State-of-the-art analysis of the pedagogical underpinnings of open science, citizen science and open innovation activities

The document corresponds to O2A1 of the INOS Project. This state-of-theart analysis elaborates on the current state of knowledge on learning design in open science, citizen science, and innovation activities, in order to improve their pedagogical value. This includes reporting on the different types of activities, the learning design of these activities, and the learning outcomes of these activities

Beyond financial proxies in Cohesion Policy inputs' monitoring: A system dynamics approach

European Union's Cohesion Policy aims to foster development and reduce disparities among regions by redistributing more than one-third of the European budget. Given the policy's importance and complexity, an elaborated monitoring and evaluation system has been established. While attention has been dedicated to evaluating policy impact, the monitoring of inputs (i.e., allocated financial resources) has been limited to the control of financial dimensions (i.e., funds' absorption rate). As the implementation process entails a sequence of steps, this research explores whether financial proxies alone are adequate to monitor the policy inputs. To test this hypothesis, a system dynamics model is built. Simulations highlight that the absorption rate captures shocks that might occur during the inputs' expenditure with significant delay. To that end, we elaborate three novel operative monitoring indicators (i.e., funds' demand, funds' offer, procedural efficiency), which may overcome the financial indicators' mono-dimensionality and time lags' limitations

Education

Key Points * Open data can help researchers and policy makers understand the education landscape, can provide information for parents and children about education facilities and their performance, and can be used as an input into education: making a connection between open data and Open Educational Resources (OER). * Attention must focus beyond the simple availability of education data to also question how the data is shaped, presented, and used. This should address the ways in which, without wider policy interventions, making data available about education performance may ultimately reinforce stigma and social divides. * There has been relatively limited overlap between OER and Open Data communities, although since 2013, the Open Knowledge Education Working Group has sought to build connections between them. There are opportunities for future strengthening of these links, increasing the use of open data as a key educational resource, and supporting more applied civic education

Collaborative Open Data versioning: a pragmatic approach using Linked Data

Most Open Government Data initiatives are centralised and unidirectional (i.e., they release data dumps in CSV or PDF format). Hence for non trivial applications reusers make copies of the government datasets to curate their local data copy. This situation is not optimal as it leads to duplication of efforts and reduces the possibility of sharing improvements. To improve the usefulness of publishing open data, several authors recommeded to use standard formats and data versioning. Here we focus on publishing versioned open linked data (i.e., in RDF format) because they allow one party to annotate data released independently by another party thus reducing the need to duplicate entire datasets. After describing a pipeline to open up legacy-databases data in RDF format, we argue that RDF is suitable to implement a scalable feedback channel, and we investigate what steps are needed to implement a distributed RDFversioning system in production

To make the dominoes fall: A relational-processual approach to societal accountability in the Italian and Spanish anti-corruption arenas

In che modo le organizzazioni della società civile (OSC) contribuiscono alla lotta contro la corruzione? Come possono responsabilizzare i rappresentanti politici? La presente tesi si propone di rispondere a queste a queste domande di ricerca, unendo gli studi sulla lotta alla corruzione a quelli sui movimenti sociali e concentrandosi sul concetto di societal accountability, cioè sui meccanismi di controllo e di sanzione dei rappresentanti pubblici. Negli ultimi anni, gli studiosi della corruzione hanno enfatizzato sempre più il ruolo della società civile come antidoto contro la corruzione, a complemento dei meccanismi di accountability statali ed elettorali. Tuttavia, gli studi empirici sugli effetti anticorruzione degli interventi civici non hanno ancora prodotto risultati coerenti. Questo non dovrebbe sorprendere. Se misurare la corruzione è un compito arduo, valutare se e quanto gli scambi corruttivi vengano impediti grazie alle iniziative della società civile sembra virtualmente impossibile. Per questo motivo, il presente lavoro fa un passo indietro e problematizza lo studio della societal accountability, affrontandola non come un insieme predefinito di meccanismi o pratiche messe in atto da attori civici anticorruzione, ma come il risultato di interazioni sostenute e conflittuali tra più attori, civici e non. Per fare ciò, lo studio si ispira alle teorie dei movimenti sociali e concettualizza la societal accountability come un insieme di conseguenze dell’azione collettiva. Pertanto, questo lavoro mira a capire come e in quali condizioni le iniziative anticorruzione dal basso raggiungano risultati di accountability, quali il passaggio di nuove norme, il miglioramento dell’answerability istituzionale e potenziale sanzionatorio. Con questo obiettivo, la tesi si basa sulle evidenze esistenti negli studi sulla corruzione e sull'accountability e contribuisce ai dibattiti in corso sulle conseguenze dell'azione collettiva. Il quadro teorico si concentra sul concetto di influenza, aderendo a un approccio processuale-relazionale. L'influenza è intesa come un'istanza di causalità relazionale, una forma di potere posizionale che consente a più attori di esercitare un controllo sulle conseguenze dell’azione collettiva. Facendo da ponte tra l'approccio strategico-interazionale e i modelli di mediazione, l'analisi chiarisce le strategie seguite dalle OSC nella ricerca di posizioni di influenza, così come i meccanismi attraverso i quali i modelli relazionali producono cambiamento sociale. Il quadro analitico è applicato alle arene anticorruzione in Italia e in Spagna e si restringe a tre specifiche aree di intervento: l'introduzione di leggi sulla trasparenza, l'approvazione di leggi per la protezione dei whistleblower e lo sviluppo di progetti di monitoraggio civico. Il materiale empirico comprende 37 interviste qualitative semi-strutturate, documenti e dati network. Nel complesso, le evidenze raccolte contribuiscono alla letteratura sulla lotta alla corruzione, dimostrando che le OSC contribuiscono, direttamente e indirettamente, alla lotta contro la corruzione ottenendo cambiamenti nelle politiche, aumentando l’answerability del sistema e innescando sanzioni formali e informali quando necessario. Tuttavia, l’analisi comparata dei casi italiano e spagnolo evidenziano differenze rilevanti. In particolare, l'indagine empirica contribuisce agli attuali dibattiti sullo studio della società della social accountability, dimostrando che l'integrazione con le élite politiche può aumentare la probabilità di ottenere di ottenere un cambiamento delle politiche, mentre l'integrazione orizzontale tra gli attori civici può aumentare il loro potenziale sanzionatorio. In definitiva, questo lavoro dimostra come gli approcci processuali-relazionali possano integrare modelli strategici e di mediazione per comprendere meglio il modo in cui gli attori collettivi influenzano il cambiamento politico e sociale. Le osservazioni conclusive sostengono che le interazioni e le relazioni costruite dagli attori nel corso del tempo e in diverse arene fungono da canali di mediazione a livello micro, meso e macro. Complessivamente, ciò dimostra che i singoli attori, i modelli di relazione nelle e tra le arene e le idee sulle relazioni mediano tra le strategie dei attori collettivi, aumentando o limitando così la loro influenza sulla lotta alla corruzione.How do civil society organizations (CSOs) contribute to the struggle against public corruption? How can they hold their political representatives accountable? This thesis aims to answer these wide-ranging research questions, bridging anti-corruption and social movement studies by focusing on societal accountability, i.e., grassroots mechanisms for controlling and sanctioning powerholders. Over the last few years, corruption scholars have increasingly emphasized the role of civil society as an antidote against corruption, complementing state and electoral accountability mechanisms. However, empirical studies on the anti-corruption effects of civic interventions have yet to yield consistent results. This should hardly come as a surprise. If measuring corruption is a challenging task, assessing the extent to which corrupt deals are prevented due to civil society initiatives appears virtually impossible. Hence, this work takes a step back and problematizes the study of societal accountability, approaching it not as a pre-given set of mechanisms or practices deployed by anti-corruption civic actors but as the result of sustained and contentious interactions between multiple players. To do so, the study draws on social movement theories and conceptualizes societal accountability as a set of consequences of collective action efforts. Therefore, this work aims to understand how and under what conditions bottom-up anti-corruption initiatives achieve accountability results such as legal claim attainments, answerability, and sanctioning potential. With this goal in mind, the thesis builds upon existing evidence from corruption and accountability studies and contributes to ongoing debates on the consequences of collective action. The theoretical framework focuses on the concept of influence, subscribing to a processual-relational approach. It understands influence as a relationally emergent instance of causality, a form of positional power that enables multiple players to exert control over the consequences of collective struggles. By bridging the strategic-interaction approach and mediation models; the analysis elucidates the strategies followed by CSOs in seeking positions of influence, as well as the mechanisms through which relational patterns produce social change. The analytical framework is applied to the anti-corruption arenas in Italy and Spain and is narrowed down by focusing on three specific campaigns in each country: introducing transparency laws, passing whistleblowers' protection acts, and developing civic monitoring projects. The empirical material comprises 37 semi-structured qualitative interviews, documents, and network data retrieved through Action Organization Analysis. The corpus of data is analyzed by combining thematic analysis, frame analysis, and a theory-building process tracing through a qualitative network approach. Overall, the evidence collected contributes to the literature on anti-corruption, demonstrating that CSOs, directly and indirectly, contribute to the anti-corruption struggle by achieving policy change, increasing the system's answerability, and triggering formal and informal sanctions when necessary. However, the Italian and Spanish cases' comparative accounts highlight relevant differences. In particular, the empirical investigation contributes to current debates on the study of societal accountability, showing that integration with political elites may increase the likelihood of obtaining policy change, whereas horizontal integration among civic actors may enhance their sanctioning potential. Ultimately, this work shows how processual-relational approaches can help integrate strategic and mediation models to understand better how change-oriented collective actors influence political and social change. The concluding remarks maintain that the interactions and relations built by players over time and across different arenas serve as mediation channels at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Overall, this demonstrates that individual players, patterns of relations in and across arenas, and ideas about relationships mediate between players' strategies, resources, or frames and their contextual conditions, thereby increasing or constraining their influence over the anti-corruption struggl

Sustainable user-driven innovation supporting Open Government policies- A System Dynamics perspective applied to the Municipality of Palermo-

Going beyond a technocratic e-government paradigm, this research aims at analyzing how, through the two-ways interaction supported by Web 2.0 technology, skilled external collaboration and knowledge-sharing between citizens and public administrations can offer new ways of citizen participation, enhancing political decision-making process and public value creation. Particularly, the purpose is to investigate how skilled citizens can serve as contributors to tasks that are traditionally performed by designated civil servants and now are outsourced to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call for contributions. To this end, we have conducted a field research in order to identify and evaluate what is currently taking place in the Municipality of Palermo in the framework of citizen sourcing which may be realized by enhancing sharing knowledge and information flows through citizen engagement in order to reach a sustainable service improvement and therefore build or restore trust in local government. In the framework of Performance Management, the System Dynamics perspective will be followed with the aim of supporting municipal management to keep under control key-variables driving performance in the ongoing open innovation process

The use of open data as a material for learning

Open data has potential value as a material for use in learning activities. However, approaches to harnessing this are not well understood or in mainstream use in education. In this research, early adopters from a diverse range of educational projects and teaching settings were interviewed to explore their rationale for using open data in teaching, how suitable activity designs could be achieved, and the practical challenges of using open data. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify patterns and relationships in these open data-based practices that have already emerged. A document analysis of teaching materials and other related artefacts was used to augment and validate the findings. Drawing on this, common approaches and issues are identified, and a conceptual framework to support greater use of open data by educators is described. This paper also highlights where existing concepts in education and educational technology research, including inquiry-based learning, authenticity, motivation, dialogue, and personalisation can help us to understand the value and challenges of using open data in education

Organized Crime In Strong States: Vote Buying, Migrants\u27 Exploitation And Public Funds Misappropriation

Groups competing with the state, from insurgents to criminal organizations, are widely believed to emerge in weak states unable to provide protection to their citizens. This dissertation considers a common but less investigated phenomenon: criminal groups often expand to states with strong economies and institutions. How do they manage to expand? Which policies can states adopt to fight against them? My first paper proposes a theory of expansion. I argue that criminal organizations expand by striking agreements with political and economic actors facing competition and to which they can offer critical resources to gain an edge over competitors. I test two predictions of the theory in the context of move of Southern-Italian mafias to the North. First, I show that increases in market competition (due to a construction boom) and in mafias’ capacity to offer cheap illegal labor (by exploiting migrants from mafia-controlled areas in the south) allowed criminal groups to expand. Second, I find that parties in agreements with criminals gained a persistent electoral advantage in mafia-infiltrated cities. This chapter suggests that criminal groups leveraged fragile categories and deals with political and economic actors in strong states to expand. In my second paper, I show that a similar strategy allows them to thrive. I study the effects of a campaign providing migrants in agriculture with the tools to denounce labor exploitation. I find that the campaign increased both police reporting of exploitation and prosecution of criminal organizations, often responsible for smuggling and controlling migrants. This suggests that fighting migrants\u27 exploitation directly damages criminal groups. My third paper studies another non-violent method to fight organized crime: targeting their revenues. We study an Italian policy fighting mafia-misappropriation of public funds and find that criminals strategically react by displacing their activity where the policy does not enforce investigations, underscoring the importance to design anti-mafia policies that anticipate criminal groups\u27 sophistication. My dissertation highlights the need to re-conceptualize criminal organizations not only as substitutes for weak states, but also as complements to states with strong institutions and considers policies to fight them based on understanding the strategies they use to persist in strong states

Visualização de dados do portal da transparência da Câmara de Vereadores de Florianópolis

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Campus Araranguá. Engenharia da Computação.Exercer a cidadania é colocar em prática direitos e deveres em busca de uma sociedade melhor, para que a solidariedade, justiça e liberdade estejam cada vez mais presentes e comuns. O direito à informação não é uma regalia, mas sim a expressão da liberdade e participação do cidadão. A informação transparente dos gastos públicos transformou-se em lei no ano de 2011 e a partir desta data, todo cidadão com acesso à internet pode consultar os gastos administrativos do país. O acesso à informação faz o cidadão ser mais participativo politicamente. Este trabalho consiste em analisar todos os dados no período de fevereiro de 2014 a junho de 2018 via portal de transparência da cidade de Florianópolis, do balancete dos vereadores do município, implementando uma ferramenta que os torna graficamente visíveis e permite, em sequência, uma análise não fragmentada do orçamento governamental. O desenvolvimento da ferramenta utilizou conceitos de banco de dados e programação PHP. Inicialmente é feita uma pesquisa bibliográfica, depois o levantamento dos dados do portal da transparência de Florianópolis, a conversão dos dados de PDF para CSV, o desenvolvimento em PHP para interpretar os dados em CSV e popular o banco, a leitura do banco de dados para apresentação gráfica e por final elabora-se um questionário para verificar a utilidade do sistema de visualização