Agricultural Social Networks: An Agricultural Value Chain-Based Digitalization Framework for an Inclusive Digital Economy

Sustainable agriculture is the backbone of food security systems and a driver of human well-being in global economic development (Sustainable Development Goal SDG 3). With the increase in world population and the effects of climate change due to the industrialization of economies, food security systems are under pressure to sustain communities. This situation calls for the implementation of innovative solutions to increase and sustain efficacy from farm to table. Agricultural social networks (ASNs) are central in agriculture value chain (AVC) management and sustainability and consist of a complex network inclusive of interdependent actors such as farmers, distributors, processors, and retailers. Hence, social network structures (SNSs) and practices are a means to contextualize user scenarios in agricultural value chain digitalization and digital solutions development. Therefore, this research aimed to unearth the roles of agricultural social networks in AVC digitalization, enabling an inclusive digital economy. We conducted automated literature content analysis followed by the application of case studies to develop a conceptual framework for the digitalization of the AVC toward an inclusive digital economy. Furthermore, we propose a transdisciplinary framework that guides the digitalization systematization of the AVC, while articulating resilience principles that aim to attain sustainability. The outcomes of this study offer software developers, agricultural stakeholders, and policymakers a platform to gain an understanding of technological infrastructure capabilities toward sustaining communities through digitalized AVCs.

Building a Framework for a More Inclusive Healthcare System

Objective: With the explosion in the use of telehealth technologies, it is essential to address the challenges in global telehealth inequity in order to create a path to healthcare equality. To this end, this research paper focuses on investigating telehealth as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on healthcare inequality, telehealth inequity, and the continued vulnerabilities with increased demand in implementation. Study Design: A set of voluntary questions were e-mailed to active members of the IEEE-SA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association) Transforming the Telehealth Paradigm: Sustainable Connectivity, Accessibility, Privacy, and Security for all. The interview answers were analyzed via deductive thematic analysis organized into higher themes and theme-specific codes. Setting: The country of residence varied among individuals who are the IEEE-SA Telehealth program members. These continents included: North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Participants: Global healthcare leaders who are active members of the IEEE-SA Transforming the Telehealth Paradigm: Sustainable Connectivity, Accessibility, Privacy, and Security for all participated. The occupations of these individuals ranged from a variety of areas within the healthcare domain, such as physicians, scientists, and public health experts. Main outcome measure: Qualitative data obtained voluntarily from global healthcare leaders participating in the IEEE-SA Transforming the Telehealth Paradigm: Sustainable Connectivity, Accessibility, Privacy, and Security for all. Results: The major themes that emerged from the participants' responses included: telehealth infrastructure and access, digital literacy and user interface, government regulations, and telehealth legislation. Conclusions: Telehealth has the power to decrease healthcare disparities, thus getting closer to achieving health equity. However, there are three significant common global barriers to the implementation of telehealth: infrastructure, digital literacy, and government regulations. Because the results were based on interviewer responses, the conclusions acknowledged how the background of respondents, including career and education, influenced their experiences and, thus, the responses. Suggestions for change in reducing barriers to telehealth accessibility are detailed in this research. These suggestions were derived from respondents and focused on the global barriers to implementation. To reduce these barriers, changes in political health policy, patient health education, health provider telemedicine support, and in regulation for telemedicine are suggested. Limitations in our research project included a small sample size and the ensuing lack of representation from more geographical regions.

A position paper on the Quest for Education Quality and Inclusivity in Low Resource Environments such as Zimbabwe through Social Media

Social media has revolutionised human interaction globally especially on the informal front. This paper proposes that the social media facility could be ‘tamed' to help bridge the educational divide that is apparent especially in developing countries such as Zimbabwe and that was magnified by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic split education provision along income lines with those from the higher income bracket accessing educational instruction virtually even during such an ‘emergency' while those from the low income group were literally on sabbatical, virtually excluded. The obtaining scenario threatens realisation of Sustainable Development Goal Number 4 by 2030 as planned by the United Nations. The particular goal is aimed at ensuring "inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all”. In some instances, some candidates get to the examination room so inadequately prepared that the situation can be described as de facto exclusion. In order to assist Covid-19 pandemic affected learners and to uplift education quality in low income communities, this paper recommends the provision of a tablet per class/grade that should be viewed as a learning/teaching tool. The class teacher can use the tablet to download material, show educational videos to the class, audio/video record learners for educational ends, receive educational materials from the Ministry and its partners and avail these in an interesting multimodal manner to the learners.

Immersive and interactive three-dimensional virtual fieldwork: Assessing the student learning experience and value to improve inclusivity of geosciences degrees

Fieldwork is a pedagogical cornerstone of many geoscience degrees. During the academic years 2019–20 and 2020–21, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic made outdoors fieldwork difficult, resulting in an urgent need to develop virtual alternatives. However, there is still more to learn about the impact of teaching fieldwork virtually on the student learning experience. This study aims to assess the student learning experience during immersive and interactive three-dimensional virtual fieldwork and establish the value of digital techniques to improve the inclusivity of geosciences degrees. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to assess students' attitudes to virtual fieldwork in comparison to outdoor fieldwork in terms of accessibility, inclusivity and their learning experience. Our results show overall positive student responses to virtual fieldwork, with over half stating it adequately replicated the learning experience of outdoor fieldwork. Students also value outdoor fieldwork for the degree of autonomy it provides, and idea-sharing with peers;yet simultaneously the majority believed outdoor fieldwork is inherently exclusionary. This study concludes that virtual fieldwork, taught using interactive 3D virtual outcrops set within virtual worlds, replicates the outdoor fieldwork learning experience as closely as possible. However, students missed some fundamental and important aspects of outdoor fieldwork, as being outside and the social interactions with peers and staff that are specific to on-location fieldwork. This study recommends the use of virtual fieldwork in addition to residential on-location fieldwork, as for a significant number of students virtual fieldwork may be a better way of accessing this valued pedagogy of the geosciences. Furthermore, virtual fieldwork has the potential to make geosciences more inclusive and attractive to a wider range of students. © 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Day-Labor Worker Centers: Advancing New Models of Equity and Inclusion in the Informal Economy

Day-labor worker centers are labor market intermediaries that target their interventions to underregulated segments of residential construction and allied industries. As sites of rulemaking in the informal economy, worker centers raise standards and enforce worker protections in sectors that lie beyond the reach of government enforcement. In addition to strengthening wage floors, worker centers are now acting as "disaster recovery hubs” that can help local communities following natural disasters. As the economy was shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic, worker centers pivoted to provide emergency assistance to unemployed workers. This paper assesses these two emerging areas of worker center activity through a survey of disaster-recovery workers in Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and a national survey of worker centers that administered emergency assistance to immigrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. These case studies reveal promising new interventions that could lead to more inclusive forms of workforce development. © The Author(s) 2023.

Understanding Economic Development Organization Efforts to Advance Inclusive Economic Recovery in Virginia

This research incorporates preliminary findings from a survey and case studies of economic development organizations (EDOs) in Virginia as these entities initiate their economic recovery planning processes in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. The research seeks to understand the extent to which EDOs understand—and engage in conversations about—racial and economic inclusion in the context of economic recovery and to learn more about the strategies being deployed to promote inclusive recovery in the post-COVID era. Though some common characteristics were identified, the results demonstrate significant variation in both the extent to which inclusivity is prioritized and how it is conceived of in recovery planning efforts. The findings suggest that while many economic development organizations are signaling a commitment to inclusivity, albeit, in assorted ways, there remains a need for further dialogue about how inclusivity is defined and how it can best translate into actionable strategies. © The Author(s) 2023.

Bank Types, Inclusivity, and Payroll Protection Program Lending During COVID-19

How do differences in bank or lending institution type shape access to credit for small businesses in poor and/or minority communities in the United States? Banking systems are populated by lenders that differ qualitatively in their organizational forms, business models and missions, and that connect—or fail to connect—to small business borrowers and local communities in divergent ways. The authors analyze data on the Paycheck Protection Program and its over 11 million loans made to businesses across the United States to trace how these differences shaped the flow of credit to poor and minority communities. The authors find substantial differences across seven lender types, both in their propensities to avoid or lend to firms in traditionally marginalized communities, and in how much they lend to poor and majority–minority communities relative to their nonpoor and majority White counterparts. From this variety within American banking, the authors identify two potential pathways for more inclusive lending. © The Author(s) 2023.

Inclusive online community arts: COVID and beyond COVID

Inclusivity is an underlying principle of community arts, particularly for learning disabled and autistic people for whom the arts can create spaces of equity and inclusive participation. The Covid-19 pandemic required practitioners to find ways of replicating this sense of inclusivity through online delivery. This "digital turn" raised two recurring concerns. First, the accessibility and inclusivity of online activities;second, the quality of alternative digital provision. This paper examines these themes in the specific context of the Creative Doodle Book, which modelled inclusive online practice with learning disabled participants. Drawing on over 20 interviews with learning-disability focused community arts groups, the paper explores barriers to access, but also issues surrounding support and expectations. However, the focus is equally on the benefits once within an online "space", including new skills, widening networks, the development of inclusive capital and the opportunity to enable greater agency and self-advocacy both during Covid and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Cultural Trends is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Building Digital Literacy in Older Adults of Low Socioeconomic Status in Singapore (Project Wire Up): Nonrandomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: In a rapidly digitalizing world, the inability of older adults to leverage digital technology has been associated with weaker social connections and poorer health outcomes. Despite the widespread digital adoption in Singapore, older adults, especially those of lower socioeconomic status (SES), still face difficulties in adopting information and communications technology and are typically digitally excluded. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine the impact of the volunteer-led, one-on-one, and home-based digital literacy program on digital literacy and health-related outcomes such as self-reported loneliness, social connectedness, quality of life, and well-being for older adults of low SES. METHODS: A nonrandomized controlled study was carried out in Singapore between July 2020 and November 2021 involving 138 digitally excluded community-dwelling older adults aged ≥55 years and of lower SES. Older adults awaiting participation in the program served as controls. Older adults under the intervention were equipped with a smartphone and cellular data, underwent fortnightly to monthly digital literacy training with volunteers to learn digital skills, and digitally connected to their existing social networks. Primary outcome was the improvement in self-reported digital literacy. Secondary outcomes included improvements in University of California, Los Angeles 3-item loneliness scale, Lubben Social Network Scale-6, EQ-5D-3L and EQ visual analogue scale scores, and Personal Wellbeing Score. RESULTS: There were significant improvements in digital literacy scores in the intervention group as compared to controls (mean difference 2.28, 95% CI 1.37-3.20; P<.001). Through multiple linear regression analyses, this difference in digital literacy scores remained independently associated with group membership after adjusting for differences in baseline scores, age, gender, education, living arrangement, housing type, and baseline social connectivity and loneliness status. There was no statistically significant difference in University of California, Los Angeles 3-item loneliness scale, Lubben Social Network Scale-6, Personal Wellbeing Score, or EQ-5D Utility and visual analogue scale score. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to the growing research on digital inclusion by showing that a volunteer-led, one-on-one, and home-based digital literacy program contributed to increase digital literacy in older adults of low SES. Future studies should look into developing more older adult-friendly digital spaces and technology design to encourage continued digital adoption in older adults and, eventually, impact health-related outcomes.

Reimagining student-centered learning: Accessible and inclusive syllabus design during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper considers how the course syllabus, an often-overlooked document, can function as an instrument for naming and enacting more inclusive, accessible, and learner-centered classrooms. A syllabus is a powerful tool with the potential to make visible the practices and policies of an instructor's pedagogy, to facilitate trust between instructors and students, and to set the tone for a course. Despite the gravity of this document, however, the language and form of written syllabi have tended to be passed down, either institutionally or through generations of instructors, rather than revised and redesigned to meet the needs of students in a changing world. Observing renewed interest in inclusivity and accessibility in pedagogical conversations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors conducted this study of twelve digital rhetoric syllabi to systematically and precisely analyze the ways language is used to create learner-centered syllabi in service of more just classrooms. The findings demonstrate the need for creating accessible learning experiences for students, showing empathy through various learner-centered tools, and using positive and inclusive language to promote diversity, equity, and social justice. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

Using an age-friendly university lens to explore community member engagement during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced institutions of higher education to adapt quickly to virtual connection platforms to maintain ties with their learners. After transitioning to virtual programming, the number of participants in our lifelong learning program more than quadrupled. As a member of the Age-Friendly University (AFU) global network, we saw this as an opportunity to continue expanding our age-inclusivity efforts and capitalized on this engagement by inviting attendees to participate in a brief online survey related to several of the AFU principles. Respondents requested, although not exclusively, continued virtual access to programming. Results emphasized the need for flexible and diverse access points, supported by age-inclusive campus infrastructure, for continuity in respondents engaging with the university post-pandemic. Our path forward is discussed, highlighting successful strategies by other AFU global partners.

Reimagining Student-Centered Learning: Accessible and Inclusive Syllabus Design during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper considers how the course syllabus, an often-overlooked document, can function as an instrument for naming and enacting more inclusive, accessible, and learner-centered classrooms. A syllabus is a powerful tool with the potential to make visible the practices and policies of an instructor's pedagogy, to facilitate trust between instructors and students, and to set the tone for a course. Despite the gravity of this document, however, the language and form of written syllabi have tended to be passed down, either institutionally or through generations of instructors, rather than revised and redesigned to meet the needs of students in a changing world. Observing renewed interest in inclusivity and accessibility in pedagogical conversations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors conducted this study of twelve digital rhetoric syllabi to systematically and precisely analyze the ways language is used to create learner-centered syllabi in service of more just classrooms. The findings demonstrate the need for creating accessible learning experiences for students, showing empathy through various learner-centered tools, and using positive and inclusive language to promote diversity, equity, and social justice.

Online democratic participation during COVID-19

In terms of the inclusivity of democracy, both the opportunities and risks of using digital media have been highlighted in the literature. Empirical research into the use of digital media and the inclusivity of citizen participation, however, is limited. More specifically, we have a limited understand of the relation between the 'richness' of digital media and the inclusivity of citizen engagement The introduction of digital participation by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic presents a highly interesting situation for studying the relation between digital participation and the inclusivity of citizen engagement. This paper presents an assessment of five cases in the Netherlands to explore to what extent the media richness of digital participation affects the inclusivity of citizen engagement. Our findings present few indications for the exclusion of citizens and, in contrast, highlight the participation of more citizens when access was facilitated through digital media. The overall picture that emerges is that especially lean digital tools, webinars, enhance inclusivity in terms of access but only richer tools, interactive platforms, also facilitate participation as interaction with citizens. To our surprise, we found that hybrid forms of participation fall short in providing opportunities for inclusive interaction. We end the paper by recommending governments to realize both broad and in-depth inclusive democracy by sequential use of lean media - webinars - to boost the access to participation and rich media - platforms and offline meetings - for interactions with citizens. © 2022 - IOS Press.

Understanding innovative work behaviour of women in service firms

Globalisation, digitalisation, and deregulation are megatrends that demand smarter, diverse, and inclusive workplaces for harnessing full innovative potentials of workforces in developed and emerging economies. Motivated by this line of reasoning, this article investigates factors influencing women’s participation in innovative work behaviour (IWB), in an emerging economy context. Based on a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 34 management employees in the Kuwaiti service sector, the article proposes a gender inclusive model supporting enhanced women’s IWB participation within service firms. The article concludes with discussions on the theoretical and managerial implications of the study and suggestions for future IWB research.

Applying Technology in a Hybrid-Fashion to Create Dementia-Inclusive Community Spaces

While there is currently no cure for dementia, socially prescribing activities can enhance wellbeing for people living with dementia (PLWD). However, accessibility to such activities can be hindered by location, being unaware of activities, scheduling issues, or lack of interest in the specific activity. The COVID-19 pandemic further complicated accessibility and changed how coordinators of such programs thought about technology. This PhD research explores how technology can improve accessibility to community spaces and programs for PLWD and their informal carers. The first study involved understanding how technology used for social programs changed during the pandemic and developing guidelines for how program coordinators and technologists can adapt and develop technology for disseminating social programs. The current study aims to discover what elements may be necessary for spaces and programs to feel accessible for PLWD and how these elements can be translated or manifested through technology. © 2022 ACM.

What the COVID pandemic taught us about creating inclusive, anti-racist, and accessible online writing classes and programs

This article first describes how our two writing programs responded to moving online during the pandemic. Then, we pull lessons from our experiences and interrogate them, pushing against what we learned and demonstrating how anti-racist pedagogy and course design is imperative to include in discussions of accessibility and inclusion. Finally, we develop a set of questions we can use to make anti-racist policies and pedagogies a key part of accessibility.

The Need for Sustainability, Equity, and International Exchange: Perspectives of Early Career Environmental Psychologists on the Future of Conferences.

At the 2019 and 2021 International Conference on Environmental Psychology, discussions were held on the future of conferences in light of the enormous greenhouse gas emissions and inequities associated with conference travel. In this manuscript, we provide an early career researcher (ECR) perspective on this discussion. We argue that travel-intensive conference practices damage both the environment and our credibility as a discipline, conflict with the intrinsic values and motivations of our discipline, and are inequitable. As such, they must change. This change can be achieved by moving toward virtual and hybrid conferences, which can reduce researchers' carbon footprints and promote equity, if employed carefully and with informal exchange as a priority. By acting collectively and with the support of institutional change, we can adapt conference travel norms in our field. To investigate whether our arguments correspond to views in the wider community of ECRs within environmental psychology, we conducted a community case study. By leveraging our professional networks and directly contacting researchers in countries underrepresented in those networks, we recruited 117 ECRs in 32 countries for an online survey in February 2022. The surveyed ECRs supported a change in conference travel practices, including flying less, and perceived the number of researchers wanting to reduce their travel emissions to be growing. Thirteen percent of respondents had even considered leaving academia due to travel requirements. Concerning alternative conference formats, a mixed picture emerged. Overall, participants had slightly negative evaluations of virtual conferences, but expected them to improve within the next 5 years. However, ECRs with health issues, facing visa challenges, on low funding, living in remote areas, with caretaking obligations or facing travel restrictions due to COVID-19 expected a switch toward virtual or hybrid conferences to positively affect their groups. Participants were divided about their ability to build professional relationships in virtual settings, but believed that maintaining relationships virtually is possible. We conclude by arguing that the concerns of ECRs in environmental psychology about current and alternative conference practices must be taken seriously. We call on our community to work on collective solutions and less travel-intensive conference designs using participatory methods.

Resilience of political leaders and healthcare organizations during COVID-19.

This study assesses the online societal association of leaders and healthcare organizations from the top-10 COVID-19 resilient nations through public engagement, sentiment strength, and inclusivity and diversity strength. After analyzing 173,071 Tweets authored by the leaders and health organizations, our findings indicate that United Arab Emirate's Prime Minister had the highest online societal association (normalized online societal association: 1.000) followed by the leaders of Canada and Turkey (normalized online societal association: 0.068 and 0.033, respectively); and among the healthcare organizations, the Public Health Agency of Canada was the most impactful (normalized online societal association: 1.000) followed by the healthcare agencies of Turkey and Spain (normalized online societal association: 0.632 and 0.094 respectively). In comparison to healthcare organizations, the leaders displayed a strong awareness of individual factors and generalized their Tweets to a broader audience. The findings also suggest that users prefer accessing social media platforms for information during health emergencies and that leaders and healthcare institutions should realize the potential to use them effectively.

Aging all over the place: a multidisciplinary framework that considers place and life trajectories of older adults within their communities

Purpose>This conceptual paper aims to describe aging all over the place (AAOP), a federative framework for action, research and policy that considers older adults’ diverse experiences of place and life trajectories, along with person-centered care.Design/methodology/approach>The framework was developed through group discussions, followed by an appraisal of aging models and validation during workshops with experts, including older adults.Findings>Every residential setting and location where older adults go should be considered a “place,” flexible and adaptable enough so that aging in place becomes aging all over the place. Health-care professionals, policymakers and researchers are encouraged to collaborate around four axes: biopsychosocial health and empowerment;welcoming, caring, mobilized and supportive community;spatiotemporal life and care trajectories;and out-of-home care and services. When consulted, a Seniors Committee showed appreciation for flexible person-centered care, recognition of life transitions and care trajectories and meaningfulness of the name.Social implications>Population aging and the pandemic call for intersectoral actions and for stakeholders beyond health care to act as community leaders. AAOP provides opportunities to connect environmental determinants of health and person-centered care.Originality/value>Building on the introduction of an ecological experience of aging, AAOP broadens the concept of care as well as the political and research agenda by greater integration of community and clinical actions. AAOP also endeavors to avoid patronizing older adults and to engage society in strengthening circles of benevolence surrounding older adults, regardless of their residential setting. AAOP’s applicability is evidenced by existing projects that share its approach.

A Scoping Review of Barriers and Facilitators Affecting the Lives of People With Disabilities During COVID-19.

Purpose: This scoping review aimed to identify the barriers and facilitators to everyday activities and social participation of people with a disability (PWD) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The search terms (disability and COVID-19) were used in four databases: CINAHL, Medline (Ovid), EMBASE and Web of Science. The search conducted from January 2019 to September 22, 2020, identified 465 peer reviewed articles and abstracts and were screened in Covidence software. Studies were included if they had the terms "COVID-19" and "disability," were published in English, and specifically examined how COVID-19 impacted the daily lives of PWD. Exclusion criteria included: disability as a symptom or result of COVID-19, the health outcomes when PWD acquired COVID-19, disability leave for someone who is sick and the risk of acquiring the disease for PWD. 74 articles met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed via data charting. Charting began with existing barriers and facilitators identified by the World Health Organization and new barriers and facilitators, that emerged from the texts were added during this process. Results: The barriers that emerged included: access to information, ease of communication, financial impacts, mental health impacts, access to essential services, physical safety, educational challenges, and changes to care and rehabilitation. Significant facilitators included: changes to care and rehabilitation, new innovations, social and familial support and inclusive policy measures. Conclusion: COVID-19 exacerbated existing challenges in the lives of PWD and raised new quality of life concerns. Findings also demonstrate that policy makers, health care professionals and others continually support PWD in times of crisis.