Waitara : a sense of place in 1998 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University

This study investigates and describes "senses of place" as experienced by 13 long- term Pakeha residents of Waitara in 1998. The town of Waitara is located on the West Coast of the North Island in New Zealand, and at the 1996 census had a population of 6,507 people. On 15 December 1997, the town's main employer, the AFFCO freezing works plant, was closed. The effect of this closure on the town of Waitara has been devastating. The town has gone from a 'working town' to one in which the majority of its working age population are now' dependent on State support as their primary source of income. The primary objective of this study is to examine how sense of place is affected by economic restructuring. This study uses a combination of secondary quantitative analysis, to situate Waitara within the broad patterns of global and national restructuring, and in-depth interviews to describe 13 individual experiences. This research documents that economic restructuring does indeed change places. The closure of the freezing works plant has left the town marginalised and disconnected from national and global economies. But more importantly the findings of this study support Massey's (1994) assertion that there is no universal sense of place. The identity of places, and therefore our 'senses of place', are constructed through our contact with the outside world. Consequently, an individual's sense of place is unfixed, contested and multiple and changes in response to processes occurring on a local, national and global scale. Finally, this study challenges planners to incorporate local knowledge into planning processes. To focus on a more people-centred style of planning, where the community is empowered to take a more direct role in local decision-making processes

Split Incentives and Energy Efficiency in Canadian Multi-Family Dwellings

This paper examines the energy-related behaviour of occupants and owners of multi-family dwellings in Canada, some of whom do not pay directly for electricity or heat, but instead have these costs included in their rent or condo fees. Using data from the 2003 Survey of Household Energy Use, we look at the extent to which split incentives that result from bill-paying arrangements effect a variety of activities including the setting of temperatures at various times of the day and the use of eco-friendly options in basic household tasks. Findings suggest that these split incentives do indeed impact some aspects of occupant behaviour, with households who do not pay directly for their heat opting for increased thermal comfort and being less sensitive to whether or not somebody is at home and the severity of the climate when deciding on temperature settings. Regardless of who pays for utilities, Canadian households who live in multi-family dwellings are generally unresponsive to fuel prices. Our empirical results suggest that the possibility of environmental benefits from policies aimed at improving energy-efficiency in this sector, especially if targeted at reducing the impacts of the behaviour of those who do not pay directly for energy use.energy efficiency; agency effects; household behaviour

Time-Saving Innovations, Time Allocation, and Energy Use: Evidence from Canadian Households

Time and energy are major inputs into the production of household goods and services. The introduction of time-saving innovations allows households to change their activity patterns and to reallocate their time across competing activities. As a result, the market penetration of time-saving technologies for general household use is expected to have a two-fold impact on energy use in the residential sector. Firstly, increased use of time-saving technologies for basic household chores (cooking, cleaning) can lead to a direct impact on energy use, as many time-saving technologies are more energy-intensive than technologies that require larger time commitments. Secondly, increased use of time-saving technologies allows household members to increase the amount of the activity that is undertaken (for example, when cooking requires less time, more meals may be prepared at home) or to spend more time undertaking other household chores or leisure activities (watching TV, reading, exercising) which may or may not be energy-intensive. In this paper, we use Canadian Survey of Household Energy Use data from 2003 to estimate the extent to which ownership of products that embody time-saving innovations impacts time allocation and energy use at the household level.time rebound effects; residential energy use; household production

Hope against Hope: Persistent Canadian Unions in the Interwar Years

Current forecasts paint a dismal future for unions; observers in the 1920s and 1930s also projected bleak prospects for organized labor. Analysts in the interwar years were off the mark. This paper seeks to investigate whether the revival of the labor movement before WWII was the result of institutional change, in particular the coming of the CIO, or the outcome of an internal dynamic that gave rise to rapid declines and spurts in growth. We test these two views in a war-of-attrition context, using a newly constructed data set on Canadian strikes between 1920 and 1939. Estimation is undertaken in a competing-risks framework. We find that workers did not cave in when employers sought to break their unions, and under certain conditions workers could outlast employers. The increasing proportion of worker wins in the early to mid 1930s led to the rise in union membership observed before the arrival of the CIO in Canada in 1937. We conclude that current predictions regarding the end of unions in the twenty-first century may prove to be premature. Tout comme les analystes contemporains, certains observateurs des années 1920 et 1930 prédisaient un avenir sombre à la syndicalisation. Leurs prévisions étaient fausses. Cet article vise à vérifier si la renaissance des syndicats avant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale est associée à un changement organisationnel, soit l'arrivée du CIO, ou le résultat d'une dynamique interne qui produit des périodes de croissance et de décroissance rapide. En utilisant une nouvelle banque de données sur les grèves au Canada entre 1920 et 1939, dans un modèle de guerre d'usure, cet article teste ces deux propositions. Nous trouvons que les travailleurs n'ont pas reculé face aux menaces des employeurs et dans certains cas ils ont remporté des conflits. Grâce à ces grèves gagnantes, le nombre de travailleurs syndiqués s'est accru même avant le CIO. On conclut que les prévisions courantes vouant les syndicats à la disparition au vingt-et-unième siècle sont prématurées.Labor unions, strikes, Canadian economic history, Syndicats, grèves, histoire économique canadienne

What Did Unions Do... An Analysis of Canadian Strike Data, 1901-14

Using a new data source on early Canadian strikes, this paper seeks to explain the determinants of strike durations, 1901-14. Three different approaches are evaluated: a screening model, a strike-waves model, and a war-of-attrition model. The results are sensitive to strike issue. For non-wage issue strikes, the screening model performs poorly. A strike-waves model that incorporates elements of a war-of-attrition is best suited to explain the durations of multiple-issue strikes. The determinants of durations for the period are compared with findings for the period after 1945. Avec l'aide d'une nouvelle source de données sur les grèves canadiennes, cet article cherche à expliquer les facteurs déterminants dans la durée des grèves pour la période allant de 1901 à 1914. Trois approches différentes sont évaluées : un modèle screening, un modèle vague-de-grèves, et un modèle de guerre d'usure. Les résultats sont directement liés aux facteurs mis en jeu dans les grèves. Pour les grèves dont les points de litige ne portent pas sur les revenus, le modèle screening n'est pas très adéquat. Un modèle vague-de-grève qui incorpore les éléments d'un modèle de guerre d'usure offre un meilleur cadre pour analyser les durées des grèves ayant de multiples points de litige. Les facteurs déterminants dans la durée des grèves pour la période sont comparés aux résultats trouvés pour la période d'après 1945.Strike; Wage, Grève ; Revenus

A New Look at Copper Markets: A Regime-Switching Jump Model

GARCH-jump models of metal price returns, while allowing for sudden movements (jumps), apply the same specification of the jump component in both 'bear'and 'bull' markets. As a result, the more frequent but relatively small jumps that occur in both bear and bull markets dominate the characterization of the jump process. Given that large jumps, although less frequent, are still quite common in copper (and other metal) markets, this is a potential shortcoming of current models. More flexibility can be added to the modeling process by allowing for regime-switching. In this paper we specify a model that allows for switching across two separate regimes, with the possibility of different jump sizes and frequencies under each regime, along with a regime-specific GARCH process for the conditional variance. This model is applied to daily copper futures prices over the period of January 2 1980 through the end of July 2007. The model is estimated both with and without factors such as interest and exchange rate movements entering into the specification of the state-dependent mean of the conditional jump size. In some respects, a Regime Switching GARCH-Jump Model performs well when applied to the copper returns data. The results are mixed in terms of whether or not variations of the model that allow jump sizes to be a function of interest or exchange rates offer much of an advantage over a pure time series approach to the modeling of copper returns over the past three decades.regime switching; Poisson jump; GARCH volatility; copper futures

Effectiveness of Two Keyboarding Instructional Approaches on the Keyboarding Speed, Accuracy, and Technique of Elementary Students

Background: Keyboarding skill development is important for elementary students. Limited research exists to inform practice on effective keyboarding instruction methods. Method: Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined the effectiveness of Keyboarding Without Tears® (n = 786) in the experimental schools compared to the control schools who used the district standard instructional approach of free web-based activities (n = 953) on improving keyboarding skills (speed, accuracy, and technique) in elementary students. Results: The results showed significant improvements in keyboarding speed and accuracy in all schools for all grades favoring the experimental schools compared to the control schools. Significant differences in improvements in keyboarding technique were found with large effect sizes favoring the experimental schools for kindergarten to the second grade and small effect sizes favoring the control schools for the third to fifth grade. Conclusion: Professionals involved in assisting with keyboarding skill development in children are recommended to begin training in these skills in early elementary grades, especially to assist in proper keyboarding technique development. While using free web-based activities are beneficial to improving keyboarding speed and accuracy, as well as keyboarding technique, using a developmentally-based curriculum, such as Keyboarding Without Tears®, may further enhance improvements in the keyboarding skills of elementary students