Food Justice: An Empirical Analysis of Food Landscapes and Population Health in a Large U.S. City

This study examines the challenge of “food justice” by investigating the relationships between food landscapes and the health and wellbeing of local communities in a large urban setting. We identify and discuss the implications of these relationships for advancing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals of ending hunger, improving health and wellness for all, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Empirical results show that controlling for several health-related variables, rates of obesity in a community coincide with the incidence of food outlets with no or low produce available. That is, urban neighborhoods with higher numbers of stores selling mostly unhealthy food options and little or no fresh fruits and vegetables are characterized by higher rates of obesity. Lack of access to healthy foods is a symptom of food injustice. Implications for social entrepreneurs, business and government leaders, and public health professionals are discussed along with ways to address the pervasive global challenge of food injustice

Local government in times of global challenges: the implications of the financial crisis since 2007 on public finances at the municipal level in the Netherlands

The Financial Crisis since 2007 is one of the most important challenges in recent decades. Starting with financing problems in the United States’ real estate market, the financial difficulties developed into a major crisis affecting nearly all economic sectors in industrial countries. Next to citizens and private companies, the public sector was – and partially still is – affected by the Financial Crisis, thereby implying a variety of direct and indirect implications for public budgets.On closer inspection, the impact of and responses to the Financial Crisis involved all levels of government, depending on the division of tasks and responsibilities within systems of multi-level governance. While the roles of the national, supranational, and international levels during the Crisis were widely reported in news coverage and academic research, the implications for sub-national government has received far less attention.The main intentions of this study are to analyse how the Financial Crisis affected the financial situation of the local level of government in the Netherlands and its approximately 400 municipalities and to identify the factors that determined variation. By following a multidisciplinary approach, the study combines theoretical considerations from the academic disciplines of public administration, political science, economics, law, psychology, and sociology. The politics and administration of institutional chang

Organizational Alignment and Performance: Past, Present and Future

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and define the types of organizational alignment – vertical and horizontal; to examine the evidence for the alignment‐performance relationship, and propose research questions and practical implications to advance the theory and practice of managing alignment. Design/methodology/approach – The study is a conceptual examination based on a thorough review of both theoretical and empirical research. Findings – The paper finds that vertical alignment has received considerably more attention in the literature. Studies of horizontal alignment within organizations are less common. When horizontal alignment is studied, the focus tends to be dyadic – between two functional areas. The limitations posed by the dyadic approach suggest gaps in the research and opportunities for future research. As firms grow and diversify, becoming multi‐business organizations, the importance of horizontal alignment will be elevated. Research limitations/implications – Research on vertical alignment should focus on developing larger sets of moderating variables, such as the morale of the workforce, or the life cycle of the firm or industry. Research on horizontal alignment should explore multi‐point horizontal alignment. Practical implications – Managers in organizations with multiple strategic business units could use the application questions in the study to assess the state of alignment in their respective units and the organization as a whole. Originality/value – The paper documents existing literature on the concept of organizational alignment and identifies new opportunities to continue to build and expand the research stream. It also provides a list of application questions that may be used to assess organizational alignment in organizations

Jet-torus connection in radio galaxies: Relativistic hydrodynamics and synthetic emission

High-resolution Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry observations of active galactic nuclei have revealed asymmetric structures in the jets of radio galaxies. These asymmetric structures may be due to internal asymmetries in the jet, could be induced by the different conditions in the surrounding ambient medium including the obscuring torus, or a combination of the two. In this paper we investigate the influence of the ambient medium (including the obscuring torus) on the observed properties of jets from radio galaxies. We performed special-relativistic hydrodynamic (RHD) simulations of over-pressured and pressure-matched jets using the special-relativistic hydrodynamics code \texttt{Ratpenat}, which is based on a second-order accurate finite-volume method and an approximate Riemann solver. Using a newly developed emission code to compute the electromagnetic emission, we have investigated the influence of different ambient medium and torus configurations on the jet structure and subsequently computed the non-thermal emission produced by the jet and the thermal absorption due to the torus. To better compare the emission simulations with observations we produced synthetic radio maps, taking into account the properties of the observatory. The detailed analysis of our simulations shows that the observed asymmetries can be produced by the interaction of the jet with the ambient medium and by the absorption properties of the obscuring torus.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, submitted to A&

Competitive Priorities and Strategic Consensus in Emerging Economies: Evidence from India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the competitive priorities of manufacturers in India, and examine the level of agreement or strategic consensus between senior executives and manufacturing managers on manufacturing competitive priorities in light of the prevalent culture. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data collected from 156 respondents from 78 manufacturing units based on a national sample in India are used to test the hypotheses using the paired samples t‐tests and multivariate analysis of variance. Findings – A relatively high emphasis by both levels of managers on quality, compared to the other three competitive priorities, is noteworthy and consistent with the global trends. The emphasis on delivery is a close second. Differences in competitive priorities exist across managerial levels in India despite the high power distance and low individualism. Research limitations/implications – The effect of ownership as private or public company was examined and no significant differences found, but data could not be collected on the ownership structure such as wholly owned domestic firms, foreign subsidiaries, or joint ventures. and whether a firm is a supplier to a multinational company. It may also be noted that a majority of the manufacturing companies in this paper came from three industries – chemicals, fabricated metals, and electronic and electrical equipment – and, hence, the findings of the paper might have been unduly influenced by the prevalent practices in these industries. Practical implications – The paper informs global managers and firms seeking to outsource to, or invest in, India that the Indian managers place significantly high emphasis on quality and delivery, but not as much on product variety or ability to make frequent changes to product design and production volume. The managers in India need to take note of prevailing differences in managerial priorities and efforts need to be made such that the priorities are aligned and manufacturing strategy may be unified and coordinated. Originality/value – In the Indian context, this is the first study that deployed multiple respondents to understand the manufacturing competitive priorities, and also the first to examine strategic consensus in operations strategy

Hoeveel liberalisme krijg ik voor mijn lokale stem? Over bezuinigingen en de mate partij-politisering van het Nederlandse gemeentelijk bestuur

The politics and administration of institutional chang