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Article
Publication date: 28 June 2022

Arden He and Alfonso Morales

Despite the progressive values espoused by farmers' market patrons, markets have been shown to be exclusive to low-income people of color. This paper examines a particular food…

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the progressive values espoused by farmers' market patrons, markets have been shown to be exclusive to low-income people of color. This paper examines a particular food security program at a farmers market to ask how social embeddedness and moral economy can be incorporated to dignify underrepresented groups at the market.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study uses an embeddedness framework to analyze the design of a community-oriented food security program at a farmers market.

Findings

Social embeddedness contributed to the success of the program in a number of meaningful ways: face-to-face community outreach reached target populations at a human level, and engendered spontaneous support from organizations with shared values. Graphics and text used in marketing material can make transparent the moral economy of the market. However, as soon as social embeddedness is legitimized within a program design, suppressed tensions emerge that are associated with the perceived dichotomy between academic, technically-oriented professionals and on-the-ground community members. In particular, the selection of personnel from the community itself led to interpersonal tensions as well as technical difficulties.

Research limitations/implications

The analysis proceeds from an administrative point of view, and does not include direct interviews with market attendees or vendors.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that long-term support is necessary for the implementation of socially embedded food security programs, so that personnel can build trust and technical competence over time.

Originality/value

This paper offers solutions to the limitations of farmers markets as sites for food security programs, and uniquely contextualizes policy administration in a social embeddedness lens.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 42 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 March 2022

Catie DeMets and Alfonso Morales

Farmers markets act as a nexus between farmers, community members and social values, and can foster significant community and environmental benefits. However, some of these…

Abstract

Purpose

Farmers markets act as a nexus between farmers, community members and social values, and can foster significant community and environmental benefits. However, some of these benefits, including agricultural sustainability, are rarely measured or publicized, restricting the full potential of markets and their associated actors to generate public benefits. This study aims to consider how markets, planners and policymakers might address this gap to promote a healthy environment and climate change mitigation.

Design/methodology/approach

In this article, the authors discuss their efforts to advance the above opportunity by developing, in collaboration with 20 farms across the USA, a citizen science data collection tool that measures and translates farm “ecosystem services” into accessible, public-facing formats to support informed farmer and consumer decision-making.

Findings

The authors present takeaways from exploratory interviews with three farmer-collaborators, which illustrate how tools like ours can help farmers in myriad ways: setting benchmarks to measure on-farm improvement over time, legitimizing their work through scientific grounding, communicating environmental impacts to public audiences, increasing sales to fund sustainability efforts, gaining competitive edge and others.

Practical implications

More broadly, the article exemplifies how marketplaces can strengthen symbiotic linkages between individuals, community allies and social goals through data measurement and communication, and reflects on how planners and policymakers might support these connections to advance public purposes.

Originality/value

This research responds uniquely to a critical need identified by practitioners and academics to expand understanding and awareness of the ecosystem services farms provide.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 42 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1997

Alfonso Morales

This paper reports preliminary findings about how households organize street vending businesses in response to varying sources and degrees of uncertainty. The thesis is that…

198

Abstract

This paper reports preliminary findings about how households organize street vending businesses in response to varying sources and degrees of uncertainty. The thesis is that households organize themselves in different ways in response to different types of uncertainty associated with 1) earning different types of income and 2) differences as well as changes in intra‐household relationships. The important findings are twofold: first, that household members earn income from both “formal” and “informal” sources BOTH sequentially and simultaneously. The second finding is that people coordinate the efforts of household members with respect to (un)certainty to keep income flowing from the income‐earning activities the members are practicing. I review some empirical work on the informal economy and follow this discussion with data from Chicago's Maxwell Street Market.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 17 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2000

Alfonso Morales

Focuses on street vending in Chicago, in the USA, taking a historical perspective. Shows how it was used to alleviate unemployment in the volatile progressive era but then became…

Abstract

Focuses on street vending in Chicago, in the USA, taking a historical perspective. Shows how it was used to alleviate unemployment in the volatile progressive era but then became mired in complaints about corruption and vice. Uses a case study of an entrepreneurial Mexican family and highlights the wisdom of earlier days by showing how street vending offers a series of choices that are different from the choices made by larger forms only in that they are more accessible to the poor.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 20 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2000

Steve Balkin and Alfonso Morales

Presents a discussion of an Internet Web site started in reaction to attacks on an historic street market in Chicago, USA. Takes an advocate’s perspective rather than an academic…

Abstract

Presents a discussion of an Internet Web site started in reaction to attacks on an historic street market in Chicago, USA. Takes an advocate’s perspective rather than an academic one and shows how the site developed to provide information about street vending around the world. Discusses the success and problems of using the Internet for the purposes of helping the poor on a shoestring budget.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 20 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1997

Alfonso Morales

It is fascinating to think about the growth of the literature on the informal economy since Hart and Ferman and Ferman first considered the problem in very different contexts in…

Abstract

It is fascinating to think about the growth of the literature on the informal economy since Hart and Ferman and Ferman first considered the problem in very different contexts in the early 1970's. In fact some intellectual history would probably be appealing for students of this literature. Irrespective of the knowledge gained from conducting an intellectual history, social scientists should be aware that many, if not most, of the empirical and theoretical problems they study have roots in different philosophical problems (Leaf, 1979). The “informal” economy is no exception. To situate the following collection of articles on the informal economy in one useful philosophical context, I will discuss in this introduction two distinct strategies of social science investigation. Having spelled out these strategies, I will then consider how each of the papers stands in relation to them.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 17 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Book part
Publication date: 23 June 2022

Mario Vargas Saenz

This work presents a review of the state of the art of the present century on academic and scientific production in Latin America related to the concept of Social Innovation. The…

Abstract

This work presents a review of the state of the art of the present century on academic and scientific production in Latin America related to the concept of Social Innovation. The analysis is based on articles published in indexed journals, which makes it possible to understand the existing asymmetry between the conceptual and theoretical veins, of the case studies, as well as of good social innovation practices that have been published in recent years. These debates have in some cases transcended public policies, as well as business and social realities where social innovation is a mechanism and strategy for personal, social, and territorial development. Finally, a Latin American community of researchers and academics around social innovation must be consolidated, who choose to continue building theoretical-empirical bodies following the Latin American reality.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Latin America
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-955-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 August 2013

Ana María Lucia‐Casademunt, J. Antonio Ariza‐Montes and Alfonso Carlos Morales‐Gutiérrez†

Employee well‐being (WB) is a strategic reference of prime importance due to its impact on human capital, employee health and quality in working life, factors that are key to…

1198

Abstract

Purpose

Employee well‐being (WB) is a strategic reference of prime importance due to its impact on human capital, employee health and quality in working life, factors that are key to achieving successful organisations. The purpose of the current study is to assess the WB of female managers in the European workplace. The research analyses three dimensions (job satisfaction, comfort and enthusiasm) and the effect of job‐related factors on each one of these.

Design/methodology/approach

The Mental Health and Vitamin models (Warr, 1987) were taken as the starting‐point of the research. An alternative econometric method – an artificial neural network known as extreme learning machine was applied to a sample of 99 female managers collected from the 5th European Working Conditions Survey‐2010

Findings

The results obtained confirm that this methodology is valid to efficiently classify European female managers into those who feel satisfied with their jobs, calm and relaxed, and cheerful and in good spirits, and those who do not. Furthermore, the resulting model identifies the strongest factors important in determining the varied dimensions of occupational WB achieved.

Originality/value

Even today, despite the important contribution women managers make to the management of organisations, they have to face many challenges and overcome serious barriers in achieving and staying in positions of leaderships when compared to their male counterparts.

Propósito

El bienestar laboral constituye un referente estratégico de primer orden por su impacto sobre el capital humano – salud y calidad de vida laboral de los empleados –, en aras de alcanzar organizaciones exitosas. El objetivo del presente artículo es analizar el bienestar laboral a partir de sus tres dimensiones (satisfacción, confort y entusiasmo) de las mujeres que ocupan puestos de dirección en Europa y el efecto de ciertos factores laborales.

Diseño/metodología/enfoque

Se adopta como punto de partida los modelos teóricos de salud mental y vitamínico (Warr, 1987), aplicando un método econométrico novedoso – redes neuronales artificiales –, a una muestra de 99 mujeres directivas extraída de la V Encuesta Europea de Condiciones de Trabajo (2010).

Resultados

Los resultados obtenidos confirman la validez de esta novedosa metodología para clasificar eficazmente a las mujeres directivas que presentan un elevado grado de bienestar laboral. Por otra parte, con el modelo resultante se identifican los factores más determinantes para el logro de cada una de las dimensiones que constituyen el bienestar laboral.

Originalidad

Las mujeres directivas, quienes a pesar de lo mucho que tienen que aportar en la gestión de las organizaciones, aún hoy encuentran que su acceso y permanencia en los puestos de dirección está colmado de desafíos y barreras difíciles de superar en comparación con sus homólogos masculinos.

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2000

Loran E. Custinger

Presents findings from a case study into official attempts to change street vending into an “appropriate” form for tourists in Barbados. Suggests this has had a negative effect…

584

Abstract

Presents findings from a case study into official attempts to change street vending into an “appropriate” form for tourists in Barbados. Suggests this has had a negative effect ont he vendors. Focuses on a market relocation scheme and shows how the image and the reality of street vending have clashed in a way which has harmed many of the vulnerable vendors.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 20 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2000

Ray Bromley

Provide a general contemporary overview of street vending around the world, focusing on the major issues underlying its permanence as a phenomenon, and the ambivalent attitudes…

5508

Abstract

Provide a general contemporary overview of street vending around the world, focusing on the major issues underlying its permanence as a phenomenon, and the ambivalent attitudes displayed towards it by governments and off‐street business communities. Focuses on street vendors as an occupational group ad includes arguments for and against their existence, the impact of their geographical and economic location, and role of the government.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 20 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

1 – 10 of 90