scholarly journals Transference of Citizen Science Program Impacts: A Theory Grounded in Public Participation in Scientific Research

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Louise I. Lynch-O’Brien ◽  
Wayne A. Babchuk ◽  
Jenny M. Dauer ◽  
Tiffany Heng-Moss ◽  
Doug Golick
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Informal Science Education ◽  
Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽  
Science Program ◽  
Program Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Added Benefit

Citizen science is known for increasing the geographic, spatial, and temporal scale from which scientists can gather data. It is championed for its potential to provide experiential learning opportunities to the public. Documentation of educational outcomes and benefits for citizen scientists continues to grow. This study proposes an added benefit of these collaborations: the transference of program impacts to individuals outside of the program. The experiences of fifteen citizen scientists in entomology citizen science programs were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. We propose the substantive-level theory of transference to describe the social process by which the educational and attitudinal impacts intended by program leaders for the program participants are filtered by citizen scientists and transferred to others. This process involves individual and external phases, each with associated actions. Transference occurred in participants who had maintained a long-term interest in nature, joined a citizen science program, shared science knowledge and experiences, acquired an expert role to others, and influenced change in others. Transference has implications for how citizen scientists are perceived by professional communities, understanding of the broader impacts and contributions of citizen science to wicked problems, program evaluation, and the design of these programs as informal science education opportunities.

Approaches to Supporting Local and Community Development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liesel Mack Filgueiras ◽  
Andreia Rabetim ◽  
Isabel Aché Pillar
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Mining Company ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mining Investment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Corporate Social

Reflection about the role of community engagement and corporate social investment in Brazil, associated with the presence of a large economic enterprise, is the major stimulus of this chapter. It seeks to present how cross-sector governance can contribute to the social development of a city and how this process can be led by a partnership comprising a corporate foundation, government, and civil society. The concept of the public–private social partnership (PPSP) is explored: a strategy for building a series of inter-sectoral alliances aimed at promoting the sustainable development of territories where the company has large-scale enterprises, through joint efforts towards integrated long-term strategic planning, around a common agenda. To this end, the case of Canaã dos Carajás is introduced, a municipality in the State of Pará, in the Amazon region, where large-scale mining investment is being carried out by the mining company Vale SA.

No Rest for the Wicked

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Koch ◽  
Davide Christian Orazi
Keyword(s):  
Soft Drink ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Consumption Behavior ◽  
The Public ◽  
Soft Drink Consumption ◽  
Societal Welfare ◽  
The Social ◽  
Marketing Activities ◽  
Systematic Framework

Wicked consumption behavior, namely the inflated consumption of unhealthy commodities such as tobacco and soft drinks, constitutes a leading risk for noncommunicable diseases including cancer and diabetes. Despite the fatal impact of wicked consumption on societal welfare, both the social marketing literature and the public policy literature lack a systematic framework capturing the unfolding of the wicked consumption cycle and providing guidance on when and how to intervene upstream. Drawing on historical data on tobacco and soft drink consumption in the U.S., we propose a four-stage epidemic life cycle of wicked consumer behavior. The biological and habitual factors that make different types of wicked consumption appealing to consumers are reinforced by the marketing activities of the manufacturers. To overcome the strong resistance posed by habitual wicked consumption, we articulate a typology of upstream intervention parameters and provide guidance on when and how to intervene depending on the desired long-term equilibrium.

Accounting for gaming in the time of plague: COVID-19 in Macau

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Noronha ◽  
Jieqi Guan ◽  
Sandy Hou In Sio
Keyword(s):  
Critical Event ◽  
Gaming Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Account ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose While the COVID-19 virus has been spreading worldwide, some studies have related the pandemic with various aspects of accounting and therefore emphasized the importance of accounting research in understanding the impact of COVID-19 on society as a whole. Recent studies have looked into such an impact on various industries such as retail and agriculture. The current study aims at applying a sociological framework, sociology of worth (SOW), to the gaming industry in Macau, the largest operator of state-allowed gambling and entertainment in China, which will allow for its development during the COVID-19 pandemic to be charted. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the theory of SOW as a framework and collects data from various sources, such as the government, gaming operators and the public, to create timelines and SOW frameworks to analyze the impact of the virus on the gaming industry and the society as a whole. Findings Detailed content analysis and the creation of different SOW matrices determined that the notion of a “lonely economy” during a time of a critical event may be ameliorated in the long term through compromises of the different worlds and actors of the SOW. Practical implications Though largely theory-based, this study offers a thorough account of the COVID-19 incident for both the government and the gaming industry to reflect on and to consider new ways to fight against degrowth caused by disasters or crises. Social implications The SOW framework divides society into different worlds of different worths. The current study shows how the worths of the different worlds are congruent during normal periods, and how cracks appear between them when a sudden crisis, such as COVID-19, occurs. The article serves as a social account of how these cracks are formed and how could they be resolved through compromise and reconstruction. Originality/value This study is a first attempt to apply SOW to a controversial industry (gaming) while the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are ongoing. It offers a significant contribution to the social accounting literature through its consideration of the combination of unprecedented factors in a well-timed study that pays close attention to analyses and theoretical elaboration.

Long-Term Ecological Research Over the Long Term: A Historian’s Perspective

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hamlin
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ecological Science

There are many precedents for long-term research in the history of science. Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program’s current identity reflects significant change—intended and accidental, both consensual and conflictual—from research concerns that were prevalent in the 1980s. LTER program has pioneered modes of research organization and professional norms that are increasingly prominent in many areas of research and that belong to a significant transformation in the social relations of scientific research. The essays in this volume explore the impact of the LTER program, a generation after its founding, on both the practice of ecological science and the careers of scientists. The authors have applied the agenda of long- term scrutiny to their own careers as LTER researchers. They have recognized the LTER program as distinct, even perhaps unique, both in the ways that it creates knowledge and in the ways that it shapes careers. They have reflected on how they have taught (and were taught) in LTER settings, on how they interact with one another and with the public, and on how research in the LTER program has affected them “as persons.” A rationale for this volume is LTER’s distinctiveness. In many of the chapters, and in other general treatments of the LTER program, beginning with Callahan (1984), one finds a tone of defensiveness. Sometimes the concerns are explicit: authors (e.g., Stafford, Knapp, Lugo, Morris; Chapters 5, 22, 25, 33, respectively) bemoan colleagues who dismiss LTER as mere monitoring instead of serious science or who resent LTER’s independent funding stream. But more broadly, there is concern that various groups, ranging from other bioscientists to the public at large, may not appreciate the importance of long-term, site-specific environmental research. Accordingly, my hope here is to put LTER into several broader contexts. I do so in three ways. First, to mainstream LTER within the history of science, I show that the LTER program is not a new and odd way of doing science but rather exemplifies research agendas that have been recognized at least since the seventeenth century in the biosciences and beyond.

scholarly journals Applying Citizen Science for Sustainable Development: Rainfall Monitoring in Western Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Paul ◽  
Katarzyna Cieslik ◽  
Neeraj Sah ◽  
Puja Shakya ◽  
Binod Prasad Parajuli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Rain Gauge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Development Context ◽  
Science Clubs

We introduce a case-study agnostic framework for the application of citizen science in a sustainable development context. This framework is tested against an activity in two secondary schools in western Nepal. While the purpose of this activity is to generate locally relevant knowledge on the physical processes behind natural hazards, we concentrate here on its implementation, i.e., to obtain a better understanding of the dynamic of the activity and to learn how it should be implemented. We determined the social capital of secondary schools as a gateway to the local community: they provide a unique setting to bring different stakeholders together. We find that co-designing a teaching programme is an effective means of both complementing local curricula and ensuring continued buy-in of local stakeholders (i.e., teachers). Student engagement depends on the local relevance of teaching materials, with more holistic or global concepts, such as climate change of lesser importance. Our activity focused on rainfall, including student-led data collection. These rainfall data provide a very good fit to co-located rain gauge data, with an average difference on weekly readings of 11.8%, reducing to 8.3% when averaged over all student readings. The autonomous development of student-organized science clubs suggested that our original framework underestimated students' capacity to apply knowledge elsewhere creatively. These clubs may be used to obtain participant feedback to improve and tailor future activities. Quantitative assessment of long-term sustainability remains challenging, due in part to high levels of student turnover. We suggest that integrating scientists wherever possible within a school or local community has a direct and positive result on participant retention.

scholarly journals Foresters and the Challenge of Integrated Resource Management

1970 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. W. Jeffrey ◽  
C. S. Brown ◽  
M. Jurdant ◽  
N. S. Novakowski ◽  
R. H. Spilsbury
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Land Resources ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Integrated Resource Management ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Wildland Management ◽  
Political Economic

Increasing public pressure on Canada's land resources to produce a greater variety of social values indicates an urgent need for integrated resources management. This, in turn, requires a reorientation in the traditional "single resource" thinking of foresters and others. However, it is believed that the current major impediments to developing integrated resource management are to be found in the attitudes and opinions which prevail in the administrative centres of government in respect to social, political, economic, legal, and other matters. Integrated resource management is fundamentally a social concept and a prerequisite to long-term progress in this area is a better knowledge and awareness of the social-environmental needs of society on the part of all resource personnel. Foresters are closely identified in the public mind with responsibilities in wildland management and should be actively concerned with integrated resource management.

scholarly journals Accuracy of long-term volunteer water monitoring data: A multiscale analysis from a statewide citizen science program

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. e0227540
Author(s):  
Kelly Hibbeler Albus ◽  
Ruthanne Thompson ◽  
Forrest Mitchell ◽  
James Kennedy ◽  
Alexandra G. Ponette-González
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Multiscale Analysis ◽  
Water Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Data ◽  
Science Program

Hospitable universities and integration of refugees: First responses from Austria and Poland

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kontowski ◽  
Madelaine Leitsberger
Keyword(s):  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Universities ◽  
Public Role ◽  
The Social ◽  
Academic Year

European universities responded in different ways to the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015. Some subscribed to the agenda of higher education (HE) as a universal human right, while others stressed different long-term benefits of offering access to it. Yet, the unprecedented sense of moral urgency that guided immediate declarations of support and subsequent actions has largely remained unaddressed. With the crisis becoming a new reality for many countries, HE has a role to play in the social inclusion of refugees, even in countries that were not attractive destinations for refugees in the past. In this article, we provide an overview of the reasons why HE institutions supported refugees, and present the results of an empirical study of Poland and Austria during the 2015–2016 academic year. We then evaluate those first responses utilizing parts of Ager and Strang’s framework of integration, and discuss issues of institutional readiness, capabilities and the public role of HE stemming from this comparison. Our findings suggest that reasons such as acknowledgement of basic rights, or utilizing social capital are insufficient to explain and understand strong integrative support measures. We propose that refugee support by HE institutions is both better understood and promoted through the language of hospitality.

scholarly journals Public Services between the Citizen’s Need and the Possibilities of the Administration

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Adriana Grigorescu
Keyword(s):  
Public Services ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Financial Strength ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
Services Of General Interest

Abstract This paper aims at the balance between the citizen and the public authorities with public services as an interface. Public services place themselves at the crossroads of many elements such as: needs of the citizen, social need, public will, public resources, private availability, and civic sense. Without claiming to have identified all factors that converge to defining / structuring the public services (PS) / services of general interest (SGI), the paper tried to highlight some of the most important. The social need is covered at the macro level and it represents what society - as a whole - needs. Citizens’ needs are more specific, individualized and custom-designed, rundown by gender, age, education, social condition, financial strength, religion, living environment etc. The public will is an expression of what the Administration encompasses in mid- and long-term national strategies and addresses in detail the PS / SGI in sectorial policies where responsibility is assumed. Public resources include in our assessment all resources at the disposal of the Administration at some point. Private availability can be expressed through various forms such as public-private partnerships, development of complementary private sponsorships, donations etc. A balanced public service can also benefit of citizens’ civic sense. Even if they are completely satisfied with the services at hand they understand that it would be without sense to unnecessary ask for them just only because it’s free.

scholarly journals Optimal Innovation Strategies in the Public Sector

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ani Matei ◽  
Carmen Săvulescu ◽  
Corina-Georgiana Antonovici ◽  
Reli Ceche
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Social Utility ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Innovation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Innovation Strategies ◽  
Socio Economic Impact ◽  
Complex Forms

For the time being, public sector innovation gains new and complex forms of expression: managerial, institutional, technological or communication. This fact is also due to national and international important bodies’ interest for using innovation as resource and tool for public sector development. Characterised by complexity and adaptation, the innovative processes in the public sector embrace the form of medium and long term innovation strategies, holding high key socio-economic impact on the social utility of public sector innovation. The optimality of innovation strategies becomes a tool for improved decisions in public sector management, providing the methodology for their evaluation related to the objectives of development in the public sector.

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