Sustainability reporting by Australian local government authorities

This qualitative study investigates the Western Australian (WA) local government authorities’ sustainability reporting practices, in the absence of mandatory reporting guidelines, through content analysis of their websites. Calculations from comparing the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s disclosures with those of 140 local council websites were used to develop a sustainability reporting disclosure index. The findings indicate that sustainability reporting remains moderately practised by local government authorities, despite stakeholder demand for proactive disclosures. The discourse analysis shows that Western Australia’s strategic planning for sustainable development is the key force propelling councils towards sustainability reporting practices. The findings also suggest that WA local government authorities are increasing sustainability disclosures to legitimate their social and environmental initiatives. The findings have policy implications for regulators and/or government in Western Australia, with practical implications for local council authorities and/or managers in developing awareness of sustainable operations. The study also contributes to local government authorities’ growing awareness of sustainable service operations.     

The makings of a man: social generational masculinities in Bangladesh

Abstract

The emergence of specific forms of masculinity is bounded by space and time. While attention has been given to the contexts within which forms of masculinity develop, rather less is known about men’s enactment of masculinity from a social generational perspective. To address this gap, insights from Mannheim’s work on social generations, and Connell’s notions of masculinity are drawn upon to advance understanding of social generational masculinities in modern-day Bangladesh. A multi-site cross-sectional study was conducted in three cities, using interviews to elicit narratives of masculinity from 34 men of three social generations: an older generation (aged 53–75 years and growing up in the 1950s and 1960s), a middle generation (aged 30–46 years and growing up in the 1980s), and a younger generation (aged 19–27 and growing up post-1995). Thematic analysis was used to identify key notions around what it meant to be a man. While all men subscribed to the view that ‘real’ men should be providers, they differed by social generation with respect to perspectives on work, religion and sexuality. Historical, economic and cultural changes across the generations have shaped these differences, highlighting the importance of a social generational perspective for understanding masculinities in Bangladesh.     

Developing small production and marketing enterprises: mushroom contract farming in Bangladesh

This article presents a case study of an activity implemented under the FAO component of the Local Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation Project, funded by UNDP in Bangladesh. In Mymensingh city the project is linking poor urban dwellers with a niche market for oyster mushroom. This small enterprise activity appears to be sustainable, in that it develops agricultural production to cater for the specific demand of an existing small marketing enterprise. As long as the trader finds a market for his mushroom, he has an incentive to collaborate with the project beneficiaries who supply the produce. This model is thus an example of mutual benefit between extremely small landholders and a trader through the catalytic effect of a development project.     

The Impact of Social Media Political Activists on Voting Patterns

This paper investigates how social media affects general voting patterns. Unlike previous studies investigating whether citizens’ use of social media affects political participation, this paper considers the connections that social media users have with political activists on social media, and how this connectedness influences general voting patterns, using data from Ghana. With contemporary theoretical perspectives and exploratory techniques, trends from past literature are presented, from a social media-based propagated survey with 420 valid responses. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model, which demonstrates that the connectedness with political and social media activists is significant and positively influences modifications in voting patterns. Online political participation and political affect also present an effect on voting patterns. The relationship between connections with social media political activists and online political participation is significant, as indicated by a strong covariance observed in the model. The results of the multigroup analysis also indicate some cultural and social issues to shape the phenomena for further investigation.

     

Vice and virtue of the Basic Structure Doctrine: a comparative analytic reconsideration of the Indian sub-continent’s constitutional practices

This paper examines the doctrine of Basic Structure and its effect upon the development of constitutional jurisprudence on the Indian sub-continent, i.e. Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. It also analyses the courts’ robust underpinning on the doctrine that puts ‘an embargo or a limit upon the parliamentary supremacy’. Such an embargo or a limit is at times seen as a fundamental one which eventually led practical application. Since this position provokes huge controversy, e.g. illegitimacy, anti-democracy, judiciocracy, counter-majoritarianism, anathema to popular sovereignty, non-textual and abstract formulation, etc., it fairly requires doctrinal expositions to be made on how to figure it out. Moreover, it explores the scope, standing and inviolability of the doctrine in the sense of comparative conceptualization. Furthermore, dissection from multifarious perspective is made in order to look into its pragmatism, justification and legitimacy through fixing its today’s position in the ongoing debate among the contemporary constitutional commentators.     

Impact of COVID-19 on Bangladesh's agriculture sector and the ways forward to recovery: An overview

The COVID-19 outbreak has left an indelible effect on Bangladesh's agriculture sector, like that of most developing countries. Considering that agriculture is the cornerstone of Bangladesh's economy, we made an effort to compile a detailed scenario of COVID-19's effect on it through a relevant literature review. Since no significant studies outlined a complete picture of the pandemic's impact on agriculture, our study ventured to reveal the circumstances of each sub-sector of agriculture. During the early phases of the pandemic, farmers engaged in agriculture production got poor prices, with the majority of them incurring losses. Labor shortages and input scarcity were the most prevailing hindrances across all the sub-sectors. The export volume seemed to shrink hugely, hurting the country's GDP. The supply chain for agricultural commodities was disrupted as a result of the lockdown and mobility restrictions, which resulted in the elimination of the majority of intermediaries. Unprecedented challenges occurred in the input and output markets, as well as in the agro-industries, exacerbating the situation. However, while the vegetables and poultry sub-sectors recovered utterly and the dairy sub-sector somehow managed to stabilize, other sub-sectors are still grieving. This study highlighted some policies that can mitigate the miseries of the agriculture sector and overcome further potential threats in Bangladesh and other agriculture-led developing countries.     

Influence of organizational culture on knowledge transfer: Evidence from the Government of Dubai

In the current context of globalization and technological spread, the role of knowledge as an organizational resource is phenomenal. Knowledge management can be seen as an add-on to reform paradigms such as new public management, good governance, and smart government, which has generated significant interest for public sector reformists in recent years. The amount of literature on knowledge management in public the sector of the United Arab Emirates is relatively scanty. In the Government of Dubai (1 of 7 Emirates in the UAE), the journey towards knowledge management has started 2 decades or so ago and now has begun to take structural roots in many organizations. This study examines the relationship between organizational culture elements (i.e., trust, communication between employees, reward, leadership, and learning and development), organizational socialization, and knowledge transfer in the government organizations in Dubai. Based on a theoretical framework to measure the influence, this study conducted a questionnaire survey in the Government of Dubai entities. From 811 respondents representing these organizations, the survey results unfold positive relationship between knowledge transfer and the 4 selected organizational cultural elements (i.e., trust, communication between employees, reward, and leadership). Socialization is found to play a moderating role in all the hypothesized relationships except between reward and knowledge transfer. It also examines further research implications to support knowledge transfer processes and practices in the public sector of Dubai and the UAE.     

Changes in villagers' knowledge,perceptions, and attitudes concerning gender roles and relations in Bangladesh

This article examines the changing status of villagers' knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes towards gender roles and gender relations over time. Data were collected from eastern areas of Bangladesh through surveys and in-depth interviews. Findings show that knowledge about discrimination, empowerment, violence against women, and marital issues increased remarkably, and attitudes on those issues changed positively – but not as much as expected. Traditional patriarchal norms, values, culture, and social structures still operated as barriers to gender equality.