City Engagement in the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe and the Role of Intermediary Organizations in R&I Policies for Urban Transition

This research investigates the case of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe and its role as an intermediary organization, developing research, and innovation programs for urban transition. In the literature, the role of an intermediary organization has recently been discussed as an effective promoter and developer of connecting visions, strategies, activities, and stakeholders. A conceptual approach to intermediary organizations for urban transition is operationalized, and its functions are discussed in this paper. As an example, the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe reveals how a transnational R&I initiative, represented by 20 national R&I programs in Europe, can provide scientific evidence for sustainable urbanization with a cross-sectoral, integrated, inter- and transdisciplinary approach implemented through activities beyond joint calls. The findings show that JPI Urban Europe acts as broker and facilitator of joint visions and starts to build communities for innovation, which is one of the important functions of intermediaries. The development of its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda clearly followed a co-creation process, putting the dilemmas of city practitioners in the center. JPI Urban Europe managed to attract high levels of commitment from a diversity of stakeholders to its strategic priorities and mobilized respective budgets for its implementation. The analysis of JPI Urban Europe participation in funded projects shows that challenge-driven calls (putting the problem owners in the center) seems to successfully develop a common language for all stakeholders and has a higher likelihood to generate more transformative outcomes. The number of funded urban living labs in projects shows that room for experimentation in niches and their extension is provided. The number of city representatives as funded project partners could be increased to further stimulate active involvement. The JPI Urban Europe also acts as a translator and enabler for learning in the urban—as well as in the policy sphere—the third function. This can be confirmed by the number and type of organizations reached with its specific formats. JPI Urban Europe coordinates joint activities of mainly national R&I programs but has only indirect influence on change in these organizations and limited influence on changes within research organizations, businesses, or cities that are even less connected. Overall, it can be concluded that the strategic ambition of JPI Urban Europe towards transformative change is obvious, but some instruments and formats to translate the ambition into action need further refinement, and it needs further in-depth research to better understand the outcomes and impacts of its diverse activities.

Mediated, Evidence-Informed Practice as Impact

This study presents a conceptualization of mediated, evidence-informed practice as a form of impact within the education context, then examines whether and how a particular intermediary organization, Edutopia, is having such an impact. Extant open- and closed-ended survey data are analyzed. Survey respondents routinely reported using content hosted or featured by Edutopia in their professional practice, and provided specific insights regarding how they were doing so. These findings provide strong evidence that an educational intermediary can variously impact educators’ practices. The study provides a conceptualization and model that may be useful for other intermediaries and for scholars who are interested in examining impact and knowledge mobilization.

The Identity Regulation of Disabled Employees: Unveiling the ‘varieties of ableism’ in employers’ socio-ideological control

Conceptualizing organizational representations of disabled workers as a form of socio-ideological control, this study investigates the identity regulation of disabled employees. The comparative analysis of a bank, a labour market intermediary organization and a local public administration unveils distinct ways in which the able-bodied/disabled dichotomy is used to regulate disabled workers’ identity in function of organizational goals and the organization of work: by subsuming them into the ideal employee, by constructing them as the negation of the ideal employee, and by constructing the disabled and the able-bodied employee as distinct and mutually dependent ideal workers. These ‘varieties of ableism’ produce specific understandings of disabled employees that give them differential access to an ideal worker identity, and are resisted in multiple and surprising ways, including reclaiming the ideal worker’s identity and the promised rewards associated with it, and disclosing or hiding one’s embodiment and disability. The study advances the extant knowledge by showing how ableism variously functions as a principle of organizing shaping whom disabled workers are (not) allowed to be in specific organizational settings.

Measuring Operational Efficiency of Foreign Branches of Bangladeshi Banks as Financial Intermediary

In this study an Output-oriented DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model is used to measure operational efficiency of foreign branches of Bangladeshi banks as financial intermediary organization for borrowing funds from savers and lending those funds to others for making profit. Among 58 Bangladeshi banks there are only three Bangladeshi banks which have in total seven foreign branches in different foreign locations. A branch of bank can’t be separated legally from its parent company and supervised by its home authorities as part of supervision of the banking group as a whole. By employing DEA model and using “Financial Intermediary Approach” this study found that as a financial intermediary organization between savers and borrowers these foreign branches of Bangladeshi banks are performing efficiently over the years. Among three banks Janata Bank Limited and AB Bank limited are performing most efficiently and Sonali Bank Limited is performing less efficiently relative to two other banks in operating their foreign branches as a financial intermediary organization for borrowing funds from savers and lending those funds to others for making profit.

A Rhetorical Analysis of Intermediary Organization Documents on College Completion Policy

Intermediary organizations play an increasingly important role in public policy related to higher education, particularly related to the completion agenda. This study addresses strategies employed by intermediary organizations to communicate to policymakers regarding college completion. Using rhetorical analysis, we examine 72 documents to deconstruct their arguments. Findings show that intermediaries employ the rhetorical elements of ethos, pathos, delivery, and idiom to present information and advocate preferred policy solutions. Importantly, organizations communicate messages differently based on their orientation toward the researcher or policymaker communities. Intermediary organizations aligned more closely with researchers rely more on empirical evidence and neutral tones, whereas organizations aligned more closely with policymakers utilize more idiomatic language, visually engaging document design, and nonempirical sources of evidence. Rhetorical analysis can enable researchers, intermediaries, and policymakers all to work more clearly and carefully in the higher education policy arena and, in so doing, strengthen the bridge between the two communities.

The Geography of Research Funding: Semantics and Beyond

The research on cross-national research cooperation, including the categories of Global South/North, tends to leave out the issue of research funding. However, research funders are no neutral infrastructure by and for the scientific community, but represent societal, political, or economic stakeholders, whose expectations shape funding policy goals and practices. In consequence, funders need to be integrated as intermediary organization when discussing the ideology and effects of geographic pairing. In our article, we develop and sustain the proposition that an analysis of funders’ views is imperative to understand the ways international research collaborations of unequally equipped participants are perceived, maintained, and sometimes reframed over time. Building on interview data and policy documents from six countries, we analyze the semantics employed to make sense of North–South relationships. We find that narratives from development cooperation complement and sometimes supersede the traditionally liberal meta-narrative of scientific collaborations.