300 Sozialwissenschaften
Refine
Departments, institutes and facilities
Document Type
- Article (18)
- Conference Object (16)
- Part of a Book (14)
- Lecture (10)
- Working Paper (10)
- Book (monograph, edited volume) (4)
- Postdoctoral thesis (1)
- Book review (1)
Year of publication
Language
- English (74) (remove)
Keywords
- Collaboration (2)
- Development Policy (2)
- Entrepreneurship (2)
- Germany (2)
- Policy Change (2)
- Policy Diffusion (2)
- Policy Learning (2)
- Policy Transfer (2)
- Political Economy (2)
- Social Protection (2)
Recent findings in South Africa have once again underlined the fact that the oldest people in the world obviously came from Africa. Thus, historically, this continent has a very special significance. However, its history in more recent times, especially from the mid-19th century onwards, was strongly influenced by colonisation by European states. Many deep wounds from that time still have an impact on society as a whole today. However, the continent is currently also confronted with a greater number of challenges of a different nature.
On the one hand, Africa is trying to strengthen internal cohesion by means of a number of regional organisations and the African Union as a globally active institution; on the other hand, the continent has been marked by political and military conflicts between neighbouring states over the past decades until the recent present. In addition, there are regular internal social upheavals in individual countries due to violent or manipulated political change.
Yet the continent could well be on a good development path, since it has a large number of important raw materials - also in comparison to other continents. However, the individual African states - and especially their citizens - often do not benefit from this to an adequate extent. This results in a social imbalance in large parts of the continent (data collection until the end of June 2023), which leads to considerable internal tensions. To make matters worse, Africa is the continent most affected by climate change.
A closer look at the partly very different economic, political and social situations of the large continent leads to an overall predominantly critical assessment of Africa's further development, which is explained in more detail in the final chapter with regard to the foreseeable consequences for the continent.
Research-Practice-Collaborations Addressing One Health and Urban Transformation. A Case Study
(2022)
One Health is an integrative approach at the interface of humans, animals and the environment, which can be implemented as Research-Practice-Collaboration (RPC) for its interdisciplinarity and intersectoral focus on the co-production of knowledge. To exemplify this, the present commentary shows the example of the Forschungskolleg “One Health and Urban Transformation” funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State Government of Nord Rhine Westphalia in Germany. After analysis, the factors identified for a better implementation of RPC for One Health were the ones that allowed for constant communication and the reduction of power asymmetries between practitioners and academics in the co-production of knowledge. In this light, the training of a new generation of scientists at the boundaries of different disciplines that have mediation skills between academia and practice is an important contribution with great implications for societal change that can aid the further development of RPC.
The cooperation between researchers and practitioners during the different stages of the research process is promoted as it can be of benefit to both society and research supporting processes of ‘transformation’. While acknowledging the important potential of research–practice–collaborations (RPCs), this paper reflects on RPCs from a political-economic perspective to also address potential unintended adverse effects on knowledge generation due to divergent interests, incomplete information or the unequal distribution of resources. Asymmetries between actors may induce distorted and biased knowledge and even help produce or exacerbate existing inequalities. Potential merits and limitations of RPCs, therefore, need to be gauged. Taking RPCs seriously requires paying attention to these possible tensions—both in general and with respect to international development research, in particular: On the one hand, there are attempts to contribute to societal change and ethical concerns of equity at the heart of international development research, and on the other hand, there is the relative risk of encountering asymmetries more likely.
This article analyzes how humanitarian and/or development organizations acting as intermediaries between scientists and vulnerable populations aim to make environmental changes visible while trying to meet local needs and demands for sustainable livelihoods. Based on an in-depth organizational case study in Southern Thailand, the research analyses the use of visualization tools to foster environmental knowledge and literacy while supporting both policymaking as well as citizen engagement. Drawing on insights from sociology of organizations, the study discusses the organizational reasons for the use of visualization tools, outlining the underlying coercive, mimetic and normative pressures that facilitate their proliferation in the context of environmental communication. The results show that both the participatory approach as well as the use of audiovisual and digital tools to communicate project goals and results have become indispensable and institutionalized tools in the organizational field of humanitarian and development aid. In this context, organizations have become intermediaries and translators between ‘climate risk’ scientists and ‘at risk’ people, thus, facilitating environmental communication. The results show that questions of trust and ownership of ideas play an important role in the context of livelihood related projects linked to climate change adaptation. In this context, not only does the style and content of communication, but also the relationship between the parties who communicate, have an impact upon the success or failure of managing options in climate change adaptation.
Only since the turn of the 21st century have humanitarian organisations developed specific strategies that address climate change impacts as a humanitarian challenge. Taking the International Red Cross / Red Crescent Movement, being the largest humanitarian network, as an empirical case study, the article discusses the Movement’s changes in the areas 1) agenda setting, 2) organisational restructuring, 3) networking, 4) programming, and 5) advocacy. Based on the case study and a theoretical framework of organisational sociology, the article provides conclusions on internal and external factors that can explain why the Movement has been successful in being one of the first actors within the organisational field of humanitarian organisations to focus systematically on the humanitarian implications of climatic changes.