scholarly journals Re-enterprising the unplanned urban areas of Greater Cairo- a social innovation perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Nicolopoulou ◽  
Ashraf M. Salama ◽  
Sahar Attia ◽  
Christine Samy ◽  
Donagh Horgan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Agile Processes ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Greater Cairo ◽  
The Individual

Purpose This study aims to develop an innovative and comprehensive framework to address water-related challenges faced by communities located in urban settlements in the area of Greater Cairo. It is commonly accepted that such global challenges that border issues of resilience, community development, social equity and inclusive growth, call for a collaboration of disciplines. Such collaboration allows for the identification of synergies in ways that can enlighten and enrich the space of potential solutions and create pathways towards robust solutions. Design/methodology/approach The research process has been participatory, and it involved, apart from site interviews, engagement via a photographic exhibition, during an outreach and engagement event, of the researched sites in one of the academic institutions of the authors. A total of 12 women were interviewed and the expert’s workshop was attended by 12 experts. Findings Social innovation can promote agile processes to prototyping services, involving multiple sectors and stakeholders through open ecosystems. For urban settlements undergoing rapid expansion, social innovation can help communities and governments to build resilience in the face of resource gaps – often making use of advancements in technology and improvements from other disciplines (Horgan and Dimitrijevic, 2019). For the unplanned urban areas around Greater Cairo, input from different knowledge areas can offer valuable contributions; in terms of the project and the study that we report on in this paper, the contributing areas included architecture and urban planning, as well as women-led entrepreneurship targeting economic growth, social and community impacts. Originality/value In this paper, we demonstrate the significance of a transdisciplinary framework based on social innovation, for the study of women-led entrepreneurship as a response to water-based challenges within an urban settlement. The creation of such a framework can be a significant contribution to conceptualise, examine and respond to “wicked challenges” of urban sustainability. This paper also believes that the readership of the journal will be subsequently benefitting from another way to conceptualise the interplay of theoretical perspectives at the level of organisations and the individual to support the inquiry into such challenges.

The Political Economy of Land and Urban Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 343-359
Author(s):  
Kudzanai Bvochora ◽  
Bernard Kusena
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Natural Increase ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
The World ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Many urban areas which have sprouted around the world owe their economic and social origins in growth points and market centers. Situated about 15 kilometers south-east of Harare, Epworth became one of Zimbabwe's largest peri-urban settlements due to the combined effect of demographic, political, and socioeconomic factors, among others. This chapter interrogates the various forces behind this unprecedented population growth. It demonstrates the relationship between Epworth's ballooning population and the various pull and push factors of urbanization. For example, immigration contributed immensely to this rise, although natural increase in births also contributed fairly significantly. This chapter examines the impact of population dynamics and other variables that were linked to the rapid expansion of Epworth on the overall development processes, arguing that economic and social infrastructure became conditioned by such dynamics.

Teleinvestmentevangelists: celebrity, ritual and religion and the quest to “beat the market”

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas E Allen ◽  
Mary Keller ◽  
Elton (Skip) McGoun
Keyword(s):  
Practical Implication ◽  
Individual Investors ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
The Face ◽  
Research Implication ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Stock Picking

Purpose – This paper aims to offer a cultural understanding of investor faith in stock picking despite overwhelming evidence questioning its efficacy. Why, in the face of very widely communicated findings calling into question the advice and assistance offered by financial professionals to help them pick stocks or manage their mutual funds, do so many people persist in these practices? The authors believe that the best way to understand investor faith in the efficacy of stock picking is through teleinvestmentevangelists such as Jim Cramer, whose fusion of celebrity and religion taps into the ritualistic elements of investment that usually lie hidden. Drawing from media, religious and cultural studies theory, the authors flesh out the dynamics of the teleinvestmentevangelist as a powerful character, the understanding of which provides insights on the pre-modern meanings that inhere in mediated global capital. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual work draws on theoretical perspectives and qualitative experiences of everyday investors to explain why the entire field of stock picking remains so robust and captivating in the face of ample evidence that calls into question the validity of the entire phenomenon. Findings – This paper derives and introduces the hypothetical figure of the “Teleinvestmentevangelist” in an attempt to weave dimensions of celebrity, ritual and religion together to explain investors undeterred faith in the ability to pick individual stocks and “beat the market”. Research limitations/implications – The primary research implication of this paper is that it exhibits the continued value of integrating interdisciplinary perspectives for understanding investing experience beyond more limited views undergirded by neoclassical economics. One challenge of the paper is that it attempts to merge three disparate perspectives that have not typically been integrated and applied to financial phenomena. Practical implications – One practical implication of this paper is that it provides a perspective and vocabulary that enables us to understand financial experiences more fully and reflect on these understandings more critically. Social implications – Armed with a richer understanding of financial and investing experience, individual investors can better appreciate fundamental cultural misrecognitions that potentially culminate in symbolic violence whereby certain groups of investors are systematically disadvantaged. Originality/value – The originality of this paper lies in its synthesis of disparate literature bases and application of this synthesis to the financial and investing world. Not only are the individual theoretical perspectives rarely consulted vis-à-vis investing experience but also is their synthesis particularly unique and original in the context of financial and investing phenomena.

scholarly journals Undertaking individual transdisciplinary PhD research for sustainable development

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
John van Breda ◽  
Josephine Musango ◽  
Alan Brent
Keyword(s):  
Problem Formulation ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Transdisciplinary Research ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Formulation Analysis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

Purpose – This paper aims to improve the understanding of individual transdisciplinary PhD research in a developing country context, focusing on three individual PhD case studies in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – Multiple-case method was used, and three completed transdisciplinary PhD research efforts undertaken at the Stellenbosch University were selected. They were coordinated through the TsamaHub, an inter-faculty platform at the University which organises educational modules for transdisciplinary research. Using actual research experiences and reflections of the three individual PhDs, the paper evaluates their work in terms of ontological, epistemological, methodological and methodical/methods aspects. Findings – The central challenge to individual PhD researchers is engagement with non-academic actors to enable joint problem formulation, analysis and transformation. To overcome this, the paper suggests that developing individual epistemic relationships to build “transdisciplinary epistemic communities” should be considered for inclusion as an intentional aspect of transdisciplinary research design. Research limitations/implications – “Transdisciplinary epistemic communities” is still a concept in its infancy and needs more work before it may be theoretically and practically useful. Practical implications – Continuously guiding the individual transdisciplinary research process in a reflexive, recursive, transparent and equal manner is absolutely critical because transdisciplinary research cannot be done successfully if dominated by overly methods-driven approaches. Originality/value – The discourse around transdisciplinary methodology has major implications for the design of individual PhD research. The paper provides recommendations to enhance the theory and practice of individual transdisciplinary PhD research.

scholarly journals Innovation capacity building

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Brix
Keyword(s):  
Capacity Building ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Exploration And Exploitation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Innovation Capacity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose how a bottom-up creation of an ambidextrous organization can be enabled. By integrating research on “contextual ambidexterity” and “individual and organizational capacity building”, an “innovation capacity building” framework is conceptualized that suggests how balance between exploration and exploitation can be maintained.Design/methodology/approachThe study is conceptual. As no data are utilized, focus is on discussing the links between the two theoretical perspectives and the advantages of the proposed innovation capacity building framework.FindingsThe innovation capacity building framework discusses the influence, both positive and negative, of the local organizational context for ambidexterity, and the interactions required such as feedback between the management team and the employees so they together can build an ambidextrous working culture. A culture in which it is the individual employee that is responsible for switching between activities related to exploration and exploitation and where the management team empowers the employees to do so.Originality/valueThis study focuses on contextual ambidexterity and how contextual ambidexterity can be implemented as a way of working in contemporary organizations. The originality lies in the proposed framework and in the dedicated focus on “how” ambidexterity can be implemented in organizations.

The role of citizens and transformation of energy, water, and waste infrastructure for an intelligent, sustainable environment in cities

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Rodrigues ◽  
Mário Franco
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Scientific Quality ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
The Individual

PurposeThis study aims to list indicators to allow construction of a ranking for environmental sustainability in towns and cities, in relation to energy and water consumption and the prevention, production and management of waste. A systematization of theoretical and empirical indices was elaborated, focused on this dimension.Design/methodology/approachThe results allow presentation of a ranking supported by multivariate statistical techniques – Exploratory Factor Analysis and Principal Component Analysis – confirming its scientific quality and robustness, with this being the main contribution of the study.FindingsThe analysis of the ranking revealed the great heterogeneity of towns and cities in Portugal, with the city of Lisbon and the town of Sardoal in the Top 20, suggesting that the achievement of the goal of environmental sustainability is proactively associated with the ability to articulate resources with infrastructure and the strategic and political will applied, being essential the appeal to the individual awareness of each citizen, even if the design of green infrastructures does not depend on citizens’ behavior. This means that redesigned green infrastructures may exist, but their success depends. In addition, cities are increasingly moving toward a circular economy articulated holistically with open and participatory governance.Practical implicationsThe empirical evidence obtained in the Portuguese context provides some implications for practice, by showing it is possible to counteract the negative effects of rapid urban growth and its environmental consequences in urban and non-urban areas.Originality/valueThe main contribution and innovation of this study lie in the presentation of empirical evidence that the population density of a city or town does not have a cause–effect relationship with its level of environmental sustainability.

Researcher subjectivity in social entrepreneurship ethnographies

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 128-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eeva Houtbeckers
Keyword(s):  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Working Space ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss researcher subjectivity in social entrepreneurship ethnographies. Previous research has highlighted a need for alternatives to the heroic representations of social entrepreneurship. Ethnographic methods have been mentioned as a relevant direction to create such emerging understandings. Design/methodology/approach This paper shows what followed from a decision of a researcher to do an ethnography of a co-working cooperative established for social innovation. Based on the notion of “working the hyphens” in previous research, further developed by other scholars as “working within hyphen-spaces”, the position of the researcher shifted during the research process between a distant outsider and an engaged insider. In addition, a new hyphen-space of hopefulness – hopelessness emerged based on fieldwork. Findings The shifting positions are manifested in the entanglement of stories of the researcher and the people met during the fieldwork in the hyphen-spaces of insiderness – outsiderness, engagement – distance and hopefulness – hopelessness. The stories reveal how for some the co-working space was a place for hope while for others it caused distress and even burnout. Practical/implications The ethnographic understanding of social enterprises go beyond heroic representations, which affects how the phenomenon is represented in academic and public discussions. Social/implications This study concludes that despite its failure in the form of a bankruptcy, the co-working cooperative succeeded in enabling “social innovation” in the form of hope and personal development – also for the researcher. Originality/value This study contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature in showing how ethnographic fieldwork and acknowledging researcher subjectivity bring up alternative representations of social entrepreneurship. The entangled stories of participants and researchers can be a powerful way to reveal situated understandings.

scholarly journals Interactive research: concepts, contributions and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1517-1537
Author(s):  
Per-Erik Ellström ◽  
Mattias Elg ◽  
Andreas Wallo ◽  
Martina Berglund ◽  
Henrik Kock
Keyword(s):  
Theory Development ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Dual Tasks ◽  
Sustainable Operations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
The Individual

PurposeThis paper introduces interactive research as an emerging approach within a broad family of collaborative research approaches in management and organization research. Interactive research is a way to contribute to the dual tasks of long-term theory development and innovation and change processes in organizations. One of the distinguishing features of interactive research is a focus on continuous joint learning processes between the researchers and the involved practitioners.Design/methodology/approachThe basic concepts, contributions and challenges of the interactive research approach are presented and illustrated in the present paper through a practical case, the HELIX Centre.FindingsInteractive research is a way to advance scientific knowledge about the development of new types of work organizations and the development of sustainable operations. The multi-disciplinary and interactive research approach at HELIX has made it possible to reach a high degree of both rigour and relevance in research questions and projects. The authors identified five principles from the HELIX case that were instrumental in accomplishing the dual tasks of interactive research.Originality/valueThe interactive research approach is a powerful method of collaboration between different stakeholders throughout the research process. This type of research makes it possible to interact at various levels of research, from the programme level, to research and development projects, to the individual level. The results from interactive research should not only be considered traditionally valid but also valid in relation to organizational and societal needs.

scholarly journals A methodological framework for crafting situated services

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Mazzarella ◽  
Andrew May ◽  
Val Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Service Management ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Evaluation Study ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Sustainable Futures

PurposeThis paper discusses how service design can be used to activate a transition of textile artisan communities towards a sustainable future.Design/methodology/approachTwo participatory case studies were undertaken with textile artisans in the UK and South Africa. These led to the development of an original methodological framework for “crafting situated services” – services designed to be meaningful to the local communities within which they are embedded. An evaluation study assessed the originality of the framework, its relevance for tackling real-world problems, its extensibility and the rigour of the research process.FindingsThe framework brings together a variety of roles, methods and tools that designers can adopt in order to enter communities, make sense of sustainable futures, facilitate the co-design of situated services and activate legacies within communities. Building on emerging anthropological approaches, the framework makes a bridge between service management and service design for social innovation, advancing the field towards design for social entrepreneurship.Originality/valueArguing against the idea of the designer “parachuting” into communities to create services regardless of the local context, the concept of “situated services” is proposed in this paper, alongside a process for “crafting” meaningful social innovations. This requires the service designer to adopt a more situated and embedded approach to designing with communities in order to align with their needs and aspirations, interweave places, time, people and practices within the process, and co-design contextually better services.

Urbanization and Changes in Cropping Patterns at Kathmandu Valley

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Man Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cropping System ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Leafy Vegetables ◽  
Kathmandu Valley ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Average Growth ◽  
Cropping Patterns ◽  
Agriculture Land

The increase of population in Kathmandu valley is bringing a considerable change in cropping system. Rapid urbanization and introduction of new agriculture technology have encouraged the valley’s farmers to change their cropping patterns from traditional (low value crops) to new crops (high value crops). According to numerous studies made in Nepal, the change is seen considerably in winter crops than in summer crops and the land under cultivation of green leafy vegetables is increasing rapidly in the urban and semi-urban areas. An average growth of population at 3 % in the valley during the period 1951-2001 has resulted in the rapid expansion of area under urban coverage (24.6 % growth per year from 1984 - 2000) has made agriculture land of Katmandu valley to decline per year by 2.04 % (836.27 ha per year). If this trend of decline in agriculture land in Kathmandu valley continues in future too, it is expected that there will be no agriculture land left over by two and half decades in the valley. The planners should take note of this fact that if fertile land of Katmandu valley is to be preserved for agriculture necessary planning is urgently needed. <i>Nepal Journal of Science and Technology</i> Vol. 7, 2006

Using the private finance initiative for energy efficiency projects at the urban scale

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto De Marco ◽  
Giulio Mangano ◽  
Fania Valeria Michelucci ◽  
Giovanni Zenezini
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Light Emitting Diode ◽  
Project Finance ◽  
Private Finance Initiative ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Light Emitting ◽  
Alternate Forms ◽  
Private Investors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest the usage of the project finance (PF) scheme as a suitable mechanism to fund energy efficiency projects at the urban scale and present its advantages and adoption barriers. Design/methodology/approach – A case study is developed to renew the traffic lighting system of an Italian town via replacement of the old lamps with new light-emitting diode (LED) technology. Several partners are involved in the case project to construct a viable PF arrangement. Findings – The case study presents the viability of the proposed PF scheme that provides for acceptable financial returns and bankability. However, it also shows that the need for short concession periods may call for a public contribution to the initial funding to make the project more attractive to private investors. Practical implications – This case study is a useful guideline for governments and promoters to using the PF arrangement to fund energy efficiency investments in urban settings. It helps designing an appropriate PF scheme and understanding the advantages of PF to reduce risk and, consequently, increase the debt leverage and profitability of energy efficiency projects. Originality/value – This paper contributes to bridging the gap about the lack of works addressing the implementation of the PF mechanism in the energy efficiency sector in urban areas. The importance of this paper is also associated with the shortage of traditional public finance faced by many cities that forces to seek for alternate forms of financing.

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