Conceptualizing stakeholder engagement in the context of sustainability and its assessment

Stakeholder engagement in construction projects can be conceptualized in different ways. It can be seen from a strategic management perspective aimed at capturing knowledge, increasing ownership of the project by users, reducing conflict, encouraging innovation and facilitating spin-off partnerships. From an ethical perspective, meaningful stakeholder engagement can be seen to enhance inclusive decision making, promote equity, enhance local decision making and build social capital. The benefits from both of these perspectives are vital for sustainability; however, stakeholder engagement can also be seen from the perspective of an opportunity for social learning—a social process where diverse stakeholders share a common forum, learn about each other's values, reflect upon their own values and create a shared vision and shared objectives. Dialogue is also useful in increasing awareness, changing attitudes and affecting behaviours. Existing practices view stakeholder engagement: mostly from a management perspective; sometimes from an ethical perspective; less often as a combination of the two; and rarely have any element of the social learning perspective. There is a need for an approach that combines all the three perspectives if sustainability is to be pursued. A dialogue-oriented approach to integrated sustainability assessment could provide an ideal means to do so

Bathymetric extent of recent trawl damage to the seabed captured by an ROV transect in the Alboran Sea

Bottom trawl fishing is among the most destructive anthropogenic pressures acting on benthic ecosystems, but the full extent of the damage is undocumented because of the limited number of deep-sea observations of impacted regions (e.g., Brennan et al., 2012, 2016). As part of its continuing ocean exploration mission, in 2011, E/V Nautilus conducted a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) survey along a transect in a submarine canyon in the Mediterranean's Alboran Sea off southern Spain at depths ranging from 1,200 m to <300 m (Coleman et al., 2012). This exploration along the South Alboran Ridge offered the opportunity to directly observe with video the bathymetric extent and intensity of recent trawling damage to the seafloor in this area. This dive revealed large furrows running in multiple directions caused by trawl doors scraping across the seabed. Little biological activity was evident in the depth ranges where these scars were observed. The destructive nature of bottom trawl fishing should be viewed with the same public affront as subaerial clear-cutting of forests and strip-mining. The only difference is that the ocean hides trawl damage from the public eye. The more we explore the deep sea, repeatedly map the seafloor with sonar, and observe the seabed and its ecosystems with video captured by ROVs, the greater we can understand the full impacts of trawling

Synthesising emerging issues within key futures study reports in construction

Most futures studies aim to help people to better prepare for their future by identifying and examining emerging future issues relevant to them. In the last decade, there have been a range of futures studies published by individuals and organisations within the construction sector and wider afield. Despite this, little has been done on synthesising and classifying the emerging issues and analysing the substantive content of these studies. A thorough search of futures study reports in construction has been conducted from which key reports were selected to be examined in detail. Content analysis was employed to identify emerging future issues which were then used to populate a matrix showing the relationship between the reports and the issues identified. This yielded 337 emerging issues, both internal and external to the construction industry which were classified under six major themes, namely ‘technological’, ‘environmental’, ‘social’, ‘economic’, ‘governance’ and ‘construction industry’. Each is then discussed. The key characteristics of these issues, including the possible inter-connectivities among them are subsequently explained. The paper is concluded with a brief discourse on our future research work in this area and the possible associated methodologies to be employed

A Corporate Social Entrepreneurship Approach to Market-Based Poverty Reduction

In this article, we aim to conceptualize a market-based approach to poverty reduction from a corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE) perspective. Specifically, we describe some market-based initiatives at the base of the economic pyramid and relate them to the social entrepreneurship literature. We refer to the entrepreneurial activities of multinational corporations that create social value as CSE. We then conceptualize CSE according to the corporate entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship domains and shed light on how corporations can implement CSE. Finally, by reviewing relevant literature, we propose some of the factors that can stimulate CSE in organizations and some of the benefits companies can gain by implementing CSE

Conceptualising sustainability in UK urban Regeneration: a discursive Formation

Despite the wide usage and popular appeal of the concept of sustainability in UK policy, it does not appear to have challenged the status quo in urban regeneration because policy is not leading in its conceptualisation and therefore implementation. This paper investigates how sustainability has been conceptualised in a case-based research study of the regeneration of Eastside in Birmingham, UK, through policy and other documents, and finds that conceptualisations of sustainability are fundamentally limited. The conceptualisation of sustainability operating within urban regeneration schemes should powerfully shape how they make manifest (or do not) the principles of sustainable development. Documents guide, but people implement regeneration—and the disparate conceptualisations of stakeholders demonstrate even less coherence than policy. The actions towards achieving sustainability have become a policy ‘fix’ in Eastside: a necessary feature of urban policy discourse that is limited to solutions within market-based constraints

Meditation-induced bliss viewed as release from conditioned neural (thought) patterns that block reward signals in the brain pleasure center

The nucleus accumbens orchestrates processes related to reward and pleasure, including the addictive consequences of repeated reward (e.g., drug addiction and compulsive gambling) and the accompanying feelings of craving and anhedonia. The neurotransmitters dopamine and endogenous opiates play interactive roles in these processes. They are released by natural rewards (i.e., food, water, sex, money, play, etc.) and are released or mimicked by drugs of abuse. Repeated drug use induces conditioned down-regulation of these neurotransmitters, thus causing painful suppression of everyday pleasure. As with many spiritual traditions, Buddhism provides strong advice against the pursuit of worldly pleasures to attain the ‘‘good life.’’ In contrast, many forms of meditation give rise to an immense and abiding joy. Most of these practices involve ‘‘stilling the mind,’’ whereby all content-laden thought (e.g., fantasies, daydreams, plans) ceases, and the mind enters a state of openness, formlessness, clarity, and bliss. This can be explained by the Buddhist suggestion that almost all of our everyday thoughts are a form of addiction. It follows that if we turn off this internal ‘‘gossip of ego,’’ we will find relief from the biochemical dopamine/opiate down-regulation, which is, perhaps, the perpetual concomitant of our daily rumination

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter