Citizen and consumer : the dual role of individuals in environmental policy

This article investigates the dual role - exemplified by the ideal-types of the consumer and the citizen - individuals' face in contemporary environmental policy. As crowding-out theory highlights the implications of using ‘wrong' incentives or controlling means, examining the match between policy and those value-systems guiding individuals' decision-making process in practice should indeed be a relevant undertaking. Sweden provides the empirical example for the article, in which a text analysis of policy documents is compared with the results of a mail-out survey to 4000 individuals in four different counties. The article finds that external motivations are perceived as being highly relevant for the promotion of ecological sustainability in Sweden and, thus, that the notion of the consumer-role as guiding individuals' behaviour in the environmental field is rather strong. However, at the same time people tend to ascribe the motivational values included in the Self-transcendence cluster (altruism) a far greater importance as guiding principles in life than the opposing values of Self-enhancement (egoism), indicating that the citizen-role indeed is important to account for in policy-making. Hence, clearly there is a mismatch between Sweden's contemporary policy documents and the general value orientation held by Swedish people in general.Godkänd; 2006; 20080826 (simon_m

Chemical composition of the lipopoysaccharides of Rhodobacter sulfidophilus, Rhodopseudomonas acidophila, and Rhodopseudomonas blastica

The lipopolysaccharides of Rhodobacter sulfidophilus and the two budding species Rhodopseudomonas acidophila and Rhodopseudomonas blastica were isolated and chemically analyzed. The all have a lipid A backbone structure with glucosamine as the only amino sugar. The lipid A's of Rb. sulfidophilus and Rps. blastica contain phosphate, their fatty acids are characterized by ester-linked, unsubstituted 3-OH-10:0 and amide-linked 3-OH-14:0 (Rb. sulfidophilus) or 3-oxo-14:0 (Rps. blastica). Lipid A of Rps. acidophila is free of phosphate and contains the rare 3-OH-16:0 fatty acid in amide linkage. The lipopolysaccharides of all three species contain 2-keto-3-deoxy-octonate (KDO) but are devoid of heptoses. Neutral sugars with the exception of glucose are lacking in the lipopolysaccharide of Rb. sulfidophilus. This shows a high galacturonic acid content. The lipopolysaccharides of Rps. acidophila and Rps. blastica have neutral sugar spectra indicative for typical O-chains (rhamnose, mannose, galactose, glucose in both species, and in Rps. blastica additionally 2-O-methyl-6-deoxy-hexose). The taxonomic value of the data is discussed