scholarly journals Building a system-based Theory of Change using Participatory Systems Mapping

Evaluation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Wilkinson ◽  
Dione Hills ◽  
Alexandra Penn ◽  
Pete Barbrook-Johnson
Keyword(s):  
General Purpose ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
System Maps ◽  
Participatory Systems ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Systems Mapping ◽  
Unexpected Outcomes

Theory of Change diagrams are commonly used within evaluation. Due to their popularity and flexibility, Theories of Change can vary greatly, from the nuanced and nested, through to simplified and linear. We present a methodology for building genuinely holistic, complexity-appropriate, system-based Theory of Change diagrams, using Participatory Systems Mapping as a starting point. Participatory System Maps provide a general-purpose resource that can be used in many ways; however, knowing how to turn their complex view of a system into something actionable for evaluation purposes is difficult. The methodology outlined in this article gives this starting point and plots a path through from systems mapping to a Theory of Change evaluators can use. It allows evaluators to develop practical Theories of Change that take into account feedbacks, wider context and potential negative or unexpected outcomes. We use the example of the energy trilemma map presented elsewhere in this special issue to demonstrate.

scholarly journals The Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Religious Exercise: Preliminary Remarks

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Adelaide Madera
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Personal Lives ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Legal Contexts

Since 2020, the spread of COVID-19 has had an overwhelming impact not only on our personal lives, but also on domestic regulatory frameworks. Influential academics have strongly underlined that, in times of deep crisis, such as the current global health crisis, the long-term workability of legal systems is put to a severe test. In this period, in fact, the protection of health has been given priority, as a precondition that is orientating many current legal choices. Such an unprecedented health emergency has also raised a serious challenge in terms of fundamental rights and liberties. Several basic rights that normally enjoy robust protection under constitutional, supranational, and international guarantees, have experienced a devastating “suspension” for the sake of public health and safety, thus giving rise to a vigorous debate concerning whether and to what extent the pandemic emergency justifies limitations on fundamental rights. The present paper introduces the Special Issue on “The crisis of the religious freedom during the age of COVID-19 pandemic”. Taking as a starting point the valuable contributions of the participants in the Special Issue, it explores analogous and distinctive implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in different legal contexts and underlines the relevance of cooperation between religious and public actors to face a global health crisis.

Editorial: Refashioning stories for celebrity counterpublics

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Moro ◽  
Samita Nandy ◽  
Kiera Obbard ◽  
Andrew Zolides
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dominant Ideologies ◽  
Ted Talks

Using celebrity narratives as a starting point, this Special Issue explores the social significance of storytelling for social change. It builds on the 8th Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies conference, which brought together scholars and media practitioners to explore how narratives inspired by the lives of celebrities, public intellectuals, critics and activists offer useful rhetorical tools to better understand dominant ideologies. This editorial further problematizes what it means to be a popular ‘storyteller’ using the critical lens of celebrity activism and life-writing. Throughout the issue, contributors analyse the politics of representation at play within a wide range of glamourous narratives, including documentaries, memoirs, TED talks, stand-up performances and award acceptance speeches in Hollywood and beyond. The studies show how we can strategically use aesthetic communication to shape identity politics in public personas and bring urgent social change in an image-driven celebrity culture.

scholarly journals Working with complexity: a participatory systems-based process for planning and evaluating rural water, sanitation and hygiene services

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey P. Walters ◽  
Kate Neely ◽  
Karla Pozo
Keyword(s):  
Program Planning ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Service Planning ◽  
Collaborative Modeling ◽  
Sanitation And Hygiene ◽  
Participatory Systems ◽  
Continued Use ◽  
Unexpected Outcomes ◽  
Service Factors

Individuals working within the water, sanitation and hygiene for development (WASH) sector grapple daily with complex technical, social, economic, and environmental issues that often produce unexpected outcomes that are difficult to plan for and resolve. Here we propose a method we are calling the ‘Participatory Systems-based Planning and Evaluation Process’ (PS-PEP) that combines structural factor analysis and collaborative modeling to guide teams of practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders through a process of modeling and interpreting how factors systemically and dynamically influence sustained access to WASH services. The use and utility of the PS-PEP is demonstrated with a regional team of water committee members in the municipality of Jalapa, Nicaragua who participated in a two-day modeling workshop. Water committee members left the workshop with a clear set of action items for water service planning and management in Jalapa, informed by the analysis of systemic influences and dependencies between key service factors. In so doing, we find that the PS-PEP provides a powerful tool for WASH project or program planning, evaluation, management and policy, the continued use of which could offer unprecedented growth in understanding of WASH service complexity for a broad spectrum of service contexts.

scholarly journals GRAPE, Solar Terrestrial Physics in an operational environment

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgiana De Franceschi ◽  
Maurizio Candidi
Keyword(s):  
Space Environment ◽  
Ionospheric Scintillation ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Operational Environment ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Earth Space ◽  
Near Earth Space ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Space Data

<p>[…] The collection of papers that forms this special issue represents the whole amplitude of research that is being conducted in the framework of GRAPE, while also connecting to other initiatives that address the same objectives in regions outside the polar regions, and worldwide, such as the Training Research and Applications Network to Support the Mitigation of Ionospheric Threats (TRANSMIT; www.transmitionosphere.net), a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Marie Curie Initial Training Network that is focused on the study of ionospheric phenomena and their effects on systems embedded in our daily life, Near-Earth Space Data Infrastructure for e-Science (ESPAS), an FP7-funded project that aims to provide the e-Infrastructure necessary to support the access to observations, for the modeling and prediction of the near-Earth Space environment, Concept for Ionospheric Scintillation Mitigation for Professional GNSS in Latin America (CIGALA) and its follow-up and extension Countering GNSS High-Accuracy Applications Limitations due to Ionospheric Disturbances in Brazil (CALIBRA), both of which are funded by the European Commission in the frame of FP7, for facing the equatorial ionosphere and its impact on GNSS. The main objective of the present Special Issue of Annals of Geophysics is to collect recent reports on work performed in the polar regions and on the datasets collected in time by the instrumentation deployed across various countries. This collection will set the starting point for further research in the field, especially in the perspective of the new and very advanced space system that will be available in the next few years. […]</p>

scholarly journals A Novel Convolutional Neural Network for Classifying Indian Coins by Denomination

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yash Chauhan ◽  
Prateek Singh
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Convolutional Neural Network ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Classification Problem ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Slot Machines ◽  
Validation Data ◽  
Starting Point

Coins recognition systems have humungous applications from vending and slot machines to banking and management firms which directly translate to a high volume of research regarding the development of methods for such classification. In recent years, academic research has shifted towards a computer vision approach for sorting coins due to the advancement in the field of deep learning. However, most of the documented work utilizes what is known as ‘Transfer Learning’ in which we reuse a pre-trained model of a fixed architecture as a starting point for our training. While such an approach saves us a lot of time and effort, the generic nature of the pre-trained model can often become a bottleneck for performance on a specialized problem such as coin classification. This study develops a convolutional neural network (CNN) model from scratch and tests it against a widely-used general-purpose architecture known as Googlenet. We have shown in this study by comparing the performance of our model with that of Googlenet (documented in various previous studies) that a more straightforward and specialized architecture is more optimal than a more complex general architecture for the coin classification problem. The model developed in this study is trained and tested on 720 and 180 images of Indian coins of different denominations, respectively. The final accuracy gained by the model is 91.62% on the training data, while the accuracy is 90.55% on the validation data.

scholarly journals Theory of Change in Digital Behavior Change Interventions (Dbcis) And Community-Based Change Initiatives – A General Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 554-569
Author(s):  
Dana Rad ◽  
Gavril Rad
Keyword(s):  
Behavior Change ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Change Initiatives ◽  
Complex Situation ◽  
Behavior Change Interventions ◽  
Intermediate Outcomes ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Theories Of Change

A theory of change is a purposeful model of how an initiative, such as a policy, a strategy, a program, a project or an intervention contributes through a chain of early and intermediate outcomes to the intended result. Theories of change help navigate the complexity of social change. Digital behavior change interventions (DBCIs) and Community-based change initiatives represent complex designable systems. The goal of the DCBI is to provide an effective theoretical framework for behavioral change to practitioners that offer different forms of psychological intervention based on scientifically validated practices. Applying theory of change when designing digital individual and community interventions for optimizing digital wellbeing helps practitioners to achieve results in practice, as this strategic approach is generally considered an evidence-based framework. Theory of change is useful to guide the strategic thinking and action, as most of DCBI/ Community-based change initiatives research endeavors are active in a complex situation, often unplanned events happening. Conclusions and implications are discussed.

scholarly journals TRANSFORMASI RELIEF CANDI PRAMBANAN DALAM KARYA TUBUH RITUS TUBUH OLEH ANGGONO KUSUMO WIBOWO

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Siska Dwi Purwanti ◽  
Daryono Daryono
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Participatory Research ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Visual Expression ◽  
Change Transformation ◽  
Different Levels

Transformation is a process of changing form, nature, and so on into new forms without leaving the values that existed in the previous culture. The process of transformation always produces elements of novelty, both in terms of style, taste, and meaning even at different levels of change. Transformation in art does not only occur in similar arts. Ancient relics, for example, as one form of art can be a starting point to be interpreted into visual expression in contemporary art, including dance. Tubuh Ritus Tubuh is one of the dance works which is a form of transformation of the Prambanan Temple relief. This study tries to uncover the allegations of the  transformation of the Prambanan temple reliefs that can be observed on Tubuh Ritus Tubuh dance presentation. The problem of transformation is examined using the theory of change expressed by Lorens Bagus. The participatory research method carried out by the author is able to uncover the form of transformation found in certain parts of the dance presentation. Keywords: transformation, relief, Prambanan Temple, Tubuh Ritus Tubuh.

Bridge-Building for Social Transformation in Sport for Development and Peace

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 426-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per G. Svensson ◽  
Richard Loat
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Sport For Development ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Multistakeholder Initiatives ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Bridge Building ◽  
Recent Policy

The need for new and evidence-based solutions for mobilizing stakeholders and resources in sport for development and peace (SDP) is increasingly emphasized in a number of recent policy documents including the Kazan Action Plan and a set of publications by the Commonwealth Secretariat. This paper provides a response to these calls for the development of mechanisms and toolkits to support multistakeholder collaboration. We draw on our combined experiences in SDP research, practice, and funding to identify how multistakeholder initiatives in SDP can be better leveraged. Specifically, we discuss how Brown’s (2015) five elements of bridge-building for social transformation, namely, compelling and locally relevant goals; cross-boundary leadership systems; generative theories of change; systems enabling and protecting innovation; and investment in institutionalizing change, apply in the SDP domain. The practical framework we have outlined provides a common ground and starting point to build upon for generating improved synergies among a multitude of stakeholders.

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