Towards Sustainable and Democratic Urban Transport: Constructivism,Planning and Policy

This paper takes a constructivist technology studies approach to understand the changing shape of transport and mobility, tracing in particular the growing importance of discourses around sustainability and democratic involvement in transport and urban planning as well as in wider public debate. The concept of sociotechnical frames is used to capture the interaction between the technical, social and cultural dimensions of transport and mobility; sociotechnical change comes about when these different elements begin to pull apart from each other. In light of this framework, the paper examines shifts within the sociotechnology of transport and mobility since the late 1980s and draws on a case study of a controversial development dispute in the UK to examine how notions of sustainability and public involvement are constructed within local contexts. The case study highlights especially issues around the relative power to bring about change of different actors within a frame.     

Designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice: An overview of the issues

Payments for environmental services (PES) have attracted increasing interest as a mechanism to translate external, non-market values of the environment into real financial incentives for local actors to provide environmental services (ES). In this introductory paper, we set the stage for the rest of this Special Issue of Ecological Economics by reviewing the main issues arising in PES design and implementation and discussing these in the light of environmental economics. We start with a discussion of PES definition and scope. We proceed to review some of the principal dimensions and design characteristics of PES programs and then analyze how PES compares to alternative policy instruments. Finally, we examine in detail two important aspects of PES programs: their effectiveness and their distributional implications.PES is not a silver bullet that can be used to address any environmental problem, but a tool tailored to address a specific set of problems: those in which ecosystems are mismanaged because many of their benefits are externalities from the perspective of ecosystem managers. PES is based on the beneficiary-pays rather than the polluter-pays principle, and as such is attractive in settings where ES providers are poor, marginalized landholders or powerful groups of actors. An important distinction within PES is between user-financed PES in which the buyers are the users of the ES, and government-financed PES in which the buyers are others (typically the government) acting on behalf of ES users. In practice, PES programs differ in the type and scale of ES demand, the payment source, the type of activity paid for, the performance measure used, as well as the payment mode and amount. The effectiveness and efficiency of PES depends crucially on program design.     

Shared producer and consumer responsibility — Theory and practice

Over the past decade, an increasing number of authors have been examining the nexus of producer versus consumer responsibility, often dealing with the question of how to assign responsibility for internationally traded greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, a similar problem has appeared in drafting the standards for the Ecological Footprint: While the method traditionally assumes a full life-cycle perspective with full consumer responsibility, a large number of producers (businesses and industry sectors) have started to calculate their own footprints (see www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au). Adding any producer's footprint to other producers' footprints, or to population footprints, which all already cover the full upstream supply chain of their operating inputs, leads to double-counting: The sum of footprints of producers and consumers is larger than the total national footprint. The committee in charge of the Footprint standardisation process was hence faced with the decades-old non-additivity problem, posing the following dilemma for the accounting of footprints, or any other production factor: if one disallows double-counting, but wishes to be able to account for producers and consumers, then one cannot impose the requirement of full life-cycle coverage; the supply chains of actors have to be curtailed somehow in order to avoid double-counting. This work demonstrates and discusses a non-arbitrary method of consistently delineating these supply chains, into mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive portions of responsibility to be shared by all actors in an economy.     

Modeling state-level water quality management: the case of the Neuse River Basin

This research considers how the perceived costs of achieving water quality objectives are sensitive to three issues surrounding model structure and policy design. These issues include: (i) the extent of the regulated market, (ii) the responsibility of the regulated market for background pollution, and (iii) the use of alternative policy instruments. A large-scale process model is used to evaluate and compare the costs of nutrient reduction in the Neuse River Basin in North Carolina under various instruments, including a plan currently being considered by state regulators. The results emphasize the importance of flexibility in both model structure and policy design.     

A network approach to studying research propammes: mobilizing and coordinating public responses to hiv/aids

Based on the anahsis ofthe Medical and Public Health Research programme (Commis- sion of the European Communities), the paper shows how new scientific communities are created in response to the HIV/AIDS problem. W e anahze how actors are mobilized (three mobilization modes: public impetus, scientists 'initiative, scientists' initiative with public networking) and how their work is coordinated. We defend the hypothesis that these new scientific communities are flexible cooperation networks. In the case of AIDS research, there are onb a limited number o f network types (the data collection structure, the forum, the thematic partition with harmonization o f research practices, the starred around a central facilip). The coordination of these scientific cooperative networks passes through fixed and circulating intermediaries. The management of these intermediaries is a major activity for involved actors. Thus, our aim is not to study the wider social context, but to analyze networking in response to policy, initiatives.     

Comparing the economic views of American and South Korean teenagers

Drawing directly upon responses to an economics questionnaire, this study offers a comparative perspective on how 125 American and 106 South Korean teenagers understand, view, and interact with their national economies. The study primarily focuses on responses to three questions. Should teenagers work for their parents without pay? What possessions do teenagers consider of most value? What do the terms "rich" and "poor" mean to teenagers? Analysis of the responses revealed that teenagers in both countries have a complex understanding of economic issues and hold a wide range of opinions on the concept of economic wealth and personal economic responsibility. Significantly, the study suggests that popular perceptions depicting teenagers as singularly materialistic may be misguided. The study also explores the extent to which cultural traits impact how teenagers view and interact with their economies.     

Ethnoscapes,National Territorialisation,and the Afghan War

This article pursues the question of how the territorialisation of power in the establishment of the Afghan nation-state has affected the spatial perceptions of political actors and the population at large. This question is particularly topical as spatial references are at present the driving force behind an ethnicisation of politics in Afghanistan. These perceived ethnic spaces, so-called ethnoscapes, not only compete with one another, but also contradict Afghanistan itself as a national territory. Thus since the outbreak of the Afghan war 1979 various political actors have been attempting to mobilise their constituencies over ethnic issues in order to use references to the spatial origins and expansion of their ethnic category to legitimise political claims. The principal argument of this article is that the population’s strong identification with the national territory of Afghanistan has to date prevented an ethnicisation of the masses in the Afghan conflict. Furthermore the article argues that the irreconcilability of the various perceived ethnic territories is an obstacle to the currently much-discussed establishment of ethno-federalism.     

Whose property is it anyway? The social nature of economic actors and egalitarian remuneration ∗

This article formulates an egalitarian theory of property based on an ethic of remuneration for economic contributions. The principle of egalitarian remuneration is developed by revising basic notions of economic contributions. Economic contributions are found to be those activities that contribute to the value of commodities not just those that produce a product. Consumers, and not only producers, contribute to the creation of value, and these economic contributions make consumers eligible for remuneration. However, the concept of consumer contributions needs to be recast, for consumer contributions do not consist of neoclassical, individualistic actors maximizing subjective preferences. Rather, consumers economic contributions flow from their socially self-determined attributes as formed through relation to the system of economic actors. Indirect social contributions spread responsibility throughout the members of the system, affecting calculations of dueness. Other members indirect contributions are relatively equal in degree of responsibility for the social formation of the consumer's economic contributions. The dispersion and equalization of responsibility for the creation of economic contributions entails a correlative equalization of claims to remuneration, on a principle of dueness for economic contributions. This implies a property right to egalitarian remuneration.     

Regional Integration and Welfare: Framing and Advocating Pro-Poor Norms through Southern Regionalisms

Regional organisations are moving away from traditional market-based goals to embrace issues of welfare, yet the role they play in social policy formation, and their contribution to the embedding of alternative approaches to development, is poorly understood. This article explores whether and how the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) advance pro-poor norms and policies in national and global governance. Whilst not coherent citizenship-centred projects of regionalism, SADC and UNASUR have developed institutional competences to address the health–poverty nexus, though their policy development practices and methods take quite different forms. Theoretically, the paper develops a framework addressing three key claims: (i) poverty and welfare need to be brought in to the study of regional governance; (ii) the agency of Southern regional organisations in the generation and diffusion of norms needs to be taken more seriously in the literature and in practice; and (iii) context matters for whether and how regional organisations provide normative leadership; act as brokers in a (re)distributive way; or as advocacy actors in a political way, enabling claims at different levels of governance.     

Getting into the energy efficiency scene: does corporate social responsibility matter for energy efficiency in SMEs?

A growing body of literature argues that improving energy efficiency is an essential step that firms must take to mitigate climate change issues. It is assumed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) in general plays a prominent role in firms’ policies, and this paper specifically investigates the effects of the individual CSR dimensions on SMEs’ energy efficiency improvement. Based on data from a sample of 146 thousand SMEs, and using logit model, and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, the study reveals that high activities in social, environmental and economic CSR dimensions are associated with high energy efficiency. Specifically, the environmental CSR dimension has the highest contribution to improving energy efficiency. Furthermore, this study indicates that energy efficiency improvement can be achieved by large SMEs provided they have developed simultaneously the environmental, social, and economic CSR dimensions. In doing so, this study answers to recent calls for more research on CSR-energy efficiency relationship and addresses with greater precision why it matters to relate the role of the CSR dimensions and energy efficiency. Furthermore, this study can be of value to policymakers who are called to promote CSR practices of SMEs in order to foster their energy efficiency.     

How perceived uncertainties influence transitions; the case of micro-CHP in the Netherlands

Transitions, or socio-technological transformations, towards sustainability can be considered as a long-term transformation at the level of society as a whole, which in turn consists of a sequence of short-term innovations. The direction and speed of transitions are largely determined by the collective innovation decisions of various actors. A crucial characteristic of transitions is that they involve many uncertainties. The uncertainties that actors perceive greatly influence their innovation decisions. Namely, perceived uncertainties might stimulate some actors to fulfill certain key activities that are crucial for achieving a transition, while blocking other actors from undertaking these activities. In order to understand and manage transitions, insight into the types of perceived uncertainties that dominate the innovation decisions is essential. Furthermore, we need to understand if perceived uncertainties block or stimulate transitions by analyzing how actors respond to perceived uncertainties.This article focuses on the first transition phase: the pre-development phase. An interesting case to study the role of uncertainties in this phase is the introduction of micro-CHP in the Netherlands. The main questions of this article are: Which types of perceived uncertainties are dominant for the innovation decisions related to micro-CHP in the Netherlands? How do actors react to the perceived uncertainties?The case results demonstrate that different types of uncertainties influence the innovation decisions of the involved actors. The most dominant sources of uncertainty are technological and political uncertainty. Furthermore, the case shows that responses to uncertainty vary largely between various types of actors. Perceived uncertainties seem to block some actors, but induce other actors in fulfilling key activities that are essential for achieving a transition. We discuss how these insights can be used for improving policy for stimulating transitions.     

组织性格维度及表征与认知差异：员工认知视角

新经济环境下，组织性格成为企业差异化竞争优势的源泉。根据认知心理学进行研究设计，通过问卷调查获得员工认知视角下的组织性格描述性词语，利用质性分析工具进行编码，提取得到中国情境下企业组织性格的5个维度，并对不同性质企业组织的性格表征差异和不同类型员工对组织性格的认知差异进行分析。结果表明：企业组织性格可以分为创新、宜人、开放、责任、发展等5个维度，5个维度围绕情感、思想和目标3个中心构念形成完整体系，由此提出企业组织的“五型性格”框架；企业组织在性格表征与认知方面均存在差异，表明组织性格既有内生也有外生成分，从人格心理学和认知心理学角度对其进行诠释都有一定的科学依据。企业组织的性格维度及其表征与认知差异，为中国企业性格培育带来了一些重要管理启示。     

Deconstructing border practices in the Estonian‐Russian borderland

The Estonian‐Russian borderland is a relatively fragile, fairly contested and highly politicised arena in which a number of vital issues for both countries meet and are negotiated. This fact makes the borderland a part of the (geo)political process, including bargaining over social space and resource access, where one can find actors located on different spatial levels and situated among various interests groups. The present article attempts to study how borders with a multitude of meanings and roles can be understood and crossed in time, scale and from different geographical settings. It illuminates the conflicting visions and asymmetric interests among the local borderland population, regional authorities, central governments and international actors. Lastly, it will be argued that border negotiations are unlikely to succeed or intensify where conflicting visions and asymmetric interests dominate, different actors talk ‘different languages’, or boundary‐producing practices simply prevail over border‐crossing practices.     

制造业知识通道的建立及地方政府的作用——以国内乐器制造业为例

从知识流动来看,现阶段国内制造业存在两个问题:第一,行为主体如制造商与配套商、专业院校之间的知识流动通道尚未真正建立;第二,虽然已有知识流动,但由于各行为主体的知识深度都不高,导致知识互动转化不足。知识流动不是自发的,地理邻近或表面上相关的行为主体之间不必然产生知识流动。在国内,地方政府是建立知识流动通道的关键,政府应主动和其他行为主体互动,并成为其他行为主体之间知识流动的桥梁或"二传手"。文章进行了乐器制造的案例分析。     

Clusters,industrial policy and firm strategy

Increasingly, govemments and firms take clusters of related business as a starting point to formulate policies and strategies, which aim at enhancing innovation. There appear, however, to be quite some different conceptions of what clusters are, In the first part of this paper and attempt is made to clarify the cluster concept by defining the relevant dimensions of clusters. In the second part, each of these dimensions is related to possible industrial policies and firm strategies. Practical illustrations will be given from different European countries and firms. The dimensions and related policies and strategies form a menu of possibilities from which actors can choose those elements that are most relevant for their specific situation. Thus, tailor-made policies and strategies can be devised and implemented.     

消费者渠道选择意愿形成机制研究

多渠道营销背景下的消费者渠道选择问题备受关注,从匹配的视角出发,在解释了以往研究产生矛盾结论的原因的基础上,分析了影响消费者渠道选择的三个要素:产品特性、渠道特性、消费者特性及其测量维度,并分析了上述三因素之间的匹配机理和不同匹配类型下消费者的渠道行为,以此为多渠道营销企业制定渠道策略提供有价值的理论指导。     

Responsibility within civil society and range of urban poverty

The decentralized, subsidiary action of the urban poor within the neighborhood articulates the responsibility of these citizens within the metropolis. This article makes use of the work of J. Habermas, R. Blank, and W.J. Wilson in order to show how such citizen action on the part of the poor can, in the face of devastation, be resistant, communal, located action. Collaborative engagement assists them in coming to their own vision and in determining their world’s material and symbolic framework. In their collaboration and through the resulting interpretive community, they achieve a responsibility which engages them in caring for the future of the common life. Upon the basis of their action from within their neighborhoods, the urban poor, as they rebuild their neighborhoods, move into civil society so that the entire metropolis may benefit.     

Tensions in co-evolutionary processes: Three Swedish seed organizations in the 20th century

This paper addresses the issue of which societal actors have the capability and willingness to finance and organize search processes, in order to introduce commercial innovations, over a longer time period. The long-term development of agriculture depends upon innovations within a variety of technologies, markets, organizational forms as well in the seeds themselves. This involves points of tensions between continuity and change as well as co-evolutionary processes organized around the innovation processes. This article explores the tensions between continuity and change, by focusing on three dimensions, namely: (1) regional location versus global interactions; (2) static specialization versus experimentation in knowledge and products; and (3) relative success versus failure. The historical development of three Swedish agricultural seed organizations, Hilleshög, Svalöf and Weibulls, during the 20th century, provides an empirical probe within which to address the more fundamental theoretical problems.     

Alternative view on niche development: situated learning on policy communities,power and agency

In this article, we analyse how situated learning influences niche development. Situated learning is tied to social action and context, perceiving knowledge and learning as socially constructed. In addition, a dialectic view of structure and agency is adopted. Policymaking is used as an example of a community. A qualitative case study of Finnish energy policy is presented. The regime in Finland is the electricity industry that supports bioenergy, while wind energy development is supported by active individuals and a few niche actors. The full-members of the policymaking community consist of the government and the regime actors. The niche actors did learn how the community functions and developed alternative strategies accordingly, but without success. A reason could be that the niche actors excluded the regime from their strategies. We conclude that situated learning is likely to enhance niche development, but compromises in niche development may be needed.