The Effects of Electronic Collaboration in Distributed Project Management

Abstact The emergence and widespread use of collaborative technologies for distributed project management has opened up opportunities for off-shore outsourcing and collaborative development. However, most tools and techniques for project management focus on on-site, long term relationships and sourcing strategies at a time when inter-organizational relationships are becoming more dynamic and geographically dispersed. This paper uses grounded theory to analyze data on virtual teams' projects. The analysis uncovers “effects” in the way in which distributed projects are managed. These effects relate to coordination, communication and adaptation to distributed electronic work environments. Following an analysis of these electronic collaboration “effects”, a model for distributed project management is presented.     

Economic Analysis for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment: Synthesis and Scenario Valuation of Changes in Ecosystem Services

We combine natural science modelling and valuation techniques to present economic analyses of a variety of land use change scenarios generated for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment. Specifically, the agricultural, greenhouse gas, recreational and urban greenspace impacts of the envisioned land use changes are valued. Particular attention is given to the incorporation of spatial variation in the natural environment and to addressing issues such as biodiversity impacts where reliable values are not available. Results show that the incorporation of ecosystem services and their values within analyses can substantially change decisions.     

Modelling the Impact of Community Engagement on Local Democracy

English local authorities are expected to promote 'effective community engagement'. The ways in which they can do this are various, ranging from the provision of information to direct involvement in decision-making. This paper focuses on the impact of adopting different types of community engagement strategy on local democracy. Two principal types of community engagement strategy are identified: consumerist and participatory, and their potential for encouraging effective engagement is discussed, before their implications for local democracy are modelled. The paper argues that the relative priority accorded to different types of community engagement are likely to cause local democracy to evolve towards consumer, stakeholder, radical or citizen-centred democracy.     

EFFECTS OF ALTERNATIVE CHINESE POLICIES ON THE WORLD GRAINS MARKET

The implications for the world grains market of a reduction in China's domestic absorption, and of the removal of its key manufacturing protection, are analysed in this paper. These policy changes are modelled both alone and together with grain self-sufficiency in China and with reduction in farm support in the US and EC. In themselves, the reduction in absorption and removal of manufacturing protection in China would have only marginal effects on the world grains market. If, however, China were to achieve grain self-sufficiency while adopting these macroeconomic and trade policies, world grain prices and trade would fall considerably. In contrast, even a partial removal of protection in the US and EC, simultaneously with the above Chinese macroeconomic and trade policy changes, could substantially increase world grain prices and trade. These positive effects would be considerably reduced if at the same time China were to become self-sufficient in grain.     

Conditional Effects of Touch on Purchase Behavior

Interpersonal touch has been shown to affect consumer behaviors such as compliance with a request, impulse buying, and tipping behavior. In this study, we examine if the impact of touch on purchase behavior is gender specific, and if it depends on how much the individual likes the product. Findings indicate male consumers are more likely to purchase a product at low to moderate levels of perceived tastiness when they are touched by a female server, whereas females are less likely to purchase. However, the touch encounter doesn’t matter for either gender when a consumer really likes the product.     

SheBelieves,but does she? Complicating white women’s understandings of the postfeminist-neoliberal empowerment discourse

Abstract

Though the academic literature focused on postfeminism, neoliberalism, and the relationship between the two is considerable, there is little exploration of these conjoined discourses as they relate to leisure culture in general, and women’s sporting lives in particular. At the level of lived experience, scholars have yet to empirically examine how women engage and are affected by the empowerment discourse punctuating many aspects of postfeminism. This study uses the U.S. Soccer Federation’s 2015 SheBelieves Campaign as an empirical site for critically examining women’s attitudes toward, and experiences of, issues of empowerment, feminism, and sexism associated with what scholars have labelled the postfeminist-neoliberal moment (McRobbie, 2009 McRobbie, A. (2009). The aftermath of feminism; gender, culture and social change. London, England: Sage. [Google Scholar]; Rottenberg, 2014 Rottenberg, C. (2014). The rise of neoliberal feminism. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 418–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Working at the intersection of leisure studies, feminism, and physical cultural studies, this research provides a window into the complicated, and sometimes contradictory, ways women view and experience neoliberal empowerment discourses within and through sporting elements of their leisure lifestyles.     

Training European trade unionists

This article analyses the findings from a pilot research project looking at the pattern of trade union education provision in Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK. In each country the trade union movements are adapting their training systems to meet new challenges in often hostile economic and political climates. In spite of common problems there remain significant national differences in trade union education deriving from divergent traditions which we explore through a systems model which ocuses on the key issues of national legislation, funding, training provision and accreditation. We conclude by suggesting the need for new research and policy agendas.