12,966 research outputs found

    Collaboration for Small-Scale Fisheries Reform. Lessons in Collective Impact for Systemic Change

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    As a worldwide collaboration of NGOs, businesses, funders, and governments, 50in10 aimed to help its partners take promising tools and approaches in small-scale fisheries restoration to the next level by testing, strengthening, and replicating them. In January 2016, 50in10 brought together three dozen 50in10 network members and stakeholders in Belize City to learn from one another, explore financing models, innovate new approaches, and discuss how network members could continue to replicate successes. The framework of the 50in10 Theory of Change—a collective impact approach in which community empowerment, policy reform, credible science, and market demand work together—as well as collaborative learning guided the convening. Participants prioritized sustainable financing, community engagement, scientific data, and enforcement and compliance as key areas in which innovation is needed to overcome obstacles to reform, and developed ideas for how to address these challenges

    The energy to engage: wind farm development and community engagement in Australia

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    This report reviews what is known about community engagement in wind energy industry and identify what we still need to understand. After briefly presenting the relationship between wind farms and society as a significant one, we will recapitulate what strains that relationship and how community engagement can address it. We will point out that divergent models of community engagement are currently available to analysts and practitioners; that companies around the world are increasingly shifting towards more collaborative forms of engagement; that Australian business in the wind energy industry and planning authorities have some catching-up to do if they are to align themselves with such a global trend; and that the gap between declarations of principle advocating tighter collaboration betweenwind farm developers and communities and the actual practice on the ground has left some critics wondering whether those declarations are just rhetorical stratagems geared to placate public opinion

    The role of socio-technical experiments in introducing sustainable Product-Service System innovations

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    This is the pre-print version of the chapter published in 2015 by Springer in the book “The Handbook of Service Innovation” (edited by Renu Agarwal, Willem Selen, Göran Roos and Roy Green). The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6590-3_18Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability, but their implementation and diffusion are hindered by several cultural, corporate, and regulative barriers. Hence, an important challenge is not only to conceive sustainable PSS concepts, but also to understand how to manage, support, and orient the introduction and diffusion of these concepts. Building upon insights from transition studies (in particular, the concepts of Strategic Niche Management and Transition Management), and through an action research project, the chapter investigates the role of design in introducing sustainable radical service innovations. A key role is given to the implementation of socio-technical experiments, partially protected spaces where innovations can be incubated and tested, become more mature, and potentially favor the implementation and scaling up process

    Framing the collaborative economy - Voices of contestation

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    Within the context of multiple crises and change, a range of practices discussed under the umbrella term of collaborative (or sharing) economy have been gaining considerable attention. Supporters build an idealistic vision of collaborative societies. Critics have been stripping the concept of its visionary potential, questioning its revolutionary nature. In the study, these debates are brought down to the local level in search for common perceptions among the co-creators of the concept in Vienna, Austria. Towards this aim a Q study is conducted, i.e. a mixed method enabling analyses of subjective perceptions on socially contested topics. Four framings are identified: Visionary Supporters, Market Optimists, Visionary Critics, and Skeptics, each bringing their values, visions, and practical goals characteristic of different understanding of the collaborative economy. The study questions the need for building a globally-applicable definition of the concept, calls for more context-sensitivity, exploratory studies, and city-level multi-stakeholder dialogues

    Promoting sustainable Indian textiles: final report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), London, UK

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    In 2009, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), through the Sustainable Development Dialogue (SDD) fund, backed the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) at London College of Fashion and Pearl Academy of Fashion (PAF), New Delhi to run a project to promote Indian sustainable textiles. Improving patterns of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in India and the UK is one of the agreed areas for collaboration under the UK-India Sustainable Development Dialogue. The project is also part of a body of work taking place under the Defra Sustainable Clothing Roadmap, which aims to improve the sustainability of clothing. Defra has identified that ‘while an economic success story (globally worth over £500 billion) the industry has a significant environmental and social footprint across its supply chain.’ The Roadmap aims to improve the sustainability of clothing by gathering a robust evidence base of impacts and working with a wide range of stakeholders, to build on existing interventions. For more details on the roadmap see: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/products/roadmaps/clothing/index.htm This report is only one of the dissemination tools associated with the project. The project film, images and website should be viewed in conjunction with this report

    From charity to social enterprise: the marketization of social care

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    Purpose In Scotland, the self-directed support (SDS) legislation is a catch-all payment system which brings challenges to local authorities, service delivery organisations and the service users it is intended to empower. Set against a backdrop of cuts to local authorities and third-sector funding, this policy presents third-sector organisations with both the opportunities and challenges of commercialising their activities to become more sustainable. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the challenges faced by one charity as it engages in a process of hybridity to accommodate changes in its funding due to the introduction of SDS. Design/methodology/approach The paper utilises a case study approach. The paper captures the experiences and views of managers, staff and parents advocating for their children through interviews with a purposive sample from each group. The challenges of gathering data and giving a voice to caregivers advocating for children with complex needs are discussed, particularly the difficulties in accessing a hard to reach group. Findings The findings identifies issues which have arisen because of the proposed changed in strategic direction of the organisation due to the introduction of SDS and are all related to hybridity. The findings are arranged in four sub-sections based on the themes that emerged from the qualitative data generated from the interviews: the practical delivery of care; tensions between care and quality, the care workforce, and the parent perspective. Research limitations/implications SDS policy has had unexpected impacts and reactions whilst rolling out across regions in Scotland, but policymakers and those involved in the care sector, including consumers, face significant challenges in gathering evidence not only from the vulnerable populations this policy affects but also from organisations already under pressure from austerity-led cuts. This paper presents the challenges to organisations involved in caring for children with complex needs, who are a particularly neglected group of stakeholders. Practical implications Organically arising barriers to organisational transition from charity to social enterprise are presented, as staff and caregivers react to the prospect of SDS uptake affecting their organisation. Proactive attempts to embrace a hybrid approach by the organisation are analysed. Social implications Understanding how social care organisations and clients are reacting to the implementation of individual payments as opposed to the previous system of block contracts is crucial as the sector faces very real prospects of organisations closing when individuals are able to pick and choose care. A policy based on choice and control for the consumer risks removing choice through a loss of services in the marketplace, leaving vulnerable populations at risk. Originality/value This study is unique. No research has been done exploring the transition of charities servicing children with complex needs in anticipation of self-directed payments creating an open market. The paper further contributes to the existing knowledge regarding hybrid organisations within the third sector. </jats:sec

    Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

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    This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed
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