Participatory Decisions Research Articles

HISTÓRIA DA EDUCAÇÃO E A ORGANIZAÇÃO ESCOLAR: ESTUDO BIBLIOGRÁFICO

Studying the History of Education is essential to understand the transformations that have occurred over time in the Brazilian educational process, as well as to recognize individuals as constituent agents of this history. The present study aimed, through bibliographical research, to revisit historical issues of education in Brazil, from the colonial period to the present day. The methodology adopted was a systematic review of the literature, based on the analysis of articles available on Google Scholar and the Capes database, with the purpose of examining the development of the history of education, school organization and the role of the teacher in contemporary times. . Several works on the topic were identified, of which nine were selected to compose the analyzed sample. It was found that, over time, Brazilian education has undergone numerous changes since the colonial period, and that teachers have constantly sought to update themselves to improve the teaching and learning process. It is concluded that, by understanding the educational processes, the school and the ways of maintaining education in line with its history, it is possible to identify the points necessary for a more conscious and appropriate methodological action, favoring more participatory decisions in the educational context.

Comparing ICT-related future development trends in shrinking cities: resident and decision-maker perceptions

ABSTRACT Digitalization and the widespread adoption of novel Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has transformed almost all aspects of society. Remote working, e-commerce and remote services have had a major impact on the lives of individuals, and they increasingly enable individuals to choose their place of residence regardless of geographical constraints. These trends also have a considerable impact on urban spatial structure and regional development. This study examines and compares the probability and desirability of how residents and decision-makers perceive the development trends influenced by ICT and digitalization in shrinking cities and regions. Based on the results the perceptions of residents and decision-makers regarding the desirability of analysed future scenarios are quite well in line, but there exists significant differences regarding the probability of these trends. The results and methodology provide valuable insights for policymakers and other decision-makers to make informed and more participatory decisions regarding future regional development.

UPAYA MENINGKATKAN PRESTASI BELAJAR SISWA PADA PENJUMLAHAN DAN PENGURANGAN PECAHAN MELALUI MODEL PEMBELAJARAN CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING (CTL) DI KELAS V SD 01 KOTA PADANGSIDIMPUAN

The general aim of implementing the educational unit level curriculum is to make educational units independent and empowered by granting authority to educational institutions and encouraging schools to make participatory decisions in developing the curriculum. Most elementary school teachers often fail to complete the material satisfactorily. After carrying out initial learning at the author's place of teaching at SD Negeri I Padangsidimpuan City class V, they experienced failure in completing with the following results: There were 14 students who got a score of less than 75 or 66.7% with a KKM of 75. Those who got a score of 75 or more there were 7 students or 33.3% with a KKM of 75. In this lesson the researcher carried out activities in accordance with the lesson implementation plan. At first the students looked active and enthusiastic, but when asked to do practice questions they were still confused about how to do it. After researchers analyzed the results of student work (formative tests) in initial learning, it was found that students did not understand the material. Of the 21 students who got a score above the KKM (75), only 7 students or 33.33%. With an average score of 60.0

Sustainable business models and conflict indices for sustainable decision‐making: An application to decommissioning versus reusing offshore gas platforms

AbstractThis paper combines theoretical sustainable business models and conflict indices in making practical sustainable (i.e., participatory decisions involving economic, social, and environmental features within weak or strong sustainability paradigms) and rational (i.e., informed and consistent decisions within substantive or instrumental rationality) decisions with respect to what, who, where, when, and how to act. The case study, focused on an offshore gas platform, identified when (i.e., the end as opposed to the beginning of extraction activities) and where (i.e., the economic, social, and environmental contexts of the Adriatic Sea in Abruzzo region, Italy). A face‐to‐face questionnaire, submitted to stakeholders, produced the relative weights required by the tested sustainable business models (Lüdeke‐Freund et al., 2018), and it reached a conclusion about how (i.e., in favor of the majority as opposed to average decisions). An application of a linear conflict index (Fasth et al., 2018) highlighted a lack of stakeholders' representativeness and knowledge and solved these issues with a 50% increase of stakeholders involved and an additional discussion with originally invited stakeholders on specific topics, respectively. In summary, the methodology suggested in this paper produced a (strong) sustainable and (substantive) rational decision about what and who based on relative weights expressed by representative and informed stakeholders being engaged at the smallest cost and with the largest support. Thus, the contribution of this paper is twofold: Theoretically, choices among alternative sustainable businesses depend on the adopted sustainability paradigm, and practically, choices among alternative sustainable businesses should be identified according to the adopted sustainability paradigm.

ABC as a Multi-Lens Sustainability Reporting System in Smart Cities

There is a very short list of theoretical and empirical studies on the role of management accounting tools in the sustainability of smart cities. While the majority of these studies have addressed this role from the perspective of openness, participation, and hybridisation, others have addressed it in terms of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Despite their early efforts often focusing on institutionalisation and governmentality processes, their analyses did not address how management accounting tools can be used to achieve sustainable goals, particularly in developing countries with a political and cultural character. This study aims to explore how an activity-based costing/ABC system is configured within urban development organisations to internalise cultural and political sustainability values at the smart city level. It applies a politico-cultural model and uses a case study approach from an Egyptian state-owned smart city enterprise. The findings reveal smart city culture and political/government compliance in the implementation of the ABC system, enabled by enterprise resource planning/ERP technology, within state-owned enterprises/SOEs. This system, seen as an emerging field, was created as a multi-lens reporting system on their political and cultural sustainability in smart cities. While political sustainability refers to SOEs’ compliance with the ABC system, cultural sustainability refers to the embodiment of national smart city values in their system implementation. This sustainability costing system of a political and cultural nature has also created recursive dynamics, exemplified by the powerful role of ERP-ABC reports in making participatory sustainability decisions at various organisational and governmental levels for smart cities.

РАЗРАБОТКА ПРОСТОГО ОПРОСНИКА ДЛЯ РАННЕГО ВЫЯВЛЕНИЯ ДОНОЗОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫХ НАРУШЕНИЙ ЗДОРОВЬЯ

Introduction. Health systems and health status in developed economies demonstrate failure of chronic disease prevention, in part due to too late health interventions postponed until the patient has a medical diagnosis. Healthcare system can benefit from P4 medicine, which needs special questionnaires to collect person-centered data. The available questionnaires do not match the practical tasks of the P4-medicine paradigm. Aim. The aim is to develop a simple questionnaire for mass early screening of health status in the adults within the P4-medicine paradigm. Material and Methods. We transformed and adapted the Suboptimal health status questionnaire (SHSQ-25) to meet the requirements of mass screening in the P4 medicine paradigm. Information value, sensitivity and specificity of the new questionnaire were tested in several focus groups of respondents through matching with detailed clinical interview aimed at prevention of chronic health conditions. Results and discussion. The Functional impairment questionnaire “FIQ-15” includes 15 questions covering the most common warning symptoms seen in respondents of various health states. Two alternative scales, 5-point and 3-point, are proposed to rate the symptoms. Based on the rate of functional impairments, their impact on everyday functioning, and the need in detailed examination and/or help, respondents are divided into 4 risk groups. More than 400 respondents filled the FIQ-15 over 2 years, 300 of them underwent detailed clinical interviews for questionnaire development and validation. The system of data acquisition and interpretation based on FIQ-15 allows automated mass screening for early functional impairments, fast primary sorting into risk groups (‘traffic light’ system), semi-quantify the severity of functional impairments and their impact on life quality, propose effective routing of patients to further examination and diagnosing, and involve the respondent in active management of one’s health. Conclusion. The proposed FIQ-15 questionnaire can become a simple, affordable and informative tool in early mass screening for functional impairments in the P4-medicine paradigm, in sorting the respondents based on their need in detailed examination, and in real life decision support, including the respondent’s participatory decisions regarding one’s health management.

Analisis Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) Pada Mata Pelajaran Sejarah Sebagai Perbandingan Terhadap Implementasi Kurikulum Merdeka (IKM)

The curriculum is a strategic basis for the design of education; education in a country must aim to become independent and empower every human being who takes an education. This article examines the education unit-level curriculum (KTSP) in historical subjects. Using the literature study method, researchers conduct research by collecting a number of books, articles, magazines, and other text sources related to the problem and research objectives. The results show that the Education Unit Level Curriculum (KTSP) is a curriculum compiled and implemented by every element of education in Indonesia. The purpose of implementing KTSP is for education units to give authority (autonomy) to each educational institution and to encourage schools to make participatory decisions in developing the curriculum for the sake of self-sufficiency and empowerment of every educational actor, especially in historical subjects. But KTSP is the same as any other curriculum with weaknesses and strengths. These weaknesses include a lack of human resources, minimal infrastructure, a lack of understanding of teachers about KTSP, and a reduction in teaching hours which causes a reduction in teacher income. Then there are also several advantages, namely: encouraging the realization of school autonomy, encouraging the ability of teachers, and allowing schools to arrange their lessons to suit the needs of students.Keywords: Analysis, KTSP, IKM, History Lesson.

The role of fishery management and environmental variables on the fish fauna in floodplain lakes in the lower Purus River, Amazon Basin, Brazil

AbstractPeriodically flooded environments in the Amazon River basin are recognized as being highly productive because of their limnological dynamics and ecological heterogeneity. They also have been historically impacted by fishery activities, therefore being crucial ecosystems to be considered in small‐scale conservation policies. Previous studies, however, did not detect or assess significant or consistent positive effects of combinations between protected areas or environmental variables on ichthyofauna. Accordingly, the present study analysed the effects of fishery management (hereafter categorization of lakes) and environmental characteristics on the attributes of fish assemblages in 20 floodplain lakes (eight categorized as open access; 12 categorized as protected lakes) inserted in a legally protected area, the Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Piagaçu‐Purus (RDS‐PP) in the lower Purus River, Amazonas State, Brazil. The results of the present study indicated depth, surface area and lake categorization synergistically influenced the ichthyofauna of these floodplain lakes. It also suggests this influence should not be treated separately in management policies. It was concluded that the potential effectiveness of fishery management in floodplain lakes is closely related to small‐scale (i.e. local) interventions, with emphasis on the role of the lakes as a unit of effective management of ichthyofauna in floodplains. Furthermore, participatory decisions during the process of elaborating management plans for floodplain lakes should consider environmental attributes relevant to biological communities and traditional knowledge.

Who Governs at What Price? Technocratic Dominance, Ways of Knowing, and Long-Term Resilience of Brazil's Water System

Technocratic decision making has been long criticized for dampening participation and limiting the range of adaptive choices through its overreliance on infrastructure-based solutions. There has been growing attention to how technocratic approaches shape long-term resilience of water systems, especially under the threat of climatic change impacts. In Brazil, even under its highly decentralized and participatory water management system, technical expertise and science-based decisions have been often promoted as a desirable mechanism to insulate governance outcomes from the country's prevailing clientelistic and rent-seeking politics. Yet, Brazilian river basins continue to struggle with long-standing problems (such as universal access to sanitation) and increasing challenges for guaranteeing water provision under recurrent drought. In this study, we examine how technocratic insulation, different ways of knowing (WoKs), and participatory governance shape long-term resilience in one of Brazil's most important river basins, the Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí (PCJ). By taking an in-depth look at how the PCJ River Basin's governance system responded to the 2014 Brazilian water crisis, we seek to understand how planning decisions in the aftermath of the crisis were influenced by different actors, and how the outcomes of those decisions are likely to shape long term resilience. Based on 27 in-depth interviews with members of the PCJ River Basin Committees, we show how a distinct preference for infrastructure-based solutions to deal with on-going and upcoming challenges may be unsustainable under climate change as the basin's traditional technocratic approach failed both to insulate its decisions from politics and to explore adaptive water management solutions that might be key to shape long-term resilience.

Cascade Tank Water Quality Management: A Case Study in Thirappane Tank Cascade System, Sri Lanka

Tank cascade system (TCS) is a series of tanks located in a mesocatchment and has been accepted as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System found in Sri Lanka. Ecosystem components of the TCS play a major role in purifying water within the system. This study attempted to investigate the water quality status and the farmers’ willingness to rehabilitate the ecosystem components of the Thirappane TCS. Drinking and irrigation water quality parameters were tested in 34 locations and drinking and irrigation water quality indexes were calculated. Participatory rural appraisal and a questioner survey were conducted to gather social data. Water of TCS was observed to be appropriate for irrigation but not for drinking during the Maha cropping season. Based on the results of the Nitrate (as NO3 - ) and Total Phosphate (as PO4 3-), water of TCS can be categorized as eutrophic. Presence of ecosystem features of tank cascade system, annual income of the respondents, satisfaction on the quality of water for drinking, and the awareness about the tank cascade system significantly influenced the participatory decisions of the community on the rehabilitation of TCS. This study shall be an example and an eye opener to formulate sustainable tank cascade management plan.

Análisis retrospectivo de la duna costera El Socorro, Baja California, México

La prospectiva ambiental permite proyectar escenarios futuros con el fin de tomar decisiones participativas; metodológicamente requiere de un análisis retrospectivo que permita dar explicación a la situación que interesa analizar. El objetivo de este artículo es hacer la retrospectiva de una duna costera ubicada en el ejido Nueva Odisea en Ensenada, Baja California; un ecosistema con valores contrapuestos: el de proveer arena con minerales valiosos y el de ser el hábitat con la mayor diversidad florística entre las dunas costeras de Baja California. Se usaron técnicas de investigación cualitativa, una revisión de contenido bibliohemerográfico, así como observaciones participantes y no participantes en campo, con informantes ejidatarios y consultores ambientales. Esta combinación de técnicas permitió elaborar una línea que identifica cuatro etapas entre 1960 y 2018, las cuales se relacionan con las políticas públicas emergentes en cada sexenio. Se espera que, con esta información, la proyección de escenarios futuros, y con los cambios que se vislumbran en cuanto al carácter neoliberal de la política pública en el país, se complete el proceso participativo de los ejidatarios, y los dueños de la duna costera tomen decisiones sobre su uso, ahora basadas en datos y lecciones aprendidas.

Meaning and Experiences in Managing Primary Education Development Programme School Funds among Public Primary Schools Head Teachers in Tanzania

The main purpose of the study was to understand the meaning and experiences of primary schools head teachers in managing Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) funds. The study was guided by two major research questions. The first question is; what meaning do head teachers construe regarding the management of Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) funds? And the second is; how do head teachers manage Primary Education Development Programme funds? The study used the descriptive phenomenological as it was deemed relevant to examine head teachers‘ meaning and experiences about the phenomenon. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews with head teachers, observations and analysis of documents at public primary schools. Seven informants were selected from a number of schools based on educational attainment and experience serving as a head teacher. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed systematically. In addition, data from observations and documents analysis supported the data obtained from in-depth interviews. Four major themes that emerged from analysis of data are: allocation of funds, accountability, control of funds and competence and traits. The study revealed bureaucracy, insufficiency and inconsistency of funding and delays of disbursements as sub themes associated with allocation of funds. Accountability, as a theme in this study is associated with head teachers considering themselves responsible, challenging roles, adhering to ethics, and complying with instructions. It was also revealed in this study that, limited resources, selection of options, accepting duties and participatory decisions are sub themes associated with control of funds. Furthermore, the study revealed that personal aspiration, level of education, democratic leadership support from others and mindfulness of school funds as sub themes linked to competence and traits. Four major conclusions were drawn from this study. First, direct school funding has only offered limited solutions to resources acquisition in schools due to availability of insufficient funds in schools. Secondly, schools do not have full autonomy to use the allocated funds to fulfil locally determined school requirements. Thirdly, at school levels there is a state of confusion between participatory decision making and the issue of taking responsibilities. Fourthly, there is a need and urgency to build their capacities through continuous trainings. Based on these conclusions, the study recommends for systemic approach to understanding allocation of PEDP funds in order to improve quality of education in public primary schools in Tanzania. Finally, for head teachers and other stakeholders to act and facilitate effective implementation of educational programmes such as PEDP, there is a need and urgency to build their capacities to competently manage these educational programmes.

Mapping social-ecological vulnerability to inform local decision making.

An overarching challenge of natural resource management and biodiversity conservation is that relationships between people and nature are difficult to integrate into tools that can effectively guide decision making. Social-ecological vulnerability offers a valuable framework for identifying and understanding important social-ecological linkages, and the implications of dependencies and other feedback loops in the system. Unfortunately, its implementation at local scales has hitherto been limited due at least in part to the lack of operational tools for spatial representation of social-ecological vulnerability. We developed a method to map social-ecological vulnerability based on information on human-nature dependencies and ecosystem services at local scales. We applied our method to the small-scale fishery of Moorea, French Polynesia, by combining spatially explicit indicators of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of both the resource (i.e., vulnerability of reef fish assemblages to fishing) and resource users (i.e., vulnerability of fishing households to the loss of fishing opportunity). Our results revealed that both social and ecological vulnerabilities varied considerably through space and highlighted areas where sources of vulnerability were high for both social and ecological subsystems (i.e., social-ecological vulnerability hotspots) and thus of high priority for management intervention. Our approach can be used to inform decisions about where biodiversity conservation strategies are likely to be more effective and how social impacts from policy decisions can be minimized. It provides a new perspective on human-nature linkages that can help guide sustainability management at local scales; delivers insights distinct from those provided by emphasis on a single vulnerability component (e.g., exposure); and demonstrates the feasibility and value of operationalizing the social-ecological vulnerability framework for policy, planning, and participatory management decisions.

Curiosity, economic and environmental reasoning: Public perceptions of liberalization and renewable energy transition in Japan

A public survey of energy users across Japan was conducted in March of 2017. It is almost one year since liberalization of the low voltage electricity market for households and small retail premises, for whom we identified an opportunity to play a positive role through their choices and participation in the energy market, which may influence the ongoing energy system restructure in Japan. The survey asked about changing to a new power provider, and about the installation of rooftop photovoltaic systems to identify the reasoning behind these choices. Additionally, future hypothetical energy scenarios were tested. The results show that a significant portion of the public make participatory decisions to gain an economic benefit, while another group appears curious about new technology, seeking information before reaching a decision in order to satisfy their curiosity. Both groups are larger than the third significant group, whose decision making is guided by environmental reasoning. The results also show that a large portion of the public are relatively conservative in their energy choices, leading to a very passive approach, while a small portion of respondents demonstrated a more active stance. These findings have ramifications for the future energy system and implications for energy policy development.

Management and Marketing Practices of Social Media Firms

This paper examines the key variances in application and strategy between different social media management strategies and its effective marketing. Social media firms have shown a great ability to control the stages in their product life cycles. These practices lead to managers in these firms overachieving on their respective KPIs and garnering industry attention. An analysis of social media management firms practice shows that high participatory decisions and intellectual and manual skills contributed to these organizations' successes. Other factors like introducing the ‘Like' button and various innovations are observed to have improved consumers' attitudes towards the social media brand. Customer engagement and content enrichment are proven to be driving forces in how online consumers perceive the social media brand. Consumers are demonstrated to be the main means of continuous sustainability and growth.

Participatory design, wicked problems, choosing by advantages

PurposeThe phenomenon of wicked problems is inextricably associated with a design process, especially participatory design. The management of wicked problems in participatory design, however, remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of the choosing by advantages (CBA) decision system to manage wicked problems in participatory design.Design/methodology/approachTwo case studies, involving the application of CBA to make typical participatory design decisions, are evaluated to establish how responsively the CBA decision system operates in the midst of wicked problems in participatory design.FindingsFindings point to the exploitability of some elements and attributes of the CBA process to manage wicked problems in participatory design, to some extent. The observed collaborative attributes of CBA is particularly helpful and play a key role in mitigating the adverse effects of wicked problems on collaboration in this regard.Practical implicationsThe recommendation of the paper is the incorporation of CBA in the development of stakeholder involvement frameworks for a design process.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to knowledge on relying on elements and the attributes of a decision-making system, such as CBA, to manage stakeholder involvement in the design process, particularly focussing on wicked problems. The CBA decision system still remains emergent regarding its application and research in the AEC industry.

Actions to Empower Digital Competences in Healthcare Workforce: A Qualitative Approach.

While healthcare systems are taking advantage of the ICT to improve healthcare services, healthcare workforce needs additional competencies in order to continue the provision of the best achievable care. In this paper emphasis is given to an active research effort taken during the MEI2015 Conference. Based on hands-on group-work, participants identified the actions needed to boost the acquisition of IT competences by healthcare workforce and collaboratively indicated the most important actions. The leading priority actions were integration of IT into Curriculum, continuous IT/eHealth training at the work place, raising awareness of IT competences, participatory decisions for actions, match healthcare applications to users' own context, inclusion of professionals in the development of eHealth projects. Interestingly, the proposed actions coupling the outcomes of another study following a different methodology, but also support the cooperation opportunities on IT skills for healthcare workforce. The latter formed a set of recommendations which were proposed within the CAMEI coordination and support action of EC-FP7.

Environmental Governance and Public Participation

Environmental sustainability is a complex term, characterized by dynamic interactions between human and natural dimensions. Policy-makers in the developed world face the challenge of balancing economic growth with citizen concerns for curbing human impact leading to environmental degradation. This thesis contributes to the investigation of environmental governance on local scale by assessing the quality of environmental decisions. It examines and compares how the involvement of interest groups and citizens into local decision-making structures promotes efficient environmental policies. By applying the crispy sets qualitative comparative analysis (cs/QCA), this study aims to indentify the conditions necessary and sufficient for formulating participatory environmental decisions. The results suggest that successful policy formulation is dependent upon the presence of governmental agenda-setting and multilevel governance. The findings outline good practices, which reveal how governments can organize and facilitate participatory decision-making to ensure legitimate representation of interests and, thus, reach consensus-based decisions, which then translate easily into policy formulation.

Decisions to Make a Difference: The Role of Efficacy in Moderate Student Activism

Radical student protest has declined in the USA since the 1960s, but less militant forms of campus activism have continued to be a substantial part of larger social movement efforts. However, little research examines participation by today's youth in these moderate campus-based social movement organizations. This study addresses our lack of knowledge about less sensational forms of student activism with fieldwork and semi-structured interviews that illuminate the reasons for undergraduate participation in a student-led environmental group. The data show how school and employment considerations, career goals and social networks influence student decisions to join the organization. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the importance of organizational outcomes to participatory decisions. Students were led to actively participate according to their determination of the social movement organization's ability to achieve tangible goals and the perceived necessity of their contribution.

A model for sustainable land use in biofuel production: An application to the state of Alabama

The Renewable Fuel Standard aims to increase the production of biofuels to improve energy efficiency and decrease carbon dioxide emissions in the US. The effectiveness of this regulation is being debated by the scientific community regarding carbon emissions from direct and indirect land-use change. A valid alternative may be to design policies that stimulate sustainable land use in biofuel production. This article develops a model that simulates a voluntary program to increase the land use efficiency in production of biofuels. This stochastic dynamic model optimizes the sustainability of biofuels producible by including climate information and participatory decisions on land use. The model is parameterized using the Maximum Entropy econometric technique to present a simulation of the program in the State of Alabama. The results of this simulation show that participatory decisions on land-use may increase the net energy value of produced biofuel up to 215.68% and reduce the carbon emissions by 19.67% towards the state energy goals.