Culture has received increasing attention in critical development studies, though the notion that there are important cultural differences within and between development organizations has received less consideration. This paper elaborates elements of a framework for studying organizational culture in multi-agency development projects. It draws on selected writings in anthropology and in organizational theory and suggests that these two bodies of literature can be usefully brought together, as well as on insights from ongoing fieldwork in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Peru. At the centre of this framework is the analysis of context, practice and power. Where development projects involve multiple organizations (such as donors, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and grassroots groups) an analysis of cultures both within and between organizational actors can help explain important aspects of project performance. The paper argues that organizational culture is constantly being produced within projects, sometimes tending towards integration, often towards fragmentation. This fragmentation, indicative of the range of cultures within development organizations, is an important reason why some projects fail, and why ideas stated in project documents are often not realized, especially in the case of the newer and more contentious objectives such as 'empowerment'.

The World Bank's recent concern for 'empowerment' grows out of longer standing discussions of participation, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. While commitments to empowerment enter World Bank texts with relative ease, their practice within Bank-funded projects is far more contingent, and the meanings they assume become much more diverse. This paper considers the relationship between such texts and the development practices which emerge, using an analysis of the 'organisational cultures' of the Bank and the many organisations on which it depends in the implementation of its rural development programmes. The paper presents a framework for analysing these organisational cultures in terms of (a) the broader contexts in which organisations and their staff are embedded; (b) the everyday practices within organisations; (c) the power relations within and among organisations; and (d) the meanings that come to dominate organisational practice. A case study of a development programme in Bangladesh is used to illustrate the ways in which cultural interactions between a variety of organisations�-�the World Bank, government agencies, NGOs, organisations of the poor, social enterprises�-�mediate the ways in which textual commitments to empowerment are translated into a range of diverse practices.

Background The online discussion around the COVID-19 pandemic is multifaceted, and it is important to examine the different ways by which online users express themselves. Since emojis are used as effective vehicles to convey ideas and sentiments, they can offer important insight into the public’s gendered discourses about the pandemic. Objective This study aims at exploring how people of different genders (eg, men, women, and sex and gender minorities) are discussed in relation to COVID-19 through the study of Twitter emojis. Methods We collected over 50 million tweets referencing the hashtags #Covid-19 and #Covid19 for a period of more than 2 months in early 2020. Using a mixed method, we extracted three data sets containing tweets that reference men, women, and sexual and gender minorities, and we then analyzed emoji use along each gender category. We identified five major themes in our analysis including morbidity fears, health concerns, employment and financial issues, praise for frontline workers, and unique gendered emoji use. The top 600 emojis were manually classified based on their sentiment, indicating how positive, negative, or neutral each emoji is and studying their use frequencies. Results The findings indicate that the majority of emojis are overwhelmingly positive in nature along the different genders, but sexual and gender minorities, and to a lesser extent women, are discussed more negatively than men. There were also many differences alongside discourses of men, women, and gender minorities when certain topics were discussed, such as death, financial and employment matters, gratitude, and health care, and several unique gendered emojis were used to express specific issues like community support. Conclusions Emoji research can shed light on the gendered impacts of COVID-19, offering researchers an important source of information on health crises as they happen in real time.

No abstract

BACKGROUND This study explores how people of different genders (e.g. men, women, and sex and gender minorities) are discussed in relation to COVID-19 through Twitter emojis. We collected over 50 million tweets referencing the hashtags #Covid-19 and #Covid19 for a period of more than two months in early 2020. OBJECTIVE This study focuses on how people of different genders (e.g. men, women, and sex and gender minorities) are discussed in relation to COVID-19 through Twitter emojis. It asks the following research question: What are the gendered types of sentiments and meanings expressed with emojis with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic and how does emoji use differ when associated with different genders? We argue, that by exploring how the experiences of men, women, and sex and gender minorities in relation to COVID-19 are discussed using emojis, we can understand how emoji use represents and/or perpetuates (often inequitable) gender norms, roles, and relations in response to COVID-19, as well as how the pandemic may be impacting gender differently. Thus, analysis of emojis can provide a new methodological approach for rapid gender analysis in crisis settings, complementing more traditional forms of gender analysis through surveys or interviews. METHODS Using a mixed method, we first extracted three datasets containing tweets that reference men, women, and sexual/gender minorities and then we analysed emoji use along each gender category. RESULTS We identified five major themes in our analysis including: (1) morbidity fears, (2) health concerns, (3) employment and financial issues, (4) praise for frontline workers, and (5) unique gendered emoji use. Further, results indicate that the majority of emojis are overwhelmingly positive in nature along the different genders, but sexual and gender minorities, and to a lesser extent women, are discussed more negatively than men. CONCLUSIONS This study examined the gendered use of emojis on Twitter in relation to COVID-19, and the findings showed many differences alongside discourses of men, women, and gender minorities when certain topics were discussed such as death, financial and employment matters, gratitude, and health care, while there are several unique gendered emojis that are used to express specific issues like community support. In general, emojis are positively associated with men while more negatively connected to sexual/gender minorities and to a lesser extent women. CLINICALTRIAL N/A