Search Results (32)

This article explores how people with intellectual disabilities can be more involved in evaluating and regulating the services they use and the quality of their lives. Traditionally, these evaluations have been performed by professionals, but we argue that people with lived experience of intellectual disabilities bring unique insights and should be part of the process. The idea builds on ‘inclusive research’, where people with intellectual disabilities are not just subjects of research but active researchers. We use the term ‘inclusive evaluation’, to describe the active engagement of people with intellectual disabilities in inspecting and assessing services to ensure they meet standards and respect human rights. The paper describes a small exploratory study involving interviews with regulators, professionals, and people with intellectual disabilities across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand who had been involved in inclusive evaluations. It found strong support for it, highlighting benefits such as greater trust and empathy during evaluations with users of services, more meaningful feedback for service providers, and increased confidence and employment opportunities for evaluators with disabilities. However, challenges remain, including funding and fair pay for the engagement of people with intellectual disabilities, training opportunities that meet the support needs of all stakeholders, and changing the cultural attitudes in support services that underestimate the abilities of people with intellectual disabilities. Steps to overcome these challenges are proposed such as piloting inclusive evaluation programmes, providing inclusive evaluation training to all involved, and lobbying governments to fund these roles. We conclude with a proposed implementation framework and a set of guiding principles that will nurture a spirit of inclusion and respect in service evaluations. Full article

Despite seven decades of international commitment—from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights through SDG 3.8—universal health coverage remains stubbornly out of reach. Two billion people, predominantly informal sector workers, lack access to sustainable health insurance. This entry explains the underlying cause: sustainable health insurance requires specific behavioral and institutional conditions for collective action—conditions that existing health insurance models systematically fail to satisfy, thereby structurally excluding informal populations. The Trinity Law framework formalizes these conditions as three multiplicatively interacting requirements—Trust (T), Consensus (C), and Dual Benefit (DB)—expressed as S = T × C × DB. Empirical analysis of community-based health insurance schemes across 24 countries identifies a robust trust threshold (τ* ≈ 0.68) operating as a behavioral phase transition: below this level, cooperation collapses; above it, participation becomes self-sustaining. Cross-country evidence from 274 organizations across 155 countries confirms consensus thresholds (C* ≈ 0.59), while analysis of 158,763 observations validates dual benefit mechanisms. The multiplicative structure explains why partial reforms fail: weakness in any single component drives overall sustainability toward zero. Applied to health insurance, this framework distinguishes conventional systems—Bismarckian employment-based, Beveridgean tax-financed, and commercial health insurance from sustainable systems like participatory community-based microinsurance that satisfy all three Trinity Law conditions through participatory design, transparent governance, and aligned incentives. The persistent UHC gap reflects not implementation failures but fundamental design incompatibilities that the Trinity Law makes explicit. This entry has three objectives: first, it states the Trinity Law conditions; second, it summarizes the empirical evidence for each component; third, it applies the framework to classify major health insurance models. Supporting datasets and code are available in the referenced Zenodo repositories. The term ‘law’ follows the tradition of social science regularities like the ‘law of demand’: a robust empirical pattern with strong predictive validity, not a claim to physical certainty. Full article

In this work, we examine the correlation between financial inclusion and the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors of sustainable development with the assistance of an exhaustive panel dataset of 103 emerging and developing economies spanning 2011 to 2022. The “Account Age” variable, standing for financial inclusion, is the share of adults owning accounts with formal financial institutions or with the providers of mobile money services, inclusive of both conventional and digital entry points. Methodologically, the article follows an econometric approach with panel data regressions, supplemented by Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) with instrumental variables in order to control endogeneity biases. ESG-specific instruments like climate resilience indicators and digital penetration measures are utilized for the purpose of robustness. As a companion approach, the paper follows machine learning techniques, applying a set of algorithms either for regression or for clustering for the purpose of detecting non-linearities and discerning ESG-inclusion typologies for the sample of countries. Results reflect that financial inclusion is, in the Environmental pillar, significantly associated with contemporary sustainability activity such as consumption of green energy, extent of protected area, and value added by agriculture, while reliance on traditional agriculture, measured by land use and value added by agriculture, decreases inclusion. For the Social pillar, expenditure on education, internet, sanitation, and gender equity are prominent inclusion facilitators, while engagement with the informal labor market exhibits a suppressing function. For the Governance pillar, anti-corruption activity and patent filing activity are inclusive, while diminishing regulatory quality, possibly by way of digital governance gaps, has a negative correlation. Policy implications are substantial: the research suggests that development dividends from a multi-dimensional approach can be had through enhancing financial inclusion. Policies that intersect financial access with upgrading the environment, social expenditure, and institutional reconstitution can simultaneously support sustainability targets. These are the most applicable lessons for the policy-makers and development professionals concerned with the attainment of the SDGs, specifically over the regions of the Global South, where the trinity of climate resilience, social fairness, and institutional renovation most significantly manifests. Full article

There are discriminatory, structured, opaque human rights violations that keep the socioeconomically vulnerable subservient, a social problem that goes against the core Christian principle: humans are created in the image of God and all share equal dignity. Studies show that sociocultural, political, and economic elements are available in society, which form into clusters, namely social representations, helping people to categorize others and interact with her/him. They carry with them the historical consciousness, providing the people with social-living tools such as social identity and the like. The qualitative empirical research conducted among the Catholic youth of Tamil Nadu, India, showed that the enslaving semantic elements contained in the social knowledge facilitate the youth to affiliate with a group and to disaffiliate from another. Caste-ridden endogamic semantic elements are part of this knowledge. This affects individual as well as social cognition. Therefore, besides conceptual understanding, epistemological approaches are necessary to eliminate the enslaving elements contained in social knowledge. This is possible through the Ego–Alter dialogue. Ego stands for an individual, group, institution, movement, or anything similar. Alter can stand for social knowledge, which is available in society. Full article

The aim of this study is to identify the excellent goods that are required for the project of forming a moral community in a business firm. Trinitarian theology is used to reflect on these goods. Though there is a massive gap between the way the triune community expresses itself and the way human communities do, the Christian doctrine that humans are made in the image of God, and therefore imago trinitatis, suggests that Trinitarian theology offers a pattern for moral community in a firm. The Persons of the relational Trinity express love through an I–Thou–We modality. The work of Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) on the I–Thou or interhuman relation is first discussed. It is then noted that Wojtyla goes further in contending that I–Thou alone does not in and of itself constitute a human community; it is only when a plurality of “I”s act together to advance the common good that we can speak of the “we” (the social dimension). It is argued that a correlational reading of social Trinitarian thought and Wojtyla’s personalist phenomenology indicates what is required in a firm aspiring to be a genuinely moral community—namely, both intersubjectivity (I–Thou relationality) and a social profile (the “we”). It is further argued that these modalities are actualized in a business firm through moral friendship, good will (I–Thou), and commitment to the common good (“we”). These are foundational stones of a moral community. Full article

The Triune God is not indifferent to the human condition. This article, “The Trinitarian Koinōnia and Its Socio-Economic Implications,” intends to reflect on the inspiration and the critique of the Holy Trinity on human society. It aims at contributing to improving the socio-economic life of the last, the lost, and the least of society. Faith in the mystery of the Holy Trinity can influence human socio-economic relations. On the one hand, the theoretical framework used in this article is that of the classical Catholic method, which reflects on theological pillars (loci theologici). First, the article will reflect on the “theological pillar” (locus theologicus) of the Bible. It will discuss the biblical foundation of the Trinitarian koinōnia. It will then discuss another theological pillar (locus theologicus) of the human context concerning the Trinitarian koinōnia. On the other hand, another theoretical framework to be used is the deductive method. This article will examine whether there are particular socio-economic applications from the general Trinitarian koinōnia. The basic hypothesis is that there is a practical implication to the Christian faith in the Triune God. The Trinitarian oikonomia, when properly understood through, inter alia, Trinitarian koinōnia, can be the icon of the ideal human economics (oikonomia). In this article, we will privilege a systematic and systemic approach. Full article

This paper explores the nature of Cartesian persons in relation to contemporary Social Trinitarian doctrines. We critically engage with three prominent models of the Social Trinity—those of William Lane Craig, Keith Yandell, and William Hasker—and examine how each defines the concept of personhood. Our analysis identifies the presence of a Cartesian notion of personhood (broadly defined) across all three models, though we argue that each presents unique challenges. Building on these critiques, we advance an alternative understanding of the Social Trinity that incorporates a distinct interpretation of Cartesian persons. Our proposal seeks to resolve tensions within current models and offer a more coherent account of Trinitarian personhood. Full article

In this paper, I aim to defend a robust concept of “person” as it relates to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. I begin by situating the debate in the current context between Social Trinitarianism (ST) and Latin Trinitarianism (LT) and then zero in on Thomas Aquinas’s view of the divine Persons as subsistent relations. I will argue that such an understanding of divine Persons has two significant difficulties. First, Aquinas’s view of a strong doctrine of divine simplicity is susceptible to modal collapse. For on such a view, there are no real distinctions within God; such distinctions are conceptually only. If there are no real distinctions within God, then how can we make sense of the eternal relations within God? Second, I question whether a relation can be equated with a Person. After all, relations do not know things, perform actions, or love in the way Scripture portrays the divine Persons. I will then offer a constructive and more robust view of the divine Person—one that aligns with the control of Scripture. In doing so, I consider two objections, one centering on whether defenders of ST fall into tri-theism and the other on whether divine Persons can indeed work together. Full article

Sustainable coastal social–ecological systems rely on healthy ecosystems known to provide benefits to both nature and people. A key ecosystem found globally is seagrass, for which maps at a scale relevant to inform conservation and management efforts are often missing. Eelgrass (Zostera marina), a species of seagrass found throughout the northern hemisphere, has been declining in Placentia Bay, an ecologically and biologically significant area of Canada’s east coast subject to an increasing human impact. This research provides baseline information on the distribution of eelgrass meadows and their anthropogenic stressors at seven sites of Placentia Bay and three sites of the adjacent Trinity Bay, on the island of Newfoundland. High-resolution maps of eelgrass meadows were created by combining ground-truth underwater videos with unmanned aerial vehicle imagery classified with an object-based image analysis approach. Visual analyses of the imagery and underwater videos were conducted to characterize sites based on the presence of physical disturbances and the semi-quantitative cover of epiphytes, an indication of nutrient enrichment. A total eelgrass area of ~1 km² was mapped across the 10 sites, with an overall map accuracy of over 80% for 8 of the 10 sites. Results indicated minimum pressures of physical disturbance and eutrophication affecting eelgrass in the region, likely due to the small population size of the communities near the eelgrass meadows. These baseline data will promote the sustainability of potential future coastal development in the region by facilitating the future monitoring and conservation of eelgrass ecosystems. Full article

During the period of rapid social and economic development spanning four decades of reform and opening up, China has witnessed significant transformations in its patterns of production, living, and ecology. Notably, there has been a noticeable escalation in the conflict between the spatial requirements for agricultural production and those for residential and ecological purposes. In order to address this issue, the government has enacted a set of measures aimed at safeguarding arable land. This study utilizes land use data from 2000, 2010, and 2020 to establish a spatial dataset representing China’s production–living–ecological space (PLES). The intensity analysis approach is employed to examine the features of changes in China’s PLES over the previous two decades. The findings of this study indicate that agricultural production space is mostly concentrated in the northeastern region and the plains of the Yangtze and Yellow River Basins. This distribution pattern has undergone a notable transformation characterized by a period of decline followed by subsequent growth. Simultaneously, the ecological space is primarily dispersed in the northwestern region and the Tibetan Plateau. South of the Hu Huanyong Line, there is a greater proportion of rural living area, urban living space, and industrial production space. Between the years 2000 and 2020, there was an observed increase in the intensity of PLES. This rising trend was primarily characterized by quantitative changes and exchange changes within each type of space. In contrast, between 2010 and 2020, there was a notable increase in the frequency and intensity of spatial transitions, particularly in relation to agricultural production space. Nevertheless, the transition to agricultural production space mostly entails ecological implications, characterized by a decline in cultivation quality but an improvement in environmental advantages. The policy of protecting arable land has a significant influence on the dynamics of the production, living, and ecological domains. To achieve the objective of maintaining the “trinity” of arable land quantity, quality, and ecology, it is imperative for the government to establish a comprehensive system for spatial category conversion. This will ensure the coordinated development of PLES. This study elucidates the constituents of intensity analysis and its analytical concepts, which can be employed to identify alterations in spatial patterns in different areas. It offers scholarly references for the subsequent execution of policies aimed at safeguarding arable land and the development of sustainable land management strategies. Consequently, this study holds substantial importance for advancing economic and social development and fostering sustainable growth. Full article

Exploring the value of cultivated land resources around big cities is an important prerequisite for when realizing the “trinity” of cultivated land protection in terms of quantity, quality, and ecology. At present, the value of cultivated land resources faces the problem of having a low comparative efficiency of economic output, inadequate visualisation of asset value, and serious undervaluation. The manifestation of social, ecological, and cultural values in cultivated land plays an important role in accurately calculating the value of cultivated land. Therefore, this study attempted to clarify the composition and account for the logic of the comprehensive value of cultivated land around big cities. Taking the Hefei metropolitan area as an example, we used mathematical modeling and geostatistical analysis to measure the integrated value of cultivated land around big cities from 2010 to 2020 and analyse the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors. The results revealed a 2:7:1 ratio of economic, social, ecological, and cultural values for cultivated land in the metropolitan area. The comprehensive value of cultivated land was higher in 2020 than in 2010, was approximately 7.7 times the current compensation standard, and was significantly affected by the natural geography, economic development, cultivated land conditions, and protection policies. Furthermore, the comprehensive value showed spatial differentiation characteristics of ‘high in the east and south and low in the west and north’, and a spatial agglomeration effect was evident in some areas. A significant increase was observed in the social value of cultivated land, followed by an increase in the ecological and cultural values, whereas a slow downward trend was observed for the economic value. The economic value of cultivated land around big cities showed a downward trend, whereas the social, ecological, and cultural values showed upward trends. In the future, differentiated policy tools should be adopted based on the spatial heterogeneity of the comprehensive value of cultivated land in the Hefei metropolitan area to enhance their comprehensive value. In addition, scientific and reasonable compensation standards should be established, and high-quality agricultural development with the high-level protection of cultivated land should be promoted in metropolitan areas. Full article

Under the background of the decline of rural society, the brain drain and the lack of endogenous development power are one of the main reasons restricting the development of rural China. Although village committees and village Party committees, as grassroots governance instictutions, have played a great role in the process of rural revitalization, it is still difficult to achieve effective governance in rural areas with only top-down bureaucratic power. Therefore, activating the vitality of local elites and promoting the bottom-up development of rural areas is the internal driving force of rural revitalization. However, local elites have neither the institutional power of grassroots cadres nor the same prestige as clan elders. Therefore, for local elites to gain effective governance power, they must go through a process of empowerment, that is, gaining recognition from various forces within the village. Taking the Yuanqian Community of Xiamen city in Fujian Province as an example, this paper analyzes the formation process of local elite power. In this process, local elites gained the trinity of administrative, social and economic empowerment, and became the subject of governance power and the leader of rural revitalization. A new rural governance network with local elites as the core was constructed in the Yuanqian Community. Under the role of the new governance network, the material space and industrial space of the village have been transformed, thus promoting the revitalization of the countryside. At the same time, the village gradually expanded its influence and eventually became a model village in the field of rural revitalization. Due to its growing influence, the Yuanqian Community has achieved sustainable development. The case of Xiamen shows that local elites could gain effective governance power through an empowerment process. Then, by reconstructing the rural governance network, local elites could be the important social foundation of rural sustainable endogenous development. Full article

This article focuses on targeted programs for low-SES students in two selective universities: Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland (Trinity Access Programmes/TAP) and the University of Oxford, UK (Lady Margaret Hall Foundation Year/LMH FY). The programs were collaborative developments, as examples of the potential of learning and adaptation across geographical contexts. It poses two questions: (a) How did the admissions processes in both universities change to target low-SES students? (b) How do social and academic support services for low-SES students, provided by two universities, contribute to the development of student capabilities? The article draws on the capability approach as the evaluative lens used to explore the two programs. Findings indicate (a) innovative approaches to socio-economic assessment in both programs, resulting in effective targeting of low-SES students, (b) the scaling of the programs beyond their initial remit and (c) the emergence of specific student capabilities through their engagement in the programs. Full article

This article is concerned with the tenure track (TT) model, which has become increasingly used to extend the period of early career academics’ probation from one to five years across the EU. This article focuses on the TT in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the oldest and most prestigious university in Ireland, one where gender equality has been embedded more consistently and where the pace of change has been faster than in other Irish universities. Drawing on interviews with thirteen men and women in three faculties, all but one of whom had successfully achieved tenure, this article explores their acceptance of the TT model and the perceived relevance of gender. Men were more likely to accept the model and less likely to see it as gendered. Even those women who identified a lack of clarity around maternity leave and/or gender differences in negotiating ‘fixed’ starting salaries did not identify a systemic gender issue but blamed themselves. Women who were ‘outsiders’ to TCD and in the arts, humanities and social science faculty were most likely to be critical of the model. The findings suggest the importance of a cautionary appraisal of TT, even in institutions that have actively sought to enhance gender equality. Full article

Formed alongside the arrival of the first Korean immigrants in Hawaii in 1903, the Korean American Protestant Church has played a significant role in the social, political, and religious lives of Koreans in the United States. However today, membership is declining and the newer generations represent a smaller part of the movement leading the Korean American Protestant Church to review and reform its current respective practices of ministry in terms of language, teaching, preaching, worship, and theological orientation. This article focuses on the critical issues that the Korean American Protestant Church is facing and examines the current common practice of Korean American worship. Additionally, this article proposes theological and liturgical suggestions that could be utilized to help realize the goal of Korean American intergenerational worship. These suggestions are formed against the background of five notable characteristics of the Trinity—flexibility (innovation), communication (sharing and empathy), interconnection, ubiquity, and holistic artistry—which are essential to achieving intergenerational worship and its design. As a sample liturgy, worship combined with a meal invites children and young adults, born and raised in the United States, to participate in leadership roles with first-generation adults, which directly correlates with the aforementioned characteristics. As such, in essence, liturgies like these will lead worshippers to experience the embodied theology of intergenerational worship, based on a practical and theological concept of interdependence and awareness. Full article