Research on the Participation of Chinese Sports Cultural Elite in Ice and Snow Sports

Governments have a responsibility to provide equal opportunities for sport and physical activity to all people of population. Chinese governments have issued many policies, such as “exhibition in the south, expansion in the West and East” of ice and snow sports to promote and stimulate the participation of the broad masses of the people. As a high-cost sport, the participants of ice and snow sports are usually socially elite groups. This study investigated the participation of cultural elite groups in ice and snow sports and investigated the social mobilization effect of ice and snow sports participation promotion policies by using binary regression and sequential regression models. The research shows that there are two different stages of one-time and continuous participation in the development of ice and snow sports in China. The one-time participation of ordinary people in ice and snow sports is mainly in response to the social mobilization of government policies. At the same time, it is positively correlated with site restrictions and knowledge of ice and snow sports. In the continuous participation group, gender, income, perception of ice and snow culture, and convenience near the site were highly positively correlated with consumption level. According to the results, low- and middle income people are less likely to participate in these activities because of their income. Therefore, this policy can increase inequalities.

“The Revolution Will Be Feminist—Or It Won’t Be a Revolution”: Feminist Response to Inequality in Chile

This article argues that gender inequality, which in Chile is superimposed on a societal and economic structure characterized by deep inequalities that cut across every aspect of society, has been sustained by a political and legal system that has severely limited women’s access to economic power and equality. The neoliberal policies implemented by the Pinochet dictatorship and maintained by the democratically elected regimes after 1990—generally characterized as an elitist democracy—have sustained this pattern of inequality. We argue that this gender inequality gave urgency to the regeneration and evolution of Chile’s feminist movement and drove the movement to develop claims against “the precarity of life,” uniting Chileans in a common struggle, contributing to the October 2019 “social explosion” and now the writing of a new constitution. We believe the current climate is rooted in the social mobilization that was the response to Chile’s economic and political system, and the feminist movement’s ability to put the rights of women at the forefront of the political and socio‐economic agenda. In conclusion, we reevaluate the current climate to consider what a significant feminist presence means and how women can be effectively included and benefit from Chile’s economy and influence its progress.

The STRATEGI KOMUNIKASI PEMBANGUNAN DALAM IMPLEMENTASI KONSEP SMART ENVIRONMENT DI KOTA CIREBON

This journal examines the development communication strategy in implementing the smart environment concept in the city of Cirebon. The concept smart environment focus refers to how a city is managed and refers to development that is environmentally friendly and does not damage the ecosystem. The research methodology uses a systematic literature review, the focus of the research is examining the concept of smart environment in the city of Cirebon. The results showed that the existence of a development communication strategy in implementing the smart city program, especially in the concept of smart environment in the city of Cirebon, provides convenience in implementing the program. The development communication strategy used in the Cirebon city smart environment concept is 1.) Looking at the Targets. 2.) Social Mobilization. 3.) To Secure Understanding. 4.) To Establish Acceptance. 5.) To Motivate Action. Thus, the role of development communication in implementing the smart environment concept can be more focused, and optimize the achievement of the goals to be achieved, because it has a more structured and directed development communication strategy.

Seeding a New World: Lessons from the FeesMustFall Movement for the Advancement of Social Justice

The author interrogates the empirical experience of #FeesMustFall—which is extensively detailed in the book Rebels & Rage from which this article flows—with a view to understanding social movements and in turn enhancing the effectiveness of social justice struggles in the future. He discusses the value of social mobilization in effecting change, but demonstrates that this is only sustainable if the protest is structured within certain strategic and ethical parameters. He then proceeds to interrogate the issues of violence, the framing of the struggle and outcomes, the decision-making processes associated with the protest, and the importance of ethical conduct by leaders and activists. He concludes by underscoring the legitimacy of the social justice struggles but insists that these have to be more effectively conducted if they are to culminate in the establishment of a more humane social order.

The Long-Term Struggle for Violence against Women Legislation: The Guatemalan Women's Movement and the Politics of Patience

A scholarly consensus depicts strong, autonomous domestic women's movements as critical for the passage of gender equality reforms, alongside openings in domestic and international political contexts. What, then, is a nascent women's movement seeking gender equality reforms to do if it lacks strength or a history of autonomous organizing? A long-term analysis of the Guatemalan women's movement's push for reforms to address violence against women demonstrates that one potential road forward is through a “politics of patience,” rooted in the pursuit of cumulative, incremental victories. Adopting a politics of patience allows nascent domestic movements in developing and post-transition contexts to achieve incremental victories that create future political openings while simultaneously building movement strength and autonomy over time. This finding highlights the temporal and strategic power of women's movements, as well as the iterative and potentially reinforcing nature of social mobilization and political reform.

Optimal Management of Evolving Hierarchies

We study the optimal management of evolving hierarchies of revenue-generating agents. The initiator invests into expanding the hierarchy by adding another agent, who will bring revenues to the joint venture and who will invest herself into expanding the hierarchy further, and so on. The higher the investments (which are private information), the higher the probability of expanding the hierarchy. An allocation scheme specifies how revenues are distributed, as the hierarchy evolves. We obtain schemes that are socially optimal and initiator-optimal, respectively. Our results have potential applications for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, social mobilization, and multilevel marketing. This paper was accepted by Manel Baucells, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Rice Bunnies vs. the River Crab: China’s Feminists, #MeToo, and Networked Authoritarianism

As censorship algorithms for digital communications evolve in China, so do netizens’ evasion techniques. In the last two decades, strategic users have employed the language of satire to slip sensitive content past censors in the form of euphemisms or analogies, with messages ranging from lighthearted frustration to wide scale resistance against repressive government policies. In recent years activists have used spoofs to discuss controversial subjects, including the president, violent arrests by the Domestic Security Department, and even the #MeToo movement. In addition to providing an outlet for criticism and free speech, spoofs can also be a powerful organizational tool for activists in authoritarian societies through their ability to facilitate decentralized, personalized, and flexible connective action. This paper investigates how feminists used spoofs for social mobilization throughout China’s #MeToo movement while evaluating potential frameworks for measuring activists’ success against the media censorship and political repression of a networked authoritarian regime.

Towards elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis in Kenya: Improving advocacy, communication and social mobilization activities for mass drug administration, a qualitative study.

IntroductionA major pillar in the Kenya Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) breaking transmission strategy of 2019 -2023 is that of intensifying advocacy, coordination and partnerships in NTD control and elimination. The purpose of this study was to explore views and experiences of stakeholders and health workers on ways of improving Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization (ACSM) activities of MDA for LF programmes through participatory approaches in Kilifi County, Kenya.Methods: Two wards were purposely selected in Kaloleni sub county, Kilifi County where there was average treatment coverage of 56% in 2015, 50.5% in 2016. Qualitative data collection methods were employed which included participatory meetings with county stakeholders to understand their views, experiences and suggestions on how ACSM strategies can be improved in MDA for LF. 12 In-Depth Interviews (IDI) were conducted (six with opinion leaders and six with Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) and two Semi structured interviews (SSIs) were held with county and sub-county coordinators involved in MDA administration. The aim was better understanding their perceptions of the NTD program about ACSM, challenges to ACSM strategies, and ways to improve the strategies for ACSM in MDA for LF. Data was organized and classified into codes and themes using QSR NVIVO version 12.Results: The study observed a low participation of stakeholders in ACSM activities of MDA for LF and identified potential areas for stakeholders’ involvement to strengthen the activities. Challenges hindering effective implementation of ACSM activities included late delivery of Information Educational and Communication (IEC) and few IEC materials, insufficient funding, inadequate time allocated to reach to the assigned households with messages, messaging and packaging of information for dissemination and vastness of the area. The stakeholders recommended innovative strategies and techniques to improve ACSM activities.Discussion and Conclusion: The results of this study show key challenges to ACSM implementation of MDA for LF. Implementers need to pay attention to these challenges to enhance effectiveness of MDA in accordance to the Kenya NTD breaking transmission Strategy. ACSM efforts in MDA for LF control and elimination should be linked with overarching efforts to mainstream partnerships and coordination in control and elimination.

Actually Existing Platformization

In this article we examine the partnership as a heterogeneous boundary resource that enables platforms to generate dependencies, become locally embedded, and gain power in urban settings. Pushing back against narratives of platform-driven disruption, which tend to universalize and totalize platform power, we discuss three cases of what we term “actually existing platformization”—a path-dependent and locally situated process in which platform companies engage in various forms of “boundary work” with other actors seeking to retain and/or gain power. Each case focuses on a distinct industry: food delivery, short-term housing rental, and the social/voluntary sector. In each of these domains, we show how asset-light platforms initiate and develop partnerships as a frequently nebulous boundary resource that opens up potential avenues for (1) market consolidation, (2) logistical integration, (3) social mobilization, and/or (4) institutional legitimation. Such strategic moves, we argue, have become particularly pertinent following the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit urban areas particularly hard and is intensifying certain social dependencies and institutional shortcomings that platforms are seeking to exploit.

Unfinished Revolutions

This article examines Wei Beihua's modernist works, which have receded into the shadows of Sinophone Malayan (Mahua) literary history, in relation to Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar, to excavate a neglected route of transculturation at the height of Southeast Asia's nationalist movements during the 1950s. Unlike Anwar's modernist poems that thrive in Indonesia, Wei Beihua's works were considered outliers during a period when realist literature was deemed an effective tool for social mobilization in postwar Malaya. Nonetheless, it is critical for us to recognize that Wei Beihua did not reject realism or underestimate the role of literature in nation building. This article argues that Wei Beihua's idea of modernism is premised on an artist's affective and self-reflexive engagement with realism, which gives rise to a dialectical tension. The tension between his advocacy of an artist's individualism, which is inspired by Anwar, and the impetus of responding to nationalism manifests in his meta-fictional short stories that reflect on the varying motivations behind art creation. His works offer a productive perspective to reconsider the modernist artist's role during revolution and “the limits of realism” of revolutionary works when art was deemed integral to nation building in postwar Southeast Asia.