Low-carbon technology for the rising middle class

This policy brief will discuss the role of local and international technology and innovation policies for low-carbon development of the rising middle class in developing countries. Although a large segment of the population of most developing countries remains severely deprived, most developing countries also have a significant and growing part of the population that could be a feasible target for low-carbon policies. In addition to how industrialised countries decide to reduce their emissions, a major determinant of the carbon intensity of the world economy and our collective ability to stay below 2°C global mean temperature rise, is how the rising middle class in developing countries will develop – along a low-carbon or a higher-carbon pathway. If this rising middle class could embark on a lower-carbon consumption pathway, for instance in their electricity use, their transportation demand and modes, their eating habits and other consumption patterns, this could structurally avoid a considerable amount of greenhouse gas emissions and yield other social, environmental and health benefits. As strong carbon policies incentivising such pathways are unlikely to happen soon in developing countries, technology policies can provide a solution, given they can be aimed at consumption patterns of the rising middle class specifically. This paper makes several case-based recommendations that can put those in developing countries that benefit from a more sustainable lifestyle on a low-carbon development path

Unmotivated or motivated to fail? A cross-cultural study of achievement motivation, fear of failure, and student disengagement

A classic distinction in the literature on achievement and motivation is between fear of failure and success orientations. From the perspective of self-worth theory, these motives are not bipolar constructs but dimensions that interact in ways that make some students particularly vulnerable to underachievement and disengagement from school. The current study employs the quadripolar model of need achievement (Covington, 1992; Covington & Omelich, 1988) to explore how these approach and avoidance orientations are related to self-handicapping, defensive pessimism, and helplessness in Eastern and Western settings. Although there have been numerous calls for research of this kind across cultures (Elliott & Bempechat, 2002; Jose & Kilburg, 2007; Pintrich, 2003), little exists in the field to date. In Study 1, with 1,423 Japanese high school students, helplessness and self-handicapping were found to be highest when students were low in success orientation and high in fear of failure. These findings were replicated in Study 2 with 643 Australian students and extended to measures of truancy, disengagement, and self-reported academic achievement. Consistent with self-worth theory, success orientation largely moderated the relationship between fear of failure and academic engagement in both cultures. These results suggest that in the absence of firm achievement goals, fear of failure is associated with a range of maladaptive self-protective strategies. The current project thus represents a unique application of self-worth theory to achievement dynamics and clarifies substantive issues relevant to self-handicapping and disengagement across cultures

Low-carbon innovation for industrial sectors in developing countries

Low-carbon innovation in industrial sectors in developing countries presents economic opportunities that can help realise sustainable development pathways. Under business-as-usual, industries being established in developing countries are likely to move along carbon-intensive or inefficient pathways, increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the short term and the likelihood of establishing high-carbon lock-in over the longer term. However, there is a wealth of evidence from industrialisation experiences around the world demonstrating the kinds of strategies that make it possible to take advantage of low-carbon opportunities to instead create climate-compatible development pathways. This policy brief aims to illuminate potential pathways and policy actions for low-carbon innovation in emerging industry sectors in developing countries. It focusses, firstly, on the low-carbon and energy efficiency gains that are possible in energy-intensive manufacturing. Secondly, the brief explores opportunities for developing countries to insert themselves into global low-carbon value chains by developing manufacturing capacity in energy-supply technologies. The brief ends with policy recommendations that could be enacted at both the national and international levels, making use of existing institutions as well as learning from the literature on past industrialisation experiences

Unmotivated or motivated to fail? A cross-cultural study of achievement motivation, fear of failure, and student disengagement

A classic distinction in the literature on achievement and motivation is between fear of failure and success orientations. From the perspective of self-worth theory, these motives are not bipolar constructs but dimensions that interact in ways that make

My intelligence may be more malleable than yours: the revised implicit theories of intelligence (self-theory) scale is a better predictor of achievement, motivation, and student disengagement

The belief that intelligence is malleable has important consequences for achievement and motivation (Blackwell et al. Child Development, 78, 246-263. 2007; Dweck, 1999; Robins & Pals, Self and Identity, 1,313-336, 2002). However, believing that it is possible to improve intelligence does not necessarily mean students are always confident they can improve their own. The current study presents a revised “self-theory” measure of the implicit theories of intelligence scale, which assess students’ beliefs about their ability to mold their own intelligence in contrast to their beliefs about the malleability of intelligence in general. In testing with 643 Australian high school students (62 % female) ranging from 15 to 19 years of age (M=16.6, standard deviation (SD)=1.01), the belief that intelligence is “fixed” was predictive of lower endorsement of achievement goals, greater helplessness attributions, and poorer self-reported academic grades. Fixed “entity” beliefs were also predictive of academic self-handicapping, truancy, and disengagement. On all of these measures, the new self-theory scale uniquely explained greater outcome variance. These results indicate that students’ implicit beliefs—particularly about their own intelligence—may have important implications for their motivation, engagement, and performance in school

All in the mix

All in the mix: class, race and school choice considers how parents choose secondary schools for their children and makes an important intervention into debates on school choice and education. The book examines how parents talk about race, religion and class – in the process of choosing. It also explores how parents’ own racialised and classed positions, as well as their experience of education, can shape the way they approach choosing schools. Based on in-depth interviews with parents from different classed and racialised backgrounds in three areas in and around Manchester, the book shows how discussions about school choice are shaped by the places in which the choices are made. It argues that careful consideration of choosing schools opens up a moment to explore the ways in which people imagine themselves, their children and others in social, relational space

Business Intelligence: Development of a programmatic marketing campaign performance dashboard

Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceBusiness intelligence is a discipline that has been around since the 1980s and has provided many innovative tools and technologies to support decision making and performance management. Its combination with business performance management led to the appearance of performance dashboards that bring key metrics into a single display. This transforms into more efficient and effective decision making. This report describes a business intelligence project carried out at GroupM, an established marketing company, world-leading in media investment. The aim of this project was to develop a programmatic marketing performance dashboard that would innovate the way the team would manage the campaigns. Previously, the marketers used a manual method that involved manually extracting reports from the different ad server platforms, manipulate the report structure to make it uniform, and then running an Excel file that would aggregate all these files into a single report, where they would be able to look at the data. This process consumed a lot the team’s time and so, this marketing performance dashboard allowed the marketers to access the data in an easier and timely fashion, permitting a more efficient campaign performance management. The project was developed using Salesforce Datorama, which allows for easy integration of data through its various native API connections as well as ingestion of raw excel/csv files through TotalConnect data streams. The Programmatic Marketing team provided an initial mock-up of the expected look of the dashboard, which served as the base of the data model that was created. This project was deemed as successful, and the team has already reported that the time spent on the daily monitorization of the performance of the campaigns has drastically decreased since using the dashboard