Measuring Liberalism, Confronting Evil: A Retrospective

Taking liberalism's measure as an indispensable yet inherently fragile design grounded in the rule of law, government by consent, individual and public rights, and political representation, my work at the intersection of ideas, institutions, and methods to appraise behavior has focused on origins and transitions, membership boundaries and domination, and an unsteady bonding with the older regime model of democracy. Shaped by early and later life experiences and guided by the good fortune of stimulating networks and enabling institutions, my analytical histories of thought and events, primarily in the American experience, have asked when and why liberal democracies become normatively appealing (less closed and more tolerant) and more effective (less vulnerable and more secure). As a political scientist trained in history, I have been keen to advance a discipline that refuses to be enclosed or too crisply divided into subfields, or, indeed, to choose between quests for causality and understanding.

Building impactful systems-focused simulations: integrating change and project management frameworks into the pre-work phase

Healthcare organizations strive to deliver safe, high-quality, efficient care. These complex systems frequently harbor gaps, which if unmitigated, could result in harm. Systems-focused simulation (SFS) projects, which include systems-focused debriefing (SFD), if well designed and executed, can proactively and comprehensively identify gaps and test and improve systems, enabling institutions to improve safety and quality before patients and staff are placed at risk.The previously published systems-focused debriefing framework, Promoting Excellence and Reflective Learning in Simulation (PEARLS) for Systems Integration (PSI), describes a systematic approach to SFD. It includes an essential “pre-work” phase, encompassing evidence-informed steps that lead up to a SFD. Despite inclusion in the PSI framework, a detailed description of the pre-work phase, and how each component facilitates change management, was limited.The goal of this paper is to elucidate the PSI “Pre-work” phase, everything leading up to the systems-focused simulation and debriefing. It describes how the integration of project and change management principles ensures that a comprehensive collection of safety and quality issues are reliably identified and captured.

Health related vulnerabilities and enabling institutions to facilitate responses to climate change in East Africa

It is now accepted that climate change is having and will continue to have a direct or an indirect impact on human health and in most cases, it will be negative. In this review the links between climate and climate sensitive diseases is established. The review goes further to examine what it will take for health research institutions to address adaptation to climate change, while reducing institutional vulnerability and improving their response to climate change. Evidence has emerged that range expansion of climate sensitive diseases such as malaria, meningitis, Rift Valley Fever, chikungunya and cryptosporidium is occurring and this will increase pressure on the health systems across Africa. Climate related risks in health will require a proactive approach in order to prevent rather than manage health disasters. Diseases epidemic predictive models will enable early detection of the risks and intervention. The health system is dependent on several national and foreign partners forming a critical network. If these networks malfunction then the health systems will be highly susceptible to failure. Governance and leadership of the institutions will determine the rate of adaption to climate change. There is need to strengthen research institutions in Africa because they can run long term programs addressing climate change. Furthermore these institutions must expand their research agenda to include a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems. A closer collaboration between departments of meteorology, remote sensing and mapping and medical research institutions is now more urgent than ever. Development partners and national governments must invest in infrastructure that will enable adaptation with the aim of increasing the institutional capacity to cope and minimize the potential impacts of climate driven diseases.

Public–Private Partnership Monitor: Papua New Guinea

The public–private partnership (PPP) market in Papua New Guinea is at a nascent stage. The country has witnessed six financially closed projects with an investment of $433 million and predominantly in the energy sector. The small number of PPPs stems from the lack of a robust enabling framework, limited public sector capacities to design and manage PPPs, and constrained ability of the government to fund infrastructure development. Realizing the critical role of PPPs in helping achieve the country’s infrastructure investment target, the government is implementing the PPP Act of 2014 and setting up enabling institutions to increase financing and investment opportunities.

Digital labour platforms in Pakistan: institutional voids and solidarity networks

PurposeWhile digital labour platforms are being increasingly studied across the Global South, the existing literature does not conceptualise the theoretical link between such platforms and socio-economic development. This paper theorises such a link drawing on the notion of institutional voids defined, as in Khanna and Palepu (2010), as “the absence of intermediaries to efficiently connect buyers and sellers” in an economy. We frame digital labour platforms as means to fill institutional voids, seeking to create “development” in the form of earning opportunities in contexts of deprivation.Design/methodology/approachWe draw on an interpretive case study of an online work training project in a deprived region of Pakistan, where members of marginalised communities were trained to become freelancers for global digital labour platforms. We use the notion of market-enabling institutions aimed at filling institutional voids as a lens to study the project's declared goals, examining the extent to which these were met in practice for the workers who participated in the training.FindingsOur analysis reveals three types of market-enabling institutions–credibility enhancers, aggregators and distributors, and transaction facilitators–through which digital labour platforms seek to fill institutional voids. However, workers' narratives reveal that institutional voids are only partially filled by these platforms, and their perpetuation results in diverse forms of power asymmetries leveraged by clients and owners of the platforms. We also observe the formation of solidarity networks among workers, networks that are intra-familial and societal rather than characterised by formal unionisation.Originality/valueThe paper offers a novel perspective to theorise the link between digital labour and socio-economic development. Applying such a perspective in a Global South context, it also finds the limits of the digital platforms' institutional void-filling potential, highlighting the emergence of power asymmetries and the emerging formation of worker solidarity networks.

Blockchain Innovation and Information Technology at GCC

Blockchain has become an epidemic and significant decision that organizations may make in the next few years, enabling institutions to integrate business functions, operations, and processes in a decentralized distributed ledger technology. This technology will transform the business world and economy in solving the limitations created by centralization and system inefficiency. Accordingly, with the high demand and complexity of growing economies such as the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries, the need for a typical solution technology is a game changer. This will lead GCC to a solid economic base. Blockchain technology can be applicable in many different fields such as Banking, education, Health, finance, government and trade. This article will address the literature review and methodology of Blockchain technology and innovation at the GCC, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Also, more research can be conducted in the future as the system may be integrated in these countries.

The Framework for Blockchain Innovation and the Impact on Digital Economic Transformation

Blockchain technology has become an epidemic and significant decision that organizations may make in the next few years, as integrated business solution enabling institutions to integrate business functions, operations, and processes in a decentralized distributed ledger technology. This technology will transform the business world and economy in solving the limitations created by centralization and system inefficiency. Accordingly, with the highly demanding and complexity of growing economies such as Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries, the need for a typical solution technology is a game changer. The result of this will lead GCC to a solid base of the economy. Blockchain technology can be applicable in many different fields such as: banking, education, health care, finance, government, trade, etc. This article will propose a conceptual framework for the acceptance of Blockchain technology and innovation in the GCC, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Also, more research can be conducted in the future as the system might be integrated in these countries.

Activating Community

Opening with the documentary Bully and its movement campaign, The BULLY Project, which mobilized educators, parents, and young people to change norms around youth bullying, this chapter introduces the ecology, motivations, and practices of story-based movement builders—the individuals and organizations who empower and mobilize publics to come together in pursuit of dialogue and change, inspired by documentaries. At the center of this ecology are documentary filmmakers themselves—directors and producers who create the stories and bring them to the public eye. Beyond critical acclaim, the social influence of their stories is enabled by two central groups of professionals involved in social-issue documentary as a community of practice: the enabling civic connectors and enabling institutions that supply resources and community-building convenings, and the community and impact engagement strategists who work alongside filmmakers to transform their work into engines of community empowerment.

The Institutions of Roman Markets

The chapter analyzes the basis of the market economy in classical Rome, from the perspective of personal vs impersonal exchange and focusing on the role of the state in providing market-enabling institutions. It starts by reviewing the central conflict in all exchanges between those holding and those acquiring property rights, and how solving it requires reducing information asymmetry without endangering the security of property. Relying on a model of the social choice of institutions, the chapter identifies the demand and supply factors driving the institutional choices made by the Romans, and examines the economic circumstances that influenced these factors in the classical period of Roman law. Comparing the predictions of the model with the main solutions used by Roman law in the areas of property, business exchange, and the enforcement of personal obligations allows the chapter to propose alternative interpretations for some salient institutions that have been subject to controversy in the literature, and to conclude with an overall positive assessment of the market-enabling role of the Roman state.