Search Results (17)

Background/Objectives: Collaboration in mental health care is essential for implementing a model oriented towards the psychosocial rehabilitation of people based on multifaceted interventions involving different actors and sectors of society to respond to demands. Despite the benefits presented by the scientific evidence, there are still many barriers to collaborative care, and professionals continue to struggle in reorienting their conduct. The current situation demands organization and the framing of well-founded action plans to overcome challenges, which in turn requires a detailed understanding of collaborative practices in mental health care and their conceptual boundaries. A concept analysis was undertaken to propose a working definition of collaborative practices in mental health care (CPMHC). Methods: This paper used the Walker and Avant concept analysis method. This includes identifying the defining concept attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents. A literature search was carried out from November 2024 to February 2025 in three databases (Medline, CINAHL, and LILACS), considering studies published between 2010 and 2024. Results: The final sample of literature investigated consisted of 30 studies. The key attributes were effective communication, building bonds, co-responsibility for care, hierarchical flexibility, articulation between services, providers and community, monitoring and evaluating of care processes, and attention to the plurality of sociocultural contexts. Conclusions: This comprehensive analysis contributes to guiding future research and policy development of collaborative practices in mental health, considering the individual, relational, institutional, and social levels. Further research is possible to deepen the understanding of the production of collaborative practices in mental health in the face of the complexity of social relations and structural inequities. Full article

Media self-censorship related to war and military conflict is usually analysed by evaluating the journalistic practices of the countries involved in the war. The objective of this study is to explore how the self-censorship of Latvian public service media (Latvian Radio and Latvian Television) employees developed in response to changes in the internal socio-political discourse after Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine, because of which the Latvian PSM found themselves in the crossfire of long-term criticism and attacks by politicians and audience representatives. Employing semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analysis, this study analyses the perception of self-censorship at all levels (journalists, producers, programme hosts, editors) (15 informants), factors that influence the development of self-censorship, informants’ coping strategies, and the impact of self-censorship on PSM content (78 items of content on various channels and platforms). The conceptual framework of this study is based on Bourdieu’s field theory and Spiral of Silence Theory, exploring how self-censorship affects journalists’ professional habitus, social capital, and agency. The results of this study show that, although Latvia is not involved in the nearby war, politician- and audience member-driven self-censorship affects PSM platforms’ daily agenda, source selection, and editorial line, reducing the diversity and pluralism of PSM content. Full article

Coastal areas provide ecosystem services (ES), including a wide range of cultural ecosystem services (CES). This study aims to operationalize the ES approach for integrated assessment and mapping of coastal CES through the case of the eastern Baltic Sea coast in Latvia. It explores an interdisciplinary approach to enhance coastal planning, leveraging the strengths of plural disciplines to ensure a more holistic representation of coastal CES. A set of methods and techniques from landscape ecology (e.g., landscape characterization, quality assessment, biophysical mapping) and social sciences (participatory GIS, stakeholder engagement events, nationwide survey) are developed and tested, particularly demonstrating links and correlations between landscape character and CES values and well-being dimensions. The results illuminate the main perceived well-being benefits that people gain from the coastal areas, highlighting the different perspectives of stakeholders. Finally, the integrated assessment results helped to construct proposals for sustainable tourism development in the area. The outcomes of the study are intended to assist planners and decision-makers in evaluating the potential for development and trade-offs in coastal regions. This research contributes to the advancement of coastal spatial planning methodologies, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder engagement and ES assessment for informed decision-making. Full article

Around the world, medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) play a fundamental role in the economic, social, cultural, and ecological ambits of local communities. Today, the most important uses of MAPs are their applications in the pharmaceutical, perfume, cosmetics, toothpaste, soap, beverage, and food industries. At the same time, the expression MAPs is often used with a plurality of meanings that are not always clear and well-defined. Thus, the paper aims to answer two research questions: (1) to understand how the expression MAPs has been meant over time by scholars, and (2) to realize the weight that socio-economic research regarding MAPs has assumed in this context. To these ends, a literature review was conducted using the scientific database Scopus. The results highlight that researchers started talking explicitly about MAPs in the 1950s, and the geographical focus of the literature on this theme is in India, followed by China. Researchers have published studies concerning the agronomic aspects, cultivation, characterization, and germination techniques of MAPs, but the most cited articles concern the health and beneficial properties of their essential oils. At the same time, nobody has ever wondered what MAPs are, and since 1977, the World Health Organization definition has been taken for granted, and any species with medicinal or aromatic functions is considered to be a MAP. Regarding the socio-economic weight of the research conducted on MAPs, they represent only 1% of the total academic publications, but from them, it has emerged that, especially in rural areas, MAPs depict important sources of income for several local communities. At the same time, there is a need to increase the estimation of the ecosystem services that MAPs offer, the analyses of consumer preferences in the search for new business opportunities, and the environmental impact assessment of the entire supply chain. Full article

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) encounter various constraints on sustainability in low-carbon development due to institutional hybridity. This study aimed to examine how SOEs develop sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) toward low-carbon development. Drawing on a case study of Shanghai Metro, we developed a process model for sustainability-oriented low-carbon innovation (SLI) in SOEs. The model illustrated that implementing a national low-carbon strategy introduces environmental, social, and financial constraints on sustaining value pluralism for SOEs, triggering the actors to develop SLI involving sensing and idea generation, configuration, and transformation, resulting in innovative low-carbon operational processes, products/services, and business models which reconcile environmental benefits, financial returns, and social welfare. This paper enriches the emerging research on SOI and extends the existing understanding of low-carbon innovation. Beyond this, the findings also offer a new lens of SLI to the conventional research and managerial practices concerning SOEs’ hybridity and low-carbon development. Full article

In this article, I argue that the research field of religion and development and diaconal studies, the study of Christian social practice, share a common subject of inquiry: the social impact of religion. The field of religion and development investigates this mainly with a focus on the Global South and within the discursive framework of the concept of development, while diaconal studies has thus far taken a Christian perspective and a historic focus on the Global North. Recent paradigm shifts in the development discourse (post-development critique, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a global framework, critique of the secularist approach) put the field of religion and development under pressure to broaden its scope. Moreover, there is no clear lead discipline in the religion and development debate yet, raising questions about its disciplinary location in academic institutions and curricula. The field of diaconal studies is challenged by increasing religious pluralism and under pressure to consider perspectives from the Global South. Impulses from the recent advances in the conceptualisation of ecumenical diaconia as a new paradigm of Christian social service push the field to move beyond its historic focus on assistance and care. The aim of this article is to juxtapose these two fields of academic study and to bring them into mutual dialogue. The article reflects on both fields and their respective advantages and disadvantages and highlights areas of overlap. It goes on to propose a broadened discipline of diaconal studies, reshaped as the Study of Religious Social Practice, as a new academic field. The focus of this field would be the impact of religion on society in global perspective, across religious traditions and geographic contexts. Full article

This paper explores the typological attributes, practical characteristics, and policy connotations of Christian social service organizations in present China. This is achieved from the perspectives of religion, public administration, social work, and history. Data collection and analysis are based on the literature research and field research methods. The main points are as follows: (1) Christian social service organizations are simultaneously faith-based organizations, legal-person organizations, and professional organizations. These different types of characteristics put forward different requirements for their service functions and performance standards. It is necessary to understand their corresponding boundaries in theory and coordinate or optimize their corresponding functions in the system; (2) Christian social service organizations present the characteristics of pluralism and transition in the practice process, as well as form complex symbiosis and embedded relationships with non-religious professional service systems. Further, they have begun to reach a consensus on industry codes of practice, service concepts, and clinical models, especially in regard to the culturally sensitive service centered on the clients; and (3) the triple-type attributes of Christian social service organizations require government departments and professional circles to direct more attention to the “matrix” of policy tools—in other words, formulate more discerning and diverse policy measures in line with policy objectives, as well as strengthen the legalization of the policy implementation mechanism and the level of collaborative governance of religious social service organizations. Full article

This article examines the role of migrant organizations (MOs) in the welfare state and reflects on the transformation and negotiation processes in the organization of social protection in a society that is increasingly characterized by various forms of cross-border mobility. The article first describes various transformation trends in German social policy by highlighting the activation policy and marketization of social services. This transformation concerns not only the formal (material) forms of social protection and the relationship between migration and social policy, but also the organization of social protection within the German welfare state. By analysing qualitative interviews with representatives of migrant organizations and welfare associations, we then show which roles are ascribed to MOs by other welfare actors in the context of social protection and how the MOs position themselves. We argue that these role ascriptions are part of a negotiation process that goes along with the transformation of the German welfare state. MOs are increasingly addressed in the context of integration policy, while at the same time they are becoming more professional and are claiming a stronger role in formal security services. The discussion of the changing role of MOs in the future organization of the welfare state also sheds light on the question of the successful adaptation of social services to the needs of migrants in general. Full article

Forest ecosystems are a prime example of the heated debates that have arisen around how forests should be managed, and what services and benefits they should deliver. The European transitions in governance to and from communist regimes have had significant impacts on forests and their management. Unstable legislative and institutional changes prior to, during, and after a communist regime, combined with unique remnant areas of high-conservation-value forests, make Romania an ideal case study to explore the social–ecological transitions of forest landscapes. The aim of this paper is two-fold. First, we present the origins of, the evolution of, and the current state of forest management and ownership in Romania during transitions between the pre-communist (–1945), communist (1945–1989), and EU periods (2007–). Second, we focus on the enablers and barriers in Romania towards sustainable forest management as defined by pan-European forest policies. We used a semi-systematic, five-step scientific literature review on forest ownership, governance, and management in Romania. The analysis shows that both enablers (e.g., forest certification) and barriers (e.g., redundancy and the questionable effectiveness of the network of protected areas; illegal, unsustainable, and unreported logging; loopholes in the legislative framework) have contributed to the current approaches to interpreting forests, forestry, and forest management. The installation of the communist regime translated into sustained wood yield forest management under singular forest ownership, which opposed the previous system and forest ownership pluralism. In the post-communist period, forestland restitution led to significant legislative changes, but forest management must still confront remnant elements of the communist approach. Both communist and post-communist policies related to forests have shaped the evolution of forest landscape management in Romania, thus stressing the need to learn from the past towards securing sustainable forest management into the future. These lessons provide insights on both positive and negative drivers of forest management, which can contribute to smooth future transition towards more sustainable forest management practices. Full article

Under the background of an accelerating population aging process, China is facing the issues of a weakening household pension function and an insufficient social pension service supply. It is urgent to establish a perfect diversified pension service supply model. The theory of welfare pluralism advocates the participation of multiple subjects in social old-age services and emphasizes that social organizations play an important role in the provision of old-age services. This paper, under the perspective of welfare pluralism, discusses the problems and reasons existing in the endowment service supply in our country, and on the basis of the advanced international experience, it puts forward a new mode for resolving the problems in the endowment service supply, namely the “116 endowment service supply model”. This mode advocates that a top-level design at the national level is necessary, together with cooperation among the community, family, workplace, folk society, market and school in the national endowment service information platform, aiming at building a unified, coordinated and complementary model of diversified elderly care service supply. Full article

This exploratory study is part of the training and innovation project (GID2016-16) of the National University of Distance Education (UNED) in Spain. The current socioeconomic and educational contexts derived from COVID-19 has led university institutions to develop methodological innovations in the teaching-learning process. Among these strengthening measures are the MOOCs, the most appropriate strategy to bring students closer to new digital platforms that favor the acquisition of knowledge. A methodological pluralism, combining quantitative and qualitative perspectives, has been used. The main results of the descriptive analysis compare the data of students enrolled in the MOOC, “Social and Health Care and Social Services in Social Work”, and other related bachelor’s and master’s degree courses during the four years analyzed. One of the conclusions is the emerging possibility of offering university studies that are more in line with the current teleworking market. The development of online methodologies favors the democratization of education, reaching the student body as a whole and universalizing content and learning. Among the main conclusions, it is worth highlighting the degree of satisfaction shown by the students who took advantage of the MOOC, and the training opportunities afforded by MOOC courses, during the time of COVID-19. Full article

This research covers a multi-dimensional investigation into accessibility barriers in care services for older people with disabilities in rural China. In-depth interviews with 13 rural disabled older people in China were conducted using qualitative methods. Based on a welfare pluralism approach, the results showed that in comparison with urban areas, care services for disabled older populations in rural areas are more subject to social barriers. This can be seen in the limited state (lack of resources, rigorous eligibility qualifications, uneven distribution, and irregular implementation); the absent market (low levels of consumption, high cost pressures, self-exclusion, and traditional cultural constraints); absent NGOs and volunteers (difficulties in access for NGOs and volunteers outside the area and formation difficulties of local NGOs and volunteers); as well as low-quality care in households and communities (unprofessional care from the spouse, unsustainable care from children, and unavailable community-based care). A multi-subject support network should be established to remove accessibility barriers to care services for older people with disabilities in rural areas through active intervention and interaction. The results of the research provide insights that will aid in the formulation of future social care service plans and health policies for rural older people with disabilities. Full article

The remnants of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil are significant for biodiversity and provide benefits for people (climate regulation, water supply, health and welfare, among others). However, nature’s importance for different people may vary, for social, environmental, and economic reasons. In this paper, we explore such differences among people living in communities surrounding the Cunhambebe State Park (PEC), a large area of Atlantic Forest. We assess their perceptions regarding the plural values of ecosystem services derived from the PEC and explore ways in which this could affect the management of this protected area. Our assumption is that analyzing the perceptions of people who live in the communities surrounding can be a key tool for the formulation of proposals to improve management models and address socio-environmental conflicts. Based on interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, our results show a direct link between culture and environment since relational values and cultural ecosystem services are closely related to local people’s valuation of the PEC. Therefore, we support management strategies which are based on local values for land and forest use in a sustainable way. Our findings may contribute to decision making by PEC managers, governments, local stakeholders, and researchers. Full article

In this paper, we frame the problem of urban water sustainability in megacities as a social-ecological system (SES) to examine the underlying coupling of social and ecological factors and processes. Based on our empirical research of two major megacities of the global south, São Paulo and Delhi, we have developed an urban water SES module within the broader SES framework proposed by Ostrom. The module’s multilevel nested structure consists of the following four subsystems: water resource and infrastructure, settlements, governance, and actors. A distinct advantage of our module is that it enables us to capture the plurality of settlements patterns (from formal to informal settlements), actor networks, and governance patterns found in cities of the global south and how these uniquely shape and are shaped by the process of rapid urbanization. We use this module as: (a) an analytical tool to identify the different variables and processes within each subsystem, which through their interactions, have influenced the trajectory of water systems in these cities; (b) a diagnostic tool in a comparative setting to examine why desired goals in terms of service delivery and/or governance were achieved (or not); and (c) a prescriptive tool to identify cross-learnings and practical lessons. Full article

Green care is an innovative approach that combines simultaneously caring for people and caring for land through three elements that have not been previously connected: (1) multifunctional agriculture and recognition of the plurality of agricultural system values; (2) social services and health care; and (3) the possibility of strengthening the farming sector and local communities. The current research provides a comprehensive overview of green care in Europe as a scientific discipline through a literature review (n = 98 studies). According to our results, the Netherlands, the UK, Norway and Sweden followed by Italy have led the scientific studies published in English. Green care research comprises a wide range of perspectives and frameworks (social farming, care farming, nature-based solutions, etc.) with differences in their specificities. Green care studies have mainly focused on measuring the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. Studies that evaluate its relevance in socio-economic and environmental terms are still limited. According to our results, the most common users studied were people suffering from psychological and mental ill health, while the most common activities were horticulture, animal husbandry and gardening. Finally, we discuss the potential of green care to reconnect people with nature and to diversify the farming sector providing new public services associated with the relational values society obtains from the contact with agricultural systems. Full article