Adolescents’ attitudes towards organic food: a survey of 15‐ to 16‐year old school children

Adolescents are the consumers of tomorrow; therefore policies aimed at increasing organic food consumption should address the needs of this group. To discover their attitudes towards organic food and their knowledge of the subject, a survey among almost 700 school children aged 15–16 years was conducted. Four main groups of questions were used: adolescents’ knowledge of organic food, attitudes, whether they bought organic food and the perceived influences they exerted on the buying patterns of their parents. From the survey it can be concluded that adolescents’ attitudes towards organic food are positive, but their knowledge of and their willingness to buy it are low. Campaigns aimed at encouraging the purchasing of organic food targeted at adolescents should particularly emphasize those characteristics of organic foods that they can relate to their interests and ethical preferences, for example, animal welfare and environmental considerations.     

How did you get up and running? Taking a Bourdieuan perspective towards a framework for negotiating strategic fit

This article suggests a theoretical framework for illustrating significant iterative processes that need to be strategically managed when entering a new field or changing a social position within a field. Applying a process-relational perspective, the framework theoretically underpins what propels individuals to change their behaviour conceptualized as constructing a strategic fit between personal structure and fields. Using Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capitals as a lens the analysis reveals how capital transformations eventually can lead to a social construction of this temporary strategic fit. The article argues that the performance of habitus expresses temporary field specific social positioning as a social materialization of macrostructures (gender, age, class, etc.). This suggested framework is applied to conceptualizing how nascent entrepreneurs successfully negotiate entrepreneurial processes. It is concerned with a small aspect: how to physically start a business (its registration and the start of trading). In this context, the article unpacks how the transformation of capitals mediates nascent entrepreneurs’ social positioning. This article contributes to the growing ‘social turn’ research situating entrepreneurial processes within social relations and context and the emerging Entrepreneurship as Practice field. It offers practical implications for business support and research directions.     

Vorschau 6 / 2010

Vorschau

Vorschau 6 / 2010     

Methodological criteria for the internal validity and utility of practice oriented research

For conducting practice oriented research different research strategies are available. In this paper a typology is developed for differentiating between practice oriented research strategies that are data based and participatory research strategies. The former category involves quantitative and qualitative data based research strategies. The latter category, participatory research strategies, includes knowledge based research and practice based research. At present, methodological criteria for assessing the quality of practice oriented research heavily rely on those developed for theory oriented research, in particular internal and external validity and reliability. However, we argue that for assessing the results of practice oriented research other criteria are necessary. In this paper, methodological criteria are formulated for evaluating the internal validity and practical utility of practice oriented research with the help of a Delphi study using research methodologists as experts. They agree upon the criteria of verifiability, comprehensibility and acceptance of the results, as well as holism. Moreover, different categories of participatory and data based research strategies are compared to these criteria. Practice based research and qualitative data based research are best equipped to fulfill these criteria. These findings may enable researchers to make a more deliberate choice for a specific research strategy in practice oriented research.     

Does a Recession Call for Less Stringent Environmental Policy? A Partial-Equilibrium Second-Best Analysis

This paper analyses second-best optimal environmental policy responses to real and financial shocks in a two-period partial equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms, an environmental externality, and credit constraints. We show that, to alleviate credit constraints and encourage investment, the second-best optimal emission tax falls short of marginal emission damages. The optimal response to shocks depends on how the shock affects the size of the environmental and credit market failures and the effectiveness of the tax in alleviating these market failures. Under mildly restrictive assumptions on functional forms, the optimal response to a (persistent) negative productivity shock or a tightening of credit is to reduce the emission tax. Our results are informative for how climate change policy should optimally change with the business cycle.     

Analysis of the Visitors of Superagüi National Park,Brazil

The present work consists of the analysis of the visitors' profile of the Superagüi National Park, located on the north coast of the State of Paraná, Brazil. During the season 1998/1999 94 interviews were analysed. It was verified that most of the visitors can be considered as 'ecotourists', because their profile fits the one commonly proposed in literature. Visitors' preferences related to activities and infrastructure and critics are valuable indicators for the park's future management.     

Theories of practice — New inspiration for ecological economic studies on consumption

The dynamics behind ever-increasing consumption have long been a core issue of ecological economics. Studies on this topic have traditionally drawn not only on insights from economics, but also from such disciplines as sociology, anthropology and psychology. In recent years, a practice theory approach has emerged in sociological consumption studies, as part of a general wave of renewed interest in practice theory emanating from a desire to move beyond such dominant dualisms as the structure-actor opposition in sociology. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the practice theory approach in relation to studies of everyday life, domestic practices and consumption, and to argue that this approach can be fruitful for ecological economics and other fields interested in the environmental aspects of consumption. The paper emphasizes the immense challenge involved in promoting sustainable consumption, and the need for collective efforts supported by research into the co-evolution of domestic practices, systems of provision, supply chains and production.