Preliminary Agenda Research Articles

Are we there yet? Probing the notion of contextualising practical theology and pastoral care in a post COVID-19 glocal African context

The article is a concise rendition of the author’s inaugural lecture and tracks his academic journey with the contextualisation of practical theology and pastoral care in an African context. It latches onto the inter-contextual dialogue between Western and African notions of practical theology and pastoral care, and positions it in a post coronavirus disease (COVID-19) glocal African context. It is argued that the post COVID-19 era signalled significant changes that will influence the path of future endeavours in the subject field, especially when it strives to be relevant in both the local and global contexts. A preliminary agenda for future deliberations is presented which focusses on the consequences of intensified pre-COVID-19 socio-economic realities, the implications of the disruption of traditional religious culture, and post COVID-19 challenges to higher education. The article concludes that the hallmark of contextualised practical theology and pastoral care in the African context is to be sought in being mindful of the challenges of the immediate local context as well as that of the global context.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: By engaging a post COVID-19 glocal African context from a practical theological and pastoral stance, the research engages social, economic and educational sciences to come to its findings. The resultant view that post COVID-19 practical theology and pastoral care should be mindful of both local and global contexts has implications for both academic practical theology and theological higher education.

<span>How to Harness AI for Justice: A Preliminary Agenda for Using Generative AI to Improve Access to Justice</span>

<span>How to Harness AI for Justice: A Preliminary Agenda for Using Generative AI to Improve Access to Justice</span>

Co-Channel Compatibility Analysis of IMT Networks and Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting in the Frequency Range 470-694 MHz Based on Monte Carlo Simulation.

According to Resolution 235 adopted during the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) and the preliminary agenda item 1.5 of WRC-2023, the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) has been entrusted to carry out sharing and compatibility studies between broadcasting and mobile services in the frequency range 470-694 MHz in Region 1. This study specifically focuses on evaluating electromagnetic compatibility in potential co-channel sharing scenarios between Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) and International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) systems within the 470-694 MHz frequency band that may arise in the foreseeable future. To assess the conditions for coexistence, a Monte Carlo simulation method implemented through the SEAMCAT software version 5.4.2 is employed, examining six potential interference scenarios. The simulation results yield the minimum coordination distance required between IMT and DTTB services in the 470-694 MHz band based on the protection criteria to ensure harmonious coexistence while maintaining satisfactory performance. Furthermore, the study investigates the impact of various factors such as transmitter power, antenna heights, coverage radius, antenna discrimination, and antenna tilt angle on the separation distances. The focus lies primarily on critical interference scenarios across neighboring countries' borders. The simulation outcomes confirm that sharing the same frequency band between IMT and DTTB networks would result in significant mutual interference. Nevertheless, carefully analyzing diverse parameters and assumptions helped provide recommendations to reduce the required separation distances. These findings are valuable for broadcasters, mobile operators, and regulators in establishing the technical coexistence conditions for DTTB and IMT in the new band.

Proposing an Academic Space of “Autism and Profound Learning Disability”

This article makes a practical suggestion to addressing the acute marginalisation of people with complex needs within academia. To do this, it first explores how the academic use of the terms “autism” and “severe/profound learning disabilities” leads to exclusionary practices where people with complex needs cannot represent themselves in research about their lives. These practices, this article contends, are epistemically and ethically unjustified. It demonstrates the former by exploring the shared ways in which people with complex needs are known in academic and social contexts. Regarding the latter, it argues that the research fields of autism and learning disabilities have favoured practices that exclude people with complex needs. To improve their academic representation, an academic space of “autism and profound learning disability” is proposed by drawing from Kraus’s (2015) theory of lifeworlds and life-conditions. The aim of the space is to be open and inclusive to any person with complex needs related to the terms “autism” and “severe/profound learning disabilities”, and to develop ethical research and practices that include their perspectives, views, and values. The paper concludes by presenting a preliminary agenda for the space.

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over: Interest-Group Influence in Policy Implementation

Current research on interest-group influence in the European Union tends to focus on just one stage of the policy cycle, being agenda setting, the legislative process or (some aspects) of the implementation stage. We argue that this bifurcation of the research agenda is a serious shortcoming, as lobby dynamics may vary throughout different consecutive policymaking stages. As a consequence, lobby gains or losses in the legislative stage can be overturned in the implementation. This research note therefore explores how the influence of interest organisations travels across different stages of the policy cycle, most importantly between the legislative stage and the implementation stage. First, we observe that as policymaking is a continuous rather than a static process, also lobbying tends to stretch beyond the legislative stage. Second, we argue that the specific characteristics of the implementation vis-à-vis the legislative stage may structurally favour business and resourceful organisations over smaller groups and nongovernmental organisationss. Third, we illustrate the plausibility of our argument by means of an in-depth case study: the European Union Industrial Emissions Directive. We conclude with a call for a more integral approach to researching lobby powers throughout the policy cycle and provide a preliminary agenda for future research.

Analysis of the WRC-23 Agenda Item Concerning the Future Use of the 470-694 MHz Band in Europe

The upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23), according to the preliminary agenda item 1.5, will decide the long-term use of the 470-694 MHz band in International Telecommunication Union Region 1 and consider regulatory actions for the rest of the decade. This article attempts to inform the debate on the future use of spectrum in the 470- 694 MHz band and the status of broadcasting services at the European level and in many individual member states. This article highlights the role WRCs played by allocation of the previous digital dividend bands for mobile services. It provides an overview of the most recent trends and developments of existing services in the sub-700 MHz band. The article also explores and analyzes options for future use of the 470-694 MHz band in Europe and discusses the benefits and implications of adopting each option. Based on this analysis, it is recommended to introduce a secondary allocation to mobile service in the downlink-only mode alongside traditional broadcasting services in the sub-700 MHz band at the upcoming WRC-23.

The Value of Values for Institutional Analysis

Although values were once the central focus of institutional scholarship, they occupy a marginal position in the contemporary literature. Viewing this situation as both a significant problem and a latent opportunity, our paper seeks to stimulate change by pursuing three broad aims. The first is to present an integrative review of the institutional and sociological literatures on values. This review addresses basic questions about values’ nature, origins, and functions, and uncovers many latent connections between these currently separate bodies of research. Drawing on this literature review, our second aim is to elaborate the “value of values” for institutional analysis. Specifically, we will suggest that a renewed focus on values can (a) enhance our understanding of institutions and their human inhabitants and (b) increase the moral and practical relevance of institutional scholarship. Our third aim is to sketch out a preliminary agenda for future research. Although we stress that values can be incorporated into contemporary research in many different ways, our main focus is on promoting research that gives renewed attention to the enduring problems that were at the heart of early institutional scholarship.

2019 World Pensions Forum Held in EU Capital Before G7 Summit

The 8th World Pensions Forum was held 23-24 May: 130 pension executives and supranational experts representing $12 trillion in combined assets convened in Brussels to discuss “Effective Asset Ownership”. The Forum was pleased to note that some of our ideas were taken up by the Finnish presidency of the Council of Europe and the G7 Steering Committee – notably the empowerment of women entrepreneurs and the notion of institutional co-investment in private equity and sustainable infrastructure in South Asia and Africa. The main findings of the 2019 WPC/WPF annual conference will also inform the preparatory work leading up to the inaugural Singapore Economic Forum (“Singapore Forum”) in November 2020: the preliminary agenda will be announced during the G7 Summit.

Arctic cities as an anthropogenic object: a preliminary approach through urban heat islands

ABSTRACT Although there is a growing body of research on Arctic urbanisation and the development of cities in harsh polar climate, few studies focus on the long-term interaction of urban environments with the natural world and society. As the search for determinative links between natural environmental characteristics and socio-cultural phenomena is exceedingly complex and obscured by human decision-making, it is more fruitful to adopt another perspective – one that views the city as an anthropogenic object combining natural, social, and cultural features and phenomena. The HIARC (Anthropogenic Heat Islands in the Arctic – Windows to the Future of the Regional Climates, Ecosystems and Society) project helps to fill this knowledge gap by bringing together traditional climate science that operates on large spatial and time scales; micro-level high-resolution studies that provide relevant practical details about the changing environment; bio-medical science that studies the physical adaptation of newcomers to the Arctic environment; and an array of social science approaches that range from political science on urban regimes to sociology and cultural anthropology that capture evolving human environments. This article offers a preliminary agenda for thinking about cities as an anthropogenic object in a polar context.

Advancing quantitative intersectionality research methods: Intracategorical and intercategorical approaches to shared and differential constructs

A range of methods have recently been proposed for incorporating intersectionality theoretical frameworks into quantitative research methodology. We published a pair of articles on methods for intercategorical intersectionality, in which we distinguished analytic from descriptive studies, identified causal mediation decomposition methods as an appropriate strategy for analytic intercategorical intersectionality, and introduced and validated a group of three new measures of major, day-to-day, and anticipated discrimination for use in intercategorical analysis (Bauer and Scheim, 2019; Scheim and Bauer, 2019). We respond to points raised in four invited commentaries on our original pair of articles—by Evans (2019); Jackson and VanderWeele (2019); Harnois and Bastos (2019); and Richman and Zucker (2019). We discuss differential constructs, which represent those that exist only for those at particular intersections, or for which meanings vary across intersections. Whereas such constructs may be studied intracategorically, in intercategorical studies they place limits on both the types of measures that may be used and the statistical analyses that can be conducted. Most quantitative intersectionality methods work has therefore focused on intracategorical measures, but intercategorical analyses. We present a preliminary agenda for continued methods development in quantitative intersectionality methods.

The Invisible Hand is an Ideology: Toward a Social Psychology of Neoliberalism

AbstractOn the one hand, neoliberalism, originally an economic theory, has evolved into a sociopolitical ideology and extended its hegemonic influence to all areas of life, including the production of psychological knowledge in academia and the practice of psychology in various domains. On the other hand, neoliberalism has been criticized as the root of all problems in contemporary societies. Widespread discontent with neoliberalism is seen as the catalyst for the rising popularity of populism, the election of Donald Trump in the United States, and the Brexit referendum. The discontent with neoliberalism has also inspired imaginations of what a postneoliberal society may be like, as evidenced by the rise of neosocialists such as Alexandria Ocasio‐Cortez in the United States or Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom. In this issue, we have gathered multidisciplinary insights to answer questions that would constitute a preliminary agenda of a social psychology of neoliberalism. These questions include: how neoliberalism can be studied social psychologically? What are the neoliberalist constraints on knowledge creation and social practices? How can social psychology shed light on the psychological responses to the hegemonic impact of neoliberalism and contribute to the imagination of a postneoliberal world? In short, is social psychology of neoliberalism a feasible and useful intellectual project for producing actionable social knowledge?

Strengthening Social Security Systems in Rural Areas of Developing Countries

It is now generally accepted that the approach of enlarging state-based social security systems in developing countries in order to achieve universal coverage has failed. It is the poor and rural population in particular who are largely excluded from any kind of social insurance. This paper reviews the literature to identify the major reasons for state and market failure, describes the existing systems and their institutional strengths and weaknesses and analyses the possibilities for a public-private partnership. To this end, the paper identifies four main providers of social security, namely the state, the market, member-based organisations, and the private households.Whereas the reasons for state failure – inadequate and inefficient programmes to deal with the socio-economic realities – and market failure - information problems and high transaction costs- have been analysed in great detail, there is controversy over how adequately member and private household-based systems can protect members against basic risks such as illness, disability, accidents and death. Several empirical studies in rural areas have shown the limits of traditional insurance arrangements, which basically provide insufficient coverage against co-variate risks while entailing high costs in terms of pursuing less risky activities. Moreover, these systems are under heavy pressure from change in the socio-economic environment, such as market penetration and population growth. Given this situation, the paper explores the possibilities of a public-private partnership that are created by exploiting local information, on the one hand, while enhancing the possibilities of risk pooling, reinsurance and better access to risk capital, on the other. However, a successful partnership depends on several factors. The ones identified and discussed here are the willingness of the state to withdraw from certain activities and the political and economic environment required for wider private engagement in general. The paper concludes by introducing a preliminary agenda for policy action and research. Then literature survey has shown that a lot of questions about the appropriate institutional design of social security systems in rural areas remain unanswered. More research is needed to identify the population’s actual needs and its demand for insurance in a specific socio-economic context and agro-ecological zone, to analyse the economic and social impact of innovative insurance schemes recently evolving in many countries, to identify conditions for a successful private-public partnership for social security provision and finally, to find appropriate ways of translating the findings into adequate policy measures.

Towards the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico

The focus of this article is to examine how higher education institutions in Mexico are preparing for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. Specifically, we have developed a case study of the University of Guadalajara (UdG), the second largest higher education institution in Mexico, by identifying its institutional sustainability programs as preconditions toward the achievement of SDGs. For this purpose, we first analyze the evolution of UdG's sustainability programs and their preliminary results, including participation in nationwide higher education sustainable development partnerships and consortiums. We then explore how these institutional programs might harmonize with the sustainable development goals and targets. Finally, and based on the main environmental issues faced by each region of the state of Jalisco, we propose a statewide SDG preliminary agenda that links UdG's outreach and research programs with sustainable development policies of local governments.

Informing urban governance? Boundary‐spanning organisations and the ecosystem of urban data

In urban policy there is an increasing emphasis on the management and sharing of information in and about cities. This paper focuses on external sharing practices which are facilitated by boundary‐spanning organisations. Boundary‐spanning organisations are hybrid structures that provide a platform to link internal networks of the city government with external actors, and in particular focus on engaging various types of stakeholders. The paper offers a preliminary assessment of a sample of boundary‐spanning organisations based across six case studies (Barcelona, Chicago, London, Medellin, Mexico City and Seoul) and across three types of BSOs: living labs, innovation districts and sector‐oriented BSOs. Unpacking the shape and development of BSOs, and “placing” them in urban governance, we begin to sketch a preliminary agenda geared to offer a better appreciation of the “information ecosystem” underneath policy‐making in cities.

Place and Sense of Place

Notions of place and sense of place appear more frequently in organizational research, reflecting the growing influence of human and cultural geography on the field. This article argues that scholars should continue to explore and refine research on sustainability by engaging with these issues through concrete research on place and sense of place. After discussing the diverse ways these terms are used in scholarship outside our field, the article considers ways in which they have been used in organizational studies of sustainability and identifies ways of extending this work, including a preliminary agenda for future research. By incorporating place and sense of place, organizational scholars may find more comprehensive and transformative understandings of sustainability.

Barriers To Achieving E-Health Literacy

E-health literacy is the ability to gather and appropriately process health information retrieved online. Like traditional health literacy, higher levels of e-health literacy may work to support health decision making and thereby improve health outcomes. Some populations frequently identified as at risk for health disparities, are also in danger of falling in to the e-health literacy “gap.” The following paper explores the barriers to attaining e-health literacy for vulnerable populations. The paper illustrates how a narrow focus on increasing technology access is insufficient to address disparities in e-health literacy, and provides a preliminary agenda for health promotion professionals to better address the e-health literacy gap in research and practice.

The Origins (or Evolution) of Organizational Capabilities

The purpose of this proposed symposium is to bring scholars together to discuss and debate the origins of organizational capabilities. The question of origins has been a sticky one to resolve, specifically due to the problem of infinite regress and the multi-level nature of capabilities. For example, should explanation of capabilities be reduced to, say, genes? What is the appropriate level of analysis for explaining the origins of capability—individuals and cognition, social interaction, organizations, or perhaps industries? And, should we even look at the origin (in terms of the initial development) of capabilities, or should we rather focus on the evolutionary processes that they undergo? In this proposed symposium scholars will debate and offer differing opinions on these and other questions related to the origins (and evolution) of capability. Beyond debate, we also seek to move the theoretical discussion about the origins of capability forward by laying out a preliminary agenda for future work. Ample time will also be left for interaction with the audience.

O lugar dos trabalhadores portuários na história do trabalho (Argentina, 1880-1930)

Este artigo investiga os trabalhadores portuários na Argentina no período 1880-1930 na produção historiográfica. Seu objetivo é traçar um estado da questão que sintetize as informações dispersas, evidenciando o que foi escrito e seu tratamento de acordo com os diferentes contextos de produção atuais. A importância dos trabalhadores portuários na formação do movimento trabalhista argentino é amplamente reconhecida; no entanto, até agora seu conhecimento não foi sistematizado em nível nacional na perspectiva da história dos trabalhadores. Nesse sentido, propomos uma agenda preliminar de trabalho para pesquisas futuras.

Improving the Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research

Last week, I received an e-mail from the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) with a link to the preliminary agenda of the 14th Annual SSWR Conference in San Francisco. It is strange to think that only 60% of SSWR members had e-mail when the organization was founded in 1994 (Williams et al., 2008). It is even harder to imagine social work without the annual SSWR conference, an extraordinary professional development by any measure. When this editorial appears in the spring, planning for the 15th annual conference will be underway. Thus, it may be useful presently to offer a few recommendations for improving the conference based on my experience as program chair of the 11th annual conference and more recent developments. RECOMMENDATIONS Abstract Reviewer Selection The SSV4R Board should reconsider the current reviewer selection process. In 2007, if memory serves me correctly, approximately 200 reviewers were recruited to rate an average of 18 abstracts each. Reviewers were commonly drawn from the ranks of assistant professors (many of them newly minted) and even doctoral students. A large set of reviewers was recruited, so that no one reviewer was burdened with rating an excessive number of abstracts. Reviewers were unpaid and acknowledged only in a listing in the conference brochure and SSWR News. The abstract reviewer selection process for the 14th annual SSWR conference did not rely on doctoral students for reviews, and the majority of reviews were completed by professors (30.5%, N = 87) and associate professors (28.4%, N = 81). That said, the largest group of reviewers was comprised of assistant professors (36.5%, N = 104), with the remainder (4.6%, N = 13) consisting of apparently well-qualified research-involved people. Although the abstract reviewer selection process has improved in recent years, nearly 40% of abstracts continue to be rated by among the most inexperienced (and nontenured) researchers in the profession. It might make more sense, scientifically, to recruit a smaller set of abstract reviewers (perhaps limiting the reviewers to the 160 to 170 full and associate professors) who are indisputably drawn from among the most accomplished researchers in social work. These reviewers could be paid modestly for their work, as the National Institutes of Health does in symbolic recognition of their grant reviewers. Selection to the conference abstract review committee should represent a significant professional achievement and be recognized as such with a plaque, dinner, and specific ceremony at the conference. Criteria for service on the abstract review committee should be established by the SSWR Board, approved by the membership, and include parameters for such service (for example, length of appointment, number of times one may serve, and so forth). A committee of approximately 160 to 170 abstract reviewers could rate all conference abstracts within one month and might be willing to review a larger number of abstracts than previously if the experience was perceived as more professionally rewarding. This arrangement might increase the rigor, reliability, and validity of the conference abstract selection process. Conference Abstract Rating Process The current abstract rating process is flawed for methodological reasons. First, decisions about the relative merits of abstracts (that is, abstract ratings) are made by different reviewers with different rating propensities. A critical reviewer may rate all of her or his abstracts relatively poorly, with variation in ratings occurring within the very to poor range. Conversely, other raters invariably find virtues in the abstracts they review and rate them highly, the variation in their ratings tending to occur within the very good to excellent range. These rater biases are largely independent of abstract quality but are currently uncontrolled for in the annual conference abstract selection process. …

Preliminary Construction of a Service Provider—Informed Domestic Violence Research Agenda

This article presents the results of a statewide survey of domestic violence (DV) service providers that focused on the needs, background characteristics, and opinions of service providers related to research. The survey included an examination of service providers' motivation for working in the field, research background and training, and perceptions of research as well as the topics they believe are important for researchers to study, the resources they consult to learn about DV, and their suggestions to help researchers learn more about the nature of their work. The results are integrated into a preliminary agenda for future DV research that accounts for the needs and insight of service providers.