Developing Technological Stance: Children's Learning in Technology Education

Following a review of current research in children's learning in technology education, and an examination of the kinds of knowledge demanded in contemporary technology education programs in elementary schools, I argue that what is needed in early technology education programs is the scaffolding of what I am calling technological stance. This construct acknowledges the socio-cultural character of technology as a human endeavor. In contrast to programs which are oriented to application of conceptual and procedural knowledge or to programs in which knowledge is generated through interpretation of interactions with materials and tools, programs which support technological stance position learners as critical inquirers into both tool-related and discursive practices of technology.     

Crossing Disciplines: A Constraint‐Based Model of the Creative/Innovative Process

This paper argues that artistic creativity and organizational innovation share a common problem‐solving process. The process per se is presented as a complement to the jazz metaphor for understanding organizational innovation. As modeled, it involves paired constraints that limit and direct search for a solution path. One of each pair identifies something to be precluded; the other specifies its substitute. The process can be initiated by necessity or by design. Once begun, the process is iterative: one substitution pair necessitates another. The creation/innovation is the novel solution path created by the substitution series. In‐depth analyses of two artistic creators are accompanied by allusions to parallel examples in organizational innovation.     

Conservation finance and sustainable tourism: the acceptability of conservation fees to support the Tambopata National Reserve,Peru

Protected areas are key to the conservation of global biodiversity and ecosystem services; however, their success is contingent upon adequate funding. One possibility to increase funding for park management is to “sell” a wider suite of ecosystem services “produced” by protected areas, such as carbon sequestration. We conducted 420 tourist surveys to analyze willingness to pay (WTP) for ecosystem service benefits via a conservation fee in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. We also interviewed eight tour operators about their perceptions of the proposed fee. The average stated WTP was 15 USD. Sixty-six percent of tourists stated they would pay 10 USD or more, which, if actually paid, would have resulted in 318,000 USD for park management in 2015. Most respondents stated they would pay an additional fee if it supported biodiversity conservation or local ecosystem services, such as water, but less than 10% of tourists were motivated by carbon sequestration as a reason to pay the fee. Most tour operators supported the additional fee. Our findings suggest that tourists are willing to pay higher fees to support conservation but that interest in paying for additional ecosystem services from parks may not extend to global and intangible benefits such as carbon sequestration.     

NOUVEL ESSOR DES FONDATIONS AU QUÉBEC ET AU CANADA: POUR UNE ANALYSE SOCIOPOLITIQUE FONDÉE SUR LE CONCEPT D'ÉCONOMIE PLURIELLE

Philanthropic foundations are the object of little research in Canada and Quebec. Our article recognizes the role of these organizations, as well as the presence of powerful new foundations, rich in assets and donations. This article consists of three parts. The first part presents a theoretical review of the American literature published from 2000 on. The second part examines data that we extracted from three main repertoires. Though informative, these repertoires tend to classify Canadian and Quebec foundations in categories that are mostly fiscal and legal and tend to break them down as public or private foundations. We therefore question the limits of studies based on such categories. In the third part of the article we propose a theoretical framework based on a sociopolitical point of view in an attempt to transcend the binary approach. Our approach borrows from the concepts of social and solidarity economy (SSE) and plural economy in order to better understand the new institutional arrangements in which foundations operate. This theoretical framework allows us to analyse foundations as actors of the SSE even though they might not reproduce automatically the principles and the values of the SSE in their behaviours. On the contrary, from the standpoint of a plural economy we may be in a better position to develop a sound sociopolitical analysis of diverse configurations and hybrid forms resulting from emulations or transactions between the principles of the social and solidarity economy (reciprocity), the private economy (competition) and the public economy (redistribution).     

Deals inside: examining restaurant operators’ motives when choosing whether to offer a flash-sale

As restaurants are the primary hospitality business represented on flash-sale sites, this study examined motivations of restaurant managers when choosing whether to utilize the promotional mediums of flash-sales. Interviews were administered as a measurement instrument. Results demonstrated restaurants which have employed flash-sales are weary of the likelihood of success and believe the flash-sales brought in established customers. Non-users indicated hesitation towards adoption of flash-sales related to low profit margins per item in their operation and the percentage split of the sale price between the firm and flash-sale provider. Findings provide keen foundational insight into the flashsale phenomenon.     

The gender gap in university enrolment: Do parents play a role beyond investing in skills?

Young men are far less likely than women to attend university across most OECD countries. I use data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) to investigate this issue in the Canadian context, focusing on how parents might influence this gender gap. In particular, my goal is to isolate the incremental effect of parents’ valuations of education during the teenage years, holding constant the stock of skills acquired up to that point. To estimate this effect, I use a factor model based on a framework developed by Foley et al. (2014). My results confirm the importance of skills in determining the gender gap in university attendance. I also find that differences in the distribution of parental valuations of education account for 22% of the gender gap in the YITS data, pointing toward an important role that parents play, not accounted for in prior work.     

Evidence of Place: Becoming a Region in Rural Canada

The purpose of this article is to investigate whether place is emerging in practice as a critical dimension in the development of Canadian rural regions. Recently, Jones and Paasi set regional researchers the task of better understanding how regions ‘become'. In researching this question, we are particularly interested in the definition and expression of place‐based identity as a mobilizing force for regionalism. Our findings suggest that, while identity plays a critical role in fostering regional development processes, it is either too emergent or actively resisted within our research sites to be a significant force for place‐based regional development.     

The interaction effect of gender and ethnicity in loan approval: A Bayesian estimation with data from a laboratory field experiment

Microfinance targets women and uses loan provision as a tool for empowerment, which translates into better household nutrition, improved education, and a scale down of domestic violence. However, ethnic discrimination in microfinance may exist in countries with a segregated indigenous population. We assessed this possibility with a field experiment in Bolivia. The controlled laboratory experiment evaluated whether credit officers rejected microloan applications based on the interaction effect of ethnicity and gender of potential borrowers. Point estimates of a Bayesian mixed‐effects logistic regression, estimated with the experimental data, indicate that nonindigenous women have double the chance of loan approval, but indigenous women have only 1.5 times the chance of loan approval when compared with men. While the findings about gender are limited, the evidence for the interaction of gender and ethnicity is more robust and suggests the existence of positive taste‐based discrimination favorable for nonethnic women in Bolivia. We conclude that the affirmative actions towards women promoted by development agencies and microfinance institutions must not overlook ethnicity as an important factor for financial policies of sustainable development. In practice, these policies should be aimed at identifying and reducing both social desirability bias and the structural barriers to financial inclusion that indigenous women may face when trying to obtain access to a loan.     

Customer Roles in Self-Service Technology Encounters in a Tourism Context

This paper reports on a study which explored the customer perspective on their roles in SST encounters in a tourism context, through the theoretical lens of service-dominant logic. The study employed short qualitative interviews with airline passengers at an international airport. The findings suggest that customers can assume six roles in an SST encounter which can be viewed as either positive or negative in terms of value creation. Therefore, a key contribution of this paper is the development of a role–experience continuum which depicts the variations in customer experiences of value creation in a tourism context.