bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Numerical simulation method for generating seismic waves by a simplified point source based on seismic-while-excavation in coal mine roadways
Authors: Li Shenglin , Zhang Pingsong , Wu Rongxin , Xi Chaoqiang , Hu Xiongwu , Ji Guangzhong
Published: January 2025

The advanced geological prediction of seismic-while-excavation (SWE) in coal mine roadways employs the noise vibrations generated during the construction process as the signal source. The excitation process of seismic waves derived from this noise source significantly differs from that associated with conventional pulse sources. Exploration of the characteristics and process involved in exciting seismic waves through excavation noise sources is undertaken. Initially, challenges posed by complex vibration sources during excavation are addressed, with analysis of signal characteristics derived from field data and consideration of the excavation environment. Investigation of the seismic wave excitation forms of these complex noise sources leads to a summary of their characteristics. The simplification of various excavation machinery into distinct forms of point sources facilitates theoretical analysis. Coupling the excitation processes of each point source and leading into virtual source theory of seismic record interferometry reconstruction results in a simplified point source time function of excavation noise sources. Analysis of the types and magnitudes of forces exerted by the cutting head during coal seam excavation, in conjunction with the operating mode of a boom-type roadheader, is conducted. A spatial loading method for the noise source is proposed, grounded in the components of the excited wavefield. The staggered grid finite difference algorithm is employed for numerical simulations. Comparison of synthetic seismic records with field-measured data validate the rationality and effectiveness of the simulated source term. A theoretical foundation for future investigations into the imaging and inversion of excavation noise sources is established.
Reckoning with God
Authors: Alkorani Joud , Mittermaier Amira
Published: January 2025

This special section reflects upon how divine-human relations are shaped by the socioeconomic and political circumstances in which they are cultivated. The four articles treat God not as a rigidly defined, unchanging being borne of ageless scripture and theology, but a figure who emerges during people's self-reflection and through their interactions with others in specific settings. The articles explore how human engagements with the divine manifest across a myriad of post–Arab Spring communities, from Syrian Sunni refugees in Jordan to Shi'i Iranians who feel forsaken by their government and God, and from Beiruti Orthodox Christians running a charity clinic to Sunni Muslim women taking Islamic lessons in Dubai. A framework of divine-human relations structures these distinct contributions, and this introduction lays out how the articles intervene in debates around politics, agency, and temporality. Together, the articles offer insight not only into what religiosity and selfhood look like among (dis)believers in the Middle East today, but also what notions of God drive different kinds of (ir)reverence. They also accord ethnographic attention to God, an otherwise marginal figure in much scholarship on religion.
When God Provides
Authors: Arăş Roxana Maria
Published: January 2025

Drawing from ethnographic research conducted at an Orthodox sociomedical center in Beirut, this article investigates welfare practices situated at the intersection of lived theology and sect-based clientelism. Amid the crises engulfing Lebanon since 2019, the center's activity was shaped by Orthodox models of social activism where “heaven starts from earth.” Theological concepts of service were activated in relation to a divine management that addressed concrete needs and in response to economic uncertainty. Together, they authenticated a pragmatic God working through the center's social and material infrastructures. The human-divine relationality shaped by these models is analyzed in relation to sect-based networks entangled in the everyday lives of Lebanese people. This approach argues for a reconsideration of charity alongside and beyond sectarian models of differentiation and secular ideals of national unity. Focusing on an Eastern Orthodox community in the Middle East, the article is a critical intervention in the anthropology of Christianity. It underscores localized expressions of Christianity by highlighting the social life of theological concepts amid the realities of a country in crisis. Additionally, the focus on religion at the intersection of lived theology and precarious lives reveals the entanglements of Orthodoxy as sect and community of practice in Lebanon.
Clinical efficacy of donepezil combined with nerve growth factor in the treatment of patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia and its impact on adiponectin and soluble tumor necrosis factor-alpha receptor-1
Authors: Hu Meiling , Ye Jiamei
Published: January 2025

Objective: To explore clinical efficacy of donepezil combined with nerve growth factor (NGF) in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) and its potential impact on serum levels of adiponectin (APN) and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-1 (sTNFR-1).
Methods: Clinical data of 140 patients with PDD treated in Taizhou First People’s Hospital from March 2021 to December 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were grouped based on the treatment received. Patients who received donepezil alone (n=68) comprised the Donepezil group, and patients who were treated with a combination of donepezil and NGF (n=72) were assigned into the Donepezil & NGF group. Treatment effects, symptom improvement before and after the treatment, APN and sTNFR-1 levels, and incidence of adverse reactions were compared between two groups.
Results: The overall efficacy of the combination therapy was higher than that of donepezil regimen alone (P<0.05). After treatment, symptom improvement in the Donepezil & NGF group was significantly better than that in the Donepezil group (P<0.05). Post-treatment serum levels of APN in the Donepezil & NGF group were significantly higher than that of Donepezil group, while the level of sTNFR-1 was significantly lower (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (P>0.05).
Conclusion: Combined regimen of donepezil and NGF is more effective than donepezil monotherapy in improving cognitive function, neurological function, and severity of the condition of patients with PDD, and is associated with the suppression of the inflammatory response without a significant increase in the incidence of adverse reactions. The study provides a basis for the clinical application of the combined regimen, but it still needs to be confirmed by more basic and clinical research.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.2.11191
How to cite this: Hu M, Ye J. Clinical efficacy of donepezil combined with nerve growth factor in the treatment of patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia and its impact on adiponectin and soluble tumor necrosis factor-alpha receptor-1. Pak J Med Sci. 2025;41(2):372-377.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.2.11191
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Maternal Mortality: Causes, trends and delays in care at Tertiary care hospital, Pakistan
Authors: Wasim Tayyiba , Yunus Saira , Raana Gul-e- , Wasim Anaab
Published: January 2025

Objective: To assess the maternal mortality ratio (MMR), causes, trends and delays in care over a period of twelve years at institutional level.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted over a 12 years period (2011-2022) at Services Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. Maternal mortality ratio was calculated as number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The study period was divided in two equal halves i.e. 2011-2016 and 2017-2022. Causes, trends in maternal mortality and delays were analyzed and compared between the two study periods. SPSS-23 was used for data analysis.
Results: There were 222 maternal deaths and 47,853 live births during the study period. The cumulative MMR was 463.92/100,000 live births with a decreasing trend over 12 years. Postpartum hemorrhage and cardiac disease in pregnancy were leading cause of death in 44(31.65%) and 31(22.3%) of patients in 2011-2016, while hypertensive disorders in 18(21.69%) patients and sepsis in 15(18.0%) patients were significantly responsible for maternal mortality in 2017-2022 (p=0.00). Analysis of 12 years data showed first delay i.e. delay in seeking care was the commonest seen in 92(41.44%) patients, followed by second delay in 29(13.06%) and third delay in 27(12.16%) patients. Postpartum period and first delay were significantly associated with maternal mortality (p=0.05 and <0.001).
Conclusion: Reduction in maternal mortality is a great challenge for developing countries like Pakistan. Although maternal mortality has declined over period of twelve years in our study, targeted interventions at community level are needed to address the delay in seeking care and improve maternal outcomes.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.2.9974
How to cite this: Wasim T, Yunus S, Raana GE, Wasim A. Maternal Mortality: Causes, trends and delays in care at Tertiary care hospital, Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2025;41(2):420-425. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.2.9974
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
IDENTIFICATION OF TYPOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE EMPLOYEE’S LABOR POTENTIAL: INTEGRATION OF M. BELBIN’S COMMAND ROLES WITH THE CLASSIFICATION OF TEMPERAMENTS «PRIORITY» AND THE MODEL OF D. KOLB’S ACTIVITY
Authors: Ishkov Aleksandr
Published: January 2025

The article considers the possibility of improving the efficiency of managing the labor potential of employees by integrating three concepts (D. Kolb’s activity model, M. Belbin’s command roles and the classification of temperaments «Priority») into a single toolkit. As a result of the analysis and comparison of these concepts, it was possible to refine and modify D. Kolb’s model to the «3/8» activity cycle model, in which 8 stages are distinguished based on three criteria. In the developed classification of employees according to natural priorities of activity, each stage of the «3/8» activity cycle model corresponds to a certain type of employee, which has its own «reflection» (prototype) in the styles of activity of D. Kolb, the command roles of M. Belbin and the classification of temperaments «Priority». The integration of the three concepts makes it possible to clarify both the idea of the processes occurring at the stages of the activity cycle and the description of the types of employees. Combining and revising diagnostic techniques used in concepts will increase the accuracy of diagnosing employee types and predicting their behavior, increase the effectiveness of employee selection and role allocation in the team.
The origins of fungi-based drugs
Authors: Greener Mark
Published: January 2025

Mark Greener looks at how fungi have affected the development of life-saving medicines
Latest clinical research
Authors: Greener Mark
Published: January 2025

The latest studies of interest to primary care nurses, rounded up by Mark Greener
Ordinary Soldiers and the Marquis
Authors: Hattem Michael D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter explores how the War of 1812 and a temporary lull in partisanship spurred a new public appreciation for the long-ignored veterans of the Continental Army in the 1810s and 1820s. It examines the conflicts over the Pension Act of 1819 and the popularity of the Marquis de Lafayette during his visit in 1824-25 ahead of the Jubilee of 1826.
The Confederate Revolution
Authors: Hattem Michael D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter explores the changing memory of the Revolution in the South in the 1850s and immediately after secession. Many Southerners came to reject the Declaration after it had been redefined by the abolitionists, the Constitution for its inability to protect slavery, and the memory of individual founders who had introduced too much democracy, particularly Thomas Jefferson.
Creating the Centennial
Authors: Hattem Michael D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines the conflicts around the planning and commemoration of the Centennial of 1876. It explores the continuing sectional animosities that plagued the anniversary and how it also stoked existing class and ethnic divisions.
The Depression’s Revolution
Authors: Hattem Michael D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter explores the re-adoption of Thomas Jefferson as the avatar of the new Democratic Party of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It also examines how fringe political groups on the right and left used the memory of the Revolution, particularly the Communist Party of the United States of America and the German American Bund.
The Sixties’ Revolution
Authors: Hattem Michael D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter explores the use of the memory of the Revolution by the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It also shows how political groups on the far-right and far-left tried to use the memory of the Revolution to justify their movements in the 1960s and the emergence of "social history" aimed at recovering the lives of ordinary and oppressed groups in American history.
The Alternative Bicentennial
Authors: Hattem Michael D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter explores the relationship between activist movements and the bicentennial. It shows how the far-left Peoples' Bicentennial Commission adopted the memory of the Revolution to promote anticorporate sentiment and how African Americans, women, Native Americans, and gays and lesbians used the bicentennial and the memory of the Revolution to amplify their grievances and their claims to citizenship. It also shows how liberals' bicentennial was shaped by the new social history of the 1960s and a commitment to uncovering and incorporating the lives and contributions of oppressed groups in the Revolution and throughout American history,
The Aftermath of the Cold War
Authors: Hattem Michael D.
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines the rise of hyperpartisanship and issues of race in the 1990s following the end of the Cold War and its role in shaping the memory of the Revolution as the new millennium approached. It shows how liberal Democrats expanded their bicentennial commitment to creating a more inclusive popular memory of the Revolution and American history generally and how conservatives responded by doubling down on their long-standing celebratory, patriotic approach to the Revolution and American history, with some unintended consequences.
What Kind of Freedom?
Authors: Kolchin Peter
Published: January 2025

Slaves and serfs were free, but what “freedom” meant remained contested terrain. To facilitate the transition to free status, each government established an agency to oversee the process. In Russia, the agents were known as “peace mediators,” usually appointed by members of the nobility; in the U.S. South, the agents were largely the Union Army officers who staffed the Freedmen’s Bureau. In both countries, the agents faced similar challenges to their authority, particularly when charged with the contradictory tasks of protecting the freedpeople and maintaining order. In both countries, too, freedpeople resisted anything that looked like limited freedom, striving for a freedom based on their understanding of self-ownership and self-government. Struggles over those issues led to a wave of violent uprisings (volneniia) in Russia that were often mercilessly put down, but sometimes led to compromises. In the South, violence and terrorism against freedpeople was pervasive. Such struggles defined the first post-emancipation months.
The importance of political contexts
Authors: Sundberg Trude
Published: January 2025

This chapter take a deep dive into the importance of the political when it comes to shaping and explaining welfare attitudes in East Asian societies. To do so we set out the trends when it comes to what citizens think should be role and responsibility of government and about the performance of government and then move on to consider what political factors may explain these views. Again, there is no one model across these countries, and political systems and attitudes matter differently depending on society and political system in a society. This is particularly so in mainland China. We also look at the importance of what has been called Asian values and find that, in the societies studied, those citizens who value the importance of obeying a ruler give greater support for redistribution. We find traces of cultural patterns as we uncover negative attitudes towards work being a duty and the view that people who do not work are lazy in all countries, but more so in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. However, work being a duty is a shared value across societies. The chapter explores what may explain these trends, comparing what explains welfare attitudes in different political systems.
Providing Public Space in a Contemporary Metropolis
Authors: De Magalhães Claudio , Sieh Louie
Published: January 2025

The book discusses the challenges and dilemmas in the provision and management of open public spaces in contemporary cities through a comparative discussion of the cases of London and Hong Kong. It conceptualises public spaces as complex common goods, with a range of attributes, valued differently by a multitude of stakeholders often with conflicting aspirations. The book’s main argument centres on the idea of publicness, understood as the allocation of rights over public space attributes, which is shaped by the existing systems of public space provision and management in those cities. The first part of the book presents the conceptual framework around the concepts of public space, publicness and public space governance. The second part describes the systems of provision and management in London and Hong Kong and examines how each city deals with the challenges of providing enough open and accessible public spaces for their citizens and of how they engage with and respond to the aspirations of those with a stake in them. The book looks at direct provision and management by the public sector and private provision through property development and the various forms of transfer of management responsibilities away from the public sector and towards private sector organisations, voluntary groups and community bodies. It discusses the implications of those forms of provision for publicness and the public realm in those cities and concludes with the sketch of a theory of public space governance that could help with better understanding and addressing the challenges those cities face.
The governance and management of public space
Authors: Magalhães Claudio De , Sieh Louie
Published: January 2025

This third conceptual chapter refines the concept of public space governance. It examines the mechanisms that govern the allocation and exercise of rights to publicness attributes and how disputes and conflicts between different interests are addressed. The chapter looks at how all those processes are translated into governance tasks and made a part of the daily life of public spaces. The chapter presents public space governance as the constant rearrangement of allocated rights over the attributes of those spaces, responding to pressures from different stakeholders and shaped by sets of rules that regulate that rearrangement. It makes the point that the way public spaces are governed, that is, how the rights over publicness attributes are allocated and managed, and the conflicts that emerge from that process are negotiated, is itself an important constituent of publicness. In doing so, this and the preceding chapter provide the main framework for examining public space issues in London and Hong Kong.
Mental vulnerability in the historical context
Authors: Väänänen Ari
Published: January 2025

This chapter describes the social history of mental health and pathology. Characterizing acedia, neurasthenia and manager disease, the chapter tells about the historical nature of mental vulnerabilities. Using the theory of epidemiological transition, the chapter explains popular views of demographers and population health scientists concerning the long-term change in health. Finally, the latter part of the chapter illustrates how the transformation of the essence of human character has influenced our socio-emotional management of life and the role of mental vulnerability in the map of social pathologies and distresses. Especially Alain Ehrenberg’s ideas on mental weariness and autonomous individuality are useful in this regard. The chapter provides history-driven tools through which current knowledge about mental health in the culture of work can be rethought and the long-term processes of mental vulnerability can be identified.
Introduction
Authors: Elston Thomas
Published: January 2025

This brief introduction situates public management reform amid the two principal alternative mechanisms for building management capability for the state: changes effected by public managers individually responding to problems and opportunities on a discretionary, case-by-case basis (termed the ‘laissez-faire’ approach); and change as an involuntary reaction to sudden and severe adversity, such as war or natural disaster (termed ‘shock and awe’). The advantages and limitations of laissez faire and shock and awe are discussed, before top-down public management reform is presented as a response to these, involving deliberate policymaking by a central authority determining how public services should be organised and managed across multiple sites simultaneously. The argument of, and structure for, the remainder of the book is then previewed.
Quiet costs of reform
Authors: Elston Thomas
Published: January 2025

This chapter draws upon two foundational concepts from economics to consider issues relating to resource allocation in public management reform. ‘Opportunity costs’ arise because productive resources are multipurpose but scarce. Each can achieve many different ends, but investing in one objective means foregoing others, producing an implicit loss in utility. ‘Transaction costs’, by contrast, relate to the work involved in making and enforcing the agreements necessary to coordinate economic exchanges – between workers and managers, or collaborating organisations, or contracting parties. Each actor seeks to hedge against the risks of exchange (for instance, by negotiating and monitoring lengthy contracts), and in so doing incurs transaction costs that subtract from the total benefits of cooperation. Both opportunity and transaction costs are ‘quiet’ costs, in that they are hard to measure and easily overlooked. Yet, as the chapter explores, failing to account for opportunities foregone, or for the frictions of multi-party exchange, can lead to poor estimates of reform value and unchecked growth in the rate at which scarce public resources are diverted from production towards ‘arranging for’ that production.
An (un)acknowledged truth
Authors: Schlembach Raphael
Published: January 2025

This chapter introduces the focus of the book and lays out its contribution to the scrutiny of the Undercover Policing Inquiry. It begins to identify the key sites of contestation in the Inquiry and offers a conceptualisation of covert surveillance that is of interest to political activists, privacy campaigners and researchers. For many whose lives were infiltrated by undercover police due to their political activities, the official Inquiry is an essential aspect of finding the truth about their personal and political stories. The chapter shows how the agency of participants and their struggle to force concessions from state institutions are essential in order to shift the focus onto questions of transparency and disclosure. The chapter further outlines the methodology of the study and sets out the structure of the book.
Human rights and data protection
Authors: Schlembach Raphael
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines the strategy by the police and other state institutions to rely on human rights-based arguments in the Undercover Policing Inquiry. It shows how Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, ‘the right to privacy and family life’, became the foundation of the police’s efforts to maintain secrecy and avoid accountability. Based on a close analysis of applications for anonymity orders, risk assessments and transcripts from Inquiry hearings, the chapter demonstrates that the police argument for privacy and confidentiality moved the dominant discourse from one of institutional scandal to one of individual harm.
Economic Growth, Youth Unemployment and Political and Social Instability: A Study of Policies and Outcomes in Post-Arab Spring Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia
Authors: Prince Heath J. , Khan Amna , Halasa-Rappel Yara A.
Published: January 2025

This chapter addresses post-Arab Spring youth employment policies in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia, with a focus on the guidance provided to these nations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its Article IV Consultation documents. The study reveals an underrepresentation of youth employment policy in recent literature and identifies external constraints on policy autonomy, particularly the influence of international financial institutions, such as the IMF. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the youth unemployment issue, with significant job losses across these countries. The authors find minimal evidence that IMF policies post-Arab Spring adjusted to address the demands for improved youth employment opportunities. Instead, the continued emphasis is on a supposed “skills mismatch” despite increasing education levels and a lack of evidence to support this claim. Central to the unemployment crisis is the absence of decent job opportunities, exacerbated by regional conflicts, political instability and the pandemic. The chapter highlights the Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to addressing youth unemployment, emphasizing a shift away from market-led solutions. The study concludes that focusing international investments on creating employment opportunities could break the cycle of unemployment and subsequent social unrest prevalent in the region.
Weak but not broken: resilience by repair in the times of COVID-19
Authors: Masood Ayesha
Published: January 2025

Resilience is becoming an important research agenda for public administration, especially in the context of changing environmental and ecological systems. This chapter highlights the role of SLBs in creating resilience through their emergent, creative, and adaptive responses to policy breakdown during crises situations. Using ethnographic data from the health sector of Punjab, Pakistan, this chapter shows that SLBs maintain public service delivery during crises by repairing policies: improvising solutions to material shortages (material repair); creating alternate procedures for unprecedented situations (process repair); taking on new roles and skills (personnel repair); and dealing with the emotional challenges with kindness (social repair). It further highlights that in weak states, where institutional mechanisms for dealing with crises are non-existent and SLBs cannot rely on support from policymakers and managers, policy repair through micro-innovations at the frontline becomes the primary mechanism of creating resilience in service delivery.
Frontline work in weak institutions: implementing inequities
Authors: Nieto-Morales Fernando , Lotta Gabriela , Peeters Rik
Published: January 2025

The contributions in this volume explore how structurally adverse working conditions that prevail in many places affect street-level bureaucrats’ (SLBs) decisions and behaviour and how they, consequently, shape the everyday experience of law enforcement, policy implementation, and public service provision for citizens worldwide. In this concluding chapter, we formulate several key lessons and findings from the preceding chapters. Furthermore, we outline what we believe to be the main contributions of the book and add some concluding remarks on the crucial role of SLBs in advancing the functioning of public administrations in weak institutional settings. Finally, we offer a comment on avenues for future research, including identifying the conditions under which frontline workers can constructively perform the role of brokers, understanding the institutional preconditions and vulnerabilities for frontline working conditions, analysing the consequences of democratic backsliding, and including the citizen’s perspective of policy implementation and street-level interactions.
Collaborative (auto)ethnography for researching (in) new social contexts: reflections from COVID-19 lockdown times in Europe
Authors: Moran Lisa , Sidiropulu-Janků Kateřina
Published: January 2025

This chapter critically analyses challenges and opportunities of using collaborative autoethnography (CAE) while facing unexpected contexts, namely COVID-19-related social-distancing measures in Europe. We engage with CAE literature to explore the possibilities of sharing lived experiences and relationships in increasingly digitalised, socially distant conditions, our emotional development as individuals and as a team, and meanings of unexpected social changes. We document autoethnographic reflections from us as two female researchers during the COVID-19 European lockdowns, documenting how CAE enabled us to cope as well with the reopening of society. We reflect on the dynamics of distant relationship development, using diverse communication platforms given that, up to the present time, we have never met in person. Besides the COVID-19-related analytical work, we share insights from our day-to-day realities; the burdens and potentially traumatising events related to ‘COVID times’, like the proscription of routine social conduct, increased sanitation of public life, and emerging sociability. Significantly, this chapter contributes to the scant research on the ethics of CAE. We explore complexities associated with sharing lived experiences during unexpected crises events. We argue for a CAE approach that engages with micro-level interactions, reflective spaces and preparing researchers for being sensitive with participants in emergent contexts.
How public leaders can promote public value through co-creation
Authors: Sørensen Eva , Bryson John , Crosby Barbara
Published: January 2025

Governance researchers are increasingly interested in how co-creation can contribute to promoting public value in contemporary liberal democracies. While many have already argued for the potential benefits of employing co-creation in government strategies aiming to enhance public value, few have considered the implications of such a strategy for public leadership. Drawing on recent strands of theory on leadership and management, we specify how public leaders can use co-creation as a tool to achieve policy goals, and we illustrate this specification by showing how politicians and public and non-profit managers perform the public leadership of co-created public value in Gentofte, Denmark and Minneapolis‒St Paul, USA. The main proposition is that this kind of public leadership does not only involve a strategic effort to engage, inspire and mobilise actors with relevant governance assets – including legitimacy, authority and capabilities – but also to align their understandings of what is valuable for the public.
Social work and social innovation: how the twain can meet
Authors: Wilken Jean Pierre , Parpan-Blaser Anne
Published: January 2025

In this chapter, we investigate whether social innovation is a useful notion for social work and, if so, how social work can contribute to social innovation. We distinguish three dimensions. The first dimension is how social work can (co-)create innovations in the field of social services contributing to social quality and well-being. We argue that social work research has a supporting function in these processes, as it provides the empirical and theoretical basis for a critical stand and for innovation. The second dimension is how social work can contribute to the ‘social’ in all kinds of innovations, meaning that social quality is put at the centre. This includes taking a critical stance towards the use of ‘social’ in various innovation contexts, to remain diligently focused on what the true social benefits are for people. The third dimension is to look at the innovative character of social work itself, as a profession and an academic discipline, since playing a role in social innovation means that we as professionals and researchers must be innovative ourselves. Innovation competencies therefore need to be part of the body of knowledge of social work and part of the curricula of social work education.
Moderating processes of social innovation: insights from a case study on labour market activation
Authors: Dortmans Koen , Jansen Erik , van Hal Lineke
Published: January 2025

This chapter presents the results of our responsive evaluation of the Neighbourhood Job Agency (NJA). The NJA is a social innovation initiative from a group of Dutch social entrepreneurs who aim at relating unemployed residents with (paid) jobs in the neighbourhood in a novel way. With our case study we demonstrate the importance of the social aspects of innovation processes and the potential roles of social work practitioners and researchers in these processes by: (1) enhancing the capability of voice of end users, (2) acknowledging the diversity of needs and experiences of joint stakeholders, primarily end users, (3) monitoring, averting or mitigating the unintended effects of innovation and (4) preventing well-intended paternalism of innovators striving for (radical) social change to develop a blind spot for the systemic partnerships necessary to sustainably embed their social innovations. We argue that social workers can act as moderators of change within social innovation development requiring: (1) the awareness of where and by whom social innovation initiatives take place within their local working practices, (2) the position to relate to all stakeholders involved to influence the course of development, as it is taking place, in accordance with public and democratic values and (3) the guidance of the societal learning process that (social) innovation ultimately is.
Climate change from a green social work perspective: responding to a constantly evolving crisis challenging social work practice
Authors: Dominelli Lena
Published: January 2025

Contemporary social work presents practitioners with myriad challenges. Upholding human rights, social justice and active citizenship requires social workers to affirm environmental justice and care for planet Earth in and through its professional expertise supplemented by transdisciplinary work with other academic disciplines. This is to enable innovations in social work practice that prepare it for the new demands that will arise through the social dimensions of disasters including climate change–induced ones.
Challenging the power status quo: paradoxes in grassroots social innovation
Authors: de Droogh Luc , Gradener Jeroen
Published: January 2025

Social innovation acknowledges that alternative arrangements between state, market and civil society are called for if innovations are to be sustainable. This chapter examines grassroots-led processes of social innovation in the field of poverty in Flanders, inspired by Ibrahim’s model of grassroots-led development. Inspired by it, we discuss the paradoxes for a politicising approach in the practice of the Flemish grassroots-led social innovation practices, Where People in Poverty Speak Out (WPPSO). We address two central questions. First, we demonstrate that social innovations such as WPPSO that aimed to improve the voice of people in poverty cannot trust only in the quality of the process of grassroots-led social innovation. A process-oriented approach might be a necessary condition for social innovation, but the democratisation of policy processes such as WPPSO do not necessarily create the conditions for concrete enhancements of the living conditions of people in poverty. Our second question was if other factors, outside of the innovation process, also need to be considered. A key external factor was that of encapsulation tendencies in policy production. The participative way of policy making about poverty with the grassroots organisations of people in poverty has brought about a separate domain of poverty policy.
Unlimited incubators for belonging, cohesion and impact: nurturing ‘what is already there’
Authors: Prosser Sarah , Pedersen Ole , Bye Rosa Engebrigtsen
Published: January 2025

Community incubators, specifically the Norwegian ‘Unlimited’ incubators that are the focus of this chapter, are spaces typically associated with social innovation processes and products. This chapter shows that they can also be a natural home for social work and community development. Results of research undertaken in three ways – semi-structured open interviews, formal evaluation and open input from participant experience – are presented. Aggregated indicators show that Unlimited incubators support individuals and communities to achieve a stronger sense of belonging, greater cohesion and increased inclusion. In addition, they can catalyse innovative solutions to local, national and global challenges. Key to achieving such impact is having clear ambitions for the incubator around human aspects such as relationship-building, equity and mutual support, this in addition to providing tools and support to create value through establishing social enterprises. The incubators work best in a context of close public sector collaboration, co-financing for stability and a location within the neighbourhoods they strive to create well-being in. Social work, community work and social innovation are intertwined in Unlimited incubators. It is this that gives them a unique position in Norway that could, with careful replication, have major impact on the long-term future well-being locally and more widely.
Disadvantaged students
Authors: McLean Anton
Published: January 2025

This chapter reviews the socioeconomic landscape for disadvantaged students in the country. These children, historically categorised as ‘working class’, but now termed ‘disadvantaged’ are identified predominantly by being eligible for free school meals. It is recognised that the free school meals process is resulting in a number of children who should be receiving this benefit missing out, and methods for rectifying this are discussed. The chapter considers what it means to be poor in a rich country like the UK and the impact of poverty on millions of children. Finally, sociological explanations are presented. It is argued that theoretical analyses from Pierre Bourdieu’s social practice theory may be of use in examining why the trends of disadvantage and inequality are so ingrained in society.
Outer exclusion space
Authors: McLean Anton
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses the nature of outer exclusion space. It is here where students who have been permanently excluded from schools end up. It draws from the author’s research – interviews with various students who have found themselves permanently excluded from mainstream schools and who now attend pupil referral units (PRUs), the staff who support those students and senior leaders working in mainstream schools. A final set of themes are presented. Firstly, relevance because this is a space that the students feel presents them with activities and opportunities that are more purposeful to them. Secondly, the divergence that takes place in the space is discussed as many of the students become further entrenched with mainstream-contrary perspectives and behaviours. Thirdly, the aspirations of the students are presented as they express their goals of achieving successful careers and enjoying economic security.
Poetry and Pedagogy in Higher Education
Authors: Illingworth Sam , Jack Kirsten
Published: January 2025

Poetry and Pedagogy in Higher Education challenges traditional academic norms characterised by speed, performativity, and standardisation. Embracing an innovative approach, it instead celebrates and nurtures creativity, individuality, and diversity in educational settings. This book explores the enriching influence of poetry on teaching and learning in various disciplines, providing practical strategies, illustrative case studies, and engaging exercises. In advocating for a more holistic, emotionally intelligent approach to higher education, this book offers fresh perspectives on teaching, learning, and scholarly inquiry. It serves as a vital guide for educators and researchers seeking innovative methods to engage students and deepen their educational experiences, covering key aspects such as teaching, assessment, research, and reflective practices in higher education.
Introduction
Authors: Husted Emil
Published: January 2025

The chapter poses two interrelated questions: why have organization scholars abandoned the study of political parties, and what might we learn from rediscovering the value of party organization research? To answer the first, I begin by chronicling the rise of party organizations in Western democracies and conclude that the nature of political parties runs counter to the dominant conception of society as a unified whole that must resist partisanship. To answer the second, I compile a list of characteristics that make parties valuable study objects for organization scholars. Here, I focus on parties as organizations that (1) are explicit about the inclusions and exclusions that constitute them, (2) conduct much of their infighting in the media and other open spaces, (3) rely heavily on normative modes of control to keep members in line, (4) use normative modes of commitment to keep members on board, and (5) experience rapid and ongoing institutional change. These five characteristics, I argue, make parties ‘critical cases’ of organizing. In conclusion, I introduce the book’s main case: the Danish green party Alternativet.
Alternativet in Classical Perspective
Authors: Husted Emil
Published: January 2025

The chapter applies the classical perspective to Alternativet. The primary aim is to gauge the extent to which the party has delivered on its promise of reinvigorating democracy through a ‘new political culture’. It chronicles the gradual emergence of Alternativet and its official launch in 2013. Focusing on democracy as a key theme in classical party research, the chapter analyses the role of Alternativet’s bottom-up policy-making in terms of constituting the party as a super-democratic antidote to traditional party organizations. Michels’ ‘iron law of oligarchy’ is then used to investigate how Alternativet has maintained its commitment to bottom-up (or ‘open-source’) policy-making. Here, we highlight the 2015 introduction of a new executive unit, political forum, and how it significantly altered the policy-making process and pushed the party in a direction that may be described as oligarchic. J Craig Jenkins’ concept of ‘radical oligarchy’ is drawn on to suggest that Alternativet’s leadership has managed to re-radicalize the party from time to time, although oligarchization is often associated with ideological conservatism and organizational self-preservation.
Being on the Side of Workers: On the Normative Foundations of Global Labour Studies
Authors: Gallas Alexander
Published: January 2025

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famously ended the Manifesto of the Communist Party with a call to arms – ‘Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch!’ [Proletarians of all countries, unite!] (1959: 493; emphasis in the original). Ever since, the issue of transnational solidarity and labour internationalism has formed part of the debates on the strategies and aims of labour movements. And through the ages, these debates have been of concern to scholars, who have not just debated the prospects for solidarity that cuts across national boundaries, but also – and relatedly – the specificities of labour relations in different parts of the world, the issue of labour migration and the geographical scales of labour struggles (see van der Linden, 2008; Gallas, 2016a). In response to the emergence of global production networks from the 1970s onwards, ‘global labour studies’ has emerged as an academic project and a demarcated research field. Sociologists and other social scientists have committed to moving beyond the ‘methodological nationalism’ of industrial relations research and examining labour relations and movements from a global perspective (see Nowak, 2021a). This endeavour has become institutionalized in various ways – for example through the establishment of the Research Committee on Labour Struggles (RC44) of the International Sociological Association in 1990, the Global Labour University (GLU) in 2002 and the Global Labour Journal in 2010.
Rethinking Governance in Public Service Outsourcing
Authors: Boeger Nina
Published: January 2025

Compelling and robust, this book provides an analysis of challenges in public service outsourcing and considers how to avoid failure in the future. Crucially, it proposes a governance mechanism where outsourcing public services nurtures less extractive and more sustainable corporate organizations that are oriented towards a productive purpose beyond maximizing shareholder value, with implications well beyond public services. Under these proposals, supporting firms that are independently and inclusively governed and use profit to pursue purpose can improve both public services and wider economic organisation. The book examines how barriers to implementing this idea within the existing legal framework for public procurement may be addressed, and it formulates actionable policy proposals.
Problems in Public Service Outsourcing
Authors: Boeger Nina
Published: January 2025

Chapter 2 outlines typical problems in current public service outsourcing. Complex public contracts are inevitably incomplete, leaving gaps and ambiguities, and allowing discretion in their delivery, which contracting parties may exploit for their benefit. Exploitation becomes particularly problematic where the state relies repeatedly on private partners, creating risks of incumbency and lock-in effects that can give rise to dependencies, transferring capacity from the public to the private sector, sometimes permanently (in the form of institutional knowledge, for example). Where private suppliers operate a highly financialized governance model, incentives to exploit both incomplete contracting and incumbency situations are further reinforced.
Solutions in Governance
Authors: Boeger Nina
Published: January 2025

Chapter 3 surveys a range of governance interventions that are available for states to resolve outsourcing problems. Contractual governance centres on improving contract design and management, seeking to strike a balance between detail and formalized contracting and relational or framework contracts. Beyond contracting, the state may seek leverage in public markets (public procurement) to impose accountability on providers keen to enter or continue their partnership with the public sector, or it may, by selecting different types of provider, diversify its provider pool to temper incumbency powers. It may use regulatory governance to impose additional constraints on providers, supplementing contractual and market mechanisms, and it may potentially create an institutional body – for example, a public or regulatory agency – to oversee implementation.