Social Capacity Research Articles

“Aid, trade and investment”: Water operator partnerships and the Dutch water sector

The concept of water operator partnerships (WOPs) was first proposed by a United Nations (UN) advisory board in 2006. Since then, several hundred WOPs have been implemented within and across different world regions. In contrast to public-private partnerships, WOPs are aimed at facilitating peer-to-peer learning between water and sanitation operators on a not-for-profit basis. According to official UN discourse, “mentor” operators share their expertise out of solidarity and a commitment to enhancing the performance of their peers. However, in light of the controversial history of privatization in the water sector, critics have raised doubts about the role of solidarity as a mentor motivation. Why would water operators assist other providers free-of-charge? Is solidarity indeed the main motivation behind knowledge sharing and capacity building in WOPs, or are more self-interested, profit-oriented incentives driving these activities? This article engages with these questions by analyzing the case of Vitens Evides International (VEI), a public company from the Netherlands that has emerged as the most active “mentor” in North-South WOPs to date. Drawing on interviews with VEI managers, water company representatives, and other experts, I show that VEI’s mentoring activities are driven by a complex array of motivations, including staff development and recruitment, customer relations, sustainable development, and the advancement of opportunities for trade and investment. Some of these motivations are closely intertwined with Dutch development policy and the promotion of Dutch water expertise. More research is needed to understand how these interests and motivations affect social equity, learning, and capacity development in WOPs.

I did my part! How can I further minimize emerging adult learners’ burnout in an online learning environment?

ABSTRACT Emerging adults are a crucial group in our society, and research indicates that they rarely consider themselves adults because their cognitive, social, and emotional capacities are undergoing transitionary changes, affecting how they learn. Prior studies have not considered sufficiently the characteristics and needs of emerging adult learners in an online environment. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining the psychological needs and academic burnout of emerging adult online learners during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through self-determination theory (SDT) and Stimuli-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, the key arguments and constructs include the effects of structural and social bonds on emerging adult learners’ psychological needs, the effect of psychological needs on academic burnout, and the moderating roles of mindfulness. A valid sample of 294 collected through the survey was the basis of the analysis. PLS-SEM was used to analyse and test the hypotheses. Findings indicate that structural and social bonds affect psychological needs at varying strengths, which is generally consistent with prior findings but with different groups of learners. The moderating roles of mindfulness, however, were mixed. The model robustness further highlights the predictive analysis, which complements the exploratory perspective. This study contributes to the literature by identifying the predictors that fulfill the basic psychological needs of emerging adult learners and examining the effect of this fulfilment on the burnout during the online learning. In addition, this study implies how online trainers and educational institutions can build an optimal environment to reduce the burnout and then improve the learning effectiveness for emerging adult learners. Limitations, and agenda for future research were further discussed to conclude the study.

A Brief Review on Hurried Child Syndrome

When a kid's parents demand performance levels much beyond his or her mental, social, or emotional capacity, the result might be a syndrome known as "hurried child syndrome"—a collection of stress-related behaviors. In essence, parents overbook their kids' calendars, pressure them to do well in school, and demand that they behave and respond like small adults. Another factor is the state of trade at the moment. Nowadays, a lot of people that market to children are aware that their parents no longer control what kids consume for food, clothing, or entertainment. This reality is being exploited by the consumerist system, and it has an impact on kids. The hurried child syndrome is represented by the following statistics: Recent research on the effects of rushed kid syndrome shows that the suicide and homicide rates have tripled over the past 20 years, childhood obesity has grown by 50%, and 15–25% of young children are "failing" kindergarten. Millions of children receive medications in an effort to "manage" them better at home and in school. According to recent statistics, 40% of adolescent girls who engage in sexual activity will become pregnant by the time they reach maturity, and 70% of virgin girls will not be virgins. The leading cause of mortality for youths today is drug and alcohol abuse, but suicide rates are also rising. Five thousand youngsters commit suicide each year.

How Many Trees Are Planted in African Cities? Expectations of and Challenges to Planning Considering Current Tree Planting Projects

Africa is a particularly vulnerable continent to the effects of climate and environmental changes. Several tree planting projects were launched as one of the plausible solutions to climate action. This paper reviews the recent tree planting projects in African cities, initiated between 2009 to 2021, focusing on analyzing the expected benefits to the populations. Indeed, these projects have become a widespread instrument to promise planning solutions for many African countries given the expected improvements to mitigate air pollution, carbon sequestration, and the conditions of cities for the health and wellbeing of their citizens. The consequences of uncontrolled urbanization in Africa also stress the importance of better planning of green spaces. African cities should reconsider urban planning with a clear focus on the role of green infrastructures because of their extensive social benefits and supportive capacity for any significant sustainable development. While these projects seem to be a promising initiative and are expected to deliver beneficial ecosystem services to citizens, there are still some loopholes that this paper highlights.

Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing

Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing

The evolution of theory of mind on welfare tradeoff ratios

People seem to attribute beliefs and desires to another person when interacting with them. Such a “theory of mind” capacity is essential for complex and uniquely human behavior such as language, but its evolutionary origin remains elusive. Using the formal tools of evolutionary game theory, we asked what environmental properties are necessary to select for a basic form of theory of mind—the ability to infer the prosociality, quantified by the welfare tradeoff ratio, of another person toward oneself. We found that none of the environments studied in classical or evolutionary game theory give an advantage to this form of theory of mind capacities; theory of mind is advantageous only in a new class of environments with stable opponents and variable payoff structures. In two behavioral experiments ( n = 91) we verified that people can, and do use theory of mind in such an environment. These results suggest that some features of early humans’ social environment that were previously neglected in evolutionary game theory may be responsible for the evolution of people’s complex social capacities.

Behaviors observed in different live species depending on nutrition

In order for living species to have a healthy and balanced diet, their needs for adequate amounts of protein, oil, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals must be met. When the amount of nutrients required by the living species is not taken as much as necessary, various health problems such as psychological, as well as metabolic, physiological and chemical disorders occur. One of the fundamental indicators of psychological problems is the diet of the living thing. Excess or less of the amount of nutrients required by the living species can cause various behavioral disorders. When these behavioral disorders are examined; chronic anxiety, nervous tension and insomnia, mood and depressive symptoms, counterconditioning and depersonalization, behavioral disorders, cognitive performance and anxiety, social interaction capacity, locomotor activity, repetitive behaviors, motor coordination and seizure sensitivity, autism spectrum disorder, alzheimer's, antiepileptic it is stated in studies that it has a characteristic feature and effects on manic type bipolar disorder and migraine headache. Moreover; it is stated that the secretion of the stress hormone cortisol, social and communication disorders and restricted/repetitive behaviors, heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders, satiety, performance restriction, chewing behavior, stereotypical behaviors affect animal welfare, yield and performance closely. In this study, it is aimed to give information about the abnormal behaviors observed in different species depending on nutrition.

Understanding How and Under What Circumstances Social Media Supports Health Care Providers' Knowledge Use in Clinical Practice: A Realist Review.

Background: Although theoretical frameworks exist to guide social media interventions, few of them make it explicit how social media is supposed to work to improve the knowledge use by health care providers. This study aimed to synthesize literature to understand how and under what circumstances social media supports knowledge use by health care providers in clinical practice. Methods: We followed the realist review methodology described by Pawson et al. It involved six iterative steps: (1) develop an initial program theory; (2) search for evidence; (3) select and appraise studies; (4) extract data; (5) synthesize data; and (6) draw conclusions. Results: Of the 7,175 citations retrieved, 32 documents were prioritized for synthesis. We identified two causal explanations of how social media could support health care providers' knowledge use, each underpinned by distinct context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations. We defined these causal explanations as: (1) the rationality-driven approach that primarily uses open social media platforms (n = 8 CMOs) such as Twitter, and (2) the relationality-driven approach that primarily uses closed social media platforms (n = 6 CMOs) such as an online community of practice. Key mechanisms of the rationality-driven approach included social media content developers capabilities and capacities, in addition to recipients' access to, perceptions of, engagement with, and intentions to use the messages, and ability to function autonomously within their full scope of practice. However, the relationality-driven approach encompassed platform receptivity, a sense of common goals, belonging, trust and ownership, accessibility to expertise, and the fulfillment of needs as key mechanisms. Conclusion: Social media has the potential to support knowledge use by health care providers. Future research is necessary to refine the two causal explanations and investigate their potential synergistic effects on practice change.

The Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility for Increasing Service Performances at X Hospital

The Hospital in conducting its business accountable to employees, customers, and communities, as well as the surrounding environment through the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The harmonious relationship between the company and the society in CSR. However, no studies link the effect of CSR on hospital service performance. The gap between social functioning capacity on the performance of hospitals, changes in the colonial mindset of purely social functions into the socio-economic, and more paradigms will give more and more receptive. The social activities that are considered capable of adding value, image enhancement, and performance of hospital services through the promotion of soft strategy, so are deemed necessary to study the effect of the implementation of CSR on hospital service performance. The goal is to determine whether there is an influence of CSR implementation on the performance of hospital services and whether it is useful for science as well as one of the efforts to improve the performance of hospital services towards adding value to the hospital so effective and efficient service which is one indicator of the success of hospital services can be realized. To determine whether the implementation of CSR effect hospital service performance (BOR, ALOS, TOI, BTO). The research was carried out in Kasih Ibu Hospital Tabanan. Samples were collected with a Likert scale questionnaire that has been validated and secondary data based on hospital reports. Implementation of CSR has a positive effect on the performance of hospital services.

Climate change adaptation and adaptive efficacy in the inland fisheries of the Lake Victoria basin

Abstract Inland fisheries support the livelihoods of millions of people in riparian communities worldwide but are influenced by increasing climate variability and change. Freshwater fishing societies are among the most vulnerable to climate change given their dependence on highly threatened aquatic resources. As climate change intensifies, building adaptive capacity within communities and understanding the efficacy of adaptive strategies for maintaining household stability is essential for coping with ongoing social and environmental change. In this study, we examined household perceptions of climate change, livelihood impacts and responses to socio‐ecological changes in fishing‐dependent households in the Lake Victoria basin in Uganda, East Africa. Through a series of household surveys and focus group discussions in five fish landing sites, we assessed social adaptive capacity (SAC) based on 207 households and identified adaptive strategies that are effective for coping with climatic change. We found that people in fishing households are aware of environmental change but that most households do not have adaptive strategies that are efficacious for securing long‐term income and food security. We also investigated household demographics that contribute to SAC, examined links between SAC and adaptive efficacy and established potential routes towards developing effective adaptive approaches in small‐scale fisheries. This work contributes to a growing foundation of documented community‐based knowledge for building adaptive capacity in inland fisheries and the communities around the world that depend on them. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Social-ecological vulnerability of fishing communities to climate change: A U.S. West Coast case study.

Climate change is already impacting coastal communities, and ongoing and future shifts in fisheries species productivity from climate change have implications for the livelihoods and cultures of coastal communities. Harvested marine species in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem support U.S. West Coast communities economically, socially, and culturally. Ecological vulnerability assessments exist for individual species in the California Current but ecological and human vulnerability are linked and vulnerability is expected to vary by community. Here, we present automatable, reproducible methods for assessing the vulnerability of U.S. West Coast fishing dependent communities to climate change within a social-ecological vulnerability framework. We first assessed the ecological risk of marine resources, on which fishing communities rely, to 50 years of climate change projections. We then combined this with the adaptive capacity of fishing communities, based on social indicators, to assess the potential ability of communities to cope with future changes. Specific communities (particularly in Washington state) were determined to be at risk to climate change mainly due to economic reliance on at risk marine fisheries species, like salmon, hake, or sea urchins. But, due to higher social adaptive capacity, these communities were often not found to be the most vulnerable overall. Conversely, certain communities that were not the most at risk, ecologically and economically, ranked in the category of highly vulnerable communities due to low adaptive capacity based on social indicators (particularly in Southern California). Certain communities were both ecologically at risk due to catch composition and socially vulnerable (low adaptive capacity) leading to the highest tier of vulnerability. The integration of climatic, ecological, economic, and societal data reveals that factors underlying vulnerability are variable across fishing communities on the U.S West Coast, and suggests the need to develop a variety of well-aligned strategies to adapt to the ecological impacts of climate change.

Towards an integrated surveillance of zoonotic diseases in Burkina Faso: the case of anthrax

BackgroundAnthrax is a zoonotic disease that causes frequent outbreaks in livestock and fatal human cases in Burkina Faso. Effective surveillance of this disease calls for the establishment of an integrated surveillance system, in line with the One Health concept. However, despite a strong technical and financial support from international partners, surveillance is still poorly conducted within an integrated approach. Based on stakeholder perspectives, the study has for objective to deepen our understanding of the anthrax surveillance system and to identify the obstacles and levers towards a more integrated approach to anthrax surveillance in Burkina Faso.MethodsThe data was collected from a literature review and interviews with surveillance stakeholders. We first conducted a qualitative descriptive analysis of the data to characterize the surveillance system (programmes, actors, collaboration). In a second step, we conducted a thematic analysis of the informants' discourse in order to identify what represents an obstacle or, conversely, a lever for a more integrated approach to anthrax surveillance.ResultsThe surveillance system of anthrax in Burkina Faso includes three programmes (in the livestock, wildlife and human sectors), which involves 30 actors. These sectoral programmes operate almost independently from one another, although some collaborations are existing for the governance and implementation of surveillance activities. Analysis of the discourse of key stakeholders led to the identification of four categories of factors that may influence the implementation of an integrated surveillance system in the country: knowledge; technical, organizational and social capacities; motivation; intersectoral governance.ConclusionsThis study highlights the difficulty of translating One Health governance to the national level and the need to better articulate the visions of all categories of stakeholders. This study also reveals the need to develop specific evaluation systems for integrated policies in order to provide credible evidence of their added value for a better management of zoonotic diseases. Finally, our study underlines the need to act upstream the emergence of zoonoses and allocate more resources to the prevention of zoonoses than to their control.

Hurried child syndrome: A narrative review

When a child's parents expect him or her to perform much above his or her mental, social, or emotional capacity, the condition known as "Hurried Child Syndrome (HCS)" develops. In today’s world, parents overbook their kids' calendars, push them to do well in school, and demand that they behave and react just like little adults. The current situation of trade is one of the other considerations. We live in a time-restricted culture where the emphasis is primarily on speed, instant gratification, fast meals, etc. This eventually leads to parenting a hurried child. The current research review focuses on the causes, consequences, and preventative approaches of the resulting HCS.

Social Values Analysis Toward Ecotourism Development in The Kei Islands

The application of carrying capacity has the potential to protect tourist areas, both natural and cultural, and is related to the local community lifestyle and the potential of tourist destinations. The condition of the people of the Kei Islands who are still experiencing conflicts of interest in several areas leads to an unplanned development that is not according to plan or can even change or destroys the character of natural and cultural resources. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the condition of social values ​​related to the current social carrying capacity and the past 10 years. A total of 600 people from 10 community groups were involved and the primary. Primary data were obtained through filling out of a list of questions by respondents using a closed-ended questionnaire by applying the “one score one indicator scoring system”. The data were analyzed was carried out in a quantitative descriptive manner based on the average value of each indicator. A paired t-test was conducted to determine the difference between the current and the condition 10 years ago. The results showed that the local community's response to tourism development activities under both now and 10 years ago felt positive and negative impacts. The social situations that produce positive impacts were conducive situations, associations, cooperative situations, and productive collaborations, while the negative ones were dissociation, conflict, and war. This showed that communication and economic aspects must be the attention of the parties to reduce conflicts of interest and enhance the development of ecotourism in the Kei Islands.

Critical analysis of an extensionist intervention

Technical assistance and rural extension (ATER) are fundamental services in the process of social and economic reproduction of rural populations, and can go beyond the transfer of new technologies, valuing knowledge from rural communities, expanding the participatory perspective and promoting rural development . Thus, the present work aims to carry out a critical analysis of Project A according to its intrinsic characteristics and extensionist approach. As a methodological strategy, a qualitative approach was used, which will be developed from a documentary analysis of collections provided by the entity. The appreciation of the character of Project A was carried out through content analysis, which provided the following categories of analysis: Social Inclusion, Capacity Building, Educational, Ecological and Environmental Process. In addition, the participatory extension approach was analyzed according to the indications of Haverroth (2012) and Valente (2005). The results obtained show that Project A promotes inclusion through the creation of a space for dialogue and learning of a professional activity for People with Disabilities (PwDs), as well as attention to ableism. The project had an adequate educational process for the students, which involved theory, practice and psychomotor development. Regarding the ecological and environmental aspect, the project was able to teach about recycling, sustainability and made it possible for them to become disseminators of sustainability. The analysis of the diffusionist approach showed that Project A, despite having a strong influence from the participatory approach, also has characteristics of the diffusionist and systemic approaches.

NEW EDUCATION POLICY – 2020

Education Policy lays particular emphasis on the development of the creative potential of each individual. It is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities - both the ‘foundational capacities ’of literacy and numeracy and ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem solving – but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions. The Digital India Campaign is helping to transform the entire nation into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. While education will play a critical role in this transformation, technology itself will play an important role in the improvement of educational processes and outcomes; thus, the relationship between technology and education at all levels is bidirectional. National Education Policy 2020 recognizes the importance of leveraging the advantages of technology while acknowledging its potential risks and dangers. It calls for carefully designed and appropriately scaled pilot studies to determine how the benefits of online/digital education can be reaped while addressing or mitigating the downsides. In the meantime, the existing digital platforms and on-going ICT-based educational initiatives must be optimized and expanded to meet the current and future challenges in providing quality education for all.

Investigation of Organizational Power Distance Levels of Pilots Working on Airlines in Turkey: Flight Safety and Professional Courtesy Dilemma

This study aims to obtain new data that will mediate the development of safety culture by investigating the power distance, which is one of the cultural dimensions of communication, and causes accidents in aviation, through the assertiveness levels of the pilots and their social approval needs. The method of this research is quantitative, data were collected through online questionnaires. The population and the sample of the research are consisted of the civilian pilots in Turkey. The questionnaires were applied to 75 pilots. In male pilots participating in the study; The levels of "Instrumental Use of Power" and "Legitimation of Power", which are sub-dimensions of organizational power distance, are significantly higher than female pilots. In addition, it has been revealed that female pilots pay less attention to the judgments of others than male pilots. These results suggest that male pilots need more organizational power than female pilots. One of the results of the research is the strong positive relationship between the assertiveness level of the participants and "Consent to Power", which is one of the sub-dimensions of power distance; it is thought that this relationship stems from the social adaptation capacity of assertive individuals. The study also showed that the main factor determining the behavior of the employees is the organizational culture. Within this scope, sharing the accident reports of Turkish registered aircraft prepared by Transport Safety Investigation Center with researchers and institutions will contribute significantly to the need for resources.

More than a warning: Expanding the role of communication in Eastern Caribbean volcano science

The infrequent nature of volcanic eruptions means that civil authorities and the public may often be unfamiliar with volcanic hazards and may not be fully prepared to deal with them. Many times volcano scientists are required to help governments and citizens understand the threat posed to their lives and property when volcanoes show signs of an imminent eruption. Effectively communicating the potential impact of these events can demand time and skills that these scientists may or may not have. Further, a lack of trusted scientific information can lead to public misinformation and hamper government responses. Although several risk reduction researchers and observatory scientists have advocated for the inclusion of communication specialists in scientific teams, communication resources at many observatories remain under utilised. Using the experience of The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWI-SRC), this article explores the contribution of a specialist communication team to the work of a volcano monitoring agency. The Education and Outreach (E&O) team at the UWI-SRC manages all the agency’s external communications. The team also works to raise public awareness of geological hazards in the UWI-SRC’s Eastern Caribbean region of responsibility. Within the Caribbean region, most communication research related to disaster risk up until now has focused on communication during crises. Using semi-structured interviews and document review we investigated the impact of strategic communication in a long-term, multi-hazard monitoring programme. A qualitative analysis highlighted the equal importance of crisis communication during unrest and outreach work during quiescent periods. The UWI-SRC’s communication programme has been effective in: 1) supporting scientists’ public communication 2) sustaining stakeholder engagement 3) building physical and social science capacity and 4) strengthening organisational credibility. This article examines the contribution of specialist communication to advisory volcano science throughout the disaster management cycle in the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean. It argues that significant societal value can be added to the scientific work engaged in by advisory scientists by embracing a multi-level communication strategy.

Social care causes of delayed transfer of care (DTOC) from hospital for older people: Unpicking the nuances of 'provider capacity' and 'patient choice'.

Unnecessarily prolonged stays in hospitals can have negative impacts on patients and present avoidable costs to health and social care systems. This paper presents the qualitative findings of a multi-methods study of the social care causes of delayed transfers of care (DTOC) for older people in England. The quantitative strand of this study found that DTOC are significantly affected by homecare supply. In this paper, we explore in depth how and why social care capacity factors lead to delays, from the perspectives of those working within the system. We examined the local transfer arrangements in six English local authority (LA) sites that were purposively sampled to include a range of DTOC performance and LA characteristics. Between March and December 2018, 52 professionals involved in arranging or facilitating discharge from hospitals in these sites provided qualitative data, primarily through semi-structured interviews. Topics included discharge teams and processes, strategic issues and perceived causes of delays. The thematic analysis uncovered the nuances behind the causes of DTOC previously categorised broadly as 'provider capacity' and 'patient choice'. In particular, our analysis highlights the lack of fit between available provision and the needs of people leaving hospital (theme 1); workforce inconsistencies (theme 2) and a myth of patient choice (theme 3). We are now at a turning point in the development of policy to reduce DTOC in the English system, with the full implications of a new national discharge to assess programme yet to be seen. Our research shows the significance of the alignment of service capacity, including the type and location of provision, with the needs and preferences of those leaving hospital. As the new system becomes established, attendance to such nuances behind blockages in the system will be more important than ever.

The implications of diabetic foot health-related with quality of life: A retrospective case control investigation

BackgroundThe diabetes people show a significant presence of foot health problems are usually all over the world, causing in big economic effects for these persons, their families and world population ObjectiveThe purpose of this research is to evaluate and relate the impact of foot health associated with the quality of life (QoL) in a group of people with and without diabetes Material and methodsA total of 150 persons of a mean age of 71.45 ± 11.93 years came to a foot and ankle specialist outpatient center. Self-reported data were medical records where persons'with and without diabetes was evaluated. All findings obtained was compared with scores quality of life using the tool Foot Health Status Questionnaire, spanish version ResultsThe diabetes group revealed a reduction of QoL linked to overall health and to foot health in particular. Differences among both groups were analyzed by means of a independent Student's t-test samples, displaying a p-value lower than 0.05 statistically significant for the domains of foot pain, foot function footwear and social capacity ConclusionsDiabetes people recorded a negative influence on the QoL related with foot health, that seems to be linked with the presence of chronic disease in diabetes people.