Book Review: Stakeholders in Rural Development: Critical Collaboration in State–NGO Partnerships,by John M. Riley. Sage,New Delhi, 2002

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Iran and COVID-19: A Bottom-up,Faith-Driven,Citizen-Supported Response

Public Organization Review - The COVID-19 pandemic cast doubts on governments' traditional crisis responses and sparked a surge in citizen-led, participatory, bottom-up responses. Iran's...     

On the modified Burr IV model for hydrological events: development,properties, characterizations and applications

We introduce a new distribution for modeling extreme events about frequency analysis called modified Burr IV (MBIV) distribution. We derive the MBIV distribution on the basis of the generalized Pearson differential equation. The proposed model turns out to be flexible: its density function can be symmetrical, right-skewed, left-skewed, J and bimodal shaped. Its hazard rate has shapes such as bathtub and modified bathtub, increasing, decreasing, and increasing-decreasing-increasing. To show the importance of the MBIV distribution, we establish various mathematical properties such as random number generator, sub-models, moments related properties, inequality measures, reliability measures, uncertainty measures and characterizations. We utilize the maximum likelihood estimation technique to estimate the model parameters. We assess the behavior of the maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the MBIV parameters via a simulation study. Five data sets related to frequency analysis are considered to elucidate the significance of the MBIV distribution. We show that the MBIV model is the best model to analyze data for hydrological events, motivating its high level of adaptability in the applied setting.KEYWORDS: Characterizations, elasticity function, moments, maximum likelihood estimator, reliability     

Integrating commercial and residential pickup and delivery networks: A case study

This paper presents a strategic analysis of the network design problem faced by pickup and delivery companies operating in metropolitan areas and serving two or more classes of customers. The focus is on a division that treats commercial and residential customers separately, a situation motivated by their respective geographic densities and the size and frequency of their demand. In constructing driver work areas, it is necessary to take into account expected demand, vehicle capacity, time on the road, and the aspect ratio of the individual territories. This leads to a capacitated clustering problem with side constraints that has been the subject of intense research over the last decade.     

Consolidation and fragmentation in environmental scanning: A review and research agenda

Environmental scanning is a broadly defined concept, having first received attention from scholars in the late 1960s. Over the years a number of similar and overlapping constructs have emerged in management literature. The aim of this study, via a systematic review and thematic analysis of relevant empirical research, is to consolidate foundation environmental scanning knowledge, demonstrate how scanning research has developed and fragmented over time, and propose an agenda for future research. The first contribution of our review is a new typology of environmental scanning research made up of five discrete research views, which provides a more comprehensive and contemporary overview of the field than previous studies. The second is a proposed agenda for future research that explicitly acknowledges the role of technology, an area that is presently underdeveloped in foundation scanning literature. The third contribution is to signpost future directions for research on scanning and organisational performance using a number of theoretical perspectives. The overall outcome of our review is to move scanning research on from increasingly incremental contributions concerned with context to a place where the changing role of technology and the mechanisms through which environmental scanning contributes to competitive advantage can be more thoroughly understood.     

On the performance of Scatter Search for post-enrolment course timetabling problems

This study presents an investigation of enhancing the capability of the Scatter Search (SS) metaheuristic in guiding the search effectively toward elite solutions. Generally, SS generates a population of random initial solutions and systematically selects a set of diverse and elite solutions as a reference set for guiding the search. The work focuses on three strategies that may have an impact on the performance of SS. These are: explicit solutions combination, dynamic memory update, and systematic search re-initialization. First, the original SS is applied. Second, we propose two versions of the SS (V1 and V2) with different strategies. In contrast to the original SS, SSV1 and SSV2 use the quality and diversity of solutions to create and update the memory, to perform solutions combinations, and to update the search. The differences between SSV1 and SSV2 is that SSV1 employs the hill climbing routine twice whilst SSV2 employs hill climbing and iterated local search method. In addition, SSV1 combines all pairs (of quality and diverse solutions) from the RefSet whilst SSV2 combines only one pair. Both SSV1 and SSV2 update the RefSet dynamically rather than static (as in the original SS), where, whenever a better quality or more diverse solution is found, the worst solution in RefSet is replaced by the new solution. SSV1 and SSV2 employ diversification generation method twice to re-initialize the search. The performance of the SS is tested on three benchmark post-enrolment course timetabling problems. The results had shown that SSV2 performs better than the original SS and SSV1 (in terms of solution’s quality and computational time). It clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of using dynamic memory update, systematic search re-initialization, and combining only one pair of elite solutions. Apart from that, SSV1 and SSV2 can produce good quality solutions (comparable with other approaches), and outperforms some approaches reported in the literature (on some instances with regards to the tested datasets). Moreover, the study shows that by combining (simple crossover) only one pair of elite solutions in each RefSet update, and updating the memory dynamically, the computational time is reduced.     

Paving the Way for A Normal Life: A Qualitative Study of Coping Strategies Among Iranian Divorced Women

Regarding the devastating aftermath of divorce among Iranian divorced women, which is mainly affected by sociocultural factors, this qualitative study was conducted to explore their applied strategies in reorganizing their lives. Data collection started through deep unstructured interviews followed by semistructured interviews with 18 divorced women who were chosen by purposive sampling from mental health clinics, social work centers, or available cases. Gathered data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Two main themes—behaviors of self-preservation and abstinence and struggling for balance—emerged. Subcategories were concealing the divorce, feminine self-restriction, avoidance behaviors, replacement of losses, seeking support, role development, handling the tensions, and defending oneself against the divorce failure. This study provides comprehensive knowledge of how Iranian divorced women reregulate their lives and also highlights their unique and culture-based coping strategies. Therefore, it provides specialists with a context-specific foundation for mental health care and enables them to intervene more effectively.     

Life and labor on the internal colonial edge: Political economy of kolberi in Rojhelat

Through the investigation of kolberi (cross-border labor), this paper sheds light on the state’s policy of de-development (or internal colonialization) of the Kurdish region (known as Rojhelat) in Iran. While the most dangerous form of labor, kolberi has become a dominant employment opportunity for Rojhelat Kurds in the last decade. There are no Iranian state laws criminalizing kolberi, and yet those laborers die on a regular basis—being shot or thrown off mountain cliffs by the state forces, stepping into minefields, and so forth. Nevertheless, there is not a single scholarly paper on this subject. Using the mixed methods research approach, our study analyzes the existing data along with in-depth interviews with 20 people who are currently engaged in kolberi to contextualize this understudied phenomenon. Our finding demonstrates that kolberi is a direct outcome of a uni-ethno-religious policies of development and part and parcel of the state's Perso-Shi‘ification strategy in Kurdistan. Therefore, kolberi is more of a political phenomenon than an economic one.     

… Do as the Romans do. A model of conformity with the endogenous formation of preferences

This note is an answer to a previous model on conformity in public goods contributions developed by Carpenter (2004), where a population evolution is allowed according to the standard replicator dynamic (Taylor and Jonker, 1978, Maynard Smith, 1982). To confirm his theoretical prediction, Carpenter developed an experiment showing that free riding actually grows faster when agents have the information necessary to conform. The model and the experiment are, however, inherently different, for the time scales of the model are not able to capture the short run convergence of behavior in the experimental laboratory.We here present a model of conformity which offers the same laboratory results as Carpenter without resorting to evolutionary models, and also gives agents the chance to adopt different strategies implying various levels of cooperation.     

Education and Employment among Muslims in Indian Jammu and Kashmir

Muslims constitute about 14% population of India and are the largest religious minority community spread over the length and breadth of the country. The minority community in question has been relegated to the lowest socio-economic stratum in Indian society especially after the partition and independence of the country. However, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Muslims are in majority constituting about 67% population of the state. In the current study, the Concentration Index of Muslim population, variation in literacy rate and work participation, occupational structure across region and religion, as well as the interrelationship between concentration of Muslim population, literacy rate and work participation in Jammu and Kashmir has been explored and explained. The present study is based upon secondary information obtained from Census 2001 and is also supplemented with government reports, published work wherever necessary. As far as share of Muslims in the sphere of education and employment in the state of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, they have reported lower share among the population of literates, category of other workers and higher share in the occupational category of cultivators, agricultural labourers, household industry workers and non-workers in comparison to all religious groups. This means that despite being in majority, their situation is similar to their co-religionists at the all India level.