Network Of Stakeholders Research Articles

Block-Chain based Trustful Data-Driven Cyber-Physical Social System Framework for Urban Air Mobility

This paper provides an overview of existing research on urban mobility issues and highlights the importance of incorporating smart technologies, particularly in the context of introducing air-based transportation, to enhance the efficiency of urban mobility systems. The integration of air mobility will bring about increased complexities in managing urban transportation due to the growing volume of data, services, and infrastructure that governing bodies will have to handle. Urban air mobility infrastructure consists of interconnected and intricate systems that demonstrate the seamless integration of physical and software components. To address these complexities, the Cyber-physical social system (CPSS) is proposed as an effective approach to minimize complications within and between these subsystems. Establishing public-private partnerships and ensuring secure transactions are vital prerequisites for embracing current technological advancements and shaping the future of urban air mobility services. In this regard, blockchain technology emerges as a reliable protocol that guarantees the integrity of data exchanged among the decentralized network of stakeholders, eliminating the need for a trusted intermediary.

Headwinds in the heartland? Hazard planning lessons from six inland jurisdictions in the southern plains

The recent 20th anniversary of the adoption of the United States’ Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA) offers an occasion to reflect on the performance of the intergovernmental policy framework it created to incentivize local hazard mitigation planning. Researchers know little about the status of local hazard mitigation planning in oft-overlooked inland communities and they know little about high-quality mitigation planning in the middle of the country. This study helps fill these gaps with a multistate, six-county comparative case study approach in the Southern Plains using data collected from the evaluation of plan documents and interviews with key informants. Our three core findings are: (1) the hazard mitigation plans tend to be of low to mediocre quality; (2) the networks of hazard mitigation stakeholders vary widely in composition and leadership, some replicating emergency management networks suited to preparedness and response and some much better suited to the quite different demands of long-term mitigation work; and (3) the types of consultants and their roles also varied across the six cases, bringing expertise characteristic of narrow emergency management perspectives to more integrated expertise in long-range land use and infrastructure planning perspectives. Without the requirements of the DMA, it is difficult to imagine that thousands of communities would have dedicated millions of dollars and untold hours to develop mitigation plans. Yet, as our findings show, the DMA is likely in need of a major overhaul, in spite of recent efforts like the new Federal Emergency Management Agency Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.

A Review of Service Design Pedagogy to Identify Potential Added Value to Product Innovation in Higher Education

It is widely accepted that service design is a discipline that is becoming increasingly recognized as a key element for productive collaboration between multidisciplinary stakeholders. However, it is difficult to understand the interplay between service design and product innovation in higher education. There is a gap in the service design literature on how its way of teaching can enable better product innovation if introduced within product innovation degrees. This study seeks to explore how product innovation might be stimulated by service design teaching, with a focus on collaborative participant activities often used within the service design discipline. Previous studies on service design pedagogy have provided various frameworks for teaching service design that are often drawn from different disciplinary perspectives, such as engineering, social sciences, marketing, business, etc. This article, in contrast, examines service design pedagogy strategies applied in design education within the realm of product innovation. A bibliometric analysis method was adopted to review the existing literature. We found that the selected studies touched upon several themes, which all relate to collaboration among participants and stakeholders in service design and product innovation. The findings shed light on specific projects and case studies that were implemented via team collaboration. Further analysis proposes that the service design pedagogy in design education enhances product design via wider value considerations such as sustainability principles and methods. This study begins to illustrate how service design as a systemic approach to designing products might better enable product innovators to consider wider aspects of value co-creation and sustainability via explicitly involving and considering wider stakeholder networks beyond simply designing a product for a user.

Towards successful implementation of public health research into practice: Experiences and lessons learned from EDUCATE

BackgroundThe English schools-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme is routinely offered to all young people aged 12–13 years. The EDUCATE lesson was developed to overcome barriers to uptake related to unmet information needs by providing young people with information and answering questions they may have about the HPV vaccine. The resource comprises a PowerPoint presentation, interspersed with five short films and a guidance document for professionals delivering the lesson. Adopting public health research into practice is challenging and few papers describe the process. This paper reports the initial use of the EDUCATE resource in schools and the process involved in supporting wider implementation. Study designImplementation and knowledge mobilisation. MethodsFive secondary schools supported implementation of the EDUCATE resource. Delivery took place during April and December 2022 and was observed in four schools, with feedback obtained from two school staff members and 15 young people. Alongside this, meetings were held with over 80 stakeholders with the aim of identifying possible policy levers to encourage use of the EDUCATE resource, and to enhance understanding of how wider scale and sustained impact can be achieved. ResultsOverall, the resource was positively received by school staff and young people engaged well during the lesson. As a result of the stakeholder networking activities, the research team worked with the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association to adapt the materials to meet their Quality Assessment and incorporate elements, such as more interactive activities, requested during the implementation study. ConclusionThe EDUCATE resource has the potential to change practice by enhancing information provision about the HPV vaccine in schools and supporting young people nationally to make informed decisions. Key learnings from the project include the importance of integrating input from target users at all stages of the research process, pragmatism in relation to evaluation research designs, and incentivising researchers to undertake translation activities through further funding and a greater focus on impact. Together, these can help facilitate the availability of public health resources and their adoption into ‘real-world’ practice.

Mapping of surveillance systems for health crisis preparedness and response in Member States

Abstract The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) was established by the European Commission in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic to improve EU preparedness and response to cross-border health threats. The HERA IT platform for intelligence gathering and threat assessment is being developed to support HERA's activities through collection of data from relevant sources at European and national level. In this regard the EU-HIP project is collaborating with HERA to map surveillance systems for health crisis preparedness and response in different European countries, focusing on how to ensure interoperability between these systems and HERA's IT platform for intelligence gathering and threat assessment. The methodology to be used will be based on best practice from previous assessments, incorporating assessment indicators relevant to health emergency preparedness and data flows. During the presentation, initial results from the first countries analyzed will be presented, covering the identified digital infrastructures and systems, stakeholder networks and pertinent legislative aspects for threat assessment and response.

3.G. Round table: European Union policies: the basis for EU legislation and the case of the EU HTA regulation

Abstract Among the objectives of the European Union (EU) there is the protection and improvement of European citizens’ health. To this end, several instruments can be enacted at EU level, both of binding legal nature- such as regulations, - and not binding -. EU regulations are binding legislative acts that must be applied across all the EU member states (MS). In the context of the Ordinary Legislative Procedure, proposals are initiated by the European Commission and their development involves two more actors, namely the European Parliament, representing EU citizens, and the Council of the EU, representing EU governments. These act as co-legislators, are requested to review the proposal, and have the right to propose amendments to reach a final agreement on a joint text, often through tripartite meetings on legislative proposals between representatives of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission; these are referred to as ‘Trilogue’ meetings. The EU regulation on Health Technology Assessment (HTAR) was adopted in January 2022, and will become legally binding in January 2025. It provides a first input for the reorganisation of the pharmaceutical market across all EU strategy (Pharmaceutical Strategy). The Pharmaceutical Strategy aims to future proof regulatory frameworks; support industry in promoting research; and foster EU citizens’ access to safe, effective, and high-quality medicines that are used in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. HTA allows for evidence-informed policy- and decision-making, disentangling the comparative value of health technologies and permits for informed negotiation in terms of pricing, reimbursement and, of course, in terms of establishing priorities for procurement decisions. The HTAR framework allows to overcome specific key challenges stemming from the highly divergent and fragmented HTA procedures across EU MS, ultimately aiming to allow a more timely and equitable access to medicines, vaccines and devices, at EU level, including by allowing a more harmonised approach in terms of dossier submission for companies too. The preparatory phase for the implementation of the HTAR is underway with the establishment of the Coordination Group on HTA (HTACG) and of the HTA Stakeholder Network, the set up of a secure intranet for the exchange of information and the planning of capacity building initiatives. This workshop is intended to provide the attenders with insights into the process behind the development of EU regulation with a focus on HTA regulation and its following implementation. Key messages • European legislative acts set the framework for the protection and the improvement of European citizens’ health and for member states policies. • The EU regulation on Health Technology Assessment will foster European citizens’ access to safe, effective, and high-quality medicines, vaccines and devices and its implementation is underway. Speakers/Panelists Jose A Valverde European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, Brussels, Belgium Amandine Garde Law & Non-Communicable Diseases Unit, Liverpool, UK Marco Marchetti Italian National Agency for Regional Healthcare Services (AGENAS), HTA unit, Rome, Italy Iñaki Gutiérrez-Ibarluzea Basque Foundation for Innovation And Research (BIOEF), Barakaldo, Spain

Sustainability of the local stakeholder network in semi-steppe rangelands in southern Iran

Sustainable land management (SLM) as a holistic method seeks to combine ecological values with socio-cultural and policy concepts, through which local populations play a significant role in achieving this management. Qasr Yaqoub village was selected for the present study, which is located in Safashahr city in Fars province, south of Iran. The common method of herding in Qasr Yaqoub village is participatory and in the form of assistance systems. Therefore, in order to have a comprehensive evaluation of the stability of the local stakeholder network in different dimensions of sustainability and social networks, two methods of indicators analysis including social network analysis (SNA) and sustainability barometer model (SBM) were used. The index values for trust and social cooperation ties among stakeholders in the local stakeholders' network in Qasr Yaqoub village, consisting of 42 individuals, were found to be 63.1% and 59.8%, respectively. These values indicate a stable density in the trust network and an average density in the cooperation network among stakeholders in the region. In addition, the social network index, which measures the extent of connections, is 1086 for trust and 1030 for social cooperation, both covering more than 50% of the expected ties. This signifies a significant level of interaction between stakeholders regarding relevant issues, facilitating the promotion of social cohesion in the study area. These findings highlight the positive dynamics within the stakeholder network, fostering trust, cooperation, and social cohesion in Qasr Yaqoub village. This study showed that the combination of network analysis and sustainability barometer model could be a useful tool in the sustainability analysis of local communities in rangeland ecosystems.

Individual Dynamic Capabilities Influential Factors in Blockchain Technology Innovation from Hospital Settings

The healthcare sector, characterized by its intricate network of stakeholders and rigorous regulatory demands, presents distinct challenges for the integration of Blockchain Technology (BT). Recent focus has shifted towards harnessing Individual Dynamic Capabilities (IDC) to secure a competitive edge. This approach aims to cultivate novel organizational competencies that generate value, ultimately benefiting all stakeholders in the healthcare system during the adoption of emerging technologies. This study delves into the significance of IDC in the seamless integration of BT within hospital infrastructures. The aim is to evaluate whether IDC is instrumental in the triumphant execution of BT initiatives in these settings, propelling innovation, safeguarding data authenticity, and cultivating trust among the involved parties. A systematic literature review (SLR) served as the foundational methodology to address the research objectives. The SLR involved a comprehensive search of databases to identify relevant literature, followed by an in-depth evaluation of the articles that were found. Through this process, the researchers were able to identify and assess the value of IDC in BT initiatives, as well as identify any potential risks associated with its use. Additionally, insights were gleaned regarding the impact of IDC, extrapolated from theoretical frameworks, and contextualized within the realm of hospital BT management. The findings revealed existing synergies between certain IDC and BT solutions, conferring both strategic and operational superiority by aligning BT with intricate demands. The research further underscored the transformative potential of BT across various healthcare facets, ranging from patient documentation to financial transactions. This research can pave the way for subsequent investigations into the interplay between IDC and BT.

Community theory-based learning framework for Higher education

With the increased request for better student success, several methods investigate teachers' effectiveness undertaken with continued support from a related learning technology. With less durational experiences or extended education, programmers can have several ranges in theory-based universities. Teaching effectiveness in higher education strengthens students' impact and performance in the learning environment. The technological development in different platforms is completely understood and enhances education strategies. Community-based learning advantages for higher education are well recorded. The author concludes that educational institutions must make thoughtful choices about the parts they use, that they should strategically manage the network of internal and external stakeholders, including all communications and well-informed decisions, that they should recognize that shifts in student perceptions are common and encourage flexibility in system operations, and that it is normal for platforms to have specialized, high-performing departments/sections. The perspective of the group member is relatively less understood. Therefore, this paper proposes a community theory-based learning (CT-BL) framework to improve higher education learning technologies. CT-BL presents perspectives on how professors should contribute to strengthening partnerships between students and educators. The descriptive statistical model is used in a questionnaire session to recognize the central points in community participants' answers. Practical application of the framework within a variety of conservation groups illustrates the integrated approach's potential to serve as a portal through which practitioners can enter the realm of social science theory to better comprehend the current state and future directions of CT-BL interventions and activities. Students from several universities form collaborations to describe the way of theory-based learning. The community-based learning is evaluated based on the questionnaire raised by the learning participants. The community-based theory enhances higher education learning technologies. The overall participants of the University's higher education strategies are focused on community-based learning. Added teacher support for student awareness of information, experience, and competence and expanded academic participation in all cooperation elements involving advisor suggestions. The numerical results show that the proposed CT-BL model enhances the evaluation rate of 95.6%, reliability ratio of 94.2%, an efficiency ratio of 95.3%, the recognition accuracy of 90.3%, learning recognition rate of 92.2%, the impact of beliefs of 96.2%, dynamic nature rate of 93.4% when compared to other existing models.

The psychosocial burdens of living with diabetes.

To better understand the prevalence of self-reported psychosocial burdens and the unmet needs identified by people with diabetes in relation to routine diabetes visits. An English language, online survey was distributed via social media, key stakeholder networks, charity and advocacy groups to adults with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes. Survey items were designed by members of the FDA RESCUE Collaborative Community Governing Committee prior to pilot testing with potential participants. Descriptive statistical analyses were conducted, as well as thematic analyses on free-text responses using NVivo v14. Four hundred and seventy-eight participants completed the survey: 373 (78%) had type 1 diabetes, 346 (73%) identified as a woman and 433 (91%) were white. Most participants had experienced self-reported (rather than diagnosed) anxiety and depression (n = 323 and n = 313, respectively), as well as fear of low blood sugars (n = 294), low mood (n = 290) and diabetes-related distress (n = 257). Sixty-eight percent reported that diabetes had negatively affected self-esteem, 62% reported the feelings of loneliness, but 93% reported that friends/family/work colleagues were supportive when needed. Two hundred and seventy-two percent (57%) reported that their diabetes team had never raised the topic of mental health. The overwhelming majority stated that the best thing their diabetes team could do to help was to simply ask about mental well-being, listen with empathy and without judgement, and practice skills to understand psychosocial issues in diabetes. Integrating psychosocial discussions and support within routine healthcare visits is crucial to improve outcomes for people with diabetes. Such a biopsychosocial model of healthcare has long been advocated by regulatory bodies.

A Stakeholder Network for Managing Multiple Forest Stressors and Roadside Forests

Roadside forests are susceptible to damage from storm events given their exposure and related vulnerability to impacts of multiple stressors. Challenges to management are further complicated in exurban landscapes, where roadside forests are interspersed among fragmented land ownership entities with diverse management objectives. Our objective was to evaluate forest management community information sharing about biophysical stressors affecting roadside vegetation for multiple forestland tract types in Connecticut. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews (n = 39). Results from social network analysis illustrated network structure and interrelationship patterns among community members. Overall network cohesion was low. Core network positions were dominated by few stakeholders. Communication occurred among subgroups comprised of individuals representing several different stakeholder occupation groups. Low cohesion may be inherent of the fragmented exurban landscape with relations focused on shared objectives. Community longevity may depend upon maintaining core-position connections and a less-centralized network composed of individuals from various occupations.

As the crow flies: tracking policy diffusion through stakeholder networks

AbstractPolicy diffusion is an important element of the policy formation process. However, understanding of the micro-level interactions governing policy spread remains limited. Much of the literature focuses on macro-level proxies for intergovernmental connectivity. These proxies outline broad diffusion patterns without specifying the micro-level mechanisms that govern how individuals facilitate that diffusion. The role of stakeholders in diffusion in the policy subsystem is also poorly understood. We construct a panel dataset covering the spread of the US ecotourism programs from 1993 to 2016 to investigate how micro-level movement within stakeholder networks explains state-level policy diffusion over time. Using fixed-effects regression, we find that stakeholder movement significantly drives diffusion, acting as a mechanism of knowledge transfer. Our findings provide a more precise theoretical understanding of how policy knowledge diffuses at the micro level, empirically explain the role of policy stakeholders in diffusion, and highlight the value of citizen-science data for policy research.

Investigating the recovery of community events in Scotland, post-COVID-19

PurposeCommunity events are significant for building community identity and cohesion. During 2020–2021, events largely halted due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and many communities lacked the capacity to recover their events quickly, in comparison to larger more well-resourced events. The study aims to understand and learn from the experiences of Scottish community event practitioners' during the disruption and recovery period for their events.Design/methodology/approachA targeted qualitative questionnaire elicited open-ended responses from people involved in the management and operation of community events in Scotland. Focus groups were also conducted with relevant practitioners to further elicit data.FindingsFour key themes emerged as follows: (1) COVID-19 fractured stakeholder networks and impacted the ability of community events to operate. Practices adapted to incorporate virtual events. (2) Events were considered as important for place-building and wider collective community benefits. This was brought more into focus for practitioners as a result of the pandemic. (3) Local authorities were variable in the level and support they gave community events. (4) Some positive changes were enforced through COVID-19, such as collaboration between small event collectives that can build resilience for community events in the future.Originality/valueThe research provides an analysis of community events, which are often small-scale, diverse, local, unique to destinations and under-researched compared to large events. It particularly builds understanding of their resilience to sectoral disruption, through the lens of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, an extraordinary disruptive event. This paper provides practical strategies for community actors and local authorities to improve event delivery and leverage community events as place-builders.

The Bargaining Politics: Determining Regional Public Policy in Formulating the Samisake Revolving Fund Program in Bengkulu City, Indonesia

The political arena influences the selection of an alternative policy for Samisake Revolving Fund program. In this phase, various interests affect the policy outcome, including conflict and bargaining positions among policymakers. Therefore, this study aimed to examine public participation in policy formulation for the Samisake Revolving Fund program in Bengkulu City, Indonesia. A qualitative method was used with a case study approach to the policy design, as well as typical conditions and variables. Data were collected by interviewing seven informants of five stakeholder elements and analyzed using flowing analysis. The results indicated high community involvement in the public policy formulation process that entails pushing issues into the policy agenda. The best policy alternative should satisfy all interested parties. Additionally, the policy was established by issuing the Regional Regulation draft on allocating the funding. This Regional Regulation should be accepted and implemented by all parties transparently with accountability to increase community participation and empowerment. The policy process displays a complex interaction among the policymakers. These policymakers include the executives of the Bengkulu City government from the Regional Technical Unit, community leaders and organizations, NGOs, and university academics. The interaction influences choices and policy decisions by creating conflict and tension in discussing the draft of Samisake Fund Regional Regulation. Therefore, future studies could examine stakeholder network participation in policy formulation and strengthening inter-institutional capacity to avoid conflict.

Stakeholder expectations and contributions to creating a market for automated, connected, electric and shared vehicles

An increasing number of companies develop innovative vehicle solutions to further sustainable transportation. One promising direction is the combination of automated, connected, electric and shared (ACES) vehicles. Due to the multitude of stakeholders involved in such an undertaking and their diverging interests, capabilities and roles, a shared vision is essential to foster productive collaboration. This study takes a brand development perspective and evaluates the degree to which stakeholders align regarding the ambition, potential and strategic pathway of the ACES brand. An expert survey involving 28 ACES stakeholders identifies numerous themes on which stakeholders agree, for example, the potential social and environmental benefits of ACES, but also a number where they disagree, for example, the legitimacy of different stakeholders in managing the stakeholder network or the degree to which all four technologies are necessary to create more sustainable mobility solutions. Consequently, the research proposes a shared brand understanding for ACES to help align the often conflicting expectations of different stakeholders. The key recommendation is to ask consumers and cities to play a central role in fostering stronger co-creation and cooperation within the stakeholder network. While the former group is essential to motivate technology providers to continue research efforts, the latter plays a decisive role in creating a regulatory framework that enhances the appeal of ACES in comparison to alternative modes of transport. Further research is necessary to understand the most appealing incentives (whether economic, social or moral) to leverage joint efforts in shaping the ACES brand.

Tourism Monitoring as a Strategic Tool for Tourism Management: The Perceptions of Entrepreneurs from Centro de Portugal

Gathering information on the impact of tourism in territories is fundamental for the responsible management of tourism businesses and destinations. Therefore, it is important to monitor tourism performance using indicators that can assess its impacts. Monitoring tourism is a management technique that should adopt a stakeholder network perspective, i.e., all stakeholders should be involved and collaborate with each other by sharing information to increase the competitiveness of the destination. However, it is unclear whether stakeholders are aware of the importance of monitoring and whether monitoring considers their interests, which often leads to a lack of involvement. In this study, we adopt the stakeholder network perspective with tourism entrepreneurs from Centro de Portugal, where we aimed to evaluate the importance assigned to the monitoring of tourism and to the understanding of entrepreneurs’ information needs. To do so, the same survey was conducted twice, for the first time in 2018 and later repeated in 2022. The second survey sought to analyze whether tourism entrepreneurs’ perceptions changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that tourism entrepreneurs valued the economic area more than the social and environmental ones in both periods. Nevertheless, from 2018 to 2022, entrepreneurs became more committed to monitoring tourism in Centro de Portugal.

Connecting the Dots: Aligning human capacity through networks toward a globally interoperable Digital Extended Specimen (DES) infrastructure

Thanks to substantial support for biodiversity data mobilization in recent decades, billions of occurrence records are openly available, documenting life on Earth and enabling timely research, awareness raising, and policy-making. Initiatives across local to global scales have been separately funded to serve different, yet often overlapping audiences of data users, and have developed a variety of platforms and infrastructures to meet the needs of these audiences. The independent progress of biodiversity data providers has led to innovations as well as challenges for the community at large as we move towards connecting and linking a diversity of information from disparate sources as Digital Extended Specimens (DES). Recognizing a need for deeper and more frequent opportunities for communication and collaboration across the globe, an ad-hoc group of representatives of various international, national, and regional organizations have been meeting virtually since 2020 to provide a forum for updates, announcements, and shared progress. This group is provisionally named International Partners for the Digital Extended Specimen (IPDES), and is guided by these four concepts: Biodiversity, Connection, Knowledge and Agency. Participants in IPDES include representatives of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN), Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA), Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), National Specimen Information Infrastructure of China (NSII), and South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), as well as individuals involved with biodiversity informatics initiatives, natural science collections, museums, herbaria, and universities. Our global partners group strives to increase representation from around the globe as we aim to enable research that contributes to novel discoveries and addresses the societal challenges leading to the biodiversity crisis. Our overarching mission is to expand on the community-driven successes to connect biodiversity data and knowledge through coordination of a globally integrated network of stakeholders to enable an extensible technical and social infrastructure of data, tools, and working practices in support of our vision. The main work of our group thus far includes publishing a paper on the Digital Extended Specimen (Hardisty et al. 2022), organizing and hosting an array of activities at conferences, and asynchronous online work and forum-based exchanges. We aim to advance discussion on topics of broad interest to our community such as social and technical capacity building, broadening participation, expanding social and data networks, improving data models and building a backbone for the DES, and identifying international funding solutions. This presentation will highlight some of these activities and detail progress towards a roadmap for the development of the human network and technical infrastructure necessary to support the DES. It provides an opportunity for feedback from and engagement by stakeholder communities such as TDWG and other initiatives with a focus on data standards and biodiversity informatics, as we solidify our plans for the future in support of integrated and interconnected biodiversity data and credit for those doing the work.

Community Oriented Substance Use Programme in the City of Tshwane: A Cross-sectional Survey of Stakeholder Perceptions

The City of Tshwane and University of Pretoria’s Community Oriented Substance Use Programme (COSUP) is an applied research intervention to address drug use-related harms in the city by using a harm reduction community-oriented primary care approach. This is a study of stakeholder perceptions of South Africa’s first publicly funded community-based harm reduction programme. In late 2021, purposively sampled respondents were surveyed using a cross-sectional survey. Electronically captured data were collected on respondent demographic characteristics, familiarity with COSUP and perceptions of COSUP’s effect on service users’ well-being, access to drug use services, family relationships, community integration, and on effective approaches to managing drug use. Frequencies and proportions were analysed as a total and by the degree of familiarity with COSUP, using descriptive statistics. Overall, 338 (93.1%) of the 363 stakeholders who consented to participate in the study had some familiarity with COSUP. Socio-demographically, 68.1% were female and over half (52.4%) were aged between 25–39 years. Most (70–80%) thought COSUP improved client well-being, family relationships and community re-integration. Most (80–84%) perceived COSUP to have increased service provider willingness to support people who use drugs, improved stakeholder networking and raised awareness of drug-related services. Most (76%) considered harm reduction to be the best approach to manage harmful drug use in the city. Stakeholders exposed to the work of COSUP perceive the intervention to be beneficial for individuals, families and service-providing organisations. Most favour a harm reduction approach to drug use and believe COSUP should be sustained and expanded.

Exploring the Demographic Determinants of Integrity in Careerist Senior Civil Servants: Role of Social Norms and Security

Given rising concerns over corruption globally, this research investigates the factors that influence integrity. The study found no statistically significant effect of prior education, geography, or experience on the integrity levels of careerist senior civil servants (CSCS) in India (also known as, Indian administrative service officers), which is infamous for corruption in public administration. We posit that this might be attributed to heightened social security received by CSCS amply aided by social contagion, rigorous training, and network effects, which impact the maintenance of integrity at the individual level. Our study supplements the existing rationale of bureaucratic reputation theory, social contagion theory and public service motivations. We argue that corruption in a democratic government in a lower-middle-income country is often a result of an interconnected network of stakeholders that CSCS may have a limited ability to influence, resulting in a quiet life equilibrium.

Using Actor-Network-Theory as a Means of Exploring the Management of Community Development Networks

This paper explores the use of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) as a means of understanding the management of community development networks. This was undertaken through the application of ANT as a theoretical methodology to the case of ‘Organisation A’, a community development organisation operating in Ireland which has grown rapidly over the past 10 years and is embarking on a strategic review intended to examine all aspects of the organisation. The data collection methodology is qualitative and involved senior managers participating in semi-structured interviews. An analysis framework based on ANT was developed with the aim of understanding and articulating the management of this organisation as a complex network. The application of ANT is used to map the state of affairs of a network through the use of conceptual tools. Central to this is identifying key patterns of action as translations. These patterns are then used to explore how translations are negotiated through to completion. In the case of Organisation A, this highlights the management of operations in a network of varied stakeholders. A key output of this study was in identifying the centres of controversy, as areas where translations fail, and need to be further explored. Identifying these areas creates a map which can be used by stakeholders to further assess and develop the empirical state of the network.