Impact assessment and indigenous self-determination: a scalar framework of participation options

The implementation of the right of indigenous peoples to participate in impact assessment (IA) has moved rapidly in many jurisdictions. To facilitate comparative learning, this paper offers a scalar framework of participation options through standard IA phases and examines five IA regimes in Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. It is shown how practice is moving toward co-management and community-owned IA, with developments driven by strong indigenous demands and political recognition of material rights to lands and resources. Yet, while influence in IA has allowed for shaping project outcomes it has rarely supported the rejection of unwanted projects altogether. Moreover, some jurisdictions, such as Scandinavia, retain a much more limited consultation and notification approach. Community influence tends to be in evidence generation and follow-up while developers or state authorities retain control over decisive phases of scoping and significance determination. It is argued that indigenous participation is most meaningful through IA co-management that takes places directly with the state and throughout all IA phases, complemented with strategic community-owned IA.     

The use of social media and perceptions of corruption within the Jordanian political elite

This paper examines the use of social media by Jordanian political elites impacting on issues relating to political decision-making and corruption. Motives of political participation are studied, scrutinizing the relationship between social media and activity, and political awareness and communication within a selected sample. Adopting Jürgen Habermas’ public sphere theory, the study addresses social communication as a core area of non-institutional interaction which is more prevalent than institutional political activities. An intentional sampling of 206 Jordanian elite, are surveyed to determine the role that social media played in providing information relating to corruption in Jordan. A comprehensive inventory method was used, and a questionnaire was analysed using SPSS, revealing a social media platform for exchange of opinions from Jordanian political hierarchy and public. Therein an illusory gap is bridged between elite and commoner highlighting issues including corruption, proving an essential tool in the fight against corruptive intentions.     

Spatial information during public participation within environmental impact assessment in Kenya

This study set out to evaluate the use of spatial information during public participation within Environmental Impact Assessment (EAI) in Kenya, through a case study. A conceptual framework developed for this study considered four key elements: the stages of EIA in Kenya (EIA study stage), public participation (limited to ‘inform’), aspects of spatial information relevant for public participation (availability, accessibility, content, appropriateness, language, translation and technical support), and categories of participants (limited to ‘affected persons’). It was established that a cadastral map had been used, and met the requirements for accessibility, language, translation and technical support; it was unsatisfactory in the aspect of availability, and unconfirmed for content and appropriateness. Recommendations are made for the use of spatial information during public participation within EIA.     

融媒体环境下公益广告的互动性设计策略研究

目的 融媒体环境下,公益广告设计呈现出交互性的发展特征,针对融媒体环境下公益广告现有的互动形式,探索出增强公益广告互动性、提高用户参与度的设计策略。方法 通过对公益广告的现状分析,归纳出公益广告现存的问题,并结合具有互动性的公益广告创新案例,提出符合融媒体环境的公益广告互动性设计策略。结论 融媒体环境下,运用行为互动、共情互动、情境互动是实现公益广告互动性的有效设计途径,互动性设计可以有效实现揭示社会痛点、促进公众情感沟通乃至价值认同等公益广告目标,进而可以扩大公益广告的影响力和覆盖面,实现与社会发展的有机统一,对促进公益广告可持续发展有一定的启发意义。     

Achieving meaningful public participation in the environmental assessment of hydro development: case studies from Chamoli District,Uttarakhand, India

Uttarakhand, India has great potential for hydro development because of its mountainous environment and fast flowing rivers. While growth in the hydro sector could facilitate industrial development and improve social well-being in the state, it could also have severe negative impacts on social-ecological systems. Using a qualitative methodology involving a review of documents, field observations, and over 100 interviews with government, industry officials and community members, the research investigated two large hydro projects in the Chamoli District. The results show that public participation in project planning and implementation did not exemplify characteristics of meaningful involvement. The participation processes would have been improved with greater opportunities for advanced, decentralised, and more active local involvement. The conclusion is that the central and state governments should play a more assertive role in regulating large-scale hydro development in Uttarakhand, to facilitate meaningful public participation and to protect local environmental, economic and social interests.     

The changes in the effects of social media use of Cypriots due to COVID-19 pandemic

Social media is the leading medium which is used for communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research conducted aims to fill the gap of literature related to social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aims at uncovering the influences of social media use in several dimensions during lockdown(s). The study aims to answer the research question of: Are the influences of social media use different from normal times? The online questionnaire has been completed by six hundred and sixty-eight users within the period of lockdown. The author prepared the questionnaire, which is composed of 22 positive statements in order to evaluate the effects of social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 5 point Likert scale was used, where reliability and validity were calculated by the Cronbach's alpha value, which was 0.751. Findings highlight that users have more information about COVID-19, and they follow recent information via social media, which shows the shift towards digital medium. Findings also indicate that users are aware of fake news, and they follow official sources. Social media is powerful to affect decision-makers, and respondents' social media use did not create any panic or anxiety amongst them. This research indicates that respondents' social media use during COVID-19 is different from normal times as a common purpose triggers this, survival. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most of social media shares were like a dream or a strong desire that may cause anxiety in others. During the pandemic, people are in lockdown and share similar feelings and follow similar behavioural patterns. As there is a common purpose and struggle via users, psychological well-being is not affected negatively.     

Social decision making on technology and the environment in Spain

This paper outlines the current status of the direct participation of citizens and public interest groups in decision making, on issues related to technology and the environment in the context of one specific country, namely Spain. It presents the kind of public participation possible today in Spain, where participatory management of technology is still relatively limited. The article analyzes the causes for the current situation, based on several recent case studies, as well as views expressed by key actors. The cases described, encompass a wide range of modern technologies, and include genetic engineering, environmental information, forestry management, and also the environmental advisory process of the Spanish public administration.     

A review of social media-based public opinion analyses: Challenges and recommendations

Compared with survey polls, social media can yield a better and more comprehensive understanding of public perceptions of special topics in a more scientific manner. However, despite this advantage, there seem to be limited investigations into the challenges in social media-based public opinion analysis. This study offers an understanding of the challenges in this field and some corresponding recommendations. Through a systematic literature review, we identify 54 papers to analyze and discuss issues related to data collection, data quality, and data mining. This paper summarizes a framework for social media-based public opinion analysis as well as the commonly employed data mining methodologies. We found that collecting public opinion data from Facebook and Weibo is difficult because of their restricted application programming interface and measures against Web Crawler. How to effectively and conveniently delete invalid data and how to design data mining methods for social media data, especially for those in Chinese, are still two main challenges in social media-based public opinion analysis. We claim that using multiple data sources, optimizing keyword settings, enhancing interdisciplinary cooperation, and paying more attention to the functional role of social media can benefit the development of social media-based public opinion analysis. This study also highlights the potential risks of releasing the personal information of the public in the use of social media data in research.     

Demographic factors, fatigue, and driving accidents: An examination of the published literature

This article reviews the literature pertaining to the association between demographic variables (e.g., age, sex, race, socio-economic status) with fatigue, and when feasible, accident risk. It also explores their potential influence and interaction with some working arrangements, commute time, personality characteristics, and circadian chronotype. Fatigue has been implicated in a range of impairments that can have detrimental effects on individuals, and it is differentially associated with conventional demographic variables. However, several major methodological limitations prevent clear conclusions. First, there is absence of a shared definition both within and across disciplines. Second, although fatigue has been investigated using a variety of diverse designs, they have either been too weak to substantiate causality or lacked ecological validity. Third, while both subjective and objective measures have been used as dependent variables, fatigue has been more often found to be more strongly linked with the former. Fourth, with the exception of age and sex, the influence of other demographic variables is unknown, since they have not yet been concomitantly assessed. In instances when they have been assessed and included in statistical analyses, they are considered as covariates or confounders; thus, their contribution to the outcome variable is controlled for, rather than being a planned aspect of investigation. Because the interaction of demographic factors with fatigue is largely a neglected area of study, we recommend greater interdisciplinary collaborations, incorporation of multiple demographic variables as independent factors, and use of within-participant analyses. These recommendations would provide meaningful results that may be used to inform public policy and preventive strategies.     

Environmental impact assessment process substitution: experiences of public participants

This paper explores policy action taken by the federal government in Canada to test the potential for substitution of the federal process to regulatory bodies as a means of encouraging environmental impact assessment (EIA) efficiency. Our purpose is to present the experiences of people who participated in the EIA of the Emera Brunswick Pipeline in order to gauge the impact of such process substitutions on meaningful public participation. Our approach included document reviews and a focus group session with some of the public participants in the Emera Pipeline hearings. We find that the National Energy Board hearing process substituted in the case did not meet many of the key requirements of meaningful participation and left some public participants feeling disrespected and marginalized.     

On the state of the art: risk communication to the public

This paper reviews the state of the art on risk communication to the public, with an emphasis on summarizing relevant empirical findings. In particular, the paper reviews empirical results regarding the format of risk communication messages, the use of risk comparisons, audience differences, and the use of mental models as an aid in crafting effective risk communication messages. Later sections discuss the issue of credibility and trust in risk communication, and the use of stakeholder participation processes — important areas in which not as much rigorous empirical information is available. Due to the breadth of the topic, the paper is not intended to be a comprehensive review, but rather an overview of the voluminous literature in this area.     

Trends in consultation and public participation within environmental impact assessment in Kenya

The objective of this study was to document trends in public participation within environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Kenya, using a Consultation and Public Participation Index (CPPI) developed for the analysis of EIA Study Reports submitted to the Environment Authority between 2002 and 2010. Results indicated that public participation remained relatively low, with the highest score of 1.65 in 2010, out of a possible score of 5. Scores for individual dimensions within the index fluctuated during the study period, with participation methods and type of participants scoring the highest, following increased emphasis by the Environment Authority on the conducting and reporting of public participation. This was followed by venue, notification and language used, in that order, which were often not reported, and, when reported, choices per dimension were limited. This is the first time this index has been used, yet it serves as a good starting point to evaluate public participation within EIA.     

Public participation in EIA: the case of West African Gas Pipeline and Tank Farm projects in Nigeria

This paper assesses the extent to which public participation has been fully translated into practice the case of West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) and Tank Farm (TF) projects in Nigeria. The empirical basis for this paper is constituted by published environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the WAGP and TF projects. In addition to this, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were used to corroborate whether provisions of public participation as documented in WAGP and TF projects' EIA report have been fully translated into practice. The lack of compliance noticed with TF project was not surprising as such, being an indigenous oil company, but our expectation is that WAGP project, which is not just a multinational project alone but also sponsored by the World Bank, should comprehensively serve as a yardstick for other projects in Nigeria, although the reverse is the case. The findings further show that institutional problems have prevented public participation from being translated into practice. These institutional problems arise from deep-seated economic and social factors.     

On research information and classification governance in an inter-organizational context: the Flanders Research Information Space

In a knowledge-based economy, a good overview of the scientific and technological portfolio is essential for policy formation and driving knowledge transfer to the industry and the broad public. In order to enhance open innovation, the Flemish public administration has created a Flanders research information portal that integrates information available from its data providers (research institutions, funding organizations…) using the Common European Research Information Format standard. Although this standard allows for almost unlimited flexibility for modelling the research information, it has limitations when it comes down to communication to end-users, in terms of semantics. However, interoperability of research information is only meaningful when a well-defined semantics is used and hence acts as a leverage for comparability of the information provided on the portal, including its derived services offered to the research community, research-driven organizations and policy makers. This paper describes the implementation of a business semantics tool that governs the meaning of the data concepts and classifications used for research information, in particular research funding, as a means to unambiguously exchange and interpret research data.     

Exploring social media usage in improving public perception on workplace violence against healthcare workers

Workplace violence against healthcare workers has been a major social problem in many countries. A misunderstanding between patients and physicians is the primary cause of violence . The recent rise of social media offered a new communication channel between the government and the public. This study aims to explore and examine the use of social media to improve public perception about the medical workplace violence by considering a recently issued policy in China. We collected 12,250 posts before, during and after the implementation of the policy from Weibo, which is similar to Twitter. Sentiment classification and topic clustering methods were used to analyze the data. One-way ANOVA was applied to assess the changes of public sentiments over time. Results showed that the proportion of posts with negative sentiment statistically significantly decreased after the release of the policy, indicating the effectiveness of social media in improving public perception about the medical workplace violence, to a large extent. Topic clustering results regarding the policy showed that most people supported the policy. However, some believe that punishment measures contained in the policy need to be strengthened and that more attention should be paid to the hospitals and medical staffs, as well as how to effectively protect the interests of patients. Based on these findings, we suggested government to effectively and scientifically use social media to address medical workplace violence from the perspective of the public and further consider its causes in terms of both patients and medical staffs, and building an expert witness system seems to be helpful. Measures for guaranteeing the safety of medical staffs should be built by comprehensively evaluating the potential risk. These results can help governments increase the engagement of their citizens.     

Automating the factory: theory versus practice

Considerable attention has been given to the problems associated with acquiring and implementing many of the advanced manufacturing technologies currently available to firms. Much of the information being published, however, is based on individual experiences under conditions that are frequently not reported, as is common in the trade journals and public media. Fifteen such generally-accepted ‘postulates’ for managing factory automation are identified here and analysed in terms of five in-depth case studies involving advanced manufacturing systems. In a few cases, the postulates are rejected. In some cases they are qualified, and in many cases they are reinforced with substantially more detail.     

新媒介语境下的城市公共空间导视系统设计

目的研究新媒介技术在城市公共空间导视系统设计中的规律。方法通过新旧传播媒介的分析与对比研究,推导出新媒介语境下城市公共空间导视系统的基本特征、核心要素及设计规律,并进一步用案例验证。结论新媒介语境下的城市公共空间导视系统设计是数字信息化发展的必然趋势,交互性体验模式与创新性信息传达为城市品牌形象注入了新的生命力。     

A decision-directed approach for prioritizing research into the impact of nanomaterials on the environment and human health

The emergence of nanotechnology has coincided with an increased recognition of the need for new approaches to understand and manage the impact of emerging technologies on the environment and human health. Important elements in these new approaches include life-cycle thinking, public participation and adaptive management of the risks associated with emerging technologies and new materials. However, there is a clear need to develop a framework for linking research on the risks associated with nanotechnology to the decision-making needs of manufacturers, regulators, consumers and other stakeholder groups. Given the very high uncertainties associated with nanomaterials and their impact on the environment and human health, research resources should be directed towards creating the knowledge that is most meaningful to these groups. Here, we present a model (based on multi-criteria decision analysis and a value of information approach) for prioritizing research strategies in a way that is responsive to the recommendations of recent reports on the management of the risk and impact of nanomaterials on the environment and human health.     

Balancing accountability and improvement: a case study from Massachusetts

BACKGROUND: The Massachusetts Health Quality Partnership (MHQP), a coalition of health care providers and insurers, and business and government organizations, conducted a voluntary statewide survey about patients' experiences with inpatient care at Massachusetts hospitals in 1998, and made the results public. METHODS: MHQP contracted with The Picker Institute (Boston) to conduct the statewide survey about seven dimensions of care for adult medical, surgical, and maternity patients at 58 hospitals across Massachusetts. The communications strategy for public report release was designed to promote fair reporting by the news media and emphasize the improvement goals of performance measurement above evaluation. Along with critical agreements on report design, trial surveys, advertising, and commitments from coalition members about the use of survey results, these measures sought to drive out fear of participation and unfair evaluation. RESULTS: Statewide news media coverage reflected the project's communications goals. Editorial praise for the report was widespread. The project stimulated numerous hospital quality improvement efforts and focused hospital leaders on the need to improve patients' experiences with hospital care. All participating hospitals voluntarily renewed their enrollment for a third survey and public report cycle, and new hospitals joined the project. DISCUSSION: Voluntary public release of performance information by health care providers is possible when the risks, motivations, rewards, and penalties of measurement and public reporting are understood and carefully managed. The goals of public accountability reporting will be realized sooner when it is wedded to the spirit of continuous quality improvement and when providers are engaged as partners at every step of the measurement and reporting process.     

Development of Social Media Analytics System for Emergency Event Detection and Crisis Management

Social media platforms have proven to be effective for information gathering during emergency events caused by natural or human-made disasters. Emergency response authorities, law enforcement agencies, and the public can use this information to gain situational awareness and improve disaster response. In case of emergencies, rapid responses are needed to address victims’ requests for help. The research community has developed many social media platforms and used them effectively for emergency response and coordination in the past. However, most of the present deployments of platforms in crisis management are not automated, and their operational success largely depends on experts who analyze the information manually and coordinate with relevant humanitarian agencies or law enforcement authorities to initiate emergency response operations. The seamless integration of automatically identifying types of urgent needs from millions of posts and delivery of relevant information to the appropriate agency for timely response has become essential. This research project aims to develop a generalized Information Technology (IT) solution for emergency response and disaster management by integrating social media data as its core component. In this paper, we focused on text analysis techniques which can help the emergency response authorities to filter through the sheer amount of information gathered automatically for supporting their relief efforts. More specifically, we applied state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL) techniques ranging from unsupervised to supervised learning for an in-depth analysis of social media data for the purpose of extracting real-time information on a critical event to facilitate emergency response in a crisis. As a proof of concept, a case study on the COVID-19 pandemic on the data collected from Twitter is presented, providing evidence that the scientific and operational goals have been achieved.