Is there an ‘agro-town’ model for Southern Italy? Exploring the diverse roots and development of the agro-town structure through a comparative case study in Apulia

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL CURTIS
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Dynamic Economy ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Institutional Origins

Large, concentrated settlements known as ‘agro-towns’ abound across Southern Italy and other parts of the Mediterranean. The prevalence and persistence of these settlements are very curious but not yet well understood. Initially, scholars interpreted their development as stemming from Southern Italy's economic and social ‘backwardness’ and inequality. This view has now been challenged by scholarship which emphasises that the pre-industrial Mezzogiorno supported not only a dynamic economy but also a diverse array of institutional structures. By recourse to a comparative study within Apulia, this paper suggests that both interpretations are equally correct. ‘Agro-towns’ in Southern Italy were linked to the inequitable distribution of land, perpetuated over the long term, but the institutional origins of this inequality were both diverse and dynamic.

scholarly journals Boundary Spanning Roles and Power in Educational Partnerships

AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842110168
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Wegemer ◽  
Jennifer R. Renick
Keyword(s):  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Task Orientation ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Educational Partnerships ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Reflexive Analysis

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer promising approaches to improve educational outcomes. Navigating boundaries between contexts is essential for RPP effectiveness, yet much work remains to establish a conceptual framework of boundary spanning in partnerships. Our longitudinal comparative case study draws from our experiences as graduate student boundary spanners in three long-term partnerships to examine boundary spanning roles in RPPs, with particular attention to the ways in which power permeates partnership work. Using qualitative, critically reflexive analysis of meeting artifacts and field notes, we found that our boundary spanning roles varied along five spectrums: institutional focus, task orientation, expertise, partnership disposition, and agency. Our roles were shaped by the organizational, cultural, relational, and historical features of the partnerships and contexts of interaction. We aim to promote the development of effective RPP strategies by leveraging the perspectives and positionality of graduate students in order to advance understanding of boundary spanning roles.

Cordaid’s Post-Disaster Shelter Strategy in Haiti: Linking Relief and Development

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
Harmen Janse ◽  
Kees van der Flier
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Post Disaster

Haiti was struck by a heavy earthquake in 2010 and international aid poured into the country. News reports in 2011 were not very positive about the results of post-disaster reconstruction: “The relief efforts are only putting Haiti on life-support instead of evolving into the next stage of development”. One of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in Haiti was Cordaid, implementing a ‘transitional shelter strategy’ to support the transformation of neigh-bourhoods from a state of life-support into a state of self-sustaining development. The strategy was implemented in both a rural and an urban area. The main feature of the strategy was the provision of structures that could be adapted from simple shelters to permanent houses. Since the results of the strategy were mixed and ambiguous, a comparative case study was conducted to evaluate the shelter strategy in both areas. The objective was to draw lessons about what has to be taken into account when formulating future urban shelter strategies. The case study is discussed in this article. The main finding from the case study is that producing the intended number of shelters within the financial and time budgets that were set (efficiency), was more difficult in the urban area than in the rural area. But the conditions for linking relief and development (effectiveness) are more favourable in the urban context. NGOs may achieve long-term (effective) results in the urban context when a lower efficiency can be justified. That is why NGOs need to engage in a debate about the extent to which they are able to focus on long-term shelter or housing strategies. The important element in the debate is communication with the donors who are often focused on short-term relief measures. However urban areas cannot be rebuilt with only short-term interventions. The link between relief and development has to be made by a process-orientated approach focusing on capacities of local participants.

scholarly journals Sustainability Analysis of Competition in Public Transport Systems: A Comparative Case Study in Hungary and Finland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Lakatos ◽  
Péter Mándoki
Keyword(s):  
Public Transport ◽  
Current Problem ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Passenger Transport ◽  
Railway Systems ◽  
Time Of Travel ◽  
A Current

Ongoing competition between bus and railway systems in European (especially in the middle, south and east part) regional passenger transport is a current problem. Long term sustainability and efficiency in passenger transport requires a balanced transport policy. These subsectors need to be complement each other, not compete. The parallel bus and railway links can result in a competition. This research explores solutions to this issue for long term environmental and economic sustainability optimization. Some of the important factors include the number of inhabitants to be served, public transport availability, and efficiency in time of travel for vehicles and passengers. To ensure long term sustainability of the presented methodology, the effect of interventions was analyzed. The study compares Finland and Hungary in terms of the competition regional railway and bus links.

scholarly journals Co-designing with visually impaired people in the museum

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Eveline Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Museum Object ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Design Projects

This article aims to conduct an analysis of the use of co-design methodologies in accessibility projects for the visually impaired in museums. The article presents a discussion of the practices of participatory methodologies in museum projects, in particular the co-design approach. It proceeds with a comparative case study, analyzing articles that describe the implementation of co-design projects in museum and educational contexts. The purpose of this comparative study is to present different methods of co-design, what goals can be achieved by these methodologies and to analyze and compare the results and challenges found. The authors selected four co-design projects for this comparative study, analyzing their differences and similarities. The conclusion of this analysis is that participatory projects bring as a benefit not only the creation of new audiences, but the enrichment of the museum object itself, promoting new forms of enjoyment and acquisition of knowledge. This article aims to contribute to the development of future studies and projects on accessibility that may represent better

scholarly journals Collaborative Patterns of Long-Term Sustainability in Community Social Enterprises: An International Comparative Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunna Kovanen
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Rural Community ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
International Comparative ◽  
Community Enterprises

AbstractThe article presents results from a research on the relevance and challenges of collaboration for the long-term sustainability of rural community enterprises. The study relies on Communities of Practice and Degrowth theories. Methods include semi-standardised interviews and focused ethnography in two community enterprises in rural areas in Germany and Portugal. Main results confirm the relevance of collaborative relations with residents, public sector, peer organisations and within the teams for both stability and transformative power of the organisations’ work. Respectful handling of privileges and balance in participation and professionalisation support sustainability, whereas institutional stagnation and involuntary degrowth may risk it.

From Bali to America: Teachers and Transitions

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-64
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A Clendinning
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Balinese Gamelan ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Central Case ◽  
The 1960S

The chapter examines how the earliest generation of Balinese American teachers (born from the 1940s to the 1960s) were educated and how their experiences eventually brought them to work long-term in North America. Its central case study is Balinese gamelan teacher I Made Lasmawan, whose formal and informal educational experiences are contextualized within broader institutional structures and historical events that brought foreign musician-scholars to teach in American universities. The chapter concludes that musical and pedagogical lineages created by such teachers both reflect and embody systematic developments in the building of transnational musical lineages and performing and academic ecosystems.

scholarly journals Merchant Capital, the State, and Labour in a British Colony: Servant-Master Relations and Capital Accumulation in Newfoundland’s Northeast-Coast Fishery, 1775-1799

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean T. Cadigan
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Wage Labour ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Merchant Capital

Abstract This paper uses a case study of class struggle in the late-eighteenth-century Newfoundland fishery to examine the relationship between merchant capital and the employment of wage labour in staple production in early colonial development. Using a modified version of the staple model which emphasises the role of the class relations and institutional structures of staple industries on long-term development, it finds that British regulation of wages to protect the migratory fishery stymied the extensive employment of wage labour by resident planters. Evidence drawn from court records suggests that fishing servants used the law to prevent erosion of wages due from planters at the end of a fishing season by ignoring mandatory preseason contracts or account overcharges. Servants enjoyed less, but still formidable, success in winning suits brought about by masters for neglect. By using wage law beyond the intentions of its British makers, servants forced planters increasingly to rely on family labour rather than wage labour. The struggles of wage labourers with their employers, rather than merchant conservatism as such, contributed to Newfoundland's long-term domination by merchant truck with fishing families.

A novel framework for owner driven reconstruction projects to enhance disaster resilience in the long term

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mittul Vahanvati
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Construction Technology ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Post-disaster reconstruction poses a double-edged sword to its implementers as it demands addressing survivors’ need for speed as well as meeting the growing expectation to trigger resilience. While an owner-driven housing reconstruction (ODHR), inter-disciplinary and long-term approach has been promoted internationally; however, there is limited research focussed on the long-term impacts (>10 years after a disaster) of ODHR. Furthermore, there is no one accepted framework for practitioners to guide through the process of ODHR projects to carve pathways for disaster resilience. The purpose of this paper is to assimilate findings—contingent and generalisable—into a novel framework for future change in practice. Design/methodology/approach This paper deployed a mixed methods methodology with a comparative case study research method. Two case study projects were from the Indian state of Gujarat, 13 years after the 2001 earthquake and the other two from Bihar, 6 years since the 2008 Kosi river floods. Due to multi-disciplinary nature of research, empirical data collection relied on a mix of social sciences methods including 80 semi-structured interviews, and architectural research methods including the visual analysis of photographs and sketches. Three sample groups of agency members, beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were purposively selected. Thematic content analysis was used for the data analysis. Findings The paper provides empirical insights on how ODHR projects in Indian states of Gujarat and Bihar succeeded at enhancing disaster resilience of communities. It suggests that the civil society organisations acted as “enablers” at four stages: envisioning strategically based on systemic understanding, building soft assets including community trust and dignity for social mobilisation prior to, proposing minor modifications to construction technology for its multi-hazard safety as well as cultural relevance, and sustaining capacity building efforts beyond reconstruction completion or beyond one project life-cycle. Research limitations/implications The author of this paper cautions that the spiral framework needs further development to make it flexibility and customisable to suit the specifics of a particular context. Originality/value The implications of the findings discussed in this paper are primarily for practitioners involved in disaster recovery and development sector. Since prevailing models or frameworks neither incorporate multi-disciplinary approach (demanded by socio-ecological systems resilience concept), nor represent project scale, a novel, four-pronged framework for ODHR has been proposed in this paper for strategic success. The framework has been illustrated in spiral and tabular forms, and has been kept abstract to provide practitioners the much-needed flexibility for adapting it to suit the specifics of a particular context.

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