Health inequities are driven by the unequal distribution of resources and power. Local-level actors are closely connected to communities and have the potential to address unfair imbalances in power through health equity interventions. Yet practical strategies on how to do this remain unclear. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of five databases, examining how power was addressed in the design and implementation of local-level health equity interventions and their reported impacts. Thirty-eight international studies were analysed using the Health Equity Power Framework and Four Expressions of Power typology. Most articles described community organizing, health education, advocacy, and community funding initiatives. Interventions that strengthened community knowledge, connectedness, and leadership rebalanced power by enhancing individual and collective agency. Shifts in rigid, inequitable structures and institutional processes were observed when interventions activated multiple types of power, across different forms and spaces. Interventions informed by power-centered frameworks and principles, such as empowerment theory and self-determination, helped actors rebalance power dynamics, while entrenched structural and institutional power imbalances moderated efforts to rebalance power. This review underscores the role of local governments, institutions, and community actors in addressing power imbalances and provides practical guidance on strategies to support equitable policymaking.

ABSTRACT This study examines the role of internal actors in Ethiopia’s ongoing national dialogue process, focusing on how power asymmetries shape inclusivity, representation, and legitimacy. It employs a convergent mixed research methods design, analyzing survey data from 694 respondents alongside 18 key informant interviews and two focus group discussions across seven accessible regions. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, and qualitative data were examined thematically through the lens of Political Settlement Theory. Findings indicate that the ruling Prosperity Party dominates the dialogue, producing a system of ‘managed inclusion’ rather than genuine participatory engagement. Over 85% of respondents perceive opposition parties as underrepresented, and 56% report that they have limited influence on the agenda-setting process. Although civil society organizations (70%) and religious leaders (60%) are recognized as important intermediaries, their participation is constrained by restrictive legal frameworks and political distrust. While a majority (58%) support the conditional inclusion of armed groups, public concern persists regarding the risk of legitimizing violence (34%). Meaningful reform requires fundamental reconfigurations of holding power, expanded civic space, and credible pathways for demilitarized political integration.

ABSTRACT With a focus on the autocratization episodes that occurred in Africa during the 2000–2023 period, this article examines how effectively external actors help constrain the unfolding of autocratization. While the recent literature has primarily highlighted how domestic actors can resist autocratization, the role of external actors should not be overlooked, especially in a region such as Africa characterized by a peculiarly high number and variety of external interventions over time. Accordingly, we focus on two main strategies of external protection of democracy – namely, democracy sanctions and democracy aid – and discuss how their combined employment could trap autocratizing elites in between two opposite pressures. From above, as sanctions restrict elites’ access to revenue, and from below, as increased external democracy assistance empowers local democratic actors. To investigate empirically whether and how democracy sanctions and democracy aid interact with each other in countering autocratization, we apply regression methods and conduct a series of sensitivity analyses to confirm the validity of our results. Our findings show that such a combination of tools is an effective way in which external actors can help counter autocratization from abroad, provided that they are genuinely committed to accompany sanctions with substantial aid increases.

The reuse of vacant residential buildings offers a strategy for revitalizing “shrinking cities” and advancing urban sustainability by transforming underutilized spaces into community assets. However, the decision‐making process involves stakeholders from diverse disciplines with conflicting perspectives, which creates significant challenges that hinder progress. This study therefore identifies these key stakeholders and maps their interrelations with reuse challenges, addressing the question: Who are the key stakeholders involved in the challenges and conflicts of interest that hinder the decision‐making in residential building reuse? A semi‐systematic literature review followed by thematic analysis was employed to identify stakeholder groups, supplemented by stakeholder–issue mapping to analyze their interrelations. The study identified five key groups: property owners, investors, government representatives and regulators, building professionals, and users, community, and civic society. The findings demonstrate that challenges are highly interconnected across multiple stakeholders, revealing patterns of conflict and opportunities for collaboration. The study underscores the role of government in initiating and steering the process and identifies emerging roles for other actors, such as building professionals acting as mediators. Existing research adopts a narrow disciplinary lens and focuses less on residential buildings, risking an overlooking of crucial actor dynamics. By offering a holistic perspective on the stakeholders and their interrelations with reuse challenges, this study provides vital insights for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to manage urban vacancies as resources in “shrinking cities” and advance a circular built environment.

The concept of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EE) has gained traction both in academic and policy circles over recent years. Despite this, many questions still exist especially regarding micro-level aspects of EEs, particularly the role of support organisations, and how local actors contribute to and shape a cohesive ecosystem. This study aims to garner an in depth understanding of the role of a local ecosystem leader/facilitator organisation in furthering the well-being agenda of their region. This is critical given the current preoccupation within the EE literature on high growth ecosystems. Through an in-depth case study of an ecosystem facilitator in South West Wales, the findings highlight the critical yet often overlooked role played by less common types of organisations within local ecosystems in contributing to and furthering the sustainable development goal and well-being agenda. The facilitator develops a cohesive ecosystem through the collective action of actors in a vibrant and engaged ecosystem.

Since the summer of 2020, Belgium has seen a boom in institutional and civil society initiatives related to redress for the ongoing legacies of colonial violence. While some mobilise existing international, regional, and domestic legal frameworks, others do not. This article examines when, why, and how these frameworks are mobilised and how this affects collaborations. Based on an empirical mapping exercise of initiatives, actors, and approaches, the article first underlines the important role of non-institutional actors in advocating for comprehensive redress initiatives. It then uses a Discourse-Historical Analysis to examine the role of formal reparations frameworks in this redress ecosystem. The analysis shows that both civil society and institutional actors reference existing legal frameworks, but to different extents, in different ways, and for different reasons. This hints at the ongoing importance of these legal frameworks, as well as at the importance of better understanding how they are mobilised in practice. The analysis further identifies differences in how civil society and institutional actors reference legal frameworks and the initiatives of other actors. This suggests that institutional initiatives may be less embedded in the broader redress ecosystem. The article concludes with a reflection on opportunities and challenges of the existing legal framework.

Ecotourism development in Barru Regency currently faces complex challenges stemming from the disparity between abundant natural resource potential and the readiness of regional government institutions. This study aims to identify and analyze the roles of government and non-government actors, while simultaneously dissecting the relationship between local political dynamics and the effectiveness of ecotourism policy in Barru Regency. The research method applied is a qualitative approach with an exploratory case study design, in which primary data were collected through in-depth interviews with key informants from the legislative and executive branches and local communities, using an interactive data analysis model. The results indicate that local political dynamics are the primary determinant of policy effectiveness, as budget politics prioritize large-scale physical infrastructure development over environmental conservation. This condition creates institutional challenges in the form of a regional regulatory vacuum, leading to bureaucratic fragmentation and confusion over authority among technical agencies within the executive branch. Empirical data show a drastic decline in visitation and revenue at government-owned tourism attractions, while the private sector is experiencing massive growth. The weakness of these formal state institutions prompts the emergence of grassroots initiatives from non-government actors at the village level who self-manage governance roles, although these initiatives are threatened by stagnation due to the absence of systemic support. This study concludes that collaborative governance practices in Barru Regency have not yet ideally materialized due to the absence of an inclusive decision-making forum. As a recommendation, the regional government must urgently draft a regional regulation mandating the establishment of a collaborative ecotourism council to synergize the roles of government, village, and private-sector managers into a single sustainable development vision.

This article argues that infrastructures in marriage migration are not merely channels of mobility but key sites where governance logics take shape. Focusing on South Korea from 1993 to 2023, it examines interactions among state authorities, commercial brokers, humanitarian organisations, migrant networks, and technologies through the lens of migration infrastructure. In line with the analytical shift from migrant-centred perspectives to infrastructural approaches, the study highlights how institutional mechanisms not only facilitate and constrain cross-border unions but also constitute practices of governance. It traces three phases: (1) Seeding Governance through the emergence of marriage migration infrastructure (1993–2005); (2) Consolidating Governance through infrastructural intensification (2006–2014); and (3) Recursive Governance through infrastructural involution (2015–present). By reframing marriage migration as an infrastructurally governed field, the article offers conceptual insight into the governance of transnational mobility and demonstrates the evolving roles of non-state actors in shaping migration regimes.

The concept of the digital welfare state (DWS) has gained popularity in research on welfare system digitalization, but its meaning is under-theorized and largely unproblematized. Invoked without clear criteria, the concept leaves open fundamental questions about what qualifies as a DWS and why. In this article, we propose three key pillars as foundational criteria for analyses of the DWS: (1) the presence of a welfare state, (2) processes of digitalization – encompassing older digital technologies and more advanced technologies and their interplay with enduring manual processes, and (3) the degree of digitalization and whether this warrants a particular welfare state's classification as digital. We argue that these pillars, although seemingly self-evident, raise under-explored questions about the theoretical foundations and boundaries of the DWS concept. In highlighting these questions, we reveal that much of the literature is characterized by single country case studies, assumptions of linear change, and a degree of Western-centrism, which leaves broader patterns of digital welfare reform, and the role of non-state actors therein, under-theorized if not overlooked. By foregrounding these limitations, we demonstrate how greater theoretical rigor and reflexivity can sharpen the concept's analytical and practical value. Properly specified, the DWS provides a useful heuristic for researching broad patterns of digitalization without flattening national or local specificities, and for equipping both scholars and policy makers with a clearer lens for critical engagement and political contestation.

ABSTRACT Radical innovations, such as cultured meat, have emerged as potential pathways toward more sustainable food systems. Their societal impact, however, hinges on public acceptance, which is often challenged by the uncertainty surrounding unfamiliar food technologies. This study seeks to advance informed discourse on cultured meat by exploring consumers' perceptions of its potentials and risks, alongside their expectations of scientific and political institutions as trusted actors in reducing uncertainty and fostering trust in the development of novel food technologies. Focus groups reaffirm established themes (such as animal welfare, health, and environmental performance) while introducing novel perspectives: consumers debate the very necessity of cultured meat, raise concerns about market concentration and new dependency risks, and reframe anticipated benefits through a food system resilience lens. Consumers also articulate clear expectations of institutions: science should provide transparent, independent evidence on product quality and production processes, and policy should ensure inclusive, ethically grounded governance by actively involving agricultural stakeholders. Overall, by offering a qualitative account of how consumers conceptualize these roles of scientific and political actors in the development of cultured meat, this paper addresses a previously overlooked dimension of consumer acceptance.

Urban infrastructure development in metropolitan cities such as Jakarta is increasingly characterized by high complexity arising from the integration of environmental sustainability demands, regulatory compliance, resource limitations, and pressures for cost and time efficiency. In this context, decision-making processes extend beyond purely technical considerations and reflect multidimensional interactions among actors, interests, and institutional frameworks that influence the implementation of sustainable construction practices. This study examines the decision-making mechanisms underlying the adoption of sustainable construction practices in urban infrastructure projects, with emphasis on the roles of key actors, decision rationalities, and trade-off dynamics throughout the project life cycle. A qualitative case study approach was employed, focusing on a single urban infrastructure project in Jakarta. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six purposively selected key actors, namely the project manager, site engineer, sustainability officer, main contractor representative, planning or supervision consultant, and a government representative as the project owner, complemented by an analysis of project documents and relevant regulatory frameworks. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify decision-making patterns and inter-actor relationships. The findings indicate that decision-making in sustainable construction is shaped by continuous negotiation among regulatory pressures, economic considerations, technical readiness, and varying levels of actors’ commitment to sustainability agendas, which result in compromises between environmental performance and project efficiency. The novelty of this study lies in its empirical mapping of decision-making processes as dynamic, contextual, and actor-centered practices, contributing conceptually to sustainable construction studies and offering practical implications for improving governance quality in urban infrastructure projects.

Abstract This study examines the extent to which personal agency is manifest in diplomacy. While current research in IR tends to adopt the representative framework when studying the power of individuals in advancing state goals, our study highlights moments at which personal agency and diplomatic agency part ways. Based on ethnographic observations at the State of Israel’s presidential residence – we recorded and transcribed 27 conversations between the president and designated ambassadors to Israel during credential ceremonies – we seek to uncover manifestations of personal agency. This is achieved by adopting the most sensitive framework for studying social interactions, conversation analysis, applying the concept of footing (first coined by Goffman) to identify how diplomats shift agencies and how they perform personal agency in the flow of diplomatic interactions. The application of these analytical tools to the study of diplomatic interactions enriches our understanding of how diplomacy is practised and challenges the prevailing notion that personal agency is negligible in the face of overwhelming structural forces. This shift in perspective suggests that scholars need to re-evaluate the place of agency in diplomacy, highlighting the critical role of individual actors in international politics.

The aim of the study is to identify the mechanisms of interaction between the aesthetics of the culture of ethnic minorities in China and mass aesthetic consciousness in the context of the digital transformation of cultural space. This article examines the dynamics of cultural transmission on the digital platforms Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili, where traditional cultural forms are undergoing radical adaptation through aestheticization, fragmentation, hybridization, and gamification. The role of various actors in the process of cultural production is analyzed, including bearers of ethnic traditions, cultural intermediaries, prosumers, and the platforms’ algorithmic systems as active agents of cultural evolution. The scientific novelty is determined by the conceptual rethinking of the basic categories of cultural analysis in the context of digital reality, where authenticity is transformed from the concept of an unchanging essence into the ability of a cultural core to persist in changing forms, the cultural boundary is transformed from a dividing line into a zone of intense exchange, and subjectivity is distributed between human and non-human agents. The study revealed that the mechanism of interaction functions as a multi-level system of mutual transformation, where China’s digital infrastructure has created unprecedented conditions for the dissemination of ethnic aesthetics, reaching over a billion users, and the commercialization of ethnic identity has transformed from a threat to cultural integrity into a condition for the economic survival of ethnic communities and a mechanism for the transmission of traditional practices to future generations.

ABSTRACT Political parties play important roles in contemporary and historical contexts. With the digital turn in the humanities, historians and, increasingly, political scientists are turning to party archives for doing comparative analysis. Party archives provide unique insights on the role of party structures, actors, motivations, and discourses in real time. Yet despite their institutional and scholarly importance, comparative analysis is difficult given the heterogeneous landscape of party archives. This article aims to facilitate comparative analysis. We show that the establishment of different types of party archives follows distinct motivations before we link common obstacles (location, content, searchability, and usage) arising in comparative archival work to them. These obstacles’ severity is often connected to the type of archive, where personal and scholarly archives mark the extremes. The findings can help scholars gain deeper, broader, and, above all, comparable insights about political parties.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has significantly changed the international security environment, highlighting the need for democracies to assist Ukraine in resisting the invasion and to bolster their defenses against the Kremlin’s aggressive posture. Russia’s hybrid war efforts have come under greater scrutiny after the invasion, indicating the growing need to understand and respond to Moscow’s attempts to challenge and weaken the liberal order internationally. It is against this ideational background that we produced this special section dedicated to the post-Yugoslav space, a part of Europe where Russian presence has for years been noticeable. Russia’s foothold in the region has facilitated this area of Europe becoming a space where illiberal, anti-Western narratives and agendas have become embedded into the regional mainstream (political, social, and/or media spaces). To go against the grain of top-down deliberations, these articles assume a bottom-up approach of focusing on the role of non-state actors (NSAs), whose role in Russia’s hybrid warfare in the region has remained understudied. Our case studies are guided by a single theoretical framework, bringing evidence from BiH (Republika Srpska), Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. This introduction provides context and rationale for the present theoretical and methodological considerations on the NSAs addressed, introduces a state-of-the-art communication with and contribution to the field, and briefly reflects on the main points of each case study, summing up the research and arguing for future research directions.

Abstract This study examines the discursive dynamics of bilateral water diplomacy between Türkiye and Iraq through a detailed analysis of the legal agreements governing the Euphrates-Tigris (ET) River system. Rather than focusing on the implementation or efficacy of these agreements, the paper investigates how discourse shapes the roles, identities, and power hierarchies of the involved actors over time. Employing a discourse-analytical framework, the research explores how water agreements position actors, embed values, and narrate cooperation in evolving geopolitical contexts. The paper begins with a historical overview of transboundary water relations in the ET basin, emphasizing the prevalence of bilateralism. It then lays out the conceptual and methodological foundations of discourse analysis, drawing on key literature and analytical categories such as presupposition, predication, and subject positioning. The core section applies this framework to four key water agreements between Türkiye and Iraq, highlighting thematic shifts and evolving actor roles. A discussion section synthesizes findings through Doty’s (1993) discourse model, emphasizing how identities and relations are constructed over time. Finally, the conclusion reflects on the implications of these discursive trends for the future of water diplomacy in the region. The Türkiye-Iraq case reveals how bilateral agreements can evolve into discursive tools that align with evolving global water management paradigms, offering politically sensitive basins a transferable approach to linking contested transboundary water issues with more comprehensive and partnership-based water diplomacy.

ABSTRACT High-net-worth individuals, and the business organizations they found and lead, are becoming a class of ‘elite’ donors who use philanthropic vehicles and mechanisms often drawn from business to achieve their philanthropic goals. With the entry of this class of donors into the realm of global education, the authors argue that we are witnessing the commodification of legitimacy. Utilizing comparative methodology, they examine case studies from Brazil, China, India, and the United States to systematically analyze global trends and regional differences in contemporary for-profit corporate and private philanthropic enactment. The analysis reveals consistent themes, with regard to philanthropic trends, as well as contemporary philanthropic enactment patterns that show the capitalist economy to be a driving force of globalization and transformation in global education. The discussion reflects on how new roles simultaneously support and undermine global education goals, highlighting these trade-offs as they relate to legitimacy, transparency, and accountability. This contribution brings the attendant vulnerabilities and trade-offs of non-state actor engagement to the forefront of discourse around the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and considers safeguards that can be taken to ensure equitable and democratic education governance.

Sustainable export governance increasingly extends beyond technical compliance to encompass coordination among diverse actors with competing objectives and unequal power. This study examines the governance of swallow bird’s nest (SBW) exports in Indonesia as a sustainability coordination system shaped by actor configurations, power asymmetries, and anticipatory capacity. Employing a foresight-based stakeholder analysis using the MACTOR method, the study maps influence–dependence relations, objective alignment, and mobilization capacity among key actors involved in SBW export governance in East Java. The findings reveal a stratified governance structure characterized by dominant regulatory actors, intermediary relay institutions, dependent economic stakeholders, and peripheral actors with contextual influence. While regulatory dominance ensures export compliance and market access, it generates conditions of fragile dominance in which sustainability objectives related to ecosystem resilience and local value creation remain weakly mobilized. Objective alignment is strongest around compliance imperatives and weakest for distributive and environmental goals, reflecting hierarchical prioritization embedded in actor roles and dependencies. The study demonstrates that sustainability challenges in export systems are driven by misaligned coordination and limited coalition capacity. By integrating foresight and stakeholder analysis, this research contributes a relational and anticipatory perspective to sustainable trade governance and offers insights for designing adaptive export governance arrangements.

Militaries are increasingly recognized as significant climate actors. As military operations and warfare are climatically destructive, and militarized responses to climate crisis perpetuate the violence of global racial capitalism, elements of the climate movement are calling for demilitarization as a central pillar of climate justice. I ground calls for demilitarization in an examination of the military-industrial complex in specific place – Massachusetts, USA – by drawing together the frameworks of geopolitical ecology and climate apartheid. Climate apartheid names the intensified coproduction of security and precarity under capitalism on a warming planet. Geopolitical ecology examines the role of large-scale geopolitical actors driving environmental change across scales. Through these approaches I situate the Massachusetts military-industrial complex (MA-MIC) in the current geopolitical-ecological conjuncture defined by US “domination without hegemony,” wherein the US is increasingly reliant on fossil fueled, militarized imperialism to maintain dominance. I then briefly detail the history of the MA-MIC – from war research at universities to defense-tech start-ups – and turn to specific MA military installations producing militarized climate apartheid: air bases aiding Israel's genocidal bombardment of Gaza, new F-35 jet procurements, heat training for the US Army, climate monitoring at Raytheon (RTX), and construction firms building climate resilience for the US Navy and the infrastructure of the carceral state. I conclude by drawing material and conceptual connections with abolition geography. Thinking with Ruth Wilson Gilmore's framework of military and prison abolition, the exploration of everyday, often hidden processes of militarization can reveal new connections and strategies for centering demilitarization in abolitionist climate justice.

Abstract This article examines the role of international organisations and supranational actors, conceptualised here as international institutions, in disseminating inclusive higher education norms for refugees, with a focus on their influence at the national level in Turkey. Using primary documents and expert interviews, the article analyses how international institutions facilitate the transfer of norms, provide funding and shape policy design in crisis contexts. The findings reveal that international institution-led initiatives in Turkey have supplemented crisis-responsive education frameworks, serving as mechanisms to support Syrian youth and as tools to promote inclusion. The analysis reveals that higher education functions as both a humanitarian response and a strategic policy area. International norms are adapted and negotiated within domestic settings and applied selectively. Overall, the article explains why the diffusion of higher education norms for refugees is incomplete. It reveals how international institutions contribute to shaping national policy during times of crisis, as well as the limitations they face due to domestic political priorities and power relations.