An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?

Copyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction

Toward a multilevel theory of learning: how individuals, organizations and regions learn together

There are substantial bodies of theoretical literature regarding learning by individuals, organizations, and regions. There appears to be no theory that applies at all levels, or explains how learning at one level relates to learning at other levels. This study reviews the theoretical literature on individual, organizational, and regional learning, applies textual analysis to chart the gap between these bodies of literature, and posits an explanation that fills this gap. The fundamental theory proposed here is that community yields learning, or that community makes people smarter. A conceptual framework is provided for explicating and evaluating the proposed theory, and it is illustrated via a thought experiment. Community is presented as a phenomenon or process, rather than a place or thing, and learning as a gain in capabilities, which are equated to real freedoms: specifically, liberty, prosperity, and wellness. This study details how community functions result in increased capabilities, and provides suggestions on how this proposition might be applied in practice and investigated through research

Language Use in the Indigenous Southern Plateau

The aim of this study is to provide a broad cultural description and analysis of Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Sahaptin language use. Investigative priority is given to the behavioral correlates of fluent and semi-fluent speaker choices and the discursive consciousness that informs them. The findings show how language use is organized and embodied as ‘ways of speaking’ in traditional cultures of the Indigenous Southern Plateau region both as a responsive system to societal change and as a semiotic behavioral resource for cultural continuity. The motivation for this study arises from my belonging to the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Sahaptin speech communities where this research was conducted as well as from the growing global awareness concerning the endangered status of Indigenous languages in the Indigenous Southern Plateau and elsewhere throughout the world. It is hoped that the findings and language data contained in this language documentation research can inform and contribute to positive outcomes centering in the revitalization of culture and language in the Indigenous Southern Plateau

Knowledge and Management Models for Sustainable Growth

In the last years sustainability has become a topic of global concern and a key issue in the strategic agenda of both business organizations and public authorities and organisations. Significant changes in business landscape, the emergence of new technology, including social media, the pressure of new social concerns, have called into question established conceptualizations of competitiveness, wealth creation and growth. New and unaddressed set of issues regarding how private and public organisations manage and invest their resources to create sustainable value have brought to light. In particular the increasing focus on environmental and social themes has suggested new dimensions to be taken into account in the value creation dynamics, both at organisations and communities level. For companies the need of integrating corporate social and environmental responsibility issues into strategy and daily business operations, pose profound challenges, which, in turn, involve numerous processes and complex decisions influenced by many stakeholders. Facing these challenges calls for the creation, use and exploitation of new knowledge as well as the development of proper management models, approaches and tools aimed to contribute to the development and realization of environmentally and socially sustainable business strategies and practices

Place Experience of Nursing Home Courtyards: a Holistic Approach to Understanding Institutional Outdoor Environments

This dissertation research investigates place experience of three nursing home courtyards. Based on systemic place theories, each nursing home courtyard is conceptualized as place or a system consisting of three major subsystems: physical settings, people and rules of place uses. Place experience as the center of conceptualization is the result of interactions between them. Place experience is thus characterized by objective, subjective and consensual qualities of people-environment relationships. The research design follows the premises of pragmatic case study methodology; a mixed research method is employed that includes archival research of floor plans, photo documentation, a physical setting checklist and instrumented measures for physical environments; staff interviews, surveys and auditing evaluations for organizational and staff contexts; and resident interviews and behavior mapping for individual contexts and place rules. Through synthesizing different sources of data into experiential descriptions, this study suggests that each courtyard is a compound of nine desired experiential attributes including 1) privacy, 2) social interactions, 3) accessible space and built features, 4) safety & security, 5) sensory stimulation, 6) information awareness and spatial orientation, 7) familiarity, 8) sense of ownership and 9) participation in meaningful activities. Each courtyard is unique in its distinct composition of these attributes and arrangements of the three subsystems. Experience of social interactions is the shared experiential quality across the cases. The three courtyards are programmed as a social space but are not meant to be a place to mark ownership, show identities and create meaningful engagement. The shared nature is incongruent with residents’ experience of home gardens and gardening collected from the interviews. A relatively successful case is selected; it is a place with more equal emphases on the nine attributes. Its patterns of the three subsystems may guide a less effective case to make future improvement. Implications of the findings are considered at three levels. First, this study applied a pragmatic approach, which offers a means to generate a holistic understanding of institutional outdoor environments; this study may complement the current research dominated by a positivist approach. Second, the approach recognizes and acknowledges the multifaceted phenomenon of the courtyards; it describes sets of variables or quality indicators that may help further theoretical construction or the development of quality measure. Third, this comparative research highlights the importance of establishing a database of cases reports. The accumulation of successful cases would help identify effective patterns of the three subsystems. Shared features emerging from successful cases may represent findings with high generalizability

Seminars for Professional Improvement: A Pilot Project in Continuing Education for Ministers

Problem For most of the ministers who are employed by the Seventh- day Adventist Church in the Republic of South Africa, there is little opportunity for continued education beyond the B.Th. level. Each year the limited resources of the bursary committee allow perhaps one minister the privilege of further study in the Theological Seminary at Andrews University. There is furthermore no existing system of in-service training apart from an extension school offered once every four years by the above-mentioned Seminary. Methods The methods used followed the classical developmental stages as follows: The support and acceptance of the Church Administration and the total ministerial body in a selected Conference was obtained for the concept of a program of continued education. A Planning committee was elected by the above-mentioned bodies to design and structure learning experiences that would meet the needs of the ministers as these became known. A climate conducive to learning was established. The designed learning experiences were implemented and evaluated. Following each seminar the design was modified and refined and each succeeding topic which was treated was that which was chosen by the participants. Three such seminars are reported in this paper. Results With each succeeding seminar the interest and participation increased while the degree of refinement and sophistication in the design and structure of the learning experiences was discernible. Evaluation instruments revealed learning and attitudinal shifts. Increased efficiency on the professional level and satisfaction and fulfillment on the personal level were attested to by the participants, while within the group of ministers as a whole a productive spirit of collegiality was manifested. Conclusions The results of the evaluations conducted indicate an ongoing need for the continuance of this program. The effect of this pilot program was the revelation of needs among the ministers, the viability of the short intensive model as a method for meeting those needs, and the possibility of the proliferation of similar programs in neighboring Conferences of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. However the need for continual development and refinement of the programs is seen as essential

Alternative Power: The Politics of Denmark\u27s Renewable Energy Transition

Global climate change is one of the defining political challenges and opportunities of the current era. Experts widely agree that technical means already exist for making the necessary transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy; the obstacles to doing so are primarily political. Careful observers also recognize that this period of transition creates an opening for political innovation and development. How can the political will be generated to take action to prevent climate catastrophe? And what will the process of transitioning mean for the political systems that have been built on cheap and abundant oil? Political scientists have largely ignored technological development as a lever for political development, or feared that technology could only be a force of domination. Yet renewable energy enthusiasts have often seen democratizing potential in these technologies. What can be accomplished politically by building a wind turbine? As countries like Denmark accumulate decades of experience with renewable energy, it is becoming possible to give such questions close empirical consideration. Denmark generates more of its electricity from renewable sources, and has been doing so longer, than any other industrialized nation, making it a uniquely valuable case for studying an advanced renewable energy transition in progress. This dissertation draws on novel qualitative and quantitative data to present the first comprehensive history of Denmark’s energy transition from its roots in the 1970s until the present, aiming to explain how this tiny nation emerged as the world’s leading wind power producer, and assess whether this process has yielded any democratic dividends. The multi-method analysis sheds new light on internal dynamics of Denmark’s energy transition, and, more generally, on late-stage evolutionary processes in mature technological systems. Many studies have shown an interest in the Danish case, which is usually presented as a relatively unqualified success story, but few have provided the empirical resolution to identify these complicating factors. This dissertation employs an explanatory strategy adapted from the ecological sciences to construct a more holistic and integrative portrait, resulting in a more thorough and accurate account of how Denmark jumped out to such a significant lead in the energy transition, and why that momentum might be flagging today, with implications for other countries hoping to chart a path toward a sustainable future