Nature Of Participation Research Articles

Exploring Digital Communication Needs of Local Communities and Self-organized Collectives

Recent work in HCI has explored the use of ICTs for the mobilisation and organisation of values-led communities and social movements. This paper extends this line of work by exploring the design of a communication system for informal, place-based citizen collectives-also referred to as Social Solidarity Movements. The distinctive characteristics of such collectives, namely their decentralised, bottom-up and self-organised organisation, and their lack of monetary resources, pose interesting challenges for communication technology design. The work reported in this paper sought to explore how the values and practices of such collectives can be embodied in mobile communication tools. A system was designed to mirror on-the-ground informal organisational structures, its primary goal being to serve as a probe for research and discussion. Our findings highlight the diversity of channels and organisational structures prevailing in these contexts, their participatory nature, and issues of temporality, anonymity, privacy, and trust, all of which must be considered when designing technologies to support cooperative work. We contribute methodological insights and design implications for mobile technologies underpinning the work of social collectives and their practices.

Exploring the Renewable Energy Linkages for SSEBased Organizations in India: Benefits of Scaling Up ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ at Microsocieties

The Indian government initiated the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to make its citizens ‘atmanirbhar’, or self-reliant. We argue that self-reliance can be achieved through self-sufficiency at the societal level. Next, we review the extant literature on self-sufficiency and theorize its linkages with social and solidarity economy (SSE) in the context of electric power generation. The participatory and democratic nature of governance in decision-making processes is one of the main principles of the SSE sector. Variations in democratic governance and inclusive participation in SSE depend on SSE structure. Subsequently, we move into the focus areas of the article, where the purpose is to explore the linkages between the development of SSE initiatives and sustainable development goals focused on environmental protection and sustainable production and consumption. Scaling up and solarizing agricultural pump sets have been good initiatives at addressing issues around agriculture, water and electricity requirement. This study explores SSE initiatives that address these issues and explores scaling up and linking with institutions and policies at the macro level. The study presents empirical evidence of such initiatives in the renewable energy sector. This article is expected to contribute to the existing literature on SSEs and offer insights on how scaling up SSEs can help in sustainable rural development, which would lead to self-sufficiency and subsequently self-reliance at a societal level. JEL Classifications: D71, Q20, P48

Reflecting on Participation through Livestreaming Music Events in Times of Pandemic

In January 2020, the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the interruption of a high number of aggregation-based human activities, such as in-presence live music concerts. One temporary alternative to the problem was the organization of livestreaming music events, which allow only a limited degree of interaction; such a solution fit the needs of those performances where there is little or no need at all for participation, but music practices with a participatory nature were at a disadvantage. Another issue pertains to the overall dimension of live experience: how is the “here and now” of a live music performance shaped in an online setting? Analysing two examples of livestreaming music events that took place in 2020 in Italy and England, this article aims to invite a reflection on how “participation” can come to be understood in online music practices.

Exploring the interconnected nature of the sustainable development goals: the 2030 SDGs Game as a pedagogical tool for interdisciplinary education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the 2030 SDGs Game as a pedagogical tool for the promotion of interdisciplinary education. Based on the simulation of possible world outcomes for the year 2030, the game induces participants to reflect on the socioeconomic and environmental consequences of actions and facilitate the exploration of the interconnected nature of the Sustainable Development Goals. Design/methodology/approach Starting with a review of the main benefits and constraints of interdisciplinary learning approaches, this paper discusses how pedagogical attitudes have change over time and suggests the use of the 2030 SDGs Game as a powerful tool for sustainability education. Composed by a set of cards with different projects and goals, the game connects participants to the principles of the Agenda 2030 and is suitable for a wide range of educational settings. In the case study presented in this paper, the game was played by 20 students from five different faculties of the University of Liverpool (UK). Findings The participatory nature of the game, where players learn through the experience of play, is functional to support the co-creation of knowledge of the “active-learner-centred” approach, and facilitate the development of problem-solving attitudes, soft skills and team-working abilities. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper presents, for the first time, the 2030 SDGs Game as a pedagogical tool for interdisciplinary sustainability education. The game is relatively easy to play and is suitable to be used in a wide range of educational settings.

Research and Exploration on the Reform Path of Higher Education Management Education

College professional course education has a strong practical, participatory, and professional nature, which can stimulate students' professional interests and hobbies, as well as the characteristics of flexibility, adaptability, fun, and operability. Students get healthy development in the activities of professional course education in colleges and universities. The educational approach to innovative competence development allows to maximize the educational potential of students, allowing them to progress in independent learning and teamwork. In the context of big data, in order to actively implement the reform requirements of professional course education methods in colleges and universities, professional teachers should innovate educational methods, reform educational ideas, stand for multiple perspectives to enhance the results of professional course education, so that students can continuously improve their own innovation and professional course education thinking.

Expecting Advice: Reproductive Health and Consciousness Raising in the Boston Globe’s Confidential Chat Column

ABSTRACT This article explores consciousness raising in the Boston Globe’s Confidential Chat column, documenting how, during the second wave of feminism, it became a venue where women educated themselves about reproductive health. The Chat’s nonhierarchical, participatory nature allowed women to discuss abortion, contraception, infertility, and related topics during a time when the role of women in society was undergoing profound change. Boston’s deep Catholic roots added complexities to these discussions. The findings provide historical context for modern social media discourse around reproductive choice.

COMMUNITY CO-CREATION IN LIVING HERITAGE CONSERVATION – FROM OBJECT-CENTERED TO PEOPLE-CENTERED PLANNING FOR THE ANCIENT CITY OF PINGYAO

Abstract. Since the conservation of living heritage sites such as historic towns and traditional villages often involves the coordination of multiple interests, the modern socio-economic development of heritage sites and the dominant participatory nature of local heritage communities become the main conflicts in practice. Using a combination of literature research and field cases, this paper firstly compares the history of the theoretical conservation approach to living heritage and explains its core concepts and basic methods. Secondly, it analyses the application and effectiveness of the community co-creation model in living heritage sites using the case of the ancient city of Pingyao in Shanxi Province, China. It is hoped that this will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the current development and future direction of heritage conservation methods, and further consider how to reconcile the historical and daily values of heritage in the conservation process.

The Contemporary Public Sphere-Habermas’ Perspective

Undoubtedly, the contribution of public opinion and involvement is a critical aspect in shaping and influencing the political, social, and democratic courses within a nation. The concept of the public sphere acknowledges the presence and studies the initiation of integral discourses conducted by the public. Indeed, the German philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, instigated and established the understanding of such a concept. He critically highlights that the presence and participatory nature of the public sphere is crucial for a democracy. His theory, espoused in his 1985 Theory of Communicative Action, is predicated upon the principle that how we communicate, affects the content of that communication in the reasonable discourse of a mature democracy (Lock and Strong, 2010, p. 78). Nevertheless, it is evident that the development of technology and the internet has led to immense changes in the manner in which the public is able to become involved in such activities. Unquestionably, newspapers, writing letters, television and public meetings are no longer the only public sphere sources of the communication of information and the rise of social media and the virtual world provides many new sorts of opportunities for the exchange of views (Masip et al, 2019). Jürgen Habermas’ theory was established over a decade before the advent of social media, which raises critical questions as to the placement of the public sphere in the context of the realm of social media. The public sphere has been fundamentally developed by digital communication and the emergence of the immediacy of opinion making via social media platforms, introducing a less personally interactive but much broader participatory base, increasingly sophisticated and more contentious (Mahlouly, 2013). This paper will examine the nature of communication in the contemporary public sphere and verify whether the rise of social media and the virtual world extends the public sphere or diminishes the level of rational conversation through exploring the public sphere; and monitor his structure, function and places of work, according to Habermas’ theoretical vision. Moreover, to explain its components in the political and social field in the lifeworld. Also, to what extent of the contemporary sphere's applicability to Habermas' communicative theory. While Habermas' vision of the public sphere and communication was emphasized, it has been argued the perspective of Hannah Arendt and her “public realm”. In addition, many contemporary thinkers, particularly Fraser, argued about the concept of the contemporary public sphere in the postmodern.

Exploring the Multidimensional Motivations of Moroccan Fans Consuming Korean Popular Entertainment: Identification, Cultural Hybridity, and Cultural Proximity

Korean popular entertainment has gained global popularity primarily due to the participatory nature of Web 2.0 platforms. The rapid dissemination of this content has significantly increased the number of fans worldwide. This paper aims to investigate Moroccan fans’ motivations for consuming Korean popular entertainment. A qualitative research design was adopted, wherein standardized open-ended interviews were conducted to collect data. Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) was utilized to analyze the data. The study revealed that Moroccan fans are motivated to consume Korean popular entertainment because of their identification with the emotions and values represented, as well as the aesthetic elements portrayed. The findings indicate that fans' motivations are both hedonic and eudemonic, as they seek both psychological pleasure and meaning in their consumption. The study also highlights the similarities between the attitudes of Moroccan fans and those of fans in other Middle Eastern countries towards Korean popular entertainment. In conclusion, this research sheds light on transnational fandoms in Morocco and the reasons for the consumption of global media entertainment content in diverse cultural contexts. It also contributes to a better understanding of the complex and multifaceted motivations behind popular entertainment consumption.

The Value of Informal Peace Committees as a Developmental Strategy to Deal with Post-Conflict in Zimbabwe

In this article, I investigate the extent to which community-based initiatives such as informal peace committees can serve as vehicles for developmental social work practice to promote community empowerment and capacity development in Zimbabwe. The formation of self-initiated peace committees by Zimbabwean communities demonstrates local agency, self-reliance and resilience. This type of local agency resulted in community members working together to unite, participate and form a peacebuilding committee. The study was based on action research data from Ward 8 in the Seke District, in which 42 male and female adults participated. Given the study’s participatory nature, 14 informants took on multiple roles, including co-planning, co-designing and establishing a ward-level peace committee. The findings revealed that informal peace committees have a close relationship with developmental social intervention strategies that seek to deal with development challenges such as poverty, inequality, and violence and, the major one, community development. These attributes reflect the strengths and empowerment potential that developmental social work can explore to increase the impact of informal peace committees at the community level in the Seke District and beyond.

Enhancing Urban Heating Systems Planning through Spatially Explicit Participatory Modeling

Effective planning of urban heating systems is crucial for achieving net-zero emissions at the city level. In particular, the spatial dimension plays a pivotal role in shaping the design and operation of these systems. Nonetheless, the integration of urban spatial and energy planning is rarely performed. To address this deficit, the current study proposes a participatory modeling methodology that explicitly incorporates the spatial dimension to facilitate integration and decision-making in the planning of urban heating systems. The methodology is applied to a case municipality to evaluate its benefits and implications for stakeholders involved in urban heat planning. The results reveal that the participatory nature of the methodology enhances the legitimacy, transparency, and relevance of the modeling process by engaging urban stakeholders, so as to exploit their valuable knowledge, experience, and understanding of the local context and related challenges. The developed methodology provides a spatial representation of district heating expansion, heating technology transition at the district-building level, and the installed capacities in each district, thereby improving the coherence of urban heat planning integrated with other urban plans. Consequently, the incorporation of the spatial dimension adds a nuanced layer of modeling outcomes to standard city level optimization models.

Discerning the Political Communication of Short Video Platforms under Algorithmic Recommendations

As an increasingly important core technology in digitalization, algorithms are not only the "brain" of artificial intelligence, but also a new form of full power. This paper reflects on the epistemological problem of short videos in the context of cybernetics. Through the study of short videos' communication, it points out that short videos have not become a tool for building network communication, openness and communication as expected, but have gradually become centralized, circled and walled, under the control of the algorithm of the big hand behind, forming an "information cocoon". "This paper combines political science, communication science, and the study of the Internet with the study of the Internet. This paper combines the research methods of political science, communication science and sociology to summarize and sort out the representative issues related to short videos, analyze their current problems and development dilemmas, explore the new path of algorithm on the development of political communication of short videos, and provide reference for improving the openness and participatory nature of media programs.

Urban air pollution anxieties, forest conservation, and farmland expropriation: State territorialization in the uplands and highlands of northern Thailand

The burning of agricultural residue during the dry season in rural northern Thailand has been identified as an important source of air pollution at the heart of an ongoing haze crisis particularly felt in the region’s urban areas. Public outcry in Chiang Mai over poor air quality pressured the government into developing fire management and prevention efforts in areas with high numbers of open-air fires, such as Mae Chaem district. Nevertheless, the haze situation deteriorated, prompting the 2014–2019 military-led government to develop a pilot fire-reduction project known as the Mae Chaem Model, whose original design to mitigate and prevent fires in the district evolved into a series of sustainable development objectives. Given optimistic discourses surrounding the project’s novel and participatory nature, this paper offers a critical analysis of initial project results. The project claims to offer prized benefits such as tenure security in exchange for the collaboration of villagers in the project. Interviews with villagers and other stakeholders reveal a series of concerns regarding 1) the production of land use history maps for 2002, 2011 and 2016, and 2) substantial expropriation of farmland and other severe land use restrictions. Our calculations suggest that, under a likely scenario, an average of 66% of farmland would be expropriated in the process (88% in one community). In accordance with villagers interviewed in two villages of Mae Chaem district, we are concerned about the capacity of local villagers to sufficiently intensify their production or otherwise limit the negative impact of such drastic land use restrictions on their livelihood. The paper also outlines other problems related to the temporary and revocable nature of the benefits offered and the rather dubious claims of coercion-free ‘participation’.

Transition to Distance Learning: Student Experience and Communication during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United Arab Emirates

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 prompted higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to switch to online learning for the safety of their citizens. The main purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between four indicators of digital learning experience and the intensity of student socio-pedagogical communication after the transition to distance learning. The data were collected from Ajman University, a private university in the UAE, during the spring of 2020. The sample consisted of 381 students who were surveyed using an online survey tool or email. First, this study found that the majority of students had access to digital tools and the Internet; however, a small number struggled with weak and unreliable Internet connection. Most students had a moderate to high ability to use digital technology, but some encountered difficulties and required assistance. Most students utilised digital communication tools for over five hours daily. The study also found a general lack of digital competency among students and difficulties in using digital tools for remote learning, highlighting the importance of investing in the development of digital skills. The study also found an intensification of social relationships and an increase in communication frequency between students and instructors; however, inadequate instructor–student communication remained a challenge. Finally, the multiple linear regression model showed that indicators such as the communication dimension of the lessons and the participatory nature of the courses positively impacted the intensity of student communication after the transition to distance learning.

Creating a Narrative for Change: Health Promotion Students' Perspectives on the Power of Photovoice Research.

The use of Critical Race Theory, Photovoice, and Community-Based Participatory Research has helped uncover the root causes of issues such as systemic racism in the fields of public health and health promotion. Often, we see studies using traditional research methods to investigate potential causal factors of disparities in minoritized communities report only quantitative data. While these data are imperative for understanding the severity of disparities, quantitative-only approaches cannot address nor can they improve the critical root causes of these disparities. As a team of BIPOC graduate students in public health, we conducted a community-based participatory research project using Photovoice methodology to explore inequities in Black and Brown communities exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participatory nature of this research revealed cumulative challenges across the social determinants of health in New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut. It allowed us to engage in local-level advocacy to promote health equity as our findings illuminated the need for community-led and community-engaged action. Health and racial inequities cannot be effectively addressed if public health research and programming do not collaborate with the community to build community capacity, empowerment, and trust. We describe our experiences doing community-based participatory research to investigate inequities and provide reflections on their value for public health students. As responses to health inequities and disparities become more politically polarized in the United States, it is critical for public health and health education students to use research methodologies that elevate communities that have been historically marginalized and neglected. Together, we can catalyze equitable change.

Wiley Lecture 2022. Communicating climate change with comics: Life beyond apocalyptic imaginaries

AbstractDrawing on my experience with creative research translation, in this work I discuss how comics provide several possibilities to communicate climate change using geographical analysis and anti‐essentialist representations. Comics can be deployed as a multi‐modal method that encourages researchers to use thick description to communicate embodied, intangible, and hidden experiences of life with climate change that are difficult to capture in other ways. Comics are also a powerful way for authors to visualise how life with climate change is multi‐temporal and to capture diverse images of still‐possible and alternative climate futures that move beyond apocalyptic imaginaries to inform debates about the geographies of hope as they relate to climate change. Finally, comics can enhance the participatory nature of research and facilitate a move to more ‘desire‐based’ research frameworks that emphasise character‐driven and anti‐essentialist narratives. The work reported here should be of broad interest among geographers engaging in geohumanities and climate change researchers experimenting with creative methods to narrativise and communicate human experiences of climate change. My intentions are to move beyond disciplinary boundaries; speak to scholars working in the interdisciplinary fields of climate change, comics studies, climate change communication, and visual studies; and invite more engagement with this mode of creative research translation.

Community Radio in India: A Model of Participatory Communication inIndia

Community Radio in India: A Model of Participatory Communication inIndia

The politics of national SDG indicator systems: A comparison of four European countries

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) constitute an ambitious comprehensive global framework including monitoring mechanisms and indicators to evaluate progress towards precise targets of sustainable development. Most European countries have adapted their national sustainability indicator systems to conform to the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, introducing new indicators and monitoring frameworks and governance processes in which these are embedded. What do we know about the political processes and struggles of implementing this important global framework? How does the politics of indicators differ in national contexts? We propose a classification of national indicator systems along dimensions of indicator selection, appraisal landscape, participatory nature, and political communication. We empirically explore these dimensions for four European national sustainability indicator systems through a comparative analysis based on national policy documents, indicator databases, and web portals as well as inputs from workshops and expert interviews. Given the considerable variation with respect to the trajectory of national sustainability indicator systems, we posit that these differences correspond to different national interpretations of sustainability.

МЕДІАЛЬНІСТЬ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ДОКУМЕНТАЛЬНОГО КОМІКСУ ПІД ЧАС ВІЙНИ

The communication possibilities of modern graphic narratives are extremely diverse: from the presentation of individual life stories to new cross-genre and even interdisciplinary phenomena (graphic medicine, comic journalism, data comics), which demonstrate the dialogic nature of comics, its universal openness, participatory and empathic nature. The authors pay special attention to the influence of military realities on the formation of national non-fiction discourse, and mediality is considered as a mediating strategy that depends on such influence. The article proposes a typology of forms of realization of mediality of Ukrainian documentary comics: creation of a heroic narrative (metamedial level), formation of a segment of documentary comics based on memories and spread of co-creation practices by Ukrainian and international comics makers. The functional features of the documentary comic (contextuality, multimodality, empathy, careful work with traumatic experience, destigmatization) contribute to its dissemination, and the use of new media changes one of the main features of the genre - the time distance between the event and the creation of the graphic text. Historical-heroic, biographical, journalistic comics are actively involved in the process of mediatization of memory, becoming means of archiving life stories. In line with the challenges of the "era of digital memories", Ukrainian documentary comics actively uses digital opportunities to present and disseminate new projects (e-zine Incer, series "Cyborgs", collection "PEREMOGA. Victory for Ukraine"). Important and promising for further implementation is the unique ability of comics to graphically reproduce tragic events, "to witness trauma" (G. Chut), and most importantly - to try to overcome it. This is the relevance of documentary comics for the modern Ukrainian present.

A Federated Learning Framework for Fingerprinting-Based Indoor Localization in Multibuilding and Multifloor Environments

The participatory nature of federated learning (FL) makes it attractive for fingerprinting-based indoor localization in multibuilding and multifloor environments. A group of sensing clients can collaboratively leverage their private, local fingerprint data to help their edge server update a location prediction model. However, it is challenging to jointly handle the two involved issues, i.e., building-floor classification (BFC) and latitude–longitude regression (LLR), in a wide 3-D space through enabling FL on decentralized yet heterogeneous data and over an imperfect wireless network. In this article, we confront these challenges and propose an FL framework, FedLoc3D, for both BFC and LLR. Specifically, the former issue is addressed by an FedDSC-BFC approach, which generates a multilabel classification model based on a convolutional neural network with depthwise separable convolutions. The latter issue is addressed by an FedADA-LLR approach, which develops a multitarget regression model based on a deep neural network with autoencoder and data augmentation. Extensive experiments on a real-world data set of WiFi fingerprints are carried out, and our approaches with enhanced capabilities of feature extraction, generalization, and convergence are validated to improve both localization accuracy and learning efficiency under data heterogeneity and network instability.