bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
(125) Factors Associated with Erectile Dysfunction in Copper and Cobalt Miners: A Cross-sectional Study in the Katanga Province, DR Congo
Authors: Musa Obadia P , Pyana Kitenge J , Kayembe-Kitenge T , Carsi Kuhangana T , Kalenga Ilunga G , Billen J , Haufroid V , Mukalay A , Ris L , Banza Lubaba Nkulu C , Enzlin P , Nemery B
Published: May 2023

Introduction

The African Copperbelt is a site of intense artisanal and industrial mining and refining of copper and cobalt. Based on a preliminary case-control study of erectile dysfunction among mineworkers in the former Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Musa et al. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2020),

Objective

We further investigated possible factors associated with erectile dysfunction in copper and cobalt miners in the Katanga province.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study of 138 miners and 140 controls (bakers), we administered questionnaires face-to-face in French or Swahili to obtain socio-demographic and occupational data, and to assess male sexual function [International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15)] and marital relation quality [Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS)]. We measured trace metals in blood and urine and testosterone and thyroid hormones in serum.

Results

Miners and bakers had similar median (IQR) age [35.6 y (30.6–40.0)]. Miners had significantly lower scores than bakers for IIEF-15 [66 (49–73) vs 73 (66–74)] and for the three DAS domains (Consensus; Satisfaction; Cohesion). Miners had significantly lower free testosterone (8.1 ng/dL) and thyroxin (13.45 pmol/L) than bakers (9.3 and 14.75, respectively). Factors associated with IIEF- EF scores ≤ 22 were: mining-related job (aOR 2.09, 95% CI 1.14–3.81; p=0.016), work seniority in mining (aOR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02–1.13; p=0.005) and regular use of aphrodisiacs (aOR 2.80, 95% CI 1.56–5.02; p=0.001). Mediation analysis showed that consensus mediated by 50% the relation between work seniority in mining and erectile function.

Conclusions

Compared to controls, miners had poorer sexual function and marital relation, and lower free testosterone and thyroxin. This may be due to their high exposure to trace metals (especially Pb). Erectile dysfunction is found to be increased by lower consensus in couples possibly due to longer time spent working away from home.

Disclosure

No
(167) 3D Penile Reconstruction Imaging in Complex Peyronie’s Disease (PD): Proof of Concept Study
Authors: Nascimento B C G , Moraes C A D C , Neto R P , Rocha B A , Miranda E D P , Bessa J D , Nahas W C , Hallak J , Mulhall J P , Gomes C M
Published: May 2023

Introduction

The evaluation of penile deformity in PD is a critical step in therapeutic decision making and is generally the main outcome in PD clinical trials. 3D reconstruction is becoming increasingly common in the medical field, with highly accurate and long term accessible images. To date, there is no widely accepted 3D documentation protocol for penile deformity.

Objective

To evaluate the feasibility of 3D imaging and its accuracy in quantifying penile deformity.

Methods

Video images captured intraoperatively during saline-induced rigid erection were acquired from 4 PD patients undergoing penile surgery. Penile curvature measurements were obtained by the surgeon with a goniometer. Video images were obtained with an iPhone 11 (Apple Inc, Cupertino, CA) camera in full HD or 4k resolution, traveling in a circular 360o motion around the penile shaft. Video images were analysed by a team with 3D expertise using the open source software Blender (Blender Foundation, Amsterdan, NE) and its addon OrtogonBlender, and 3D reconstructed images were created. The 3D team performed curvature measurements using the software tools. A non-concordance magnitude was defined as a measurement difference (between physician measurement and 3D image) of 20% or 10o, whichever was smaller.

Results

The 3D reconstruction was possible in all cases and all videos used took <1 minute to be captured. Images of 4 patients, 3 with bi-planar curvature, were obtained and therefore 7 measurements were available for caparison. The 3D images quality was good and volume loss deformities were visible. Measurements generated from those reconstructed images showed excellent concordance (100%, N=7 - Table 1). An example of curvature measurement in a 3D model is presented in Figure 1.

Conclusions

In this pilot study, deformity analysis and measurement with tolerable error was performed using video images acquired quickly intraoperatively, with a smartphone. With further development, this strategy may contribute to a more objective follow up of complex PD cases, as those with biplanar curvature or volume loss deformities.

Disclosure

No
(181) Combination Clomiphene Citrate and Anastrozole Therapy Iimproves Semen Parameters in a Multi-institutional Cohort of Men with Idiopathic Infertility
Authors: Eleswarapu S , Naelitz B , Jiang T , Munoz C , Parekh N , Andino J , Sigalos J , Modiri N , Mills J , Vij S , Lundy S
Published: May 2023

Introduction

Clomiphene citrate (CC), a selective estrogen receptor modulator, and anastrozole, a selective aromatase inhibitor, are common empiric medical therapies for men with idiopathic infertility. The effects of jointly administering these agents are not well understood.

Objective

The objective of this study is to compare semen parameters in men treated with clomiphene citrate and anastrozole (CC-A) combination therapy to those in men taking anastrozole alone.

Methods

We performed a multi-center, retrospective cohort study of men with idiopathic infertility prescribed anastrozole at two tertiary referral institutions. Demographic, laboratory, and prescription data were captured. The subset of patients taking CC at the time of anastrozole initiation were identified. Patients with pre-treatment normozoospermia, recent or current exogenous testosterone or human chorionic gonadotropin use, previous orchiectomy, and scrotal surgery during the treatment period were excluded. Outcome measures included changes in World Health Organization sperm concentration category (WHO-SCC) following initiation of anastrozole therapy. Linear and logistic regression models were constructed to evaluate the association of combination therapy with these outcomes.

Results

72 men were included in the analysis cohort, including 54 men taking anastrozole alone and 18 men on CC therapy who subsequently started taking anastrozole (CC-A). Men on CC-A relative to anastrozole monotherapy were older (40 vs. 35 years, p=0.03) and had a lower BMI (30 vs. 34 kg/m^2, p=0.05), respectively. Pre-treatment LH levels (5.6 vs. 7.6 IU/L, p=0.25) and testosterone (336 vs 263 ng/dL, p=0.32) were similar. Baseline semen parameters including sperm concentration (3.7 vs. 2.3 M/mL, p=0.26) and motility (41 vs. 36%, p= 0.17) were also comparable. However, post-treatment median sperm concentration (6.9 vs. 3.4M/mL, p=0.02) and the change in mean sperm concentration (17.5 vs. 6.2 M/mL, p=0.03) were significantly higher in the CC-A combination group. Univariate linear regression also revealed an association between the use of CCA combination therapy and increase in sperm concentration (p=0.05). Despite these differences, WHO-SCC upgrade rates between groups were comparable (56 vs. 39%, p=0.22) in the setting of similar post-treatment levels of LH (7.4 vs. 8.6 IU/L, p=0.5), FSH (8.6 vs. 9.4 IU/mL, p=0.19), and testosterone (537 vs. 415 ng/dL, p=0.09).

Conclusions

Combination therapy with clomiphene citrate and anastrozole was associated with modest benefits in post-treatment sperm concentration when compared to anastrozole monotherapy. Combination empiric medical therapy using clomiphene citrate and anastrozole offers a small, but significant, clinical benefit over anastrozole alone for infertile men

Disclosure

No
Conserved unique peptide patterns (CUPP) online platform 2.0: implementation of +1000 JGI fungal genomes
Authors: Barrett Kristian , Hunt Cameron J , Lange Lene , Grigoriev Igor V , Meyer Anne S
Published: May 2023

Carbohydrate-processing enzymes, CAZymes, are classified into families based on sequence and three-dimensional fold. Because many CAZyme families contain members of diverse molecular function (different EC-numbers), sophisticated tools are required to further delineate these enzymes. Such delineation is provided by the peptide-based clustering method CUPP, Conserved Unique Peptide Patterns. CUPP operates synergistically with the CAZy family/subfamily categorizations to allow systematic exploration of CAZymes by defining small protein groups with shared sequence motifs. The updated CUPP library contains 21,930 of such motif groups including 3,842,628 proteins. The new implementation of the CUPP-webserver, https://cupp.info/, now includes all published fungal and algal genomes from the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), genome resources MycoCosm and PhycoCosm, dynamically subdivided into motif groups of CAZymes. This allows users to browse the JGI portals for specific predicted functions or specific protein families from genome sequences. Thus, a genome can be searched for proteins having specific characteristics. All JGI proteins have a hyperlink to a summary page which links to the predicted gene splicing including which regions have RNA support. The new CUPP implementation also includes an update of the annotation algorithm that uses only a fourth of the RAM while enabling multi-threading, providing an annotation speed below 1 ms/protein.
Conformational dynamics of RNA G4C2 and G2C4 repeat expansions causing ALS/FTD using NMR and molecular dynamics studies
Authors: Taghavi Amirhossein , Baisden Jared T , Childs-Disney Jessica L , Yildirim Ilyas , Disney Matthew D
Published: May 2023

G4C2 and G2C4 repeat expansions in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) are the most common cause of genetically defined amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or c9ALS/FTD. The gene is bidirectionally transcribed, producing G4C2 repeats [r(G4C2)exp] and G2C4 repeats [r(G2C4)exp]. The c9ALS/FTD repeat expansions are highly structured, and structural studies showed that r(G4C2)exp predominantly folds into a hairpin with a periodic array of 1 × 1 G/G internal loops and a G-quadruplex. A small molecule probe revealed that r(G4C2)exp also adopts a hairpin structure with 2 × 2 GG/GG internal loops. We studied the conformational dynamics adopted by 2 × 2 GG/GG loops using temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics (T-REMD) and further characterized the structure and underlying dynamics using traditional 2D NMR techniques. These studies showed that the loop's closing base pairs influence both structure and dynamics, particularly the configuration adopted around the glycosidic bond. Interestingly, r(G2C4) repeats, which fold into an array of 2 × 2 CC/CC internal loops, are not as dynamic. Collectively, these studies emphasize the unique sensitivity of r(G4C2)exp to small changes in stacking interactions, which is not observed in r(G2C4)exp, providing important considerations for further principles in structure-based drug design.
CRISPRimmunity: an interactive web server for CRISPR-associated Important Molecular events and Modulators Used in geNome edIting Tool identifYing
Authors: Zhou Fengxia , Yu Xiaorong , Gan Rui , Ren Kuan , Chen Chuangeng , Ren Chunyan , Cui Meng , Liu Yuchen , Gao Yiyang , Wang Shouyu , Yin Mingyu , Huang Tengjin , Huang Zhiwei , Zhang Fan
Published: May 2023

The CRISPR-Cas system is a highly adaptive and RNA-guided immune system found in bacteria and archaea, which has applications as a genome editing tool and is a valuable system for studying the co-evolutionary dynamics of bacteriophage interactions. Here introduces CRISPRimmunity, a new web server designed for Acr prediction, identification of novel class 2 CRISPR-Cas loci, and dissection of key CRISPR-associated molecular events. CRISPRimmunity is built on a suite of CRISPR-oriented databases providing a comprehensive co-evolutionary perspective of the CRISPR-Cas and anti-CRISPR systems. The platform achieved a high prediction accuracy of 0.997 for Acr prediction when tested on a dataset of 99 experimentally validated Acrs and 676 non-Acrs, outperforming other existing prediction tools. Some of the newly identified class 2 CRISPR-Cas loci using CRISPRimmunity have been experimentally validated for cleavage activity in vitro. CRISPRimmunity offers the catalogues of pre-identified CRISPR systems to browse and query, the collected resources or databases to download, a well-designed graphical interface, a detailed tutorial, multi-faceted information, and exportable results in machine-readable formats, making it easy to use and facilitating future experimental design and further data mining. The platform is available at http://www.microbiome-bigdata.com/CRISPRimmunity. Moreover, the source code for batch analysis are published on Github (https://github.com/HIT-ImmunologyLab/CRISPRimmunity).
Human AGEs: an interactive spatio-temporal visualization and database of human archeogenomics
Authors: Ciecierski Lukasz , Stolarek Ireneusz , Figlerowicz Marek
Published: May 2023

Archeogenomics is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary research field driven by the development of techniques that enable the acquisition and analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA). Recent advances in aDNA studies have contributed significantly to increasing our understanding of the natural history of humans. One of the most significant challenges facing archeogenomics is the integration of highly heterogeneous genomic, archeological, and anthropological data and their comprehensive analysis, considering changes that occur in time and space. Only this complex approach can explain the relationship between past populations in the context of migration or cultural development. To address these challenges, we developed a Human AGEs web server. It focuses on creating comprehensive spatiotemporal visualizations of genomic, archeogenomic, and archeological information, which can be provided by the user or loaded from a graph database. The interactive map application at the center of Human AGEs can display multiple layers of data in various forms, such as bubble charts, pie charts, heatmaps, or tag clouds. These visualizations can be modified using various clustering, filtering, and styling options, and the map state can be exported to a high-resolution image or saved as a session file for later use. Human AGEs, along with their tutorial, are accessible at https://archeogenomics.eu/.
Large-scale expansions of Friedreich's ataxia GAA•TTC repeats in an experimental human system: role of DNA replication and prevention by LNA-DNA oligonucleotides and PNA oligomers
Authors: Rastokina Anastasia , Cebrián Jorge , Mozafari Negin , Mandel Nicholas H , Smith C I Edvard , Lopes Massimo , Zain Rula , Mirkin Sergei M
Published: May 2023

Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) is caused by expansions of GAA•TTC repeats in the first intron of the human FXN gene that occur during both intergenerational transmissions and in somatic cells. Here we describe an experimental system to analyze large-scale repeat expansions in cultured human cells. It employs a shuttle plasmid that can replicate from the SV40 origin in human cells or be stably maintained in S. cerevisiae utilizing ARS4-CEN6. It also contains a selectable cassette allowing us to detect repeat expansions that accumulated in human cells upon plasmid transformation into yeast. We indeed observed massive expansions of GAA•TTC repeats, making it the first genetically tractable experimental system to study large-scale repeat expansions in human cells. Further, GAA•TTC repeats stall replication fork progression, while the frequency of repeat expansions appears to depend on proteins implicated in replication fork stalling, reversal, and restart. Locked nucleic acid (LNA)-DNA mixmer oligonucleotides and peptide nucleic acid (PNA) oligomers, which interfere with triplex formation at GAA•TTC repeats in vitro, prevented the expansion of these repeats in human cells. We hypothesize, therefore, that triplex formation by GAA•TTC repeats stall replication fork progression, ultimately leading to repeat expansions during replication fork restart.
FLUXestimator: a webserver for predicting metabolic flux and variations using transcriptomics data
Authors: Zhang Zixuan , Zhu Haiqi , Dang Pengtao , Wang Jia , Chang Wennan , Wang Xiao , Alghamdi Norah , Lu Alex , Zang Yong , Wu Wenzhuo , Wang Yijie , Zhang Yu , Cao Sha , Zhang Chi
Published: May 2023

Quantitative assessment of single cell fluxome is critical for understanding the metabolic heterogeneity in diseases. Unfortunately, laboratory-based single cell fluxomics is currently impractical, and the current computational tools for flux estimation are not designed for single cell-level prediction. Given the well-established link between transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles, leveraging single cell transcriptomics data to predict single cell fluxome is not only feasible but also an urgent task. In this study, we present FLUXestimator, an online platform for predicting metabolic fluxome and variations using single cell or general transcriptomics data of large sample-size. The FLUXestimator webserver implements a recently developed unsupervised approach called single cell flux estimation analysis (scFEA), which uses a new neural network architecture to estimate reaction rates from transcriptomics data. To the best of our knowledge, FLUXestimator is the first web-based tool dedicated to predicting cell-/sample-wise metabolic flux and metabolite variations using transcriptomics data of human, mouse and 15 other common experimental organisms. The FLUXestimator webserver is available at http://scFLUX.org/, and stand-alone tools for local use are available at https://github.com/changwn/scFEA. Our tool provides a new avenue for studying metabolic heterogeneity in diseases and has the potential to facilitate the development of new therapeutic strategies.
Transformations of Workers’ Mobilization in Latin America
Authors: Ramírez Gallegos Franklin , Stoessel Soledad
Published: May 2023

This chapter explores the transformations of workers’ mobilization in Latin America from the end of the nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. For that purpose, the link is observed between changing economic connections, state-society relations, and workers’ collective action. The dynamics of mobilization and demobilization are considered from the inter-relationship of three dimensions: forms of organization, repertoires of state–society interaction, and ideological frameworks. The analysis focuses on four periods: 1890–1929: the emergence of workers’ organizations; 1930–1960: the strengthening of labor unions and processes of incorporation; 1970–1990: neoliberalism, democracy, and organizational breakdown; and 1999–2017: the return of the state and the calling into question of neoliberalism, the revitalization of labor unions, and new workers’ movements. In order to provide greater insight, the more industrialized countries (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile) are compared with others less industrialized (the Andean region and Central American countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Panama). The chapter concludes with three findings: (1) Latin American workers’ mobilization is not reduced to labor union dynamics nor is its role limited to extending workers’ rights; (2) the complex interactions of class, ethnicity, gender, and territory have produced successive waves of politicization of the “worker question”; and (3) beyond the constraints imposed by economic structures and state control, the political subjectivation of workers has evolved in contradictory ways in the different spheres of relationship with the left, populism, the church, and political institutions, as well as a product of the historical vicissitudes of the struggles.
Peasant Movements in Recent Latin American History
Authors: Welch Cliff
Published: May 2023

This chapter offers an historical synthesis of twentieth- and twenty-first-century peasant movements in Latin America and the Caribbean. Based mostly on secondary literature, the chapter follows overlapping developments in diverse locations generally determined by the intensity of the penetration of capitalist relations of production. The chapter recounts the experiences of distinct peasant movements through an analytical narrative that follows a periodization defined by the descriptive categories of “restoration,” “integration,” “revolution,” and “alternation.” Restoration movements were typical of the early twentieth century, wherein peasants joined together to halt change and restore conceptions of an earlier, often idealized order. From the 1920s to the 1950s, many peasants banded together in efforts to integrate themselves into national projects, struggling to shape incorporation instruments like political parties, labor unions, and agricultural policy. Often frustrated in these attempts, some peasant sectors participated in revolutionary movements from the 1950s to 1980s. During the most recent period analyzed, the 1980s to 2000s, a combination of transforming socialist icons, diversified practices, altered identities, and neoliberal restructuring fostered peasant movements intent on ensuring their livelihoods through the development of autonomous organizations and alternative social formations that sought greater control over their relationship to the capitalist political economy.
Environmental Mobilization in Latin America
Authors: Christel Lucas G. , Gutiérrez Ricardo A.
Published: May 2023

This chapter reviews and discusses the vast literature on environmental mobilization in Latin America and the Caribbean from the 1980s on. There is a tendency in the literature to use the term environmental “movement” as tantamount to “mobilization” or “organization,” while only a few studies elaborate what an environmental movement is and what the conditions for its existence are. Given this lack of precision in using the term movement and the fact that several studies do not use it at all, this chapter seeks to answer to what extent the concept of social movement is appropriate to understand environmental mobilization in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its starting point is the conceptual distinction between environmental mobilization and environmental movement. The chapter defines environmental mobilization as the collective action aiming to influence (in either contentious or institutionalized ways) the decisions regarding the political and economic regulation of the interactions between human beings and their environment. Based upon this definition, it first examines the general characteristics of environmental mobilization in the region and then discusses the analytical scope of the concept of social movement as used in the literature. Based on this review, the chapter contends that the concept of environmental mobilization is better equipped than the notion of social movement to grasp the singularities of Latin American and Caribbean environmentalism.
Transnational Social Movements in Latin America
Authors: von Bülow Marisa
Published: May 2023

Latin America has been an important cradle of transnational social movements since the beginning of the twentieth century. These movements not only launched reactive campaigns to counter threats, but also built new organizational fora and events to think about policy alternatives. They had substantial impacts on international negotiations and on the organizational infrastructure of civil society globally. Two examples discussed in this chapter are the creation of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, at the Inter-American level, and the World Social Forum meetings, at the global level. The scholarly literature on Latin American transnationalism has added to key debates about the emergence of transnational collective action and its consequences. It has also helped reach a better understanding of why and how actors shift through domestic and international scales, and the challenges they face as they do so. Important gaps remain, however, most importantly the study of conservative and right-wing transnational movements, and research on the impacts of the incorporation of digital repertoires on transnational collective action.
Education, Pedagogy, and Social Movements in Latin America
Authors: Tarlau Rebecca
Published: May 2023

This chapter provides an overview of the role of education within Latin American social movements over the past century. The first part discusses political education during the first half of the twentieth century, with a focus on the Communist Party and anarchist organizing efforts both before and after the Bolshevik Revolution. The emphasis is on urban and rural labor organizing in Brazil, as a lens into similar socialist organizing unfolding throughout the continent. This section also analyzes two important state-led educational initiatives during this period, the “socialist education” policies developed in Mexico during the 1930s and the 1961 Cuban Literacy campaign. The second part of the chapter discusses the authoritarian period in Latin America, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, and the impact of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The educational approach outlined in Freire’s book was taken up by Catholic clergy inspired by liberation theology, which facilitated the rapid spread of Freirean practices throughout Latin America. This section examines Freirean literacy programs and popular education among El Salvadoran guerrilla groups and under the Sandinista government. The final section is on social movements and education in contemporary Latin America, after the re-democratization of the region, focusing on both non-formal education, or formación, as well as social movement’s transformation and co-governance of public education. This long-term emphasis on education and pedagogy within Latin American social movements has been a major reason for their growth, continuity, and effectiveness.
Social Movements and Participatory Institutions in Latin America
Authors: Annunziata Rocío , Goldfrank Benjamin
Published: May 2023

This chapter analyzes the different relationships between participatory institutions and social movements in Latin America. While research on social movements rarely pays attention to participatory institutions, since they tend to be introduced by government authorities from the top down and oriented towards consensus, the literature on participatory institutions has been interested in social movements as key promoters, supporters, or participants. One of the most important issues concerning participatory institutions is who participates. What is the role of social movements or organized civil society in this regard? This chapter conceptualizes and describes four types of participatory institution, focusing on the role that social movements play within them. It identifies four types of such roles and then illustrates them with the most paradigmatic example of each one: National Public Policy Conferences in Brazil, Participatory Budgeting in Argentina, Citizen-Initiated Popular Consultations in Uruguay, and Communal Councils in Venezuela. In addition, other Latin American experiences are assigned to one of these four types. The conclusion highlights trade-offs between the different types, noting that the role of social movements in participatory institutions is not always and not necessarily related to more inclusionary participation.
Social Movement Activism, Informal Politics, and Clientelism in Latin America
Authors: Quirós Julieta , Combes Hélène
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines an underexplored dimension of contemporary Latin American contentious politics: the overlaps between social movement activism, informal party politics, and the dispute over state resources. Its point of departure rests on the following hypothesis: the nature of contentious politics, in which the working classes in Latin America have recently played a leading role, has been shaped by the close relationship that exists between processes of politicization and the reproduction of life of these classes. Accordingly, the chapter examines the day-to-day dynamics within relationships and practices of political intermediation that involve social movements, political parties, and state agencies. Applying an ethnographic and comparative perspective, we focus on contentious experiences in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, referring to events in Chile as a counterexample. Based on these cases, we show how the interaction between politicization and reproduction of life has shaped at least three unique aspects of contentious activism in the region. These are: (1) the political centrality that the dispute over state resources has in grassroots movements; (2) the territorial circumscription that these movements possess and its overlap with informal party politics; and (3) the importance of the moral economies of political participation in the daily dynamics of contentious action.
Decolonizing Approaches to Latin American Social Movements
Authors: Juliana Flórez-Flórez María , Olarte-Olarte María Carolina
Published: May 2023

This chapter introduces decolonizing approaches as a perspective from which to study Latin American social movements. Decolonizing approaches allow us to surpass the disheartening diagnoses of a significant part of social movement theories that argue that Latin American movements had little potentia to denounce modernity crises and even less to offer alternatives to it. The decolonizing approaches show that the theories on social movements are colonial despite being critical of modernity. The purpose of this chapter is to elucidate how the decolonizing approaches provide crucial elements and debates to resist and comprehend basic colonial premises and enable a change of terms under which we can produce, evaluate, and stratify knowledge on social movements. It is the dialogue with movements—as opposed to about movements—that makes it possible to evaluate collective action. The chapter is structured in four sections. The first describes the consolidation of decolonizing approaches. The second presents its contributions to the study of Latin American social movements. Section three maps some of the concepts proposed by decolonizing approaches that constitute analytical keys for approaching collective action today. The last section points to the decolonizing readings of the struggles for territory in Latin America as an emerging research-action area indubitably urgent today. The chapter ends by recognizing challenges for the decolonizing approaches and their study of social movements.
Women’s Movements in Latin America
Authors: Ewig Christina , Friedman Elisabeth Jay
Published: May 2023

Latin American women’s movements have evolved from elite efforts into intersectional mass movements. Women mobilized in response to a contradictory assortment of political opportunities, including the modernizing patriarchies of early states; the conservative gendered discourses and repression of authoritarian governments; the androcentric processes of democracy and neoliberal reform; and the ideals of revolutionary and left-leaning movements and parties across the twentieth century. Inspired by transnational connections, women’s movements advanced agendas as much about distributive issues as about rights, often drawing strategically on maternal identity. The first educated elite and middle-class activists sought improvement in women’s legal status while also focusing on education and healthcare. Moving into the twentieth century, left-wing women attempted to broaden the class base of their organizing and take advantage of regimes committed to inclusion. Under authoritarianism, right-wing women came out in support, while women defending human rights became central protagonists in regime change. Often sidelined by democracies and economic austerity, activists organized autonomously and demanded inclusion in party politics and state bureaucracies. Indigenous, Afro-descendant, lesbian, trans, and grassroots women expanded agendas while insisting on inclusion. The contemporary massification of women’s movements shows the depth and breadth of mobilization that has matured through well over a century.
Social Movements and Nationalism in Latin America
Authors: vom Hau Matthias
Published: May 2023

Students of social movements in Latin America have employed the concept of nationalism rather loosely, while scholars of nationalism in the region primarily focus on the role of the state and, if at all, deal with social movements in a largely descriptive manner. In response, this chapter brings these two distinct bodies of work into conversation with each other and explores the relationship between nationalism and social movements in Latin America in a more systematic manner. The starting points are three major approaches to the conceptualization of nationalism: as (1) a set of political behaviors, (2) a collective sentiment, or (3) a form of ideology or discourse. Each of them leads to different ideas about how nationalism affects or is affected by social movements. Equipped with this conceptual lens, the chapter explores crucial turning points in the region’s postcolonial history and examines the intersection between nationalism and social movements during the early nineteenth-century struggles for the formation of independent national states, the mid-twentieth-century decline of oligarchic rule and the emergence of mass societies, and the late twentieth-century adoption of neoliberalism and the rise of multiculturalism and indigenous movements. Another issue covered is a Latin American peculiarity, namely the striking lack—from a cross-regional comparative perspective—of nationalist mobilization for secession and a separate state.
Improving Social Outcomes through Behavioral Insights
Authors: McCauley Lee
Published: May 2023

The past decade has seen a revolution in policymaking. Governments around the world are increasingly using behavioral sciences to rethink policy challenges and develop new interventions. A better understanding of human behavior acknowledges that people are complex and that traditional policies do not necessarily have all the answers. It is often coupled with an increased use of trials to test whether policies actually work. Australian governments have been at the forefront of this revolution, with behavioral insights increasingly used to tackle challenging social problems such as unemployment and family violence. New Zealand has been a much slower adopter but will hopefully catch up. Overall, there is good evidence that behavioral insights can play a significant role in improving the design and implementation of social policies, thereby enhancing social outcomes and the quality of public administration.
The Promise and Challenge of Social Innovation and Social Enterprise
Authors: Allen Barbara , Hannant Alex , Jackson Brad , Morrissey Lochlan , Tiernan Anne
Published: May 2023

Current theory and practice of social innovation and their impact on the formulation and implementation of policy in Australia and New Zealand are critically assessed. Three interrelated forms of social innovation—social enterprise, social finance, and social procurement—are examined to highlight the role they have played in promoting social innovation throughout the region. The focus is on market-led approaches: that is, methods of social innovation that are employed by companies in the private and not-for-profit sectors to effect social change. The chapter examines the particular challenges that these approaches pose to traditional public administration roles and practices. It concludes by suggesting various ways that socially innovative techniques might be more widely utilized in Australasia.
Section Overview
Authors: Boston Jonathan
Published: May 2023

This chapter provides an overview of the Australasian section of the Handbook. The chapters in this section cover four broad topics: the historical evolution of social provision and recent social trends; institutional and operational themes; financing arrangements; and innovation and evaluation. As highlighted in this section, there are both remarkable similarities but also important differences in the design, administration, and evolution of social policies across the region. For instance, both Australia and New Zealand, unlike most advanced democracies, have relied heavily on tax-funded, flat-rate, and means-tested forms of social assistance rather than social insurance. Against this, constitutional and cultural differences have resulted in contrasting administrative arrangements for the funding and provision of major social services, such as health and education. While path dependence will doubtless exert a continuing and powerful influence on future social policy arrangements across the region, there are bound to be ongoing, and sometimes significant, administrative reforms in response to exogenous shocks, technological innovation, and changing societal needs and values.
Introduction to the Handbook
Authors: Baehler Karen J.
Published: May 2023

This handbook surveys knowledge from all six of the planet’s continuously inhabited continents to understand how governments and related institutions have attempted to advance human development and improve social outcomes over the past several decades. The current state of knowledge about the social welfare sphere is robust, but explorers of its two conceptual hemispheres—social policy and social administration—have too often missed opportunities to share insights and trace connections across cultural, historical, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Each of the 64 chapters commissioned for the handbook seeks to rectify such omissions by applying an administrative lens to an issue of social policy. Authors were carefully chosen by editors based in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Canada and the United States, Europe, and Latin America to capture key developments and challenges in their region’s social welfare spheres during the decades spanning the turn of the millennium. The result is an engaging description of the international state of knowledge at the intersection of social policy and public administration on the eve of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Adaptations forced by the pandemic and related crises may create momentum for social welfare system change, and even transformation, in some parts of the world. Future researchers will describe and measure such changes relative to benchmarks set in the pre-pandemic period, including the rich variety of practices, paradigms, and insights collected in The Oxford Handbook of Governance and Management for Social Policy.
The Policy Challenges of Africa’s Changing Demography and Social Structures
Authors: Chagunda Chance
Published: May 2023

Social structures have changed from precolonial Africa, when most African communities followed a communal way of life characterized as umunthu, to colonial days. Although family and community care systems underwent significant transformation over this long history, patriarchal power relations persisted, as evidenced in social indicators that reflect a highly gendered division of labor and social reproduction. Demographic trends reveal significant hardships, especially for women, youth, and rural populations. Core institutions (family, religion, and government) of African societies are experiencing increasing difficulties in their efforts to reduce the hardships that most female-headed families and people in rural areas face. The chapter explores how governments in the region can use demographic data to improve social policy, program design, and delivery. Such data is needed to better understand how trends in population growth, migration patterns, education levels, age, gender, and other social and economic factors influence household and social structures. Based on that knowledge, governments can respond to trends and build more effective public administrative systems for providing social services to people in need.
Diversity and Transformative Policy within South African Higher Learning Institutions
Authors: Kubeka Khosi M.
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines the relationship between social policy and public administration within the context of higher learning institutions in South Africa. It outlines the efforts and some of the effects of higher learning institutions in building capabilities and freedoms of first-generation students in the post-apartheid era. The challenges of race, gender, and socioeconomic conditions and how they influence access and experiences of students are examined. Findings from an empirical study conducted in two higher learning institutions are presented in order to highlight and offer a critical analysis of the existing institutional stumbling blocks to achieving educational outcomes through transforming race and gender relations.
Youth Participation in African Social Policy and Governance
Authors: Dooms Tessa , Pillay Pearl
Published: May 2023

Generally acknowledged as a youthful continent, Africa’s future will be shaped by its present ability to harness the capabilities, energy, contributions, and values of young people to achieve its developmental objectives. Yet youth remain on the margins with respect to shaping the substance of policy and participating in political power. Such exclusion of youth perspectives is evident in social policies. Existing social policies do not adequately reflect the developmental aspects of youth throughout the life cycle and undermine the potentially positive effects of youth participation in governance. This constrains the potential role of youth as political leaders, especially in influencing social policies that shape their own development. Dooms and Pillay argue that governments and political actors at the continental, regional, and national levels of governance in Africa ought to redefine how they understand youth and how they mainstream issues affecting youth in policy. Applying a more developmental standard to how youth is defined and operationalized in policy and placing youth as active participants in social policymaking allows for a more nuanced and youth-specific approach to current and future policy choices and program designs. The chapter challenges policy makers to find ways to redress low levels of youth participation in governance. Examples of youth participation models that are developmental and youth-led are discussed, including models that institutionalize new forms of youth participation in African social administration.
A Comparative History of Social Provision for Indigenous Australians and Māori
Authors: Althaus Catherine , Workman Kim
Published: May 2023

This chapter contrasts biculturalism in New Zealand and, in particular, the development of Whānau Ora—a potential milestone innovation in Māori affairs—with inconsistent and limited implementation of social policies to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination. The chapter explores the path dependency between initial colonization and continuing assimilation. Initial interactions between colonizers and Indigenous Australians and Māori continue to shape social policy responses today. Aotearoa New Zealand experiences stronger comparative examples of sovereignty vis-à-vis Australia due to rights possible under the Treaty of Waitangi and there is divergence in how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are achieving self-determination relative to Māori. Yet both jurisdictions feature remarkably similar struggles in enacting the fullness of self-determination, trying to achieve congruence between social policy, political sovereignty, and Indigenous culture and worldviews. Self-rule guarantees only part of the self-determination picture until capabilities and resources are aligned to traditional authority, culture, values, and aspirations. In both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand there is still a long way to go.
Section Overview
Authors: Jing Yijia , Lah T. J.
Published: May 2023

Rising social benefits and social protection, combined with vibrant economic development, have turned Asia into a major axis of world economic growth. Meanwhile, numerous Asian countries have been experiencing a decline in the middle class while socioeconomic polarization remains widespread in the region. Social mobility has become a significant policy topic as economic polarization creates potential for social conflicts between economic classes and the dismantling of communities. Mutual learning and convergence are expected to grow despite the unlikelihood of finding an Asian model of social policy governance. This section of the handbook explores historical evaluation, social trends, institutions, organizations, operations, financial arrangements, innovations, and evaluation practices to illuminate these trends and their implications for the region’s future.
Fiscal and Administrative Decentralization and Social Policy in Asia and China
Authors: Zhang Ping
Published: May 2023

In the context of a rapidly changing economic and social environment, governments across Asia face the question of how to arrange fiscal responsibilities and distribute resources among levels of government in order to achieve optimal levels of social expenditure and administrative efficiency. This chapter examines existing knowledge about fiscal decentralization trends in Asia over the past several decades and their importance for social policy administration, including a discussion of trade-offs between equity and efficiency. Key developments in social policy and fiscal structure in China are described in the areas of education, health, housing, employment, and social security. As lessons from China’s experience of asymmetric revenue centralization and expenditure decentralization continue to emerge, the chapter offers questions to guide future research.
Nonprofit and Government Partnerships in Public Service Delivery in South Korea
Authors: Jang Hee Soun , Kim Jung Wook
Published: May 2023

This chapter presents a conceptual introduction to nonprofit and government partnerships in the context of three different but complementary theories and applies those theoretical perspectives to the case of the growing nonprofit sector in South Korea. South Korean legal frameworks that inform government policies have led to nonprofits’ growth and participation in public services in South Korea. Specifically, we examine the governance and financing structures of public and nonprofit partnerships for services for people with disabilities in Seoul Metropolitan Government. Findings from the case study indicate that the government’s collaborative approach to involving nonprofit organizations in publicly funded services has promoted a service delivery role for the nonprofit sector since the early 2000s in South Korea.
Complexity in US Social Welfare Administration
Authors: Baehler Karen J. , Walsh Stephanie
Published: May 2023

Complexity emerges as a prevailing theme across 21 distinguished lectures delivered by the most recent recipients of the American Political Science Association’s John Gaus Award. This chapter draws insights from these lectures to illuminate recent thinking in the United States about how to design US social welfare institutions to help citizens adapt effectively to complex, ever-changing, economic and social pressures, while also meeting the enduring human demand for democratic equality. The tensions between those two goals have shaped the evolution of US social welfare administration theory and practice for the past century. A four-part framework of institutional design—based on the ideals of adaptability and democracy, and the principles of dispersion and coordination—offers insights into how leading thinkers in US public administration have addressed those tensions. Faced with the uncertainties of the COVID-19 era and its aftermath, the task of designing US social policies and programs to be both adaptive and democratic may be more important than ever.