scholarly journals Faith in localisation? The experiences of local faith actors engaging with the international humanitarian system in South Sudan

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Wilkinson ◽  
Kuyang Harriet Logo ◽  
Emma Tomalin ◽  
Wani Laki Anthony ◽  
Florine De Wolf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Sudan ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Coordination Mechanisms ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Group Interviews

AbstractLocalisation, as it aims to shift power in the humanitarian system, will involve the increased inclusion of local faith actors, those national and local faith-affiliated groups and organisations that are often first, and last, responders in crises and have been responding in humanitarian contexts for many years, but often in parallel to humanitarian coordination mechanisms. In primary research in South Sudan with local faith actors and international humanitarian actors, this article aims to examine the inroads and barriers to local faith actor involvement in the humanitarian system and the realisation of localisation with local actors such as these. The research is based on an ethnographic study in which researchers were imbedded in a humanitarian project that aimed to help bridge divides between local faith actors and the international humanitarian system. The findings are based on one-on-one and group interviews with 89 participants from a range of international and local, and faith and secular, organisations. Findings indicate that local faith actors are active in responding to crises and want to be linked to the humanitarian system, but they feel distanced from it and pigeonholed as local faith actors. Formalisation through the appropriate registration systems and then training and networking with the humanitarian system helped them build legitimacy and feel confident to participate in humanitarian coordination. International humanitarian actors can help bridge barriers by understanding and connecting with the local faith actors and challenging their own assumptions about who local faith actors are.

Trajectories of International Engagement with State and Local Actors: Evidence from South Sudan

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-119
Author(s):  
Daniel Maxwell ◽  
Rachel Gordon ◽  
Leben Moro ◽  
Martina Santschi ◽  
Philip Dau
Keyword(s):  
South Sudan ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
State And Local ◽  
International Engagement

Sustainability service in-store

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 492-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuentes ◽  
Cecilia Fredriksson
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Retail Chain ◽  
Sustainable Products ◽  
Retail Service ◽  
Service Staff ◽  
Group Interviews

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore, illustrate, and conceptualize how sustainability service is performed and the role it plays in the promotion of sustainable consumption. Design/methodology/approach – Theoretically, this paper takes a practice theory approach, conceptualizing the provision of sustainability service as a set of complex, socio-material, and performative practices. Methodologically, this paper draws on an ethnographic study of a retail chain – W-Store – and its sustainability service. Interviews with management and focus group interviews with shop assistants and consumers, as well as observations made in-store, make up the material analysed. Findings – The provision of sustainability service is accomplished in this case via three service practices; arranging green shopping trails, answering sustainability questions, and promoting sustainability to green consumers in-store. The analysis shows that the retailing of sustainable products is not simply a matter of including sustainability products in the range and instructing shop assistants to promote them. Sustainability service – as enacted at W-Store – was dependent on the successful combination and configuration of human competence (service staff) and IT and organizational artefacts. There also needed to be congruence between consumers and their images and between retailers and the version of sustainability they were enacting. Finally, the provision of sustainability service required an investigative and adaptive organization capable of keeping up as well as developing vis-á-vis changing sustainability discourses and issues. However, once the necessary conditions had been met, sustainability service worked towards promoting sustainable consumption by making green shopping possible, educating consumers on sustainability issues, and motivating them via positive feedback and dialogue. Originality/value – Underscores the importance of investigating sustainability service and offers both a conceptual approach to and an analysis of this particular type of retail service work.

Glocalizing Women’s Empowerment: Feminist Contestation and NGO Activism in Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 715-744
Author(s):  
Fae Chubin
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Sexual Autonomy ◽  
Liberal Conception ◽  
Marginalized Women ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Depth Interviews

Through an ethnographic study of a women’s empowerment program in Tehran, and in-depth interviews with its workers, I examine the hegemony of liberal feminist conceptions of empowerment among secular and cosmopolitan middle-class activists and NGO directors. This study demonstrates that activists’ liberal conception of agency inadvertently erased the agency of the marginalized clients and their rights-based advocacy did not equip the subaltern women with a framework of gender justice that would find currency in their communities. While NGO staff and administrators contested the practicality of advocacy for sexual autonomy among marginalized women, the subaltern clients rejected the culturally reductionist accounts of their oppression by prioritizing economic justice. Rather than positing liberal and secular feminist discourses as over-determining, this study reveals that local actors continuously debate and contest globally circulating “women’s rights packages” in accordance with local norms, their standpoint, and lived experiences.

scholarly journals Sight: The Last Bastion Of The Brick And Morter Retailer To Survive?

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Corinne Nell ◽  
Jan Wiid
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Consumer Satisfaction ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Buying Behaviour

The physical brick and mortar retail environment has been the bastion of survival for retailers over the years. With the developments in technology and the changing shopping patterns of consumers, apparel retailers are facing competition from alternative channels, such as the internet where consumers browse, compare and ultimately purchase products. Faced with this evolution, it has become critical for brick and mortar retailers to reconsider the principles and practices of in-store consumer engagement. They need to understand how their physical in-store environments can be used optimally in order to ensure sales optimisation, consumer satisfaction and sustainable profitability.This state of affairs has led to this study, which focuses on sight and its influence on consumers buying behaviour. The primary research question that was posed in this study was to explore the influence of sight on consumers buying behaviour in apparel retail stores. The type of research design used in this study was exploratory in nature, making use of a qualitative approach and a communicative technique of focus group interviews and nave sketches. The data gathered was analysed by means of Teschs inductive descriptive coding technique, better known as thematic analysis. It was found that sight has the ability to influence consumers in either a subconscious or a conscious way. This has a direct influence on the amount of time that consumers will spend in-store and ultimately influence their buying decisions and behaviour, either positively or negatively.

scholarly journals The need of information and extension service for the countryside and its development (the opinions of local actors)

2008 ◽  
Vol 54 (No. 12) ◽  
pp. 583-596
Author(s):  
L. Kocmánková-Menšíková
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Extension Service ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Know How ◽  
Rural Space ◽  
Information Level ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Important Position

The article starts with the theoretical definitions of various concepts (rural space, endogenous approach to the rural development, the actor operating in the particular locality for its development). Concerning the know-how of the rural/local actor, the information acquired also through extension service takes important position there. The methodological approach explains the use of sociological methods and techniques employed in research in two localities. This is continued by the analysis of the data gathered. The conclusions of the paper evaluate the knowledge from the group interviews and discuss the necessity of establishing an “institute” the task of which would be to provide and roof the extension service and the sufficient information level for the local, often rural actors. These actors then would use such information/extension service not only for a more efficient development of their localities, but also for a higher valorisation of their efforts in the “animation” of the rural localities.

scholarly journals Struggling to fit the white coat and the role of contextual factors within a hospital organisation - an ethnographic study on the first months as newly graduated doctors

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tine Lass Klitgaard ◽  
Diana Stentoft ◽  
Mads Skipper ◽  
Mette Grønkjær ◽  
Susanne Backman Nøhr
Keyword(s):  
Time Management ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
White Coat ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

Abstract Background Despite increased focus on improving the transition from being a medical student to working as a junior doctor, many newly graduated doctors (NGD) report the process of fitting the white coat as stressful, and burnout levels indicate that they might face bigger challenges than they can handle. During this period, the NGDs are in a process of learning how to be doctors, and this takes place in an organisation where the workflow and different priorities set the scene. However, little is known about how the hospital organisation influences this process. Thus, we aimed to explore how the NGDs experience their first months of work in order to understand 1) which struggles they are facing, and 2) which contextual factors within the hospital organisation that might be essential in this transition. Methods An ethnographic study was conducted at a university hospital in Denmark including 135 h of participant observations of the NGDs (n = 11). Six semi-structured interviews (four group interviews and two individual interviews) were conducted (n = 21). The analysis was divided into two steps: Firstly, we carried out a “close-to-data” analysis with focus on the struggles faced by the NGDs. Secondly, we reviewed the struggles by using the theoretical lens of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to help us explore, which contextual factors within the hospital organisation that seem to have an impact on the NGDs’ experiences. Results The NGDs’ struggles fall into four themes: Responsibility, local knowhow, time management and collaborators. By using the CHAT lens, we were able to identify significant contextual factors, including a physically remote placement, a missing overlap between new and experienced NGDs, a time limited introduction period, and the affiliation to several departments. These struggles and factors were highly intertwined and influenced by one another. Conclusion Contextual factors within the hospital organisation may aggravate the struggles experienced by the NGDs, and this study points to possible elements that could be addressed to make the transition less challenging and overwhelming.

scholarly journals A call for deep engagement for impact: Addressing the planetary emergency

2021 ◽  
pp. 147612702110117
Author(s):  
Amanda Williams ◽  
Gail Whiteman
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Action Orientation ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
Societal Resilience ◽  
Do So

In a world facing catastrophic shocks, there are tremendous opportunities for management scholars to engage and make fundamental contributions to the grand challenges that lie ahead. To do so, our focus must move away from a theory-fetish toward a more applied action orientation that contributes to theory-building but does not make that its main or singular aim. In this paper, we argue, that our field’s primary research aim must not be to see how we can build theory out of a crisis, but rather how our organizational and management theories can contribute concretely to helping humanity prepare for and respond to these shocks and build long-term societal resilience. Furthermore, we argue that management scholars need to vigorously embrace a research agenda on sustainability focusing on deep engagement with practitioners to address grand challenges. To do so, we draw on experiences from our deep engagement with practitioners—an ethnographic study and a scientific activism effort. We offer several lessons and identify implications of deep engagement for impact within organization studies such as dedicated space in journals for impact cases.

scholarly journals Path dependency when prioritising disaster and humanitarian response under high levels of conflict: a qualitative case study in South Sudan

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Mena ◽  
Dorothea Hilhorst
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Priority Needs

AbstractIn high-conflict scenarios, humanitarian needs often surpass resources, and humanitarians are faced with ongoing challenges of whom to prioritise and where to work. This process is often referred to as ‘targeting’, but this article uses the concept of ‘triage’ to emphasise how prioritisation is a continuous and political process, rather than a one-off exercise to find the best match between needs and programme objectives. This study focused on South Sudan, exploring the formal and informal dynamics at the national, regional and local levels of humanitarian decisions. The article is based on semi-structured interviews and multiple meetings and observations of programmes over four months of fieldwork in 2017. This fieldwork was beset by many of the problems that humanitarians also encounter in their work, including complicated access, logistics difficulties and security challenges. Humanitarian action is meant to be flexibly deployed to respond to priority needs resulting from conflict or disasters, and agencies have multiple tools and policies to facilitate this. However, in reality, we find humanitarian action largely locked into path-dependent areas of intervention because agencies must rely on logistics, trust and local partners, all of which take years to develop, and because local actors’ commitment to see programmes continued.

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