scholarly journals Neo-institutional approaches and primary research: The case study of EQUAL and LEADER local partnerships in Crete

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Δέσποινα Γρηγοριάδου (Despoina Grigoriadou)
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Informal Rules ◽  
Local Partnerships

This book acknowledges and develops the role of neo-institutional theories in understanding and interpreting political phenomena. In particular, this neo-institutional study analyses the dynamic interaction between formal/informal rules and agents’ behaviour inside a political institution, examining these relationships through primary research on local partnerships in Greece. The theoretical assumptions of this analysis derive mainly from normative neo-institutionalism but also include insights from rational choice and the historical institutionalism. Consideration is also given to sociological theories of the structure/agent duality along with concepts and empirical observations from the literature on urban governance, urban regimes, Europeanisation and political leadership.    This interdisciplinary analysis stems epistemologically from the critical realism stance which acknowledges a reflexive approach to reality. This was also integrated into the research methodology with the implementation of an embedded case study strategy. The case study consists of two local partnerships in the region of Crete, which were established under the EU Community Initiatives Programmes EQUAL II and LEADER+ and coordinated by the Local Development Agency of Heraklion. The research data reveal that the formal rules of the partnerships are not indicative of what actually happens. It is the configuration of formal and informal rules that offers a deep understanding of partnership. The research also shows the importance of agents' intentionality in the process of institutional change as well as the specific spatial and temporal context in which this institutional change takes place each time.

Tuning Transition Metal Carbides Activity by Surface Metal Alloying: Case Study on CO2 Capture and Activation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marti Lopez ◽  
Luke Broderick ◽  
John J Carey ◽  
Francesc Vines ◽  
Michael Nolan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transition Metal ◽  
Co2 Capture ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Metal Carbides ◽  
Transition Metal Carbides ◽  
Adsorption Sites ◽  
Surface Metal ◽  
A Minor

<div>CO2 is one of the main actors in the greenhouse effect and its removal from the atmosphere is becoming an urgent need. Thus, CO2 capture and storage (CCS) and CO2 capture and usage (CCU) technologies are intensively investigated as technologies to decrease the concentration</div><div>of atmospheric CO2. Both CCS and CCU require appropriate materials to adsorb/release and adsorb/activate CO2, respectively. Recently, it has been theoretically and experimentally shown that transition metal carbides (TMC) are able to capture, store, and activate CO2. To further improve the adsorption capacity of these materials, a deep understanding of the atomic level processes involved is essential. In the present work, we theoretically investigate the possible effects of surface metal doping of these TMCs by taking TiC as a textbook case and Cr, Hf, Mo, Nb, Ta, V, W, and Zr as dopants. Using periodic slab models with large</div><div>supercells and state-of-the-art density functional theory based calculations we show that CO2 adsorption is enhanced by doping with metals down a group but worsened along the d series. Adsorption sites, dispersion and coverage appear to play a minor, secondary constant effect. The dopant-induced adsorption enhancement is highly biased by the charge rearrangement at the surface. In all cases, CO2 activation is found but doping can shift the desorption temperature by up to 135 K.</div>

scholarly journals Educating for the Environment: The Role of the Host Destination in Education Travel Programs

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8351
Author(s):  
Brack W. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Global South ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Educational Travel ◽  
Local Partnerships

The benefits from educational travel programs (ETPs) for students have been well-documented in the literature, particularly for programs looking at sustainability and environmental issues. However, the impacts the ETPs have on the destinations that host them have been less frequently considered; most of these studies focus, understandably, on destinations in the Global South. This paper draws on a framework of sustainable educational travel to examine how ETPs affect their host destinations in two case study destinations, based on the author’s professional experience in these locations, interviews with host organizations that use the lens of the pandemic, and information from government databases. The findings highlight an awareness of the sustainability of the destination, the importance of good, local partnerships with organizations well-connected in their communities, and educational activities that can benefit both students and hosts. Nonetheless, we have a long way to go to understand the full impacts of ETPs on their host destinations and thus truly learn to avoid them.

scholarly journals Discursive Strategies and Sequenced Institutional Change: The Case of Marriage Equality in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110205
Author(s):  
Giulia Mariani ◽  
Tània Verge
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Status ◽  
Private Actors

Building on historical and discursive institutionalism, this article examines the agent-based dynamics of gradual institutional change. Specifically, using marriage equality in the United States as a case study, we examine how actors’ ideational work enabled them to make use of the political and discursive opportunities afforded by multiple venues to legitimize the process of institutional change to take off sequentially through layering, displacement, and conversion. We also pay special attention to how the discursive strategies deployed by LGBT advocates, religious-conservative organizations and other private actors created new opportunities to influence policy debates and tip the scales to their preferred policy outcome. The sequential perspective adopted in this study allows problematizing traditional conceptualizations of which actors support or contest the status quo, as enduring oppositional dynamics lead them to perform both roles in subsequent phases of the institutional change process.

UNIFEI, Brazil: a case study of the role of the university in local development

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genecy Moraes Coelho Junior ◽  
Branca Terra ◽  
Elaine Cavalcate Peixoto Borin ◽  
Mariza Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Local Development ◽  
The University

Application of PCA with georeferenced data in the tourism industry: A case study in the province of Córdoba, Argentina

2021 ◽  
pp. 135481662098768
Author(s):  
Laura I Luna
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Methodological Innovation ◽  
Spatial Principal Components ◽  
Components Analysis

The spatial analysis of tourism industries provides information about their structure, which is necessary for decision-making. In this work, tourism industries in the departments of Córdoba province, Argentina, for the 2001–2014 period were mapped. Multivariate methods with and without spatial restrictions (spatial principal components (sPCs) analysis, MULTISPATI-PCA, and principal components analysis (PCA), respectively) were applied and their performance was compared. MULTISPATI-PCA yielded a higher degree of spatial structuring of the components that summarize tourism activities than PCA. The methodological innovation lies in the generation of statistics for multidimensional spatial data. The departments were classified according to the participation of tourism activities in the value added of tourism using the sPCs obtained as input of the cluster fuzzy k-means analysis. This information provides elements necessary for appropriately defining local development strategies and, therefore, is useful to improve decision-making.

scholarly journals What Are the Impacts of Social Innovation? A Synthetic Review and Case Study of Community Forestry in the Scottish Highlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4359
Author(s):  
Carla Barlagne ◽  
Mariana Melnykovych ◽  
David Miller ◽  
Richard J. Hewitt ◽  
Laura Secco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Community Forestry ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Study Approach

In a context of political and economic austerity, social innovation has been presented as a solution to many social challenges, old and new. It aims to support the introduction of new ideas in response to the current urgent needs and challenges of vulnerable groups and seems to offer promising solutions to the challenges faced by rural areas. Yet the evidence base of the impacts on the sustainable development of rural communities remains scarce. In this paper, we explore social innovation in the context of community forestry and provide a brief synthetic review of key themes linking the two concepts. We examine a case of social innovation in the context of community forestry and analyse its type, extent, and scale of impact in a marginalized rural area of Scotland. Using an in-depth case study approach, we apply a mixed research methodology using quantitative indicators of impact as well as qualitative data. Our results show that social innovation reinforces the social dimension of community forestry. Impacts are highlighted across domains (environmental, social, economic, and institutional/governance) but are mainly limited to local territory. We discuss the significance of those results in the context of community forestry as well as for local development. We formulate policy recommendations to foster and sustain social innovation in rural areas.

scholarly journals The influence of common property rights on forest management policy: a case study in Sardinia region, Italy

2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Paletto ◽  
Isabella De Meo ◽  
Fabrizio Ferretti
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Private Forests ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common

Abstract The property rights and the type of ownership (private owners, public domain and commons) are two fundamental concepts in relationship to the local development and to the social and environmental sustainability. Common forests were established in Europe since the Middle Ages, but over the centuries the importance of commons changed in parallel with economic and social changes. In recent decades, the scientific debate focused on the forest management efficiency and sustainability of this type of ownership in comparison to the public and private property. In Italy common forests have a long tradition with substantial differences in the result of historical evolution in various regions. In Sardinia region the private forests are 377.297 ha, the public forests are 201.324 ha, while around 120.000 ha are commons. The respect of the common rights changed in the different historical periods. Today, the common lands are managed directly by municipalities or indirectly through third parties, in both cases the involvement of members of community is very low. The main objective of the paper is to analyse forest management differences in public institutions with and without common property rights. To achieve the objective of the research the forest management preferences of community members and managers were evaluated and compared. The analysis was realized through the use of the principal-agent model and it has been tested in a case study in Sardinia region (Arci-Grighine district). The analysis of the results showed that the categories of actors considered (members of community, municipalities and managers) have a marked productive profile, but municipalities manage forests perceiving a moderate multifunctionality. Moreover, the representatives of the municipalities pay more attention to the interests of the collectivity in comparison to the external managers. They also attribute high importance to environmental and social forest functions.

scholarly journals Impact of Institutional Change on Irrigation Management: A Case Study from Southern Uzbekistan

Water ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kakhramon Djumaboev ◽  
Ahmad Hamidov ◽  
Oyture Anarbekov ◽  
Zafar Gafurov ◽  
Kamshat Tussupova
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Irrigation Management
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