Search results for: social economy enterprises

Authors: Christina Kalogirou

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The object of this research is to explore the views of Greek Second Chance Schools’ (SCS) graduates regarding their personal, social, professional and educational development after graduation. SCS are addressed to adults who had failed to complete their studies in the nine-year compulsory education. Furthermore, the research focuses on their motives as well as on any possible achievement of transformative processes. The quantitative survey involved in total 426 graduates while in the qualitative survey participated 38 persons, all of whom graduated in the period 2010-2012 from 27 schools throughout the country. The survey was conducted by filling in a structured questionnaire and by carrying out semi-structured interviews. As regards the results, the respondents decided to attend the SCS primarily to acquire knowledge while most of them feel that they managed to meet their goals. Also, graduates recognize that studying in SCS contributed primarily in their social and personal development. In addition, an encouraging fact is that some of the graduates recognize the transformative processes which they experienced during their studies in SCS.

Keywords: Adults Education, Motives of Attendance, Personal-Social-Professional-Educational Development, Transformative Processes, Quantitative and Qualitative Survey

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Authors: Achsania Hendratmi, Nisful Laila, Fatin Fadhilah Hasib, Puji Sucia Sukmaningrum

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This study aims to compare and see the differences between Islamic bank in Indonesia and Islamic bank in Malaysia using RGEC method (Risk Profile, Good Corporate Governance, Earnings, and Capital). This study examines the comparison in business and social performance of eleven Islamic banks in Indonesia and fifteen Islamic banks in Malaysia. This research used quantitative approach and the collections of data was done by collecting all the annual reports of banks that has been created as a sample over the period 2011-2015. The test result of the Independent Samples T-test and Mann-Whitney Test showed there were differences in the business performance of Islamic Bank in Indonesia and Malaysia as seen from the aspect of Risk profile (FDR), GCG, and Earnings (ROA). Also, there were differences of business and social performance as seen from Earnings (ROE), Capital (CAR), and Sharia Conformity Indicator (PSR and ZR) aspects.

Keywords: business performance, Islamic banks, RGEC, social performance

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Authors: A.H.Y. Lai, C. Teyra

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In Taiwan, there are 16 official indigenous groups, accounting for 2.3% of the total population. Like other indigenous populations worldwide, indigenous peoples in Taiwan have poorer mental health because of their history of oppression and colonisation. Amid the negative narratives, the ethnic identity of cultural minorities is their unique psychological and cultural asset. Moreover, positive socialisation is found to be related to strong ethnic identity. Based on Phinney’s theory on ethnic identity development and social support theory, this study adopted a strength-based approach conceptualising ethnic identity as the central organising principle that linked perceived social support and mental health among indigenous adults in Taiwan. Aims. Overall aim is to examine the effect of ethnic identity and social support on mental health. Specific aims were to examine : (1) the association between ethnic identity and mental health; (2) the association between perceived social support and mental health ; (3) the indirect effect of ethnic identity linking perceived social support and mental health. Methods. Participants were indigenous adults in Taiwan (n=200; mean age=29.51; Female=31%, Male=61%, Others=8%). A cross-sectional quantitative design was implemented using data collected in the year 2020. Respondent-driven sampling was used. Standardised measurements were: Ethnic Identity Scale(6-item); Social Support Questionnaire-SF(6 items); Patient Health Questionnaire(9-item); and Generalised Anxiety Disorder(7-item). Covariates were age, gender and economic satisfaction. A four-stage structural equation modelling (SEM) with robust maximin likelihood estimation was employed using Mplus8.0. Step 1: A measurement model was built and tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Step 2: Factor covariates were re-specified as direct effects in the SEM. Covariates were added. The direct effects of (1) ethnic identity and social support on depression and anxiety and (2) social support on ethnic identity were tested. The indirect effect of ethnic identity was examined with the bootstrapping technique. Results. The CFA model showed satisfactory fit statistics: x^2(df)=869.69(608), p<.05; Comparative ft index (CFI)/ Tucker-Lewis fit index (TLI)=0.95/0.94; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0.05; Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMR)=0.05. Ethnic identity is represented by two latent factors: ethnic identity-commitment and ethnic identity-exploration. Depression, anxiety and social support are single-factor latent variables. For the SEM, model fit statistics were: x^2(df)=779.26(527), p<.05; CFI/TLI=0.94/0.93; RMSEA=0.05; SRMR=0.05. Ethnic identity-commitment (b=-0.30) and social support (b=-0.33) had direct negative effects on depression, but ethnic identity-exploration did not. Ethnic identity-commitment (b=-0.43) and social support (b=-0.31) had direct negative effects on anxiety, while identity-exploration (b=0.24) demonstrated a positive effect. Social support had direct positive effects on ethnic identity-exploration (b=0.26) and ethnic identity-commitment (b=0.31). Mediation analysis demonstrated the indirect effect of ethnic identity-commitment linking social support and depression (b=0.22). Implications: Results underscore the role of social support in preventing depression via ethnic identity commitment among indigenous adults in Taiwan. Adopting the strength-based approach, mental health practitioners can mobilise indigenous peoples’ commitment to their group to promote their well-being.

Keywords: ethnic identity, indigenous population, mental health, perceived social support

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Authors: Aishi Kundu, Elhan Raza

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"Necessity is the mother of invention" - Rapid increase in the global human population has directed the agricultural domain toward machine learning. The basic need of human beings is considered to be food which can be satisfied through farming. Farming is one of the major revenue generators for the Indian economy. Agriculture is not only considered a source of employment but also fulfils humans’ basic needs. So, agriculture is considered to be the source of employment and a pillar of the economy in developing countries like India. This paper provides a brief review of the progress made in implementing Machine Learning in the agricultural sector. Accurate predictions are necessary at the right time to boost production and to aid the timely and systematic distribution of agricultural commodities to make their availability in the market faster and more effective. This paper includes a thorough analysis of various machine learning algorithms applied in different aspects of agriculture (crop management, soil management, water management, yield tracking, livestock management, etc.).Due to climate changes, crop production is affected. Machine learning can analyse the changing patterns and come up with a suitable approach to minimize loss and maximize yield. Machine Learning algorithms/ models (regression, support vector machines, bayesian models, artificial neural networks, decision trees, etc.) are used in smart agriculture to analyze and predict specific outcomes which can be vital in increasing the productivity of the Agricultural Food Industry. It is to demonstrate vividly agricultural works under machine learning to sensor data. Machine Learning is the ongoing technology benefitting farmers to improve gains in agriculture and minimize losses. This paper discusses how the irrigation and farming management systems evolve in real-time efficiently. Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled programs to emerge with rich apprehension for the support of farmers with an immense examination of data.

Keywords: machine Learning, artificial intelligence, crop management, precision farming, smart farming, pre-harvesting, harvesting, post-harvesting

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Authors: Humera Malik

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Gender inequality, as a societal issue, is prevalent in all spheres of life in Pakistan. It is world-wide understood that gender equality is a basic right of every human being as well as the source of development and prosperity for the whole country. In fact, many countries endeavor to ensure equal opportunities for men and women which will, in turn, help to attain sustainable growth in every field. Most of the women in Pakistan live their life under the societal pressure which is exerted by centuries old traditions. This archaic setup restricts women to stay at home because their survival is conditional to their total subjugation to the male member of the family. This patriarchal structure confers men the right to deal women as their property. It is not wrong to say that women endure severe discrimination in their whole life. No doubt, women are confronted with multifaceted discrimination in the field of education, health, politics, social status, etc. The main theme of this research is to ascertain the present condition of gender inequality in the field of economy in Pakistan. Pakistan’s poor ranking in Global Gender Gap Index, 2016 clearly depicts that women are deprived of fundamental rights as well as equal opportunities of development. This very state of affairs depicts the real picture of government’s commitment to women empowerment and gender equality. The nature of this research is descriptive which helps to determine the status of women in Pakistan on the basis of labour force participation, wage gap, estimated incomes, and ratio of high ranking positions secured by women. It is an endeavor to understand the reasons of economic inequality by following qualitative method of research. Moreover, few recommendations will be suggested to get rid of this issue.

Keywords: dismal, discrimination, feudal, patriarchal, wage gap

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Authors: Josiel Delgadillo, Johnson Kinyua, Charles Mutigwe

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The purpose of sentiment analysis is to determine the sentiment strength (e.g., positive, negative, neutral) from a textual source for good decision-making. Natural language processing in domains such as financial markets requires knowledge of domain ontology, and pre-trained language models, such as BERT, have made significant breakthroughs in various NLP tasks by training on large-scale un-labeled generic corpora such as Wikipedia. However, sentiment analysis is a strong domain-dependent task. The rapid growth of social media has given users a platform to share their experiences and views about products, services, and processes, including financial markets. StockTwits and Twitter are social networks that allow the public to express their sentiments in real time. Hence, leveraging the success of unsupervised pre-training and a large amount of financial text available on social media platforms could potentially benefit a wide range of financial applications. This work is focused on sentiment analysis using social media text on platforms such as StockTwits and Twitter. To meet this need, SkyBERT, a domain-specific language model pre-trained and fine-tuned on financial corpora, has been developed. The results show that SkyBERT outperforms current state-of-the-art models in financial sentiment analysis. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of SkyBERT.

Keywords: BERT, financial markets, Twitter, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Dante Jose R. Amisola, Glenford M. Prospero

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'Driving What’s Next' is a strong campaign of the new administration of De La Salle Lipa in promoting social innovation in quality education. The new leadership directs social innovation in quality education in the institutional directions and initiatives to address real-world challenges with real-world solutions. This research under study aims to qualify the commitment of the institution to extend the Lasallian quality human and Christian education to all, as expressed in the Institution’s new mission-vision statement. The Classic Grounded Theory methodology is employed in the process of generating concepts in reference to the documents, a series of meetings, focus group discussions and other related activities that account for the conceptualization and formulation of the new mission-vision along with the new education innovation framework. Notably, Driving What’s Next is the emergent theory that encapsulates the commitment of giving quality human and Christian education to all. It directs the new leadership in driving social innovation in quality education initiatives. Correspondingly, Driving What’s Next is continually resolved through four interrelated strategies also termed as the institution's four strategic directions, namely: (1) driving social innovation in quality education, (2) embracing our shared humanity and championing social inclusion and justice initiatives, (3) creating sustainable futures and (4) engaging diverse stakeholders in our shared mission. Significantly, the four strategic directions capture and integrate the 17 UN sustainable development goals, making the innovative curriculum locally and globally relevant. To conclude, the main concern of the new administration and how it is continually resolved, provide meaningful and fun learning experiences and promote a new way of learning in the light of the 21^st century skills among the members of the academic community including stakeholders and extended communities at large, which are defined as: learning together and by association (collaboration), learning through engagement (communication), learning by design (creativity) and learning with social impact (critical thinking).

Keywords: DLSL four strategic directions , DLSL Lipa mission-vision, driving what's next, social innovation in quality education

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Authors: Rudolf Egger

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This article shows some results of an ongoing project in Kosova. This project deals with the meaning of social transformation processes in the life-courses of Kosova people. One goal is to create an oral history archive in this country. In the last seven years we did some interpretative work (using narrative interviews) concerning the experiences and meanings of social changes from the perspective of life course. We want to reconstruct the individual possibilities in creating one's life in new social structures. After the terrible massacres of ethnical-territorially defined nationalism in former Yugoslavia it is the main focus to find out something about the many small daily steps which must be done, to build up a kind of “normality” in this country. These steps can be very well reconstructed by narrations, by life stories, because personal experiences are naturally linked with social orders. Each individual story is connected with further stories, in which the collective history will be negotiated and reflected. The view on the biographical narration opens the possibility to analyze the concreteness of the “individual case” in the complexity of collective history. Life stories contain thereby a kind of a transition character, that’s why they can be used for the reconstruction of periods of political transformation. For example: In the individual story we can find very clear the national or mythological character of the Albanian people in Kosova. The shown narrations can be read also as narrative lines in relation to the (re-)interpretation of the past, in which lived life is fixed into history in the so-called collective memory in Kosova.

Keywords: biographical learning, adult education, social change, post war societies

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Authors: Bolanle Deborah Motilewa, E.K. Rowland Worlu, Gbenga Mayowa Agboola, Marvellous Aghogho Chidinma Gberevbie

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Businesses operating in the modern business world are faced with varying challenges; amongst which is the need to ensure that they are performing their societal function of being responsible in the society in which they operate. This responsibility to society is generally termed as corporate social responsibility. For many years, the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) was solely philanthropic, where organizations gave ‘charity’ or ‘alms’ to society, without any link to the organization’s mission and objectives. However, there has arisen a shift in the application of CSR from an act of philanthropy to a strategy with a business model engaged in by organizations to create a win-win situation of performing their societal obligation, whilst simultaneously performing their economic obligation. In more recent times, the term has moved from CSR to creating shared value, which is simply corporate policies and practices that enhance the competitiveness of a business organization while simultaneously advancing social and economic conditions in the communities in which the company operates. Creating shared value has in more recent light found more meaning in underdeveloped countries, faced with deep societal challenges that businesses can solve whilst creating economic value. This study thus reviews literature on CSR, conceptualizing the shift to creating shared value and finally viewing its potential significance in Africa’s development.

Keywords: africapitalism, corporate social responsibility, development, shared value

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Authors: Leila Mohammadi

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This article discusses the technology of social egg freezing in the context of existing literature on medicalization, motherhood, and marketing. The social egg freezing technique offers to preserve some healthy eggs for age-related fertility decline in the future. The study draws on a qualitative analysis and participants observation of media publications, including text, images, or audio-visual about social egg freezing technology and postpone maternity, to identify and compare their communication strategies from a framing theory perspective. Using 442 surveys and 158 pieces of publications in Spanish media, this study demonstrated that the narratives used by these publications and their structures follow a marketing objective to medicalize motherhood. Within these frames, the market of preserving fertility is cast to show compassion and concern about women. In the opinion of participants, egg freezing technology liberates, empowers, and automates women from patriarchal control, and also gives them the responsibility of taking care of their body and reproductive system. This study showed this opinion is significantly influenced by media and their communication strategies supported by providers of this business.

Keywords: motherhood, social egg freezing, medicalization, marketing, media frames, fertility, assisted reproductive system

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Authors: Daria Baiocchi

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The goal of this article is to inseparably link the social metamorphosis that took place in Italy between the seventies and eighties, and the genesis of two works: the Sequenza VIII for solo violin and Duets for two violins, by L.Berio. Passing through a presentation of Sequenza and Duets, the italian socio-cultural change has been described in the seventies and eighties. Ipso facto the two works of Berio have been compared: if in the early seventies emerges a large youthful aggregative strength towards innovation, in the eighties the rediscovery of subjectivity leads to the enhancement of everyday life in its most inward sides. Through the analysis of social change of the time and of the different compositional cuts, given by Berio in Sequenze and in Duets, the composer is, in this case, an expression of its time

Keywords: music composition, music and society, L. Berio, Sequenza VIII and duets

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Authors: E. V. Fakhrutdinova, K. R. Maksimova, P. B. Chursin

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At the present stage of the society progress the health care is an integral part of both the economic system and social, while in the second case the medicine is a major component of a number of basic and necessary social programs. Since the foundation of the health system are highly qualified health professionals, it is logical proposition that increase of doctor`s professionalism improves the effectiveness of the system as a whole. Professionalism of the doctor is a collection of many components, essential role played by such personal-psychological factors as honesty, willingness and desire to help people, and motivation. A number of researchers consider motivation as an expression of basic human needs that have passed through the “filter” which is a worldview and values learned in the process of socialization by the individual, to commit certain actions designed to achieve the expected result. From this point of view a number of researchers propose the following classification of highly skilled employee’s needs: 1. the need for confirmation the competence (setting goals that meet the professionalism and receipt of positive emotions in their decision), 2. The need for independence (the ability to make their own choices in contentious situations arising in the process carry out specialist functions), 3. The need for ownership (in the case of health care workers, to the profession and accordingly, high in the eyes of the public status of the doctor). Nevertheless, it is important to understand that in a market economy a significant motivator for physicians (both legal and natural persons) is to maximize its own profits. In the case of health professionals duality motivational structure creates an additional contrast, as in the public mind the image of the ideal physician; usually a altruistically minded person thinking is not primarily about their own benefit, and to assist others. In this context, the question of the real motivation of health workers deserves special attention. The survey conducted by the American researcher Harrison Terni for the magazine "Med Tech" in 2010 revealed the opinion of more than 200 medical students starting courses, and the primary motivation in a profession choice is "desire to help people", only 15% said that they want become a doctor, "to earn a lot". From the point of view of most of the classical theories of motivation this trend can be called positive, as intangible incentives are more effective. However, it is likely that over time the opinion of the respondents may change in the direction of mercantile motives. Thus, it is logical to assume that well-designed system of motivation of doctor`s labor should be based on motivational foundations laid during training in higher education.

Keywords: motivation, quality of working life, health system, personal-psychological factors, motivational structure

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Authors: Alba Ballester Ciuró, Marc Pares Franzi

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While coming decades are likely to see a higher flood risk in Europe and greater socio-economic damages, traditional flood risk management has become inefficient. In response to that, new approaches such as capacity building and public participation have recently been incorporated in natural hazards mitigation policy (i.e. Sendai Framework for Action, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and EU Floods Directive). By integrating capacity building and public participation, we present a research concerning the promotion of participatory social capacity building actions for flood risk mitigation at the local level. Social capacities have been defined as the resources and abilities available at individual and collective level that can be used to anticipate, respond to, cope with, recover from and adapt to external stressors. Social capacity building is understood as a process of identifying communities’ social capacities and of applying collaborative strategies to improve them. This paper presents a proposal of systematization of participatory social capacity building process for flood risk mitigation, and its implementation in a high risk of flooding area in the Ebro river basin: Ribera Alta del Ebro. To develop this process, we designed and tested a tool that allows measuring and building five types of social capacities: knowledge, motivation, networks, participation and finance. The tool implementation has allowed us to assess social capacities in the area. Upon the results of the assessment we have developed a co-decision process with stakeholders and flood risk management authorities on which participatory activities could be employed to improve social capacities for flood risk mitigation. Based on the results of this process, and focused on the weaker social capacities, we developed a set of participatory actions in the area oriented to general public and stakeholders: informative sessions on flood risk management plan and flood insurances, interpretative river descents on flood risk management (with journalists, teachers, and general public), interpretative visit to the floodplain, workshop on agricultural insurance, deliberative workshop on project funding, deliberative workshops in schools on flood risk management (playing with a flood risk model). The combination of obtaining data through a mixed-methods approach of qualitative inquiry and quantitative surveys, as well as action research through co-decision processes and pilot participatory activities, show us the significant impact of public participation on social capacity building for flood risk mitigation and contributes to the understanding of which main factors intervene in this process.

Keywords: flood risk management, public participation, risk reduction, social capacities, vulnerability assessment

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Authors: Diana Codat

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Tweets' analysis is part of text mining. Each document is a written text. It's possible to apply the usual text search techniques, in particular by switching to the bag-of-words representation. But the tweets induce peculiarities. Some may enrich the analysis. Thus, their length is calibrated (at least as far as public messages are concerned), special characters make it possible to identify authors (@) and themes (#), the tweet and retweet mechanisms make it possible to follow the diffusion of the information. Conversely, other characteristics may disrupt the analyzes. Because space is limited, authors often use abbreviations, emoticons to express feelings, and they do not pay much attention to spelling. All this creates noise that can complicate the task. The tweets carry a lot of potentially interesting information. Their exploitation is one of the main axes of the analysis of the social networks. We show how to access Twitter-related messages. We will initiate a study of the properties of the tweets, and we will follow up on the exploitation of the content of the messages. We will work under R with the package 'twitteR'. The study of tweets is a strong focus of analysis of social networks because Twitter has become an important vector of communication. This example shows that it is easy to initiate an analysis from data extracted directly online. The data preparation phase is of great importance.

Keywords: data mining, language R, social networks, Twitter

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Authors: Asifa Fitriani, Galih Prakoso

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This study aims to improve the design layout of a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to minimize material handling and redesigning the layout of production facilities based on the safety and health and standards of food production facilities. Problems layout in the one of chip making industry mushrooms in Indonesia is cross movement between work stations, work accidents, and the standard of facilities that do not conform with the standards of the food industry. Improvement layout design using CORELAP and 5S method to give recommendation and implementation of occupational health and safety standards of food production facilities. From the analysis, improved layout using CORELAP provide a smaller displacement distance is 155.84 meters from the initial displacement distance of 335.9 meters, and providing a shorter processing time than the original 112.726 seconds to 102.831 seconds. 5S method also has recommended the completion of occupational health and safety issues as well as the standard means of food production by changing the working environment better.

Keywords: Layout Design, Corelap, 5S

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Authors: Zita Fomukong Andam

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The decision on where to host sport events does not depend on the national politicians or specific international sport event bodies but also involves the residents of the hosting country. Sport tourism is one of the fast growing industries in the world. Cameroonians consider sport as a point of unity and growth within the country. It has a huge variety of sporting activities like swimming, canoe racing, tug of war and most especially soccer well known as football. The football national team made an impact in 1990 at the FIFA world cup. They also won the African Nations Cup five times. Being the winner of the 2017 African Cup of Nations, they are to host the 2019 African cup of Nations. The purpose of this research is to analyse the impacts of sport tourism event in Cameroon and specifically examine how this event influences the residents. A deep research discourse conducted with randomly selected 300 inbound residents and 200 Cameroonian residents living abroad. Survey questionnaires, interviews and direct observations were carried out as a method of collecting data. The results showed that sport events brings a lot of prestige and honor to the country; generate revenues to the country’s economy and particularly to the local businesses. On the other hand, the results showed that the local residents lose their intimacy, privacy, and their daily life routine is affected. In addition to this, they face negative social inequalities and environmental impacts. Understanding these results the national government and international bodies might be able to contribute to future studies and propose efficient measures to maximize the positive benefits and minimize the negative benefits.

Keywords: sport Tourism, economic impact, resident altitude, african Cup of nations

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Authors: Hila Levi

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Respect for human rights is a fundamental element of the European Union's (EU) identity and law. Surprisingly, however, the protection of human rights has been significantly restricted in the austerity programs ordered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC) (often labeled 'the Troika') in return for financial aid to the crisis-hit countries. This paper focuses on the role of the ECB in the crisis management. While other international financial institutions, such as the IMF or the World Bank, may opt to neglect human rights obligations, one might expect a greater respect of human rights from the ECB, which is bound by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, this paper argues that ECB officials made no significant effort to protect human rights or strike an adequate balance between competing financial and human rights needs while coping with the crisis. ECB officials were preoccupied with the need to stabilize the economy and prevent a collapse of the Eurozone, and paid only marginal attention to human rights concerns in the design and implementation of Troikas' programs. This paper explores the role of Organizational Culture (OC) in explaining this marginalization. While International Relations (IR) research on Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) behavior has traditionally focused on external interests of powerful member states, and on national and economic considerations, this study focuses on particular institutions' internal factors and independent processes. OC characteristics have been identified in OC literature as an important determinant of organizational behavior. This paper suggests that cultural characteristics are also vital for the examination of IGOs, and particularly for understanding the ECB's behavior during the crisis. In order to assess the OC of the ECB and the impact it had on its policies and decisions during the Eurozone crisis, the paper uses the results of numerous qualitative interviews conducted with high-ranking officials and staff members of the ECB involved in the crisis management. It further reviews primary sources of the ECB (such as ECB statutes, and the Memoranda of Understanding signed between the crisis countries and the Troika), and secondary sources (such as the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Austerity measures and economic, social, and cultural rights). It thus analyzes the interaction between the ECBs culture and the almost complete absence of human rights considerations in the Eurozone crisis resolution scheme. This paper highlights the importance and influence of internal ideational factors on IGOs behavior. From a more practical perspective, this paper may contribute to understanding one of the obstacles in the process of human rights implementation in international organizations, and provide instruments for better protection of social and economic rights.

Keywords: European central bank, eurozone crisis, intergovernmental organizations, organizational culture

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Authors: Ribeiro A., Vilarinho C., Luisa A., Carvalho J

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The pig meat industry generates large volumes of by- and co-products like blood, bones, skin, trimmings, organs, viscera, and skulls, among others, during slaughtering and meat processing and must be treated and disposed of ecologically. The yield of these by-products has been reported to account for about 10% to 15% of the value of the live animal in developed countries, although animal by-products account for about two-thirds of the animal after slaughter. It was selected for further valorization of the principal wastes produced throughout the value chain of pig meat production: Pig Manure, Pig Bones, Fats, Skins, Pig Hair, Wastewater, Wastewater sludges, and other animal subproducts type III. According to the potential valorization options, these wastes will be converted into Biomethane, Fertilizers (phosphorus and digestate), Hydroxyapatite, and protein hydrolysates (Keratin and Collagen). This work includes comprehensive technical and economic analyses (TEA) for each valorization route or applied technology. Metrics such as Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and payback periods were used to evaluate economic feasibility. From this analysis, it can be concluded that, for Biogas Production, the scenarios using pig manure, wastewater sludges and mixed grass and leguminous wastes presented a remarkably high economic feasibility. Scenarios showed high economic feasibility with a positive payback period, NPV, and IRR. The optimal scenario combining pig manure with mixed grass and leguminous wastes had a payback period of 1.2 years and produced 427,6269 m³ of biomethane annually. Regarding the Chemical Extraction of Phosphorous and Nitrogen, results proved that the process is economically unviable due to negative cash flows despite high recovery rates. The TEA of Hydrolysis and Extraction of Keratin Hydrolysates indicate that a unit processing and valorizing 10 tons of pig hair per year for the production of keratin hydrolysate has an NPV of 907,940 €, an IRR of 13.07%, and a Payback period of 5.41 years. All of these indicators suggest a highly potential project to explore in the future. On the opposite, the results of Hydrolysis and Extraction of Collagen Hydrolysates showed a process economically unviable with negative cash flows in all scenarios due to the high-fat content in raw materials. In fact, the results from the valorization of 10 tons of pig skin had a negative cash flow of 453 743,88 €. TEA results of Extraction and purification of Hydroxyapatite from Pig Bones with Pyrolysis indicate that unit processing and valorizing 10 tons of pig bones per year for the production of hydroxyapatite has an NPV of 1 274 819,00 €, an IRR of 65.43%, and a Payback period of 1,5 years over a timeline of 10 years with a discount rate of 10%. These valorization routes, circular economy and bio-refinery approach offer significant contributions to sustainable bio-based operations within the agri-food industry. This approach transforms waste into valuable resources, enhancing both environmental and economic outcomes and contributing to a more sustainable and circular bioeconomy.

Keywords: techno-economic analysis (TEA), pig meat processing wastes, circular economy, bio-refinery

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Authors: Merve Ak Efe

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Youth branches in Turkey are one of the sub-fields where political ideologies are intersected with daily life practices. When the youth branches are examined within the framework of daily life practices, a social area can be defined where many types of capital turn into gains. The relationship between politics and capital is not only financial but can also be observed in the form of social, cultural, or emotional capital. This paper examines the political mobilization of young people who are members of the Youth Branch of the Justice and Development Party. The reason why JDP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) was chosen is that they have been the ruling party for twenty years, and there is a considerable number of young members within the party. Since Bayrampaşa is a district where JDP is politically active, This study is based on Bayrampaşa youth branches. The study examines how young people who are members of the party are mobilized and the everyday life practices and emotions underlying this mobilization. The data was collected through in-depth interviews with 13 young people, and the participant observation method was applied at the weekly meetings of the Justice and Development Party Bayrampaşa Youth Branch. Youth Branches represent a political space in which emotions turn into action for the young people who are involved in the party. During the field study at the micro level, it has been observed that the Bayrampaşa JDP Youth Branch hosted a transformation that incorporates political and social practices into modern tactics. One of the other results shows that being a member of youth branches causes a significant rise in social capital for young people. On the other hand, for the members with low cultural capital, there is an increase in social capital; however, an increase in cultural capital is not prominent.

Keywords: political mobilization, everyday practices, emotional capital, social capital, cultural capital

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Authors: Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Olubukola Ranti Uwuigbe, Jinadu Olugbenga, Otekunrin Adegbola

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Corporate reporting has evolved over the years resulting from criticisms of the precedent by shareholders, stakeholders and other relevant financial institutions. Integrated reporting has become a globalized corporate reporting style, with its adoption around the world occurring rapidly to bring about an improvement in the quality of corporate reporting. While some countries have swiftly clinched into reporting in an integrated manner, others have not. In addition, there are ample research that has been conducted on the benefits of adopting integrated reporting, however, the same is not true in developing economies like Nigeria. Hence, this study basically examined the factors determining the adoption of integrated reporting in Nigeria. One hundred (100) copies of questionnaire was administered to financial managers of 20 selected listed companies in the Nigeria stock exchange market. The data obtained was analysed using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation via the Statistical Package for Social Science. This study observed that there is a significant relationship between the social pressures of isomorphic changes and integrated reporting adoption in Nigeria. The study recommends the need for an enforcement mechanism to be put in place while considering the adoption of integrated reporting in Nigeria, enforcement mechanisms should put into consideration the investors demand, the level of economic development, and the degree of corporate social responsibility.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, isomorphic, integrated reporting, Nigeria, sustainability

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Authors: Giulia I. Pintea

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The Roma people are a nomadic ethnic group native to India, and they are one of the most prevalent minorities in Europe. In the past, Roma were enslaved and they were imprisoned in concentration camps during the Holocaust; today, Roma are subject to hate crimes and are denied access to healthcare, education, and proper housing. The aim of this project is to analyze how the public perception of the Roma people may be influenced by antiziganist and pro-Roma institutions in Europe. In order to carry out this project, we used social network analysis to build two large social networks: The antiziganist network, which is composed of institutions that oppress and racialize Roma, and the pro-Roma network, which is composed of institutions that advocate for and protect Roma rights. Measures of centrality, density, and modularity were obtained to determine which of the two social networks is exerting the greatest influence on the public’s perception of Roma in European societies. Furthermore, data on hate crimes on Roma were gathered from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). We analyzed the trends in hate crimes on Roma for several European countries for 2009-2015 in order to see whether or not there have been changes in the public’s perception of Roma, thus helping us evaluate which of the two social networks has been more influential. Overall, the results suggest that there is a greater and faster exchange of information in the pro-Roma network. However, when taking the hate crimes into account, the impact of the pro-Roma institutions is ambiguous, due to differing patterns among European countries, suggesting that the impact of the pro-Roma network is inconsistent. Despite antiziganist institutions having a slower flow of information, the hate crime patterns also suggest that the antiziganist network has a higher impact on certain countries, which may be due to institutions outside the political sphere boosting the spread of antiziganist ideas and information to the European public.

Keywords: applied mathematics, oppression, Roma people, social network analysis

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Authors: Tania Vazquez, Aida Huerta

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Way to get our food has changed over the time, and it is a daily necessity. Nowadays we found a lot of problems involved with the economy, environment, and society, which affect the agrifood system. Some problems as construction of big cities and growing population have been increasing demand food directly. Due to the countryside are far away from the city, another alternative systems have come from, such as Urban Agriculture (UA). UA system offers food production into the cities, products with characteristics as quality, healthy and good prices, close to the customers, recycling culture and the promote environmental education. Last years in Mexico City urban gardens have taken strongly in various politic delegations. There are establishment’s public and private initiatives. Moreover, these places have had different issues like low income, many activities, few workers, low production, lack of training and advice, devaluation of your work and low sales, all these shortcomings generate the devaluation of their work. The aim of this paper is to evaluate a business plan in Mexico City´s urban gardens that contribute to ensuring economic, environmental and social sustainability; to adjust business plan for this places so that they reach viability over time. As a part of soft systems methodology developed of Peter Checkland, we interviewed owners of urban gardens and we found that recurring problem was lack planning manager activities and a master plan about their business. We evaluate the business plan based on “Ten principles in sustainable food value chain development” proposed for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). With this study was possible measure, understand and improve performance of business plan in the three pillars of the sustainability in addition to this it allowed us to fit in with the needs of urban gardens.

Keywords: business plan, Mexico City, urban agriculture, urban gardens

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Authors: Mai To

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Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ontario, Canada have invested in social media presence for multiple purposes, such as branding, student’ engagement, and recruitment. To have a full picture of the social media strategy implemented by HEIs in Ontario, Canada, this study used a mixed-method approach to analyze Facebook posts’ characteristics and content. A total of 1789 Facebook posts from September 2019 to April 2020 of six selected HEIs were collected for analysis and coding based on five pre-determined branding positions: Elite, Nurturing, Campus, Outcome, and Commodity. Besides, the study also calculated the engagement rate for each social media practice to measure its effectiveness. The results show that there were not many differences in practices such as posting frequency, length, types, and timing among HEIs. However, the distribution of branding positions and content targeting future students versus current students was varied, although the HEIs employed all five branding positions and targeted the same lists of audiences. Some practices such as evening post for colleges and nurturing branding for universities attracted significantly higher engagement. This study provides a review of current social media practices and branding strategy, as well as informs the practices that can better engage the audiences.

Keywords: branding, higher education, social media, student engagement, student recruitment

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Authors: Joyce Mary Adam

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The subject of youth and education has been on the agenda of both public policies and specific education policies. In this sense, this work aims to discuss, based on the conceptions of social capital and cultural capital, the possibilities of elaborating and putting into practice the life projects they build during secondary school. The critical view brought by the concepts of social capital and cultural capital considers that in the school environment, those who have social capital and cultural capital have more tools to continue their projects, while those who do not have such capital will consequently have fewer opportunities, a fact that directly contributes to the perpetuation of social and educational inequality. When the "Life Project" is discussed under the sole responsibility of the students, it is clear that it is the students who must "take their responsibilities and decisions", their success or failure. From this point of view, the success of the implementation of the Life Project is determined by how well the students have developed their "skills and competencies" and their capacity for entrepreneurship without promoting a critical reflection on the real economic difficulties of the majority of students at this level of education. This situation gives rise to feelings of self-blame and self-responsibility among young people, who are compelled to confront the reality that their expectations have not been fulfilled, that they have been unable to gain employment, and, in some instances, that they have been marginalized. In this regard, the research project aimed to gather data on the living conditions of students at a public school and a private school in Brazil through interviews. The research methodology was interviews with students from a public school and an elite private school. The main objective of the research was to analyze the students' cultural and social capital as a key element in their social and professional integration after completing this stage of education. The study showed that social and cultural capital has a significant influence on opportunities to continue studying or to find a satisfactory job. For young people from public schools and from lower economic classes, the need to enter the job market as soon as they finish or even before they finish high school is due to economic and survival issues. The hours of dedication to studies and the diversity of cultural activities such as trips, visits to museums, or the cultivation of artistic activities available to poorer students in state schools have proved to be rarer. In conclusion, we found that the difference in social and cultural capital between the young people taking part in the research has been shown to play an important role in the social and professional integration of the students and contributes to the maintenance of school and social inequality. This highlights the importance of public policies and support networks for young people leaving secondary school.

Keywords: social capital, cultural capital, high school, life project, social insertion, professional insertion, youth

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Authors: Richard Sogah

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The significance of transport infrastructure investments for economic growth and development has been central to the World Bank’s strategy for poverty reduction. Among the conventional surface transport infrastructures, road infrastructure is significant in facilitating the movement of human capital goods and services. When transport projects (i.e., roads, super-highways) are implemented, they come along with some negative social values (costs), such as increased noise and air pollution for local residents living near these facilities, displaced individuals, etc. However, these projects also facilitate better utilization of existing capital stock and generate other observable benefits that can be easily quantified. For example, the improvement or construction of roads creates employment, stimulates revenue generation (toll), reduces vehicle operating costs and accidents, increases accessibility, trade expansion, safety improvement, etc. Aside from these benefits, travel time savings (TTSs) which are the major economic benefits of urban and inter-urban transport projects and therefore integral in the economic assessment of transport projects, are often overlooked and omitted when estimating the benefits of transport projects, especially in developing countries. The absence of current and reliable domestic travel data and the inability of replicated models from the developed world to capture the actual value of travel time savings due to the large unemployment, underemployment, and other labor-induced distortions has contributed to the failure to assign value to travel time savings when estimating the benefits of transport schemes in developing countries. This omission of the value of travel time savings from the benefits of transport projects in developing countries poses problems for investors and stakeholders to either accept or dismiss projects based on schemes that favor reduced vehicular operating costs and other parameters rather than those that ease congestion, increase average speed, facilitate walking and handloading, and thus save travel time. Given the complex reality in the estimation of the value of travel time savings and the presence of widespread informal labour activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, we construct a “nationally ranked distribution of time values” and estimate the value of travel time savings based on the area beneath the distribution. Compared with other approaches, our method captures both formal sector workers and individuals/people who work outside the formal sector and hence changes in their time allocation occur in the informal economy and household production activities. The dataset for the estimations is sourced from the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, etc.

Keywords: road infrastructure, transport projects, travel time savings, congestion, Sub-Sahara Africa

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Authors: S. I. Mwasha, Z. Robinson, M. Musgrave

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Communities, especially in the global south, have been reported to have low adaptive capacity to cope with climate change impacts. As an attempt to improve adaptive capacity, most studies have focused on understanding the access of the household resources which can contribute to resilience against changes. However, little attention has been shown in uncovering how the household resources could be used and their implications to resilience against weather related shocks. By using a case study qualitative study, this project analyzed the trends in livelihoods practices and their implication to social equity. The study was done in three different villages within Kilimanjaro region. Each in different agro ecological zone. Two focus group discussions in two agro-ecological zones were done, one for women and another one for men except in the third zone where focus group participant were combined together (due to unforeseen circumstances). In the focus group discussion, several participatory rural appraisal tools were used to understand trend in crops and animal production and the use in which it is made: climate trends, soil fertility, trees and other livelihoods resources. Data were analyzed using thematic network analysis. Using an amalgam of magnitude (to note weather comments made were positive or negative) and descriptive coding (to note the topic), six basic themes were identified under social equity: individual ownership, family ownership, love and respect, women no education, women access to education as well as women access to loans. The results implied that despite mum and dad in the family providing labor in the agro pastoral activities, there were separations on who own what, as well as individual obligations in the family. Dad owned mostly income creating crops and mum, food crops. therefore, men controlled the economy which made some of them become arrogant and spend money to meet their interests sometimes not taking care of the family. Separation in ownership was reported to contribute to conflicts in the household as well as causing controversy on the use income is spent. Men were reported to use income to promote matriarchy system. However, as women were capacitated through access to education and loans they become closer to their husband and get access to own and plan the income together for the interest of the family. Joint ownership and planning on the household resources were reported to be important if families have to better adapt to climate change. The aim of this study is not to show women empowerment and joint ownership and planning as only remedy for low adaptive capacity. There is the need to understand other practices that either directly or indirectly impacts environmental integrity, food security and economic development for household resilience against changing climate.

Keywords: adaptive capacity, climate change, resilience, women empowerment

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Authors: Sherine Farouk, Fauzia Jabeen

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The purpose of this study is to examine the role played by ethical climate and CSR on organizational performance in public sector organizations. In particular, the research will shed light on the link between formalized ethical procedures and employee responses including corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance among public sector employees. Data was collected from 425 employees working in public sector organizations in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates. Structural Equation Modeling will be used to test the proposed hypotheses. The paper contributes to the literature by being one of the first to study CSR and ethical climate within a Middle Eastern context, and will offer important implications for theory and practice.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, ethical climate, organizational performance, United Arab Emirates

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Authors: Yi Yu, Vu Xuan Nguyen, Gaoxi Xiao

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Opinion formation in complex social networks may exhibit complex system dynamics even when based on some simplest system evolution models. An interesting and important issue is the effects of the initial state on the final steady-state opinion distribution. By carrying out extensive simulations and providing necessary discussions, we show that, while different initial opinion distributions certainly make differences to opinion evolution in social systems without noises, in systems with noises, given enough time, different initial states basically do not contribute to making any significant differences in the final steady state. Instead, it is the basal distribution of the preferred opinions that contributes to deciding the final state of the systems. We briefly explain the reasons leading to the observed conclusions. Such an observation contradicts with a long-term belief on the roles of system initial state in opinion formation, demonstrating the dominating role that opinion mutation can play in opinion formation given enough time. The observation may help to better understand certain observations of opinion evolution dynamics in real-life social networks.

Keywords: opinion formation, Deffuant model, opinion mutation, consensus making

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Authors: Muhammad Waseem Akram

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The current study attempts to analyze the impact of business constraints on the growth potential and performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the electrical industry of Pakistan. Primary data have been utilized for the study collected from the electrical industry cluster in Sargodha, Pakistan. OLS regression is used to assess the impact of business constraints on the performance of SMEs by controlling the effect of Technology Level, Innovations, and Firm Size. To associate business constraints with the growth potential of SMEs, the study utilized Tetrachoric Correlation and Logistic Regression. Findings reveal that all the business constraints negatively affect the performance of SMEs in the electrical industry except Political Instability. Results of Tetrachoric Correlation show that all the business constraints are negatively correlated with the growth potential of SMEs. Logistic Regression results show that Energy Constraint, Inflation and Price Instability, and Bad Business Practices, all three business constraints cause to reduce the probability of income growth in sample SMEs.

Keywords: SMEs, business constraints, performance, growth potential

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Authors: Kelly Jaunzems

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Social media is a powerful instrument of communication, enabling the presentation of information in multiple forms and modes, amplifying the interactions between people, organisations, and stakeholders, and increasing the range of communication channels available. Younger generations are highly engaged with social media and more likely to use this channel than any other to seek information. Given this, it may appear extraordinary that occupational safety and health professionals have yet to seriously engage with social media for communicating safety messages to younger audiences who, in many industries, might be statistically more likely to encounter more workplace harm or injury. Millennials, defined as those born between 1981-2000, have distinctive characteristics that also impact their interaction patterns rendering many traditional occupational safety and health communication channels sub-optimal or near obsolete. Used to immediate responses, 280-character communication, shares, likes, and visual imagery, millennials struggle to take seriously the low-tech, top-down communication channels such as safety noticeboards, toolbox meetings, and passive tick-box online inductions favoured by traditional OSH professionals. This paper draws upon well-established communication findings, which argue that it is important to know a target audience and reach them using their preferred communication pathways, particularly if the aim is to impact attitudes and behaviours. Health practitioners have adopted social media as a communication channel with great success, yet safety practitioners have failed to follow this lead. Using a digital ethnography approach, this paper examines seven organisations’ Facebook posts from two one-month periods one year apart, one in 2018 and one in 2019. Each of the years informs organisation-based case studies. Comparing, contrasting, and drawing upon these case studies, the paper discusses and evaluates the (non) use of social media communication of safety information in terms of user engagement, shareability, and overall appeal. The success of health practitioners’ use of social media provides a compelling template for the implementation of social media into organisations’ safety communication strategies. Highly visible content such as that found on social media allows an organization to become more responsive and engage in two-way conversations with their audience, creating more engaged and participatory conversations around safety. Further, using social media to address younger audiences with a range of tonal qualities (for example, the use of humour) can achieve cut through in a way that grim statistics fail to do. On the basis of 18 months of interviews, filed work, and data analysis, the paper concludes with recommendations for communicating safety information via social media. It proposes exploration of the social media communication formula that, when utilised by safety practitioners, may create an effective social media presence. It is anticipated that such social media use will increase engagement, expand the number of followers and reduce the likelihood and severity of safety-related incidents. The tools offered may provide a path for safety practitioners to reach a disengaged generation of workers to build a cohesive and inclusive conversation around ways to keep people safe at work.

Keywords: social media, workplace safety, communication strategies, young workers

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