Search results for: citizens participation

Authors: Geday Elias, Montaigne Etienne, Padilla Martine, Tollossa Degefa

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Smallholder farmers’ participation in agricultural value chain identified as a pathway to get out of poverty trap in Ethiopia. The smallholder dairy activities have a huge potential in poverty reduction through enhancing income, achieving food and nutritional security in the country. However, much less is known about the effects of smallholder’s participation in milk value chain on household food security and nutrition. This paper therefore, aims at evaluating the effects of smallholders’ participation in milk value chain on household food security taking in to account the four pillars of food security measurements (availability, access, utilization and stability). Using a semi-structured interview, a cross sectional farm household data collected from a randomly selected sample of 333 households (170 in Amhara and 163 in Oromia regions).Binary logit and propensity score matching( PSM) models are employed to examine the mechanisms through which smallholder’s participation in the milk value chain affects household food security where crop production, per capita calorie intakes, diet diversity score, and food insecurity access scale are used to measure food availability, access, utilization and stability respectively. Our findings reveal from 333 households, only 34.5% of smallholder farmers are participated in the milk value chain. Limited access to inputs and services, limited access to inputs markets and high transaction costs are key constraints for smallholders’ limited access to the milk value chain. To estimate the true average participation effects of milk value chain for participated households, the outcome variables (food security) of farm households who participated in milk value chain are compared with the outcome variables if the farm households had not participated. The PSM analysis reveals smallholder’s participation in milk value chain has a significant positive effect on household income, food security and nutrition. Smallholder farmers who are participated in milk chain are better by 15 quintals crops production and 73 percent of per capita calorie intakes in food availability and access respectively than smallholder farmers who are not participated in the market. Similarly, the participated households are better in dietary quality by 112 percents than non-participated households. Finally, smallholders’ who are participated in milk value chain are better in reducing household vulnerability to food insecurity by an average of 130 percent than non participated households. The results also shows income earned from milk value chain participation contributed to reduce capital’s constraints of the participated households’ by higher farm income and total household income by 5164 ETB and 14265 ETB respectively. This study therefore, confirms the potential role of smallholders’ participation in food value chain to get out of poverty trap through improving rural household income, food security and nutrition. Therefore, identified the determinants of smallholder participation in milk value chain and the participation effects on food security in the study areas are worth considering as a positive knock for policymakers and development agents to tackle the poverty trap in the study area in particular and in the country in general.

Keywords: effects, food security and nutrition, milk, participation, smallholders, value chain

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Authors: S. Somerset, D. J. Hoare, P. Leighton

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Limited participation in physical activity and sport has been linked to poorer mental and physical health in children. Studies have shown that children who participate in sports benefit from improved social skills, self-confidence, communication skills and a better quality of life. Children who participate in sport are also more likely to continue their participation into their adult life. Deaf or hard of hearing children should have the same opportunities to participate in sport and receive the benefits as their hearing peers. Anecdotal evidence suggests this isn’t always the case. This is concerning given there are 45,000 children in the UK with permanent hearing loss. The aim of this study was to understand what encourages or discourages deaf or hard of hearing children to take part in sports. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the University of Nottingham School of Medicine ethics committee. We conducted eight focus groups with deaf or hard of hearing children aged 10 to 15 years. A total of 45 children (19 male, 26 female) recruited from local schools and sports clubs took part. Information was gathered on the children’s thoughts and feelings about participation in sport. This included whether they played sports and who with, whether they did or did not like sport, and why they got involved in sport. Focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Several key themes were identified as being associated with levels of sports participation. These included friendships, family and communication. Deaf or hard of hearing children with active siblings had participated in more sports. Communication was a common theme throughout regardless of the type of hearing-assistive technology a child used. Children found communication easier during sport if they were allowed to use their technology and had particular difficulty during sports such as swimming. Children expressed a desire not to have to identify themselves at a club as having a hearing loss. This affected their confidence when participating in sport. Not surprisingly, children who are deaf or hard of hearing are more likely to participate in sport if they have a good support network of parents, coaches and friends. The key barriers to participation for these children are communication, lack of visual information, lack of opportunity and a lack of awareness. By addressing these issues more deaf and hard of hearing children will take part in sport and will continue their participation.

Keywords: barrier, children, deaf, participation, hard of hearing, sport

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Authors: Odufu Ifakachukwu Clifford

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Developing country governments are struggling to meet the basic needs and demands of citizens, especially so for the rural poor. With tightly constrained budgets, these governments have followed the lead of developed countries that have sought to restructure public service delivery through privatization, contracting out, public-private partnerships, and similar reforms. Such reforms in service delivery are generally welcomed when it is believed that private sector partners are better equipped to provide certain services than are governments. With respect to basic and essential services, however, a higher degree of uncertainty and apprehension exists as the focus shifts from simply minimizing the costs of delivering services to broadening access to all citizens. The constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water. Affordable and/or subsidized water, then, is not a privilege but a basic right of all citizens. Citizens elect political representatives to serve in office, with their sole mandate being to provide for the needs of the citizenry. As governments pass on some amount of responsibility for service delivery to private businesses, these governments must be able to exercise control in order to account to the people for the work done by private partners. This paper examines the legislative and policy frameworks as well as the environment within which PPPs take place in South Africa and the extent to which accountability can be strengthened in this environment. Within the aforementioned backdrop of PPPs and accountability, the constricted focus area of the paper aims to assess the extent to which the provision of clean and safe consumable water in South Africa is sustainable, cost-effective in terms of provision, and affordable to all.

Keywords: privatisation, accountability, essential services, government

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Authors: Mukesh Ranjan, Varsha Nagargoje

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Applying the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Women Employment Participation Perception Index (WEPPI) has been made through 13 components. The basic purpose of the WEPPI is to develop an index or search for the latent factors which will capture the attitude or perception of the Mumbai’s slum women towards women’s employment participation in the job market through primary survey based on 160 observations. Majority of the response analyzed under various socio-economic and demographic characteristics falls in the strongly agree or agree category. It means whether it is age wise, marital status-wise, caste, religion or economic dimension-wise women responded that they should participate in employment in Mumbai. Value of KMO test was 0.544 and chronbac’s alpha value was between 0.5-0.6, so the index falls in poor category and can be improved upon by adding more number of items.

Keywords: WEPPI, exploratory factor analysis, KMO test, Chronbac alpha

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Authors: Porntipa Taksin, Jutamas Wongchan, Amornrat Karamee

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The researchers’ experience of student affairs in 2011-2013, we found that few undergraduate nursing students become student association members who participated in co-curricular activities, they have limited skill of self-directed-learning and leadership. We developed “A Leadership Promoting Program” using Self-Directed Learning concept. The program included six activities: 1) Breaking the ice, Decoding time, Creative SMO, Know me-Understand you, Positive thinking, and Creative dialogue, which include four aspects of these activities: decision-making, implementation, benefits, and evaluation. The one-group, pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research was designed to examine the effects of the program on participation in co-curricular activities. Thirty five students participated in the program. All were members of the board of undergraduate nursing student association of Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Chonburi. All subjects completed the questionnaire about participation in the activities at beginning and at the end of the program. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and dependent t-test. The results showed that the posttest scores of all four aspects mean were significantly higher than the pretest scores (t=3.30, p<.01). Three aspects had high mean scores, Benefits (Mean = 3.24, S.D. = 0.83), Decision-making (Mean = 3.21, S.D. = 0.59), and Implementation (Mean=3.06, S.D.=0.52). However, scores on evaluation falls in moderate scale (Mean = 2.68, S.D. = 1.13). Therefore, the Leadership Promoting Program based on Self-Directed Learning Approach could be a method to improve students’ participation in co-curricular activities and leadership.

Keywords: participation in co-curricular activities, undergraduate nursing students, leadership promoting program, self-directed learning

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Authors: Nongcebo Ngcobo

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This research explores the importance of including a multitude of voices in the cultural heritage narrative, particularly in South Africa. The Mashishing project is an extension of and builds on the existing ‘Biesje Poort project’ which is a rock art project that was funded by the National Heritage Council in 2010 - 2013. Hence, the Mashishing marking memories project applies comparable Biesje Poort project objectives, though in a different geographical area. The wider project objectives are to transfer skills, promote social cohesion and empowerment, and lastly to add to the knowledge base of the Mashishing region and the repository of the local museum in the Lydenburg museum. This study is located in the Mashishing area, in Mpumalanga, South Africa. In this area, there were no present multi-vocal heritage projects. This research assesses the Mashishing marking memories project through the culture-centered approach for communication for social change, which examines the impact that the diverse participants have on the operations of the Mashishing project and also investigates whether the culturally diverse participants facilitates or hinders effective participation within the project. Key findings of this research uncovered the significance of participation and diverse voices in the cultural heritage field. Furthermore, this study highlights how unequal power relations affect effective participation. As a result, this study encourages the importance of bringing the researcher and the participant in a safe space to facilitate mutual learning. It also encourages an exchange of roles, where the researcher shifts from being an authoritarian figure to being in the role of a listener.

Keywords: culture, heritage, participation, social change

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Authors: Summer Isaacson

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Research on gender differences in environmental behavior has long claimed that women engage less than men in environmental political participation (EPP) (protests, petitions), despite their higher levels of environmental concern and vulnerability. Using recent data from the ISSP’s 2020 Environment module including 28 countries, we revisit the gender gap in EPP. Arguing that increasing gender equality and socio-economic development can allow women to voice their environmental grievances, we use multi-level models to examine the effects of macro-level gender equality on gender differences in environmental protests, petitions, and boycotts. By distinguishing individual from collective and non-confrontational from confrontational engagement forms, this study offers an encompassing understanding of gendered patterns of participation. Women do participate more than men, but mainly in individual and non-confrontational EPP forms (petitions, boycotts) and with substantial variation across countries. Moreover, considering how women have historically been restrained from participating in politics, we argue that structural gender inequality remains an important limitation to women’s engagement. Cross-level interactions indicate that in more egalitarian countries, women are more likely to engage in several types of EPP than men. The study offers new perspectives and findings on gender differences in EPP, highlighting the impact of gender inequality on women’s participation.

Keywords: environmental activism, political participation, gender equality, pro-environmental behavior

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Authors: V. S. Bushkova

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It is well known that in recent years magnetic materials have received increased attention due to their properties. For this reason a significant number of patents that were published during the last decade are oriented towards synthesis and study of such materials. The aim of this work is to create and study ferrite nanocrystalline materials with spinel structure, using sol-gel technology with participation of auto-combustion. This method is perspective in that it is a cheap and low-temperature technique that allows for the fine control on the product’s chemical composition.

Keywords: magnetic materials, ferrites, sol-gel technology, nanocrystalline powders

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Authors: Preecha Pongpeng

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This research aims to study the education quality management to solve the problem of teachers shortage by the communities participation. This research is action research by using the tools is questionnaire to collect the data whit, students and community representatives and final will interview to ask the opinions of people in the community to help and support instruction in problems in teaching. Results found that people in the community are aware and working together to solve the lack the of teachers by collaboration between school personnel and community members by finding people who are knowledgeable, organized into local wisdom in the community, compound money to donate and hire someone in the community to teaching between classroom with people in the community. In addition, researcher discovered this research project contributes to cooperation between the school and community and there was a problem including administrative expenses and the school's academic quality management.

Keywords: education quality management, local wisdom, northern part of Thailand, participation of the community

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Authors: Anja Jutraz, Tadeja Zupancic

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This article explores urban laboratory, which presents a combination of different physical and digital methods and tools for public participation in urban design. The city consists of built and unbuilt environments, which can be defined as a community of people, who live there. Communities should have the option to express opinions and decide about the future of their city, from the early stages of the design process onwards. In this paper, we presented the possibility of involving community into renewal of Banska Štiavnica in Slovakia (more exactly the old mining shaft and lake Michal Štolna) and the methods to promote the community building. As a case study we presented the eTHNo project, Education about Technical, Historical and Natural opportunities of Michal Štolna. Moreover, we discussed the possibility of using virtual digital tools for public participation in urban design, where we especially focused on Virtual Urban Laboratory, VuLab.

Keywords: community building, digital tools, public participation, urban design

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Authors: Inuwa Abdu Ibrahim

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The research assessed representative democracy as an administrative system in Nigeria, by highlighting the failure of the state. It also looked at some components of direct democracy in Switzerland. Therefore, the paper focused on direct democracy, using secondary sources of data. In conclusion, the research offers direct democracy as a solution to the failure of the Nigerian administrative system especially as it affects participation, developmental programmes and institutionalized corruption.

Keywords: corruption, direct democracy, national development, Nigeria, participation

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Authors: Catarina Grande, Barbara Mota

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The main goal of the present study was to understand the impact of childhood cancer on the quality of life of survivors and the extent to which oncologic disease affects the functionality and participation of survivors at the present time, compared to the time of diagnosis. Six survivors of pediatric cancer participated in the study. Participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview, adapted from two instruments present in the literature - QALY and QLACS - and piloted through a previous study. This study is based on a qualitative approach using content analysis, allowing the identification of categories and subcategories. Subsequently, the correspondence between the units of meaning and the codes in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health for Children and Young, which contributed to a more detailed analysis of the impact on the quality of life of survivors in relation to the domains under study. The results showed significant changes between the moment of diagnosis and the present moment, concretely at the microsystem of the survivor. Regarding functionality and participation, the results show that the functions of the body are the most affected domain, emphasizing the emotional component that currently has a greater impact on the quality of life of survivors. The present study allowed identifying a set of codes for the development of a CIF-CJ core set for pediatric cancer survivors. He also indicated the need for future studies to validate and deepen these issues.

Keywords: cancer, participation, quality of life, survivor

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Authors: Olufunmilayo Folaranmi

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This research was carried out to examine the impact of socio-cultural factors on the management and utilization of solid waste in Ibadan Metropolis. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study while a systematic and stratified random sampling technique was used to select 300 respondents which were categorized into high, middle and low-density areas. Four hypothesis were tested using chi-square test on variables of unavailability of waste disposal facilities and waste management, negligence of contractors to liaise with community members, lack of adequate environmental education and waste management and utilization, low level of motivation of sanitation workers with solid wastes management, lack of community full participation with solid waste management and utilization. Results showed that significant effect of waste disposal facilities on solid waste management and utilization (X2 +16.6, P < .05). Also, there is a significant relationship between negligence of the contractors to liaise with community elites with improper disposal (X2 = 87.5, P < .05). The motivation of sanitation workers is significantly related to solid waste management (X2 = 70.4, P < .05). Adequate environmental education and awareness influenced solid waste management. There was also a significant relationship between lack of community participation with waste management disposal and improper waste disposal. Based on the findings from the study it was recommended that the quality of life in urban centers should be improved, social welfare of the populace enhanced and environment should be adequately attended to. Poverty alleviation programmes should be intensified and made to live beyond the life of a particular administration, micro-credit facilities should be available to community members to promote their welfare. Lastly, sustained environmental education programmes for citizens at all levels of education, formal and informal through the use of agencies like Ethical and Attitudinal Reorientation Commission (EARCOM) and the National Orientation Agency (NOA).

Keywords: management, social welfare, socio-cultural factors, solid waste

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Authors: Qiannan Zhuo, Wanglin Yan

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Minamata City and its citizens have been suffered from Minamata Disease, one of the worst environmental problems in Japan, since 1956. To mitigate the bad images brought by Minamata Disease, Minamata City has started a series of environmental friendly activities from 60 years ago. Garbage separation is the very beginning one. It has been already done for more than 20 years since Minamata citizens started to separate their garbage into more than 20 categories. In this research, the author evaluated the effectiveness of the waste management policy in Minamata city by analyzing the recycle rate and the landfill amount., and also pointed out the problems brought by it through the qualitative survey.

Keywords: Minamata City, households waste, garbage separation, recycle reduce reuse

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Authors: Molly Meadows

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Following the presidency of Donald J. Trump, Americans have become hyperaware of ethnocentrisms that plague the culture. The president's egoist ethics encouraged a divide between what the citizens of the US identified as just or unjust. In the race for global supremacy and leading ideology, fears have arisen, exacerbated by the ethnocentricity of the country's leader, pointing to the possible harmful ethical standards of competing nations. Due to the concept of ethical absolutism, an international code of ethics would not be possible, and the changes needed to eliminate the stigma surrounding other cultures of thought would need to come from the governing body of the US. As the current leading global ideology, the US would need its government to embody a transformational leadership style in order to unite the motivations of the citizens and encourage intercultural tolerance.

Keywords: ethics, transformational leadership, American politics, egoism, cultural intelligence, ethical relativism

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Authors: Olivia Kurucz

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Gamification is one of the outstanding new methodological possibilities of urban public participation processes to make the most informed decision possible for the future steps of urban development. This paper examines four Hungarian experimental projects in which gamified tools were applied during the public participation progresses by the Urban Future Laboratory (UFLab) research workshop of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE). The recently implemented future planning projects (in the cities of Pécel, Kistarcsa, Budapest, and Salgótarján) were initiated by various motives, but the multi-stakeholder dialogues were facilitated through physical gamified tools in all cases. Based on the urban gamification hypothesis, the use of gamified tools supported certain steps of participatory processes in several aspects: it helped to increase the attractiveness of public events, to create a more informal atmosphere, to ensure equal conditions for actors, to recall a design mindset, to bridge contrasting social or cultural differences, to fix opinions and to assist dialogue between city actors, designers, and residents. This statement is confirmed by assessing the applied tools, analyzing the case studies, and comparing them to perceive their effects and interrelations.

Keywords: experimental projects, future planning, gamification, gamified tools, Hungary, public participation, UFLab, urban gamification

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Authors: Ryoo Hye Jin Agnes

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This study aims to investigate the efficacy of clickers in fostering L2 class interaction. In an L2 classroom, active learner-to-learner interactions and learner-to-teacher interactions play an important role in language acquisition. In light of this, introducing learning tools that promote such interactions would benefit L2 classroom by fostering interaction. This is because the anonymity of clickers allows learners to express their needs without the social risks associated with speaking up in the class. clickers therefore efficiently help learners express their level of understanding during the process of learning itself. This allows for an evaluative feedback loop where both learners and teachers understand the level of progress of the learners, better enabling classrooms to adapt to the learners’ needs. Eventually this tool promotes participation from learners. This, in turn, is believed to be effective in fostering classroom interaction, allowing learning to take place in a more comfortable yet vibrant way. This study is finalized by presenting the result of an experiment conducted to verify the effectiveness of this approach when teaching pragmatic aspect of Korean expressions with similar semantic functions. The learning achievement of learners in the experimental group was found higher than the learners’ in a control group. A survey was distributed to the learners, questioning them regarding the efficacy of clickers, and how it contributed to their learning in areas such as motivation, self-assessment, increasing participation, as well as giving feedback to teachers. Analyzing the data collected from the questionnaire given to the learners, the study presented data suggesting that this approach increased the scope of interactivity in the classroom, thus not only increasing participation but enhancing the type of classroom participation among learners. This participation in turn led to a marked improvement in their communicative abilities.

Keywords: second language acquisition, interaction, clickers, learner response system, output from learners, learner’s cognitive process

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Authors: Sarah Reker, Christiane H. Kellner

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From the perspective of people with disabilities, inequalities can also emerge from spatial segregation, the lack of social contacts or limited economic resources. In order to reduce or even eliminate these disadvantages and increase general well-being, community-based participation as well as decentralisation efforts within exclusively residential homes is essential. Therefore, the new research project “Index for participation development and quality of life for persons with disabilities”(TeLe-Index, 2014-2016), which is anchored at the Technische Universität München in Munich and at a large residential complex and service provider for persons with disabilities in the outskirts of Munich aims to assist the development of community-based living environments. People with disabilities should be able to participate in social life beyond the confines of the institution. Since a diverse society is a society in which different individual needs and wishes can emerge and be catered to, the ultimate goal of the project is to create an environment for all citizens–regardless of disability, age or ethnic background–that accommodates their daily activities and requirements. The UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Germany also ratified, postulates the necessity of user-centered design, especially when it comes to evaluating the individual needs and wishes of all citizens. Therefore, a multidimensional approach is required. Based on this insight, the structure of the town-like center will be remodeled to open up the community to all people. This strategy should lead to more equal opportunities and open the way for a much more diverse community. Therefore, macro-level research questions were inspired by quality of life theory and were formulated as follows for different dimensions: •The user dimension: what needs and necessities can we identify? Are needs person-related? Are there any options to choose from? What type of quality of life can we identify? The economic dimension: what resources (both material and staff-related) are available in the region? (How) are they used? What costs (can) arise and what effects do they entail? •The environment dimension: what “environmental factors” such as access (mobility and absence of barriers) prove beneficial or impedimental? In this context, we have provided academic supervision and support for three projects (the construction of a new school, inclusive housing for children and teenagers with disabilities and the professionalization of employees with person-centered thinking). Since we cannot present all the issues of the umbrella-project within the conference framework, we will be focusing on one project more in-depth, namely “Outpatient Housing Options for Children and Teenagers with Disabilities”. The insights we have obtained until now will enable us to present the intermediary results of our evaluation. The most central questions pertaining to this part of the research were the following: •How have the existing network relations been designed? •What meaning (or significance) does the existing service offers and structures have for the everyday life of an external residential group? These issues underpinned the environmental analyses as well as the qualitative guided interviews and qualitative network analyses we carried out.

Keywords: decentralisation, environmental analyses, outpatient housing options for children and teenagers with disabilities, qualitative network analyses

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Authors: Isabel Stolz, Vera Tillmann, Volker Anneken

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The relationship between sport participation and psychological need satisfaction was examined by an analysis of interest and involvement in the sport of 937 children and adolescents with disabilities and their self-perceived need satisfaction. The Children’s intrinsic need-satisfaction Scale (CINSS) has been used to measure sport-related need satisfaction in this cross-sectional study. CINSS scores for the dimensions competence, autonomy and relatedness of the study’s participants were generally located in higher score levels. Significant relations between interest and involvement in sport and higher levels of psychological need satisfaction were found in the questioned children and adolescents. Examining the results of each need, the competence-dimension displayed a particular relevance for an increased sport-related lifestyle. The further results showed a negative correlation between children’s need satisfaction and a lack of confidence of participating in sport. A negative correlation was also found between children’s need satisfaction and experiencing difficulties in making contact with others. Despite the general interest in sport and the wish to participate in another sporting activity, the participation of the questioned children and adolescents in organized sport is comparatively low and decreases with age. Participation in sport seems to be beneficial to children and adolescents with disabilities’ psychological need satisfaction. This research highlights the positive impact of sport on psychological need satisfaction of children and adolescents with disabilities and emphasizes the demand for greater participation in organized sport for children and adolescents with disabilities.

Keywords: children and adolescents, health, physical activity, sport

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Authors: Julieth Gudo

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The prevalence of corruption in African countries and persisting unsatisfactory distribution by governments of state resources among the citizens are clear indicators of a festering problem. Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Southern African countries, as citizen representatives, have been involved in challenging the ongoing corruption and poor governance in the public sector that have caused tensions between citizens and their governments. In doing so, civil society organisations demand accountability, transparency, and citizen participation in public governance. The problem is that CSOs’ role in challenging governments is not clearly defined in both law and literature. This uncertainty has resulted in an unsatisfying operating and legal environment for CSOs and a strained relationship between themselves and the governments. This paper examines civil society organisations' role in advancing good public governance in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The study will be conducted by means of a literature review and case studies. The state of public governance in Southern Africa will be discussed. The historical role of CSOs in the region of Southern Africa will be explored, followed by their role in public governance in contemporary South Africa and Zimbabwe. The relationship between state and civil society organisations will be examined. Furthermore, the legal frameworks that regulate and authoriseCSOs in their part in challenging poor governance in the public sector will be identified and discussed. Loopholes in such provisions will be identified, and measures that CSOs use to hold those responsible for poor governance accountable for their actions will be discussed, consequently closing the existing gap on the undefined role of CSOs in public governance in Southern Africa. The research demonstrates the need for an enabling operating environment through better cooperation, communication, and the relationship between governments and CSOs, the speedy and effective amendment of existing laws, and the introduction of legal provisions that give express authority to CSOs to challenge poor governance on the part of Southern African governments. Also critical is the enforcement of laws so that those responsible for poor governance and corruption in government are held accountable.

Keywords: civil society organisations, public governance, southern Africa, South Africa, zimbabwe

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Authors: Mohammad Shoaib Khan, Abdul Sattar Bahalkani

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This research investigates the violence and their impact on SMEs in Sindh. The main objective of current research is to examine the women empowerment through women participation in small and medium enterprises in upper Sindh. The data were collected from 500 respondents from Kandhkot District, by using simple random technique. A structural questionnaire was designed as an instrument for measuring the impact of SMEs business in women empowerment in rural Sindh. It was revealed that the rural women is less confident and their husbands were always given them hard time once they are exposing themselves to outside the boundaries of the house. It was revealed that rural women have a major contribution in social, economic, and political development. It was further revealed that women are getting low wages and due to non-availability of market facility they are paying low wages. The negative impact of husbands’ income and having children at the age of 0-6 years old are also significant. High income of other household member raises the reservation wage of mothers, thus lowers the probability of participation when the objective of working is to help family’s financial need. The impact of childcare on mothers’ labor force participation is significant but not as the theory predicted. The probability of participation in labor force is significantly higher for women who lived in the urban areas where job opportunities are greater compared to the rural.

Keywords: empowerment, violence against women, SMEs, rural

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Authors: P. Viduthalai, A. K. Divakar, V. Natarajan

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Media is one of the powerful tools that manipulate the world in numerous aspects especially in the form of a communication process. For instance, the concept of the public sphere, which was earlier represented by landlords and elites has now transformed into a virtual public sphere, which is also represented by marginalized people. Unfortunately, this acquisition is still paradoxical. Though the media proliferation and its effects are humongous, still it has not been the same throughout the world. Inequality in access to media has created a technological divide among people. Finally, globalization and approach by the government towards using media for development communication has significantly changed the way in which the media reaches every nook and corner. Monarchy, oligarchy, republic and democracy together form the basis of most governments of the world. Of which, democracy is the one with the highest involvement and participation of the people. Ideally, the participation of the people is what, that keeps the democracy running. A healthy democracy is possible only when people are able to access information that makes citizens responsible and serves to check the functioning of their elected representatives. On one side the media consumption of people plays a crucial role in the formation of the public sphere, and on the other side, big media conglomerates are a serious threat to community participation, which is a goal that the media should strive for in a country like India. How different people consume these different media, differs greatly from length and breadth of the country. Another aspect of this media consumption is that it isn’t passive. People usage and consumption of media are related with the gratification that they derive from the particular media. This aspect varies from person to person and from society to society according to both internal and external factors. This article sets out from the most underlying belief that Malayali Tribes have adopted television and becomes a part of daily life and a day never passes without it especially after the introduction of Free Television Scheme by the past state government. Though they are living in hilly and socially isolated places, they too have started accessing media for understanding about the people of the plains and their culture, dictated by their interest. Many of these interests appear to have a social and psychological origin. The present research attempts to study how gratification of these needs lead Malayali Tribes to form such a virtual public sphere where they could communicate with people of the plains. Data was collected through survey method, from 300 respondents on “Exposure towards Television and their perception”. Conventional anthropological methods like unstructured interviews were also used to supplement the data collection efforts in the three taluks namely Yercaud, Pethanayankkanpalayam and Panamaraththuppatty in Salem district of TamilNadu. The results highlight the role of Television in gratifying needs of the Malayali Tribes.

Keywords: democracy, gratification, Malayali Tribes and television, virtual public sphere

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Authors: Edward Shizha

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Citizenship is not only political, but it is also a socio-cultural expectation that naturalized immigrants desire for. However, the outcomes of citizenship desirability are determined by forces outside the individual’s control based on legislation and laws that are designed at the macro and exosystemic levels by politicians and policy makers. These laws are then applied to determine the status (permanency or temporariness) of citizenship for immigrants and refugees, but the same laws do not apply to non-immigrant citizens who attain it by birth. While theoretically, citizenship has generally been considered an irrevocable legal status and the highest and most secure legal status one can hold in a state, it is not inviolate for immigrants. While Article 8 of the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provides grounds for revocation of citizenship obtained by immigrants and refugees in host countries, nation-states have their own laws tied to the convention that provide grounds for revocation. Ever since the 9/11 attacks in the USA, there has been a rise in conditional citizenship and the state’s withdrawal of citizenship through revocation laws that denaturalize citizens who end up not merely losing their citizenship but also the right to reside in the country of immigration. Because immigrants can be perceived as a security threat, the securitization of citizenship and the legislative changes have been adopted to specifically allow greater discretionary power in stripping people of their citizenship.The paper ‘Do We Really Belong Here?’ Transnationalism and the Temporality of Naturalized Citizenship examines literature on the temporality of naturalized citizenship and questions whether citizenship, for newcomers (immigrants and refugees), is a protected human right or a privilege. The paper argues that citizenship in a host country is a well sought-after status by newcomers. The question is whether their citizenship, if granted, has a permanent or temporary status and whether it is treated in the same way as that of non-immigrant citizens. The paper further argues that, despite citizenship having generally been considered an irrevocable status in most Western countries, in practice, if not in law, for immigrants and refugees, citizenship comes with strings attached because of policies and laws that control naturalized citizenship. These laws can be used to denationalize naturalized citizens through revocations for those stigmatized as ‘undesirables’ who are threatened with deportation. Whereas non-immigrant citizens (those who attain it by birth) have absolute right to their citizenship, this is seldom the case for immigrants.This paper takes a multidisciplinary approach using Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the macrosystem and exo-system, to examine and review literature on the temporality of naturalized citizenship and questions whether citizenship is a protected right or a privilege for immigrants. The paper challenges the human rights violation of citizenship revocation and argues for equality of treatment for all citizens despite how they acquired their citizenship. The fragility of naturalized citizenship undermines the basic rights and securities that citizenship status can provide to the person as an inclusive practice in a diverse society.

Keywords: citizenship, citizenship revocation, dual citizenship, human rights, naturalization, naturalized citizenship

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Authors: Yakup Akgül, Kemal Vatansever

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E-Government services offer citizens an easy way to accomplish their work anytime and anywhere. Ensuring the accessibility and usability of such services is crucial to citizens to allow smooth online transaction. In this paper, an empirical study to investigate the accessibility and usability of a representative sample of Turkish e-government services presented. The study evaluated sixty one Turkish government websites according to four perspectives.The accessibility will be based on the compliance to WCAG 2.0 recommendations, and the usability will be based on a heuristics-based content, HTML and CSS validity and current use of HTML 5 and ARIA. The evaluation results show that the examined e-Government services have one or more accessibility issues. On the other hand, in terms of usability, most services were usable and well designed, thus little work is recommended to make them more user-friendly and attractive to citizen.

Keywords: accessibility, e-government, usability, Turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 530

Authors: Clarisse Umutoni, Augustine Ayantunde, Matthew Turner, Germain J. Sawadogo

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Decentralized governance of natural resources is considered one of the key strategies for promoting sustainable management of natural resources at local level. The rationale behind decentralization of natural resources is that local populations are both better situated and more highly motivated than outside agencies to manage the resources in an ecologically and economically sustainable manner. Effective decentralized natural resource management requires strong local natural resource institutions. Therefore, strengthening local institutions governing natural resource management is essential to promoting strong participation of local communities in managing their resources. This paper investigated the existing local institutions (rules, norms and or local conventions) governing the management of natural resources and forms of community participation in the development of these natural resource institutions. Group discussions and individual interviews were conducted to collect data. Our findings showed significant variation within the study sites regarding the level of knowledge of existing local rules and norms governing the management of natural resources by the respondents. The results also show that participation was dominated by a small group of individuals, often community leaders and elites. The results suggest that women are marginalized. In general, factors which influence the level of participation include; age, year of residence in the community, gender and education level. This study also highlights the strengths of local natural resource institutions especially if enforced. Presently, the big challenge that faces the institutions governing natural resource use in the study area is the system of representativeness in the community in the development of local rules and norms as community leaders and household heads often dominate, which does not encourage active participation of community members. Therefore, for effective implementation of local natural resource institutions, the interest of key natural resource users should be taken into account. It is also important to promote rules and norms that attempt to protect or strengthen women’s access to natural resources in the community.

Keywords: decentralization, land use plan, local institutions, Mali

Procedia PDF Downloads 362

Authors: Giorgi Katamadze

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Open public service and accountability towards citizens is an important feature of democratic state based on rule of law. Effective use of electronic resources simplifies bureaucratic procedures, makes direct communications, helps exchange information, ensures government’s openness and in general helps develop electronic/digital democracy. Development of electronic democracy should be a strategic dimension of Georgian governance. Formation of electronic democracy, its functional improvement should become an important dimension of the state’s information policy. Electronic democracy is based on electronic governance and implies modern information and communication systems, their adaptation to universal standards. E-democracy needs involvement of governments, voters, political parties and social groups in an electronic form. In the last years the process of interaction between the citizen and the state becomes simpler. This process is achieved by the use of modern technological systems which gives to a citizen a possibility to use different public services online. For example, the website my.gov.ge makes interaction between the citizen, business and the state more simple, comfortable and secure. A higher standard of accountability and interaction is being established. Electronic democracy brings new forms of interactions between the state and the citizen: e-engagement – participation of society in state politics via electronic systems; e-consultation – electronic interaction among public officials, citizens and interested groups; e-controllership – electronic rule and control of public expenses and service. Public transparency is one of the milestones of electronic democracy as well as representative democracy as only on mutual trust and accountability can democracy be established. In Georgia, institutional changes concerning establishment and development of electronic democracy are not enough. Effective planning and implementation of a comprehensive and multi component e-democracy program (central, regional, local levels) requires telecommunication systems, institutional (public service, competencies, logical system) and informational (relevant conditions for public involvement) support. Therefore, a systematic project of formation of electronic governance should be developed which will include central, regional, municipal levels and certain aspects of development of instrumental basis for electronic governance.

Keywords: e-democracy, e-governance, e-services, information technology, public administration

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: Avdasheva Svetlanaa, Kryuchkova Polinab

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Comparative social efficiency of private and public enforcement of law is debated. This question is not of academic interest only, it is also important for the development of the legal system and regulations. Generally, involvement of ‘common citizens’ in public law enforcement is considered to be beneficial, while involvement of interest groups representatives is not. Institutional economics as well as law and economics consider the difference between public and private enforcement to be rather mechanical. Actions of bureaucrats in government agencies are assumed to be driven by the incentives linked to social welfare (or other indicator of public interest) and their own benefits. In contrast, actions of participants in private enforcement are driven by their private benefits. However administrative law enforcement may be designed in such a way that it would become driven mainly by individual incentives of alleged victims. We refer to this system as reactive public enforcement. Citizens may prefer using reactive public enforcement even if private enforcement is available. However replacement of public enforcement by reactive version of public enforcement negatively affects deterrence and reduces social welfare. We illustrate the problem of private vs pure public and private vs reactive public enforcement models with the examples of three legislation subsystems in Russia – labor law, consumer protection law and competition law. While development of private enforcement instead of public (especially in reactive public model) is desirable, replacement of both public and private enforcement by reactive model is definitely not.

Keywords: public enforcement, private complaints, legal errors, competition protection, labor law, competition law, russia

Procedia PDF Downloads 453

Authors: Peter Amobi Chiamogu

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Communication has subsisted as the basis for mass mobilization and political education through history with the media as a generic concept. Revolutions in ICTs have occasioned a limitless environment for the dissemination of information and ideas especially with the use of a seemingly pervasive access, penetration and use of the internet which has engendered a connected society. This study seeks to analyze the prospects and challenges for the adaptation of social media for free election and how this process can enhance public policy making, implementation and evaluation in a developing state.

Keywords: social media, e-participation, political mobilization, public policy, electioneering

Procedia PDF Downloads 320

Authors: Ali Muhammad

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The study examines the consequences of decision making in Kuwait work organization. The framework used in this study proposes that participation in decision making improves organizational ethical climate, which in turn increases employee’s trust in supervisor and trust in the organization. Furthermore, the model suggests that allowing employees to voice their opinions positively effects their perceptions of organizational justice. Providing employees with the opportunity to participate in decision making (voice), enhances their perceptions of the fairness of those decisions. Allowing employees to express their opinions and feeling about decisions being made show that the organization respect appreciates their views. This feeling of respect and appreciation reflects positively on employee’s perception of justice. Survey data were collected from a sample of 292 employees working in Kuwaiti work organizations. Pearson correlation, non-parametric tests, and structural equation models were used to analyze the data. Results of the analysis show that participation in decision making enhances employee perception of ethical climate, which in turn increases perception organizational justice and organizational trust. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: participation in decision making, organizational trust, trust in supervisor, organizational justice, ethical climate

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: John Deely, Stephen Hynes, Mary Cawley, Sarah Hogan

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Domestic marine and coastal tourism have increased in importance over the last number of years due to the impacts of international travel, environmental concerns, associated health benefits and COVID-19 related travel restrictions. Consequently, this paper conceptualizes domestic marine and coastal tourism within an economic framework. Two logit models examine the factors that influence participation in the coastal day trips and overnight stays markets, respectively. Two truncated travel cost models are employed to explore trip duration, one analyzing the number of day trips taken and the other examining the number of nights spent in marine and coastal areas. Although a range of variables predicts participation, no one variable had a significant and consistent effect on every model. A division in access to domestic marine and coastal tourism is also observed based on variation in household income. The results also indicate a vibrant day trip market and large consumer surpluses.

Keywords: domestic marine and coastal tourism, day tripper, participation models, truncated travel cost model

Procedia PDF Downloads 103