Search

Social movements challenge incumbents and drive institutional change by introducing market alternatives—new products and organizational forms that embody an alternative institutional logic. Research has shown that in response to market alternatives, incumbents resist through heterogeneous behaviors: incumbents maintain their commitment to the dominant logic, effectively marginalizing challengers, while also ostensibly endorsing the alternative logic and often successfully coopting challengers. Although incumbents' strategic responses to pioneering market alternatives are well documented, we do not know how their heterogeneous behaviors affect new waves of challenger mobilization and how these mobilizations may differently address the hazards of cooptation and marginalization. We investigate the rise of the B Corp (Certified B Corporation) movement against the backdrop of both ongoing shareholder supremacy and rising corporate social responsibility (CSR) among incumbent corporations. Our multi-method, multi-stage investigation reveals that heterogeneous incumbent behaviors encourage new waves of challenger mobilization by seeding divergent mobilizing frames. This variety can lead to a paradoxical form of mobilization in which challengers dynamically balance the tension between their movements' focus on expansion and purity, rather than prioritizing one over the other. The B Corp movement demonstrates how achieving this balance may help challengers avoid cooptation or marginalization, sustain their challenge against incumbents, and achieve more-transformative change. For incumbents, our findings show that both resistance to and the ostensible embrace of alternative logics may stave off immediate challenges but can also invigorate future challenges that pose substantive threats to the dominant logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of collaborative project delivery models introduces new ways of working, changing processes and behaviours, and influencing network structures, especially in major inter-organisational projects. The ongoing standardisation thereof helps align the industry and change infrastructure institutions while the formation of network ties in a specific project can in turn guide the implementation of the models. We study how this deliberate change of governance structures impact project institutions through two Nordic infrastructure projects, which show how different project networks result in either a successfully implemented change or a return to traditional behaviours. Our findings show first, how inter-organisational projects with a collaborative approach can change institutions through the interaction of institutional levels and second, that network ties helps changing the institutional context, role behaviours and project processes. The findings contribute to the discussion on institutional change and give empirical evidence of how project networks help explain the success or failure of institutional change initiatives.

Using a qualitative multiple case study research design, the authors investigated the leadership and collaboration strategies of HBCU administrators seeking to drive queer and trans* student inclusion initiatives on their campuses. Further, organizational challenges were examined to make sense of infrastructure elements that needed to be added to these efforts. Analyzed employing the transformational change process (Kezar & Eckel, 2002), three themes were developed: (1) leadership matters, (2) institutional and external collaboration, and (3) institutionalizing on unstable grounds. Implications for future research, theory, practice, and policy are shared at the conclusion of this manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how the Federal National Council (FNC), the parliament of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), transformed from a consultative body to a legislative institution through gradual and incremental changes. It argues that the increasing number of parliamentary questions led to legal, procedural, and behavioral changes in the FNC, influenced by external (government support and public pressure) and internal (rationality, competence, incrementalism, and system development) factors. The success of this transformation is attributed to its gradual nature. Anticipating continued momentum, the study outlines future prospects shaped by the UAE government's commitment to FNC empowerment, heightened public expectations, and the influx of educated and experienced individuals into parliamentary roles. This ongoing institutional change reflects a responsive adaptation to evolving governance demands in the UAE. The study contributes to the theory of institutions and the understanding of legislative oversight in newly liberalized political systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to adapt an analytical framework for the analysis of the institutional environment and institutional change. The activity of the tour agents (TA), part of the tourism sector of Bulgaria in the period 2005 - 2021, was a subject of the study. The institutional impact is integrated with the transaction cost economics, monitoring the dynamics of rules and distribution of economic effects. Relative institutional analysis retrospectively follows the rules. Legal realism explains the institutions and measures used to resolve concomitant crises (Covid-19), turning them into synthetic values. Discrete structural analysis fragments processes and thus makes coordination clear. The adaptation of the actors is analysed by transaction cost (TC) measurement. The results show that the institutional changes are many and are designed in favour of the great actors. TC are increasing, and TA problems are systemic and are not a consequence of concomitant crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Will China's rise fundamentally change global governance? Answering this question requires grasping how sequences shape the development of institutions across time. The books that we review adapt the standard historical institutional (hi) conceptual toolkit—path dependence, reactive sequences, and gradual institutional change—to explain institutional persistence and change in global governance. We argue that international regime complexity (irc) scholarship is a necessary complement because the international institutional context differs from the domestic context in important ways. irc generates two sequencing mechanisms that the standard hi toolkit misses. Disjointed sequences occur when actors relocate their efforts to other parts of the regime complex, creating changes that reverberate across parallel international institutions. International nondecisions are stymied efforts to adapt global institutions to address pressing concerns, in which the nondecision pushes the construction of substitutes outside of global institutions. The standard hi toolkit, plus the two irc sequence types, compose a helpful framework for thinking about what China's rise portends for the politics of global governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to fill gap in the literature and explore policy options for resolving the problems of accountability by framing three research questions. The research questions are (i) whether certain elements of Scott's (2014) institutional pillars attenuate (accentuate) corporate and public accountability; (ii) whether the presence of ruling party-affiliated enterprises (RPAEs) create an increase (decrease) in the degree of corporate (public) accountability; and (iii) whether there is a particular form of ownership change that transforms RPAEs into public investment companies. Design/methodology/approach: Using a qualitative research methodology that involves term frequency and thematic analysis of publicly available textual information, the paper examines Mechkova et al.'s (2019 forms of government accountability. The paper analyzes the gaps between the de jure and de facto accountability using the institutional pillars framework. Findings: The findings of the paper are three. First, there are gaps between de jure and de facto in all three (vertical, horizontal and diagonal) forms of government (public) accountability. Second, the study finds that more than three fourth of the parties that contested the June 2021 election did have regional focus. They did not advocate for accountability. Third, Ethiopia's RPAEs are unique. They have regional focus and are characterized by severe forms of agency and information asymmetry problems. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of the paper is its exploratory nature. Extending this research by using cross-country data could provide a more complete picture of the link between corporate (public) accountability and a country's institutional pillars. Practical implications: Academic research documents that instilling modern corporate (public) governance standards in the Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) region has shown mixed results. The analysis made in this paper is likely to inform researchers and policymakers about the type of change that leads to better corporate (and public) accountability outcomes. Social implications: The institutional change proposed in the paper is likely to advance the public interest by mitigating agency and information asymmetry problems and enhancing government accountability. The changes make the enterprises investable, save scarce jobs, enhance diversity and put the assets in RPAEs to better use. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper that uses the institutional pillars analytical framework to examine an SSA country's corporate (public) accountability problem. It demonstrates that accountability is a domestic and a (novel) traveling theory. The paper identifies the complexity of resolving the interlock between political institutions and business enterprises. It theorizes that it is impossible to instill modern corporate (public) accountability standards without changing regulatory, normative and cultural cognitive pillars of institutions. The paper contributes to the change management and public interest literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the institutional shifts in agricultural relations that establish the prerequisites for raising production efficiency in the context of agriculture's transition. It was investigated how quickly and qualitatively new structural and market reforms could be introduced in the agricultural sector. Sustainability and organizational development of state assistance that is effective in the face of market volatility and development transformation processes is predicated on the enhancement of the mechanism. Agriculture-related subsidies, the application of resource-saving technology, and specifically the efficacy of water-saving technologies were examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the dynamics of institutional change in the governance of Chinese football in the Xi Jinping era, focusing on the concept of 'top-level design'. Since Xi Jinping took over as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, Chinese football has been at the centre of a series of far-reaching policy reform programmes, driven by Xi's vision to promote the sport and improve China's position in world football. To date, no study has examined whether institutional change has occurred in Chinese football from the theoretical perspective of actor-centred institutionalism. The aim of this study is to investigate whether there has been an institutional shift towards 'top-level design' in Chinese football governance under the leadership of Xi Jinping and, if so, what key aspects can be identified. Given the post-hoc character of the theoretical approach of actor-centred institutionalism, the qualitative method of process tracing was chosen to reconstruct and explain possible institutional changes. The data are based on extensive document analysis and complementary interviews with 22 experts. The findings suggest that under Xi Jinping's leadership, institutional changes towards 'top-level design' have taken place in Chinese football in the form of anti-corruption campaigns and the emergence of new actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberalism has pervaded almost everywhere in the world, bringing about major changes in institutional frameworks and social relations. Science and university research have not escaped the effects of the neoliberal conception of university knowledge as a commodity and of Higher Education as a factor of economic growth. This research offers a provisional assessment of the effects of the profound institutional change produced in the Spanish university sphere instigated European and national directives. As will be seen, the implementation of the operational criteria of evaluation is shaping a new culture of university teaching staff. This paper ties together a Institutionnal Political Economy explanation of the transformation of Spanish academia with research evidence of the outcomes of a neoliberal regime, honing in or activities resembling or constituting malpractice, and complicity of staff in their governance, alongside the more commonly discussed issues of workplace stress, overwork, and mental health issues. This research analyses the discursive devices and strategies used for the construction of the new neoliberal subjectivity, by means of an exhaustive review of the literature and empirical studies carried out in Spain. Next, the institutional effects of the disproportionate use of metrics are presented. Thirdly, the socialisation processes of Spanish academics and their adaptation to evaluation methods are described. The text ends with a brief conclusion and a series of proposals aimed at configuring another way of generating knowledge in a model designed more for development than for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovations are discussed as solutions to societal challenges, such as ensuring quality healthcare provision. Co-creation (i.e. the collaboration of actors who share their knowledge and skills), a primary feature of social innovation, can play a central role in changing formal institutions such as regulations, which is crucial to solving challenges in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare. However, research investigating how co-creation in social innovation can influence regulations is lacking. We investigate how co-creation can affect the ways social innovation actors influence healthcare regulations by analysing three social innovations in the Bernese Oberland, a Swiss mountain region facing the challenge of maintaining quality healthcare provision. Applying innovation biographies and semi-structured interviews, we find that two co-creating actor types were involved in influencing regulations: social innovation leaders and actors who fulfil central social innovation tasks. They influenced regulations by suggesting changes and inducing others to implement them, and they learned knowledge and skills in co-creation that helped them perform these activities. However, resources unrelated to co-creation also helped them influence regulations, such as actor networks and skills in persuading others. Co-creation in social innovation can thus support institutional change but is not a guarantee for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteer firefighters are an established institution in many rural areas across Europe. In spite of this ubiquity, many volunteer brigades have been increasingly facing challenges in discharging their functions. Issues such as undertaking necessary investments, and ensuring daytime availability have become particularly critical against the backdrop of an increase in the number of interventions. Many of the measures intended to futureproof volunteer firefighting are based on transferring responsibility to different actors. To this end developing and expanding the reach of fire safety education functions to enhance the public's prevention and self-protection skills. The aim of this paper is to explore the process of institutional change induced by innovative initiatives, which aim to advance fire safety education. For the study, we draw on empirical research, which follows the development and mainstreaming of two projects in Austria and Germany. These initiatives aim to standardise disparate approaches and are underpinned by new forms of multi-level cooperation. Our inductive analysis identifies five key steps which define the successful long-term implementation of projects in coproduced services of general interest. We conclude with observations on the redistribution of responsibility for fire services and hazard prevention in contemporary societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the impact of intra-party transformations and access to power on the visions of political participation of activists taking part in populist anti-establishment parties with a strong emphasis on digital participation, using the Five Star Movement (M5S) as a case study. Going beyond studies conceiving the M5S as a populist and digital party, we argue that activists support a democratic ideal based on a civic culture involving a demanding role for ordinary citizens, who should be highly interested in politics and involved locally on a day-to-day basis. A negative vision of the Italian citizen judged as incapable of playing this role accompanies this ideal. Our article also demonstrates how political involvement in the M5S transformed the visions of activists, making them warier of direct democracy and more disillusioned about their fellow citizens. The analysis relies on qualitative semi-directed interviews with former and current M5S activists with diversified socio-demographics, political and participation trajectories in two Italian regions. More broadly, our article shows that the effects of entering government and intra-party reforms reinforcing the leadership at the expense of local activists are particularly strong in anti-establishment parties and clash with the conceptions of participation supported by activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of outsider-driven institutional entrepreneurship may appear both paradoxical and opaque. We examine outsider-driven institutional entrepreneurship by drawing on an in-depth qualitative case study of the emerging field of positive psychology education. We investigate how institutional entrepreneurs, located outside Kuwait's Ministry of Education, enabled actors inside the Ministry both to deviate from existing institutional arrangements and to institutionalize new practices. Our findings illustrate that outsider-driven institutional entrepreneurship in emerging fields starts with 'normalization', that is, the production of claims, arguments, and evidence, about the effectiveness of the newly proposed practices. Our study contributes to the literature on outsider-driven institutional entrepreneurship in emerging fields by identifying a set of critical activities associated with deviation from prevailing institutional arrangements, and the institutionalization of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Path-dependency is typically associated with a "lock-in" that is suboptimal. The sub-optimality of this "lock-in" is attributed to a degree of ceremonial encapsulation, eroding instrumentality, whereby network effects, technical and/or behavioral, create a state of irreversibility. However, all new ideas and technologies are ceremonially encapsulated to a degree, as they are socially embedded. Yet when the term path-dependency is invoked, it often has a negative connotation implying there is a preferable alternative: a state of no ceremonial encapsulation or pure-instrumentality? If so, this implies ceremonial habits of thought are merely there to be overcome. Yet ceremonial habits of thought are ever-present. This article, therefore, theorizes progressive institutional adjustment by considering how we can account for ceremonial habits of thought as more than a barrier, but also something to be utilized to facilitate change. By using rhetoric as a tool, we can play into ceremonial habits of thought, weaving policy through the ceremonial net to implementation where its instrumentality can be revealed, and a lock-in can form as constituents become accustomed to the material benefits provided. It is here where a progressive path-dependency is formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From climate change to disruptive technologies, policymakers constantly face new problems calling for unprecedented institutional solutions. Yet, we still poorly understand the inventive process leading to the emergence of new institutional forms. Existing theories argue that exogenous changes provide incentives and opportunities for institutional invention. However, they fail to explain how the inventive process endogenously structures their emergence. Drawing from complexity theory and Brian Arthur's work on technological inventions, we develop a structural theory recasting the process of inventing new institutions as the combination of pre-existing institutions. Building on three assumptions related to this combinatorial process, we argue that the distance between institutions shapes the emergence of new institutional forms and their regime's trajectory. Following the initial take-off in the number of institutional inventions at the creation of a regime, we expect the rate of institutional inventions over replications will slow down as nearby institutions are combined and accelerate as distant ones are combined. We illustrate these expectations by looking at three regimes: data privacy, climate governance, and investment protection. Together, they showcase how our combinatorial theory can help make sense of the emergence of unprecedented institutions and, more generally, the pace of unfolding complexity in various international regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations instantiate multiple institutional logics, which operate in a nested fashion across levels of analysis. A demand on organizations in the Global South from aid donors is to adopt new management systems. Management systems like kaizen, a Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, have an inherent logic. Kaizen's adoption in Ethiopia, a postsocialist state, can be rendered ceremonial if its logic is not fully instantiated along with prevailing logics within recipient organizations. Our examination of the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation is an application of Besharov and Smith's 2014 framework. We assume there is a high degree of centrality in this state-owned enterprise, because any managerial logic absorbed would have to adhere to the state logic. We conducted interviews, supplemented by archival data review, to illustrate what actors do to improve compatibility with state logic. Our findings suggest three institutional logics were instantiated, in order: the macro logic of developmental authoritarianism; micro logics of production order and social control; and the meso logic of knowledge brokerage. We propose the concept of layered logic, or ordering of institutional logics, each serving a distinct purpose yet fitted with the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article expands understanding of how institutional biography informs institutional change by examining Conrad Hilton's role in building the global branded hotel chain (1946–1969). We show how an individual's institutional biography can play a pivotal role in their development as an institutional entrepreneur and the institutionalisation of a new organisational template. Biography, informed by the institutions individuals experience in their life trajectories, shapes the process by which an individual becomes an institutional entrepreneur; influencing the institutionalisation of a new template by enabling entrepreneurs to acquire a more central position within their field. Hilton's self-narrative became closely coupled with the 'grand narrative' of post-war U.S. capitalism. The Hilton case illustrates how institutional tensions, embracing national interests, corporate interests, and individual self-interest, can become distilled into the identity, choices, and ambitions – the personal biographical narrative – of individuals who play a formative role in the institutions they build, change, or disrupt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 has shocked governance systems worldwide. Legislatures, in particular, have been shut down or limited due to the pandemic, yet with divergence from one country to another. In this article, we report results from a cross-sectional quantitative analysis of legislative activity during the initial reaction to this shock and identify the factors accounting for such variation. Exploring legislatures across 159 countries, we find no relation between the severity of Covid-19 and limitations on legislatures' operation, thus suggesting that legislatures are at risk of being shut down or limited due to policy "overreaction" and that a health risk may serve as an excuse for silencing them. However, we find that legislatures in democratic countries are relatively immune to this risk, while those in frail democracies are more exposed. In partially free countries, the use of technology can mitigate this risk. We also find that the coalitional features of the government may lead to legislatures' closing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how two research-intensive Australian universities navigated global–local policy flows throughout their curriculum transformations. Findings revealed that each reform project manifested proactive policy learning and, ultimately, agency, as global and national influences were articulated into local contexts, with the effect of 'breaking the mould' of relatively standardised university curriculum provision in Australia. At the same time, the analyses revealed a similar pattern of intensified bureaucratisation of curriculum governance within the two universities, as well as the compromising of initial reform objectives in key curriculum areas such as interdisciplinarity, internationalisation and so-called twenty-first-century skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To increase knowledge about the consequences of introducing strategic measures in public organizations, for both intra- and interorganizational relationships, interviews in eight - and shadowing in two - public facilities management organizations were performed. Using a frame for data analysis based on institutional work, findings show that, when introducing strategic measures, public officials worked to place their organizations in a new position within the institutional field. During this process, officials engaged in both external and internal institutional work. The findings highlight how tensions between working externally and internally, influences public officials' day-to-day practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased dependency on the forest has resulted in rapid transformation of forest landscapes; this has been identified in the extensive literature as a significant mechanism for the spread of several zoonotic diseases, including the Ebola and COVID-19 viruses. Empirical evidence suggests the need for active management of forest resource access as a holistic path towards curbing spillovers, placing forest management institutions at the epicentre of regulating forest resource use and preventing zoonotic spillovers. Yet, there is scant evidence on the pattern of institutional change in the context of health shocks in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This validates the need for context-specific evidence on the perceptions of forest users regarding the triggers of spillovers around forest-based communities and how forest management institutions respond to such shocks. As a contribution, we draw on descriptive statistics and narratives to: (a) analyze the perceptions of forest users regarding the triggers of covariate health-related stocks such as Ebola and COVID-19, (b) characterize forest-related institutional influence on forest management and (c) compare institutional response approaches towards the Ebola virus disease and the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed a random sampling of 135 households, focus group discussions (n = 4), and expert interviews (n = 8) to generate relevant empirical data. The findings indicate that forest users identify the consumption of bushmeat and human-wildlife contact as the primary triggers of Ebola and COVID-19. Also, the COVID-19 and Ebola virus induced forest management institutional response, which assumed similar patterns. However, the degree of change largely depended on the scale and impact of the shock; COVID-19 induced more institutional responses than Ebola. The study establishes uniformity in the pattern of forest management institutional response to health shocks, providing relevant policy insights for forest settings during health shock events.

The article examines the problem of theoretical foundations for analyzing the processes of transition of a social system from one type of social institutions to another. The author proposes to use the concept of autopoiesis for this purpose, assuming that it is possible to distinguish different types of autopoiesis that different social systems possess. The crisis of the previous social system is accompanied by the loss of autopoiesis, anomie and «double socialization» – a state when the previous social institutions no longer work, and the new ones do not work yet. The author believes that until the moment of change in the type of autopoiesis, the entire body of social institutions changes on the previous basis, in separate moments, without changing as a whole. War makes it impossible to continue the crisis of social institutions and opens up the possibility of changing the type of autopoiesis of the social system, as a result of which its transition to a state of new institutional integrity is completed.

This thematic issue addresses the question: To what extent have the latest crises—the pandemic crisis and Russia’s war in Ukraine—triggered institutional and policy change in the EU? It contributes to the literature on the impact of crises on integration and the EU political system, presenting new research based on fresh theoretical insights, empirical data, or a combination of both. Theoretically, the contributions collected in the thematic issue explore whether the crises represent a critical juncture for the EU, leading to institutional and/or policy innovations or, rather, set in motion more incremental processes of adaptation. Empirically, all articles—some of which are qualitative, while others are quantitative—are based on original or new data. The first group of contributions deals with institutional change, focusing both on formal (i.e., treaty reform) and informal (i.e., codes of conduct) institutions. A second group moves the focus to policy change, looking at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on several policy areas and the energy crisis. Overall, the key lesson is that the EU can now manage and absorb new shocks quite effectively. At the same time, however, it does not promote ambitious and coherent political models or policy paradigms. Instead, it provides room for experimentation through patchwork-like strategies where old and new instruments and settings mix.

Abstract Background Enacting STEM education reform is a complex task and there are a variety of approaches that might be selected by change agents. When working on an institutional change project to impact multiple parts of the STEM education system, teams of change agents may select multiple strategies and tactics to enact at one time and over multiple years of a project. However, the literature lacks studies which document and analyze strategies and tactics used by change project teams in a way that can be useful for other change agents. The current study seeks to fill this gap by investigating National Science Foundation-funded change initiatives at three public research universities focused on encouraging the adoption of evidenced-based instructional practices by STEM faculty in order to understand the strategies used within and across projects. Results Qualitative framework analysis using the lens of the Henderson et al. (Journal of Research in Science Teaching 48(8): 952–984, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20439 ) Four Categories of Change Strategies Model showed that institutional projects enact a wide range of tactics that span the four strategies represented in the four categories of the model both across institutions and within each institution. The analysis documents a number of change tactics not previously described by the model and offers expanded definitions of the change processes that operate within each category in the context of institutional change projects. Conclusion This descriptive work advances our understanding of the breadth and depth of actions taken by institutional change initiatives and provides insights into types of variations that might be observed based on different institutional contexts. The current analysis both affirms the value of the original model and identifies expanded ways to think about the four categories within the context of institutional change projects.

Global literature recognizes the interactions between endogenous and exogenous forest resource (FR) management institutions. However, a comprehensive understanding of the sources, mechanisms, and outcomes of institutional change in diverse physiographic regions is lacking. We analyzed mechanisms and outcomes of five decades of institutional change across four physiographic regions of Nepal. Data collection involved 45 key informant interviews, 37 expert interviews, and 22 focus group discussions, complemented by a review of 24 policy documents and 8 community forest (CF) management plans and reports. Through directed content analysis, we found that endogenous institutions are rooted more in customs, traditions, and social hierarchies, and formal exogenous institutions are rooted in national and international policies, which are frequently observed for commercialized forest resources. It further revealed transformational changes in forest management institutions from state-oriented to community-based management across the regions between 1976 and 2010. Critical juncture, priming-framing and puzzling-learning were key mechanisms in the middle and high mountains. In contrast, Terai’s recurrent mechanisms were negative/positive feedback and patching-up. After 2010, (de)incremental changes linked to exogenous and endogenous institutions were found to align more with a global agenda (e.g., REDD+). Priming-framing, negative/positive feedback, and transposition were key institutional change mechanisms of exogenous institutions across the study sites. Economic growth and exogenous institutions played an important role in (de)incremental changes linked to endogenous institutions. Additionally, exogenous institutions produced mixed socioeconomic and positive ecological outcomes, showing regional variations. Endogenous institutions led to positive outcomes, highlighting their importance in sustainable forest management. Future research should examine power dynamics, shedding light on how local actors employ institutions and power to produce differential outcomes in CF.

Village-owned enterprises are an institutional form, which embodies the participation of rural communities in the economy based on profit and mutual cooperation that is expected to be able to encourage village independence in economy. This definition will encourage how the institutional projections change and how adaptation is needed both from within the institution or from outside the institution. The dynamics in village-owned enterprises have various challenges to resolve the main problem regarding the quality of human resources and infrastructures. This article explains how the dynamics of institutional change and various forms of revitalization and growth of village-owned enterprises use the theory of institutional change approach. The study has found that village-owned enterprises in East Java have become a forum for managing every socioeconomic element into a single unit that produces economic value to improve the welfare of rural communities. Innovation and adaptation as well as human development have become the main drivers of village-owned enterprises sustainability and resilience in digitalized era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, Latin American high courts engaged in institutional innovations promoting social participation in their judicial decision-making through mechanisms as public hearings, amicus curiae, or the use of social media. This article first theorizes this engagement with the public. Building on insights about judicial legitimacy as well as strategic and ideational accounts it discusses possible motivations of courts to open to the public and the effects of this behavior. Second, it provides a conceptualization of such court engagement and a typology of this engagement according to different levels of intensity. Third, with a comparative assessment of sixteen high courts from all democratic Latin American countries, it shows that this court behavior is observable for all countries, excepting Uruguay, but differs regarding the intensity of opening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a feminist institutional approach, we examine the dominant institutional views and frameworks explaining company positions regarding the implementation of gender policies. A multiple case study was performed on four Spanish companies involved in sectors related to the circular bioeconomy. The analysis relied on secondary sources and semi-structured interviews with women in positions of responsibility in these companies. The results provide evidence on the gender issues encountered and their limitations in terms of organizational change, as well as the dominant institutional frameworks of the companies. The findings suggest that the main drivers for change are intense state regulation, company commitment to formalizing measures and the presence of critical actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ciencias Sociales (13159518) is the property of Revista de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad del Zulia Venezuela and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista CS is the property of Rafael Silva Vega and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Engineers, educators, and policymakers throughout the United States have been trying to diversify engineering for decades. In response to this shared aspiration, professionals and educators from engineering and other STEM disciplines have constructed Broadening Participation as a phenomenon involving individual and collective efforts in the form of both research and practice. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance the science of Broadening Participation by explaining the relationship between research and practice in this context. Scope: As part of a larger project funded by the National Science Foundation focused on Broadening Participation-efforts aimed at Black Americans, we used Ecological Systems Theory to organize insights from literature, interviews with subject matter experts, and the collective sensemaking of our author team. Discussion/Conclusions: Our insights highlight how Broadening Participation is a sociopolitical phenomenon resulting from social, political, and historical influences related to diversifying engineering. We share these insights in language familiar to engineers (i.e., systems thinking) in hopes to advance stakeholders' understanding of Broadening Participation. In doing so, our aim is to give the field of engineering an alternative heuristic for conceptualizing, discussing, and approaching Broadening Participation. Though this paper is primarily written from the perspective of Black Americans, it is intended to be useful to the field broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This thematic issue addresses the question: To what extent have the latest crises--the pandemic crisis and Russia's war in Ukraine--triggered institutional and policy change in the EU? It contributes to the literature on the impact of crises on integration and the EU political system, presenting new research based on fresh theoretical insights, empirical data, or a combination of both. Theoretically, the contributions collected in the thematic issue explore whether the crises represent a critical juncture for the EU, leading to institutional and/or policy innovations or, rather, set in motion more incremental processes of adaptation. Empirically, all articles--some of which are qualitative, while others are quantitative--are based on original or new data. The first group of contributions deals with institutional change, focusing both on formal (i.e., treaty reform) and informal (i.e., codes of conduct) institutions. A second group moves the focus to policy change, looking at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on several policy areas and the energy crisis. Overall, the key lesson is that the EU can now manage and absorb new shocks quite effectively. At the same time, however, it does not promote ambitious and coherent political models or policy paradigms. Instead, it provides room for experimentation through patchwork-like strategies where old and new instruments and settings mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of directed efforts gender equality is still a challenge in many university level STEM institutions. Key reasons for this are found in disciplinary and institutional cultures. A crucial cultural element is professional identity. In this article, an ethnographic study of a gender equality program in a technical university in Sweden underpins the identification of a professional identity that we name: the 'sole engineering genius'. This cultural figure displays features that run counter to measures promoting gender equality. As a component of engineering faculty's self-perception as well as views of others, this figure provides rationales for rejecting the changes required to end gender inequality. Against the backdrop of research literature, we argue that this professional identity is not a local or national phenomenon, but likely a key factor in academic engineering culture transnationally that may continue to undermine gender equality strategies in STEM institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]