Constructively Engaging Exploitive Waste Management in India: The Case of Paryavaran Mitra and its Justice Motivated Effort at Empowering Rag-Picking Women

Constructive Engagement (CE) aims at developing sustainable and equitable marketing systems that ensure collective well-being. This paper reflects on an initiative that constructively engages with impoverished market actors, i.e., rag-picking women in India. It is endeavored by operationalizing Integrative Justice Model (IJM) principles while trying to tackle the issue of solid waste management. Our findings suggest that CE across the spectrum in the value chain is required to alleviate the conditions of disadvantaged market actors and improve their well-being. Our qualitative inquiry in rag-picking women’s lives and an initiative of social enterprise contribute to the ongoing conversation in macromarketing literature- (1) by empirically evidencing how the CE operationalizes the IJM and help redress the issues of social traps and internalities; (2) by uniquely connecting the macro issues of waste management with the issues of honesty, fairness, dignity and deserved justice in the neglected market transactions; (3) that IJM principles guide the constructive engagement process.

Humility and Informing the Public Conversation

This chapter highlights the importance of humility in preventing the contagion next time. Shaping a healthier world means informing a public conversation which prioritizes what matters most for health. It means elevating the subjects discussed in this book to the center of the national conversation about health, a conversation currently focused on the curative power of medicine at the expense of the forces that shape health. In this task, humility is key. Humility helps us to listen and engage with respect, compassion, and an openness to alternative perspectives. Throughout COVID-19, we saw how hubris and closeminded partisanship undermined, again and again, the possibility of such a conversation, hindering efforts to support health. Going forward, we need an approach to health which embraces humility and constructive engagement with the public conversation, towards the aim of building a healthier world.

Money

As the economic and financial crises of the last decade have highlighted, monetary issues sit at the heart of nearly every major political debate and policy issue in the world economy today. This makes the study of the politics of money perhaps the single most important topic in International Political Economy (IPE). This article surveys the IPE literature on money over the last two decades, highlighting outstanding scholarship on the political economy of central banking, exchange rates, and the international monetary system, as well as the persistent problem of “non-engagement” between scholars of different theoretical and methodological perspectives. In taking stock of the field, the article seeks to identify the many important contributions of each camp, to note outstanding work and scholars that have recently begun to bridge this gap, and to highlight key empirical and theoretical topics where further constructive engagement would enrich our understanding of the politics of money.

EXPRESS: JPPM’s Global Perspective and Impact: An Agenda for Research on Marketing and Public Policy

For several decades, the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing has stimulated and led debates with far-reaching implications for consumer well-being, global relationships and, ultimately, human survival. The challenges we face have not disappeared but intensified. Today, we must respond to climate change, manage a global pandemic, and address disparities and inequities that threaten our planet in ways we are yet to comprehend fully. However, the JPP&M community remains well-placed to inform responses to these crises. This article draws together perspectives on new and long-standing questions and challenges, as we highlight the increasing urgency of addressing inequities and embedding sustainability at the heart of policy-making. Yet, while progress addressing these complex questions often has been slow, we also identify compelling opportunities. Sound policies and good marketing and consumption practices in response to health crises, environmental degradation, injustice, automation, violence and war; the transformational benefits following Constructive Engagement offer hope that, even when faced with unprecedented challenges, human resilience and ingenuity can create meaningful responses. As we address chronic and novel problems, we are confident JPP&M’s community of researchers, policy makers, and advocates will continue to bring innovation, insight, and rigor, and play a leading role in discovering solutions, locally and globally.

Pilgrimage, Landscape, and Identity

The book explores the ritual geography of a pilgrimage system woven around local medieval saints in Norway and the renaissance of pilgrimage in contemporary majority-Protestant Norway, facing challenges of migration, xenophobia, and climate crisis. The study is concerned with historical narratives and communal contemporary reinterpretations of the figure of St. Olav, the first Christian king who was a major impulse toward conversion to Christianity and the unification of regions of Norway in a nation unified by a Christian law and faith. This initially medieval pilgrimage network, which originated after the death of Olav Haraldsson and his proclamation as saint in 1030, became repressed after the Reformation, which had a great influence on Scandinavia and shaped Norwegian Christianity overwhelmingly. Since the late 1990s, the Church of Norway participated in a renaissance that has grown into a remarkable infrastructure supported by national and local authorities. The contemporary pilgrimage by land and by sea to Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim is one site where this negotiation is paramount. The study maps how pilgrims, hosts, church officials, and government officials are renegotiating and reshaping narratives of landscape, sacrality, pilgrimage as a symbol of life journey, nation, identity, Christianity, and Protestant reflections on the durability of medieval Catholic saints. The redevelopment of this instance of pilgrimage in a majority-Protestant context negotiates various societal concerns, all of which are addressed by various groups of pilgrims or other actors in the network. One part of the network is the annual festival Olavsfest, a culture and music festival that actively and critically engages the contested heritage of St. Olav and the Church of Norway through theater, music, lectures, and discussions, and features theological and interreligious conversations. This festival is a platform for creative and critical engagement with the contested, violent heritage of St. Olav, the colonial history of Norway in relation to the Sami indigenous population, and many other contemporary social and religious issues. The study highlights facets of critical, constructive engagement of these majority-Protestant actors engaging legacy through forms of theological and ritual creativity rather than mere repetition.

Improving multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH) services: frontline worker responses to insecure attachment styles

Purpose This study aims to examine the emotional and cognitive responses of frontline homelessness service support staff to the highly insecure attachment styles (AS) exhibited by people experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH), that is, a combination of homelessness and other forms of deep social exclusion. Design/methodology/approach Focus groups were conducted with frontline staff (N = 19) in four homelessness support services in Scotland. Hypothetical case vignettes depicting four insecure AS (enmeshed, fearful, withdrawn and angry-dismissive) were used to facilitate discussions. Data is analysed thematically. Findings Service users with AS characterised by high anxiety (enmeshed or fearful) often evoked feelings of compassion in staff. Their openness to accepting help led to more effective interactions between staff and service users. However, the high ambivalence and at times overdependence associated with these AS placed staff at risk of study-related stress and exhaustion. Avoidant service users (withdrawn or angry-dismissive) evoked feelings of frustration in staff. Their high need for self-reliance and defensive attitudes were experienced as hostile and dismissing. This often led to job dissatisfaction and acted as a barrier to staff engagement, leaving this group more likely to “fall through the net” of support. Originality/value Existing literature describes challenges that support staff encounter when attempting to engage with people experiencing MEH, but provides little insight into the causes or consequences of “difficult” interactions. This study suggests that an attachment-informed approach to care can promote more constructive engagement between staff and service users in the homelessness sector.

Unemployment and Youth Restiveness in Africa: Implications for Counselling

Restiveness among youths has become one of the nagging global challenges. Consequently, its prevalence in Africa has become more worrisome now than ever before. This paper therefore examined unemployment and the incidences of youth restiveness in Africa: Implication for counseling. The paper adopted a qualitative approach relying mainly on secondary materials from documented evidences. Available data indicates persistent rise in the level of unemployment across different African countries. By the same token there have also been high incidences of restiveness among the youths in Africa within the same period. However, the paper brought to the fore specific instances of restiveness in select African countries namely; militancy and insurgency in Nigeria Niger Delta, xenophobic attacks in South Africa, socio-political crises in southern Cameroun, ethnic and religiously motivated restiveness in Mali and rising piracy and terrorism in Somalia as case studies. The paper identified poverty, unemployment, socio-economic and political inequality and marginalization as factors of youth restiveness. These factors no doubt are in high prevalence in Africa. Given the scenario, the implication for counseling is of great consequence as the concern revolves around how counselling services can be leveraged in the context so that the youths can be properly engaged to embrace genuine efforts towards self-development, skills acquisition, self-reliance and nation building. It is argued that the solution to unemployment and youth restiveness problems lie in part on counsellors constructive engagement with youths, on awareness creation through the media, education of the youth towards self-realization and on their pivotal roles in nation building.

An observational study on the process of collaborative deliberation in arranging long-term care: The perception of clients and professionals

Background Clients are invited to play a role in decisions about their care. Collaborative deliberation comprises constructive engagement, recognition of alternative actions, comparative learning, construction and elicitation of preferences and preference integration. Collaborative deliberation between clients and professionals is a process that requires an interest in each other, sharing of views on alternatives and preferences and integrating into decisions. The aim is to gain insight into collaborative deliberation in consultations and the clients’ perception of arranging long-term care. Design A descriptive qualitative study to explore collaborative deliberation in consultations between clients and professionals. Six organisations providing long-term care were included. Data collection of nine clients involved observations of consultation with field notes and audio-records, interviews with clients and professionals shortly and 3–6 months after the consultation and questionnaires to collect background information. The data were analysed by deductive content analysis. Findings Constructive engagement was visible in all consultations. Clients and professionals showed respect, empathy and curiosity towards each other. In most consultations, two or more alternative actions are recognised and discussed. Comparative learning appears to be two sided, the client and the professional learn from each other's knowledge and experiences. Construction and elicitation of preference, and preference integration, seems to be present, but difficult to recognise in all consultations. Discussion/conclusion Although all propositions could be identified, there seems room for improvement in preference elicitation and integration of these preferences in the discussions on courses of action. Assistance seems needed with preference elicitation, both for the clients and for the professional.

What next for local government climate emergency declarations? The gap between rhetoric and action

The UK, like other countries, has seen a proliferation of declarations of local climate emergencies. While these declarations have been interpreted as a demonstration of ambition, little is known about how and why they actually came about when they did and the implications this will have for what happens next. Focusing on London, UK, we present evidence collected via semi-structured interviews with experts and practitioners involved in the propagation of climate emergency declarations to critically explore how and why these declarations emerged, and the various different roles they are perceived to play for different local actors. Our findings reveal four journeys to local government declaration of a climate emergency (made actively from above, passively from above, actively from below, and passively from across) and three interwoven purposes (statements of intent, acting as a political gesture, and stimulating local action). We argue that these three purposes combine and coalesce to correlate the declaration of climate emergency with a local responsibility for emissions reduction, leaving little analytical space to question the scalar disconnect between the immediacy of the narrative at local scales and the slow-burning (and) global nature of the threat in question. If these emergency declarations are to be an opportunity for change in the governance of climate change, then the question of ‘what next?’ requires more in-depth, thorough and constructive engagement with the type of climate action the declarations are expected to induce while considering how this aligns with existing responsibilities and resource bases of local government.