Search results for: community participation

Authors: Eduardo Rodrigues, Gisela Mendes, José M. Torres, José E. Sousa

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In the sequence of the liberalisation of the electricity sector a progressive engagement of consumers has been considered and targeted by sector regulatory policies. With the objective of promoting market competition while protecting consumers interests, by transferring some of the upstream benefits to the end users while reaching a fair distribution of system costs, different market models to value consumers’ demand flexibility at the energy community level are envisioned. Local Energy and Flexibility Markets (LEFM) involve stakeholders interested in providing or procure local flexibility for community, services and markets’ value. Under the scope of DOMINOES, a European research project supported by Horizon 2020, the local market concept developed is expected to: • Enable consumers/prosumers empowerment, by allowing them to value their demand flexibility and Distributed Energy Resources (DER); • Value local liquid flexibility to support innovative distribution grid management, e.g., local balancing and congestion management, voltage control and grid restoration; • Ease the wholesale market uptake of DER, namely small-scale flexible loads aggregation as Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), facilitating Demand Response (DR) service provision; • Optimise the management and local sharing of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in Medium Voltage (MV) and Low Voltage (LV) grids, trough energy transactions within an energy community; • Enhance the development of energy markets through innovative business models, compatible with ongoing policy developments, that promote the easy access of retailers and other service providers to the local markets, allowing them to take advantage of communities’ flexibility to optimise their portfolio and subsequently their participation in external markets. The general concept proposed foresees a flow of market actions, technical validations, subsequent deliveries of energy and/or flexibility and balance settlements. Since the market operation should be dynamic and capable of addressing different requests, either prioritising balancing and prosumer services or system’s operation, direct procurement of flexibility within the local market must also be considered. This paper aims to highlight the research on the definition of suitable DR models to be used by the Distribution System Operator (DSO), in case of technical needs, and by the retailer, mainly for portfolio optimisation and solve unbalances. The models to be proposed and implemented within relevant smart distribution grid and microgrid validation environments, are focused on day-ahead and intraday operation scenarios, for predictive management and near-real-time control respectively under the DSO’s perspective. At local level, the DSO will be able to procure flexibility in advance to tackle different grid constrains (e.g., demand peaks, forecasted voltage and current problems and maintenance works), or during the operating day-to-day, to answer unpredictable constraints (e.g., outages, frequency deviations and voltage problems). Due to the inherent risks of their active market participation retailers may resort to DR models to manage their portfolio, by optimising their market actions and solve unbalances. The interaction among the market actors involved in the DR activation and in flexibility exchange is explained by a set of sequence diagrams for the DR modes of use from the DSO and the energy provider perspectives. • DR for DSO’s predictive management – before the operating day; • DR for DSO’s real-time control – during the operating day; • DR for retailer’s day-ahead operation; • DR for retailer’s intraday operation.

Keywords: demand response, energy communities, flexible demand, local energy and flexibility markets

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Authors: Shahin Marjan Nanaje

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The present century is the time that social worker faced complicated issues in the area of their work. All the focus are on bringing change in the life of those that they live in margin or live in poverty became the cause that we have forgotten to look at ourselves and start to bring change in the way we address issues. It seems that there is new area of needs that social worker should response to that. In need of dialogue and collaboration, to address the issues and needs of community both individually and as a group we need to have new method of dialogue as tools to reach to collaboration. The social worker as link between community, organization and government play multiple roles. They need to focus in the area of communication with new ability, to transfer all the narration of the community to those organization and government and vice versa. It is not relate only in language but it is about changing dialogue. Migration for survival by job seeker to the big cities created its own issues and difficulty and therefore created new need. Collaboration is not only requiring between government sector and non-government sectors but also it could be in new way between government, non-government and communities. To reach to this collaboration we need healthy, productive and meaningful dialogue. In this new collaboration there will not be any hierarchy between members. The methodology that selected by researcher were focusing on observation at the first place, and used questionnaire in the second place. Duration of the research was three months and included home visits, group discussion and using communal narrations which helped to bring enough evidence to understand real need of community. The sample selected randomly was included 70 immigrant families which work as sweepers in the slum community in Bangalore, Karnataka. The result reveals that there is a gap between what a community is and what organizations, government and members of society apart from this community think about them. Consequently, it is learnt that to supply any service or bring any change to slum community, we need to apply new skill to have dialogue and understand each other before providing any services. Also to bring change in the life of those marginal groups at large we need to have collaboration as their challenges are collective and need to address by different group and collaboration will be necessary. The outcome of research helped researcher to see the area of need for new method of dialogue and collaboration as well as a framework for collaboration and dialogue that were main focus of the paper. The researcher used observation experience out of ten NGO’s and their activities to create framework for dialogue and collaboration.

Keywords: collaboration, dialogue, community development, empowerment

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Authors: Chung-Yuan Huang, Yu-Hsiang Fu, Chuen-Tsai Sun

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Community detection represents an important data-mining tool for analyzing and understanding real-world complex network structures and functions. We believe that at least four criteria determine the appropriateness of a community detection algorithm: (a) it produces useable normalized mutual information (NMI) and modularity results for social networks, (b) it overcomes resolution limitation problems associated with synthetic networks, (c) it produces good NMI results and performance efficiency for Lancichinetti-Fortunato-Radicchi (LFR) benchmark networks, and (d) it produces good modularity and performance efficiency for large-scale real-world complex networks. To our knowledge, no existing community detection algorithm meets all four criteria. In this paper, we describe a simple hierarchical arc-merging (HAM) algorithm that uses network topologies and rule-based arc-merging strategies to identify community structures that satisfy the criteria. We used five well-studied social network datasets and eight sets of LFR benchmark networks to validate the ground-truth community correctness of HAM, eight large-scale real-world complex networks to measure its performance efficiency, and two synthetic networks to determine its susceptibility to resolution limitation problems. Our results indicate that the proposed HAM algorithm is capable of providing satisfactory performance efficiency and that HAM-identified communities were close to ground-truth communities in social and LFR benchmark networks while overcoming resolution limitation problems.

Keywords: complex network, social network, community detection, network hierarchy

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Authors: Anneline Chetty

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Innovation is not always born in a sterile lab or is not always about applications and technology. Innovative solutions to community challenges can be borne out of the creativity of community members. This was proven by Professor Anil Gupta who for more than two decades scoured rural India for its hidden innovations motivated by the belief that the most powerful ideas for fighting poverty and hardship will not come from corporate research labs, but from ordinary people struggling to survive. The Ethekwini Municipality is a city in South Africa which adopted a similar approach, recognising the innovativeness of youth (students and school pupils) in its area. The intention was to make the youth a part of the solution to challenges faced by the Municipality. In this regard, five areas were selected and five groups of students were identified. Each group was sent into the community to identify challenges and engage with community leaders as well as members. Each group was tasked to come with solutions to these challenges which were to be presented at an Innovation Summit. The presented solutions were judged and the winning solution would be implemented by the Municipality. This paper, documents the experience of the students as well as the kinds of solutions that were presented. The purpose is to highlight the importance of using the ingenious minds and creativity of youth and channel their energy into becoming part of society’s solutions as opposed to being the problem

Keywords: innovation, indigenous, entrepreneurship, community

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Authors: William C. Dean

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In the pedagogical sequence of the four- and five-year architectural programs at Alfred State, the fourth-year Urban Design Studio constitutes the first course where students directly explore design issues in the urban context. It is the first large-scale, community-based service learning project for most of the participating students. The students learn key lessons that include the benefits of working both individually and in groups of different sizes toward a common goal, accepting - and responding creatively too - criticism from stakeholders at different points in the project, and recognizing the role that local politics and activism can play in planning for community development. Above all, students are exposed to the importance of good planning in relation to preservation and community revitalization. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of community-based service-learning projects in undergraduate architectural education to promote student civic engagement as a means of helping communities visualize potential solutions for revitalizing their neighborhoods and business districts. A series of case studies will be presented in terms of challenges that were encountered, opportunities for student engagement and leadership, and the feasibility of sustainable community development resulting from those projects. The reader will be encouraged to consider how they can recognize needs within their own communities that could benefit from the assistance of architecture students and faculty.

Keywords: urban design, service-learning, civic engagement, community revitalization

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Authors: Anchana Sooksomchitra

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This study aims to explore and compare the current condition of community radio stations in Phutthamonthon district, Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand, as well as the challenges they are facing. Qualitative research tools including in-depth interviews, documentary analysis, focus group interviews, and observation are used to examine the content, programming, and management structure of three community radio stations currently in operation within the district. Research findings indicate that the management and operational approaches adopted by the two non-profit stations included in the study, Salaya Pattana and Voice of Dhamma, are more structured and effective than that of the for-profit Tune Radio. Salaya Pattana, backed by the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, and the charity-funded Voice of Dhamma are comparatively free from political and commercial influence, and able to provide more relevant and consistent community-oriented content to meet the real demand of the audience. Tune Radio, on the other hand, has to rely solely on financial support from political factions and business groups, which heavily influence its content.

Keywords: radio broadcasting, programming, management, community radio, Thailand

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Authors: Santosh B. Phad, Priyanka V. Janbandhu, Dhananjay W. Bansod

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Population Ageing is a growing concern for the social scientists. There is a higher level of aged male participation compared to elderly females. Now, the critical question is whether participation in work improves the quality of life among the elderly and the impact of working status on the mental well-being of the elderly. While examining these research questions, the present paper focuses on the workforce participation of the elderly and the reasons behind it, additionally, determines the association between employment status and the mental well-being of the elderly. The present study has a base of two data sources. First one is Census of India data, 2001 and 2011, and another one is – the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), a survey conducted in 2007. To capture the trend of workforce participation elderly Census data is significant and to obtain other information associated with this issue the SAGE data is studied. The research piece consists of univariate and bivariate analysis along with some statistical methods like principal component analysis (PCA) and regression modeling – to investigate the association between workforce participation of elderly and subjective well-being (SWB). The results show that the percentage of elderly participating in the labor market is gradually reducing, but the share of working elderly has increased within the group of overall workers. i.e., the ratio of aged workers to non-aged workers is rising. The findings from survey data specify that there is a considerable share of the elderly in the labor market; three-fourths of the employed elderly enrolled the workforce unwillingly. They are in need of some earnings mainly to afford the medical expenses on their health or the health of their spouse, also to support their family members who are economically inactive. Apart from need, duration of working is another vital aspect for the elderly, whereas more than 80 percent of the elderly are working for six hours or more, and most of them engaged in self-employment. However, more than one-third of the working elderly falls into a negative cluster of the subjective well-being (SWB) index, and it is consistent with the result of the discriminant analysis. Here, the SWB index calculated from the 12 items and the reliability score of these items is 0.89.

Keywords: ageing, workforce, census of India, SAGE

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Authors: Muhammad Yayat Afianto, Darmawan, Agung Putra Utama, Hari Kushardanto

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Fish Forever, Rare’s innovative coastal fisheries program, combined community-based conservation management approach with spatial management to restore and protect Indonesia’s small-scale fisheries by establishing Fishing Managed Access Area. A ‘TURF-Reserve’ is a fishery management approach that positions fishers at the center of fisheries management, empowering them to take care of and make decisions about the future of their fishery. After two years of the program, social marketing campaigns succeeded in changing their behavior by adopting the new conservation behavior. The Pride-TURF-R campaigns developed an overarching hypothesis of impact that captured the knowledge, attitude and behavior changes needed to reduce threats and achieve conservation results. Rare help Batu Belah fishers to develop their group, developed with their roles, sustainable fisheries plan, and the budget plan. On 12th February 2017, the Head of Loka Kawasan Konservasi Perairan Nasional (LKKPN) which is a Technical Implementation Unit for National Marine Conservation Areas directly responsible to the Directorate General for Marine Spatial Management in the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries had signed a Partnership Agreement with the Head of Batu Belah Village to manage a TURF+Reserve area as wide as 909 hectares. The fishers group have been collecting the catch and submitting the report monthly, initiated the installation of the buoy markers for the No Take Zone, and formed the Pokmaswas (community-based surveillance group). Prior to this behavior adoption, they don’t have any fisheries data, no group of fishers, and they have still fishing inside the No Take Zone. This is really a new behavior adoption for them. This paper will show the process and success story of the social marketing campaign to conserve marine habitat in Anambas through Pride-TURF-R program.

Keywords: behavior adoption, community participation, no take zone, pride-TURF-R

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Authors: Diriba Dereje

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Background: Cardiac and renal disease are the most prevalent chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) affecting the community in a significant manner. The best and recommended method in halting CNCD is by working on prevention as early as possible. This is only possible if early surrogate markers are identified. As part of the stated solution, this study will identify an association between microalbuminuria (an early surrogate marker of renal and cardiac disease) and lung function test among adult in the community. Objective: The main aim of this study was to assess an association between microalbuminuria (an early surrogate marker of renal and cardiac disease) and lung function test among adult in the community. Methodology: Community based cross sectional study was conducted among 384 adult in Jimma town. A systematic sampling technique was used in selecting participants to the study. In searching for the possible association, binary and multivariate logistic regression and t-test was conducted. Finally, the association between microalbuminuria and lung function test was well stated in the form of figures and written description. Result and Conclusion: A significant association was found between microalbuminuria and different lung function test parameters.

Keywords: microalbuminuria, lung function, association, test

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Authors: Pataramon Satalak, Sakrit Isariyanon, Teerapong Puripanik

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This article uses the recent events in Thailand as a case study for examining why democratic transition is necessary during political upheaval to ensure that the people’s power remains unaffected. After seizing power in May 2014, the military, backed by anti-government protestors, selected and established their own system to govern the country. They set up the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) which established a People’s Assembly, aiming to reach a compromise between the conflicting opinions of former, pro-government and anti-government protesters. It plans to achieve this through political reform before returning sovereign power to the people via an election in 2018. If a governmental authority is not representative of the people (e.g. a military government) it does not count as a legitimate government. During the last four years of military government, from May 2014 to January 2018, their rule of Thailand has been widely controversial, specifically regarding their commitment to democracy, human rights violations and their manipulation of the rule of law. Democratic legitimacy relies not only on established mechanisms for public participation (like referendums or elections) but also public participation based on accessible and educational reform (often via NGOs) to ensure that the free and fair will of the people can be expressed. Through their actions over the last three years, the Thai military government has damaged both of these components, impacting future public participation in politics. The authors make some observations about the specific actions the military government has taken to erode the democratic legitimacy of future public participation: the increasing dominance of military courts over civil courts; civil society’s limited involvement in political activities; the drafting of a new constitution and their attempt to master support through referenda and its consequence for delaying organic law-making process; the structure of the legislative powers (Senate and the members of parliament); and the control of people’s basic freedoms of expression, movement and assembly in political activities. One clear consequence of the military government’s specific actions over the last three years is the increased uncertainty amongst Thai people that their fundamental freedoms and political rights will be respected in the future. This will directly affect their participation in future democratic processes. The military government’s actions (e.g. their response to the UN representatives) will also have influenced potential international engagement in Thai civil society to help educate disadvantaged people about their rights, and their participation in the political arena. These actions challenge the democratic idea that there should be a checking and balancing of power between people and government. These examples provide evidence that a democratic transition is crucial during any process of political transformation.

Keywords: political tranformation, public participation, Thailand coup d'etat 2014, election 2018

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Authors: Radhia Toujani, Jalel Akaichi

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In recent years, the study of community detection in social networks has received great attention. The hierarchical structure of the network leads to the emergence of the convergence to a locally optimal community structure. In this paper, we aim to avoid this local optimum in the introduced hybrid hierarchical method. To achieve this purpose, we present an objective function where we incorporate the value of structural and semantic similarity based modularity and a metaheuristic namely bees colonies algorithm to optimize our objective function on both hierarchical level divisive and agglomerative. In order to assess the efficiency and the accuracy of the introduced hybrid bee colony model, we perform an extensive experimental evaluation on both synthetic and real networks.

Keywords: social network, community detection, agglomerative hierarchical clustering, divisive hierarchical clustering, similarity, modularity, metaheuristic, bee colony

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Authors: Louis Nyahunda, Frans Koketso Matlakala, Jabulani Calvin Makhubele

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Climate change is among the most vital environmental aspects that the human community is endowed with. Climate as a factor of life is particularly strong to low income rural communities whose livelihoods heavily depend on rain-fed subsistence agriculture like Makonde communal lands. The purpose of social work within the context of climate change is to enhance community expertise and empower members for participation in the decision-making process through all stages of risk assessment, rescue, planning and intervention for recovery and preparedness. This paper sought to explore the role of social workers in mitigating the effects of climate change in Makonde communal lands of Zimbabwe. The objectives of the study were to identify what roles if any are social workers playing in mitigating the effects of climate change and if not, what are the impediments in that sphere. A qualitative research approach was followed within the traditional framework of descriptive and exploratory designs. Simple random, purposive and snowballing sampling techniques were used to gather twenty-five participants in the study. The Thematic Content Analysis was followed to analyse data inductively. The study found that Social Workers are not directly involved in climate change interventions in the Makonde area owing it to lack of training on climate change issues. The study recommends that climate change falls within the purview of the social work practice therefore social workers must take the lead in supporting families and communities affected by climate change following the values, knowledge base, skills and principles of the profession.

Keywords: role, social workers, mitigation, climate change, Makonde communal lands

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Authors: Sohail Bawani, Kausar S. Khan, Rozina Karmaliani, Shehnaz Mir

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Action research (AR) is one of the types of health systems research (HSR), and participatory action research (PAR) is known for being effective in health systems strengthening (HSS). The current literature on PAR for HSS cites numerous examples and case studies that led to improve health services; build child health information system; increase knowledge and awareness of people about health problems, and identify pathways for institutional and policy change by engaging people in research. But examples of marginalized communities being agents of change in health governance are not common in health systems research (HSR). This approach to PAR is at the heart of Paolo Freire’s Social Transformation Theory and Critical Consciousness building, which was used to design a community-based PAR study in the Northern/mountainous areas of Pakistan. The purpose of the study was to understand the place and role of marginalized communities in strengthening existing health governance structure (health facility and village health committees and health boards) by taking marginalized communities as partners. Community meetings were carried out to identify who is living at the social, political, cultural and economic margins in 40 different villages. Participatory reflection and analysis (PRA) tools were used during the meeting to facilitate identification. Focus group discussions were conducted with marginalized groups using PRA tools and family ethnographies with marginalized families identified through group discussions. Findings of the study revealed that for the marginalized health systems constitute more than just delivery of health services, but it also embraces social determinants that surround systems and its governance. The paper argues that from Frerian perspective people’s participation should not only be limited to knowledge generation. People must be seen active users of the knowledge that they generate for achieving better health outcomes that they want to achieve in the time to come. PAR provides a pathway to the marginalized in playing a role in health governance. The study dissemination planned shall engage the marginalized in a dialogue with service providers so that together a role for the marginalized can be outlined.

Keywords: participatory action research, health systems, marginalized, health services

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Authors: Sendy Ghirardi, Pau Rausell Köster

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The European Commission increasingly pushes cultural policies towards social outcomes and local and regional authorities also call for culture-driven strategies for local development and prosperity and therefore, the measurement of cultural participation becomes increasingly more significant for evidence-based policy-making processes. Cultural participation involves various kinds of social and economic spillovers that combine social and economic objectives of value creation, including social sustainability and respect for human values. Traditionally, from the economic perspective, cultural consumption is measured by the value of financial transactions in purchasing, subscribing to, or renting cultural equipment and content, addressing the market value of cultural products and services. The main sources of data are the household spending survey and merchandise trade survey, among others. However, what characterizes the cultural consumption is that it is linked with the hedonistic and affective dimension rather than the utilitarian one. In fact, nowadays, more and more attention is being paid to the social and psychological dimensions of culture. The aim of this work is to present a comprehensive approach to measure the impacts of cultural participation and cultural users’ behaviour, combining both socio-psychological and economic approaches. The model combines contingent evaluation techniques with the individual characteristic and perception analysis of the cultural experiences to evaluate the cognitive, aesthetic, emotive and social impacts of cultural participation. To investigate the comprehensive approach to measure the impact of the cultural events on individuals, the research has been designed on the basis of prior theoretical development. A deep literature methodology has been done to develop the theoretical model applied to the web platform to measure the impacts of cultural experience on individuals. The developed framework aims to become a democratic tool for evaluating the services that cultural or policy institutions can adopt through the use of an interacting platform that produces big data benefiting academia, cultural management and policies. The Au Culture is a prototype based on an application that can be used on mobile phones or any other digital platform. The development of the AU Culture Platform has been funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency (Government of the Region of Valencia) and it is part of the Horizon 2020 project MESOC.

Keywords: comprehensive approach, cultural participation, economic dimension, socio-psychological dimension

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Authors: Amit Syal, Madeline Grade, Alister Martin

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Background: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies demonstrate an association between health and voting. Furthermore, voting enables populations to support policies that impact their health via social determinants like income, education, housing, and healthcare access. Unfortunately, many barriers exist which disproportionately affect the civic participation of certain minority groups. Health professionals have an important role to play in addressing the civic health of all patients and empowering underrepresented communities. Description: Vot-ER is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that aims to reduce barriers to civic participation by helping patients register to vote while in healthcare settings. The initial approach involved iPad-based kiosks in the emergency department waiting rooms, allowing patients to register themselves while waiting. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, Vot-ER expanded its touchless digital approaches. Vot-ER provides healthcare workers across the country with “Healthy Democracy Kits” consisting of badge backers, posters, discharge paperwork, and other resources. These contain QR and text codes that direct users to an online platform for registering to vote or requesting a mail-in ballot, available in English or Spanish. Outcomes: From May to November 2020, Vot-ER helped prepare 46,320 people to vote. 13,192 individual healthcare providers across all 50 states signed up for and received Healthy Democracy Kits. 80 medical schools participated in the Healthy Democracy Campaign competition. Over 500 institutions ordered site-based materials. Conclusions: A healthy democracy is one in which all individuals in a community have equal and fair opportunities for their voices to be heard. Healthcare settings, such as hospitals, are appropriate and effective venues for increasing both voter registration and education.

Keywords: civic health, enfranchisement, physician, voting

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Authors: Lin Zhang

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The fear of leprosy has been longstanding throughout the human history. In an era where isolation is practiced as a means of epidemic prevention, the leprosy rehabilitation group has itself become an isolated community with an entrenched metaphor. In the process of new mediatization of the leprosy isolation community, what are the relations among media literacy, the leprosy internalized stigma and social support? To address the question, the “portrait” of leprosy rehabilitation group is re-delineated through two field studies in the “post-leprosy age” in 2012 and 2020, respectively. Taking an isolation community on Si’an Leprosy Island in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China as the study object, it is found that new media promotes the dissolution of segregation effect of the leprosy isolation community and the cultivation of opinion leaders by breaking spatial, psychological and social segregation and by building a community of village affairs and public space in the following way: the cured patients with high new media literacy, especially those who use WeChat and other applications and largely rely on new media for information, have a low level of leprosy internalized stigma and a high level of social support, and they are often the opinion leaders inside their community; on the contrary, the cured patients with low new media literacy, a high level of leprosy internalized stigma and a low level of social support are often the followers inside their community. Such effects of dissolution and construction are reflected not only in the vertical differentiation of the same individual at different times, but also in the horizontal differentiation between different individuals at the same time.

Keywords: segregation, the leprosy rehabilitation group, new mediatization, digital empowerment, opinion leaders

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Authors: B. A. N. Madubashini, S. Anojan, S. Thurka, N. M. C. J. Nawasinghe, G. A. S. Milanga, W. M. I. S. Weerakoon, I. D. N. Ihalahewage

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Evidence-based health promotional approaches are known to be successful ways of reducing tobacco consumption in a rural village. Hence tobacco prevention is essential in improving lives of people, and community-based approaches are considered as effective. This community-based health promotion intervention implemented to reduce high consumption of tobacco in a rural area in Sri Lanka. This intervention was conducted in a rural village of Sri Lanka. In the beginning, facilitation discussions conducted with community members to identify determinants leading to tobacco consumption among villagers. Intervention was planed based on those determinants. Community actions through small active groups to demote smoking were generated. Children groups displayed cigarette buds collected around common places such as temple to community gatherings including funeral welfare society elaborating the cost and the money spent on cigarettes. A till (expenditure box) was introduced, and smokers in family were encouraged to put money on a cigarette to it when they decide to smoke instead. This way they could monitor potential savings if quit. Children groups introduced a tool 'Engalanthe puthata (for overseas son)' to shops. Shop owners agreed to add a pebble to a box whenever they sell a cigarette. The money spent on cigarettes in that shop was calculated regularly, and that was considered as money sent to tobacco company overseas, so to the son of the company owner. This was useful to encourage quitting and to stop selling cigarette in the shops. All four shops in the community volunteered to stop selling cigarettes. Eleven percent of users quitted smoking and 37% users reduced smoking. Child empowerment was high, and 60% of children had shown their disapproval on smoking publicly at least once. Similar community-based health promotion intervention can be used to generate community actions leading to reduction of tobacco consumption.

Keywords: cigarette, community, empowerment, health promotion, intervention

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Authors: Akshita Gaba, Ria P. Dey, Sanya Karotiya, Smrijanee Dash, Soni Gupta

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This research paper explores the significance of environmental awareness and community outreach initiatives undertaken by the Speak Up World Foundation; a non-profit organization founded in 2021. The study delves into the historical context of environmental issues, identifies the driving factors contributing to environmental degradation, and outlines tasks undertaken by the foundation to promote environmental consciousness. The paper also highlights the impact of these efforts on the community and emphasizes the need for continued dedication to ensure sustainable coexistence with our environment.

Keywords: environment, social service, organization, degradation, survey

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Authors: Thanaporn Chaimongkol

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The objective of this research was aimed to examine the factors that influence the development of community leadership strategies to further develop the career regarding the Benjarong pottery products in eight upper central provinces, Thailand. The sample included (1) 1200 Benjarong pottery operators, (2) 30 involved representatives at both the policy level and support, and (3) OTOP network of 24 people. In this quantitative study, investigating data was conducted on individual session basis. The research instruments used included questionnaires and interview. The results showed that the components of the development of the community leadership strategies for career development of the Benjarong pottery products in eight upper central provinces were high overall; the Five Competitive Forces were of the highest average, followed by bargaining power of suppliers, and McKinsey 7's framework, respectively; where the highest average was strategy.

Keywords: community leadership, strategy development, Benjarong Pottery, 8 upper central provinces

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Authors: Anchana Sooksomchitra

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This study aims to explore and compare the current condition of community radio stations in Phutthamonthon district, Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand, as well as the challenges they are facing. Qualitative research tools including in-depth interviews; documentary analysis; focus group interviews; and observation, are used to examine the content, programming, and management structure of three community radio stations currently in operation within the district. Research findings indicate that the management and operational approaches adopted by the two non-profit stations included in the study, Salaya Pattana and Voice of Dhamma, are more structured and effective than that of the for-profit Tune Radio. Salaya Pattana – backed by the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, and the charity-funded Voice of Dhamma, are comparatively free from political and commercial influence, and able to provide more relevant and consistent community-oriented content to meet the real demand of the audience. Tune Radio, on the other hand, has to rely solely on financial support from political factions and business groups, which heavily influence its content.

Keywords: radio broadcasting, programming, management, community radio, Thailand

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Authors: Aileen O'loughlin

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‘Is Everybody Going WeLL?’ (IEGW?) is a 33-hour classroom-based initiative created to a) explore values and how they impact on well-being, b) encourage adolescents to connect with their community, and c) provide them with the education to encourage and maintain a lifetime love of physical activity (PA) to ensure beneficial effects on their personal well-being. This initiative is also aimed at achieving sustainable education and aligning with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals numbers 3 and 4. The classroom is a unique setting in which adolescents’ PA participation can be positively influenced through fun PA policies and initiatives. The primary purpose of this research is to evaluate a range of psychosocial and PA outcomes following the 33-hour education programme. This research examined the impact of a PA and well-being programme consisting of either a 60minute or 80minute class, depending on the timetable structure of the school, delivered once a week. Participant outcomes were measured using validated questionnaires regarding Self-esteem, Mental Health Literacy (MHL) and Daily Physical Activity Participation. These questionnaires were administered at three separate time points; baseline, mid-intervention, and post intervention. Semi-structured interviews with participating teachers regarding adherence and participants’ attitudes were completed post-intervention. These teachers were randomly selected for interview. This perspective analytical cohort study included 235 post-primary school students between 11-13 years of age (100 boys and 135 girls) from five public Irish post-primary schools. Three schools received the intervention only; a 33hour interactive well-being learning unit, one school formed a control group and one school had participants in both the intervention and control group. Participating schools were a convenience sample. Data presented outlines baseline data collected pre-participation (0 hours completed). N = 18 junior certificate students returned all three questionnaires fully completed for a 56.3% return rate from 1 school, Intervention School #3. 94.4% (n = 17) of participants enjoy taking part in some form of PA, however only 5.5% (n = 1) of the participants took part in PA every day of the previous 7 days and only 5.5% (n = 1) of those surveyed participated in PA every day during a normal week. 55% (n = 11) had a low level of self-esteem, 50% (n = 9) fall within the normal range of self-esteem, and n = 0 surveyed demonstrated a high level of self-esteem. Female participants’ Mean score was higher than their male counterparts when MHL was compared. Correlation analyses revealed a small association between Self-esteem and Happiness (r = 0.549). Positive correlations were also revealed between MHL and Happiness, MHL and Self-esteem and Self-esteem and 60+ minutes of PA completed daily. IEGW? is a classroom-based with simple methods easy to implement, replicate and financially viable to both public and private schools. It’s unique dataset will allow for the evaluation of a societal approach to the psycho-social well-being and PA participation levels of adolescents. This research is a work in progress and future work is required to learn how to best support the implementation of ‘Is Everybody Going WeLL?’ as part of the school curriculum.

Keywords: education, life-long learning, physical activity, psychosocial well-being

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Authors: Kanyarat Bussaban, Siriporn Poolsuwan

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This study is conducted with the objective to prove how the distorted distribution of welfare affects the quality of school-age children lives differently in the case of an urban community in Bangkok. 334 samples are households from Suan Oi and Ratchapatubtim communities. The study of sample communities found the difference between two community areas that are close. The people of Suan Oi community are economically better off people than the people of the Ratchapatubtim community. They share the benefits of using most services except the welfare of a child’s education. The resulting analysis of the variability in quality of life of the school age children indicate that heads of the households are women looking for quality of life benefits when the compulsory school age is less. A study of the two communities suggests that the inequality in income distribution currently affects the quality of life of school-age children.

Keywords: inequality, income distribution, quality of school-age children lives, welfare state

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Authors: Neveen Ali-Saleh Darawsha

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Exposure to community violence (CV) is alarmingly high and emphasizes negative consequences. The present study examines the rates and consequences of exposure to community violence, among Palestinian adolescents from Israel, age ranged 14-18. Specifically, it examines whether exposure to community violence is indirectly related to academic achievement through internalizing and externalizing symptoms among adolescents; and whether the indirect effects of exposure to CV and academic achievements will differ when the parents have different levels of psychological well-being. Method: Semi systematic random sample of 760 Palestinian adolescents in Israel, (320 boys, and 440 girls) filled out a self-administration questionnaire. Most of the adolescents had witnessed community violence during the last year and during their lifetime, and more than one third had directly experienced such violence during lifetime compared with 19.6% during the last year. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the indirect effects of exposure to CV and academic achievement. Results revealed that externalizing symptoms mediated the association between exposure to CV and academic achievement. There were no indirect effects through internalizing symptoms. Moreover, parental psychological well-being moderated the indirect effects between externalizing symptoms and academic achievements. Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of targeting externalizing symptoms for adolescents that could improve their behaviors and also their academic achievements as well. limitations of the study, implications for the practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Keywords: community violence, witnessing violence, direct personal experiencing, academic achievement, psychological well-being, Palestinian adolescents

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Authors: Gelila Tamyalew, Asres Abitie

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Community Pharmacists (CPs) have a significant part in consumer choice in the rational use of LMPPs. The opinion of pharmacists regarding branded and generic medications can offer a perception of the potential obstacles that might have to be overcome to advance generic medicine utilization. Many factors affect CPs' attitudes negatively toward LMPPs. Therefore, the current study assessed factors that can affect CPs' attitudes toward LMPPs. In the regression analysis of variables, three variables were associated with CPs' attitudes toward LMPPs. These are; maximum educational status, professional status, and year of experience in community pharmacy practice. Moreover, lack of belief in LMPPs, substitution agreement with the prescriber, cost-effectiveness of LMPPs, and consumer preference/demand were the most influencing reasons for the selection of LMPPs. In conclusion, the attitude of CPs seems suboptimal that requires an intervention to optimize LMPP utilization.

Keywords: locally manufactured pharmaceutical products, attitude, community pharmacist, Ethiopia

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Authors: Palwinder Bhatia

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As all know new media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century which refers to on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. The role of new media in advertisement is impeccable these days. It becomes the cheap and best way of advertising. Another important promise of new media is the democratization of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content. New media brings a revolution in about every field. It makes bridge between customer and companies. World make a global village with the only help of new media. Advertising helps in shaping the consumer behavior and effect on consumer psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. People do comments and like the particular brands on the networking sites which create mesmerism impact on the behavior of customer. Recent study did by Times of India shows that 64% of Facebook users have liked a brand on Facebook.

Keywords: film, visual, culture, media, advertisement

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Authors: Hadjer Messabih

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The M’zab architecture has preserved its identity that was able to endure for centuries conserving practically the same way of life and the same building techniques since the 11th century. Even more, the newly built ksar Tafilelt is also designed to meet the local tradition. In 1996, a community led project was initiated to build a “new ksar” named Tafilelt based on a traditional form of community-led cooperative housing. It is a unique experience in the field of community housing that reproduces traditional architectural patterns while addressing contemporary ways of life with their expected modern comfort. This research is based on the hypothesis that the process of producing ksar Tafilelt is culturally responsive to a conservative community that was characterized by certain values which were transmitted to this ksar manifesting as cultural continuity. It aims at investigating what type of cultural continuity manifests itself in the co-production of ksar Tafilelt and the way the settlement and its houses are produced and inhabited, as well as the new emerging values and adaptive transition in social relations. The research methodology is based on a combination of questionnaires, in depth interviews, photography, and site visit to record and demonstrate how these buildings respond to peoples’ needs. Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is also employed in order to understand the lessons that can be learned from this project. Finally, this study proves that the cultural continuity that was transmitted from the Ibadi community is sill manifested in ksar Tafilelt, which provided strong religious bonds and a strong sense of community. The research findings have resulted in a number of lessons and principles that can be learnt from the project of ksar Tafilelt which can inform future practices of housing provision and design in Algeria and other countries.

Keywords: community-led cooperative housing, conservative community, cultural continuity, post occupancy evaluation

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Authors: Crispin Rakibu Mbamba

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Twenty-two years after the adoption of the United Nation Trafficking Protocol, evidence suggest that child trafficking continues to rise. Community level factors, like poverty which creates the conditions for children’s vulnerability is key to the rise in trafficking cases in Ghana. Albeit, growing evidence suggestthat despite the vulnerabilities, communities have the capacity to prevent and address child trafficking issues. This study contributes to this positive agenda by exploring the ways in which communities (and the key actors) in Ghana contribute to child trafficking interventions.The study objective is explored through in-depth interviews with practitioners (including social workers) from an organization working in trafficking hotspots in Ghana. Interviews wereanalyzed thematically with the help of HyperRESEARCH software. From the in-depth interviews, three themes were identified as the ways in which communities are involved in child trafficking interventions: 1) engagement of community leaders, 2) community-led anti-trafficking committees and 3) knowledge about trafficking. Albeit the cultural differences, evidence on the instrumental role of community chiefs and leaders provide important learning on how to harness trafficking intervention measures and ensure better child protection practices. Based on the findings, we recommend the need to intensify trafficking awareness campaigns in rural communities where education is lacking to contribute to United Nations (UN) promoting Just, Peaceful and Inclusive societies’ mandate.

Keywords: child trafficking, community interventions, knowledge on trafficking, human trafficking intervention

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Authors: K. Lalhmingsangi, U. K. Sahoo

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Non-Timber Forest Products represent one of the key sources of income and subsistence to the fringe communities living in rural areas. A study was conducted for the assessment of NTFP within the community forest of five villages under Thenzawl forest division. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), questionnaire, field exercise, discussion and interview with the first hand NTFP exploiter and sellers was adopted for the field study. Fuel wood, medicinal plants, fodder, wild vegetables, fruits, broom grass, thatch grass, bamboo pole and cane species are the main NTFP harvested from the community forest. Among all the NTFPs, the highest percentage of household involvement was found in fuel wood, i.e. 53% of household and least in medicinal plants 5%. They harvest for their own consumption as well as for selling to the market to meet their needs. Edible food and fruits are sold to the market and it was estimated that 300 (Rs/hh/yr) was earned by each household through the selling of this NTFP from the community forest alone. No marketing channels are linked with fuelwood, medicinal plants and fodder since they harvest only for their own consumption.

Keywords: community forest, subsistence, non-timber forest products, Thenzawl Forest Division

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Authors: P. Daniels, T. Adonis, P. September-Brown, R. Comalie

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The community engagement unit at the University of the Western Cape was tasked with establishing a community engagement database. The database would store information of all community engagement projects related to the university. The wealth of knowledge obtained from the various disciplines would be used to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration within the university, as well as facilitating community university partnership opportunities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore electronic data collection through the development of a database. Two types of electronic data collection platforms were used, namely online questionnaire and email. The semi structured questionnaire was used to collect data related to community engagement projects from different faculties and departments at the university. There are many benefits for using an electronic data collection platform, such as reduction of costs and time, ease in reaching large numbers of potential respondents, and the possibility of providing anonymity to participants. Despite all the advantages of using the electronic platform, there were as many challenges, as depicted in our findings. The findings suggest that certain barriers existed by using an electronic platform for data collection, even though it was in an academic environment, where knowledge and resources were in abundance. One of the challenges experienced in this process was the lack of dissemination of information via email to staff within faculties. The actual online software used for the questionnaire had its own limitations, such as only being able to access the questionnaire from the same electronic device. In a few cases, academics only completed the questionnaire after a telephonic prompt or face to face meeting about "Is higher education in South Africa ready to embrace electronic platform in data collection?"

Keywords: community engagement, database, data collection, electronic platform, electronic tools, knowledge sharing, university

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Authors: Chih-Yuan Weng

Abstract:

It may be a common sense that indigenous people in Taiwan, like their counterparts in the rest of the world, are generally more disadvantaged than other citizens in terms of all sorts of socioeconomic indicators. However, it has also been well-documented in the literature that there is always significant variation in the level of indigenous poverty, both among individuals and among tribes, which can be obscured by a national survey that does not take into account the heterogeneity, such as tribal locations, among indigenous people. Thus, using a Truku tribe in a remote county of Taiwan (i.e., Hualien County) as an example, this study aims at investigating whether and how the socioeconomic livelihood of the indigenous residents would be damaged by the remoteness of their tribal community.

Keywords: indigenous people, tribal community, poverty, socioeconomic livelihood, remoteness

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