1,498 research outputs found

    Non-Market Food Practices Do Things Markets Cannot: Why Vermonters Produce and Distribute Food That\u27s Not For Sale

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    Researchers tend to portray food self-provisioning in high-income societies as a coping mechanism for the poor or a hobby for the well-off. They describe food charity as a regrettable band-aid. Vegetable gardens and neighborly sharing are considered remnants of precapitalist tradition. These are non-market food practices: producing food that is not for sale and distributing food in ways other than selling it. Recent scholarship challenges those standard understandings by showing (i) that non-market food practices remain prevalent in high-income countries, (ii) that people in diverse social groups engage in these practices, and (iii) that they articulate diverse reasons for doing so. In this dissertation, I investigate the persistent pervasiveness of non-market food practices in Vermont. To go beyond explanations that rely on individual motivation, I examine the roles these practices play in society. First, I investigate the prevalence of non-market food practices. Several surveys with large, representative samples reveal that more than half of Vermont households grow, hunt, fish, or gather some of their own food. Respondents estimate that they acquire 14% of the food they consume through non-market means, on average. For reference, commercial local food makes up about the same portion of total consumption. Then, drawing on the words of 94 non-market food practitioners I interviewed, I demonstrate that these practices serve functions that markets cannot. Interviewees attested that non-market distribution is special because it feeds the hungry, strengthens relationships, builds resilience, puts edible-but-unsellable food to use, and aligns with a desired future in which food is not for sale. Hunters, fishers, foragers, scavengers, and homesteaders said that these activities contribute to their long-run food security as a skills-based safety net. Self-provisioning allows them to eat from the landscape despite disruptions to their ability to access market food such as job loss, supply chain problems, or a global pandemic. Additional evidence from vegetable growers suggests that non-market settings liberate production from financial discipline, making space for work that is meaningful, playful, educational, and therapeutic. Non-market food practices mend holes in the social fabric torn by the commodification of everyday life. Finally, I synthesize scholarly critiques of markets as institutions for organizing the production and distribution of food. Markets send food toward money rather than hunger. Producing for market compels farmers to prioritize financial viability over other values such as stewardship. Historically, people rarely if ever sell each other food until external authorities coerce them to do so through taxation, indebtedness, cutting off access to the means of subsistence, or extinguishing non-market institutions. Today, more humans than ever suffer from chronic undernourishment even as the scale of commercial agriculture pushes environmental pressures past critical thresholds of planetary sustainability. This research substantiates that alternatives to markets exist and have the potential to address their shortcomings

    “Giving better and giving more”? Examining the roles of philanthropy advisors in elite philanthropy

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    Over the past 15 years, philanthropy advisors (PhAds) have grown in prominence within financial institutions, family offices and independent consultancies (Beeston and Breeze 2023; Harrington 2016; Ostrander 2007; Sklair and Glucksberg 2021). More recently, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of the significance of philanthropic advisory services within elite philanthropy. Yet the roles and contributions of PhAds remain under-researched, notwithstanding the long-standing interest in unpacking the “black box” of elite philanthropy (Odendahl 1990; Ostrander 2007; Ostrower 1995), particularly in relation to donor-centred philanthropy (Ostrander and Schervish 1990; Ostrander 2007) and elite power, and increased scrutiny of the role of philanthropic intermediaries (Kumar and Brooks 2021) and professional advisors (Harrington 2016) in elite philanthropy. The thesis explores the roles of PhAds by asking three questions: What are the roles of PhAds in elite philanthropy? How do PhAds shape narratives of legitimacy within elite philanthropic practices? And what can analysing the roles of PhAds, in the context of pandemic responses, add to existing understandings of elite philanthropy? To address these questions, the thesis took the form of a multi-method qualitative study, based on 34 interviews with philanthropy practitioners, participant and non-participant observation, and document analysis. The study drew on industry grey literature, comprising online materials that include websites, training materials, handbooks, reports and webinars produced by philanthropy advisors. Data was collected between 2019 and 2021. By incorporating insights from critical elite studies, philanthropic research and examining how philanthropy advisors enable donor-control and elite agency, this thesis advances understanding of the meaning-making processes of philanthropy advisors, by integrating concepts and domains of research on elite identities (Khan 2012; Sherman 2017; Maclean et. al. 2015) and the broader role of philanthropy in legitimising elites and wealth accumulation (Kantola and Kuusela 2019; Harrington 2016; McGoey and Thiel 2018; Sklair and Glucksberg 2021). The research finds that PhAds form part of an emergent industry, acting as brokers, intermediaries and boundary spanners within elite philanthropy. It examines the legitimising accounts (Creed et al. 2002) used by PhAds, to understand how they relate to and shape systems of meaning for the role of philanthropists, philanthropy and themselves (philanthropy advice services). The findings emphasise the central role of social impact claims, with philanthropy advice understood as a way of increasing social impact of philanthropy and with PhAds characterising their roles as enabling clients to “give better and give more”. The thesis discusses PhAds’ understanding of their roles in the identity formation of their clients through a “philanthropic learning journey” – an affective and experiential process that aims at the self-realisation of the philanthropist. This contributes to studies on identity and meaning making in elite philanthropy, highlighting the roles of advisors in the formation of positive wealth identities (Harrington 2016; Maclean et. al 2015; Sklair and Glucksberg 2021). The thesis also explores the ways in which PhAds and philanthropy advice services legitimised the role of elite philanthropy in philanthropic responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. In summary, the project offers two key contributions in building on existing studies of philanthropy advice services and practitioners. Firstly, it provides rich qualitative evidence on under-researched philanthropy advisors and demonstrates their roles as professional enablers of elite philanthropy; and secondly, it expands debates on the legitimising practices of elite philanthropy (McGoey and Thiel 2018; McGoey 2021; Sklair and Glucksberg 2021) by evidencing how donor-centred practices are justified by PhAds as a means to an end

    The Individual And Their World

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    Death of the nine-night Jamaican heritage and identity crisis in response to changing death rituals

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    The research investigated whether changes to death rituals constituted a crisis in heritage and national identity in Jamaica and the Jamaican UK diaspora based on concerns being expressed in both locations. It establishes the nature, extent and causes of the changes, with particular reference to Jamaica’s post-slavery and post-colonial history, and discusses the consequences of the changes in Jamaica, within the UK diaspora, and the wider implications for heritage in diasporas. The study employed an interpretative philosophy and mixed method data collection including semi-structured interviews, oral history, and ethnographic observations of death ritual events in both locations. Using the concept of crisis as ‘events and processes that carry severe threat, uncertainty, an unknown outcome, and urgency’ (Farazmand, 2014 p3) and the understanding that ‘crisis is a crisis because the individual knows no response to deal with a situation’ (Carkhuff and Berenson, 1977 p165), the study finds that certain sectors of the Jamaican population in both locations experience the changes to the death rituals as crises of heritage and national identity. The discussion of the findings is framed within the concepts of crisis of change, living in liminality, and the creativity of ambivalence as ways of understanding the multiple crises within which the changes to the death rituals are being experienced. By interpreting the data through the lens of ambivalence the research proposes that it is an explanation for Jamaica’s prominence on the world stage despite its diminutive physical size and demographics. The study makes significant contributions to a broad spectrum of social and political theories including ritual, and in particular the concept of liminality as both a process within ritual, and as an analytical tool of local and global crisis. It contributes to religious studies, specifically in the areas of death and bereavement studies. It also contributes to theories of heritage, identity, national identity, and diaspora, including the use of relational dialectic theory to demonstrate the extended familial concept of diaspora and the homeland

    2007 GREAT Day Program

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    SUNY Geneseo’s First Annual G.R.E.A.T. Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1001/thumbnail.jp

    2017 GREAT Day Program

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    SUNY Geneseo’s Eleventh Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1011/thumbnail.jp

    30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2023)

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    This is the abstract book of 30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2023

    2019 GREAT Day Program

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    SUNY Geneseo’s Thirteenth Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1013/thumbnail.jp

    2010 GREAT Day Program

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    SUNY Geneseo’s Fourth Annual GREAT Day. This file has a supplement of three additional pages, linked in this record.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1004/thumbnail.jp

    Fundamentals of Business

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    Fundamentals of Business, fourth edition (2023) is an open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty-customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses. It covers the following topics in business: Teamwork; economics; ethics; entrepreneurship; business ownership, management, and leadership; organizational structures and operations management; human resources and motivating employees; managing in labor union contexts; marketing and pricing strategy; hospitality and tourism, accounting and finance, personal finances, and technology in business
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