interviewing, and content analysis.The findings revealed modest public service improvements in one of the two case study sites. However, the political climate within which LOKAL+ was executed – mainly, the unlawful installation of interim executive agents throughout the country at the time – had an observed impact on the study’s findings. The implications of country-specific political economic realities on the timing of donor-led local governance efforts are underscored, as Haiti continues to navigate compounding political crises – including the assassination of the President in 2021 – since the end of the LOKAL+ program.

Upaya Meningkatkan Mobilitas Fisik Dengan Latihan Mobilisasi Dini Pada Pasien Post Sectio Caesarea Di RSUD Sleman D.I Yogyakarta

Background: Sectio Caesarea is a method of giving birth to a fetus by making an incision in the uterine wall through the front wall of the abdomen (Amru Sofian, 2013). Giving birth by cesarean can drain more energy on the body and the recovery process takes longer. To speed up the recovery process, early mobilization exercises are needed. However, there are several factors that prevent mothers from doing early mobilization For this reason, it is important that efforts to increase early mobilization are carried out in order to speed up the healing process. Objective: To describe the description of nursing care in post sectio caesarea patients in practicing early mobilization. Research Methods: This study uses a literature review method in a journal that discusses early mobilization in post sectio caesarea mothers. Research Results: The results of the research from the literature review that the authors obtained through 10 journals, namely the mobilization efforts of post-SC postpartum mothers in carrying out early mobilization are influenced by pain in the surgical wound, knowledge/experience, motivation and beliefs. These results are relevant to the case managed by the author, namely Mrs. K was reluctant to do early mobilization because of pain and fear. Conclusion: From the results of the literature study above, it can be concluded that early mobilization of post sectio caesarea mothers can be improved by implementing pain management nursing, motivation, education and support from families and health workers

Establishing priorities in child health: Giving parents and youth a voice.

Parents and youth across Alberta were engaged to identify specific research questions that are a priority to them. Two lists, containing 27 topics were developed with local parent and youth advisory groups, and sent to participants via online questionnaires. Topics were rated from one (least important) to five (most important) and ranked in order of priority. Initial questionnaires were completed by 263 (46%) parents and 308 (54%) youth. Parents rated five topics (behaviour, learning, and developmental disorders; mental health; food, environment and lifestyle; quality of health care; and vaccines) and youth rated four topics (brain and nerve health; mental health; quality of health care; and vaccines) as a high priority. Research questions stemming from 4 parent (12 [5%]) and 6 youth (21 [7%]) focus group discussions were then ranked in a second questionnaire, completed by 43 (43%) parents and 56 (56%) youth. Parents' highest ranked research question was 'What is the effect of screen time on cognition and neurodevelopment for children and adolescents?', while the highest ranked question from youth was 'What are the early signs of anxiety and depression and when should an individual seek help?'. These topics highlight areas that are important to parents and youth where funding, research, and knowledge mobilization efforts should be directed.

The costs and financing needs of delivering Kenya's primary health care service package.

For many Kenyans, high-quality primary health care (PHC) services remain unavailable, inaccessible, or unaffordable. To address these challenges, the Government of Kenya has committed to strengthening the country's PHC system by introducing a comprehensive package of PHC services and promoting the efficient use of existing resources through its primary care network approach. Our study estimated the costs of delivering PHC services in public sector facilities in seven sub-counties, comparing actual costs to normative costs of delivering Kenya's PHC package and determining the corresponding financial resource gap to achieving universal coverage. We collected primary data from a sample of 71 facilities, including dispensaries, health centers, and sub-county hospitals. Data on facility-level recurrent costs were collected retrospectively for 1 year (2018-2019) to estimate economic costs from the public sector perspective. Total actual costs from the sampled facilities were extrapolated using service utilization data from the Kenya Health Information System for the universe of facilities to obtain sub-county and national PHC cost estimates. Normative costs were estimated based on standard treatment protocols and the populations in need of PHC in each sub-county. The average actual PHC cost per capita ranged from US$ 9.3 in Ganze sub-county to US$ 47.2 in Mukurweini while the normative cost per capita ranged from US$ 31.8 in Ganze to US$ 42.4 in Kibwezi West. With the exception of Mukurweini (where there was no financial resource gap), closing the resource gap would require significant increases in PHC expenditures and/or improvements to increase the efficiency of PHC service delivery such as improved staff distribution, increased demand for services and patient loads per clinical staff, and reduced bypass to higher level facilities. This study offers valuable evidence on sub-national cost variations and resource requirements to guide the implementation of the government's PHC reforms and resource mobilization efforts.

At the Intersections of Gender Inequality and State Fragility in Africa

ABSTRACT Intersectionality has become a widely used theoretical lens through which scholars examine women’s political and economic participation. Intersectional frameworks analyze the ways in which formal state structures produce gender inequalities. It is precisely this conceptual and empirical strength that make a theory originally rooted in the experiences of Black women in the United States, applicable to other groups of women in a range of national contexts. Extensive debates surround the generalizability of intersectional theory. Using my work on gender inequality as a predictor of state fragility in the African region, this piece addresses these questions both conceptually and methodologically. My larger project is a cross-national study; however, I will use original country case study datasets from women’s local civil society organizations in Nigeria and Ghana to illustrate the relationships between institutionalized inequalities and the mobilization efforts of different groups of women. First, I begin by defining intersectionality. Next, I combine African feminists and African Muslim feminists’ theoretical contributions which extend and expand intersectionality. This piece contributes to conversations about the ways in which intersectionality can be applied to other groups of Black women outside of the United States. Third, I demonstrate how intersectionality is used to capture the range of priorities and strategies activists used to define and promote gender equality within formal state structures.

The perks of being an attractive public customer

PurposeIn industrial buyer–supplier relationships, being an attractive customer has been found to result in superior supplier performance. However, there is a limited understanding of how these benefits transfer to the public domain. This study aims to explore the influence of customer attractiveness on supplier resource mobilization efforts toward the public sector.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was used, focusing on in-depth interviews with 23 informants from 3 critical and complex supplier markets. The data were processed using inductive coding and thematic analysis.FindingsThe findings indicate that customer attractiveness in the public sector influences suppliers’ mobilization efforts on several dimensions. In addition to stimulating competition in the tender phase, customer attractiveness can yield important benefits to quality, supply stability and innovation during the business relationship. It appears imperative for the public sector to improve its standings with suppliers to both mitigate the apparent risk of sub-par treatment and to unlock the preferential supplier treatment associated with being an attractive customer.Social implicationsReceiving increased mobilization from suppliers will result in better use of public money and help improve resilience and innovation in public procurement.Originality/valueThis study extends the research on customer attractiveness in the public sector by being the first to explore the range and nature of its influence on supplier mobilization efforts.

Learning to Strike in the Gig Economy: Mobilization Efforts by Food Delivery Workers in Hyderabad, India

This article discusses protest efforts undertaken by platform-based food delivery workers during the first wave of the pandemic. Following the lockdown, food delivery platforms were categorized as ‘essential’ to ensure that their operations continued. Several changes were made during this time to hiring practices, platforms diversified into providing grocery services and incorporating safety protocols to enhance customer ‘confidence’ in their services. The article starts by showing how the pandemic helped to strengthen the platform’s position in the market on the backs of delivery partners’ who were reliant on platform work as a means of livelihood. Though publicly glorified as ‘superheroes’, their remunerations were slashed during the pandemic, triggering a series of strikes. Since June 2020, workers across several cities have resorted to protest the worsening conditions of work. It gives an ethnographic description of two strikes that took place in June and Sept 2020 in Hyderabad. It then compares these two strikes to discuss workers’ motivation or the lack of it to strike, the strike tactics used by them, as well as the responses of platform companies to the strike. I then focus on the structural and contingent factors which rendered worker’s bargaining power weaker, despite them being providers of ‘essential services’.

Grassroots stakeholders’ perception of participation in the Medium-Term Development Plan of District Assemblies in Ghana: The case of Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District

Following Ghana's decentralisation policy, the District Assemblies, in consultation with communities, are required to prepare and implement Medium-Term Development Plans [MTDPs] to ensure the overall development of their respective jurisdictions. However, little consideration has been given to the participation of grassroots stakeholders in the development of MTDPs. Consequently, this study investigates the participation of grassroots stakeholders in developing MTDPs. A cross-sectional survey involving 139 respondents was deployed. The data were gathered using a questionnaire and an interview guide, and it was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's Rank Correlation, and thematic analysis. Results indicated that grassroots stakeholders were aware of their right to participate in the preparation of MTDPs. As such, they actively participated in the process that led to developing such plans addressing community needs. Additionally, awareness of MTDP, involvement, level of influence, satisfaction with the preparation of MTDPs, satisfaction with the quality of participation in the area council, level of confidence in the preparation of MTDP, representation adequacy, and capture of community needs had statistically significant associations at the 1% level with the associations being positive. Nonetheless, the implementation of MTDPs is jeopardised by limited funding, stakeholder commitment, and human capacity. To ensure the smooth implementation of the MTDPs, the Assembly must intensify its revenue mobilisation efforts, depoliticise the MTDP process, and build staff capacity on the involvement of the grassroots stakeholders.

Economic Governance Quality and Effective Taxation System in Africa

Abstract The study aims at examining the effect of Economic governance institutions on tax revenue mobilization using an empirical panel dataset from 30 African countries for the period 1996–2018. The empirical estimation methods employed in this study is based on Quantile Regression techniques. To this end, one bundled economic governance institution indicator (i.e., general economic governance) is employed. The inspiration for this estimation technique is based on two fundamental reasons. First, the argument that the effect of governance quality on taxation effectiveness is contingent on the existing level of tax revenue mobilization. Second, the economic governance – tax revenue mobilization policies, to be effective, need to be tailored differently across countries with low, intermediate and high levels of tax mobilization effort. The general findings are as follows: First, development in economic governance institutions promotes tax mobilization effort. Second, the effect of economic governance is stronger in terms of significance and magnitude for direct taxes than for indirect taxes. Third, in most of the cases, the impact of economic governance institutions is higher in terms of magnitude in the upper quantiles of the economic governance distributions. The results remain robust over alternative econometric estimation techniques.

Radio Towers

Between 1930 and 1943 over 400 public radio receiver installations were erected by Japan’s national broadcaster in public parks around Japan. They were intended to bring radio broadcasting, during this period the voice of the state, to a wider audience and to play a part in Japan’s home-front mobilisation efforts. The majority of installations seem to have been destroyed during or shortly after World War Two but roughly 40 are known to be extant, these have yet to receive systematic attention from either Japanese or foreign academics, they thus offer a fresh focus for research into the relationships between the interwar Japanese state and the listening publics. This paper aims primarily to draw attention to the existence of these little—known objects, it also offers a sketch of the media landscape into which they emerged, and covers two significant contemporary social developments—the growth of coordinated mass sport and exercise, and the ‘year 2600’ celebrations of 1940—which contributed to the spread of radio towers.

FACTORS OF ELECTORAL (NON) PARTICIPATION OF CITIZENS IN THE CONTEXT OF RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY

The article is devoted to the study of the factors of electoral (non)participation of citizens in the context of the theory of rational choice. The author pays the main attention to the variables that make it possible to calculate the potential effectiveness of voting for a particular citizen, including the probability of the decisive vote, benefits from voting, and losses from voting. The author emphasizes that, according to the theory of rational choice, citizens make simple calculations to determine whether it is appropriate to vote, taking into account the abovementioned variables. According to the model of rational choice, for the vast majority of citizens, voting is completely irrational, since the weight of one vote is insignificant, the benefits of voting are negligible, and the costs are quite significant. However, most voters spend the resources to show up at the polling station on polling day and cast their own single vote for their preferred candidate. In this case, the paradox of voting arises and the limitations of the theory of rational choice are revealed. The author highlights that several additions or variations of the theory have been presented by the scientific community. In particular, among them, the positive decision to vote is explained by the desire to support the functioning of democratic processes; a sense of civic duty; a desire to minimize maximum losses; faith in the decisive vote; mobilization efforts of politicians; minimal expenses for the voter; a conviction that calculations are impractical. Each amendment is characterized by both advantages for understanding electoral behavior in the context of the theory, and disadvantages, which often come down to ignoring the fundamental variables of the theory and giving the psycho-emotional factor an exceptionally prominent place. The author points out that a reassessment of the initial values of the theory, namely the probability that the single vote will become decisive and the cost of the spent voter`s resources, can lead to a completely new interpretation of the theory and scientific results.

The long-term effects of voting for autocracy: Evidence from Russia

Do different Russian generations differ in their propensity to vote? Drawing on evidence from Soviet and post-Soviet elections, we consider how early-life electoral experiences influence voters’ life-long voting propensity. The empirical analysis relies on a harmonized dataset of survey data covering all national elections between 1991 and 2018. We estimate differences in turnout propensity across generations using several forms of age–period–cohort analysis including hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis and semi-parametric generalized additive models. Findings suggest that generations voting for the first time in elections taking place between 1946–1966 have a higher propensity to vote than others. Complementing quantitative evidence with extensive description, we propose that state-led mobilization efforts under Communism and the opportunity to vote in regularly held elections may account for these effects. Our research has implications for research on the consequences of authoritarian elections and their impact on long-term voter behaviour.

Do Early Voters Try to Mobilize Others?

Early voting has been pitched as a way to help boost voter turnout in the United States. The evidence pointing to a positive association between the availability of early voting and electoral participation is decidedly mixed, however. Some studies have even found that provisions for early voting are negatively correlated with aggregate voter turnout. The explanations that have been offered for this surprising, negative relationship vary to some degree. One popular theory centers on declines in social pressure that might be expected to accompany large numbers of highly-engaged voters casting their ballots well in advance of Election Day. Equally as surprising as these negative findings is the fact that the mechanisms that have been proposed by way of an explanation for their existence have yet to see a direct test in the literature. In this article, we remedy this lacuna by exploring the relationship between early voting and political talk and mobilization efforts at the individual level using several years of ANES and CES data. Our results exhibit a great deal of nuance. However, after focusing on the set of cases that are the most likely to exhibit the theorized (negative) effects of having voted early, we do find consistent evidence that those who cast their ballots in advance of the day of the election engaged in lower levels of political talk. Our study thereby lends some credence to the idea that early voting may be associated with declines in the peer-to-peer transmission of electorally relevant social pressures.