Towards Building Direct Democratic Governance Through the Ward Committee System in South African Local Government

This chapter interrogates the ward committee system as an instrument in an institutionalised local government level to advance direct participatory governance. The ward committee has a constitutional mandate upon which accountability, democratization, community governance, and inclusive participation in the municipal decision-making is enhanced. The ward committee system was legislated to create a platform for community participation and enhance accountable local governance. Structuration theory has been used to engage with elements of representativity, powers, skills, functionality, access to information, influence in decision-making, and relationship with others structures as developed by Smith and de Visser. The chapter made use of various case studies to interrogate the role, potential, and challenges of the ward committee system in forging direct participatory governance.

Developing LGBTQ Competence in Faculty

Contemporary college campuses can be hostile and unwelcoming places for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) faculty, staff, and students. This chapter examines through the lens of structuration theory the implementation of an LGBTQ professional development series for faculty as an impetus to change such unwelcoming environments. The LGBTQ professional development series was designed to foster individual and organizational change by first increasing the LGBTQ cultural competency of faculty members, and second by providing these agents encouragement and tools to change unwelcoming structures within themselves, their organization, and their disciplinary influence.

Structuration and Learning in a Software Firm

This case study presents the evolution of a software firm from startup into early internationalization. Building on a structuration theory, the case is framed within a conceptual model that illustrates the way skills and routines co-evolve both at the level of the founding entrepreneur (agency) and of the firm (structure). As such, this article contributes to an emergent structurational view of technology-based entrepreneurship. Such views places emphasis on learning both at the individual and collective level, in terms of software engineering, commercial, managerial and strategic capabilities. In addition, it supports a dynamic perspective of entrepreneurship in the software industry by covering not only the startup phase but also early growth and consolidation of the firm.

User-Technology Interaction

One of the major challenges for e-commerce transactions and e-payments consolidation is related to micropayments. Due to their cost and ease of use, companies are reluctant to implement solutions focused on micropayments. To face this challenge and keep modernising the Brazilian financial sector and increase competition, Brazilian Central Bank has created PIX, a platform oriented to enable digital transfers 24/7 free for the user. The adoption of this platform has been a great success, especially among younger users, who popularise PIX with an unusual goal: flirting. Given that adaptive structuration theory (AST) states usages of technological artefacts diverse from the previously conceived, this chapter aims to discuss the adoption of micropayment platforms, remarking unplanned uses of the system by consumers. For this purpose, the authors analysed secondary data about the adoption of PIX and text mining focused on newspapers and magazine articles related to the use of PIX by the young.

Are cultural safety definitions culturally safe? A review of 42 cultural safety definitions in an Australian cultural concept soup

Cultural safety is a keystone reform concept intended to improve First Nations Peoples’ health and wellbeing. Are definitions of cultural safety, in themselves, culturally safe? A purposive search of diverse sources in Australian identified 42 definitions of cultural safety. Structuration theory informed the analytical framework and was applied through an Indigenist methodology. Ten themes emerged from this analysis, indicating that cultural risk is embedded in cultural safety definitions that diminish (meddlesome modifications and discombobulating discourse), demean (developmentally dubious and validation vacillations), and disempower (professional prose, redundant reflexivity, and scholarly shenanigans) the cultural identity (problematic provenance and ostracised ontology) of First Nations Australians. We offer four guidelines for future definitional construction processes, and methodology and taxonomy for building consensus based of definitions of cultural safety. Using this approach could reduce cultural risk and contribute to improved workforce ability to respond to the cultural strengths of First Nations Australians.

How Are the Mealtime Experiences of People in Residential Aged Care Facilities Informed by Policy and Best Practice Guidelines? A Scoping Review

Background. Mealtimes are embedded routines of residents living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) that directly impacts their health and quality of life. Little is known about how mealtime experiences are informed and affected by structures such as government and organisational policies and processes. This scoping review used Gidden’s (1984) Structuration Theory to investigate how governance structures related to mealtime practices inform residents’ mealtime experiences. Methods. Using Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) scoping review framework, a systematic database, grey literature and policy search was completed in May 2020 and updated in July 2021. From 2725 identified articles, 137 articles were included for in data charting and deductive analysis, and 76 additional Australian government policy papers were used interpretatively. Results. Data charting identified that the included studies were prominently situated in Western countries, with a progressive increase in publication rate over the past two decades. Qualitative findings captured structures that guide RACF mealtimes, how these relate to person-centred mealtime practices, and how these facilitate residents to enact choice and control. Conclusions. Current policies lack specificity to inform the specific structures and practices of RACF mealtimes. Staff, residents, organisational and governance representatives possess different signification, legitimation and domination structures, and lack a shared understanding of policy, and how this influences processes and practices that comprise mealtimes.

Unpacking B Corps’ Impact on Sustainable Development: An Analysis from Structuration Theory

With Our Common Future and the United Nation’s global call to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030, public policies increasingly emphasise the need for various actors to contribute to a global transformation and a more sustainable future. Despite growing research on hybrid organisations and their contributions to sustainable development, their impact on accelerating this transition might be faulty. Looking at a type of hybrid organisation, Certified B Corporations (B Corps), this article draws on a multiple case study of nine B Corps in a developing country in Latin America, Colombia. The study builds on the Structuration Theory to examine to what extent and how B Corps impact sustainable development. The article empirically shows that B Corps focus on four categories of sustainable development: considering future generations; enhancing human development; encouraging new mindsets, behaviours, and lifestyles; and promoting socio-political engagement. The findings suggest that B Corps develop communicative and narrative discourses and symbolic schemas as means of signification and follow norms and moral rules to exert legitimation and utilise authoritative resources to exercise power. The article contributes to research on hybrid organisations, sustainability transitions, and business models.