What's Cooking in Your Food System? A Guide to Community Food Assessment

Learn about Community Food Assessments, a creative way to highlight food-related resources and needs, promote collaboration and community participation, and create lasting change. This Guide includes case studies of nine Community Food Assessments; tips for planning and organizing an assessment; guidance on research methods and strategies for promoting community participation; and ideas for translating an assessment into action for change

The Black (W)hole: Examining Institutional Racism in Doctoral Education, an OrgCrit Perspective

Centering the role of institutional racism within graduate education remains an understudied topic in existing literature on Black doctoral student socialization experiences at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI). This leaves us with a void of sorts—or a Black (w)hole—whereby numerous studies acknowledge challenges within the collective Black doctoral student experience, yet, a hole (or void) exists within our understanding of how researchers interpret institutional racism at the center of their scholarly inquiry. Thus, this systematic literature review applied a critical organizational theory perspective to examine how higher education scholars grappled with the issue of institutional racism within their studies on Black doctoral students at PWIs.Educatio

Use of Social Media to Enhance Nonprofit Organizational Decision-Making

As a tool for rapid communication, social media (SM) have the potential to revolutionize the way in which nonprofit organizations and stakeholders communicate. Most nonprofit organizations in the United States use some form of SM to engage with stakeholders, however, there is an underutilization of SM used for board decision-making purposes. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine SM and its potential use for board decision-making in nonprofit organizations. The conceptual framework incorporated stakeholder theory, organizational ambidexterity, and an organizational media-user typology. The research question related to the experience of nonprofit board member use of SM for organizational decision-making and stakeholder engagement. Vagle\u27s postintentional phenomenological research approach guided the study. Data collection involved interviewing a purposeful sample of 25 board members and leaders from 501(c)(3) nonpro�t organizations in Texas. Data analysis included combining coded data into categories and themes to determine underlying commonalities related to SM use and organizational decision-making. The primary finding was that nonprofit boards rarely use data generated from SM for decision-making purposes. Other findings from the study may improve board decision-making theory and practice and reveal how nonprofit organizations may leverage unfiltered, real-time SM feedback to benefit strategic organizational decision-making. The potential contribution to social change is to deepen the understanding of the effects of SM on nonprofit board decision-making so that boards may be more responsive to a broader range of stakeholder social interests

Quality modeling in electronic healthcare: a study of mHealth Service

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to radically transform health services in developing countries. Among various ICT driven health platforms, mobile health is the most promising one because of its widespread penetration and cost effective services. This paper aims to examine Quality Modeling in Electronic Healthcare by using PLS based SEM

Which conceptual foundations for environmental policies? An institutional and evolutionary framework of economic change

This paper draws on institutional and evolutionary economics and contributes to an approach to environmental policy which diverges from mainstream prescriptions. The 'socio-technical system' is the core concept: this is a complex made of co-evolving institutions, technologies, markets and actors that fulfils an overall societal need (such as housing, production, mobility, etc.). A systemic and dynamic analysis of those structural changes which are needed to create more sustainable socio-technical systems is provided; actors – and their ability to influence politics and policy – are explicitly taken into consideration. Unsustainable socio-technical systems feature a relevant resistance to change, because they are embedded in the very structure of our society and because of the conservative action of dominant stakeholders; this is why no environmental policy will be effective unless it aims at 'unlocking' our societies from their dominance. But also a constructive side of environmental policy is needed in order to establish new and more sustainable socio-technical systems; consistently, environmental policy is viewed as a combination of actions that can trigger, make viable and align those institutional, technological and economic changes which are needed to reach sustainability. Again, actors (for change) are at the heart of this vision of environmental policy: as subject, because the creation of new and sustainable socio-technical systems is made possible by (coalitions of) actors for change; as object, because environmental policy – to be effective – must actively support the empowerment, legitimation and social networking of such coalitions. A ‘chicken and egg’ problem remains: who comes first? Actors for change advocating policies for sustainability or policies for sustainability supporting actors for change?Environmental policy; Economic dynamics; Institutional economics; Evolutionary economics; Socio-technical systems

Learning to assess in higher education: a collaborative exploration of the interplay of 'formal' and 'informal' learning in the academic workplace

During 2005 to 2010 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) were funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). As the name suggests, the aim of the CETL initiative was to reward and develop expertise in teaching and learning linked to particular areas of excellence. The CETL where the authors of this paper worked focused on developing Assessment for Learning (AfL) practices (McDowell et al., 2008). The paper discusses the findings from three research projects undertaken at the CETL which can be grouped under the broad theme of the exploration of assessment practices and academic development.However, while we are all interested in the ways academics learn to assess, the disciplinary/research backgrounds and theoretical assumptions we bring to our respective projects are quite different. Hodkinson and Macleod (2010) discuss conceptualisations of learning by referring to metaphors which are commonly used ‘when learning is thought about’ (p.174): learning as acquisition, as participation, as construction, as formation and as becoming. They argue that each metaphor assumes particular approaches to understanding and researching learning, and this also applies to the projects drawn on for this paper. The projects which have generated the data considered in this paper are, on the one hand, underpinned and informed by different conceptualisations of learning, bodies of literature and methodologies. On the other hand, the institutional context within which the data were collected and the data collection methods, i.e. semi-structured interviews, are the same. This paper also explores the benefits and challenges of working collaboratively on HE research questions from different theoretical perspectives. We would like to argue that that using data generated by all three projects is a legitimate, albeit unusual, way of advancing our understanding of learning in the academic workplace since it allows us to focus on the interface between informal and formal learning rather than discussing one type of learning at the expense of the other

WHICH CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES? AN INSTITUTIONAL AND EVOLUTIONARY FRAMEWORK OF ECONOMIC CHANGE

This paper draws on institutional and evolutionary economics and contributes to an approach to environmental policy which diverges from mainstream prescriptions. The 'socio-technical system' is the core concept: this is a complex made of co-evolving institutions, technologies, markets and actors that fulfils an overall societal need (such as housing, production, mobility, etc.). A systemic and dynamic analysis of those structural changes which are needed to create more sustainable socio-technical systems is provided; actors – and their ability to influence politics and policy – are explicitly taken into consideration. Unsustainable socio-technical systems feature a relevant resistance to change, because they are embedded in the very structure of our society and because of the conservative action of dominant stakeholders; this is why no environmental policy will be effective unless it aims at 'unlocking' our societies from their dominance. But also a constructive side of environmental policy is needed in order to establish new and more sustainable socio-technical systems; consistently, environmental policy is viewed as a combination of actions that can trigger, make viable and align those institutional, technological and economic changes which are needed to reach sustainability. Again, actors (for change) are at the heart of this vision of environmental policy: as subject, because the creation of new and sustainable socio-technical systems is made possible by (coalitions of) actors for change; as object, because environmental policy – to be effective – must actively support the empowerment, legitimation and social networking of such coalitions. A 'chicken and egg' problem remains: who comes first? Actors for change advocating policies for sustainability or policies for sustainability supporting actors for change?

Big Data and Changing Concepts of the Human

Big Data has the potential to enable unprecedentedly rigorous quantitative modeling of complex human social relationships and social structures. When such models are extended to nonhuman domains, they can undermine anthropocentric assumptions about the extent to which these relationships and structures are specifically human. Discoveries of relevant commonalities with nonhumans may not make us less human, but they promise to challenge fundamental views of what it is to be human

Identity studies: Multiple perspectives and implications for corporate-level marketing

Purpose – Provides a comprehensive review of the identity literature drawing on perspectives from marketing (corporate identity concept) and organisational behaviour (organisational identity) so as to provide an up-to –date overview of identity scholarship. Findings – Reveals a growing congruency between scholars of marketing and organisational behaviour in their comprehension of identity. Identifies four principal schools of thought relating to identity which differ in terms of conceptualisation, locus of analysis and explanandum (corporate identity, visual identity, an organisation’s identity and organisational identity). Our review confirms the importance of identity especially in relation to the concepts underpinning the nascent field of corporate-level marketing. Practical implications – the importance of taking a multidisciplinary perspective in the comprehension and management of identity in organisational contexts. Originality/Value – The first major review of identity studies that synthesises the marketing and organisational behaviour approaches to identity. Offers pointers in terms of the research agenda to be followed

An Exploration of Factors Impacting Youth Volunteers Who Provide Indirect Services

Youth volunteerism is highly researched by volunteer organizations, but little is known about the factors impacting youth who provide indirect volunteering and the strengths and challenges which they face. Volunteering is indirect when the results of a volunteer’s work travels through more than one channel, (usually stakeholders spreading a message or raising funds), before reaching the intended client. Awareness raising and fundraising activities are two common examples of indirect volunteering that are attractive to many youth. Ten youth volunteers from five different organizations in the Greater Toronto Area were interviewed in order to investigate three important questions about indirect volunteering. These questions are: What strengths and challenges affect youth volunteers who provide indirect forms of service? What motivations, barriers to engagement, and opportunities for leadership affect youth volunteers who participate in indirect forms of service? How does role ambiguity impact indirect forms of service? The methodology included purposive sampling for youth volunteers to participate in semistructured, in-depth interviews. Open coding from an interpretivist framework was used to analyze the qualitative data. The results highlight motivations, barriers to engagement, and opportunities for leadership that validate prior literature and shed light on new themes. The results also highlight strengths and challenges for youth volunteers. Role ambiguity, along with two new core themes emerged as new issues that were important to youth volunteers who provide indirect service. These two new core themes included exploring issues of empowerment and power imbalances for youth volunteers and the meaning that youth ascribe to their volunteer experiences. Practice recommendations weighing strengths and challenges faced by youth volunteers across each of the core themes are provided in the discussion. Practice recommendations explore implementing job design and Community Service Learning to make indirect volunteering more clear for youth. The discussion also includes a conceptual framework with new models illustrating the provision of indirect services along with ideal and problematic pathways of engaging youth who are indirect volunteers. A conceptual framework illustrating ways to overcome role ambiguity is also provided. This research fills significant gaps in the literature about youth volunteers who are engaged in indirect service delivery. This thesis offers methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of work with youth in the volunteer sector—which is a deeply embedded component of the welfare state (Evers, Laville, Borzaga, Defourny, Lewis, Nyssens, & Pestoff 2004). Volunteerism is an act of helping, and volunteers perform their work in helping professions including the social services that serve the welfare state