Public Voice Research Articles

Fame, Embodiment and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry

ABSTRACT This article examines the ways in which three women poets of the long nineteenth-century – Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861), Emily Brontë (1818–1848) and Charlotte Mew (1869–1928) – represent fame in their work in terms of a tense sexualised dynamic of attraction and repulsion, variously modelled as femme-fatale-like seduction, repressed lust and the activity in, and consequences of, what Mew terms the “tossed bed” (“Fame”, l. 19). The focusing of fame through the ideas of sexuality and embodiment enables these writers to reflect, explicitly or implicitly, upon the gendered nature of literary creation, public voice and visibility, and thereby to negotiate, at least in part, the complex legacies of the “poetess”. In deploying innovative experiments with structure, form and language, Barrett Browning, Brontë and Mew repeatedly reveal fame’s double-edged nature, as something which may be alluring and enthralling in terms of desire, yet simultaneously silencing and threatening to the intellectual and creative life of the poet. The poems examined here consequently demonstrate that succumbing to fame is something which must be resisted at all costs in order to maintain personal and poetic integrity.

Determining Factors to Develop Periodic Plan, Strategic Plan and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework in Local Governments in Nepal

This research article explores the factors influencing the development and implementation of periodic plan, strategic plans, and the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in local governments of Nepal, particularly focus on Bharatpur Metropolitan City. The study adopts a qualitative research design, employing document analysis, focus group discussions, and interviews with key stakeholders, including government officials, local communities, NGOs and civil societies. The findings identify key determinants: public responsible governance; efficiency, financial integrity, and systematic implementation of programs; proper resource allocation; and risk identification and management. Major findings emphasize the importance of public responsible governance, which includes public voice, participation, and shared responsibility in decision-making processes. Additionally, the study highlights the necessity of efficiency, financial integrity, and systematic implementation of programs for effective service delivery. Proper resource allocation and risk management are also crucial, ensuring that development projects meet community needs and sustainable goals. These elements collectively contribute to the successful governance and development of local governments in Nepal. The research also highlights the need for further studies, particularly in other regions of Nepal, using diverse methodologies to strengthen the understanding of local-level planning and its implications. Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 11, Issue-4: 88-94.

Citizen Panel: Novel method for Public Involvement in data access review of linked longitudinal data

UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration’s (UK LLC) Citizen Panel pilot research project aims to embed public feedback and perceptions into data access decision-making and Trusted Research Environment (TRE) design. The Citizen Panel is a concept developed by Understanding Patient Data as a new methodological approach to decisions about data via conversations with the public. The Citizen Panel has three key objectives: involving the public in decisions around the acceptance and suitability of data use, assessing the scope and benefit of research questions, and creating a learning feedback loop for decision-making. The approach taken in the Citizen Panel is intended to enhance and complement the existing ways in which public involvement is conducted in longitudinal studies, especially focused on maximizing diversity and inclusion of seldom-heard communities which are underrepresented in longitudinal studies. The Citizen Panel is conceptualized as a ‘learning model’ which will embed a diverse public voice in planning and decision-making, enabling UK LLC to be responsive to new opportunities and changes in context. The project will start with a small number (15-20) of public contributors and will explore approaches to scale up in size (panel with >100 members), and geography (e.g. Citizen Panel groups in four UK nations). The project is currently in the design stage (March 2024), which will be followed by recruitment, delivery, evaluation and producing and sharing outputs. The results will be shared widely with academic communities and public networks.

A UK Specification for Trusted Research Environments

ObjectivesThe need for Trusted Research Environments (TREs) is clear. Several influential reports have highlighted that personal or sensitive data which have been collected for operational, commercial or governmental reasons need to be managed securely in an environment that encourages best practices. TREs are designed to enable only authorised projects and researchers access to sensitive data whilst minimising risk of data exposure. Yet the TRE landscape has grown organically over at least the last decade resulting in heterogeneous environments, making it harder for data to be discovered, shared and used for public benefit. A baseline specification for TREs is required. ApproachWe engaged with around 60 organisations covering government, industry, health and academia through regular, online, shared spaces or “Collaboration Cafés”. We also embedded the public voice within the project by having members of the public within the research team and developed a series of workshops to include and reflect their input to the architecture. The whole project was developed in the open to instil trustworthiness. ResultsThe SATRE project has produced a reference TRE architecture and implementation through significant engagement with the UK TRE community. This baseline specification for UK TREs includes a set of four pillars, 28 capabilities and 160 statements. Conclusions and ImplicationsAn open and transparent TRE specification and architecture for a wide range of stakeholders has been developed. TREs can now use the SATRE specification to evaluate their environments against a common baseline.

Andrew Steane, Liberating Science: The Early Universe, Evolution and the Public Voice of Science

Andrew Steane, <i>Liberating Science: The Early Universe, Evolution and the Public Voice of Science</i>

Anti-Corruption Activism on Social Media: Public Voices against the Weakening of the Corruption Eradication Committee (KPK) in the Joko Widodo Era

Joko Widodo's commitment in terms of eradicating corruption in Indonesia is very low, this is shown through the neglect of public voices on social media in the discourse of weakening the KPK. This study aims to explain the widespread public rejection of all efforts to weaken the KPK and analyze the factors that cause the government to choose to be ambiguous and lead to neglect. This research uses observation methods, documentation, literature studies and big data analysis. The study presents a different perspective from research that has discussed social media activism towards the weakening of anti-corruption institutions in Indonesia. The results of this study found that anti-corruption activism on social media was effective, such as the use of hashtags, coherent logic and credible actors, contributing to the rejection of the revision of the KPK Law and the dismissal of KPK employees through the National Insight Test. However, the massive anti-corruption movement on social media has no impact on the Joko Widodo administration's policymaking in the field of eradicating corruption, this paper also reveals the strong dominance of the political elite in policy making. The conclusion of this article is that the effectiveness of movements on social media to cause public unrest does not necessarily have an impact on decision-making made by state organizers.

Semiotic Analysis on Sustainable Community Farming: Multimodal Analysis, A Case Study of Community Farming at Desa Impian, Merbau Sempak, Selangor, Malaysia

The majority of global population is in the cities and most tourists are concentrated in the cities. Research on the relationship between urban farming and tourism is gaining popularity in urban studies. In Malaysia, community urban farming has been identified as a solution to sustainable development to provide food in or out of the city. This study is about how the community at Desa Impian, Merbau Sempak promotes organic vegetable farming to academicians and business communities. The idea is to promote this area as a sustainable tourism hub for researchers and business communities. This study is a multimodal semiotic analysis to better understand the dynamic of community farming culture in Malaysia. Using qualitative design and multi-layered analytical framework to explore interactive meanings construed through the functionality of various semiotic resources in multimodal narratives this study reveals the dynamic multi-layered nature of government, individual community members, and public voices about community farming culture from a Malaysian socio-cultural context. On a deeper level, farming at Desa Impian means self-identification and sharing of identity that gives rise to a sense of belonging. This study contributes to the knowledge of multimodal socio-semiotic and narrative theories on sustainable urban farming tourism in Malaysia.

Dynamics of combatting market-driven epidemics: Insights from U.S. reduction of cigarette, sugar, and prescription opioid consumption.

Misuse and overconsumption of certain consumer products have become major global risk factors for premature deaths, with their total costs in trillions of dollars. Progress in reducing such deaths has been slow and difficult. To address this challenge, this review introduces the definition of market-driven epidemics (MDEs), which arise when companies aggressively market products with proven harms, deny these harms, and resist mitigation efforts. MDEs are a specific within the broader landscape of commercial determinants of health. We selected three illustrative MDE products reflecting different consumer experiences: cigarettes (nicotine delivery product), sugar (food product), and prescription opioids (medical product). Each met the MDE case definition with proven adverse health impacts, well-documented histories, longitudinal product consumption and health impact data, and sustained reduction in product consumption. Based on these epidemics, we describe five MDE phases: market expansion, evidence of harm, corporate resistance, mitigation, and market adaptation. From the peak of consumption to the most recent data, U.S. cigarette sales fell by 82%, sugar consumption by 15%, and prescription opioid prescriptions by 62%. For each, the consumption tipping point occurred when compelling evidence of harm, professional alarm, and an authoritative public health voice and/or public mobilization overcame corporate marketing and resistance efforts. The gap between suspicion of harm and the consumption tipping point ranged from one to five decades-much of which was attributable to the time required to generate sufficient evidence of harm. Market adaptation to the reduced consumption of target products had both negative and positive impacts. To our knowledge, this is the first comparative analysis of three successful efforts to change the product consumption patterns and the associated adverse health impacts of these products. The MDE epidemiological approach of shortening the latent time to effective mitigation provides a new method to reduce the impacts of harmful products.

Evaluation of Public Involvement in Doctoral Research Using a Four-Dimensional Theoretical Framework.

Working together and co-production with public advisors have become popular among health researchers. This practice extends to doctoral researchers who involve public advisors at different stages of their research or throughout their doctoral journey. A doctoral researcher and two public advisors jointly evaluated public involvement in doctoral research. Using the established public involvement evaluation framework by Gibson and colleagues, public advisors and a doctoral researcher mapped and evaluated their experiences of public involvement in doctoral research. The four-dimensional framework allowed the authors to reflect on (1) the strength of the public voice, (2) the number of ways in which public advisors had an opportunity to get involved, (3) whether the discussion was about the public or organisation's (doctoral researcher, university or funder) concerns and (4) if the organisation changed or resisted feedback. Results are presented in a diagrammatic and narrative way. Public advisors saw themselves as having a stronger voice in doctoral research than the doctoral researcher perceived. All agreed that there existed multiple ways for public advisors to be involved. Public advisors' feedback was taken on board, but it was also limited due to restrictions of what the doctoral programme allowed. Public advisors ensured that the doctoral research was more relevant to the public. The ongoing involvement also shaped the doctoral researcher's thinking and views. Two public advisors were involved throughout the 3 years of this doctoral research. They co-evaluated this involvement and are co-authors of this paper.

Public deliberation and the justification of public service media

ABSTRACT Any debate about the future of public media must include the public, but how the public is engaged matters. While public input is elicited by those making governance decisions about public service media, the methods of public engagement used tend to be non-deliberative and so do not provide opportunities for members of the public to discuss and reflect on relevant issues together. We argue that public deliberation is necessary to facilitate a collective public voice that can better justify governance decisions about public service media. To illustrate our argument, we analyse public discussions within an online deliberative assembly about the future of the public service media in the UK. We show not only how assembly participants reflected on and evaluated justifications of public service media in diverse ways, but also the role deliberation played in weeding out unjustifiable claims and facilitating a form of mutual justification among a heterogeneous public.

E-PARTICIPATION IN THE TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES OF UKRAINE IN THE TIME OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESSES: ELECTRONIC PETITIONS

The article examines the processes of implementation and effectiveness of electronic petitions in the context of public participation in Ukraine in recent years. The issue of introducing democratic innovations and e-participation in communities is considered, on the one hand, inextricably linked to the ongoing processes of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, and, on the other hand, taking into account the challenges and limitations caused by the Russian full-scale war and the introduction of martial law in Ukraine. Electronic petitions are identified as an effective additional mechanism that can serve as a “public voice” at critical moments in the implementation of democratic reforms, recovery and reconstruction processes. Today in Ukraine, petitions are more common at the national level than at the local level. To analyze the state of use of the tool, we collected data from open sources, namely the EDEM digital platform (15 communities), local government websites (7 communities), and an earlier analytical study by the NGO “Chesno Movement”. The study focuses on the key factors that can affect the effectiveness of local governments in directly generating quality policies and implementing such participatory forms on the ground. These factors include security criteria; legislative conflicts caused by the introduction of martial law; physical and psychological exhaustion of employees, which affects the efficiency of service delivery and information; and technical problems. The conclusions note that in the process of effective use of electronic petitions, the key issue is the clear regulation of the procedure for applying the tool in the community charter, as well as the institutional capacity of the local self-government body to ensure a communication campaign on the availability of such a tool and further consideration of the received petitions in accordance with the procedure set out in the charter. Recommendations are made to improve the effectiveness of implementation of participation tools and involvement of citizens in these processes at the local level in general and in the case of electronic petitions in particular.

Embedding Public Involvement in a PhD Research Project With People Affected by Advanced Liver Disease.

Liver disease is an increasing cause of morbidity and mortality in the United Kingdom and can be challenging to live with in the advanced stages. There has been little research exploring the healthcare experiences of UK individuals with decompensated disease when the liver cannot carry out its functions properly. A PhD research project was developed with people who have liver disease to explore care experiences in decompensated advanced liver disease. Public involvement (PI) is an essential aspect of meaningful health research, and this paper reports on the progression of our PI approach in this ongoing study. To embed PI throughout the research project to ensure that the study is meaningful to individuals with liver disease and the people who support them. The research adopts a Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology to develop a theory of care experience. Various PI approaches were considered in developing the PI strategy for this qualitative study. Initially, Embedded consultation was the preferred model, which has evolved to include aspects of collaboration and coproduction. A PI group was set up to oversee the project through the national public engagement website VOICE, and reflections on PI from three members of the group are included in this paper to illuminate the PI process. Six individuals with liver disease and three carers from across the United Kingdom are part of an ongoing PI group. Their role includes commenting on the findings of the systematic literature review for this project and contributing to decisions about recruitment, data collection and data analysis. Additionally, they had a direct impact on changing the focus of the research. The PI group will continue involvement until the completion of the project. Successfully embedding PI into doctoral research, as demonstrated in this project, requires commitment, planning and dedication to reciprocal working for the benefit of PI contributors as well as the research. This approach could be adopted by other postgraduate researchers. This project is overseen by the PI group, whose contribution is described throughout, including reflections from three PI group members.

Exploring public voice on social media: Twitter Users' views on the circular economy

AbstractThis paper aims to explore all the ideas and topics associated with the discussion about the circular economy on social media sites. All tweets mentioning the CE were collected and subjected to latent Dirichlet allocation topic modelling to identify discussion themes manual validation refined topic coherence. Findings offer novel empirical insights into how the CE is currently framed in public discourse. Dominant themes emphasise strategic communication and technical CE activities rather than inclusive participation. Gaps were also identified, such as limited discussion of CE's social role and broader activities beyond recycling. By quantitatively examining large‐scale online discussions, this research makes an original contribution to establishing the neglected social dimension of CE transitions. The findings carry essential theoretical implications for refining CE conceptualisations better to integrate socio‐cultural factors critical for just, systemic change. Practically, the study equips decision‐makers with data‐driven guidance on developing more participatory communication approaches and policies promoting the CE. This study transitions research and advances the scholarship of the circular economy by using a mixed‐methods approach to analyse a crucial but little‐studied stakeholder perspective.

Sonic double consciousness: public radio voices of color

Sonic double consciousness: public radio voices of color

Enhancing Democratic Governance: The Crucial Role of Broad Public Participation in Government Public Consultations

This paper examines the critical importance of broad public participation in government public consultations to enhance democratic governance. Drawing on theoretical frameworks such as Arnstein's "A Ladder of Citizen Participation" and the IAP2 "Spectrum of Public Participation," as well as extensive empirical studies, this analysis underscores the essential role that inclusive public engagement plays in refining policy decision-making processes. With rising public demands for transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness, the inclusion of diverse public voices in policymaking is pivotal for fostering public trust and enhancing policy effectiveness. Through literature reviews and case studies, this study highlights the benefits and challenges associated with broad public participation, offering insights and recommendations to improve participatory mechanisms in policymaking. By fostering a more democratic and inclusive approach, the paper advocates for proactive and inclusive public advisory systems that accommodate a wide array of perspectives in decision-making, thus leading to more democratic and effective policy outcomes.

What makes co-production work in sustainable neighborhood rehabilitation in China? A stakeholder structure perspective

Globally, co-production serves as a crucial approach to promote sustainable neighborhood rehabilitation. However, in China, where the governance system is characterized by strong state discourse power and a lack of public participation tradition, neighborhood rehabilitation encounters significant challenges, leading to project postponements or even failures due to unsuccessful co-production activities. To reveal the hidden problems, this paper aims to gain an in-depth understanding of the stakeholders' co-production roles and their participation structure in the co-produced sustainable neighborhood rehabilitation process from multiple dimensions. Using the case in Chongqing, the data was collected through questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. Social network analysis was utilized as the research method, and one-mode and two-mode networks were established to depict six relationship types with using diverse network indicators. This study revealed the high complexity of stakeholder structure, the awkward role of grass-rooted government, the dilemma of public voices and perceptions, uneven involvement in the co-production process, and the dynamic path of co-production formation. Drawing upon co-production theory, this paper elucidates the intricate mechanism of co-produced neighborhood rehabilitation in China. It offers valuable implications for policymakers and urban planners for project promotion, and contributes empirical insights to research in similar governance systems across the global context.

Gaming Equity: Women, Videogame Companies, and Public Discourse

It is by now well documented and widely acknowledged that the videogame industry has since its inception been a bastion of hegemonic masculinity. Only more recently, however, with events like Gamergate, #metoo, and the public accusations of workplace toxicity and sexism brought against prominent AAA giants like Riot and Activision Blizzard King, have game companies initiated policies and processes for change—or at least what looks like change, based on company websites and interviews with female employees. Does this mean women are being heard, at last? These are turbulent times for the industry, with legal actions, policy shifts, personal callings-out and billion-dollar corporate mergers and restructurings. What has changed and what is changing for women in games? How, and by whom, is that change being made? This paper begins with a closer look at what women have said since these events, about their experiences, expectations and frustrations working in the industry. Has the public scrutiny turned upon the games industry, post-gamergate and beyond influenced what women have to say about their conditions and experiences working in games? Are they better supported in taking the risks and shouldering the costs of speaking up? What workplace changes in policy or practice may have resulted from women giving public voice to their experiences? Building upon an earlier study of public speech by women about their experiences in the videogames industry (de Castell &amp; Skardzius, 2019), this study both updates and extends its database, and deepens its analysis, by looking explicitly at a speech event’s context of elicitation: who elicits the “event” of public speech, on what topics, with what purpose? Through that dialogical lens we can make more visible and explicit how minority self-representation and marginalized identities and voices are deployed to bolster business as usual, even as they are still expected to lead the charges and fight the battles for a just and inclusive working life in games.

Quo vadis Indonesian public relations profession: dilemma on the rise of AI

The debate over AI has focused on its contrast with human employment. Simple perspectives are inadequate in public communication fields like Public Relations (PR). The conversation must shift from discussing AI's impact on human jobs to how AI will shape public communication as AI becomes more important in PR. To examine AI's effects on Public Relations, this study uses a literature review focusing on authority and public voice. Due to the risks of AI misuse, data discrimination, and data poisoning, public relations must carefully consider the implications of AI integration. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Public Relations is studied using a literature review as its main method. Experts are consulted to identify AI's most significant challenges and opportunities in public relations. Public relations (PR) are affected by Artificial Intelligence (AI), which presents both opportunities and challenges. AI can boost public communication, but it also risks data misuse and discrimination. Ethical issues arise when AI represents the public's voice. This study provides useful insights into how Indonesia's Public Relations profession should approach Artificial Intelligence. PR professionals can overcome technical and ethical challenges and revolutionise public communication with AI integration. Therefore, ethical PR practice and the use of AI are becoming increasingly important.

Hearing and vision support in people with dementia living at home: Outcomes from the intervention development programme for the European SENSE-Cog Trial

Background Hearing and vision loss are among the most common and disabling comorbidities in dementia and may worsen the trajectory of decline. Improving sensory function may be an accessible and cost-effective means of improving quality of life (QoL) and other outcomes for people with dementia (PwD). Here we describe the outcome of a multi-step intervention development programme for the components and implementation of a cross-national intervention to support hearing and vision in PwD in community settings. Methods We used the process of ‘intervention mapping’ and a set of mixed method sub-studies to develop the intervention for PwD with hearing and/or vision loss. This involved scoping the gaps in understanding, awareness, and service provision, modelling a prototype intervention, refining the prototype into a draft intervention, and finally field trialling the draft intervention for feasibility, acceptability, and tolerability. Input from the ‘patient and public voice’ (PPV) was interlinked with each step of the development programme (Miah et al., 2017). This paper synthesises the results of sub-studies leading to a description and logic model of the intervention which was then evaluated in a fully powered definitive trial. The sub-studies of the programme took place in participants’ own homes and in university or clinic settings in four EU countries: Cyprus, France, Greece, and the UK. The Expert Reference Group took place in Athens, Greece. We used quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyse the data from the different sub-studies. Results A multi-component psychosocial home-based ‘sensory intervention’ designed to optimise hearing and vision in PwD to improve QoL and other dementia-related and care partner-related outcomes. Conclusion This intervention represents the output of the iterative development of a complex intervention to fulfil an unmet need for PwD and sensory loss.

Deciphering Public Voices in the Digital Era

Problem, research strategy, and findings Planners are increasingly using online public engagement approaches to broaden their reach in communities. This results in substantial volumes of digital, text-based public feedback data, making it difficult to analyze efficiently and derive meaningful insights. We explored the use of the novel large language model (LLM), ChatGPT, in analyzing a public feedback data set collected via online submissions in Hamilton City (New Zealand) in response to a proposed local plan change. Specifically, we initially employed zero-shot prompts with ChatGPT for tasks like summarizing, topic identification, and sentiment analysis and compared the results with those obtained by human planners and two standard natural language processing (NLP) techniques: latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling and lexicon-based sentiment analysis. The findings show that zero-shot prompting effectively identified political stances (accuracy: 81.7%), reasons (87.3%), decisions sought (85.8%), and associated sentiments (94.1%). Although subject to several limitations, ChatGPT demonstrates promise in automating the analysis of public feedback, offering substantial time and cost savings. In addition, few-shot prompting enhanced performance in more complex tasks, such as topic identification involving planning jargon. We also provide insights for urban planners to better harness the power of ChatGPT to analyze citizen feedback. Takeaway for practice ChatGPT presents a transformative opportunity for planners, particularly those dealing with growing volumes of public feedback data. However, it cannot be entirely relied upon. Planners must be mindful of ChatGPT’s limitations, including its sensitivity to prompt phrasing, inherent biases from training data, tendency to overgeneralize, and occasional omission of nuanced details. To enhance accuracy, planners should prescreen data for consistency, provide clear and iteratively tested prompts, use few-shot prompts for complex analysis, and explore various combinations of prompting strategies to develop an effective local approach. It is also crucial to ensure human review of the results.