Post-Subsidy Solar PV Business Models to Tackle Fuel Poverty in Multi-Occupancy Social Housing

Feed-in Tariffs created a vibrant business ecosystem for the deployment of decentralised renewable energy technologies while constituting a regressive tax and increasing inequality. Business model innovation spurred by their withdrawal is providing valuable lessons for progressive policy design. Using the case study of solar PV deployment on multi-occupancy social housing, this paper reveals policy, business and organisational challenges that need to be overcome to address fuel poverty and reduce inequality. Suitable ‘export’ and ‘local’ business models were identified through a workshop and subsequently evaluated through qualitative thematic interview analysis. The ‘local’ model compares favourably in terms of production costs and benefits for fuel poor tenants but unfavourably in terms of transaction costs. Both models are considered equally susceptible to changes in policy. Their success hinges upon third party intermediaries, peer-to-peer learning and a supportive policy environment. This paper concludes with a policy recommendation to ensure that energy justice lies at the heart of the UK’s transition to net-zero carbon through the fair distribution of costs and benefits by including specific provisions to protect low-income groups

Evaluating drug law enforcement interventions directed towards methamphetamine in Australia

This report presents a preliminary analysis comparing the costs and impacts different types of law enforcement have on methamphetamine use. Methamphetamine belongs in the class of stimulant drugs referred to as Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS). The category of ATS includes ecstasy, amphetamine and methamphetamine. This research project concerned itself with the amphetamine and methamphetamine class and excluded ecstasy (and henceforth we use the generic term methamphetamine). In Australia, methamphetamine is available in three forms—powder, base and crystal. Methamphetamine is associated with significant harms and is an important drug policy priority. The National Amphetamine-Type Stimulants Strategy (2008–2011) articulates the following priority areas in relation to methamphetamine: improve community awareness and understanding of amphetamine-type stimulant use and related problems; reduce the supply of amphetamine-type stimulants; develop specific strategies to prevent and reduce amphetamine type stimulant use; and develop organisational and system capacity to prevent and respond to amphetamine-type stimulant problems This research concerns the second priority area—reducing the supply of methamphetamine. The specific aims of the research were twofold: to provide a rich description of the Australian methamphetamine supply chains in order to inform drug law enforcement interventions; and to conduct an initial economic evaluation comparing law enforcement interventions directed at the methamphetamine market. The work focused on the methamphetamine market(s) and supply chains in Australia above the retail level. Previous research has examined retail methamphetamine markets in Australia. Governments and policymakers are interested in determining which interventions are more or less effective than others, such that the scarce funding resources can be allocated in the most efficient manner possible. There is scant research available to law enforcement to guide such decisions. The main impediments to such research are the fundamental methodological challenges inherent in such an undertaking. This project is an attempt to conduct a preliminary analysis comparing the costs and impacts of different types of law enforcement. It is a ground-breaking study as this has not been previously attempted and it should be seen as the initial development of a methodological approach that can be improved upon with subsequent research. The project aimed to determine the relative cost-to-impact ratios of different law enforcement strategies aimed at reducing methamphetamine production and distribution. In an environment focused on efficiency in resource allocation, it is hoped that this research will provide the impetus for further research on the effectiveness of drug law enforcement. As the results of such research accumulate, it is hoped that policymakers will be able to use the information to improve decision making on law enforcement investment

Beyond informality: The rise of peer-to-peer (P2P) renting

The recent proliferation of peer-to-peer (P2P) renting, commonly associated with the ’sharing economy’, is a unique phenomenon developing globally. This chapter focuses on a particular P2P platform, Airbnb, an online market for linking those who have accommodation to rent to potential renters. It is commonly considered as ’informal’ or ’illegal’ by many different groups because it is not heavily regulated by government unlike hotels and hostels. Our study examines Airbnb from multiple perspectives, including the nature of sharing in the ‘sharing economy’, the controversies surrounding Airbnb, its spatiotemporal dynamics, and the potential relationship between Airbnb to rapid gentrification in different areas of the city. From this study, we can draw preliminary conclusions that Airbnb is beyond ’informality’ per se with it leaning more a more decentralised online service. By using London as a case study, our analysis also shows that there the majority of the listings are ’entire home’ property that might be associated with areas where there is rapid gentrification. This chapter contributes to the discussion of Airbnb and the sharing economy by providing a preliminary yet comprehensive approach to our understanding of the platform, and its impact on the city

Urban Sharing in Shanghai

This city report is the result of a Mobile Research Lab conducted online in Shanghai during spring 2020. The Mobile Research Lab involves a combination of methods, including case studies, interviews, observations, expert panels, and in-situ field work. This report presents insights gained by the Urban Sharing research team Oksana Mont (PI), Andrius Plepys, Yuliya Voytenko Palgan, Matthias Lehner, Steven Curtis, Lucie Zvolska and Ana Maria Arbelaez Velez

Cultivating change: Aspirations, realities and limits of community gardens in Windsor, Ontario

This thesis, based on ethnographic research carried out in the summer and fall of 2012, focuses on three community gardens created post-2009 in the city of Windsor, Ontario, a time when the city faced serious economic and food security challenges. Specifically, this thesis investigates how the goals of community building, knowledge transmission, and food security are variously enacted at Windsor community gardens. Beyond illustrating the varied nature of community garden projects, the analysis presented draws attention to some of the factors that influence the success of individual gardens. The neoliberal context may frame garden projects but it does not fully contain them. These projects are not just about self-help and citizen responsibilitization but also about the empowerment of marginalized communities. They are not about market-oriented solutions to the problems of a de-industrializing city but rather represent an alternative, albeit modest, to the neoliberal status quo

State-of-the-art analysis and perspectives for peer-to-peer energy trading

As a promising solution to address the “energy trilemma” confronting human society, peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading has emerged and rapidly developed in recent years. When carrying out P2P energy trading, customers with distributed energy resources (DERs) are able to directly trade and share energy with each other. This paper summarizes and analyzes the global development of P2P energy trading based on a comprehensive review of related academic papers, research projects, and industrial practice. Key aspects in P2P energy trading are identified and discussed, including market design, trading platforms, physical infrastructure and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, social science perspectives, and policy. For each key aspect, existing research and practice are critically reviewed and insights for future development are presented. Comprehensive concluding remarks are provided at the end, summarizing the major findings and perspectives of this paper. P2P energy trading is a growing field with great potential and opportunities for both academia and industry across the world

A policy-based security framework for ad-hoc networks

Imperial Users onl

Intellectual Commons: The Normative Perspective

This thesis examines the moral significance of the intellectual commons and proposes appropriate modes for their regulation with the aim of accommodating their social potential. In the course of exploring their normative aspects, the thesis proceeds successively by analysing (i) the ontological characteristics of the intellectual commons, (ii) the relevant literature concerning their potential and interrelation with capital, (iii) the ways that they been shaped by law across history, (iv) their circuits of value, and (iv) their elements which bear moral significance. The thesis concludes by outlining the fundamentals of a normative theory for the intellectual commons. The thesis offers an overall analysis of the intellectual commons with the aim of grounding a holistic normative theory for their regulation by the law. The ontological part of the thesis examines the elements, characteristics, tendencies and manifestations of the intellectual commons and their potential for society from the perspective of processual ontology. Furthermore, its methodological part presents the main theories of the intellectual commons from the prism of critical epistemology and sketches out their divergent approaches on the relation between the intellectual commons and capital. In addition, its historical part exhibits the historical evolution of the cultural commons and their interrelation with law and society. Accordingly, the thesis features extensive social research concerning the ways that social value is generated, circulated, pooled together and redistributed within and beyond the communities of the intellectual commons and concerning the dialectics between commons-based and monetary values. The final normative part of the thesis analyses the moral dimension of the intellectual commons. Throughout its analysis, the thesis adheres to the methodological choices of critical theory. The thesis demonstrates that the intellectual commons are a social regime for the regulation of intellectual production, distribution and consumption, which bears moral significance. The contemporary formations of the intellectual commons feature elements of inherent moral value, have the potential to produce outcomes of net social benefit and underpin freedom, justice and democracy in ways, which justify their protection and promotion by the law. Morality thus requires the enactment of an independent body of statutory rules to protect the intellectual commons from encroachment by private enclosures and to promote commons-based practices in the form of a non-commercial sphere of creativity and innovation in all aspects of intellectual production, distribution and consumption

Social Computing: An Overview

A collection of technologies termed social computing is driving a dramatic evolution of the Web, matching the dot-com era in growth, excitement, and investment. All of these share high degree of community formation, user level content creation, and computing, and a variety of other characteristics. We provide an overview of social computing and identify salient characteristics. We argue that social computing holds tremendous disruptive potential in the business world and can significantly impact society, and outline possible changes in organized human action that could be brought about. Social computing can also have deleterious effects associated with it, including security issues. We suggest that social computing should be a priority for researchers and business leaders and illustrate the fundamental shifts in communication, computing, collaboration, and commerce brought about by this trend