scholarly journals Problems of Participation and Issues of Sustainability in the Public Irrigation System in the Context of Management Transfer: Some Sociological Observations from Eastern Terai, Nepal

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 41-64
Author(s):  
Laya Prasad Uprety
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Agency Relationship ◽  
The Public ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Institutional Strengthening ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Potential Benefits

It has been ascertained that participatory processes did not involve learning component from both agency and water users’ association for institutional and technical sustainability. The overall process of participation was superficial. There was a need of participation that underscored the empowerment of WUA with accountability. As Vermillion (2005) shares that empowerment with partnership is an emergent institutional paradigm for the irrigation sector development that places water users in the role of irrigation system governance, and government in the roles of regulator and provider of support services. There is a need to re-train the irrigation staff on the emergent institutional paradigm to empower the water users. For the empowerment with accountability, water users are to be provided enough institutional strengthening. There is the need to promote user-agency relationship positively and develop faith and confidence of the users and agency in the regime of transparency. Social scientists point out potential benefits of building successful local organizations. These benefits, for the local people, are in aspects such as empowerment, confidence-building, forming social capital, and reduction of dependency. Given the fact that participation is a process, it cannot be achieved in a short span of time with little institutional inputs. Sustainability of the management transferred irrigation systems/sub-systems definitely hinges on the broad-based and inclusive participatory processes. Keywords: participation; sustainability; management transfer; social capital and empowerment DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v4i0.4512 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.4 2010 pp.41-64

Popularization and Consilience

2021 ◽  
pp. 212-232
Author(s):  
Matt Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Public Concerns

Social science makes its way into public debate, raising concerns about publicity-seeking scholarship but also opening up potential benefits for engagement across disciplines and society. Social science debates are no longer, if they ever were, confined to universities and obscure journals; they are now central parts of popular media and political debate. Associated scholarly motivations for public influence drive research, then popular discussion of research findings feeds back into scholarship. The increasing role of media attention, popular nonfiction, and think tanks changes the incentives and the practices of social scientists. Popularized scholarship not only (mis)informs the public and policymakers, but also shapes interdisciplinary debates. This enables integration by concentrating diverse minds on public concerns. Sociobiology shows that scholars with very different views of human nature have put forward popular accounts, responded to one another, and created an ongoing space for advancing knowledge.

scholarly journals Social capital: Limitations of the concept and participation in public life in Poland

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-68
Author(s):  
Kamil Aksiuto
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Polish Society ◽  
State Of Affairs

The article examines some of the most common and crucial difficulties involved in the use of the concept of “social capital” for research purposes. Some of the limitations of the concept are subsequently exemplified in the ways in which it has been employed to explain the unwillingness of a large part of the Polish society to participate in the public life. Social scientists have often accounted for this by emphasizing the low level of social capital in Poland, i.e. absence of certain skills necessary for active engagement in public life and/or lack of trust (trust in public institutions as well as towards other people in general). The article argues that such explanations are either obscuring important factors which contributed to this state of affairs or might gloss over the resources of social capital which are present in the Polish society.

scholarly journals The local library across the digital and physical city: Opportunities for economic development

2014 ◽  
pp. 39-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirralie Houghton ◽  
Marcus Foth ◽  
Evonne Miller
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Public Library ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Network ◽  
Knowledge Economies ◽  
Government Planning ◽  
Potential Benefits

This paper considers the role of the public library as a community hub, engagement space, and entrepreneurial incubator in the context of the city, city governance, and local government planning. It considers this role from the perspective of library experts and their future visions for libraries in a networked knowledge economy. Public libraries (often operated by or on behalf of local governments) potentially play a pivotal role for local governments in positioning communities within the global digital network. Fourteen qualitative interviews with library experts informed the study which investigates how the relationship between digital technology and the physical library space can potentially support the community to develop innovative, collaborative environments for transitioning to a digital future. The study found that libraries can capitalise on their position as community hubs for two purposes: first, to build vibrant community networks and forge economic links across urban localities; and second, to cross the digital divide and act as places of innovation and lifelong learning. Libraries provide a specific combination of community and technology spaces and have significant tangible connection points in the digital age. The paper further discusses the potential benefits for libraries in using ICT networks and infrastructure, such as the National Broadband Network in Australia. These networks could facilitate greater use of library assets and community knowledge, which, in turn, could assist knowledge economies and regional prosperity.

scholarly journals Bilingualism, cognition, and aging

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUBIN ABUTALEBI ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The Public ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Cognition And Aging ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
Made In

Topics in psycholinguistics and the neurocognition of language rarely attract the attention of journalists or the general public. One topic that has done so, however, is the potential benefits of bilingualism for general cognitive functioning and development, and as a precaution against cognitive decline in old age. Sensational claims have been made in the public domain, mostly by journalists and politicians. Recently (September 4, 2014) The Guardian reported that “learning a foreign language can increase the size of your brain”, and Michael Gove, the UK's previous Education Secretary, noted in an interview with The Guardian (September 30, 2011) that “learning languages makes you smarter”. The present issue of BLC addresses these topics by providing a state-of-the-art overview of theoretical and experimental research on the role of bilingualism for cognition in children and adults.

scholarly journals Trust in government in times of economic crisis

2016 ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Robert Sobiech
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Evaluation ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Government

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the existing studies concerning the phenomenon of public trust in government. Low trust in government has been frequently defined as a key problem influencing the policy process in many countries. The economic crises reinforced the importance of trust and triggered public debates on the necessary reforms of the public sector. The paper examines the key theories and research conducted by social scientists with a particular emphasis on the role of trust in risk societies. The review of the existing literature concentrates on the drivers of trust, showing the importance of two interlinked logics: the logic of consequences (the performance approach) and the logic of appropriateness (the process approach). The first one explains trust as a result of outputs and outcomes of government policies and services. The logic of appropriateness claims that trust is built on values and identity and depends on the adoption by governments the rules of integrity, openness, responsiveness and transparency. Trust in government is also deeply rooted in a broader system of rules, norms andvalues known as the trust culture. The last part of the paper is an attempt to trace an impact of an economic crisis on public trust. Studies of public opinion do not fully confirm the opinions on low trust and a decline in trust in government and trust in public administration in times of crisis. Some studies reveal considerable fluctuations of public trust in selected countries. In other countries, the public evaluation of government and public administration is high and there are only slight modifications in citizens’ perception of the government.

scholarly journals Social scientists as expert witnesses in The Hague Tribunal and elsewhere

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-116
Author(s):  
Vladimir Petrovic
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Expert Witnesses ◽  
Specific Character ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Specific Solution ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Legal Contexts

The article analyses the role of social scientists as expert witnesses in the ICTY, whose contribution is assessed in the light of the long development of this practice. Wider discussion on the courtroom usage of scientific knowledge is evoked in order to emphasize the problems in regulation of expert witnessing. Differing mechanisms set to ensure the scientific reliability and legal relevance of the contribution of experts is analyzed in different legal contexts and in different scholarly disciplines. Regulation of expert witnessing in The Hague tribunal is perceived as specific solution whose consequences are tracked through the role of experts in the trials and through the public perception of this role. The goal of such approach is to nuance the dominant interpretations on the role of scholars in the Hague tribunal and to create the preconditions for understanding of the specific character of their role.

scholarly journals Jurnal PKM Meningkatkan Pengetahuan Masyarakat Dalam Perbaikan Sanitasi Lingkungan

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L.M. Azhar Sa'ban ◽  
Anwar Sadat ◽  
Asrul Nazar
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Service Program ◽  
Community Knowledge ◽  
Environmental Sanitation ◽  
Environmental Improvement ◽  
The Public ◽  
Healthy Environment

This community service program is carried out in Mulyajaya Village, Lasalimu Selatan District, Buton Regency. Some of the main problems that become a problem in Mulyajaya Village, Lasalimu Selatan District, Buton Regency, are the not yet optimal knowledge of the community regarding Environmental Sanitation and the lack of optimal socialization to the public about how to create and improve a healthy environment. The results of this PKM activity can be described through the role of social capital as a form of local knowledge, it can be used as a means of socializing the importance of environmental awareness. The process of increasing community knowledge about environmental improvement is carried out through three discussions namely socialization, mentoring and planning for making garbage cans and making latrines.

scholarly journals The private sector in knowledge brokering for international development: what the experts say

2020 ◽  
pp. 026666692097759
Author(s):  
Sarah Cummings ◽  
Suzanne Kiwanuka ◽  
Barbara Regeer
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
International Development ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
International Experts

This article contributes to the emerging body of knowledge on the role of the private sector in knowledge brokering in international development because very little is known about the role of the private sector. It attempts to validate the findings of the only literature review to date (Kiwanuka et al, In Press) on the subject and other literature on knowledge brokering by consulting international experts in the field of knowledge brokering, identifying policy and research implications. The conceptual lens employed is the ‘extended’ Glegg and Hoens’ (2016) meta-framework of knowledge brokering, in combination with the cognitive, relational and structural aspects of social capital (Nahapiet and Ghoshal 1998). An online questionnaire survey was distributed to international experts in both the private, public and civil society sectors with some 203 respondents. The questions were developed on the basis of the literature. Respondents from the private sector and their colleagues from the public sector and civil society placed considerable emphasis on opportunities to meet, the existence of personal relationships and brokering by third parties as catalysts to working with the private sector. In addition to developing recommendations for policymakers, the paper has added to the emerging body of academic knowledge on the private sector as an unusual suspect in knowledge brokering and provides a conceptual framework linking social capital to knowledge brokering roles. Policymakers and funders can facilitate cooperation between the private sector and other development actors by creating physical spaces and funding instruments to encourage collaboration with the private sector. One of the novel findings is that the public sector needs to be better prepared to collaborate with the private sector.

scholarly journals Consumer perspectives in surgical research and audit

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Ahern ◽  
Prema Thavaneswaran ◽  
Wendy Babidge ◽  
Guy J. Maddern
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Healthcare Research ◽  
Consumer Information ◽  
Surgical Research ◽  
Academic Surgery ◽  
The Public ◽  
Consumer Perspective ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Consumer Perspectives

Objectives: The aim was to learn about perspectives of consumers contributing to the work of the Division of Research, Audit and Academic Surgery of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. The research arm of the Division has worked with consumers since it was formed in 1998.Methods: Nine consumers who worked with the Division over the past 5 years completed (1) a written survey focused on their background and past experience, and (2) a semi-structured phone interview focused on their motivations for becoming involved in this work; their role; the evolution of the role of consumers in healthcare research; and what health information for consumers should contain.Results: Participants came from various backgrounds and had different motivations for being involved. A common theme was concern about uncertainties in surgery and the need to provide consumers with information about potential benefits and risks of a procedure. Participants believed that a consumer presence was vital in research on surgical procedures, and that the content and wording of consumer information must be chosen carefully in order for the public to use it in a meaningful way. They also acknowledged the changing role of the consumer, who was rapidly becoming a partner in the doctor–patient relationship.Conclusions: In surgical research and audit, the consumer perspective is unique and informed by a wealth of experience. The findings of this study may be of interest to other health technology assessment and associated agencies seeking to involve consumers within their own research process.

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