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Drawing on the notion of “mental health policy participation”, the purpose of this paper is to describe and reflect on a regional case study of a community engagement approach that explored community perspectives on mental health and the factors that influence it. It established three expectations, that: the development of the Dumfries and Galloway Public Mental Health Strategy is informed by project outputs; services and innovations are based on what people want; active involvement of local people in decision making around mental health services and strategy is achieved.

A “participatory appraisal” approach was used to engage with communities. A three-day “Training of Trainers” exercise was undertaken. These individuals then accessed a number of community groups. Data collection was based on five key questions. A total of 443 were engaged in the process. Insights were reviewed by 20 stakeholders from a range of services to identify key actions. This led to the development of the mental health forum and, in turn, a Public Mental Health Strategy for Dumfries and Galloway. Community members were further included in processes through feedback mechanisms.

Factors of resilience, support of families and friends, social inclusion, access to social and leisure opportunities were most important. This was followed by structural issues like fear of judgement, lack of transport, discrimination and financial support. Finally, individual factors (sleep, meaningful hobbies and health) were highlighted.

This approach sought to go beyond a traditional focus to explore broader community perspectives on mental health and the factors that influence it.

The purpose of this paper is to share the key findings of the Wandering in the Woods action research project conducted by Dementia Adventure. Practical implications for changing practices in the dementia care and health and well‐being sectors are highlighted.

Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered using the participatory appraisal method in small groups both before and after “woodland adventure” days out.

There was a 41 per cent increase in participants rating “exercise” as a factor which is “very important” to them. A number of potential physical, emotional, and social benefits of activity out in woodlands, for people with dementia, were identified.

The research is conducted with three relatively small groups, which vary in composition across the study, for practical reasons associated with care and capability of participants.

Suggestions are shared and questions posed for individuals wanting to practically embed the learning from this project.

Research looking at the benefits of green exercise and experiences of people living with dementia in care taking activity out in nature is very limited, this paper significantly contributes to this growing body of knowledge.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the multifaceted nature of financial exclusions, the range of potential needs that require addressing via financial inclusion policy and grounded initiatives, and emphasise that future “new models of affordable credit” must be framed by, and embedded in local communities.

Documentation and analysis of an innovative participatory consultation that explored the perceptions and financial needs of a local population through use of participatory appraisal is used, one of a growing family of participatory approaches that is recognised as taking a “whole community approach” to conducting action research.

Provides evidence of the range of services actually available to the “financially excluded” in a so‐called disadvantaged area, reasons for their use (or lack of), and the needs, wants, and/or desires to be fulfilled by any local “ideal” form of financial service provision.

The research suggests any financial inclusion solution must be sensitive and responsive to the varied circumstances and multifarious financial needs of local communities – one‐size‐fits‐all models of financial inclusion will have limited success due to the heterogeneous local manifestations of financial exclusions, the variety of perceived needs, and the variances of both of these over space and across social groups. More research is needed in other locations to explore geographical/social differences in such problems and needs.

This paper presents the findings of an innovative participatory consultation used to directly underpin and inform a local financial inclusion initiative.

This paper aims to explore residents' perceptions of a refurbishment programme to sheltered housing schemes and its impact on their well-being.

The methodology draws upon a realist evaluation framework. Four participatory appraisals (PAs) and 19 interviews with residents were conducted in the sheltered housing schemes. Ages of participants ranged from 50 to 99 years.

Two categories of residents were identified: healthy active older adults and older frail adults (or over 85+). Residents said their social and emotional well-being improved from the provision of indoor and outdoor communal areas. Older frail residents only accessed the new communal spaces when staff took them in their wheelchairs. The physical changes increased opportunities for social connections for residents. Conservatories and sensory gardens were most popular. Residents felt that structured activities in the new spaces and digital training would improve their social activities.

The participatory methods spanned over an hour, and some residents felt too tired to complete the full session.

A practical limitation was that some sensory rooms were not fully completed at the time of the evaluation.

This paper adds the following: Perceptions of residents of a refurbishment programme in sheltered housing and the impact on their well-being. Perceptions of residents about social activities after a refurbishment programme. Perceptions of residents about the impact of physical changes to their sheltered housing schemes and impact on their internal accessibility to the improvements.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a replicable model that ensures Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage as well as water treatment facilities at the community level by providing total service coverage at community scale. An intervention was implemented in one of the low-lying areas of Basirhat Municipality (West Bengal, India) that included a number of action programs in order to address household- and community-level water-induced challenges.

A research study was undertaken to identify the root causes of the problems that are generally spawned from geomorphological, hydro-fluvial, climatic factors and processes and the situation becomes complicated when many other cumulative problem-contexts layovers the existing ones. A number of social and technological innovations were tested in the field and this paper critically examined the intervention processes and outcomes. It was implemented through participatory process by involving related stakeholders working at that scale so that necessary public acceptance is received for scaling up, at least, in the similar physical, social, economic and institutional contexts.

The problem conceptualization process, spatial assessment for contextualizing the problem, design of interventions for different scales, development of project deployment strategies from field-based learnings contributed in developing a total solution based on fusing of household-level technical solutions, social innovations and actions for community engagements towards sustainability. Mobilized community members in addressing local inundation and waterlogging crisis. Satellite image-based maps shown to make them understand the upper-lower connection of drainage. People also developed their own action plans and engaged themselves in resuscitation of an old canal, removed the garbage that resulted in improved drainage conditions in the area.

Pandemic due to COVID 19 and its related prolonged lock down, West Bengal State Assembly Election, closure of municipal governance system due to the forthcoming municipal election, closure of educational institutions, closure of Anganwadi Centre in the field area were the limitations. Due to the lock down, it was difficult for the team to maintain the time frame as well as the budget. As per the Election’s Code of Conduct gets released no public meeting was allowed without permission, people in the vicinity became suspicious, hence movement of the team members got restricted.

Due to the COVID protocols, the team could not organise mass training programs. It was difficult for the team members to commute in public/private transport, hence filed work got impacted. As the team could not access data from the health department, they developed a strategy of generation data on body mass index, mid-upper arm circumferences and waist-to-hip ratios to understand the status of health and nutrition of the community. It was difficult to access the Public Health Engineering Department’s laboratory situated in the municipality for water sample test. Cost escalated due to extension of the project time.

During the second phase (wave) when people lost access to health facilities they requested the team to stop field visit. Women’s empowerment through acquiring knowledge and skill on treatment and safe storage of drinking water at home. Men appreciated and recognized this, which improved the status of women in the society. Children after expressing their willingness to learn the new technology of water purification were given handholding training by their mothers and knowledge transfer has taken place in the next generation. Mobilized community members in addressing local inundation and waterlogging crisis. Satellite image-based maps to understand the upper-lower connection of drainage helped them develop their own action plans and engaged themselves in resuscitation of an old canal, removed the garbage that resulted in improved drainage conditions in the area.

Household-level solutions include supply of low cost, easy operable, sustainable water purifiers, community-level solution focused on securing water-related challenges at social/public gathering places and wider catchment area level solutions include the engagement of local communities to drain out stagnant waters by clearing drains, creating/digging small canals through collective actions. Geo-spatial techniques (topographical mapping, spatial survey, water quality tests) along with social methods such as participatory appraisals for gathering information on human health, public awareness campaigns and partnership development with local government agencies were the major activities performed as part of the implementation of interventions. It is imperative to mention that water-related challenges in the low-lying settlement areas of Basirhat Municipality have effectively been addressed by relying on necessary theoretical underpinnings (Disaster risk reduction/humanitarian principles) transmitted through application of scientific techniques and mediated through local people and their agencies.

Enhancing community flood resilience is a critical aspect of flood risk management that requires a systematic process of capacity building through incorporating mitigation measures. The inhabitants of South Rishipara, a riverside settlement of Bangladesh, are accommodating themselves in a flood-prone location through modifying their built environment. The purpose of this study is to conduct a detailed investigation regarding the built environment development and find out roles of different actors and contributing factors for enhancing community flood resilience.

This case study-based post-positivist research uses multiple lines of inquiries, which include focus group discussions, transect walks, in-depth semi-structured interviews, pair-wise comparisons and a questionnaire survey, mostly in a participatory appraisal manner to obtain data about community experiences and perceptions.

About 66.7 per cent of respondents identified themselves as severely affected by flood before the recent development with increased elevation of land, flood protection walls, reclaimed land from the river, underground drainage system, a new layout of plots and houses of better quality. In the post-development situation, not a single respondent identified him/ her in that condition. “Coordination and cooperation among GOs, NGOs and donor agency” (GO: governmental organization; NGO: nongovernmental organization) and “awareness about the flood vulnerability” were identified as key factors and the NGO was identified as the key actor for enhancing community flood resilience by the survey participants.

This research, through exploring the nuanced relationship between built environment development and community resilience, will contribute to address uncertainties associated with community capacities to respond to risks.

Change is integral to the concept of development. Research in the development process is therefore implicitly, if not explicitly, directed to achieving change. What is important is how far development researchers see themselves as agents of change. In some cases they are helped by methodologies such as action research and participatory action research (PAR) that have change as integral to the research design. However for qualitative research methods in general there is no necessary connection with change. In fact, for many qualitative methods the aim of the researcher is to have as little impact on the research process and the people being researched as possible. In much ethnographic work, the research scene is to be represented in as “natural” a way as possible. This is very different from the development context where a process of change is assumed to be ongoing, or is encouraged to be so. The role of the researcher in relation to change has become even more marked with the advent of more participatory approaches to development. Research participants are no longer seen as passive objects of research but as active agents in creating their own knowledge and action.

The purpose of this paper is to critically assess integrated reporting so as to “broaden out” and “open up” dialogue and debate about how accounting and reporting standards might assist or obstruct efforts to foster sustainable business practices.

The authors link current debates about integrated reporting to prior research on the contested politics of social and environmental reporting, and critiques of the dominance of business case framings. The authors introduce research from science and technology studies that seeks to broaden out and open up appraisal methods and engagement processes in ways that highlight divergent framings and politically contentious issues, in an effort to develop empowering designs for sustainability. The authors demonstrate the strong resonance between this work and calls for the development of dialogic/polylogic accountings that take pluralism seriously by addressing constituencies and perspectives currently marginalized in mainstream accounting. The authors draw and build on both literatures to critically reflect on the International Integrated Reporting Council's (IIRC, 2011, 2012a, b, 2013a, b) advocacy of a business case approach to integrated reporting as an innovation that can contribute to sustainability transitions.

The authors argue that integrated reporting, as conceived by the IIRC, provides a very limited and one-sided approach to assessing and reporting on sustainability issues. While the business case framing on which it rests might assist in extending the range of phenomena accounted for in organizational reports, it remains an ideologically closed approach that is more likely to reinforce rather than encourage critical reflection on “business as usual” practices. Recognizing that the meaning and design of integrated reporting are still far from stabilized, the authors also illustrate more enabling possibilities aimed at identifying and engaging diverse socio-political perspectives.

Science and technology studies research on the need to broaden out and open up appraisal methods, together with proposals for dialogic/polylogic accountings, facilitates a critical, nuanced discussion of the value of integrated reporting as a change initiative that might foster transitions to more sustainable business practices.

The authors link ideas and findings from science and technology studies with literature on dialogic/polylogic accountings to engage current debates around the merits of integrated reporting as a change initiative that can contribute to sustainability. This paper advances understanding of the role of accounting in sustainability transitions in three main ways: first, it takes discussion of accounting change beyond the organizational level, where much professional and academic literature is currently focussed, and extends existing critiques of business case approaches to social and environmental reporting; second, it emphasizes the political and power-laden nature of appraisal processes, dimensions that are under-scrutinized in existing accounting literature; and third, it introduces a novel framework that enables evaluation of individual disclosure initiatives such as integrated reporting without losing sight of the big picture of sustainability challenges.

Bangladesh’s urban poor face numerous obstacles, especially during times of disastrous natural events. The effects of global warming will pose new threats for them as frequencies and magnitudes of natural hazards are likely to increase. Thus, current and formerly successful coping and adaptation strategies will be challenged in the future. The urban poor need to be informed and empowered so that they can develop their own strategies in response to the expected local effects of climate change. Our research aims at grassroot workshops as a means of communication with slum dwellers in Dhaka which not only convey possible climate change impact on livelihoods but also create relevance for the individuals and options for action. More than 20 workshops including men, women, and children have been conducted and analysed. The final workshop design incorporates a mix of participatory and input-oriented elements in order to overcome the problem of psychological distance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how archivists, records managers and scholarly literature in the field(s) analyse how “participation” is discussed in the context of archives and records management, and to explore practical and theoretical implications of the disclosed discursive practices.

The analysis is based on a discourse analysis of a body of archival literature and a sample of posts collected from the archival and records management blogosphere.

The analysis shows that instead of discussing one notion of participation, the archival science literature is referring to nine different and partly conflicting types of participation from three broad perspectives: management, empowerment and technology. The discourses have also conflicting ideas of the role of engagement and enthusiasm, and of that what do the different stakeholder communities see as real options.

The analysed material consists of a limited sample of mainly English language texts that may not capture all the nuances of how participation is discussed in the archival literature.

A better understanding of how different claims of the benefits and threats endorsing “participation” in archives helps to develop effective and less contradictory forms of collaboration between different stakeholders.

In spite of the popularity of the notion of “participation”, there little, especially critical, research on how participation is conceptualised by archives professionals and researchers.