Types Of Actors Research Articles

Can informal lobbying be responsible? Evidence from Brussels

PurposeThis study links the notion of responsible strategic communication to the field of lobbying at the European (EU) level. It provides empirical findings on the relevance of informal interaction and communication in EU public affairs (PA). Focusing on functional expectations and uses tied to informality from an actors’ perspective, this study not only includes lobbyists and their attempts to gain influence on political actors but also attempts of lobbyists to control journalistic output through informal relationships and exchange mechanisms. The results are discussed with a view to further inform the concept of “responsible lobbying.”Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a theoretical background from strategic communication, informal politics and interest group research, findings from a qualitative content analysis of 43 semi-structured interviews with actors from PA (n = 27) and journalism (n = 16) at the EU level are reported, focusing on one policy case.FindingsThe study shows motives for establishing and using informality for both actor types. Functional expectations relate to a range of tasks at the core of the respective actors’ day-to-day activities: monitoring political developments, pre-negotiating policy options in protected, confidential spaces with political decision-makers, receiving relevant sectoral background information and “technical coaching” on legislative dossiers directed to journalists.Originality/valueStudies on lobbying have rarely been conducted from a strategic communications perspective, especially focusing the EU level. Albeit widely accepted, the understanding of lobbying and PA as an informal activity has not been scrutinized by academic research.

Understanding of the Transformational Rural Actors’ Behaviors: A Review

Rural actors’ behavior is crucial to materializing top-down rural development policies, albeit the rural physical planning. However, studies on detailed perspectives of rural actors’ behavior in response to complex stimuli are limited, particularly in the types of transformational rural actors’ behaviors. Specifically, this study aims to understand rural actors’ behaviors in transforming rural development. The systematic literature review methodology was applied. The findings revealed five themes: economy, environment, psychology, social, and technology—as the stimuli perspectives of transformational rural actors’ behaviors (TRAB) that shed light on rural transformation. This study contributes to synthesizing a new framework for conceptualizing transformational actors’ behaviors in rural development initiatives.

Political Communication Research is Unprepared for the Far Right

ABSTRACT In this introductory piece to a special issue of the Forum, we explore the inadequacies of the field of political communication in addressing the rising threats posed by illiberalism and the far right. We argue that the discipline’s frameworks, developed within the context of Western liberal democracies, are ill-equipped to tackle the complexities and self-reflexive strategies of contemporary far-right movements and actor types. These formations exploit liberal norms and practices to ultimately undermine and dismantle democratic values. We call for more “democratic clarity,” urging political communication scholars to adopt a clear stance in defense of democratic principles and to develop more robust conceptual tools to accurately classify and understand far-right actors. We introduce the other discussion pieces featured in this special section and ultimately point to actionable items meant to move the field forward.

Polish Assistance for the Ukrainian Refugees: Current State and Perspectives of Research

The aid for the Ukrainian refugees in Poland has been analyzed almost since the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine in February 2022. In 2023, the first comprehensive studies on that topic were published. This article aims to map the state of research on Polish assistance – both direct and indirect support – to the Ukrainians fleeing the war to determine which issues have been the subject of analysis and which have been ignored. On the basis of the publications indexed in Scopus and in Google Scholar, a total of 110 publications dealing directly with the topic of the Polish aid for the Ukrainian refugees were identified. They include working papers, articles and books which were published from March 2022 to November 2023. The article is divided into four parts. The first part has an introductory character and aims at presenting the publications, which explain why Poland and its inhabitants massively helped the Ukrainian refugees. The next three parts focus on the role of the main types of actors involved in assisting the Ukrainians in Poland, i.e. state-institutions, actors such as non-governmental organizations, business, educational institutions and churches, and finally Polish society.

The origins of social protection in healthcare: classifying healthcare systems at introduction in 165 countries

ABSTRACT While the emergence of welfare states, and the origins of social protection in healthcare, have been examined extensively for Global North countries, there is much less research with a global perspective. Addressing this gap, this study provides a descriptive and analytical account of the characteristics of healthcare systems as they were introduced worldwide. Using original and unpublished data, the study classifies healthcare systems according to the main actor type in regulation, financing, and service provision. We find two worlds of healthcare regulation – a state-regulated and a societally-regulated. Adding the financing dimension yields six clusters of healthcare regulation and financing. Based on regulation, financing, and service provision the classification reveals the existence of 12 healthcare system types. While systems that rely on societal actors mainly emerged prior to the mid-twentieth century, state-based systems have characterized system introductions since then. The classification of healthcare systems in 165 countries shows that only a limited number of actor combinations can be found empirically. However, it still presents greater variety than previous studies focusing on the Global North. The notable historical and regional patterns in the choice of healthcare system types can serve as a starting point for further research on healthcare system development.

Opportunities and challenges of a community-based bull breeding programme: a case of the regional pastoral livelihood resilience project in Uganda

The Regional Pastoral Livelihood Resilience Project Community-Based Breeding Programme (CBBP) was designed with the objective of increasing production and productivity of local Zebu cattle by introducing Sahiwal bulls among sedentary and agro-pastoral livestock farmers. This study mapped out actors, their roles and level of influence in the CBBP as well as the opportunities and challenges encountered during its implementation using the Process Net-Map tool. The results revealed that there were differences in number and type of influential actors between sedentary and agro-pastoral livestock farmers. The bull host and subcounty veterinary officer were the most influential actors among the sedentary livestock farmers whereas it was the herdsman, bull host, and Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) among the agro-pastoral farmers. The CBBP was associated with benefits such as increased market value for cattle, reduced chances for cattle rustling, increased cattle productivity in terms of milk and beef production volumes and ease of access to veterinary services. In contrast, the challenges encountered were related to both governance (limited availability of veterinarians, cattle rustling, exclusion of farmers in the planning phase of the CBBP, political interference and failure of collective action) and bull management (high costs of keeping and maintaining the bulls in terms of feeding, housing, watering and veterinary care, heavy bulls injuring or breaking the small cows, sexually transmitted reproductive diseases among others). Lastly, this paper recommends adoption of a combination of well-organized and facilitated Artificial Insemination (AI) programmes alongside the improved bull service scheme as each has capacity to address the challenges of another.

Plant Translocations in France: Identifying Gaps between Knowledge, Practice and Perception by Conservation Actors.

In the current context of global changes, threatened flora is declining and homogenising at the expense of rare and protected species. Among conservation biology and ecological restoration techniques, plant translocation is one of the recommendations increasingly used. However, translocation remains risky and is recommended as a last resort to conserve protected flora in land use planning. Furthermore, it raises ethical questions partly linked to genetic processes. In this context, we studied how plant translocations are perceived by conservation actors in France, including their genetic aspects. The analysis of translocation perception complements that of feedback on concrete translocation operations and allows us to provide a qualitative assessment of current practices. We have adopted an interdisciplinary approach to survey different types of actors in nature conservation, involved or not in at least one stage of translocation operations (preparation, implementation and monitoring). Three main types of translocation perception divide our sample quite strongly (50% favourable/ 45% unfavourable/ 5% undecided). Surprisingly, their professional activity or the level of involvement in such an operation have no influence on their opinion on translocation, nor on the proposals of alternative measures. Only 15% of the actors involved in translocations used genetic data at least once. To conclude, it would be necessary to promote the sharing of feedback from past experiences. This would allow an up-to-date list of species unacceptable for translocation. Comparing the results of different protocols and implementation conditions for the same species or group should improve overall translocation success rates.

The Preferred Governing Actors of Populist Supporters: Survey Evidence From Eight European Countries

Populist parties have been shown to attract many voters disillusioned with representative democracies. And some of these parties do indeed propose models of government that challenge contemporary democratic systems. However, we do not know exactly what the democratic preferences of populist party supporters are. We propose to fill this gap by investigating the types of actors that citizens who are more sympathetic to populist parties would like to see play a greater role in their national political system. First, we find that populists believe that citizens should be more involved, highlighting the people-centred nature of populism. Second, they advocate a greater role for business leaders, military generals, and religious leaders, a preference found among both right-wing and left-wing populists. Third, left-wing populists show a unique preference for scientific experts in government, suggesting a technocratic inclination. Conversely, right-wing populists are particularly critical of elected politicians, underlining their deep anti-elitist attitudes. Our findings suggest that, among citizens who are more sympathetic to populist parties, there is support for models of government that challenge representative democracy. The question is whether populist parties would be influenced by these citizens to push for institutional reforms.

Tweeting climate change: analyzing actor diversity and influence in climate-change discourse post-Paris agreement

The Paris Agreement represents the notable characteristics of global environmental governance, namely multi-actor and multi-level governance. Despite these changes, limited empirical studies have investigated the actors in global environmental governance who participate in political discourse on climate change. To comprehend whether or not the Paris Agreement’s actors represent the transformation of global environmental governance, we adopted a big-data approach to analyze Twitter’s climate-change discourse. The classification of actors provided an understanding of the diversity of the actors involved in providing public information. We also calculated the closeness centrality and identified the changes in the actors’ influence, comparing the changes in the 5 years since the Agreement was adopted. The results showed an increased diversity of actor types. Non-state actors are not homogeneous in their changes, and Intergovernmental Organizations exhibited an increased influence. The findings indicated that the actors participating in the climate-change discourse post-Paris Agreement partially reflect the changes in global environmental governance.

“Ik ben zoo diep gezakt door deze oorlog”

During the German occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940s, crime rates for petty theft rose considerably. As a result of shortages, forced labor, unemployment and war damages, many citizens resorted to property crime. Those who were caught, were in majority sentenced within the Dutch judicial system, by Dutch magistrates, most of whom had no pro-German beliefs. This article explores how suspects, judges and probation officers referred to the occupation circumstances during the judicial process. All three types of actors saw how these circumstances could lead to theft. However, pre-existing notions of property and its defense were not radically questioned during the occupation. The (implicit) expectation was that the harmful consequences of the Second World War would be of a temporary nature.

The contribution of an outsider’s complementary assets to ecosystem emergence: Aldus Manutius and the printing industry in Renaissance Italy

Management and entrepreneurship literature have paid scant attention to the actors and activities transforming an industry into an ecosystem – that is, expanding the type of actors involved in product creation. To explore this important aspect, we investigate the role of Aldus Manutius – an influential and widely respected printer and editor in Renaissance Italy – in transforming the preindustrial printing industry into a modern ecosystem comprised not only of market actors such as printers and distributors, but also non-market ones such as humanist scholars. These non-market relationships and the activities that they facilitated constituted critical ‘complementary assets’ for the success of the Aldine printing press. We identify and classify the actors and activities that added to the business value proposition. By delivering the most comprehensive reconstruction of Manutius’ networks to date, this study illustrates the role of an outsider’s complementary assets in the transformation of an industry into an ecosystem.

Third actor introductions to interaction episodes aiming at fast-forwarding new firm relationship development

PurposeThis paper aims to address third actor introductions to interaction episodes aiming at fast-forwarding the continuous development of business relationships of new firms.Design/methodology/approachThe study is qualitative, collecting data from 30 interviews from 28 informants associated with creation of new ventures and business network development in the context of a novel type of third actor called venture builder. Venture builders are privately owned organizations devoted to new firm creation in a factory-like mode, collaborating with individual entrepreneurs.FindingsThe findings suggest that interaction episodes, central to the development of new relationships, may be triggered by introductions managed by third actors using different types of involvement depending on the location and focus of the potential relationship. A framework is presented including four types of introductions to interaction episodes, aiming at saving time by removing the perceived distance between new firms and their counterparts in the initiation of business relationships. The framework describes four types of introductions of interaction episodes: Managed, Advised, Facilitated and Monitored.Originality/valueTriggers and introductions of interaction episodes for new firms has previously been sparsely addressed. This paper presents how third actor involvement, by the introductions of interaction episodes with internal and external counterparts is managed with an aim of fast-forwarding relationship development.

Piloting a co-created local and alternative food network involving professional buyers in Norway: Forces and tensions influencing viability

We can obtain knowledge about how sustainability transitions can take place through experimenting with niche-activities. An alternative food network (AFN) called Green Parallel was co-created through action research in an agri-food living lab and was piloted in 2019 and 2020. The purpose was to contribute to more organic produce in localized food systems and improve communication between producers and professional buyers (e.g. specialty stores, restaurants, chain retails, private and public canteens) in the Vestfold region in Norway. This paper analyses the occurring forces and tensions that support or hinder the viability of the AFN.The methods of data collection were interviews, reflection notes and participants’ notes from the participatory processes. We utilized perspectives from field theory and institutional economy to understand individual behaviors in relation to internal and external forces and tensions in a multi-level perspective (MLP).A strong supportive force was the initial motivation participants in Green Parallel had to collaborate. In addition, we identified seven forces and tensions affecting the viability of Green Parallel. These forces and tensions worked through complex interdependencies within individuals and actor types and across actor types, as well as across internal and external niche spans. The study can inform further development of organic and local agri-food systems.

An agent-based model of cross-platform information diffusion and moderation

Social media platforms are highly interconnected because many users maintain a presence across multiple platforms. Consequently, efforts to limit the spread of misinformation taken by individual platforms can have complex consequences on misinformation diffusion across the social media ecosystem. This is further complicated by the diverse social structures, platform standards, and moderation mechanisms provided on each platform. We study this issue by extending our previous model of Reddit interactions and community-specific moderation measures. By adding a followership-based model of Twitter interactions and facilitating cross-platform user participation, we simulate information diffusion across heterogeneous social media platforms. While incorporating platform-specific moderation mechanisms, we simulate interactions at the user level and specify user-specific attributes. This allows practitioners to conduct experiments with various types of actors and different combinations of moderation. We show how the model can simulate the impacts of such features on discussions facilitated by Reddit and Twitter and the cross-platform spread of misinformation. To validate this model, we use a combination of empirical datasets from three U.S. political events and prior findings from user surveys and studies.

Identifying and explaining policy preferences in Swiss water management

Policy preferences are a key element in understanding the policy process. In this article, we conceptualise policy preferences as latent constructs, which can be identified in an inductive way, based on actors’ choice of policy instruments and organisational structures. To inductively identify policy preferences, we take an approach based on principal component analysis, informed by theory on preference formation. Using water supply in Switzerland as a case study, we propose an approach based on policy preference spaces to identify preferences based on clusters of choices. Our results show the presence of three distinct policy preferences: 1) local management with regional support, 2) local autonomy, and 3) strong regional management with local financing autonomy. We investigate the factors affecting the formation of these policy preferences through a regression analysis. Our results indicate that preference formation is affected by actor types and, to a lesser degree, by goal priority. In this way, the article makes two distinct contributions to the field. The first is a methodological contribution, through its proposition for measuring and operationalising policy preferences; and the second is a theoretical contribution, in demonstrating how policy preferences are influenced by actor types and goal priority it highlights the context-dependent nature of policy preferences.

Структурные метаморфозы политических процессов на пороге посткапиталистической эпохи: новые акторы, интеракции и феномены

The author of the study addresses the peculiarities of structural changes in political processes in the context of an interformational transition caused by the crisis of objective capitalist production relations. Based on the analysis of the dynamic model of the political process by G. Almond and J. The author concludes that modern political and economic transformations no longer allow us to effectively describe the structure of the political process from the point of view of established theoretical models built in the era of stable economic growth. Changes in the actor-resource base of political processes, generating new actors and modernizing the resource base of political interactions, are explained by the transition to network and horizontal management formats that destroy capitalist verticals and hierarchies. The author identifies new types of political actors and resources, and also attempts to describe the trends of their interaction through the prism of economic and technological transformations. In addition, it is suggested that it is more logical to study the structure of the political process in modern conditions from the point of view of actor-network theory, focused on the description of "assemblies" that take into account the multifactorial and chaotic nature of politics.

Governing Consumer Information in the Digital Age: Lessons from a Controversy Between a Food Rating App and Processed Meat Manufacturers

Abstract This article examines the legal response to a controversy on dietary information in the context of commercial court and appellate court rulings. Against a backdrop of health and environmental crises, the construction of information on such risks has become a sensitive issue for market actors, as a result of which courts are asked to arbitrate conflicts. This is particularly important at a time when informational mediations carried out by new actors increasingly take the form of digital ratings and augmented information. The dispute involving the firm Yuca and the French agro-industrial processed meat sector is a case in point. This paper analyses the structural arguments put forward in this legal dispute at the first instance and appeal stages. In the light of law and socio-economics, it untangles questions pertaining to the link between denigration and freedom of expression and the definition of the role of scientific research and consensus in the decisions. This leads us to shed light on the contents of the changing missions of two central types of actors: the mediators who monitor and regulate market practices and the judges that arbitrate these mediations and settle controversies.

Новый раскол (Украинский кризис и религиозный фактор в контексте перспектив социально-политического развития)

The article is devoted to the role of the religious factor in the context of the socio-political development of modern societies against the background of military-political confrontation. The ongoing processes are analyzed at several levels — national, international, and ecclesiastical. Utilizing the post-secular paradigm, as well as actor and identitarian approaches, the authors examine the religious dimension of the Ukrainian crisis. They draw a particular attention to the situation in the world Orthodox Christianity. The authors reveal the reasons why the main line of cleavage in the modern Christianity formed precisely in its Orthodox segment and was closely intertwined with the largest international political crisis of the first quarter of the 21st century. The article shows that the Ukrainian crisis has a destabilizing effect on the situation in the world Orthodox Christianity, reactivating old conflicts and creating new sources of tension. Having stated that the Ukrainian crisis served as a trigger and catalyst for dynamics in different spheres, covering a significant number of different types of actors, the authors at the same time point out that socio-political development in the context of the religious factor has deeper roots. From their viewpoint, the observed phenomena and processes indicate the formation of new models of interaction between the state, society and church within the framework of post-secular or traditionalist discourse, which in turn is associated with the rapid establishment of a new scientific and technological order. According to the authors’ conclusion, as it already happened many times in history, the religious factor is obtaining key importance in determining the basic features of the new era. The transformation of Modernity into something else, which is taking place before our eyes, does not result in the “elimination” of this factor, but, on the contrary, transforms religious factor into an important component of the formula for a new way of life. The Ukrainian conflict intensifies the search for post-secular models of socio-political development in the Western political areal. At the same time, Russia and the West itself are moving in different ways, since the Russian model is closer to pre-secular practices.

Are small towns a battleground for migration governance? Negotiating refugee integration in small towns in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT A surge in refugee arrivals post-2015 challenged small localities across Europe to respond to ‘refugee integration’ locally. Existing literature focuses little on governance dynamics in small localities, particularly regarding actors’ roles and relations. Based on fieldwork in four Dutch localities, we analyse the involvement of different actor types and explore if/how they develop collaborative relations. We show that small town governments engage in different forms of collaborative governance, from consolidated actor networks and intensive collaboration between local governments and CSOs to fragmented networks with more passive governments. However, we also find conflicts among actors due to power asymmetries and diverging interests and values. We identify several factors shaping interaction patterns, including localities’ size, political orientation, political leadership, residents’ attitudes and municipal decision-making. Despite outsourcing tasks, local governments remain pivotal in integration governance, giving them a crucial role in creating inclusive, participatory spaces, preventing actors’ alienation and designing efficient policy responses.

“A Revolution in Economic Thinking” – USAID and Privatization in Latin America and Eastern Europe (1981–1993)

Abstract: With Ronald Reagan’s ascent to power in January 1981, the conservatives were eager to promote neoliberalism to revitalize America at home and weaken the Communists and the New International Economic Order abroad. Surprisingly, the main vehicle of this ideological offensive was an agency long hated by the American conservatives, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Throughout the 1980s, the agency promoted neoliberal dogmas in developing countries, especially in Latin America which was considered as a testing ground for the neoliberal ideology. To achieve this goal, USAID promoted an important tenet of neoliberalism as a tool for economic development: privatization. At the same time, the agency established various collaborations with different types of actors in a “neoliberal nebula” in which it found an important place. At the end of the 1980s, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc provided the reaganized agency its most important test: the promotion of free-market economy in the socialist countries. This article examines how USAID became part of the ideological offensive led by the Reagan administration through its transformation into a neoliberal actor seeking to promote privatization in developing countries. In the process, Latin America became a testing ground for these new policies, but also a blueprint for those that USAID would soon implement in the Eastern Bloc after the fall of the Berlin Wall.