Blockchain Papers

Aimee Petrosky, Omonyêlé L. Adjognon-Bancolé, Michelle K. Surdyk, Rachael Cain · 5 authors

CONTEXT: The Massachusetts (MA) local public health system is highly decentralized. All 351 municipalities autonomously manage local public health infrastructure and budget, resulting in service delivery disparities. The MA Department of Public Health (MDPH) recognizes that achieving equitable access to public health services requires systems change, and successful systems change demands active participation and input from partners at all levels. OBJECTIVES: To collaboratively establish the first Performance Standards (PS) with and for MA local public health to reduce inequities in public health system delivery. DESIGN: Partner engagement and the Framework for Applying Qualitative Methods in Health Policy and Systems Research guided PS establishment. Relevant standards from MA laws were compiled and organized using document and thematic content analyses. Partner elicitations guided edits for finalizing PS. SETTING: In 2021-2023, MDPH facilitated statewide partner collaboration to establish PS. PARTICIPANTS: Six key MA public health organizations, representatives from 4 state agencies, and widespread MA local public health. INTERVENTION: Targeted engagement with internal partners enabled drafting PS. Widespread engagement with external partners elicited open comments to improve and finalize PS. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: MDPH and partners collaboratively formalized PS after analyzing 283 comments and 66 edits. RESULTS: Through active collaboration with partners, MA formalized the first official PS for local public health, released in October 2023. PS comprise 5 subjects, including 87 standards written into MA legislation across 4 subjects (environmental health, tobacco control, disease control and prevention, administration), plus recommended workforce standards. PS set minimum expectations for local public health credentialing and support consistent public health service delivery. CONCLUSIONS: PS are a steppingstone toward MA public health systems change. Collaboration is critical for partner buy-in, to establish and implement PS using shared resources structures. Effective PS implementation, synergistic with other efforts, will reduce disparities in local public health services and delivery and provide MA residents with more equitable access to public health services.

Patchana Hengboriboonpong Jaidee, Atchara Bundittayanurak, Ratruji Jindasawat, Siriporn Wongdontree · 7 authors

The decentralization of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to local administrative organizations is a critical policy initiative in Thailand aimed at enhancing service responsiveness and community participation. This study applied a prospective Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to identify positive and negative health impacts of EMS decentralization in Chonburi Province and develop evidence-based policy recommendations to guide the transition from the Ministry of Public Health to local governance. A mixed-methods approach was designed based on the six-step HIA framework. The study involved 562 participants, including EMS providers, recipients, and policymakers. Qualitative participants were selected through purposive sampling for interviews and focus groups, and quantitative participants through stratified random sampling for surveys. Qualitative data were thematically analyzed, and quantitative data were analyzed descriptively. Findings revealed both positive and negative impacts across four pre-hospital care activity domains (dispatch, incident response, referral, and administrative management) and four dimensions of well-being (physical, mental, social, and spiritual). Positive impacts included improved responsiveness, collaboration, and staff motivation, while negative impacts involved personnel shortages, communication gaps, and limited budgets. The derived policy recommendations emphasize structured workforce planning, upgraded communication systems, sustainable financing, and participatory monitoring to strengthen decentralized EMS. The use of HIA provided a systematic and participatory process that translated empirical evidence into actionable policy guidance for health service decentralization in Thailand and similar contexts.

Alyson Lipsky, Molly W. Adams, Chinyere Okeke

Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) requires commitment from a wide range of actors, including policy makers, civil society, and academics. In low- and middle-income countries, creating momentum among stakeholders can be challenging with competing priorities and limited funding. Advocacy coalitions—groups of like-minded organizations coalescing to achieve a common goal—have been used to achieve UHC; however, the effectiveness of advocacy coalitions for UHC is not well understood. This policy brief reviews literature on how social network analysis (SNA)—a method “effective in helping to understand how the stakeholders view one another, share information, cooperate, and take joint action”—has been used in low- and middle-income countries to evaluate UHC advocacy coalitions (Abbot et al., 2022). These findings were validated using experiences from coalition members in Nigeria advocating for UHC. The literature suggests that factors contributing to network success include network cohesion, decentralized network structure, collective action, strong transparency and trust between actors within an advocacy network, and clear communication and collaboration around advocacy objectives and the roles of all involved. The interviews suggest these themes are present in Nigeria as well. Using SNA thinking to conduct interviews in Nigeria, the authors highlighted specific strengths and areas of growth for advocacy coalitions for UHC. La réalisation de la couverture santé universelle (CSU) nécessite l'engagement d'un large éventail d'acteurs, notamment les décideurs politiques, la société civile et les universitaires. Dans les pays à faible et revenu intermédiaire, susciter un élan parmi les parties prenantes peut être difficile avec des priorités concurrentes et un financement limité. Les coalitions de plaidoyer - des groupes d'organisations partageant les mêmes idées se regroupant pour atteindre un objectif commun - ont été utilisées pour réaliser la CSU ; cependant, l'efficacité des coalitions de plaidoyer pour la CSU n'est pas bien comprise. Ce document politique passe en revue la littérature sur la manière dont l'analyse des réseaux sociaux (ARS) - une méthode "efficace pour aider à comprendre comment les parties prenantes se perçoivent mutuellement, partagent des informations, coopèrent et prennent des mesures conjointes" - a été utilisée dans les pays à faible et revenu intermédiaire pour évaluer les coalitions de plaidoyer pour la CSU (Abbot et al., 2022). Ces résultats ont été validés à l'aide des expériences des membres de la coalition au Nigéria plaidant en faveur de la CSU. La littérature suggère que les facteurs contribuant au succès du réseau comprennent la cohésion du réseau, la structure décentralisée du réseau, l'action collective, une transparence et une confiance solides entre les acteurs au sein d'un réseau de plaidoyer, et une collaboration autour des objectifs de plaidoyer et des rôles de tous les intervenants. Les entretiens suggèrent que ces thèmes sont également présents au Nigéria. En utilisant la pensée de l'ARS pour mener des entretiens au Nigéria, les auteurs ont mis en évidence des forces spécifiques et des domaines de croissance pour les coalitions de plaidoyer pour la CSU.

Virginia Macdonald, Annette Verster, Andrew Seale, Rachel Baggaley · 5 authors

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: There is renewed focus at global and national level to adopt commitments to ensure universal access to health services. The present study highlights key considerations to ensure that the commitment to 'leave no one behind' includes key populations, recognizing the specific impact of marginalization, stigma, discrimination, and criminalization on their access to health. RECENT FINDINGS: Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship. Countries commit to UHC through Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Target 3.8 Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to well tolerated, effective, quality, and affordable essential medicines). SUMMARY: UHC cannot be achieved without addressing the needs of key populations. At the same time, the goal of UHC provides new opportunities to improve health equity and the health of key populations. Political commitment, defining and including essential high-impact, evidence-based interventions for key populations, and their full integration into national health benefit packages; integrated, decentralized, and differentiated health services with involvement, ownership, and acceptance of communities to ensure equity and quality; ensuring financing for UHC provides coverage for key populations, including those who may be undocumented, are needed. Developing more effective interventions and service delivery approaches, providing a supportive policy and legal environment; and measuring progress against clear targets for accountability and programme adjustment will also be required for key populations to benefit fully from UHC.

Gregg G. Van Ryzin

Peter John’s latest book, How Far to Nudge?: Assessing Behavioural Public Policy, is part intellectual history, part a tale of policy diffusion, and part a personal reflection on the behavioral science revolution in public policy and administration by someone who himself was one of its key rebels. John, who is a professor of political science and public policy in the United Kingdom, was an early protagonist and practitioner of behavioral and experimental approaches to public administration. In a sense, this book completes a trilogy of volumes by him on the topic: the first, Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think: Experimenting with Ways to Change Civic Behavior (John et al. 2011), documents cases in which John and his collaborators used behavioral insights (such as the tendency to comply with social norms) to test nudge strategies aimed at influencing citizens to recycle, volunteer, vote, and give to charity; in the second, Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy (John 2017), John provides guidance on the design and implementation of randomized controlled trials of behavioral interventions involving government programs and services. In How Far to Nudge?, John steps back to reflect more broadly on the origins, practices, limitations, ethics, and political implications of behavioral public policy. As he writes in the introduction: “Given the success of nudge, now is the time to broaden it out and to link it more closely to democratic practice” (p. 14). He begins by making the case that many important social, health, and economic challenges facing government have their roots in both individual and collective human behaviors. Diseases are often determined by health behaviors, for example, although John is quick to point out the structural influences (such as poverty and access to health care) that play a key role in addition to human behavior. Still, he makes a compelling argument for the important role of behavior change in many areas of public policy and administration. Next, he tells the fascinating story of the behavioral revolution in the social sciences. For those already acquainted with popular books such as Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman and Egan 2011), Richard Thaler’s Misbehaving (Thaler and Ganser 2015), and Michael Lewis’ The Undoing Project (Lewis 2016), this story will be somewhat familiar. But John tells it from his own perspective as a political scientist and articulates the connections to public policy and administration. Amusingly, he enjoys cluing his reader in on some of the hype and self-promotion that accounts, at least in part, for the popularity of behavioral economics in the halls of government and in the public imagination. But he pays due respect as well to the important advances and insights of the likes of Kahneman, Amos Tversky, Thaler, Cass Suntein, Daniel Ariely, and others whose work over the years formed the intellectual foundations for behavioral public policy. The middle chapters of the book reflect on the practices and limitations of behavioral policy in government, a narrative informed to a large extent by John’s own extensive work in the United Kingdom and other countries applying nudge strategies to government. He discusses how nudge units were established in government agencies in the United Kingdom (especially the Behavioral Insights Team) and elsewhere and, importantly, how their continuation often depends on the contingencies of political leadership and changing priorities. Usefully, John specifies some of the key (and often unmentioned) limitations of behavioral insights in government, such as the limited range of application (mostly letters, forms, and messages), small and often temporary effects, limited generalizability, and the worry that a focus on nudge diverts the government’s attention from pursuing more substantive (and expensive) solutions to pressing social and policy problems. John also devotes a chapter to the ethics of nudging, which has been defined largely as a form of libertarian paternalism because it entails both choice and direction (nudge). John fully recognizes the dangers inherent in the creation of a “psychological state” but remains optimistic about the potential of nudging, given the generally limited and transparent nature of the nudge initiatives to date and the potential to incorporate nudge tactics into reflective, self-governance practices. Usefully, John also reminds us that public policy-making, in general, involves difficult ethical questions and that nudge is often a less intrusive instrument than laws, regulations, and other conventional instruments of government control over people’s behavior. In the last chapters, as foreshowed throughout the book, John make an original argument: nudges work well enough, but they must be made more open, democratic, and deliberative to truly sustain long-term behavior change and thus improve government and society. “Nudge plus (think)” is what he advocates. This approach envisions a behavioral public policy that leverages both System 1 (fast, intuitive) and System 2 (slow, deliberate) thinking, following Kahneman’s well-known formulation, in the service of better outcomes for individuals and society (Kahneman and Egan 2011). Thus, John highlights ways in which nudge initiatives can incorporate citizen participation and can be made more transparent and explained more fully to citizens. In addition, he makes the point that nudge should not be just a tool of technocrats but should be decentralized to agencies, local governments, and civil society organizations to incorporate behavioral insights into their own autonomous activities. John explains: “The idea is that a combination of nudging and thinking can help the creation of an automated and self-regulating system whereby people get to their goals and where there is a synergy between social and individual aims” (p. 133). But, of course, this formulation is complicated by the implications of the very behavioral revolution John writes about. If we believe what modern psychology has to say about the large role in human behavior played by automatic thought processes (thinking fast), emotions (gut feelings), and our limited capacity for rational problem solving (bounded rationality), then conscious deliberation only gets us so far. The conscious mind is the tip of an iceberg, we have come to discover, consisting of a murky mass of evolutionary or deeply learned associations, construals, heuristics, and biases. But what John argues in his book, it seems to me, is that this conscious tip of the iceberg can nevertheless reflect on how it deals with and attempts to influence the unconscious mass of forces active below the surface. Just like a patient in psychotherapy learns to recognize and deal with the deeply buried emotions that intrude on his life, even if he cannot alter them, so too a democratic society can learn to recognize its cognitive biases and behavioral bugs and find ways, through democratic deliberation, to deal with them and thus live a better collective life. In sum, Peter John’s How Far to Nudge? provides a thoughtful, insightful and original take on the behavioral science revolution in public policy and administration. The book serves as a helpful resource for those looking for an overview of the current status of nudge in government, and it would provide a useful text for graduate courses that include a focus on behavioral public policy and administration. And yet the book is thought-provoking for those already familiar with the topic as well because, having worked extensively at applying nudge tactics in government and having read widely in the behavioral sciences, John is able to provide a uniquely informed perspective on the practices, limitations, ethics, and political implications of the behavioral turn in public policy and public administration as this approach assumes an increasingly prominent role in governments around the world.

Justeen Hyde, Stephen M. Shortell

No abstract is available for this record.

Janki Andharia

Professor Andharia has over 26 years of experience in the field of community organization and social development. Her areas of work focus on gender issues, environmental concerns, social planning and participatory development, addressing diverse forms of marginalization and vulnerability. She has been involved in policy work and has had a long association with grassroots organizations. She has been teaching at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for over two decades and was Head, Department of Urban and Rural Community Development before moving on as Chairperson of the newly created Centre for Disaster Management. Community organization (CO) has come to acquire a distinct meaning in India. This special issue reflects upon the nature of intervention of community workers and forces of transformation both in the lives of ordinary people, especially the poor and the marginalized, and within the sphere of knowledge related to community studies, across diverse institutions and socio-political contexts. The selection of articles in the issue captures the theoretical refinement of CO and also represents challenges that CO practice confronts at the practical level in the contemporary Indian scenario. The history of India as a nation is replete with organizing, asserting, demanding and fighting for rights. It is the collective assertion and courage of citizens that are often celebrated on 15 August – the date in 1947 when India got her independence. A relatively young nation, India covering an area of 3,300,000 km2 and housing a large diversity of ethnic groups1 is respected as one of the largest democracies in the world. CO was introduced as a method of social work in the 1950s in several western countries, and it was also during this period that the Department of Urban and Rural Community Development (URCD) was established in the first school of Social Work in India, generating several scholars and practitioners espousing diverse perspectives and ideologies. By 1980s the term ‘Community Development’ was generally regarded with disdain due to the failure of the official Community Development Programme, launched by the Government in the 1950s. In India the term ‘Community Organization’ on the other hand was regarded as far more progressive and received an impetus through the mid-1970s up until early 1990s. In 1975–1977 the country experienced political upheaval when a state of Emergency was declared suspending official democracy. This simultaneously gave rise to a large number of protests with a democratic fervour and specifically in the form of mass-based movements and voluntary organizations. It also saw a critique of social work positioned largely as an apolitical enterprise. The failure of community development programmes to impact the poverty levels or people excluded from health, education, housing, sanitation and infrastructure services forced social workers and community organizers to re-examine its excessive emphasis on local development issues. They began to recast their work to include structural factors that shape local realities. The expanding critique of social work influenced CO teachers who redefined and reshaped CO to align with, contribute to and borrow from literature on diverse forms of organizing – social movements, trade unionism and mass-based people's organization and self-help groups (SHGs). Organizing communities against atrocities and against forms of dominance is evident in almost all parts of India and is not restricted to a particular discipline. In fact, sensitive social workers draw on the history of organizing within a region or of specific communities, metaphorically invoking historical events to reach out to the masses. A generation of teachers and activists from 1980s onwards who began to associate themselves with mass-based struggles, discovered different strategies and new allies and questioned conventional moorings of western forms of institutionalized social work and its relevance to India. Grass-roots empowerment took precedence over community development and saw greater involvement of community organizers and scholars in issues of exclusion, violation and assertion of rights, discrimination against dalits, tribals and other marginalized groups. (See Figure 1 for an overview of the trajectory of CO and CD in India.) A sharper ideological orientation gave CO a political edge much to the discomfort of certain social work professionals. Historical trajectory of CO and CD in India. Source: Andharia (2007, 103). The changing perspective of CO in particular compelled the social work fraternity to review its curriculum, the choice of field work agencies and the intervention processes with which scholars aligned themselves. Modes of intervention were questioned and revised, tools of analysis underwent a shift and political frameworks were consciously used, in more fundamental ways to shape both the practice and education in CO. Despite the strong imperative to move away from a traditional social work orientation based on a naïve belief of ‘bridging gaps’ through simple welfare means, the transition within the academia was painstakingly slow. At the end of nearly three decades of debates, most of these changes remain undocumented even as CO confronts fresh challenges in contemporary times. For example, the fact that the economic reform agenda is pursued assiduously by the government, when poverty and inequality levels remain high, exploitation is legitimized by the state and the globalizing forces are moving ahead unabashedly, is all a matter of serious concern to community organizers. Withdrawal of the state from health, education and social security sectors has caused further exclusion and deprivation of the marginalized section. The special issue on CO in India is devoted specifically to locating the challenges of the context and possibilities which community workers in India need to familiarize themselves with and it is hoped that it renews interest in collective action for social transformation in a rapidly globalizing world. A community in some ways is a microcosm of a nation. One would assume that in a democratic nation, all institutions function democratically upholding values of equity with reference to citizens and their collectives. However, in practice, this does not happen and rights have to be asserted and structures are to be negotiated. As a result the understanding of democracy, citizenship and collective action are never static. A community gets mobilized when citizens organize to take a stand and work towards specific demands. Such assertions are fundamental to the empowerment of citizens and such shifts in power balance between people and institutions are fundamental to CO. The broader context for CO practice in India can be discerned from the country's performance on human development indices and the agenda for community practice may be drawn from a critical appreciation of processes that marginalize and alienate large sections of society. India is often called a country of contradictions. For example India prides itself as a nation on the move, a nation that has witnessed, during the last century – a transformation from a colonial, agrarian economy into a modern, industrial, knowledge-based economy. As a parliamentary democratic system, the country is an acknowledged home to people of diverse cultural, faith, ethnic and social identities. The constitution provides for democratic participation of citizens giving them a voice in politics. Popular movements and struggles are credited with ensuring that parliamentary democracy has retained its vitality over the last 60 years of independence. On the other hand, despite the political democracy, the country is faced with economic inequalities, concentration of wealth and regional imbalances that work in favour of exploitative social, political and economic structures. About 70 percent of India's population is rural and agriculture is the backbone of livelihood security system for nearly two-thirds of the population. Farmer's suicides, ethnic tensions created by right-wing Hindutva forces, poverty, malnutrition, disease and deprivation, falling per-capita intake of food grains are often said to reflect the erosion of democratic principles and secular fabric of the nation. The media and the judiciary have played a significant role in highlighting the backwardness and social injustice and inequalities based on caste, class, gender and ethnicity. Besides popular struggles, new social movements led by trade unions, women's organizations, voluntary organizations and committed individuals have responded to the overwhelming poverty, illiteracy displacement, dispossession of land and rising food insecurity. Criticisms about the ability of the development agenda to ensure social inclusion and equality of opportunity for all have sparked vigorous debates about addressing the ‘democratic deficit’. In India, the Constitution through its amendments has devolved more powers to local bodies, but they are yet to be empowered in full. Their capacity needs to be built and financial powers to be strengthened before we can expect them to adopt best practices in governance. The dalits constitute 16 percent of India's population and the tribals constitute 8 percent. According to government estimates, some 125 districts spread over 12 states, covering more than a quarter of the landmass mostly in the central part of India, is affected by extremist Naxalite activities. A combination of economic and socially oppressive factors is identified as the major cause of rise of Naxalism in India. The next section highlights the democratic deficits' that will enable an appreciation of the Indian social, economic and political fabric which constitutes the context in which community organizer sets an agenda and chooses specific strategies for action. The focus is on food security, education, access to potable water, health care facilities and housing – all of which constitute fundamental rights of every citizen – basic requirements for a life with dignity. During 2007 escalating food prices and vanishing global food reserves added about 75 million to the hunger trap of which nearly 30 million are from India according to a Food and Agriculture Organization Report [2007]. Data from the National Family Health Surveys paint a grim picture. More than one-third of the Indian population lives in sub-human poverty and a recent World Bank estimate put nearly 42 percent as absolutely poor by international standards. More than three-fourths of the population has a daily purchasing power of less than 20 rupees a and nearly the are The Development India out of a of and in the India has to out of Food security a issue in According to Development Report India the hunger the million people, nearly are in India. This it the country housing the largest food population. It in the of Despite years of economic India than nearly and all of of India's rural population or over million people are the food intake of the country's economy is percent with a population of about people, in every are It is that hunger and are in On the other hand, India its into the 12 The wealth of the was to about percent of India's in with less than percent in According to the also as the in India individuals wealth to almost a of the in were the in The Food and Agriculture organization also that percent of the poor in India, as the percent. This the of wealth and are social inequalities in the According to economic be development when it does not into of the of the of the poor in of and as as for health, housing, education and political with economic are and rise in according to be as to people's social and political India's not basic such as to and inequalities are with access to food and before a – it the of between the of 1 and by about one economic does not into hunger More of and health services and action to based on and are and progressive CO practice these issues. to food and and factors as environmental health work and This can be through a of political will and and people's and CO to the and the to work with the of the The of and global factors significant in the analysis of a context and The emphasis is on structural of and The of organizations with National Rural in in or that of in and in all the of work and the of CO. of these are in the articles in this teachers of CO to with these and their of CO move towards a more involvement in ensuring social and political rights, a life with for the The by strong global forces have had a impact on the and rural the is of an to food for and their for a in international prices of the especially who are to their For example, across districts in western nearly have committed over the last of an of poor failure and On an two were to take their lives in the last districts saw two financial several and a for who within the The impact has not been A population that and and in their social and political and to The to education in India are education in government and of and and the of of the school to or local of these constitutes significant areas of intervention by community organizers towards action and to in percent of India's population is percent of India's can the of 75 percent of in India from and the is 42 percent of the received all the and access to education and health care in India. with a rise in prices and the health has for the the in of who is from it and needs to be health and education to ensure that economic development is with and human to is of fundamental for and sanitation have a with health, a human international The by India to access – daily within a – of the World Health of at the end to be as level According to government about percent of the country's have been This is serious as about percent of the from are up or are have and are and major on and are by and The traditional of services has been and are into infrastructure does not the of the government is the need to communities in from and new such as and and take to and This has come about through a of work by rural development by the and may be but it will to a or an environmental and social on the country can put and in The 2007 is a in the history of human for the first the and rural population of the is It is that has new economic and to people who to However, it has also created the of all over the world. According to the of the one in three in are areas people not have access to basic for life with such as water, housing or that from Urban India for 30 percent of the population and its is to rise to about percent by In of a policy and housing in the housing in Indian is on the In 2007 the housing was about million and it is to 26 million by About percent of this to groups. The economy by government especially on agriculture and forced serious the history of organizing and in – the of India the population lives in Community organizing housing rights through the 1980s has been to some but She that political and a for community Her the of CO can be all and education and organizers to with experienced by the the last three decades Indian in participatory democracy, collective by social movements, and organizations a to and reflect on CO. are a of ways of in the with and The and of analysis often the forms of involvement and the choice of strategies In the contemporary of community and CO are rapidly as areas of and practice They draw from political critical and and such as environmental studies, and This nature of CO in India has received in the country has had a and experience in CO and 1950s. The country's political history is replete with movements of people of diverse cultural, social and identities. movements and struggles a strong of a democracy. CO has been through of social action of movements, movements, and is as new social movements women's to a constitute some of the most and of new social movements in human For example, special economic have been up across India with concern for the and that they are over for this The the development of specific areas as and – with infrastructure that would have a capacity and for as a new of at and large they are to be in their and local and The policy and its have serious for groups and communities their and their are largely as a trade capacity development with a to economic A number of community organizers are struggles against across India. The issues to the and of in the of environmental concerns, the to the on rights to organize and and the in which has not been in India. The political of of for development is the most critical of the the largest number of has strong from in and who have themselves into and the which have all a struggles have been in and who were to land by and in the of development. In India, popular movements that the of development is from to led will the imbalances in of economic and power at local and regional levels intervention a political is evident is that over the last three CO in India has experienced through work on health, education, housing, food security or with dalits and has a refinement at the practice level the of collective action and a strong and ideological The of assertions through in the form of trade or in the form of organizations or organization is This is it the that the one are not but collective – a shift towards understanding social issues in or structural with a critical understanding of the power of major development is a of the of CO with other or as community political and studies, community media and of these are in this special issue with The articles and the of CO and the shift and refinement of CO the in social work education in India on in India and the for equality provides an to of the that we in India as a democratic nation. on democratic which is of The for equality a collective form in CO. However, that the of communities impact the of in communities are based on the context and have of communities of caste, and gender needs to on the one hand, within the democratic against of the of and the within community to its of in the exclusion of For example, in a democracy, has an and is on who them and their against equality and gender dignity. at communities on and to the rise of right-wing forces and of of against in the in over a This the of a which to be built on principles of and in a democratic nation. are between two communities which shape both and collective which in often into and Community organizers to despite the of and and for the need to diversity and as fundamental to CO The strategies to and community the organizers to have a understanding of issues, factors and processes and in the It and to that and in community addressing and at and and communities are when CO is committed to human rights and social In this the role of social action the and of food especially on and sections of society. the exclusion faced by marginalized sections India is a food nation and that assertion of rights and community is the The work of Development is by has a with from 75 in of In with other they on education, and and at level food It has also in the specifically on and CO that towards and over local and socio-political institutions through and to the and rise of communities in the of and its The by the drawn between and CO over a – a which has and teaching of CO in India. It in the of the struggles of workers in and a strong for community practice to at issues of work and and for social workers a sharper understanding of of strategies and in grassroots organizing, especially in the of the Indian economy. and the of the for the to in of the of within the government which A long by the rural poor and activists democratic and in the of one of the most progressive in the in It is as a of that the of the citizen with the and voluntary of of and facilities by is greater and is for citizens to the of progressive community organizers are in this area and have been with the India has to In people on part of government to In of of has been from the India has had a strong women's with a of to organizing from which community practice has drawn and in diverse on the of a rising number of and activists have out that in areas have on exploitative created and for to in the and a of women's women's citizenship rights are asserted through by which the agenda of The economic of in out their and women's based on education and empowerment are by that have a financial agenda with focus on rights and social the women's several about By over to the and of work and are generally has been of government such as the Development and the the state is as the for poverty and institutions are of and of The strategies of have of activists across the world. In India, for community an of and at a when is not more and but also more They and values are to be in daily lives by individuals and to and up possibilities and can be to global as a large number of on the – – have been a social by and a young the work by in and for community organizers in a and from a strong in her work with tribals in and districts of are in this The first in rural India and both regarded as economic The on human development in rural India and such as and its education, of education, health care and in development across social groups. The is a of on that are more human than the contemporary political or and have a broader The last a on and in India. CO has political interest distinct from most which largely within of the groups or communities or a both of which have a It to the need or the is in and are through forms of and CO in India is in organizing, on development critical and is based on an analysis of state power and of It is a which all that to power that contribute to the experience of discrimination and CO not at the level of communities but with social structures and with democratic institutions of governance. to activists and a They are or and in different parts of the through are and the system is to the people's organization and their against organizers on or which remain for also their ability to out and education in CO needs to to with these this it is to that community workers have often received their orientation in social they have their of knowledge from a of In their practice, community workers are to specific issues and in of and with a focus on social equality and access to This has a sharper political and CO has in practice has drawn from the context of exclusion, violation of rights, of services and a of issues, of which are in the selection of articles in this special

Yuen H. Chan, Robert R. Taylor, Scott Markham

The intensely competitive global environment demands creative management and utilization of employees' capabilities and potentials in the organization through the use of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivational techniques (Randolph, 1995; Wischnevsky and Damanpour, 2006). Employees are expected to go that mile to adopt extra role behaviors (Organ, 1988), which are the foundation for spawning creativity and innovation. To engender such outcomes, modern managers have manipulated and changed traditional organizational context to reduce formal control and cultivate employees' self-discipline (Randolph, 1995). Key words that describe these interventions include decentralization, re-engineering, job involvement, autonomous teams and, most recently, empowerment. Generally, managers empower through interventions to eliminate social structural constraints in organizations to reduce feelings of helplessness in employees (Conger and Kanungo, 1988). Empowered employees are intrinsically motivated to take personal ownership of their jobs, to exercise self-determination, to satisfy their need for and to reinforce their personal self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1986). Most empirical studies examine empowerment from the perspective of managers undertaking diverse social structural interventions to empower their subordinates (Bonnie and Bishop, 2003; Forrester, 2000; Johnson and Paper, 1998; Mills and Ungson, 2003). Spreitzer's (1995) validation of a four-factor psychological empowerment construct, however, provided the instrument for researchers to redirect their examination of empowerment to those who are being empowered (Fulford and Enz, 1995; Koberg et al., 1999; Martin and Bush, 2006; Kirkman and Rosen, 1999; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990). Although practitioners and researchers have often acknowledged that trust is a critical psychological state that determines the success of any empowerment process (Argyris, 1998; Harari, 2002; Mayer et al., 1995), little is known of the impact that empowerment interventions have on building subordinates' trust directed towards their supervisors (subordinates' trust), and the impact of subordinates' trust on the extent of psychological empowerment experienced. To address these issues, we develop a holistic nomological network model (Cronbach and Meehl, 1955) for psychological empowerment based upon the assertion that empowerment is a social exchange-driven process which requires managers to relinquish dependence on and control and instead use cooperation and facilitation in relating with their subordinates. Further, we predict that empowered employees, within the context of social exchange, will chose to reciprocate the organization with Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB). THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Relational and Psychological Empowerment Empowerment research is dominated by two different approaches. The relational approach (Burke, 1986; Champy, 1995; Karsten, 1994) examines changing relationships by the manipulation of power (Kanter, 1983). Such tools include information (technical knowledge, political intelligence, expertise), resources (funds, materials, space, time), and support (endorsement, backing, approval legitimacy). This approach assumes such empowerment interventions directly affect work-related outcomes. This conceptualization of relational empowerment has been criticized for neglecting the individuals' experiences in the empowerment process (Spreitzer, 1995; Thomas and Velthouse, 1990). Recent research has shifted focus to an individual-level construct called psychological empowerment, fueled by Spreitzer's (1995) seminal groundwork which operationalized and validated the construct. Psychological empowerment is conceptualized as the result of employees' positive cognitive assessment of their work context for meaning, self-determination, competency and impact (Spreitzer, 1995). Employees perceive meaning in an activity when the objectives of the organization are assessed to be compatible with their own value systems (Brief and Nord, 1990). …