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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the findings from the body of case studies offered in the issue, combined with three external perspectives on local voices and action.

Using as its basis the eight key case studies and three external contributions to the special issue, the paper offers a theoretical framework as a basis for discussion of this material. Through this, it identifies possible modes of action understood through the theoretical framework and elaborated through the specific cases. It concludes with proposals for further work.

The discussion finds that from a local perspective, the ambitions of local populations and local NGOs to achieve emancipatory change depend on the scope for local collaboration and partnerships to exercise influence on underlying risk factors. It resolves the suggested tension between operating within, and outside the system through the concept of “legitimate subversion”.

It is felt that the original recording of case studies of local level action combined with the process of iterative critical reflection on the part of the contributors offers a novel approach to knowledge creation from practice, and offers insights bridging theoretical and practitioner perspectives into means of addressing underlying risk factors affecting local populations.

The purpose of this paper is to individually examine the findings from eight case studies presented in this special issue and comparatively identify the findings regarding local learning and action.

Underlying research questions regarding power and powerlessness in regard to addressing underlying risk factors affecting local populations form the basis for the discussion. Proceedings of a collaborative workshop conducted with the contributing authors are analysed qualitatively to identify learning relating to the research questions emerging from the case studies individually and collectively.

A number of strategies and tactics for addressing underlying risk factors affecting local populations were identified from the case studies, including collaboration and cohesion. Campaigning, lobbying, communications and social mobilisation in an attempt to bridge the gap between local concerns and the decision-making of government and other powerful actors. Innovation and local mobilisation to address shortcomings in government support for disaster reduction and development. Communications as a first base to influence behaviour of both communities and government. Social change through empowerment of women to act in disaster reduction and development.

The outcomes of the action research conducted by the authors individually and collectively highlight the necessity for bridging different scales of action through a range of strategies and tactics to move beyond local self-reliance to influence on underlying risk factors. The action research process employed may have wider applications in gathering and formalising local-level experience and knowledge.

The case studies and their analysis present a range of practical strategies and tactics to strengthen local resilience and address underlying risk factors which are replicable in other contexts.

Practitioners are activists and do not often engage in critical reflection and analysis. The method presented here offers a means of achieving this in order to generate learning from local-level experience. The findings contribute to the consideration of cross-scale action to address underlying risk factors which impact local communities.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the power of protest in quasi-democratic politics and feudal societies; consider deep-rooted impacts of illiteracy, inequality, marginalisation and powerlessness on poor peoples’ behaviour; and analyse how these turn them to believe in fatalism.

The paper narrates 12 years of work with isolated and poor communities, which are prone to annual flooding and riverbank erosion. Reflections are based on the years of NGOs’ workers experiences and conclusions.

Poor governance stems from deep-rooted multiple inequalities – land/resources, religious knowledge, education, social hierarchies, cultural norms and political power. This leads to fatalism which deters the poor from making the powerful accountable. An outside catalyst is essential to break the ice. Disasters do create opportunities to act against injustices.

The paper narrates 12 years of work with isolated and poor communities which are prone to annual flooding and riverbank erosion.

The old community is gone. The Ahmadies constitutionally declared non-Muslims have rebuilt their village. Meanwhile, other families have gone elsewhere. They may have a house of sorts but are landless and have no sustainable income. With spurs, the river may go back and leave their land. Reclaiming their land will be a huge task.

There is a serious need to link civil society based in urban centres with those who live in remote areas, isolated and oppressed, in order to transform a quasi-democracy into a participatory and social democracy.

When floods hit, erosion accelerates and makes people homeless and landless. Yet, erosion is not considered a disaster. The country lacks public policy to address the issue. This study highlights of the urgent issue of riverbank erosion that could shift policy.

Salinity is one of the major problems in the coastal region of Bangladesh that contributes to 20% of the total land area. About 53% of the coastal region is affected by different degrees of salinity. Salinity intrusion in this area is mainly derived through climate change as well as anthropogenic factors that make this region more vulnerable. Hence, salinity intrusion has adverse effects on water, soils, agriculture, fisheries, ecosystem, and livelihoods of this region. To ensure the availability of food as well as drinking water, this chapter highlights how individual and community people have endeavored several adaptation measures to minimize salinity effects. Moreover, it further discloses governmental and other development organizations’ actions toward salinity to reduce its impacts.

Workplace bullying is a serious problem among nurses, which results in negative workplace behavior. Therefore, this study aims to understand how workplace bullying affects employees’ knowledge hiding behavior. Specifically, this study explored psychological contract breach as an underlying mechanism between workplace bullying and knowledge hiding; and learning goal orientation as a boundary condition between psychological contract breach and knowledge hiding.

The study collected data from 343 nurses working in the health-care sector of Pakistan on convenience basis using a questionnaire-based survey between December 2021 to March 2022. The data were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

The results revealed the adverse effect of workplace bullying on knowledge hiding behaviors among nurses, and psychological contract breach was noted to mediate this association. Further, learning goal orientation was noted to buffer the relationship between psychological contract breach and knowledge hiding.

The cross-section design may restrict causality; however, the findings suggest health-care administration take appropriate measures to reduce the adverse effects of workplace bullying. In addition, the administration is suggested to implement training programs to make nurses capable of dealing with workplace stressors (bullying and psychological contract breach).

This research provides a novel perspective to consider psychological contract breach as a mechanism between workplace bullying and knowledge hiding in the health-care sector from the conservation of resources perspective. It further explored learning goal orientation as a buffer to mitigate the effect of psychological contract breach on knowledge hiding.

The current challenges experienced by all nations promote the trade-off between the increase in economic performance and the protected environment. The investigation based on the energy economy has become an irreplaceable topic to determine the correct path for minimizing the trade-off cost. Within this scope, this study has been performed to investigate the causality nexus between the exports indicators (aggregated exports and the ICT exports) and the energy consumption (renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption of the selected five emerging countries. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality analysis is performed on the annual data between 2000 and 2014. As a consequence of the evidence, it is documented that there are various causality relationships between the exports and the energy consumption indicators in the light of the performed analysis at different lags. However, the role of nonrenewable energy consumption is more active in the economies of the considered countries. According to the evidence, it is recommended for the emerging countries to invest and allocate more funds to renewable energy resources to diminish the role of nonrenewable energy resources in the economy.

The purpose of this study is to identify the emergence of apparel brands in Bangladesh: their timing, order and the reasons behind the patterns. This study also examined whether these evolution patterns followed the same path in Korea and India.

By employing secondary research method, this study gathered and analyzed data from companies, trade organizations, news media and academic articles to determine the socioeconomic backgrounds and underlying dynamics that propelled the evolution patterns. Following Jin et al.'s (2013) approach, we analyzed three types of apparel brands (international, national and private) in Bangladesh.

The findings indicated that in contrast with Korea and India, in Bangladesh (a) the emergence of international brands occurred after the national brands' appearance in the More Advanced Production of Fabric and Apparel stage, (b) national brands also emerged at the same stage and earlier than the international brands developed, and (c) internationalization of national brands and emergence of private brands were not observed. The differences in the emergent timing and order were explained by socioeconomic and cultural aspects, along with industry life cycle perspectives.

Findings indicate that the Bangladeshi market is dominated by national apparel brands. Therefore, international brands are advised to consider the business strategies of local competitors and develop their own pricing and merchandising strategies to maintain their supremacy as premium brands.

This study addressed apparel brand evolution patterns in a lower middle-income country. The results revealed some unique aspects. Unlike in other developing countries, national brand development in Bangladesh was initiated by entrepreneurs.

This paper aims to investigate the direct relationship between person-related workplace bullying and dimensions of knowledge hiding. In addition, this study also intends to explore how relational psychological contract breach (RPCB) mediates bulling and knowledge hiding.

This study has used a survey-based research design to collect the data. The data were collected in three-time lags from 494 individuals working in IT-based firms (software houses) located in Pakistan. The data were analyzed through the variance-based structural equation modeling technique. For this purpose, the authors used SmartPLS3 software.

This study revealed that person-related workplace bullying impacts playing dumb and evasive knowledge hiding both directly and indirectly. In addition to this, person-related bullying does not affect rationalized knowledge hiding. This study also found that RPCB mediates the relationship between person-related bullying and knowledge hiding dimensions.

This study offers important implications for IT firms, including software houses. The findings imply that organizations should discourage person-related workplace bullying to reduce employees’ intention to engage in knowledge-hiding behavior. Moreover, the management of these firms should develop a culture of interpersonal trust among employees so that they can care for the relational psychological contract.

This study is amongst the few types of research that has investigated the impact of person-related bullying on different forms of knowledge hiding behavior through the mediating role of RPCB.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the trends and prospects for the development of the halal market for Italian foods, with a focus on pasta production as one of the most valued products of the Made in Italy brand. The analysis takes into consideration drivers and obstacles for developing halal orientation strategies in world and internal markets and opportunities and threats for Italian food firms.

Market dynamics were investigated by a forecasting tool, the Delphi method, which aims to explore future market trends and give suggestions for firm strategies and policy intervention. Besides firms, other experts involved in the Italian halal food sector were interviewed. Answers were organised according to the level of importance given to the different issues and to the level of agreement between the opinions of the experts. These findings were then discussed in relation to the contexts, both external and internal to companies, that had given rise to such opinions.

The halal food market represents a good opportunity for enlarging the overseas markets for Italian products and producers. Several external and internal factors related to the demographic, the institutional, the market and the firm contexts, emerged. The challenges that non-Islamic countries, markets and firms face in the adoption of halal strategies are mainly due to the institutional context, to the scarce awareness of halal principles and practices, and to some suspicion of Islamic food and culture that does not yet seem well-known and accepted on the domestic market.

The Islamic food market has still to be fully explored in Italy, this is despite strongly emerging demand and a growing number of firms showing interest in implementing halal certification and entering new Islamic markets. The paper findings contribute to the scarce empirical literature about the halal market in Italy and give some recommendations both for supporting further studies, identifying preliminary implications and suggesting policy measures.