Consolidation and Challenge: 1990—Present

Author(s):  
Thomas F. Best

The ecumenical movement exists to make the unity of Christ’s church more visible and effective in the churches’ own lives, and in their common witness and service to the world. Since 1990 it has made remarkable progress in such areas as ecclesiology, worship, mission, prophetic witness, and service in global, regional, national, and local contexts. Not least, it has broadened its scope as new partners have come to the table. Churches, councils of churches, bilateral discussions, united and uniting churches, and church aid and development agencies have all contributed to this success. But while ecumenism is now embedded in the lives of many churches, it faces challenges posed by the churches’ declining resources, their growing focus on internal issues, and the general societal distrust of organizations beyond the local level. Notions such as mutual accountability may help the churches live out their ecumenical vocation.

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelique Edmonds

This paper considers the gap between knowing and mobilised action and investigates local urban examples where action is mobilised. The purpose of this is to consider what such examples can tell us about the conditions required to mobilise action and hence how to foster those conditions. Making cities sustainable is now a major aim and claim of most cities in the world. A myriad of definitions of sustainable development have been proposed but it has not been easy to find one that simultaneously satisfies economists, ecologists, sociologists, philosophers and policy makers. The problem in part relates to uncertainty about the object of sustainability, rather than the idea itself. What is it that ought to be sustained? It is increasingly internationally recognised that many effective solutions for environmental sustainability have their roots in local action and co-ordination. For that reason capacity within local government and the mobilisation of participation at the local level is a pivotal enabler for change. In the context of the discussion raised by the Cities, Nature Justice Conference and project, this paper focuses on discussion of urban local contexts and discusses the importance of local participation and engagement as critical enablers for mobilised action. Of particular interest in these local contexts, is the movement from a state of awareness of social and environmental issues of sustainability, to an active, constructive awareness that informs changes in behaviour and action that lead to sustainable practices of living.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khushgeet Kaur

Although youth are often thought of as targets for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programmes, they are also active partners in creating a more sustainable world and effective ESD programmes. Today, more than ever, young women and men are change-makers, building new realities for themselves and their communities. All over the world, youth are driving social change and innovation, claiming respect for their fundamental human rights and freedoms, and seeking new opportunities to learn and work together for a better future. The education sector is generally seen as the most appropriate forum for involving children and youth in sustainable development, and initiatives to this end have been adopted in many countries. The present paper puts forth such initiatives, interventions and strategies that can be undertaken to engage youth in education for sustainable development at the global as well as the local level.


Author(s):  
Tim Bartley

Activists have exposed startling forms of labor exploitation and environmental degradation in global industries, leading many large retailers and brands to adopt standards for fairness and sustainability. This book is about the idea that transnational corporations can push these rules through their global supply chains, and in effect, pull factories, forests, and farms out of their local contexts and up to global best practices. For many scholars and practitioners, this kind of private regulation and global standard-setting can provide an alternative to regulation by territorially bound, gridlocked, or incapacitated nation states, potentially improving environments and working conditions around the world and protecting the rights of exploited workers, impoverished farmers, and marginalized communities. But can private, voluntary rules actually create meaningful forms of regulation? Are forests and factories around the world being made into sustainable ecosystems and decent workplaces? Can global norms remake local orders? This book provides striking new answers by comparing the private regulation of land and labor in democratic and authoritarian settings. Case studies of sustainable forestry and fair labor standards in Indonesia and China show not only how transnational standards are implemented “on the ground” but also how they are constrained and reconfigured by domestic governance. Combining rich multi-method analyses, a powerful comparative approach, and a new theory of private regulation, this book reveals the contours and contradictions of transnational governance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract As vaccine hesitancy and decreasing immunization coverage have been identified by the World Health Organization as global alarming health threats, it is of crucial importance to exploit the potential offered by digital solutions to enhance immunization programmes and ultimately increase vaccine uptake. We have previously developed and published a conceptual framework outlining how digitalization can support immunization at different levels: i) when adopted for health education and communication purposes, ii) in the context of immunization programmes delivery, and iii) in the context of immunization information systems management. The proposed workshop is co-organized by the EUPHA Digital health section (EUPHA-DH) and EUPHA Infectious diseases control section (EUPHA-IDC) and aims at discussing the current AVAILABILITY, USE and IMPACT of digital solutions to support immunization programmes at the international, national and local level, as well as, debating on how technical infrastructures on one side and normative and policy frameworks on the other side enable their implementation. We plan to have a rich set of contributions covering the following: the presentation of a conceptual framework identifying and mapping the digital solutions' features having the potential to bolster immunization programmes, namely: i) Personalization and precision; ii) Automation; iii) Prediction; iv) Data analytics (including big data and interoperability); and v) Interaction; the dissemination of key results and final outputs of a Europe-wide funded project on the use of Information & Communication Technology to enhance immunization, with particular reference to the use and comparative impact of email remainders and personal electronic health records, as well as the results of an international survey conducted to map and collect best practices on the use of different digital solutions within immunization programmes at the national and regional level; the firsthand experience of the United Kingdom NHS Digital Child Health Programme which developed, implemented and is currently evaluating a number of solutions to increase childhood vaccination uptake in England, including an information standard and information sharing services developed to ensure that the details of children's vaccinations can be shared between different health care settings the perspective and experience of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for Europe and of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the global level of what has worked so far in the digitalization of immunization programmes around the world, what recommendations were developed and which barriers identified at the technical normative and policy level Key messages Digitalization has great potential to support immunization programmes but its practice and impact need to be measured. Country-level and international experiences have created qualitative and quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of digital intervention aimed at increasing vaccine uptake.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 103-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Jansen

Literacy is a personally acquired skill, and the way it is taught to a person changes how that person thinks. Thanks to David Henige historians of Africa are much more aware of how literacy influences memory and historical imagination, and particularly how literacy systems introduce linear concepts of time and space. This essay will deal with these two aspects in relation to Africa's most famous epic: Sunjata. This epic has gained a major literary status worldwide—text editions are taught as part of undergraduate courses at universities all over the world—but there has been little extensive field research into the epic. The present essay focuses on an even less studied aspect of Sunjata, namely how Sunjata is experienced by local people.Central to my argument is an idea put forward by Peter Geschiere, who links the upheaval of autochthony claims in Africa (and beyond) to issues of citizenship and processes of exclusion. He analyzes these as the product of feelings of “belonging.” Geschiere argues that issues of belonging should be studied at a local level if we are to understand how individuals experience autochthony. Analytically, Geschiere proposes shifting away from ”identity” by drawing from Birgit Meyer's work ideas on the aesthetics of religious experience and emotion; Meyer's ideas are useful to explain “how some (religious) images can convince, while other do not.”


Author(s):  
Slobodanka Gasic-Pavisic

In many countries across the world schools are no longer a safe place for both students and school staff. Violence in school is an issue scarcely studied in Serbia and there are few articles in domestic professional literature. At national and local level there are not developed strategies nor programs for preventing violence among students in our schools. There are no data about planned, systematic and organized prevention of violence in the practice of our schools. The data obtained by investigations indicate that it is necessary to apply adequate programs for preventing violence among students in our schools, despite the finding that violence in school is not that much conspicuous and serious problem like in other countries (USA Israel, Japan, Austria, Germany). On the basis of relevant literature review the present paper high?lights some very popular and less notorious measures and prevention programs applied in various countries. The aim of the paper is to transmit basic and essential pieces of information so as to gain insight into diverse existing approaches to prevention of violent behavior in school hopefully to encourage our schools to pay more attention to preventing violence in school as soon as possible before it is too late.


Groupwork ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon ◽  
Valérie Roy ◽  
Dave Ward

<p>Looking at practices in different locations is beneficial since it helps challenge assumptions that we may take for granted. Groupwork, as a method of social work, is specifically interesting to explore in the light of different contexts since, like social work, it may or may not translate well across cultures. This paper draws from data collected in the context of a research project that aimed to describe the current state of social work with groups in Quebec and to explore trends within social work with groups elsewhere in the world. Specifically, it focuses on the exploration of practices in Quebec and discusses them in relationship to those found in the USA, as a counterpoint. Our findings highlight some differences and similarities between Quebec and the USA with regard to groupwork, which leads us to discuss a range of factors that may impact on groupwork in the different contexts. Of these, the differences of organisational context and organisation of services have emerged as particularly noteworthy, which echoes findings in general social work literature with regard to the importance of local contexts on the definition of practice itself.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Vita Elysia ◽  
Ake Wihadanto

Local Government of Magelang Regency initiates the Sister Village Program after Mount Merapi Eruption in 2010. The idea of this program is to connect villages at risk from Merapi eruption to partner villages with less risk in the surrounding regions. This program is part of post-disaster recovery initiatives at the local level which includes planned evacuation routes, shelters, provision of food and other daily essentials. This paper aims to shed light on the role of sister village program in promoting community resilience after the volcanic eruption of Merapi. It is found that the system of sister village program can fulfill many aspects of community resilience components. Considering Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, this program should be regarded as a good example to be replicated in other prone areas in the country.


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