An Ecofeminist Narrative of Urban Nature Connection

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore meanings, experiences, and perceived impacts associated with an urban nature connection program as narrated by mothers of program participants. “Project Connect”, a charity organization established in 2008, delivers the program investigated in urban parks and green spaces in Toronto, Canada. Drawing on ecofeminism and narrative inquiry, the study reveals a community narrative that depicts how Project Connect serves a group of mothers as an incubator of relationships spanning social and environmental domains, and which enable resistance of status quo forces that shape contemporary cityscapes. Nature connection in this sense is very much a political and cultural process that opens opportunities to challenge but also reproduce aspects of the dominant nature-related discourses. Accordingly, this study prompts consideration of the power of mothers and an ethics of care to transform human-nature relationships, and weaves critical consciousness and cautious re-valuing around the nature narratives we tell.     

React to the future: political visualization,emotional reactions and political behavior

Abstract

This study explores the mediating role political visualization – the process of imagining future political scenarios – plays in determining how political advertising affects voting behaviour. Specifically, we theorize that when partisans are exposed to political ads that are narrative (compared to non-narrative) in nature, they will engage in more political visualization. Partisans will then experience emotional reactions to these imagined futures – specifically, enthusiasm for the in-group candidate and anger towards the out-group candidate. These emotional reactions, in turn, will make a partisan more likely to vote for the in-group candidate and less likely to vote for the out-group candidate. We test this model by employing an experimental design where American partisans were presented a political ad (in the form of an email) that is either narrative or non-narrative. Results provide support for most of our expectations and suggest that visualization may play an important role in determining the influence of a political ad.     

Law‐abiding organizational climates in developing countries: The role of institutional factors and socially responsible organizational practices

The institutional environment of developing countries may lead firms to engage in unlawful firm conduct, which is a pervasive problem in this context. Our paper examines the effectiveness of organizational practices for ensuring that firms adhere to the law in the light of pressures from the institutional environment to be unlawful. Using the lens of anomie theory, we investigate: (a) the negative effect of aspects of the institutional context—regulatory burden and lack of industry munificence—on a law‐abiding climate, a type of organizational climate related to unlawful conduct, and (b) the role of socially responsible organizational practices in combating these negative effects. Survey data were collected from 118 firms and analysed using OLS moderated regression. Our results indicate that a manager's perceptions of regulatory burden and lack of industry munificence are negatively related to the extent to which the firm has a law‐abiding climate. Furthermore, our findings shed light on the ability of socially responsible practices to countervail this effect. While the negative effect of perceived regulatory burden on law‐abiding climate weakens when codes of ethics are used more extensively by a firm, it strengthens when firms hold a CSR certification. The latter finding may be due to the lack of enforcement associated with the specific certification considered in our study.     

Estimating the relationship between labour market tightness,unemployment insurance benefits and union election activity

Using detailed data from the US National Labor Relations Board, we find labour market tightness, defined as the ratio of job vacancies to the number of unemployed, has a positive relationship with the likelihood of voting in favour of union representation. Specifically, a 1 SD increase in labour market tightness increases Vote Share in favour and the likelihood of union certification by roughly 1.5% and 3%, respectively. We also find that length of unemployment insurance benefits has a positive relationship with Vote Share in favour. Taken together, these results suggest that workers are more comfortable engaging in pro-union election behaviours when exogenous conditions, like labour market tightness and unemployment insurance benefit duration, shift in a way that more favourably insulates them from unemployment and income risk.     

Individual Competence and Committee Decision Making: Experimental Evidence

Committee decision making relies on the competence of its members. The individual's competence is driven by the pre-meeting efforts. These investments constitute a public good and, consequently, free riding is a concern. We build off of previous theoretical results which point out that as committees grow in size, free riding becomes more severe. However, experimental and empirical research suggests that individuals are willing to make voluntary contributions. This motivation should lead to increased effort when the number who benefit increases. To differentiate between these hypotheses we explore experimentally the effect that changes in group size have on competence investment decisions in a committee setting. Decision problems differ by whether the expansion increases the number of voters on the committee or the number who are affected by the committee's decision. We find evidence supporting the hypothesis that as committees grow in size there is a reduction in effort invested. We find some evidence of an adverse reaction to non-contributing beneficiaries is observed as well. Heterogeneous responses arise and are explored.     

South Pacific tourism in the mid-1980s

The Pacific Islands have weathered the world economic recession well, but not without changes in their approach to tourism. Poor economic conditions coupled with US airline deregulation caused considerable reassessment. The fear of recession, together with optimism concerning the future resulted in new services (while others were going out of business), a spate of hotel construction plans (even in areas with low occupancy rates) and a softening of attitudes towards tourism. The possibility of a huge Pacific Basin (Rim) market strongly influenced these development policies.     

Accounting For Employee Share Options

Accounting for employee share options (ESOs) has caused a furore in the United States. Understandably, Australian standard-setters are moving cautiously but have signalled they may follow the FASB's lead. ESOs are a major form of executive remuneration but have not usually been recognised in the employer's financial statements unless and until they are exercised. The FASB has proposed that ESOs be valued on their grant date and immediately recognised as an asset (prepaid compensation) and additional shareholders' equity (options outstanding); the asset is then to be amortised over the period in which the employee's services are received. We describe and comment on the debate, in the light of the proposal's likely impact on firms' financial profiles.