Process Of Institutional Change Research Articles

Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE): an inquiry into institutional change processes in higher music education

ABSTRACT This study explores change processes in higher music education by following the development of the Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) over the period 2014–2023. The following research question is addressed: How has institutional change been enabled in a higher music education context through the activities of a Centre for Excellence in Education? The theoretical framework for the inquiry is drawn from institutional theory. Applying an instrumental case study design, data were collected from twelve semi-structured interviews with staff in management roles at CEMPE/NMH and from strategic documents, such as applications, action plans, annual reports, minutes from steering group meetings, and publication lists. The findings show that change was enabled through various leadership visions for change and the friction created through centre activities. The most significant area of change is reported to be increased student agency and involvement.

Neuverteilung von Verantwortung? Brandschutzerziehung als Strategie zur Zukunftssicherung Freiwilliger Feuerwehren

Volunteer firefighters are an established institution in many rural areas across Europe. In spite of this ubiquity, many volunteer brigades have been increasingly facing challenges in discharging their functions. Issues such as undertaking necessary investments, and ensuring daytime availability have become particularly critical against the backdrop of an increase in the number of interventions. Many of the measures intended to futureproof volunteer firefighting are based on transferring responsibility to different actors. To this end developing and expanding the reach of fire safety education functions to enhance the public’s prevention and self-protection skills. The aim of this paper is to explore the process of institutional change induced by innovative initiatives, which aim to advance fire safety education. For the study, we draw on empirical research, which follows the development and mainstreaming of two projects in Austria and Germany. These initiatives aim to standardise disparate approaches and are underpinned by new forms of multi-level cooperation. Our inductive analysis identifies five key steps which define the successful long-term implementation of projects in coproduced services of general interest. We conclude with observations on the redistribution of responsibility for fire services and hazard prevention in contemporary societies.

Institutional change for the development of urban sanitation in the Global South: A social science review

This paper analyses knowledge in social sciences about the conditions for and the process of institutional change in the urban sanitation sector in the Global South. We conducted a literature review of 148 papers. This review is organised around the six steps of institutional change proposed by Greenwood et al. (2002). Most studies focus on conditions and barriers to change, on the “legitimacy” of social or technological innovations, and the actors promoting change. The change process is rarely analysed from a long-term perspective, nor at the city scale, calling for further research.

Experiments About Institutions

Institutions are a key determinant of economic growth, but the critical junctures in which institutions can change are not precisely defined. For example, such junctures are often identified ex post, raising several methodological problems: a selection on the outcome of institutional change; an inability to study beliefs, which are central to coordination and thus the process of institutional change; and an inability to conduct experiments to identify causal effects. We argue that critical junctures are identifiable in real time as moments of deep uncertainty about future institutions. Consistent with this conception, the papers reviewed (a) examine changes to institutions, i.e., the fundamental rules of the game; (b) are real-time studies of plausible critical junctures; and (c) use field experiments to achieve causal identification. We also advocate for more systematic measurement of beliefs about future institutions to identify critical junctures as they happen and provide an empirical proof of concept. Such work is urgent given contemporary critical junctures arising from democratic backsliding, state fragility, climate change, and conflicts over the rights of the marginalized.

Internationalization and Globalization in the Field of Education

The internationalization of educational programs is an important commitment that aims to develop an ever more dynamic and competitive knowledge to face the challenges of globalization and rapid social transformation by finding the right balances, critical and conscientious skills. Students, lecturers and the territory benefit greatly from the implementation of a system which favors the exchange of knowledge, didactic and scientific experiences. To strengthen the internationalization of the educational offer and the mobility of students means to intensify the international exchanges of students and at the same time to strengthen the international attractiveness of study courses with well-oriented initiatives. The era of globalization, understood as the fall of barriers in space and time that limited communication at the economic, institutional and social level, has produced important processes of transformation and change in educational institutions. The latter, accepting the challenges of globalization, have gradually expanded their educational commitment beyond national borders, giving the formation components, approaches, strategies and internationalizing tools, with the aim of favouring the full understanding of the students in one dimension more and more global opportunities to benefit and the role to play in the global society. Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024

Implication of institutional informality in the historical urban evolution of Morocco: Case studies of Fes and Oujda

This paper is concerned with the role of informality in the spatial and institutional development of post-colonial cities. The study uses a historical institutionalist approach to trace the historical evolution of Morocco's Fes and Oujda as two former French colonies. It analyzes the historical urban growth of both cities through archival research, policy analysis, and complements its findings with semi-structured interviews. This study explores the different interactions between formal policies and the informal spatial and institutional urban practices, and discusses the processes of incremental institutional change that informal institutions introduce and sustain without disrupting the status-quo. This paper argues that in post-colonial contexts, informality prevails over formality as a stronger feedback mechanism to path dependence. Finally, the paper makes the case for the importance of mapping informal practices within and in relation to formal planning institutional structures for more comprehensive understandings of the role and the impact of spatial planning as a practice.

Collaborative Planning in the Context of Deindustrialization: A Qualitative Evaluation of Comparative Cases in Northeast Ohio

This article investigates whether and how the contexts of the Rust Belt decline extend collaborative planning theory. We evaluate two collaborative planning projects in Northeast Ohio: (1) the Cuyahoga Greenways (CG), a regional trails project and (2) the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative (MRCI), a postindustrial river restoration project. Based on participant interviews and document analysis, we find that the projects are distinct in their contextual conditions and collaborative processes, with CG better aligning with common expectations found in the literature. MRCI deviates from normative theory pertaining to collaborative planning; we discuss how this might relate to processes of institutional change. Our results suggest that the collaborative planning literature is insufficiently tailored to assess collaborative projects in the context of decline—particularly where there is controversy around the project and where collaborative institutions and networks are weak.

Governance of the circular economy in the canned fish industry: A case study from Spain

Spain is the leading country in production, 305,403 tons in 2022, of canned fish in Europe. Part of its success is because this industry is one of the leading sectors in innovation and technology transfer within the agri-food chain in Spain. At the beginning of the 21st century, its research center created a line of product valorization, the seed of current research on circular economy. This article aims to analyze, from the New Institutional Economics (NIE) approach, the process of institutional change and the evolution of the Spanish canned fish sector. The evolution of the legal framework, as well as the internal organization of the sector and its strategies, have modified the governance relationships, altering the incentives and transaction costs of the industry actors. The results show the existence of two distinct stages, 2007–2015 and 2016–2022. In the first stage, most of the research projects were regional in nature and institutional relations were more limited. In the second stage, the creation of a solid legal framework together with the inauguration of a new research center, the incorporation of new equipment, the increase in the number of partners and the increase in relations with agents in the sector reinforced the implementation of the circular economy in the canning industry. In both periods, the high degree of associationism in the Spanish canned fish industry is key to creating economies of scale, increasing public and private collaborations and participating in research projects.

Urban intensification and land value capture in Toronto: Conjunctural analysis, critical junctures, and developmental pathways in urban planning

Toronto has for 70 years been one of the fastest growing city-regions in North America, and over the last two decades has seen booming high-rise intensification. A distinctive land value capture (LVC) system and practice has emerged. This paper traces the contested evolution of Toronto LVC since 1946, including recent major changes to the rules, and makes three main contributions: First is the suggestion that at its core, LVC is an attempt to purposefully alter the distribution of the costs and benefits of urban property development between public and private actors, and should be considered a key metric to evaluate the social equity of property development processes. Second, conjunctural analysis has recently emerged as an approach to reading the intersection of political, economic, social, and ideological processes that come together to produce historical changes in specific cases. I argue that Historical Institutionalism (HI) is a valuable complement to the conjunctural analysis approach in its focus on the genesis of and contestation over specific sets of institutions. HI provides a set of midlevel conceptual frameworks and research methods to identify major institutions, the actors involved, and institutional change mechanisms, processes, and patterns. I bring together two hitherto separate traditions of thought about conjunctures, that arising from Gramsci through Stuart Hall, and that developed in HI, arguing that HI brings analytical clarity to the comparative analysis of conjunctures. Third, the Toronto case is revealing of processes of institutional change, mechanisms supporting path dependence, and the urban impacts of globally hegemonic ideological conjunctures.

A Dialectical Perspective on an Institutional Change Process in Higher Education

A Dialectical Perspective on an Institutional Change Process in Higher Education

Model of Institutional Integration of the Community Revolving Fund as a Source of Sustainable Capital and Poverty Alleviation in Rural Areas

This study attempts to create an integration model of institutional change from a government-driven initiative, specifically the integration of community revolving funds (DBM) into Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDesa). In particular, every village in Banyuwangi Regency having a Village Credit Bank was included in this study. This study used descriptive qualitative research. The information was gathered using a combination of in-depth interviews, participant and non-participant observation, and document reviews. The data was examined for validity using a series of source triangulation, technique triangulation, and time triangulation. The institutional dynamics of community revolving funds (DBM) arising from government policies or programs. It was governed by overlapping rules from different independent bodies, which made it challenging to implement the transformation process and expensive to do so. The Village Credit Bank and the PNPM-Mandiri activity implementation unit (UPK) were eventually merged to create the Bumdesma business unit after overcoming numerous challenges. The Inter-Village Cooperation Agency (BKAD) and Bumdesma are two new organizations that were created as a result of the institutional change process but their existence does not enhance community services. The dynamics of institutional change and transformation led to disagreements over property rights, and uncertainty surrounding ownership status sparked the emergence of Free Riders who later converted BKD assets into KSPs run by a number of former managers, which in turn had an impact on the sale of BKD assets to private parties. The institutional transformation process caused BKD's institutional nature to move from private goods to common goods as a secondary bank of BRI. The oversight of Microfinance ex Village Credit Bank (BKD) is the sole aspect of Bumdesa business units that are covered in this research. This research is able to contribute a model of integrating the management of Bumdesa as a Common Resource as an effort to alleviate poverty in Indonesia.

Moral and Institutional Foundations of Sustainable Technological Entrepreneurship

In this essay, we reflect on the conditions that allow firms to play a leading role in the ecological transition process. The essay starts with an analysis of the technological and economic features of eco-efficient technologies. We argue that they are weak levers for the ecological transition. As eco-efficiency is based on profit-maximising goals, the pace of the transition is unlikely to peak quickly. In fact, this profit motive restrains firms from fully embedding ecological principles in their choices. Some behavioural concerns arise, as rationally bounded firms are likely to pursue uncomplicated and effortless pathways so as to safeguard profits. For instance, firms may pretend to be sustainable, while chasing opportunistic practices such as greenwashing, wokening, and cost shifting. Hence, they cannot lead the ecological transition process. A few consequences derive. First, new moral values must become pivotal criteria in firms’ decision-making processes. Second, such a big challenge must become shared and widely accepted in social discourse, so as to involve all economic actors and trigger a general process of institutional change. These are necessary conditions for the ensuing economic and social provisioning to take care of the limits of the Earth. Finally, we suggest that the teaching of economics must also be concerned with making such a change in mindset successful.

Institutional Change in the Church: A Theological Reflection

The church in many parts of the north Atlantic world is experiencing a period of institutional change as parts of the church combine with or fold into one another. This essay is a theological reflection on one such process of institutional change, namely, the work of two Canadian theological colleges to form a new ecumenical institution. That process was assisted by and deepened theological reflection on the nature of the church as the body of Christ, the importance of Christian hospitality, and the significance of people committing to other people in the context of the Christian faith. Institutional change will continue to happen in the church and must be resourced by adequate theological reflection to ensure its success.

Low-carbon electrification as a multi-system transition: a socio-technical analysis of Norwegian maritime transport, construction, and chemical sectors

Electrification of end-use sectors is widely seen as a central decarbonisation strategy. However, the process of electrification is rarely discussed beyond electric end-use technologies such as electric vehicles or heat pumps. While electrification of end-use sectors is about new types of consumption, it also requires new technological interfaces with the electricity system. The paper provides a first conceptualisation of electrification as a multi-system interaction process, involving changes in both end-use sectors and in the electricity system. Electrification is thought to involve two core processes: (1) transitions in systems where electric niches challenge fossil energy regimes, and (2) reconfiguring patterns of multi-system interactions across production, distribution, and use of electricity. Through a case study design, we compare three sectoral cases that differ substantially in degrees and speed of electrification: ferries, construction sites and ammonia production. We explain these differences by analysing how the actors, technologies and institutions in each system shaped both the diffusion of electric end-use technologies and the interactions with the electricity distribution system. We find that the speed and ease of electrification depend on varying mixes of technological, actor, and institutional change processes. The severity and pervasiveness of grid connection challenges are arguably the most important finding. Grid connection challenges were significant in all three cases and continue to hamper electrification in two cases. Based on those findings, we conclude that grid capacity is increasingly problematic. Electricity system actors are overwhelmed with new demand, resulting in long lead times. And, they are further constrained by institutions that were designed to optimise for the efficient operation of existing assets rather than to innovate and transform electricity grids.

Struggling toward symmetry: leadership for restorative justice and deeper learning at an urban charter school

PurposeThis paper features a narrative case study of a leadership team engaged in an effort to transform both culture and instructional practice at an urban charter school. The paper describes the team's effort to align their decision-making with two frameworks selected to anchor the school's institutional change process: restorative justice and deeper learning. Interweaving rich case data with analysis, the paper explores the dilemmas that emerged as leaders struggled to “walk the talk” of these two frameworks, using this to theorize about the synergies between them and to explore the broader leadership challenges involved in transforming schools from authoritarian to humanizing institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe researcher employed an ethnographic approach with the goal of generating a thickly-textured single case study. Data-gathering activities included more than 400 h of participant-observation, in-depth interviewing and artifact collection, conducted over the course of a ten-month academic year. Data analysis was iterative and included frequent member checks with participants.FindingsThe paper finds that restorative justice and deeper learning have powerful epistemological connections that school leaders can harness in order to ensure a coherent approach to change processes. The paper also illuminates several of the core dilemmas that school leaders should anticipate facing when embracing these two frameworks: the dilemma of responding to feedback, the dilemma of power-sharing and the dilemma of balancing expectations with support.Research limitations/implicationsThe case study approach employed in this paper allows for rich understandings of specific phenomena while also providing a platform for exploring the general qualities that these phenomena might illustrate. This approach does not allow for statistical generalizability.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests that it is imperative for school leaders to explore what it means to lead in ways that are coherent with their vision for change, e.g. to cultivate symmetry. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that the value of such explorations lies in the process of grappling with the tensions that arise when humanizing frameworks are implemented within systems that uphold traditional power hierarchies. Additionally, the paper affirms the value of de-siloing the transformation of school culture from the transformation of instructional practice.Originality/valueThis paper offers an unusually textured account of the messy and uncertain processes that constitute the work of school change. This paper also draws together two educational paradigms which are rarely brought into conversation with each other despite their epistemological synergy.

Institutional Dynamics of State-Minority Relations: The Case of Roma Communities in Slovakia

Abstract The study addresses the absence of a comprehensive institutional analysis framework in the academic literature on state-minority relations. It does so by employing a framework of analysis based on Skocpol’s analysis of structural factors and Ostrom’s multi-level institutional analysis to understand the processes of radical and incremental institutional change. The article is empirically grounded in a case study of Roma communities in Slovakia. More specifically, it maps and analyzes the evolution and change of institutional frameworks of state-minority relations in the context of Roma communities in Slovakia from the 1960s to 2020. Drawing from archival materials, interview findings, and document analysis, this article shows how post-socialist Slovakia radically redefined and diversified its institutional framework for Roma communities at different institutional levels, which subsequently continued to change at an incremental pace. Overall, the study aspires to offer a more dynamic institutional approach to the study of state-minority relations, which are currently dominated by more static regime- and rights-based approaches, and to contribute with a prospectively useful framework for understanding the developments of state-minority relations in the broader post-Soviet space and beyond.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on institutional change processes and the collective capabilities of higher education and research institutions

The COVID-19 pandemic and the public policies adopted to cope with the ensuing crisis had a significant impact on higher education and research institutions, and this captured the attention of numerous scholars. However, most of the analyses, especially those adopting a gender perspective, have focused on the impact of the pandemic on women as individuals (individual capabilities), while little attention has been paid to the impact on institutions and processes of structural change (collective capabilities). The capabilities approach (CA) is useful for analysing gender inequalities in higher education, and has also been used to examine the impact of the crisis on certain groups and situations. Based on the adaptation of this approach by Robeyns (2003) and Baser and Morgan (2008) to emphasise the importance of collective capabilities for individuals, institutions and society at large, this paper examines the institutional impact of the pandemic by drawing from the experiences of the six institutions in the GEARING-Roles project implementing gender equality plans (GEPs). To this end, we combine desk research of secondary sources with qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with representatives of the GEP implementers and observations of project meetings carried out between April 2020 and June 2022. Our findings indicate a considerable impact on the collective capabilities of the change agents in the participating institutions, which stem mainly from a lack of institutional commitment to the gender equality agenda, mobility restrictions and limited social relations. However, some positive elements also emerge, such as the teams’ exceptional capacity to adapt to adverse circumstances.

The Circular Economy, the SMEs, and the State: How to Govern a Circular Institutional Change Process?

The linear economic (LE) system is increasingly becoming unsustainable as its take-make-use-dispose logic mercilessly exploits the environment. As an alternative to this, the circular economy (CE) has recently gained popularity. The CE promises a more sustainable system through decreasing resource leakage from the economic system via circulating economic activities from production to consumption. However, there is not a clear blueprint on the institutionalization of the CE. To provide an answer to this problem, this research focused on the Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (the SMEs). The research was designed as a qualitative case study benefiting from the secondary data derived from the literature and found that the structural dependence of the SMEs on the existing LE system prevents them from performing proper CE actions. As a solution, the state emerges as a macro-level rule-breaker, which can play a catalyst role in the SMEs’ transition to the CE. Particularly, it could provide necessary regulative frameworks, financial sources, technological infrastructures, and a circular change in consumers’ attitudes, which are strategically important to drive the SMEs towards the CE system. Therefore, this paper suggests that the re-conceptualization of state-market relationship is an initial need to successfully govern an institutional change towards the CE. Additionally, a successful CE centred transition also needs a differentiated institutionalization perspective due to the uniqueness of different cases.

European union crisis-induced institutional evolution. The effect of institutional entrepreneurship in the formation of EFSF

ABSTRACT This paper conducts an in-depth case study of the 2010 Greek entrepreneurship attempts that led to the EFSF's creation, aiming to theorise crisis-induced institutional change in the EU. This research aims to cover the theoretical gap left by existing literature by combining theoretical elements derived from historical institutionalism and institutional entrepreneurship. Crises function as critical junctures. During critical junctures, the structural grip of path dependency loosens; thus, a multitude of paths forward are available. The choice of a specific path, if any, heavily relies on the concept of institutional entrepreneur. In 2010 the Greek government was such an agent, with interest in altering EU institutional design to overcome its financial ordeal and with direct access to the EU Council, the primary decision-making body regarding institutional change. The entrepreneur triggers a process of institutional change through their proposal. Once the entrepreneur chooses a path forward, this is further moulded by path dependencies.

СУПЕРЕЧЛИВИЙ ВПЛИВ ІНСТИТУЦІЙНИХ ЗМІН НА ЕКОНОМІЧНИЙ РОЗВИТОК КРАЇН ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ РЕГІОНУ

The article describes the contradictory impact of institutional changes on the economic development of the European region countries. The article’s topic is a relevant theoretical problem within the framework of research into the new institutional theory, as it substantiates ways of realizing the negative impact of inefficient institutions on the process of economic systems development. The theoretical basis of the convergence and divergence of the development trajectories of economic systems in the context of the implementation of institutional reform is analyzed. The author notes that the process of institutional changes is not uniform and its result can be both effective and ineffective institutions, which become the basis of divergent trajectories of the development of economic systems. As a result of the theoretical analysis, the author substantiated the hypothesis regarding the contradictory influence of institutional factors on the socio-economic development of economic systems. The key institutional factors that can influence economic development are described such as property rights defence, access to capital, human capital, level of corruption, social inequality, economic policy etc. According to the results of the conducted econometric analysis of institutional indicators of economic development of the European region countries that is based on statistical data from recent years, it was empirically established that there is a convergent-divergent influence of institutional factors on the economic development of the European region countries. It can be explained because the institutional environments of analyzed countries have unique development trajectories that reflect complex and other convergent-divergent processes when the accumulated elements of the system create an individual unique integrity that differs from country to country. The author also warns that the described directions of Ukraine’s institutional reforming should not be carried out as an exception but purposefully in the form of implementing a long-term strategy for reforming all areas of social life.