Sustainability in the union

Operating as the center of student life, college unions have a central role to teach citizenship, social responsibility, and leadership. The perspective of stewardship is adopted in this chapter to advance a discussion about college unions as a model for campus sustainability.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90521/1/20014_ftp.pd

An e-learning support toolkit for social work students on placement

Students of the social work professions generally are required to be placed in social work settings and to undergo assessment in the workplace during their training. These students are usually supported by qualified practice tutors who regularly meet with them and give feedback on their practice performance and progress. The support procedure sometimes is fragile and affects the quality of the students? learning experience. Through a user centered design approach, the Remora project aims to provide an integration of mobile software toolkits and social software applications to support work-based learning and assessment for social workers. Two main applications are created and deployed on two categories of portable devices to help practice workers in their administration, information sharing and collection of documents linking with competency learning resources. The applications are extendible to be applicable to any work-based learning situation

Slums and squatters in six Philippine cities

Study of the urbanization problem of slums and squatters in six urban areas of the Philippines - describes the communities and their social problems (e.g., unemployment, housing, social services); similarities between the communities in such characteristics as reasons for rural migration, educational level, desire for land ownership, capacity for social participation and political participation; recommendations for government policy and programmes on urban development

Poverty-Centred Rural Road Funds Sharing in Sub-Saharan Africa

Poverty-centred allocation of funds for rural roads and their systematic prioritisation are important to enhance sustainability, provide equality of transport opportunities and mitigate poverty. The aim of this work was to investigate and develop new approaches with specific emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa, given that the existing decision systems do not appropriately consider social impacts and poverty. An understanding of rural road funds allocation and road scheme prioritisation to alleviate poverty is important as road transport is by far the most predominant form of transport in Africa. This study developed new allocation and prioritisation processes for rural roads based on expert opinion surveys and empirical evidence, which were then applied to analyse allocation and road scheme selection processes used in Uganda and Ghana. The study found that the multi-dimensional poverty index is the most highly prioritised factor in rural road scheme selection and, for regional rural road funds sharing, poverty is equally weighted with the rural accessibility index. A goal programming model, based on expert opinion weightings, is recommended for poverty alleviation

The Mental Health of War?damaged Populations

Summaries This article draws upon the psychiatric, psycho?analytic and anthropological literature to show that we know very little about the psychological consequences of war and upheaval in the non?Western world. The small amount we do know suggests that while suffering is often intense, many of the therapeutic responses on offer are inappropriate as they are informed by psychiatric and psycho?analytic thought and practice which have little relevance to the majority of people living in the non?Western world

Tap water costs and service sustainability, a close relationship

Water is currently an essential and strategic resource for society and its importance will rise in the future due to the increasing number of threats. However, water management is not currently up to par taking into consideration this well acknowledged importance. Generally speaking, water use is not efficient and loss figures are often too high. The reasons behind this situation are complex and diverse, however, in principle, they can be divided into four categories: cultural, political, social and economic. Since the latter are of most importance, this paper focuses on water costs from source to tap. The economic analysis presented quantifies the costs of a sustainable urban water service in a structured way. The second part of the paper present a case study in which the economic losses linked to leakage are assessed as a function of how expenses are recovered. The cost of apparent losses could also be assessed in a similar way and will always be higher, since apparent losses (unlike real ones) are present throughout the whole water cycle, thus increasing the unit costs.Cabrera Marcet, E.; Pardo Picazo, MA.; Cabrera Rochera, E.; Arregui De La Cruz, F. (2013). Tap water costs and service sustainability, a close relationship. Water Resources Management. 27(1):239-253. doi:10.1007/s11269-012-0181-3S239253271Almandoz J, Cabrera E, Arregui F, Cabrera Jr E, Cobacho R (2005) Leakage assessment through water networks simulation. J Water Resour Plan Manag ASCE. Nov-Dic. 2005 pp 458–466BDEW (German Association of Energy and Water Industries) (2010) Comparison of European Water and Wastewater Prices German Association of Energy and Water Industries, BonnCabrera E, Pardo MA, Cobacho R, Arregui FJ, Cabrera Jr E (2010) Energy audit of water networks. J. Water Resour. Plan. Manag. ASCE. Nov–Dic. 2010 pp 669–677Coase RH (1960) The problem of social cost. J Law Econ, October 1960den Blanken M (2009) Asset Management. A necessary tool for a modern water company AWWA International Conference on Strategic Asset Management. Miami 11–13 November 2009EPO (Eurostat Press Office) (2010) Facts and figures on the environment: from environmental taxes to water resources. Eurostat Press Office, Luxembourg, December 2010EU (European Union) (2000) Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000. Off J Eur Communities 22.12.2000. Pp L 327/1 to L 327/72IWA (International Water Association) (2010) International statistics for water services. Montreal 2010. Canada. International Water Association, LondonKanakoudis V, Tolikas D (2001) The role of leaks and breaks in water networks: technical and economical solutions. J Water SRT - Aqua 50(2001):301–311Kanakoudis V, Tsitsifli S (2009) Water pricing policies in Greece: is there a Common Understanding?. 2nd International conference on water economics, statistics, and finance Alexandroupolis, Thrace, Greece, 3–5 July 2009.Kanakoudis V, Gonelas K, Tolikas D (2011) Basic principles for urban water value assessment and price setting towards its full cost recovery – pinpointing the role of the water losses. J Water Supply: Res Technol 60(1):27–39Logar I, Van den Berg J (2012) Methods to assess costs of drought damages and policies for drought mitigation and adaptation: Review and recommendations. Water Resour Manag. doi: 10.1007/s11269-012-0119-9Molinos-Senante M, Hernández-Sancho F, Sala-Garrido R (2012) Tariffs and cost recovery in water reuse. Water Resour Manag. doi: 10.1007/s11269-012-0111-4NRC (National Research Council) (2008) Desalination a national perspective. NAP Press, Washington, D.C. National Research Council, Ottawa, CanadaOECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2010) Pricing water resources and water and sanitation services. OECD, ParisOFWAT (Office of Water Services) (2009) Future water and sewerage charges 2010-15: Final determinations. OFWAT (Office of Water Services), Birmingham UKRogers P, Bhatia R, Huber A (1998) Water as a social and economic good: How to put the principle into practice. Global Water Partnership, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.Roth A (2001) Water pricing in the EU. A review. European Environmental Bureau (EEB), BrusselsWonnacott P, Wonnacott R (1990) Economics, 4th edn. John Wiley, 1990Zhu X, van Ierland EC (2012) Economic modeling for water quantity and quality management: a welfare program approach. Water Resour Manag. doi: 10.1007/s11269-012-0029-

The Dark Side of Transfer Pricing: Its Role in Tax Avoidance and Wealth Retentiveness

In conventional accounting literature, ?transfer pricing? is portrayed as a technique for optimal allocation of costs and revenues amongst divisions, subsidiaries and joint ventures within a group of related entities. Such representations of transfer pricing simultaneously acknowledge and occlude how it is deeply implicated in processes of wealth retentiveness that enable companies to avoid taxes and facilitate the flight of capital. A purely technical conception of transfer pricing calculations abstracts them from the politico-economic contexts of their development and use. The context is the modern corporation in an era of globalized trade and its relationship to state tax authorities, shareholders and other possible stakeholders. Transfer pricing practices are responsive to opportunities for determining values in ways that are consequential for enhancing private gains, and thereby contributing to relative social impoverishment, by avoiding the payment of public taxes. Evidence is provided by examining some of the transfer prices practices used by corporations to avoid taxes in developing and developed economies