Purchases,food habits and waste management in households: exploring responses to local composting

This exploratory study focuses on processes of food purchases, food habits and waste management in the household. The purpose of the study has been to investigate what influences the amount and type of waste generated in the household. Information was collected in 13 households in a residential area close to central Göteborg, Sweden, where a separation of waste and local composting experiment had just been launched. The households registered purchases, meals served, and weight of biodegradable waste, for 2 weeks. In-depth interviews were also carried out. At a general level, environmental concern was found not to influence purchase behaviour. The results show that the households produced a higher level of biodegradable than non-biodegradable waste. Variations between families were found to be considerable. There are clear indications that the experience of participation in the experiment which required local composting per se was a very powerful determinant for increasing the awareness in families of the relationship between consumption and the nature and quantity of waste produced.     

Employment,Social Mobility and Neighbourhood Effects: The Case of Sweden

In science and in society at large, there is a big debate going on about the existence and potential impact of ‘neighbourhood effects’. The dominant question is: does the social composition of the neighbourhood have specific positive or negative effects on the career prospects of those who are living there? We seek to contribute to this debate by investigating the relationship between individual social mobility and the social composition of the residential environment. For that purpose we analysed new longitudinal Swedish data, which is available at the individual level. We particularly focused our attention on the employment careers of individuals in relation to the levels of employment or unemployment in their individual environments. Environment effects on social mobility were isolated, controlling for relevant variables that were available at the individual level. We were also able to control for changes in the environments over time. Individual longitudinal data could be used over the period 1991–9. The analyses revealed that their environment appears to have a moderate yet clear impact on the employment prospects of unemployed individuals. The academic relevance of the article is in its contribution to the theoretical underpinnings of the human–environment relationship; the societal relevance is to the area‐based policies and the housing policies aimed at social mixing, which are currently being developed in many places in the Western world.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Christopher A. Conte, Highland Sanctuary: Environmental History in Tanzania's Usambara Mountains .
Alfredo Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston (eds.), Neoliberalism: A Critical Reader .
Stephen J. Russell, Agriculture, Prosperity and Modernization of French Rural Communities, 1870–1914. Views from the Village .
David Mosse, Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice .
Kees Jansen and Sietze Vellema (eds), Agribusiness and Society: Corporate Responses to Environmentalism, Market Opportunities and Public Regulation .
Gareth Austin, Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807–1956 .     

Mobile Communication and Local Information Flow: Evidence from Distracted Driving Laws

We examine the influence of mobile communication on local information flow and local investor activity using the enforcement of statewide distracted driving restrictions, which are exogenous events that constrain mobile communication while driving. By restricting mobile communication across a potentially sizable set of local individuals, these restrictions could inhibit local information flow and, in turn, the market activity of stocks headquartered in enforcement states. We first document a decline in Google search activity for local stocks when restrictions take effect, suggesting that constraints on mobile communication significantly affect individuals’ information search activity. We further find significant declines in local trading volume when restrictions are enforced. This drop in liquidity is (1) attenuated when laws provide substitutive means of mobile communication and (2) magnified when locals have long car commutes and when their daily commutes overlap with regular exchange hours. Moreover, trading volume suffers the most for local stocks with lower institutional ownership, less analyst coverage, and more intangible information. Additional analyses show lower intraday volume during local commute times when mobile connectivity is constrained. Together, our results suggest that local information and local investors matter in stock markets and that mobile communication is an important mechanism through which these elements operate to affect liquidity and price discovery.     

Macroeconomic policy in Britain between the wars1

This Virtual Issue of the Review is offered as a modest contribution towards reigniting interest in macroeconomic policy in Britain between the wars. In reprinting 19 articles which were published in the Review between 1974 and 1991, the introduction to this Virtual Issue supplements those articles and provides a further opportunity to re‐examine key macroeconomic policy episodes and specific policy impact. The articles are divided into three sections: monetary and exchange rate policy; fiscal policy and the Keynesian solution; and tariff policy. The purpose of this introductory essay is to contextualize these articles briefly, comment on subsequent literature, and, where appropriate, point to future, potentially fertile areas for research which will take forward the research findings here reproduced.     

Evolution and Applications of the Term Consumerism: Theme and Variations

The term CONSUMERISM has had a variety of meanings over its relatively brief history. Coined in obscurity, the word was given negative connotations by business apologists before finally being adopted by the consumer movement to describe its activities. However, an unrelated and highly prejudicial meaning has been gaining currency. As a result, there are increasing possibilities for misunderstanding and negative responses to the term CONSUMERISM from the public.