Community Participation

What is community participation and how do we measure it? These questions are important as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities continue to experience exclusion, as policymakers design national funding schemes, and as researchers evaluate the success of interventions. A measurable definition of community participation enables people to know which interventions work, why, and where to target funding. Yet there may be good reasons to resist a universal definition of community participation. Building on work in feminist theory, this article shows the benefits of community participation as an essentially contested concept as contestation spurs innovative research. But even if contested concepts are good for researchers, are they good for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families, and professionals in the field? Aligning the goals of research with practice may be an important yet unattainable goal.

A study has been done in Luvuvhu Catchment to develop a framework for effective community participation in water quality monitoring and management. Community participation and involvement in development has since the 1970s gathered momentum among the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) fraternity but has never gained clear status with Governments world over. In South Africa the policy and legal frameworks for community consultation, involvement and participation are clearly spelt out on paper starting with the country's constitution. The division of the country into Water Management Areas (WMA) and the formation of Catchment Management Agencies (CMA), Water User Associations (WUAs) for example, was meant to increase participation of stakeholders including communities in the management of water resources. These efforts have not translated into effective participation by local communities in the management of water resources because there is no link between the national water quality management frameworks and community based development structures.

Over the past decade, many government policies have been aimed at the elusive concept of 'sustainable development'. Over the same period there has been a growing awareness of the need to evaluate the progress of these policies as well as the need to encourage broad community participation in that monitoring. Unfortunately, it appears the participation of one important group, indigenous communities, in many sustainability programmes (including the selection and use of indicators in their monitoring and evaluation) is limited. This paper seeks to understand the role of sustainability monitoring and indigenous community participation in that monitoring within ecological economics and transdisciplinary research. We find that there is a strong need for sustainability indicators and a compelling rationale for indigenous community participation, both from ecological economic theory and from international and national policies. We also find that the present level of engagement of indigenous groups and communities in New Zealand in sustainability monitoring remains low, under-resourced, and uncoordinated. To improve the worldwide quality of sustainability indicators there is an urgent need to address this poor participation.

The ongoing outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa is the largest on record; it has undermined already fragile healthcare systems and presented new challenges to contain the spread of the disease. Based on our observations in the field and insights from referenced sources, we aimed to identify key experiences of community engagement and social mobilization efforts in the current Ebola response. We concluded that there is no excuse not to actively involve local people and that the United Nations (UN) agencies and other partners did learn from their earlier mistakes to make a genuine attempt to better engage with communities. However, bottom-up approaches have not been widely implemented during the response and the reasons for not doing so must be further assessed. Health promotion can make an important contribution, because it shows how to enable people to take more control over their lives and health. This commentary can provide a guide to agencies to understand an appropriate w...

Community public health interventions based on citizen and community participation are increasingly discussed as promising avenues for the reduction of health inequalities and the promotion of social justice. However, very few authors have provided explicit principles and guidelines for planning and implementing such interventions, especially when they are linked with research. Traditional approaches to public health programming emphasise expert knowledge, advanced detailed planning, and the separation of research from intervention. Despite the usefulness of these approaches for evaluating targeted narrow-focused interventions, they may not be appropriate in community health promotion, especially in Aboriginal communities. Using the experience of the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project, in Canada, this paper elaborates four principles as basic components for an implementation model of community programmes. The principles are: (1) the integration of community people and researchers as equal partners in every phase of the project, (2) the structural and functional integration of the intervention and evaluation research components, (3) having a flexible agenda responsive to demands from the broader environment, and (4) the creation of a project that represents learning opportunities for all those involved. The emerging implementation model for community interventions, as exemplified by this project, is one that conceives a programme as a dynamic social space, the contours and vision of which are defined through an ongoing negotiation process. r (L. Potvin). 0277-9536/03/$ -see front matter r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. PII: S 0 2 7 7 -9 5 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 2 9 -6

Community-based participatory methods have emerged as a response to conventional approaches that have historically failed to make notable improvement in health status or reduce chronic disease among marginalized populations. The social-ecological model provides a framework to develop and implement strategies directed to affecting multiple levels (societal, community, organizational, and individual) of influence on health status. A systems approach can facilitate the identification of the complex interrelationships of factors at all levels that contribute to health disparities by making use of the unique knowledge, expertise, and resources of community partners. Community engagement in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health initiatives builds community capacity to create sustainable changes at all levels to achieve and maintain optimal health for those who bear the greatest burden of disease.

The present investigation is a case study of Lucknow, the main metropolis in Northern India, which succumbs to a major problem of municipal solid waste and its management. A qualitative investigation using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT) has been successfully implemented through this community participation study. This qualitative investigation emphasizes the limited capabilities of the municipal corporationÕs resources to provide proper facilitation of the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) services without community participation in Lucknow city. The SWOT analysis was performed to formulate strategic action plans for MSWM in order to mobilize and utilize the community resources on the one hand and municipal corporationÕs resources on the other. It has allowed the introduction of a participatory approach for better collaboration between the community and municipal corporation in Lucknow (India). With this stakeholder-based SWOT analysis, efforts were made to explore the ways and means of converting the possible ÔthreatsÕ into ÔopportunitiesÕ and changing the ÔweaknessesÕ into ÔstrengthsÕ regarding a community-based MSWM programme. By this investigation, concrete strategic action plans were developed for both the community and municipal corporation to improve MSWM in Lucknow.

The Shimshal Nature Trust is an indigenous institution rooted in a thriving and dynamic culture that links the local ecology and society. It has deployed identity, traditional knowledge, science, and institutional innovation to adapt to outside challenges without destroying local commons management. This paper reviews scholarly debate on natural resource management and uses resilience theory to examine this complex adaptive system. Two disturbances to Shimshal resilience prompted by a national park and a new road are traced. Shimshali responses include social processes of learning, knowledge systems, and renewal. Ways in which adaptive renewal cycles involve Revolt, a short, fast reaction, and Remember, a larger, slower cascade, are put in perspective. Simple and powerful qualities that guide change are highlighted. We conclude that the Shimshal Nature Trust creates a resilient interface between the outside and inside worlds. Government, donors, and academics can participate in contextualized action-learning cycles that result in more informed and negotiated contributions to local institutions for commons management.

This paper reports on a study investigating cross-cultural equivalence in predictors of earthquake preparedness. Data were collected from Napier (New Zealand) and Kyoto (Japan). These locations were selected because they face comparable levels of seismic risk but differ with respect to their cultural characteristics. This mix of hazard similarity and cultural differences provided an opportunity to assess the degree of crosscultural equivalence in predictors of earthquake preparedness. Cross-cultural equivalence was examined by assessing the degree to which individual hazard beliefs (outcome expectancies) and social characteristics (community participation, collective efficacy, empowerment, trust) could explain levels of hazard preparedness in each location. Structural equation modelling analyses revealed similarity in the pattern of relationships between predictor variables and intention prepare in the Napier and Kyoto data. It is argued that this provides support for the existence of some universal, cross-cultural equivalence in how hazard beliefs and social characteristics interact to predict the degree to which people adopt earthquake preparedness measures. Differences between the data sets are discussed in the context of the fundamental cultural differences between Japan and New Zealand. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Para que una persona o un grupo de personas puedan tomar decisiones con relación al espacio que habiten es necesario, en primer lugar, que estén informados. Necesitan conocer a fondo el lugar en el que se construye, además del funcionamiento, manejo y financiación de la construcción. En un proceso participativo las personas se informan, dialogan, colaboran, estudian y valoran alternativas. Pueden, en síntesis, negociar y decidir. Ser parte del proceso les ayuda a tomar conciencia, involucrarse y comprometerse con el espacio construido. Un proceso participativo es, por tanto, un proceso educativo y democrático. La participación puede verse con un proceso educativo, de compartir conocimientos. Cada cual aprende y enseña de lo que sabe. Según el educador brasileño Paulo Freire " …la participación, en cuanto ejercicio de la voz, de tener voz, de asumir, de decidir en ciertos niveles de poder, en cuanto al derecho de ciudadanía se halla en relación directa, necesaria, con la práctica educativo-progresiva… " [1] Participar implica, en consecuencia, tener voz, opinar, emitir un juicio relacionado a un asunto particular. Un discurso es cuestionado, puesto en tela de juicio, y puede ser modificado, convirtiéndose en un producto que no es de una sola persona sino de varias. Por tanto, en los procesos participativos se igualan las estructuras de poder, todos son educadores y todos son educados. Estos procesos se relacionan con la práctica educativo-progresiva ya que el conocimiento es construido por varios agentes, contrario a la práctica educativa tradicional en la cual existe un agente activo que posee todas las respuestas y agentes pasivos que se limitan a escuchar y recibir la información. Es por ello que participar es ser parte de un proceso, la construcción de un argumento que permite alcanzar un consenso mediante un diálogo.

The era of journalism and the participation of the readers on online media websites have changed online journalism. The research interest is now focused on removing the distinction between the publisher/entrepreneur and the journalist/user, with the ultimate goal of actively involving citizens in the journalistic process but also in the web presence of media websites. The evolution of technology, the deep media crisis and the growing dissatisfaction of the citizens, create the conditions for journalism to work with citizens, and in particular through citizen journalism and journalism crowdsourcing. This concept is a form of collective online activity in which a person or a group of people volunteer to engage in work that always involves mutual benefit to both sides. The main research question of this research concerns the analysis of the current situation regarding crowdsourcing, co-creation and UGC and the adoption of best practices such as crowdcreation, comments from the users, c...

Article rédigé collectivement au sein du groupe Avec Elles de Médecins du Monde Belgique
«Soigner ceux que le monde oublie peu à peu», porter leur voix et leurs réalités auprès du grand public et des décideurs à travers la notion de plaidoyer en santé, sont au cœur des objectifs de Médecins du Monde Belgique. Cela dit, porter la voix pour une réduction des inégalités sociales de santé et une évolution du cadre politico-administratif passe par des dispositifs qui impliquent au maximum, dans la revendication, les personnes rencontrant un problème de santé.

Community participation was identified as one of the key components of Primary Health Care as articulated in the Alma Ata declaration of 1978 and is enjoying a renewal of interest in both low and high income countries. There remains, however, an on-going challenge in how to assess its role in achieving health improvements. This is largely due to the multiplicity of definitions of community participation, which has made it difficult to evaluate its impact on desired programme outcomes, such as uptake and sustainability, as well as broader health improvements. This paper addresses this challenge by first defining a continuum of community participation that captures its many forms, and then incorporates this into an evaluation framework that enables an analysis of the process of participation and links this with health and programme outcomes. The continuum of participation and framework is based upon the spidergram of Rifkin, Muller, and Bichmann (1988), but modified in the light of the growing literature on community participation and also in relation to our original requirements to evaluate the role of community participation in nutrition-related child survival programmes. A case-study is presented to provide a worked example of the evaluation framework and its utility in the evaluation of community participation. While this is a literature-based and retrospective analysis, it demonstrates how the evaluation tool enables a nuanced analysis of the different ways in which communities can participate in the delivery of health-related interventions. It could be used prospectively by those involved in programme design and implementation to further our understanding of community participation and its relationship with health outcomes, as well as key programme outcomes, such as sustainability.

The objectives of this study were to assess whether Teng's modification of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) improves its performance as a screening test for cognitive impairment and dementia, and to replicate this comparison in French and English language groups, and for differing assumptions concerning the relative importance of false negative and false positive errors. Screening interviews were conducted with representative samples of people aged 65 or over, set in 36 communities in 10 Canadian provinces. There were 8900 community participants in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, of whom 1600 also underwent an extensive clinical and neuropsychological examination. Sensitivity, specificity and areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the original MMSE and modified version (the 3MS) were the main outcome measures. Results are reported for French and English versions of the tests. The results indicate the alpha internal consistency for the 3MS was 0.87, compared to 0.78 for the MMSE. The area under the ROC curve in identifying dementia was 0.93 for the 3MS and 0.89 for the MMSE (p < 0.001). There was less difference between the two tests in identifying all levels of cognitive impairment (AUC 0.80 versus 0.77, I, < 0.01). The superiority of the 3MS appears more due to its extended scoring system than to its additional questions. The validity of the MMSE was comparable in English and French samples; results for the 3MS were inconsistent between the two samples, suggesting possible translation problems. In conclusion, the 3MS was superior to the MMSE, justifying the slightly greater burden for its administration and scoring. Neither test worked well in identifying lower levels of cognitive impairment.

This article talks about how advances in human language technology can help overcomesome of the barriers that prevent community participation in cyberspace. Human languagetechnology refers to the set of technologies, such as speech recognition and speech synthesisthat are used to create spoken language systems---systems that allow people to communicatewith machines using speech.A significant advantage of using speech as an interface

Consumer and carer involvement in mental health research is a growing and developing field. Whilst there has been policy and in-principle support for such involvement from governments around the world, lived experience researchers conducting academic research in partnership with other consumers and carers remains uncommon. The Australian Capital Territory Consumer and Carer Mental Health Research Unit is based at The Australian National University and employs academic researchers with lived experience to undertake research directly relevant to the needs of mental health consumers and carers with the aim of influencing policy and practice. In this study, we share our experience of developing and conducting research within ACACIA to provide a model for meaningfully engaging mental health consumers and carers throughout the research process.

یکی ازبرنامههاي آبخیزداري طی دهه هاي اخیر، اجراي طرحهاي مشارکتی بوده است که انجام آنها ازبرنامهپنجسالهسومتوسعه
شروعشد.طرح مدیریت پایدار منابع آب وخاك حوزه حبلهرود یکی از این طرحهاي مشارکتی است که فاز اول آنتوسطمعاونت
بهاجرادرآمد. باتوجه ( UNDP ) آبخیزداري وزارتجهادسازندگی وقت در سال 1377 باهمکاريدفترتوسعهسازمانمللمتحد
به اینکه تاکنون کمتر به جزئیات و ابعاد مشارکت مردمی در طرح هاي آبخیزداري پرداخته شده است. لذا در این تحقیق سعی شده
است تا ابعاد مشارکت مردم در طرح هاي آبخیزداري با استفاده از روش تحلیل عاملیمورد بررسی قرار گیرد.جامعهآماري این
پژوهشساکنین حوزه آبخیزحبله رود میباشند.جامعهنمونهشامل 200 نفراز روستاییان ساکن در حوزه می باشند که درطرح
مشارکتداشتهاند. ابزارجمعآوريدادههادراین پژوهش پرسشنامههايمحققساختهبوده است که اطلاعات لازم بصورت
حضوري از طریق این پرسشنامههاجمعآوريشد. برايسنجشپایاییابزارجمع آوري اطلاعاتازآزمونآلفايکرونباخوبراي
سنجشرواییمتغیرهايموردآزمون،ازروشتحلیل عاملی استفادهشد.نتایجبدستآمدهمویداعتمادواطمینانبالابه
پرسشنامهبودهاست. نتایج تحقیق نشان داد که میزان مشارکت مردم در طرح هاي آبخیزداري متوسط بوده و مشارکت مردم
دراجراي طرح هاي آبخیزداري در سه بعد: اجتماعی ( 37درصد) بعد محیطی یا میدانی ( 16درصد)وبعداقتصادي( 8درصد) بوده
است که این عوامل مجموعا 61 درصد از واریانس مشارکت را تبیین می کنند

People aged 65 and older without prior venous thrombosis (deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism). MEASUREMENTS: Self-reported exercise was measured two or three times during follow-up and was defined as expending more than 500 kcal/wk on exercise, including walking for exercise. Venous thrombosis cases were verified using medical record review. RESULTS: Of 5,534 participants, 171 developed a first venous thrombosis. Self-reported exercise at baseline was not related to the risk of venous thrombosis after adjustment for sex, age, race, self-reported health, and body mass index (adjusted hazard ratio (HR adj) 5 1.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5 0.84-1.61), although with exercise modeled as a time-varying exposure, overall results were in the direction of greater risk of venous thrombosis (HR adj 5 1.38, 95% CI 5 0.99-1.91). For mild-intensity exercise, such as walking, there was a nonsignificant finding in the direction of benefit (HR adj 5 0.75, 95% CI 5 0.49-1.16), but strenuous exercise, such as jogging, was associated with greater risk of venous thrombosis (HR adj 5 1.75, 95% CI 5 1.08-2.83) than no exercise at all. CONCLUSION: In elderly people, strenuous exercise was associated with a higher risk of venous thrombosis than no exercise at all. Future studies are needed to explain this unexpected higher risk.

As the Indian government explicitly orients its policies towards encouraging private investment to supplement their efforts towards the goal of slum-free cities, lessons need to be drawn from the variety of schemes and initiatives already developed and established in selected cities. By looking more critically at the circumstances under which these schemes and initiatives have been implemented, as well as at the results they have shown thus far, the benefits and drawbacks of the private sector’s role in slum redevelopment can be better analyzed. Projects in Mumbai, Delhi, and Ahmedabad are revealed to be fraught with uncertainty ranging from the miscounting of slum dwellers and the long term cost of high-rise slum redevelopments, to market volatility and the oversight of involving the slum dwellers in a participatory manner. This article questions the initial optimism of the growing real estate sector focusing on slum redevelopment, as well as the viability of integrating slum dwellers into each city’s urban infrastructure while at the same time attracting private investors and developers during a time of global and local market fluctuation. It also raises the question of the contradictory nature of attempting to create an inclusive city without addressing inequitable urban policies and practices that have historically led to the creation of an exclusive city.

The proposal delves into the heterogeneity of households and proves the multiplicity of domestic meanings with the aim of producing useful and operative knowledge related to a wide range of issues affecting communities and urban systems. It emerges as an invitation to reflect on how we might otherwise imagine and inhabit our inherited domestic spaces, and how we come together beyond the effects of this global crisis, when new forms of solidarity and care should arise and be exercised. It might then be possible to overcome social constraints and rediscover neglected relational needs and values, envisioning other forms of urban coexistence.



Essay | expanding design practices | No Density | Politics and economics

Key words: Activism, Alternative Domesticity, City of Commons, Collective Awareness, Participation, Social Dynamics

Community participation is becoming increasingly popular within the field of disaster management. International disaster policies, frameworks and charters embrace the notion that communities should play an active role in initiatives to identify vulnerabilities and risks and to mitigate those dangers, and, in the event of a disaster, that they should play a proactive part in response and recovery (see, for example, UNISDR, 1994; The Sphere Project, 2004; United Nations, 2005). A number of studies have investigated the participation of communities in disaster preparedness and mitigation efforts (see, for instance, Scott-Villiers, 2000;, There is, however, limited reflection on the challenges to ensuring participation in the operational context of disaster response. This paper draws on a study of the policy and practice of participatory damage assessment in Fiji to identify and discuss the barriers to formal implementation of community participation in a post-disaster context.

Report presenting the main findings from a community-based emancipatory disability research conducted in three counties (Bong, Nimba and Grand Gedeh) in Liberia in West Africa. The research focused on the physical, social, cultural, economic, attitudinal and technical barriers faced by persons with different kinds of disabilities living in rural and often isolated areas in the counties. It is a summary and easy to read version of a more detailed report.

Camino Verde (the Green Way) is an evidence-based community mobilisation tool for prevention of dengue and other mosquito-borne viral diseases. Its effectiveness was demonstrated in a cluster-randomised controlled trial conducted in 2010-2013 in Nicaragua and Mexico. The Nicaraguan arm of the trial was preceded, from 2004 to 2008, by a feasibility study that provided valuable lessons and trained facilitators for the trial itself. Here, guided by the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR), we describe the Camino Verde intervention in Nicaragua, presenting its rationale, its time and location, activities, materials used, the main actors, modes of delivery, how it was tailored to encourage community engagement, modifications made from the feasibility study to the trial itself, and how fidelity to the process originally designed was maintained. We also present information on costs and discuss the place of this study within the literature on implementation science...

Kentin yoğunlukla tüketim odaklı gelişimini tetikleyen makro ölçekli ve salt yapı odaklı uygulamaların yerine mikro ölçekli kentsel müdahaleler, son yıllarda sayısı giderek artan bir alternatif kentsel pratik olarak karşımıza çıkıyor. Katılım, topluluk inşası ve taktiksel şehircilik gibi kavramların öne çıktığı bu “alternatif” mekânsal pratikler kentte birlikte üretmenin ve tasarlamanın yollarını arayarak kamusal mekân vasıtasıyla kurulabilecek bir müşterek yaşamın ihtimallerini ortaya çıkarıyor. Bu müşterekliğe odaklanan Paris merkezli atelier d’architecture autogérée / studio for self-managed architecture (aaa), kentte süregelen kültürel, sosyal ve politik gelişmelerle ilgili tasarım-araştırma-eylem odağında uygulamalar yapan ve böylece bahsettiğimiz mikro ölçek ile ilişkilenen bir kolektif platform. Pratiklerinde yukarıdan aşağıya tasarım yöntemlerini benimseyen platform, kenti daha ekolojik ve daha demokratik hale getirmek için birçok proje yürütüyor. Platformun öne çıkan mikro-politik kentsel pratiklerinden biri olan R-Urban, ekonomi, konut, kentsel tarım ve kültür gibi alanlar arasında bir bağ kurmaya çalışan ve böylece mevcut kentsel krizin üstesinden gelebilmek için kentsel esneklik kapasitesini artırmayı hedefleyen bir stratejiler bütünü. Proje kapsamında, yerel sürdürülebilir kaynaklar aracılığıyla üretim ve tüketim arasında bir denge kurmaya çalışan stratejilerle yurttaşların ve çeşitli kurumların birbirini destekleyen işbirlikçi uygulamalar yürüttüğü bir yerel ağ kurulması hedeflenmiş. Paris, Colombes ve Londra gibi farklı kentlerde yürütülen R-Urban projesinin, müdahale ettiği kentteki yerel halkı kolektif konut üretimi, geri dönüşüm ve kentsel tarım gibi sürdürülebilir uygulamalara yönlendirmesi düşünülmüş.

This paper presents a case study of a participatory process that was used to understand the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS in a US state. The case illustrates that participation in a community-based research project is a dynamic phenomenon that must be negotiated among an evolving web of roles and relationships. Using a continuum to model the multiple modes of community participation, we follow the changing nature of participation over the course of a single project. Our analysis illustrates the different levels of participation given by the continuum as well as the dynamic nature of participation. A shared understanding of participation evolves as the roles and relationships of those involved are negotiated and renegotiated. However, lack of reflection over power differentials can lead to disempowering outcomes even after achieving a seemingly participatory process. The case reveals that failing to resolve divergent assumptions about power and purpose can lead to fissures that are difficult to overcome. r

Aim. The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of social stigma experiences reported by patients with schizophrenia and by people with other health problems. Method. The stigma subscale of the Consumer Experiences of Stigma Questionnaire (CESQ) was administered to patients with schizophrenia (n=153), recurrent depression (n=31), drug dependence (n=30), alcohol dependence (n=39), hematological malignancies (n=31), or cardiovascular disorders (n=33). Results. Multiple regression analysis showed that schizophrenia patients experienced stigmatization signifi cantly more often than did respondents diagnosed with hematological malignancies or cardiovascular disorders. Moreover, patients with schizophrenia were found to experience stigma at a level similar to that in patients with depression or alcohol dependence, but lower than that experienced by drug addicts. Conclusions. The study fi ndings confi rm that the stigma of schizophrenia is stronger than that associated with physical illnesses. However, people with schizophrenia were not found to experience stigmatization more often than people with other severe mental disorders.

Sense of virtual community (SOVC) reflects the feeling that individual members have of belonging to an online social group. Yet there is a lack of investigation focusing on its individual-level antecedents. We argue that in order to enhance understanding of how SOVC develops we first need to distinguish between the individual expectations, actions, and the resulting community-related feelings. Drawing upon the uses and gratifications approach, we explore the community members' expected benefits, their linkages with different types of community participation and consequently with the experienced SOVC. We tested the hypotheses on a sample of 395 members of a virtual community hosted by a Finnish business newspaper. The findings suggest that both forms of participation -reading and posting messages -have a positive impact on SOVC, but the expected benefits differ. Participation by reading messages is mainly driven by the expectation of cognitive benefits, while posting messages seems to be largely driven by the anticipation of both social and personal integrative benefits. Our study contributes by providing a refined SOVC conceptualization and operationalization for virtual-community research, and by opening up the individual-level actions that build up a sense of virtual community.

b Società per l'assistenza al malato oncologico terminal, Italia c Departamento de Enfermería y Fisioterapia, Universidad de les Illes Balears, España Recibido el 9 de octubre de 2007, aceptado el 9 de enero de 2008 PALABRAS CLAVE Promoción de la salud; Redes comunitarias; Entorno social

This study aimed to develop and test a framework and tool for assessing and developing community participation in Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) in New Zealand. A qualitative study completed in three phases: semi-structured interviews with 42 key stakeholders in the primary care sector; development of and consultation on a draft toolkit, which included a PHO review process; and piloting the toolkit in four different types of PHOs. A toolkit entitled Community Participation: A Resource Kit and Self-Assessment Tool for PHOs (CP Toolkit for PHOs) was developed, which contains a set of resources for organisational self-review and a framework for community participation under the six headings: Organisational Structure, Maori Responsiveness, Governance and Management Processes, Use of Resources, Links to the Wider Community, and Consultation and Decision-Making. The pilot PHO sites found the CP Toolkit, and the review process contained within it, to be very relevant to the implementa...

Review of literature shows that intervention of information and communication technologies (ICT) in rural development initiatives are capable of development, but are not successful. Lack of community participation, absence of an integrated approach and non-inclusion of traditional knowledge systems (TKS) in the project designs are the major impediments. We therefore suggest a systems-based approach in the design of e-Governance projects, and brief some future directions. The proposed framework is based on participatory approach with inclusion of relevant TKS, has a bi-directional Citizen to Government (G2C2G) interface and a feedback mechanism. The prime goal is that rural e-Governance projects serve as means to attain good-governance for enhancing sustained rural development.

A partir de réflexions sur la participation citoyenne dans les quartiers, les notions du sensible et de l’esthétique environnementale, mais aussi le rôle de l’art dans les démarches citoyennes, cet article présente la démarche de co-création de trajectoires territoriales Intertexting ainsi que les premiers retours d’expériences de ce nouvel outil dans différents quartiers. L’élaboration de récits collectifs sensibles ouvre des perspectives de déploiement dans les pratiques urbaines, du projet de quartier au projet urbain, avec les acteurs institutionnels et les acteurs locaux.

Despite broad acceptance of the idea that "sense of ownership" among users is critical to infrastructure sustainability in the developing world, little is known about what sense of ownership is, or what gives rise to it. We develop a composite measure for sense of ownership for piped water systems and test it using empirical data collected from 1,140 households in 50 rural Kenyan villages. This study establishes an empirical referent for households' sense of ownership for their water system, and finds that some, but not all, types of participation during project planning and construction enhances community members' sense of ownership for rural water projects.

Por meio da compreensão do ativismo de fãs como uma forma de resistência cotidiana cultural, econômica e criativa, o objetivo deste capítulo busca problematizar as relações entre participação, resistência e consumo de fãs do jogo on-line League of Legends (LoL). Enquanto suporte empírico, apresenta-se um mapeamento sobre algumas práticas do ativismo de fãs-jogadores no antigo fórum oficial de LoL no Brasil, a partir de uma triangulação metodológica com destaque para o uso de inspirações etnográficas. Após as reflexões teóricas e as análises, propõe-se uma tipologia das práticas de resistência cotidiana na comunidade de LoL baseada em quatro modos. Os resultados desta abordagem indicam que a diversidade do universo das produções digitais e práticas de parte dos fãs de LoL ressignificam as compreensões sobre resistência e participação, questionando a dualidade existente entre a cidadania e o consumo da cultura pop, agindo como catalizadores que reinterpretam e excedem os limites do fandom.

"Since ‘9/11’ and the global war on terrorism that followed, Muslim clerics and intellectuals in India have been under pressure from various quarters to publically denounce terrorism. This demand has come from media, political parties and fellow non-Muslim citizens. On 31May 2008, the leading Islamic Seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband (based in Uttar Pradesh) issued a public “Fatwa against terrorism” at a public rally of no less than 100,000 Islamic clerics in Delhi. This paper analyses the background to the declaration, the contents of the Fatwa by the Deobandis and the responses from the ruling Congress Party government, the right wing (Hindu fundamentalist) opposition BJP, the Delhi Police and also Muslim intellectuals."