No App is an Island: Collective Action and Sustainable Development Goal-Sensitive Design

The transformation to the Digital Society presents a challenge to engineer ever more complex socio-technical systems in order to address wicked societal problems. Therefore, it is essential that these systems should be engineered with respect not just to conventional functional and non-functional requirements, but also with respect to satisfying qualitative human values, and assessing their impact on global challenges, such as those expressed by the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). In this paper, we present a set of sets of design principles and an associated meta-platform, which focus design of socio-technical systems on the potential interaction of human and artificial intelligence with respect to three aspects: firstly, decision-support with respect to the codification of deep social knowledge; secondly, visualisation of community contribution to successful collective action; and thirdly, systemic improvement with respect to the SDGs through impact assessment and measurement. This methodology, of SDG-Sensitive Design, is illustrated through the design of two collective action apps, one for encouraging plastic re-use and reducing plastic waste, and the other for addressing redistribution of surplus food. However, as with the inter-connectedness of the SDGs, we conclude by arguing that the inter-connectedness of the Digital Society implies that system development cannot be undertaken in isolation from other systems

Knowledge management for self-organised resource allocation

Many open systems, such as networks, distributed computing and socio-technical systems address a common problem of how to define knowledge management processes to structure and guide decision-making, coordination and learning. While participation is an essential and desirable feature of such systems, the amount of information produced by its individual agents can often be overwhelming and intractable. The challenge, thus, is how to organise and process such information, so it is transformed into productive knowledge used for the resolution of collective action problems. To address this problem, we consider a study of classical Athenian democracy which investigates how the governance model of the city-state flourished. The work suggests that exceptional knowledge management, i.e. making information available for socially productive purposes, played a crucial role in sustaining its democracy for nearly 200 years, by creating processes for aggregation, alignment and codification of knowledge. We therefore examine the proposition that some properties of this historical experience can be generalised and applied to computational systems, so we establish a set of design principles intended to make knowledge management processes open, inclusive, transparent and effective in self-governed social technical systems. We operationalise three of these principles in the context of a collective action situation, namely self-organised common-pool resource allocation, exploring four governance problems: (a) how fairness can be perceived; (b) how resources can be distributed; (c) how policies should be enforced and (d) how tyranny can be opposed. By applying this operationalisation of the design principles for knowledge management processes as a complement to institutional approaches to governance, we demonstrate empirically how it can guide solutions that satisfice shared values, distribute power fairly, apply "common sense" in dealing with rule violations, and protect agents against abuse of power. We conclude by arguing that this approach to the design of open systems can provide the foundations for sustainable and democratic self-governance in socio-technical systems.Open Acces

Foregrounding citizen imaginaries: Exploring just energy futures through a citizens' assembly in Lebanon

Energy injustice is driven by structural inequalities that are evident in differential electricity provision, access and affordability that harm different groups in different ways. When an uprising began in Lebanon in 2019, the issue of energy justice emerged as a prominent grievance. We experimented with a combined democratic-justice approach to energy future-making through a Citizens' Assembly (CA) on energy justice. We emerged with four imaginaries based on the discourses and narratives expounded on during the deliberation sessions of the CA. The citizens’ dystopic imaginary sits alongside a state-centric petro-masculine imaginary. The empirical findings from the CA demonstrate that to move society towards a just transition, the politics of energy can subsume sustainability and the 'ecological fix' imaginary. Justice principles require to add more urgent priorities like better access and affordability for all. The CA experiment demonstrates how critical political moments can make way for more radical and alternative visions of sustainable energy futures but also how competing imaginaries can complicate questions of sustainability when a justice approach is used

Perceptions and practices of an inclusive education for social justice: The case of ZEP schools of Mauritius

This thesis explores inclusive education for social justice in the ‘Zones d’Education Prioritaires’ (ZEP) school project of Mauritius in response to the main research question: “What are the perceptions and practices of an inclusive education for social justice in ZEP schools of Mauritius”? The ZEP School Project aims to deliver an inclusive education by providing additional resources to schools in less developed regions of Mauritius for the purpose of improving the academic achievement of students in these schools. One strategy for inclusive education is to provide a quality education to those whose needs have been left unmet by the school and society as a result of social and structural inequalities. Such an approach to inclusive education reframes the concept within a social justice perspective which is mainly concerned with challenging marginalisation, disadvantage and lack of recognition. The following three sub-questions guided this study: a) What are the perceptions of ZEP school staff about an inclusive education for social justice and how is it implemented? b) What are the experiences of ZEP school stakeholders, including parents and learners, of an inclusive education for social justice in ZEP schools? c) What do these perceptions and practices mean for a model of an inclusive education for social justice in the Mauritian education system

Social Justice Theory and Practice for Social Work

In recent years, social justice has moved to become a central principle and value within social work. As social work educators, we found that many of our conversations with students and our colleagues centred on understanding, explaining and debating different approaches to addressing the many forms of injustice that require attention. We also found this area to be a slippery and difficult terrain to cover with students as it is replete with competing approaches, different conceptions of social justice and different levels of analysis. For example, the view of social justice changes with the level of resolution, depending on whether we are conceptualising justice at the level of individuals or groups and communities. This changes the kinds of questions we can ask about what should be done and why? To address some of these issues, we turned to the literature to try and bring clarity to our discussions about social justice. We figured that others have experienced similar issues in grappling with the complexity of addressing social justice and engaging students in thinking and acting about it. In doing so, we could see there was an opportunity to initiate a dialogue between social work understandings of social justice—built from long engagement with people experiencing poverty, disadvantage, injustice, oppression, stigma and discrimination—and the critical and philosophical literature concerned with developing concepts and principles of social justice. We found that the philosophical literature can offer significant clarity in terms of tracing concepts such as freedom, democracy, theories of distribution and justice, and that critical theories offer a corpus of resources to theorise the way social structures perpetuate oppression, discrimination and stigma. We also found that many of these theoretical ideas have been tested and given significant expression in social work practices. Hence, we have used a mix of influential classic literature, as well as more contemporary sources

Tax Compliance by the Small and Medium-sized Corporations: A Case of Uganda

The aim of this thesis is to understand tax compliance decisions made by corporate SMEs in Uganda. The study draws on compliance models developed in other settings and explores their applicability in the Ugandan context using mixed methods. Firstly, the study investigates the roles played by tax fairness, trust in government and the URA, and the effects of audits and sanctions in influencing compliance . Secondly, the study explores the direct and indirect roles played by social norms in terms of influencing tax compliance among SMEs . Lastly, the study assesses the effects of corruption on compliance behaviour among SMEs. Survey and semi-structured interview data were collected concurrently. A survey was used to collect data from a total of 386 corporate SME owners and managers from Kampala Capital City Authority and the central and eastern regions. In addition, interviews were conducted with 26 corporate SME owners and managers about their perceptions of corporate tax system fairness in Uganda. The results, unlike those of other studies, show that corporate SME taxpayers are willing to pay their corporate taxes once they have put their trust in the government and tax authorities, even when the tax system is unfair. Also, audit probability and sanctions might not encourage corporate SMEs to comply with corporate tax rules. However, when URA is perceived as powerful where tax officers are able to discover tax non-compliance and impose severe sanctions, SME firms could be motivated to pay taxes due to the government. Importantly, corruption within the URA and the bureaucratic system of Uganda has a negative impact on tax fairness, which triggers corporate tax evasion. Indeed, I have identified four types of corruption that appear to have different impacts on attitudes towards compliance. Also, the results show that day-to-day tax compliance decisions made by corporate SMEs have more direct influence on corporate SMEs’ tax (non)compliance behaviour than ethical values do. However, SMEs’ willingness to comply is affected by how people who are close to each taxpayer think. Overall, the thesis advances scholarship by demonstrating that the Slippery Slope Framework does not hold in Uganda and that different types of social norm impact compliance differently. Corruption is identified as an important differentiating feature when compared to studies in developed countries.The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdo

Exploring justice in professional mediation : a systemic intervention in Colombia

This thesis explores how an action research approach based on a critical systemic perspective can benefit the practice of mediators in dealing with issues of justice during mediation processes. First, methodological reflections on critical systems thinking are presented, and a new development is proposed based on the ethics of Levinas. Also, a new synergy of methods and tools is developed. This brings together boundary critique, action science, statistics, system dynamics, alternative dispute resolution games, and interviewing. A description is then provided of how the methodology was used at a Colombian mediation centre. Here, the staff members and the author began the transformation of their professional mediation practice by reflecting on alternative perspectives on how they currently deal, and might deal in the future, with issues of justice. A critique was developed of several basic assumptions that are deeply ingrained in the mediation literature of the English speaking countries of the western world - in particular, that disputants are primarily concerned with their own private interests, and that mediation should therefore be considered successful if these interests are satisfied. In the mediation centre studied, most disputants prioritised justice principles over personal gain. Additionally, a new way of organising the interpretations of mediation presented in the literature is developed that can help mediation practitioners to be more conscious of the assumptions informing their professional practice. Finally, drawing upon both a literature review and the action research results, reflections are provided on the relevance of the notion of justice to mediation practice

Social inclusion and higher education

This book is about the experiences of students in institutions of higher education from 'non-traditional' backgrounds with contributions from the UK, the USA and Australia which reveal that the issues surrounding the inclusion of 'non-traditional' students are broadly similar in different countries

A critical analysis of organisational justice in the South African financial service industry

Organisational justice has captured the interest of scholars in recent years since it is associated with the perceptions and reactions of an individual, to the presence of fairness in an organisation. It thus captures what an individual feel or evaluates to be, morally correct rather than viewing it to be something prescriptive. This study was aimed at investigating the extent of organisational justice on organisational citizenship behaviour, ethical behaviour and employee retention in the South African financial services industry. A hypothetical model and measuring instrument was developed in order to investigate factors that may influence the organisational justice in the financial services industry. Six independent variables (trustworthiness of management, employee engagement, reward system, organisational transparency, two-way communication and organisational climate) were identified as variables that have the potential to influence organisational justice (mediating variable). It was also hypothesised that organisational justice) has the potential to affect the dependent variables (organisational citizenship behaviour, ethical behaviour and employee retention). Furthermore, nine null-hypotheses were developed to test the relationship between independent, mediating and dependent variables. All these variables were clearly defined and operationalised with various items that were obtained from other measuring instruments or self-developed items. A quantitative research approach followed. This study made use of the non-probability sampling technique, specifically convenient and judgemental sampling, as there is no data base of financial services firms available in South Africa. A purposive sample of 800 respondents was drawn from four provinces in South Africa. Factor and regression analyses were used to test the significance of the relationship between the various independent and dependent variables. The mediating variable of organisational justice was viewed by respondents as a two-dimensional construct, namely procedural-interactional justice and distributive justice. Consequently, intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, organisational transparency and organisational climate were identified as independent variables that could have an impact on the procedural-interactional justice to predict organisational citizenship behaviour and reputable employee retention in the financial services industry. No relationships were identified between trustworthiness of management and employee engagement and procedural-interactional justice. The independent variables, trustworthiness of management, extrinsic rewards and organisational climate, could have an impact on distributive justice to predict organisational citizenship behaviour and reputable employee retention in the financial services industry. No relationships were identified between employee engagement, intrinsic rewards, organisational transparency and distributive justice. The findings of this study have contributed to the body of knowledge in the financial services literature in South Africa, by developing a theoretical model and a measuring instrument of organisational justice in the financial services industry. The antecedents of organisational justice in the financial services industry are not well documented in literature and findings of this study could thus contribute towards closing this gap in literature. The findings of this study could also inform policy formulation to assist with the implementation of organisational justice programmes in the financial services industry. This study provided useful and very practical guidelines to organisations in order to ensure the effective strategising and management of OJ that could enhance their local and global competitiveness and long-term survival