scholarly journals ‘When the Numbers Stop Adding’: Imagining Futures in Perilous Presents Among Youth in Nairobi Ghettos

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi van Stapele
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Youth Gangs ◽  
Social Navigation ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Relational Concept ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Over Time

AbstractStudying the aspirations of young men, in Mathare, Nairobi, highlights their social becoming in contexts in which they incessantly risk social and physical death. Taking aspiration as a relational concept brings into view the temporal and spatial interactions between different aspirations and how these connect to emerging and future pathways of these young men. The ensuing relationalities at play are analysed through their context-bound negotiations of dominant gender norms to elucidate how these inform their social navigation towards male respectability, now and in the future. Adding the dimension of positionality here is useful to bring out how individual negotiations of gender norms in space and over time allows a nuanced view on situated entanglements of aspirations, pathways and dominant discourses and how these convolute and intensify in particular decision-making processes. The analyses are based on longitudinal ethnographic research with youth gangs in Nairobi for four months annually on average since 2005.

Agricultural Machinery Resources Based on Time-Windows Model

2014 ◽  
Vol 644-650 ◽  
pp. 2584-2586
Author(s):  
Yue Li Li ◽  
Chao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Time Windows ◽  
Optimal Solutions ◽  
Agricultural Machinery ◽  
Scheduling Model ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Spatial Scheduling ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Working Efficiency

To meet the scheduling demands of dispatching the agricultural machinery to the reasonable farmlands, time-windows based temporal and spatial scheduling model for agricultural machinery resources was built,which serialized decision-making processes and got optimal solutions for each process.The experiment results showed that the model could perform well in practice,which improved the management and working efficiency of the agricultural association.

Public Policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 509-525
Author(s):  
Joan Subirats ◽  
Ricard Gomà
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Policy Style ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Operational Aspects

The objective of this chapter is to trace and present the main characteristics of the public policy system in Spain, incorporating policy change over time, as well as the policy style that has characterized its different stages. The transition between Francoism and democracy generated significant continuities and discontinuities both in the decision-making processes and in the actors’ system. The full incorporation into the European Union also involved significant changes in content, processes and networks. Finally, the impacts of the 2007 crisis and the effects of globalization and technological change also generated significant disruptions that will also be incorporated. The chapter will distinguish the conceptual, substantive, and operational aspects of the public policy system in Spain, as well as the main elements of the multilevel government. This aspect is especially complex in the Spanish case, given the combination of Europeanization of policies and the very remarkable regional decentralization generated by 1980.

Dangers, Diversions, and Decisions: The Process of Criminal Desistance Among Formerly Incarcerated Young Men

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 727-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Terry ◽  
Laura S. Abrams
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Transition Age ◽  
Narrative Methods ◽  
Adult Men ◽  
Repeat Offending ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Young adult men (ages 18-24) who exit the juvenile justice system are at high risk for repeat offending. However, little is known qualitatively about the strategies that they use to navigate criminal influences, crime temptations, and the possibility of getting “caught.” To address this gap, the authors used narrative methods involving 30 in-depth qualitative interviews with 15 formerly incarcerated young men between the ages of 19 and 24. Coding and memoing were used to identify major themes and data patterns. Results indicated two distinct groups; one group engaged in a series of micro-level decision-making processes to navigate challenges in their everyday living environments, which helped to facilitate their gradual abstinence from crime. The second group was equally tested by contextual challenges, but they made decisions to minimize their criminal involvement to avoid the risk of repeat incarceration, which negatively influenced their desistance patterns. The results lend themselves to better understanding how decision making, internal motivation, and external factors can influence the desistance processes of transition-age urban young men.

Distribution without representation? Beyond the rights of nature in the southern Ecuadorian highlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Erin Fitz-Henry
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Silver Mine ◽  
The World ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Mining Projects ◽  
National Investment ◽  
Southern Highland

Despite the fact that Ecuador has arguably the most biocentric constitution in the world, deepening national investment in extractive development projects has left communities on the frontlines of these projects desperate for greater participation in decision-making processes currently monopolized by centralized ministries. The result has been a flourishing over the past two years of sub-national judicial and non-judicial challenges to strategic mining projects. Integral to these challenges is the constitutional language of rights for nature (Articles 71–4). Drawing on ethnographic research around the Río Blanco gold and silver mine in the southern highland province of Azuay, this article explores the diverse and surprising ways in which these environmental rights are being taken up as part of fundamental challenges to the decision-making monopolies of the Ministries of the Environment and of Mining. While numerous scholars of human and indigenous rights have recently lamented the fact that ‘rights-talk’ often appears unable to arrest or destabilize extractive imperatives, the case of Río Blanco suggests that, when embraced as part of wider social struggles for representation, rights-based approaches might be more potent than is currently being recognized. They may even encourage an important reorientation of some of the binaries that continue to preoccupy critical scholars of development.

scholarly journals In search of the Smart Citizen: Republican and cybernetic citizenship in the smart city

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 1733-1748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorien Zandbergen ◽  
Justus Uitermark
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Air Quality Data

The smart city has been both celebrated for opening up decision-making processes through responsive digital infrastructures, and criticised for turning citizens into mere nodes of socio-technical networks under corporate or government control. In line with these depictions, smart city politics is often analysed as a struggle between aspirations for bottom-up participatory democracy and authoritarian control. Drawing on ethnographic research on an Amsterdam project which encourages citizens to collect and share air quality data, we problematise this vertical reading of smart city politics. The project mobilises both republican citizenship and cybernetic citizenship, each assuming different logics regarding the ways in which citizens negotiate urban life by means of data and sensing technologies. While republican citizenship emphasises citizens’ sovereignty, cybernetic citizenship emphasises their immersion into informational environments. We demonstrate how, depending on specific situated interests and forms of engagement, both kinds of citizenship feed into appealing visions of urban life for different actors.

Contingent use of rational, intuitive and political decision-making in R&D

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 997-1020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linn Marie Kolbe ◽  
Bart Bossink ◽  
Ard-Pieter de Man
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Over Time

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the contingent use of rational, intuitive and political decision-making in R&D. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on a study in an R&D department of a multinational high-tech firm in the Netherlands. The study consists of a case study design, focusing on four embedded cases, longitudinally studying each case. Findings The literature distinguishes three dimensions of innovation decision-making processes: rational, intuitive and political. By studying these interwoven dimensions over time, this study finds that the dominant use of each of these dimensions differs across the innovation process. There is an emphasis on intuitive decision-making in an early phase, followed by more emphasis on political decision-making, and moving to more emphasis on rational decision-making in a later phase of the R&D process. Furthermore, the predominant choice in a specific innovation phase for one of the three decision-making dimensions is influenced by the decision-making dimension that is dominantly employed in the preceding phase. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the innovation decision-making literature by developing and applying a model that distinguishes rational, intuitive and political decision-making dimensions, the interactions among these dimensions in innovation decision-making in R&D, and the contingency of these dimensions upon the innovation phase. It calls for further research into the contingent nature of innovation decision-making processes. Practical implications For practitioners this study has two relevant insights. First it highlights the importance and usefulness of intuitive and political decision-making in addition to the prevailing emphasis on rational decision-making. Second, practitioners may be more alert to consciously changing their dominant decision-making approach across the phases of the innovation process. Third, companies may adjust their human resource policies to this study’s findings. Originality/value The literature on rational, intuitive and political decision-making is quite extensive. However, research has hardly studied how these decision-making dimensions develop in conjunction, and over time. This paper reports on a first study to do so and finds that the dominant use of these dimensions is contingent upon the phase of the R&D process and on the decision-making dimensions used in earlier phases. The study suggests that using a contingency approach can help to further integrate the debate in research and practice.

Reconstructing Precaution, Deconstructing Misconceptions

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Arcuri
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
International Level ◽  
Environmental Preservation ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Over Time

The precautionary principle, widely endorsed at the national and international level, continues to be at the center of a heated debate. Some authors claim that the principle is unscientific; others argue that the principle is paralyzing and gives decision-makers no direction. Confusion and misconceptions are generated by the multiplicity of definitions and interpretations of the precautionary principle. This essay contributes to the debate on the precautionary principle in two ways: (1) it clarifies what a mild formulation of the principle entails, and (2) it identifies a number of misconceptions underlying some of the main criticisms of the principle.A reasonable formulation of the precautionary principle requires both substantive and procedural elements: the substantive element suggests that in circumstances where uncertainties and risks of irreversible harms are present, decisions should err on the side of environmental preservation; the procedural element suggests that the principle should favour decision-making processes that are iterative and informative over time and that integrate experts' assessments of the risks to be governed and people's preferences and values.Against this background, five misconceptions underlying the main criticisms of the precautionary principle are identified and deconstructed. The analysis of the misconceptions sheds further light on the fact that following the principle, processes of learning are stimulated, and accordingly, technology is not halted; to the contrary, the application of the principle leads to a better understanding of technological developments and their effects.

scholarly journals Enabling Effective Social Impact: Towards a Model for Impact Scaling Agreements

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Aschari-Lincoln ◽  
Claus D. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social Organizations ◽  
Mission Strategy ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Approach Goals ◽  
Initial Research ◽  
Over Time

Scaling is a critical organizational phase for social organizations: their upfront financial needs increase dramatically. This paper responds—on the basis of initial research on capacity, up-, and deep scaling strategies—to the need for integrated knowledge on financing processes within the context of social organizations’ impact scaling phase. An exploration of a market leader’s processes uncovered both strengths and struggles, which in turn enabled new levels of understanding related to the research question, “How can impact scaling agreements enable effective social impact?” The fact that the financial provider examined in this empirical study lacked alignment in its scaling approach, goals, and reporting processes over time hampered its effectiveness and sustainability. The findings from this qualitative inter-temporal content analysis enable the development of a model for impact scaling agreements. This shows ongoing flows between the provider and recipient of financial and nonfinancial resources and impact information, as well as decision-making and reporting processes. The outcome of researching the question “how can impact scaling agreements enable effective social impact?” was the identification of three success enhancers for effective social impact scaling agreements to enable social impact: (1) Financial provider alignment pre- and per-engagement in terms of expectations with regard to scaling approach and goals; (2) Scaling approach coherence in terms of understanding and acting upon the inter-relatedness and, in fact, mutual dependency between capacity, up-, and deep scaling; (3) Impact reporting alignment of the target group with the financial recipient and the financial provider. This research makes a twofold contribution to the literature. First, the pivotal role of internal alignment between mission, strategy, reporting, and decision-making processes is explored; second, the three scaling strategies of capacity, up-, and deep scaling are established as interrelated dimensions of the same phenomenon.

Cognitive Processing of Miscommunication in Interactive Listening: An Evaluation of Listener Indecision and Cognitive Effort

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Roche ◽  
Arkady Zgonnikov ◽  
Laura M. Morett
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Mouse Tracking ◽  
Computer Mouse ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Computer Mouse Tracking ◽  
Listening Task ◽  
Processing Effort

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the social and cognitive underpinnings of miscommunication during an interactive listening task. Method An eye and computer mouse–tracking visual-world paradigm was used to investigate how a listener's cognitive effort (local and global) and decision-making processes were affected by a speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication. Results Experiments 1 and 2 found that an environmental cue that made a miscommunication more or less salient impacted listener language processing effort (eye-tracking). Experiment 2 also indicated that listeners may develop different processing heuristics dependent upon the speaker's use of ambiguity that led to a miscommunication, exerting a significant impact on cognition and decision making. We also found that perspective-taking effort and decision-making complexity metrics (computer mouse tracking) predict language processing effort, indicating that instances of miscommunication produced cognitive consequences of indecision, thinking, and cognitive pull. Conclusion Together, these results indicate that listeners behave both reciprocally and adaptively when miscommunications occur, but the way they respond is largely dependent upon the type of ambiguity and how often it is produced by the speaker.

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