Effect of institutional context and finance context of housing finance on home ownership among low-income earners in Bauchi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of housing finance institutional and financial context on beneficiaries’ context to low income earners in Bauchi Local Government Area, Bauchi, Nigeria Design/methodology/approach This paper adopted a quantitative research approach. Self-administered structured questionnaires were used to collect information from 357 primary school teachers in Bauchi Local Government Area, Bauchi, Nigeria. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data collected using SmartPLS 2 software Findings This study revealed that effectiveness of financial institutions and their performance has significant positive causal effect on low income earners housing ownership context, which shows that performance and effectiveness of the housing finance institutions is vital to housing ownership for the low income earners in the study area. Thus, performance of housing finance institutions and their effectiveness has direct effects on low income earners housing ownership through finance affordability Practical implications The prime consumer of these research findings are the financial institutions, this will make them bulk up in terms of their performance and effectiveness toward housing finance accessibility and affordability to the low income earners such as the primary school teachers in the study area. Originality/value This paper used the technology organization environment theory, which is a multi-perspective theory to evaluate the concepts of institutional, finance and beneficiaries context with respect to housing finance in Bauchi by conceptualizing institutional context as effectiveness and performance, finance context as affordability and accessibility and beneficiaries context as ownership.

Self-Organization Among Delivery Platforms Workers in Neoliberal Latin American Countries. The Cases of Peru and Chile

Recently in Latin America, numerous mobilizations of workers against the precariousness of work in delivery platforms have been developed. In this study, we argue that consolidation into strong organizations for defending platform workers’ interests is strongly related to the socio-political and institutional contexts they are involved in. Drawn upon the understanding of solidarity among workers as a phenomenon rooted in the labor process, as well as the relevance of socio-political and institutional context for the organizing processes among precarious workers, this study addresses the cases of self-organization of platforms deliverers in Chile and Peru. Based on ethnographic research, the results show common characteristics of workers’ self-organization, which are related to similar labor processes in delivery platforms. In addition, results shed light on the relevance of the socio-political and institutional context in providing resources for the consolidation of grassroots organizations, especially after platform counter-actions.

Resisting the Tide: The Roles of Ideology in Sustaining Alternative Organizing at a Self-managed Cooperative

This paper examines how organizational ideology can be collectively mobilized to sustain an alternative organizational form—a self-managed cooperative—in resistance to institutional prescriptions perceived as hostile. Based on an ethnographic study of the Venezuelan cooperative Cecosesola, we identify three roles through which ideology enables the reproduction of the alternative form over time: ideology as a mobilizing normative framework to justify resistance; as a cultural-cognitive framework to engage members and integrate them into the resistance project; and as a regulatory framework ensuring member compliance. However, we find that in parallel with sustaining self-management as an alternative form, mobilizing ideology may also paradoxically entail costs in terms of individual sacrifices, exclusion of members and reduction of group heterogeneity, leading to the creation of an authoritarian system. These findings shed light on the ideological drivers of institutional resistance and bring new insights to understand the challenge of sustaining self-management and other alternative organizational forms within a hostile institutional context.

Research Methods and Methodologies Used in Studies on Social Accounting

Accounting as a social science considers an objective and subjective reality that must be seen and understood under the institutional context where it is developed. Thus, this chapter discusses the roles and effects of the paradigms in accounting research, in general, and social accounting research, in particular, aiming to know and understand the research lines that better define a theoretical scope of analysis for the social accounting practice. This research tries to better fit the answers to some questions about social accounting. The results argue for the importance of keeping a theoretical paradigm alive in order to foster multidimensional openness and true scholarship in accounting research and application. A multi-disciplinary appreciation with different perspectives will enrich the research in social accounting.

AISAP Professional Pathways Innovations

Over the past 5 years (2016-2021) the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals (AISAP) has engaged in a process of expanding their professional learning and credentialing opportunities for membership. Beginning in 2016, AISAP decided to leverage recent innovations in learning sciences, digital badging, and credentialing to greatly increase the professional learning and assessment experience of its membership. Thus, AISAP embarked upon a process of developing a robust micro-credentialing program and an online credentialing exam which are authentic, accurate, accessible, and add value to participants. This case study provides an overview of the institutional context and purpose of these solutions and then details the process of designing, implementing, and continuously improving these solutions. The case also includes a number of lessons learned and accompanying resources which may be relevant to other organizations considering, or in the midst of, developing similar solutions.

Naturalist Methods in the Sociology of Creation: The Case Against Reductionism

The Sociology of Culture has much to say when it comes to the ever-changing general consensus on what constitutes legitimate culture and definitions of creativity. The naturalistic studieson cognition in social and cognitive sciences show this empirically (Bourdieu, 1979: Becker, 1982, 2002; Sennett, 2012; Author, 2014). Creative cognition is part of an institutional context. However, the influential culturalist branch of cognitive sociology (CCS) reduces creativity toa cognitivist psychological level (Lizardo and Strand, 2010). We start from the conjecture that the Sociology of Culture can draw on the naturalistic paradigm of cognition to explain creativity without falling into reductionist or atomist positions. The authors take the diversityof theoretical-empirical proposals into account in identifying the starting points for focusing the debate at both the macro and micro levels. The body of the article comprises a literature review which, while not exhaustive, offers a full picture of the pragmatic and integrated models of creativity. The studies analysed present inter-subjective processes of creationand the transmission of variable legitimate criteria concerning cultural consumption such as categorisations, evaluations and aesthetic judgments. The sociological perspective offers scope for strengthening critical tools for examining creativity.

Conceptualisation and Early Implementation of an Academic Advising System at the University of Cape Town

Academic advising is a High-Impact Practice that supports better outcomes for all students, particularly those encountering structural barriers to success. This paper presents a case study of processes followed in a three-year project (2018–20) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) to conceptualise, design, and start implementing an academic advising system. Three goals were formulated: to develop conceptual capacity and a theory of academic advising; to develop an academic advising model responsive to institutional context and student need; and to develop structures, relationships, tools, and resources to implement a coherent system. An informed grounded theory approach was used to analyse baseline data of existing support and advising at the institution. Data was collected through document and desktop research, interviews with stakeholders, and student focus groups. A monitoring and evaluation framework was developed to track and reflect on progress against the goals. Iterative cycles of data collection, analysis, and reflection took place as implementation started. A key finding was that UCT’s advising structures incline towards a decentralised faculty-based model, complemented by centralised support services that encompass advising functions. Low levels of integration were found, as well as inefficient duplication of services. To address these challenges, the conceptual and operational capacity of the academic advising team needed to be advanced. This was done by assembling a multidisciplinary team, undergoing professional training, and by running a journal club. A promising theoretical approach that emerged was a capability approach to academic advising. A shared model of academic advising was found to be best suited to the institutional context and a three-tiered model operationalised by faculty, professional, and peer advisers, as well as by automated advising tools, was designed. Implementation started through pilot projects. During Covid-19, innovative concept and centralised systems development that connected students to institutional resources, enabling them to practise agency and supporting their ability to achieve despite unprecedented structural barriers, demonstrated the viability of the capability approach adopted for steering further development of the system.

‘It’s Not Really a Part of Standard Practice’: Institutional Silencing of Sexuality Within Australian Mental Health Settings

Research seeking to understand and improve sexuality-related practice in mental health settings has paid little attention to the institutional context in which clinicians’ practice is embedded. Through a social constructionist lens, we used thematic analysis to examine how 22 Australian mental health clinicians implicated the wider institutional context when discussing and making sense of sexuality-related silence within their work. Interviews were part of a study exploring participants’ perceptions of sexuality and sexual health in their work more generally. Broader silences that shaped and reinforced participants’ perceptions and practice choices were situated in professional education; workplace cultures; and the tools, procedures and policies that directed clinical practice. We argue that sexuality-related silence in mental health settings is located in the institutional context in which clinicians learn and work, and discuss how orienting to this broader context will benefit research and interventions to improve sexuality-related practice across health settings.

Der prix de morale der Akademie von Dijon für das Jahr 1750

The article reconsiders Rousseau’s famous Discours sur les sciences et les arts within the medial and institutional context of the prize question (prix de morale) proposed by the Academy of Dijon for the year 1750. To do so, it pays special attention to the contributions submitted by Rousseau’s (thirteen) competitors, which so far have hardly been analysed by historians of literature and philosophy. The paper also expands on the institutional and social structure of the Academy of Dijon as well as the particular profile of its morality prizes organized since 1743. In addition, the article situates the contest of 1750 in the broader context of the concours académique and outlines the evolution of the genre with its specific rhetorical traditions since the end of the seventeenth century. Thus, the crucial question, how the Academy of Dijon came to select Rousseau’s text, can be approached from a different angle. Finally, this perspective also sheds new light upon certain aspects of a major work in the history of philosophy - the Discours sur les sciences et les arts.