Maria Raciti

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to introduce a special issue that surfaces the under-documented structural flaw at the heart of social impact work, exposing how short-term funding horizons and government election cycles influence the achievement of sustainable, transformative social impact.

Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual synthesis is offered, integrating insights from collaborative governance, resource dependence theory, distributive politics, nonprofit resilience and projectification scholarship. Inspired by an Australian Indigenous community-controlled organisation’s experiences, this special issue foregrounds the conditions that hinder durable social impact.

Findings
Short-term funding and government election cycles create structural distortions, including output capture, outcome drift, performative evaluation, relational erosion, workforce churn and the projectification of complex social change into siloed, piecemeal activities. These dynamics erode the conditions necessary for sustainable, transformative social change. This editorial synthesises the literature and locates the special issue contributions. This study also presents an Indigenous Knowledge System-informed special issue design that is practitioner-driven and Indigenous-led with a whole-circle practice-research-practice feedback loop that exemplifies how social impact learnings can be mobilised.

Practical implications
Social change scholars and practitioners will find an evidence base to advocate for structural reforms. Many readers may also find this editorial affirming, as it makes visible the shared lived experiences of funding and election cycle volatility, calling out the associated hidden labour and disrupted social impact trajectories.

Originality/value
This special issue shows how short-term funding and election cycles operate as structural headwinds that shape social impact programs capacity to achieve sustainable transformation. This study also models and encourages social impact whole-circle practice-research-practice feedback loops.

Social marketing has carefully built an extensive, credible evidence base for influencing behaviour in ways that benefit individuals, communities and the broader public good. As the discipline has matured, so too has its ambition, extending from a heavy focus on downstream individual behaviour change towards systems-level thinking and structural reform. However, one dimension of the discipline’s maturity remains underdeveloped. Although the need to centre Indigenous peoples’ knowledges, perspectives and experiences in social marketing is widely recognised, social marketing scholarship has not kept pace.

Indigenous education is multidimensional and multifaceted. When the term “Indigenous education” is used, it could reference schooling practices, including embedding Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in the curriculum; connecting with Indigenous communities; supporting Indigenous students; employing Indigenous staff; and more (Shay et al., 2023). The enactment or inaction of these activities is underpinned by ideological dissonance between Western theories and ideals and Indigenous knowledge paradigms and values.

In this special issue of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, we draw on the concept of Indigenous futurity, particularly regarding Indigenous education, unpack discourses that differentiate the notion of inclusion in the discipline and our autonomy in the production and reproduction of our knowledges within the discipline of education and explore the concept of Indigenous futurity through understanding the role of Indigenous education scholars in (re)conceptualising the field of Indigenous education.

Purpose: This editorial calls out the practice of using identity-first language and labelling consumers and customers, describing them as ‘vulnerable’ and offers practical strategies for person-first language of consumers/customers experiencing vulnerability.

Approach: We use Australian Indigenous and Indigenous women’s standpoint theory to reflect on our own use of terminology in the field of consumer/customer vulnerability and use our personal experiences to offer a series of practical strategies.

Findings: We propose six motivations for the use of person-first language in the field of consumer/customer vulnerability; easy to use, an English language convention, common practice, easy to measure, unintentional ignorance and an ‘us vs. them’ mindset.

Originality: This article is the first to call out the practice of using identity-first language in the consumer/customer vulnerability field and offer practical strategies to enable person-first language. 

Purpose – This editorial aims to organise the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into seven ServCollab service research themes to provide a way forward for service research that improves human and planetary life. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual approach is used that draws on observations from the scholarly experience of the editors. Findings – This editorial offers seven research themes for service researchers: services that enable the WELL-BEING of the human species; services that provide OPPORTUNITY for all humans; services that manage RESOURCES for all humans; ECONOMIC services for work and growth for all humans; services from INSTITUTIONS that offer fair and sustainable living for all humans; service ecosystems with the PLANET; and COLLABORATION services for sustainable development partnerships. Practical implications – Service scholars are urged to pursue collaborative research that reduces suffering, improves well-being and enables well-becoming for the sustainability and prosperity of Planet Earth. Originality/value – This editorial provides service scholars with a new framework synthesising the SDGs into research themes that help focus further service research.