Implementation of Social Innovations in Subsistence Marketplaces: A Facilitated Institutional Change Process Model

Implementation of social innovations in subsistence marketplaces often fails as a result of not bringing about institutional change. In this article, we study the process through which social enterprises facilitate local communities in effecting the process of institutional change as they introduce social innovations. Analyzing rich ethnographic data from 19 social enterprises, we develop the process of “facilitated institutional work” for implementing social innovation. We present a process model for implementing social innovation with four distinct stages involving social enterprises—(1) legitimating themselves within local communities, (2) disrupting aspects of the local institutional environment, (3) helping re-envision institutional norms or practices, and (4) resourcing the institutional change process. The four stages relate to important concerns that local communities have in working with social enterprises implementing social innovations. These community-level concerns revolve around the following questions: (1) Why should we allow an external social enterprise to be involved in our affairs? (2) Why do we need to change? (3) What should we change and what should we sustain? and (4) What role should we play in implementing change (such as in mobilizing resources)? This article demonstrates that bringing about institutional change is often necessary for implementing social innovations in subsistence marketplaces. The findings depict a participatory approach in which social enterprises work with local communities to bring about the institutional conditions necessary for implementing social innovation

Basic Life Skills Required by Girl-Children to Overcome Adversities of Polygamy in Etsako Nigeria

Polygamous adversity combined with factors like gender discrimination and early marriages results to lowered female literacy and quality of life. This phenomenon extensively impacts the population and societies throughout Etsako west Nigeria. Intent of this study was to explore skills that enabled girl-children overcome polygamous adversities and succeed to acquire higher education. Semi-structured interviews with 15 women of polygamous backgrounds who succeeded to acquire high education yielded research data. Data analysis revealed 3 critical skills that participants used to overcome polygamous adversity including: (a) Survival, (b) Resilience, and (c) Coping. These skills may become the basis for future interventions and support programs. Child care professionals, counselors, Organizational leaders, educational authorities, family and community heads can use findings for comprehensive framework in trainings and support programs. The training and support programs may help girl children who are currently experiencing polygamous challenges succeed against adversities and acquire high education

Introduction: A Public Law of Gender?

The formal recognition of gender, as a category of public law, has swept the world. In a time of rapid legal change, in both new constitutions and old, the public law of gender – and the contested norm of gender equality – is being constituted, legislated and regulated. Of 194 written constitutions around the world, almost all guarantee equality in express terms; almost two thirds entrench equality or non-discrimination guarantees on the basis of sex, and almost one third make express reference to gender. Measures to ensure the equal participation of women and men in political and public decision-making have been introduced in 100 states, and constitutionally entrenched in 15. 189 of 197 member states of the UN are states parties to CEDAW. This volume includes the perspectives of constitutional, administrative and international lawyers, as well as historians, ethnographers, and political scientists, to critically analyze these apparent accomplishments. We ask – has this widespread legal reform led to real change? Women, in particular, continue to experience an array of gender-based disadvantage and harms: persistent and well-documented vulnerability to violence, including sexual violence, insecurity, and poverty; circumscribed access to education, property and credit; workplace disadvantage and harassment; greater involvement in reproductive, household and care work, without material recognition; and a continued inability to access the political forums and public laws in which these problems have often been sidelined or misunderstood. While these problems may seem intractable for different reasons: culture, ideology, power, political economy – it is clear that law continues to constitute, or insulate, these various effects. Thus it is critical to understand and critique the operation of formal law as one aspect of the continuing gap between the advocacy of gender equality and its substantive achievement. This introduction brings international and constitutional law together to analyze the features of this gap in terms of enforcement, sincerity, and coverage. First, just as international law exists famously without a centralized enforcement mechanism, so too does domestic constitutional law lack the guarantee of enforcement, even in systems with judicial review. Secondly, treaties, especially the foundational human rights covenants of which CEDAW is part, have always attracted the criticism of ‘window-dressing’, as states are free to ratify treaties without making any reforms in domestic law. A similar criticism has been made about the phenomenon of ‘sham constitutions’. Thirdly, both international law and constitutional law carve out a number of exceptions of application, which have a significant impact on gender. Most prominent in the gap in coverage is the public/private distinction, in which both international and public law are, in the main, concerned only with the regulation of the public sphere. Through reserving particular areas of law from constitutional reach, such as religious personal laws or customary law or private law more generally, the application of public law has limited effect to challenge gendered disadvantage in the very spheres in which it is most heavily experienced and perpetuated. This volume extends enforcement, sincerity and coverage rationales in public and international law to give greater attention to their application to gender

Gender, religion and harm:Conceptual and methodological reflections

The introductory chapter discusses the contested concept of HCP and reflects on its relationship to the equally complex notion of religion. It discusses why concepts such as HCP are highly problematic, while arguing there is a need to consider them from a critical perspective. It then explores the tense relationship between feminism and religion, continuing with how global and local dynamics around gender and religion need to be understood in the context of broader historical entanglements between religion, secularism and colonialism. Finally, the chapter argues that cultural relativism and decolonial critiques offer crucial methodological and analytical tools to understand how gender inequality and related forms of harm and violence are experienced and challenged within particular contexts, and by women in particular

Equality and gender at work in Islam : the case of the Berber population of the High Atlas Mountains

This article investigates how religion-based social norms and values shape women’s access to employment in Muslim-majority countries. It develops a religiously sensitive conceptualization of the differential valence of genders based on respect, which serves to (re)produce inequality. Drawing on an ethnographic study of work practice in Berber communities in Morocco, aspects of respect are analyzed through an honor-shame continuum that serves to moralize and mediate gender relations. The findings show that respect and shame function as key inequality-(re)producing mechanisms. The dynamic interrelationship between respect and shame has implications for how we understand the ways in which gender inequality is institutionalized and (re)produced across different levels. Through these processes, gender- differentiated forms of respect become inscribed in organizational structures and practices, engendering persistent inequality

The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Improving Human Rights in Iraq

Iraq has had a long history of human rights violations since its inception as a modern state in 1921. This is true especially under the personalistic dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Under his regime, the Iraqi people suffered a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including political imprisonment, torture, and summary and arbitrary executions. This regime used a variety of mechanisms to squelch political dissent, including house-to-house searches; arbitrary arrests, often in large numbers; surveillance; harassment and questioning of family members; detention of targeted individuals, such as those returning to Iraq pursuant to amnesties, at unknown locations; and the use of torture prior to and during interrogation. Due to deep historical ethnic cleavages between its ethnic groups and religious sect, any attempt to build a country where human rights will prevail seemed unachievable. However, events after 1991, the initial Kurdish human rights experience showed different results with the intervention of the international community, especially under the impact of NGOs in the region. Most theoretical assumptions regarding human rights development fail to consider the complex, interconnected events, and historical and psychological elements in Iraq since its formation as a modern state, and the rich political, social and history of one part of the country, namely the Kurdish people. This research attempts to answer these interrelated questions: why was the Kurdish parliament able to pass some progressive laws regarding respecting human rights for women, children, and minorities? Second, how, and why was the international community, especially through human rights NGOs, successful in Kurdistan while the rest of Iraq failed to implement these human rights changes? This project offers a different perspective on how and why NGOs impact the process of human rights development in Iraq. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the largest qualitative dataset of NGO leaders to date to explain the process of human rights development, regarding women and minorities. Advisor: Ross A. Mille

The role of women entrepreneurs in corporate family firms:Case study evidence from Nigeria

This thesis’ topic, “The Role of Women Entrepreneurs in Corporate Family Firms: Case Study Evidence from Nigeria,” draws its understanding from three theoretical perspectives: the resourcebased view, liberal feminism, and altruism. The study seeks to understand why and how women entrepreneurs in corporate family firms influence their family and firm’s harmony, growth, and development. This study introduces polygamy – a form of marriage involving multiple partners – as a novel dimension in the family firm concept. The polygamous approach is alien in Europe and several other regions, but it is practised in Africa (in this case, Nigeria). This study brings this perspective to the literature to buttress the Nigerian view of family and firms. The argument is that polygamy is endemic, deeply rooted, and not a dying practice in Nigeria. Therefore, the lack of studies on the role of women entrepreneurs, specifically within the polygamous family structure, poses a research gap. To address this research gap, the study examines the success attained by women entrepreneurs and how it can be replicated and contribute to the development of their family firms, i.e., private universities, and Nigeria at large. In this vein, this study has examined forty-two research participants: seventeen males and twenty-five females (consisting of family firm members). This study uses a case study methodology involving data collection via interviews, observations, and documentation from family-owned and managed private universities in Nigeria. The findings from this study reveal that women are innovative, hard-working, and have distinguished themselves by building lasting corporate entrepreneurial legacies in polygamous family firms. The findings also demonstrate that polygamy encourages women to be independent towards corporate ventures, which inspires their entrepreneurial sustainability and capabilities in polygamous family firms. Finally, as evidenced by this study, women are entrepreneurial in the Schumpeterian sense, which encourages gender parity, increases their entrepreneurial participation, influences their sense of identity, and builds entrepreneurial orientation in polygamous family firms. This study provides theoretical and practical implications, a future research agenda, and recommendations to encourage more studies of women’s entrepreneurship in polygamous family firms

The Farmer Life School: experience from an innovative approach to HIV education

The Farmer Life School (FLS) is an innovative approach to integrating HIV education into life skills and technical training for farmers. This study aims to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of this relatively new approach, through the implementation of an adapted version in South Africa. The results are presented of a pilot with three groups of community gardeners, predominantly women, attending weekly sessions. Impact was assessed in terms of three key elements: participation, learning, and empowerment. Data were collected through extensive session reports, follow-up interviews, and reflection exercises with facilitators and participating groups and individuals. The results suggest that a group-based discovery learning approach such as the FLS has great potential to improve food security and wellbeing, while allowing participants to explore issues around HIV/AIDS. However, the analysis also shows that HIV/AIDS-related illness and death, and the factors that drive the epidemic and its impact, undermine farmers\' ability to participate, the safety and trust required for learning, and the empowerment process. Participatory approaches such as the FLS require a thorough understanding of and adaptation to the context. Keywords: Farmer Life School, HIV/AIDS, participation, learning, empowerment.SAHARA J Vol. 5 (2) 2008: pp. 56-6