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Sustainable development as a community of practice: Insights from rural water projects in Egypt
Abstract
A community-of-practice (CoP) approach is used to analyze rural water sustainability. In combining CoP with the capability approach (CA), a dichotomy is generated between project goals and project practices and whether they are locally or externally driven. Four possible project scenarios are developed from this framework: empowerment (local goals and practices), apprenticeship (local practices and external goals), assistencialism (external practices and local goals) and determinism (external goals and practices). A novel arrangement of indicators is used that incorporates economic (costs), environmental (natural resources) and engineering (skills) sustainability. A meta-synthesis of 23 Egyptian rural water projects indicates that sustainability potential should optimize environmental and engineering sustainability on one hand, with economic sustainability on the other. The policy implication is that managing a series of village-level water projects at a regional level best achieves both economy of scale and adequate cultivation of local practices. However, such a policy is only possible if national institutions enable decentralized regional governance. If institutions resist decentralization, institutional incentives are likely necessary to ensure a more enabling environment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
... Just as with energy balancing, capability development provides the potential to act and the motivation. In developing community individuals' capabilities, the aims of a joint businesscommunity enterprise are more easily maintained because the individual is better equipped to autonomously handle changing circumstances that may arise (Armanios, 2012). This improves the long-term economic potential for a project, vital to business interests. ...
... On the other hand, a structure geographically distant to the area where community-business collaboration will take place has the opposite problem. Such a structure will more likely achieve scale and full cost-recovery in the short-run, but there is less likely to be enough direct collaboration between business and community individuals to adequately develop each other's capabilities (Armanios, 2012). Given this trade-off, we posit regionalism as the most ideal approach for sustainable collaborations between business and society. ...
... " Regional " here only necessitates a balance between local level governance, optimal for capability development, and more distant level governance seeking to work with the widest possible community or slice of society, most optimal for short-run profit. For example, in a previous study on Egyptian rural water projects, the balance was struck through having governance at the governorate or provincial level (Armanios, 2012). In other water project studies, the notion of regional was much smaller in scale. ...
As evidenced in GE’s reverse innovation process in India, this paper addresses the unresolved issue as to how opportunities are recognized in an intercultural context. We argue that opportunity recognition is only possible when companies move from a prescriptive to descriptive corporate philosophy. We develop a theoretical framework we call intercultural business ethics to illustrate this change in corporate philosophy. We begin with the framework’s philosophical underpinnings whereby we identify two key constructs: operational mean and rebalancing. Operational mean is the set of accepted practices that are derive from recognizing and accommodating to a society’s cultural differences. Rebalancing is when the operational mean is either reasserted or changed as new circumstances arise. We then demonstrate the organizational implications of the framework, whereby the operational mean serves as the institutional logic, and rebalancing serves as the institutional micro-foundation. By theorizing on how partners without shared values can purposively and progressively work together to structure their collaborations, and in so doing recognize new intercultural opportunities, we contribute not only to the intercultural collaboration but also to the institutional theory literature.
... In another study from Indonesia the authors concluded that micro hydro projects perform well in most sustainability indicators except economic, as they do not have an economic scheme in place (Purwanto & Afifah, 2016). Armanios (2012) proposed three sets of indicators economic, engineering, and environmental to assess three village water projects in Egypt. The innovation of his approach is the use of a framework that includes the community-of-practice (CoP) approach and the capability approach (CA), while he distinguishes between project goals and practices. ...
Local energy projects have been associated with several benefits for the local community like social cohesion, economic gains, new skills, and environmental awareness. Yet, there is limited research on whether the projects fulfill their sustainability promises, and how the local community perceive the benefits. This research introduces a novel framework to assess the success of a local renewable energy project based on the perceptions of the local population and the initial ambitions of the projects. Using this framework two innovative local renewable energy projects are assessed; one in Tilos island in Greece and the other in El Hierro in Spain. An online questionnaire was used to assess the impact of the project on people's lives, their overall assessment of the project and their willingness to support similar future initiatives. The data show that the economic benefits are not significant when people assess the project, while on the contrary other factors like the environmental benefits, sense of pride, technical parameters institutional seem to have a greater effect. The environmental and institutional factors are also among the ones that influence people's willingness to support and participate in future projects. Overall, we reveal that the two projects are quite successful in the eyes of the local population and offer good case studies with several implications for policymakers and future initiatives.
... We placed the practices related to individual or collective behaviours that foster the CE in the behaviour group (community involvement, socially responsible consumption). We found eleven studies in this group [3,34,61,[107][108][109]. The literature mainly analysed these groups from the micro (consumers) and meso (communities) perspectives (Table 9). ...
This paper identifies, through a literature review, how 53 circular economy (CE) practices are related to the capability approach (CA) proposed by Sen. The main goal was to identify how a virtuous cycle between CE and CA can be developed. Five instrumental freedoms (IF) were analysed: economic facilities, social opportunities, protective security, political freedoms, and transparency guarantees. These relationships were analysed in three flows: CE practices positively impacting IF, CE practices negatively impacting IF, and the feedback influence of IF on CE practices. The results show that 32 of the 53 practices previously mentioned have not yet been studied from the CA context, which indicates that there are several research opportunities. From the practices considered, 72 articles were analysed in the final sample. The results suggest that several CE practices are aligned with the CA, considering that all five IF were identified as positive outcomes of CE practices. However, in some contexts, certain practices can have negative outcomes, which indicates that CE, at least in some cases, may not be considered as sustainable, since it decreases IF and, therefore, the social aspect of sustainability. The results also highlight that there is a feedback from IF to CE, in such a way that investing in the expansion of IF can facilitate the development of CE practices. Therefore, this study concludes that CE is indeed a way to fully operationalize sustainable development
... For example, village executive committees in rural India serve as a form of scaffolding in that they work within existing village social structures to help situate novel water and sanitation efforts within local social understandings (Mair et al. 2016). Similar scaffolding also enhances the sustainability of rural water systems in Egypt (Armanios 2012), and improved formal market participation in Nicaragua (Sutter et al. 2017). In the context of entrepreneurship, public research organizations often host such scaffolding (Owen-Smith and Powell 2004, Powell et al. 2012. ...
How do we reconcile misalignments between a system’s existing normative and cognitive elements and novel regulatory change? Prior work either largely focuses only on regulatory change or analyzes normative and cognitive barriers in parallel to rather than in interaction with regulatory change. Moreover, the institutional entrepreneurship literature that focuses on reconciling such misalignments is predominantly centered on the tactics of entrepreneurs rather than the support provided by institutional carriers. We, therefore, use the case of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Knowledge Innovation Program (KIP) to better understand these neglected facets of institutional change. Through a mixed methods approach, we posit and find support for two key mechanisms that support regulatory change. First, institutional carriers (e.g., CAS institutes) clarify the market relevance of technical knowledge, linking cognitive support to regulatory change. Second, institutional carriers (e.g., science parks) create shared standards that could not occur otherwise, linking normative support to regulatory change. Finally, these changes to institutions seem particularly associated with more nascent clusters. Our study contributes to studies at the nexus between institutional change and entrepreneurship by highlighting the role of linking cognitive and normative support to regulatory changes aimed at increasing entrepreneurship.
... These challenges can be technical (e.g., augmenting or decommissioning the system; , economic (e.g., pricing the system; Mack and Wrase, 2017) or social (e.g., affordability, water burden; Fankhauser and Tepic, 2005). Thus, although such systems are designed and maintained by engineers, the socio-technical (e.g., the development of water policy) implications of scaling them to meet changing supply and demand require a collaborative effort amongst end-users and providers Armanios, 2012). In addition to population changes, population density poses a further socio-technical challenge to water infrastructure providers. ...
... Metasynthesis is a qualitative method that, through a systematic approach, combines selected studies to discover new subjects and enhance knowledge (Armanios, 2012). The reason for choosing metasynthesis approach is that it can help discover the new and fundamental themes and metaphors by providing the researchers with a systematic frame and by combining different researches and consequently making it possible to have a comprehensive perspective toward issues (Serdarasan, 2013). ...
Supply chain requires simultaneous enhancement of the economic, environmental, and social performance of the business toward sustainability. For this aim, a sustainable performance assessment system is needed to be implemented for evaluating different supply chain segments and clarify supply chains' indicators. The assessment can be performed based on three sustainability dimensions: economical, environmental, and social. The first purpose of this paper helps to identify sustainability issues and highlights the gaps and inconsistencies of literature. The second purpose of the study is to identify the most important indicators of sustainability for sustainable development supply chain of Iranian Oil Company stakeholder engagement. The indicators of the sustainable supply chain are studied and collected using metasynthesis approach, and the most important indicators of sustainability were identified for the company with Delphi technique. The proposed sustainability indicators can be useful for the researchers to develop practical and comprehensive measures in their respective industries.
... Previous studies focused on the environmental aspects of sustainability in project deliverables while giving less attention to sustainable project management during project delivery [13]. Armanios [14] believed that if we are to possess a more complete and holistic view of sustainability, engineering sustainability needs to be considered and discussed more. At present, few investigations are available on the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects. ...
Sustainability has recently been acknowledged as a crucial issue in infrastructure projects. Developing a model to evaluate project sustainability according to sustainability indicators plays a major role in promoting the sustainable development of water environment treatment public-private partnership (PPP) projects. Traditional sustainability assessments are mostly based on the triple bottom line (economic, social, and environmental) and lack a more integrated indicator system. To connect the research gap, this paper identifies 27 factors that affect the sustainability of water environment treatment PPP projects from five dimensions: economy, society, resources and environment, engineering, and project management using exploratory factor analysis. The fitting degree between the model and original data is verified by confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that the fitting was successful. This paper makes two contributions: first, it provides a comprehensive sustainability evaluation indicator system from five aspects, laying a foundation for the evaluation of project sustainability. Second, this study defines a methodology to evaluate and rank factors, identifies the indicators that show the most significant impact on project sustainability in the five dimensions, which provide a reliable reference for the public and private sector to take appropriate measures to improve the sustainability level of water environment treatment public-private partnership projects.
... For example, village executive committees in rural India serve as a form of scaffolding in that they work within existing village social structures to help situate novel water and sanitation efforts within local social understandings (Mair et al. 2016). Similar scaffolding also enhances the sustainability of rural water systems in Egypt (Armanios 2012), and improved formal market participation in Nicaragua (Sutter et al. 2017). In the context of entrepreneurship, public research organizations often host such scaffolding (Owen-Smith and Powell 2004, Powell et al. 2012. ...
... For example, village executive committees in rural India serve as a form of scaffolding in that they work within existing village social structures to help situate novel water and sanitation efforts within local social understandings (Mair et al. 2016). Similar scaffolding also enhances the sustainability of rural water systems in Egypt (Armanios 2012), and improved formal market participation in Nicaragua (Sutter et al. 2017). In the context of entrepreneurship, public research organizations often host such scaffolding (Owen-Smith and Powell 2004, Powell et al. 2012. ...
How do we reconcile misalignments between a system’s existing normative and cognitive elements and novel regulatory change? Prior work either largely focuses only on regulatory change or analyzes normative and cognitive barriers in parallel to rather than in interaction with regulatory change. Moreover, the institutional entrepreneurship literature that focuses on reconciling such misalignments is predominantly centered on the tactics of entrepreneurs rather than the support provided by institutional carriers. We, therefore, use the case of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Knowledge Innova- tion Program (KIP) to better understand these neglected facets of institutional change. Through a mixed methods approach, we posit and find support for two key mechanisms that support regulatory change. First, institutional carriers (e.g., CAS institutes) clarify the market relevance of technical knowledge, linking cognitive support to regulatory change. Second, institutional carriers (e.g., science parks) create shared standards that could not occur otherwise, linking normative support to regulatory change. Finally, these changes to institutions seem particularly associated with more nascent clusters. Our study contributes to studies at the nexus between institutional change and entrepreneurship by highlighting the role of linking cognitive and normative support to regulatory changes aimed at in- creasing entrepreneurship.
... Booker et al. 19 discussed the modeling advances on water management policies in the last 25 years. [20][21][22] Howari and Ghrefat 23 developed a methodology for the environmental assessment of the quality of water, soil, and air in Jordan. They pointed out the detrimental impact of human activities on these three important aspects, and in the case of water, they stressed out the importance of using alternative water sources. ...
A multi annual model for the optimal planning and scheduling of water storage and distribution in a macroscopic system is presented. The model considers natural resources such as superficial and subterranean water bodies, whereas the alternative water resources are harvested rainwater and reclaimed wastewater. Due to the seasonal nature of precipitation, it is considered that storage devices can be constructed in specific locations in the city and then used to satisfy the different demands of the system. The proposed model overcomes previously reported methodologies by considering important aspects such as population growth, time value of money and the expected change in the precipitation patterns due to climate change. A case study for a Mexican city was solved. Results show that the implementation of alternative water sources in the multi annual water management problem in a macroscopic system might increase the revenue up to 22.9 % respect the current operation and that the alternative water sources have the potential to satisfy up to 25.2 % of the agricultural, domestic and industrial demands in the city during the time span of the project, reducing the overexploitation of natural water bodies.
... Booker et al. 19 discussed the modeling advances on water management policies in the last 25 years. [20][21][22] Howari and Ghrefat 23 developed a methodology for the environmental assessment of the quality of water, soil, and air in Jordan. They pointed out the detrimental impact of human activities on these three important aspects, and in the case of water, they stressed out the importance of using alternative water sources. ...
This paper proposes a multi-objective optimization model for the design of a macroscopic water system of a Mexican city that solves simultaneously the planning and scheduling of water storage and distribution tasks. The model, which considers rainwater harvesting and reclaimed water reusing as alternative water sources, maximizes the revenues from water sales and minimizes simultaneously the water consumption and land use. A case study based on the city of Morelia in Mexico was solved. It was found that the use of alternative water sources (such as harvested rainwater) along with an appropriate planning and scheduling of storage and distribution tasks have the potential to reduce the pressure over natural reservoirs significantly. Our approach considers simultaneously economic and environmental concerns, thereby contributing to the implementation of more sustainable alternatives in urban water distribution. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The agri-food sector plays a significant socio-economic role in Egypt; it represents the main source of income for about 40% of the population. The deterioration of the socio-economic and environmental indicators is an increasing pressure on the Egyptian agri-food system to move towards sustainability. In this context, many scholars and practitioners call for supporting organic agriculture as an eminently sustainable agri-food system. The present article tackles the dynamics of the transition towards organic agriculture. The analysis was performed through the lens of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP; niche, socio-technical regime, and socio-technical landscape). Data were collected through a systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews with different Egyptian stakeholders. The results show that organic farming is a prominent, yet slow-growing niche in Egypt, which accounts for 2.82% of the total agricultural land. Therefore, there is no genuine transition from the current dual agri-food regime (cf., traditional and intensive agriculture). However, the landscape factors (e.g., climate change, water scarcity, health problems, social unrest) are expected to put pressure on the agri-food regime and create opportunities for the organic agriculture niche to emerge. We conclude that the ongoing transition towards organic agriculture and sustainable agri-food system might be lengthy and slow, and political support is essential for the breakthrough and take-off of organics in the country.
“We all belong to communities of practice...in fact communities of practice are everywhere” (Wenger 1998, p. 6). A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of people who share similar challenges, interact regularly, learn from and with each other, and improve their ability to address their challenges. The theory of CoP starts from the idea of situated learning and learning by interaction and studies how a CoP generates and diffuses knowledge among members and in the organization in which the CoP arises and grows. In this chapter, CoP is described, taking into consideration components, characteristics, relationships among members in the CoP and between the CoP and organizations, benefits and limitations in activating a CoP, and factors that enable
or obstacle the success of a CoP. It emerges that CoP exist in many contexts and that the presence of interorganizational CoP is growing, as well as the diffusion of virtual CoP. Moreover, CoP must pay attention to the search for an equilibrium between formal-informal functioning, controlautonomy, and core group-peripheral members. Recently, CoP has manifested an interesting roleintwokey issues: innovation and sustainability. Some experiences show the conditions under which a CoP can be a center of innovation production, both incremental and radical. The lens of the theory of CoP seems to be very useful when communities face the challenge of sustainability. It represents a very promising area in which research and practice dialogue in search of the best solutions to environmental issues
A review of literature during calendar year 2013 focused on environmental policies and sustainable development, and economic policies. This review is divided into these sections: sustainable development, irrigation, ecosystems and watershed management, climate change and disaster risk management, environmental policies management, economic growth, water supply policies, water consumption, water price regulation, and valuation.
Data do recebimento do artigo: 03/09/2014 Data do aceite de publicação: 26/10/2014 Desk Review Double BlindReview Resumo na última página Resumen en la última página RMS – Revista Metropolitana de Sustentabilidade Volume 4, número 3 – 2014 ISSN: 2318-3233 Editor Científico: Celso Machado Júnior Avaliação: Melhores práticas editoriais da ANPAD Endereço: http://www.revistaseletronicas.fmu.br/ ABSTRACT An organization with a commitment to sustainable principles needs incorporating a broad range of stakeholders and addressing environmental and social issues as their inter-relationship with financial issues. The purpose of this article is to review Project Management contributions that integrate sustainability issues with a managerial focus. A conceptual framework that integrates the project management, managerial and sustainable development fields provides a structure to the survey. The results show a lack of research contributing with methods or frameworks that discusses how project management should support an organization´s strategy and sustainability. The paper provides a contribution to researchers interested in project management concentrate their efforts to ensure project governance that integrates sustainability issues with management focus.
– The EU MEDA Water Programme intends to improve local water management conditions through the implementation of regional projects that aim at wastewater treatment and reuse, alternative water resources, local governance, irrigation water management and drought management. Encouraging results have been achieved in all sectors mentioned above. Farmers increasingly manage their water resources themselves, wastewater reuse is becoming more accepted, and irrigation water use has become more efficient. In all activities, extensive North-South and South-South technology exchanges have taken place and thousands of people have been trained and are more aware of problems and solutions. Elements of drought management have been present in all projects of the MEDA Water Programme. The MEDROPLAN project has given drought management new impulses through clear guidelines and networking of involved institutions. Further institutional and technical development will be needed to enable real world application of the guidelines at a larger scale.
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Participation must be seen as political. There are always tensions underlying issues such as who is involved, how, and on whose terms. While participation has the potential to challenge patterns of dominance, it may also be the means through which existing power relations are entrenched and reproduced. The arenas in which people perceive their interests and judge whether they can express them are not neutral. Participation may take place for a whole range of unfree reasons. It is important to see participation as a dynamic process, and to understand that its own form and function can become a focus for struggle.
Participatory action research is presented as a social research method and process and as a goal that social research should always strive to achieve. After describing the key features and strengths of participatory action research, we briefly analyze its role in promoting social change through organizational learning in three very different kinds of organizations. We argue that participatory action research is always an emergent process that can often be intensified and that works effectively to link participation, social action, and knowledge generation.
Many rural water supply interventions in developing countries have been marked by a poor record of sustainability. Considerable progress has been made over the past several decades on the development of lower-cost technologies that are easier for communities in developing countries to maintain and also on improving project design and implementation to enhance sustainability of outcomes. Less attention has been given to the necessary and sufficient supports for water system maintenance in the postconstruction period. This study explores the contribution of various types of postconstruction support (PCS) to the sustainability of rural water supply systems in Bolivia. Using regression and matched pair statistical analyses, the effects of PCS on water system performance and user satisfaction with service are modeled. Communities that received management-oriented PCS visits from external agencies, and those whose system operators attended training workshops, had better performing systems than communities that received no such support. Engineering-oriented PCS visits to communities had no measurable impact on system functioning or user satisfaction.
This study explores the premise that knowledge in new product development proves both a barrier to and a source of innovation. To understand the problematic nature of knowledge and the boundaries that result, an ethnographic study was used to understand how knowledge is structured differently across the four primary functions that are dependent on each other in the creation and production of a high-volume product. A pragmatic view of 'knowledge in practice' is developed, describing knowledge as localized, embedded, and invested within a function and how, when working across functions, consequences often arise that generate problematic knowledge boundaries. The use of a boundary object is then described as a means of representing, learning about, and transforming knowledge to resolve the consequences that exist at a given boundary. Finally, this pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries is proposed as a framework to revisit the differentiation and integration of knowledge.
Life, health and hygiene all depend on access to a plentiful supply of safe drinking water. Piped water supplies in rural Egypt are insufficient to meet the demands of the existing population. This situation is worsening due to the rapid population growth and failure of existing water supply systems.
There are already areas of the country with severe piped water shortages. If corrective action is not taken soon densely populated villages will become vulnerable to outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Immediate action is needed to reverse the deterioration of water supply systems and to improve the benefits gained from capital works investments in the sector.
This paper promotes the concept that sustainable water systems in rural Egypt depends on a central government and local unit partnership. Also needed are consumer bodies to determine user needs; local units to be given powers to manage the revenue and expenditure accounts; and the central government to concentrate on setting policies and guidelines, and assisting with the implementation of major capital works.
The paper provides a case study of rural water supply in Fayoum. First, the present state-of-affairs is described and analyzed with respect to production, consumption and coverage. A water balance is drawn up and the projected trends up to the year 2000 are indicated. Nearly full coverage has been achieved already but still more than 50% of the population is served by public standposts. Considerable demand for house connections is apparent. Based on the present trend it is expected that by the year 2000, 75% of the population could be served by private connections, provided sufficient production capacity becomes available.
Secondly, the focus is on organization and finance with special attention to cost recovery. Estimates for present billing efficiency and the Unaccounted For Water (UFW) percentages are provided. With the perceived trend in the growth of house connections and decline of public taps there is ample potential to reduce UFW, provided an efficient billing and fee collection system is introduced and leakage is controlled. With the reduction of UFW by “technical” measures half of the cost recovery target can be achieved. The other half has to come from tariff increases.
Experience is drawn from the Netherlands-supported Fayoum Drinking Water and Sanitation Project (FADWS) which started in 1990.
A pilot plant consisting of limestone bed filtration and sand filtration has been built 15 km south of Cairo to serve about 400 people. The pilot plant consists of 3 limestone filter units operated in series and two sand filters. The limestone filters are 1.3 m × 1.3 m and have a media depth of 1.15 m, a liquid depth of 0.5 m plus 0.35 m free board. The pilot plant started operation in April 1991 and the initial operation of the pilot plant has shown that a packed limestone filter unit is a simple and cheap method of removing iron from ferruginous groundwater. The initial results have shown that when an inlet water of about 5 mg/l of iron is treated by one limestone filter and one sand filter at a flow rate of 0.9 m3/h, the treated water had an average iron concentration of 0.2 mg/l.
The Kafr El Sheikh Water Supply Project is a comprehensive endeavour to provide the physical and institutional resources for an effective and sustainable water supply system for 2 million persons in a developing rural Governorate in the Delta region of Egypt. The paper describes the aims of the Management Component, the institutional development of an integrated water supply and sewerage company and the main activities to-date. These include training, operational improvements, health education and finance development. Further support is required until all engineering and institutional development work has been completed.
In 1990-1991 an action-research programme in the field of rural water supply and sanitation was implemented with the objective “To assess to what extent childhood diarrhoea is reduced by the delivery of hardware facilities which improve water quality, water availability and excreta disposal, and also including an intensive educational package directed toward improving behaviours concerning water use and personal and domestic hygiene”.
The intervention in Assyut Governorate comprising the construction of handpumps and latrines and a health education programme, was implemented during the second half of 1990. The data collection and data evaluation have been carried out during the period 1990-1991. Data were collected from the villages served with a complete intervention package as well as in control villages.
This paper deals mainly with the water quality issues which were part of the research programme. A comparison is presented for the water quality from both traditional and new handpumps. This comparison is supported by data collection throughout the research period within certain intervals, and by data collected from other handpumps installed at earlier times in areas within Upper Egypt. Findings concerning the actual drinking water quality, and the quality control of intervention and monitoring procedures are also discussed.
Major conclusions drawn from the results of the monitoring programme are:–The design, the drilling method and a proper development of handpump wells play an important role in the quality control of its water.–The bacteriological water quality improves only gradually after construction and eventually reaches acceptable levels. However, deep groundwater is thought to be of bacteriologically excellent quality. The most probable explanation for this gradual improvement is therefore the relatively long survival times of bacteria that entered the wells during construction.–Although it is not the intention of this paper to discuss the behavioural changes in the village communities during the research period, it was observed that, while water quality from handpumps is improving with time, the water quality from in-house zirs (storage reservoirs for drinking water) remained poor.
Despite the frequency with which the term 'community' is used, it is hard to find any comprehensive exploration of the nature and value of community. This book tries to remedy this omission whilst taking seriously the idea that community can be of different kinds and can exist at different levels, and that these levels and kinds may come into conflict with one another. It focuses on the question of what kind of community is valuable at the level of the state. It then explores the limits that ideals of political community place upon cultural diversity within the state, and the limits that, in turn, ideals of global community place upon the self-determination of political communities. This book will be of interest to students of political theory, philosophy and international relations
Several groups of senior engineers set up communities of practice, to provide significant information regarding engineering practices to young engineering professionals. Communities of practice provide certain benefits for practitioners, the organizations they work for, and the engineering profession as a whole. Communities of practice consist of experienced professionals, who possess superior level of knowledge and expertise, apprentices, young and new members, all other concerned individuals. All members benefit from their association with one another in different ways. Apprentices benefit by accessing the collective knowledge that experienced engineers conceive, or plan. Experienced professionals benefit by teaching others, enjoying a certain amount of prestige. These experienced professionals also learn about certain aspects of engineering practices, while interacting with young engineering professionals.
A study has been conducted to evaluate the performance of an aerated oxidation pond system in a village in Egypt. It comprises an anaerobic pond (AP), an aerated facultative pond (AeP) and a maturation pond (MP). The assessment involved an intensive programme of sampling and analysis of raw wastewater, unit process contents and unit process effluents.
Field studies indicated a wide fluctuation in the BOD5 load applied to the STP. It ranged from 64 to 290 g BOD5/m3.d, with an average value of 146 g BOD5/m3.d. This, however, did not affect physico-chemical characteristics of the final effluent. Residual COD, BOD & SS were around 99 mg/l, 32 mg/l & 66 mg/l, respectively. Although faecal coliform removal was around 98.9%, yet residual count was still high. Also, significant decline in both parasitic eggs and protozoal stages has been recorded.
Egypt planned to reclaim large areas in both the Eastern and Western desert fringes of the Nile Delta with an increasing use of sewage effluent from Greater Cairo. The Gabal el Asfar farm which has been irrigated with raw to primary treated sewage effluent for a period of seventy five years was selected as a pilot area to investigate the groundwater quality. This farm covering 3000 feddan (1250 ha), is located in the sandy area northeast of Cairo. The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of agricultural application of sewage effluent on groundwater quality. Observation wells were constructed and field and laboratory measurements were carried out in and around the Gabal el Asfar area. The water balance and mass balances have been assessed. The study yielded useful recommendations to decrease the impact on groundwater quality and possible risks in Gabal el Asfar, concerning 1) type and amount of pollution from sewage effluent, 2) design criteria to control possible spreading of pollutants, and finally 3) the use of groundwater in the area. The following comprises the main conclusions: * Irrigation with sewage effluent had a positive impact on salinity of the initially brackish groundwater. On the contrary, groundwater quality is negatively affected from sewage effluent with regard to nitrogen contents (ammonium and nitrate), phosphate, heavy metals and faecal coliforms. * The drinking water limit for nitrate is sometimes exceeded. Moreover, faecal coliforms are found in water from all shallow handpumps in the area. The general suitability of the groundwater is therefore limited while the use of handpumps for drinking water purposes should be avoided. High boron contents of sewage effluent indicate a risk for crops sensitive to boron. * The accumulation of heavy metals and phosphorus in the soil adversely affects the soil system. * Pretreatment of sewage effluent in Gabal el Asfar should be improved to limit the pollution of the aquifer. Industrial discharge in sewage effluent should be avoided. * Groundwater recharged by sewage effluent is mainly collected by drains in or at the borders of the area, so spreading of pollutants out of the area is largely controlled.
Steven Lukes' Power: A Radical View is a seminal work still widely used some 30 years after publication. The second edition includes the complete original text alongside two major new essays. One assesses the main debates about how to conceptualize and study power, including the influential contributions of Michel Foucault. The other reconsiders Steven Lukes' own views in light of these debates and of criticisms of his original argument. With a new introduction and bibliographical essay, this book will consolidate its reputation as a classic work and a major reference point within social and political theory.
In this major book Martha Nussbaum, one of the most innovative and influential philosophical voices of our time, proposes a kind of feminism that is genuinely international, argues for an ethical underpinning to all thought about development planning and public policy, and dramatically moves beyond the abstractions of economists and philosophers to embed thought about justice in the concrete reality of the struggles of poor women. Nussbaum argues that international political and economic thought must be sensitive to gender difference as a problem of justice, and that feminist thought must begin to focus on the problems of women in the third world. Taking as her point of departure the predicament of poor women in India, she shows how philosophy should undergird basic constitutional principles that should be respected and implemented by all governments, and used as a comparative measure of quality of life across nations.
Most experts agree that Egypt now faces a serious and worsening water deficit and that it is increasingly likely that it will not only have limited ability to expand the irrigated area but may have to consider reducing the overall area under irrigation. This study will look at the efficiency of irrigation water distribution and use at the village level. Through a quantitative analysis of the operation of the irrigation distribution system within a particular field study region it will seek to indicate how far present assumptions of water requirements are accurate and how far the existing mechanisms are effective in ensuring an adequate supply reaches individual farm canals (mesqa). The resultant patterns of supply will be contrasted with farmers' actual use patterns, to determine where wastage occurs. On the basis of this analysis, an attempt is made to identify how far conflict has resulted from the failings in technical specifications of the irrigation system and how far from failings in the social system governing its operation. Reference is made to the traditional forms of social organization which still exert influence over local-level operation of the irrigation system and the nature of their interaction with the various state institutions operating within the village environment. It is argued that although the Egyptian Government exerts control over the operation of the irrigation system at the macro-level, it does not effectively exercise social control at the village level. Such a situation has important implications for the management of resources and for strategies which seek to promote improved efficiency of production.
Changes in and outside the water sector are creating new demands for knowledge and capacity. Water institutions, including networks, do not easily adjust to changing demands unless a particular effort is made to do so, and inertia is overcome. Experts caution that most of the changes affecting water management will come from outside the sector, such as from population dynamics, trade policy, and the growth of small cities, amongst others. ICT has led to the "death of distance" and has spurred the creation of many new knowledge networks in the past decade. Existing water knowledge networks can pay attention to the changing demands on the water sector and review if they respond to these evolving demands. New networks can review if their rationale for establishment caters to priority sector needs.
Prologue Part I. Practice: Introduction I 1. Meaning 2. Community 3. Learning 4. Boundary 5. Locality Coda I. Knowing in practice Part II. Identity: Introduction II 6. Identity in practice 7. Participation and non-participation 8. Modes of belonging 9. Identification and negotiability Coda II. Learning communities Conclusion: Introduction III 10. Learning architectures 11. Organizations 12. Education Epilogue.
THE interesting paper by Drs. Haldane and Henderson in NATURE for August 28, p. 308, merits emphasis on two or three points. Above all, the mechanical beauty of the shadouf, in spite of its crude construction, deserves notice. It will be observed that trunnion bearings, which would wear and need lubrication, are replaced by almost frictionless hinges in the form of ropes. These ropes, in addition to their antifriction qualities as hinges, confer an important property on the system, namely, elasticity.
While the recent focus on knowledge has undoubtedly benefited organizational studies, the literature still presents a sharply contrasting and even contradictory view of knowledge, which at times is described as "sticky" and at other times "leaky." This paper is written on the premise that there is more than a problem with metaphors at issue here, and more than accounts of different types of knowledge (such as "tacit" and "explicit") can readily explain. Rather, these contrary descriptions of knowledge reflect different, partial, and sometimes "balkanized" perspectives from which knowledge and organization are viewed. Taking the community of practice as a unifying unit of analysis for understanding knowledge in the firm, the paper suggests that often too much attention is paid to the idea of community, too little to the implications of practice. Practice, we suggest, creates epistemic differences among the communities within a firm, and the firm's advantage over the market lies in dynamically coordinating the knowledge produced by these communities despite such differences. In making this argument, we argue that analyses of systemic innovation should be extended to embrace all firms in a knowledge economy, not just the classically innovative. This extension will call for a transformation of conventional ideas coordination and of the trade-off between exploration and exploitation.
As a tool both for research and for structuring community-level interaction, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is now well embedded in development practice. This paper, however, argues that in order to play an enabling role towards community action, facilitators need to offer much more than the traditional PRA approach. Based on work with groups of women and of men in North Bengal, the paper describes how local politics and facilitators' strategies interact and complicate the use of PRA-like planning approaches. The article stresses the need for effective and long-term facilitation strategies that take into account organisational, methodological, and contextual considerations, and argues that organisations need to invest far more in ensuring the quality of facilitators than is generally the case.
The concept of power remains elusive despite the recent and prolific outpourings of case studies on community power. Its elusiveness is dramatically demonstrated by the regularity of disagreement as to the locus of community power between the sociologists and the political scientists. Sociologically oriented researchers have consistently found that power is highly centralized, while scholars trained in political science have just as regularly concluded that in “their” communities power is widely diffused. Presumably, this explains why the latter group styles itself “pluralist,” its counterpart “elitist.”
There seems no room for doubt that the sharply divergent findings of the two groups are the product, not of sheer coincidence, but of fundamental differences in both their underlying assumptions and research methodology. The political scientists have contended that these differences in findings can be explained by the faulty approach and presuppositions of the sociologists. We contend in this paper that the pluralists themselves have not grasped the whole truth of the matter; that while their criticisms of the elitists are sound, they, like the elitists, utilize an approach and assumptions which predetermine their conclusions. Our argument is cast within the frame of our central thesis: that there are two faces of power, neither of which the sociologists see and only one of which the political scientists see.
The shortage of fresh water is likely to be one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century. A UNESCO report predicts that as many as 7 billion people will face shortages of drinking water by 2050. Here, David Lewis Feldman examines river-basin management cases around the world to show how fresh water can be managed to sustain economic development while protecting the environment. He argues that policy makers can employ adaptive management to avoid making decisions that could harm the environment, to recognize and correct mistakes, and to monitor environmental and socioeconomic changes caused by previous policies. To demonstrate how adaptive management can work, Feldman applies it to the Delaware, Susquehanna, Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint, Sacramento-San Joaquin, and Columbia river basins. He assesses the impacts of runoff pollution and climate change, the environmental-justice aspects of water management, and the prospects for sustainable fresh water management. Case studies of the Murray-Darling basin in Australia, the Rhine and Danube in Europe, the Zambezi in Africa, and the Rio de la Plata in South America reveal the impediments to, and opportunities for, adaptive management on a global scale. Feldman's comprehensive investigation and practical analysis bring new insight into the global and political challenges of preserving and managing one of the planet's most important resources.
A bestseller since its First Edition, Institutions and Organizations remains the key source for a comprehensive overview of the institutionalist approach to organization theory. W. Richard Scott presents a historical overview of the theoretical literature, an integrative analysis of current institutional approaches, and a review of empirical research related to institutions and organizations. He offers an extensive review and critique of institutional analysis in sociology, political science, and economics as it relates to recent theory and research on organizations.