Development and trial of a methodology for the quantification and evaluation of home composting in Palmerston North, New Zealand : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Management (without major) at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Home composting and commercial composting can be regarded as part of the Municipal Solid Waste Management system. Currently, in Palmerston North and more broadly in New Zealand, home composting plays an important, but an unquantified role in waste diversion. In Palmerston North, the quantity of organic waste diverted from landfill via home composting is not captured in the City’s official ‘waste assessment’ or recorded in the ‘waste management and minimisation plan’. Additionally, there appears to be little local social and technical data on why, who, when, what and how well home composting is practised. The aim of this study was to develop and implement a methodology for a mixed-method quantitative-qualitative study for the quantification and evaluation of home composting practices in Palmerston North. The development process for the research methodology drew upon an international literature review of scientific research, a range of municipal best practice guidelines for home composting and referenced elements of the New Zealand composting standard. The data collection for this study involved a combined telephone and door-to-door survey of 300 households (that is, approximately 1% of occupied dwellings, randomly selected from across all 15 suburbs in the City). To support the physical data collection, a novel home composting evaluation tool was also developed and trialled for empirical and quality assurance evaluation. The overall participation rate recorded in the present study (64%) was high and both data collection methods proved to be viable, yielding positive results. 36% of the households who participated in the present study were home composters which could mean that about 10,761 households in the occupied dwellings of the City practise home composting. At the time of the survey, it appears that nearly 4005 tonnes of organic waste was being treated via home composting processes. The results also indicated positive quality assurance of the home composting process and the resulting compost in the City. Whilst most of the study participants have a positive experience towards home composting, nuisance insects, rodents and odour problems were reported as issues. In terms of motivation around current and future home composting practices, a range of support options appears to be available for Councils to encourage and enhance this positive environmental practice

Partisanship, political constraints and employment protection reforms in an era of austerity

Why do some governments adopt unpopular reforms entailing far-reaching liberalization of the labour market, while others opt only for marginal adjustments or even regulatory reforms? This paper explains the likelihood of different types of reform as an effect of different constellations of government partisanship and veto players. Combining the ‘blame avoidance’ and ‘veto players’ logics of politics, the paper argues that veto players have either a constraining or enabling effect depending on the partisan orientation of government. Correspondingly, liberalization is most likely to be adopted either by right parties facing few veto players, or by left parties in contexts with a high degree of power sharing. Regulatory reforms are most likely when left governments enjoy strong power concentration, but marginal regulation may be also adopted under external pressure by right governments facing many veto players. An analysis of employment protection reforms in 24 EU countries during 1990-2007 supports the argument that the effect of political constraints and opportunities on the choice of reforms is shaped by partisan difference

The Role of Bio-Ontologies in Data-Driven Research: A Philosophical Perspective

This project aims to reach a philosophical understanding of the role played by theory in the practices of data dissemination and re-use that characterise data-driven research. Bio-ontologies have the potential to play the epistemic role of theories in this context, insofar as they (1) express the knowledge underlying data-driven research and (2) guide such research towards future discoveries

The "champagne tower" of science publishing

This article discusses the hierarchical nature of science publishing, whereby journals are organized in tiers with the most prestigious elite journals at the top (Cell, Nature, Science), and lowest-ranked journals at the bottom. When rejected from the top-tier journals, authors usually aim for a lower tier of journals, with some choosing smaller, specialist journals for the outlet of their work. Recently, however, a different mechanism of cascading the papers down the hierarchy of journals has become popular, i.e., editors arrange to pass the rejected papers, with the authors’ permission, to their “sister journals” bearing the same brand. These transfer arrangements may be seen beneficial for the authors, as they reduce the publication time, but they also pose difficulties for smaller specialist journals that lose their share of the market and experience a fall in manuscript submissions

Agency beyond subjectivity : the unredeemed project of May Fourth fiction

This paper is part of a larger project in which I make a case for the central importance of the problem of free will to considerations of Chinese modernity. I begin by distinguishing between two key aspects of modernity and the Enlightenment: (1) subjectivity, or the realm of consciousness including the capacity for critical reason, and (2) agency, or acting on the world outside consciousness in a way that makes a difference. I then suggest that neglecting the development of rational agency cripples the force of the commitment to human freedom that drives the project of modernity. In calling attention to agency and proposing to explore its place in modern Chinese fiction, I do not mean to belittle the first line of inquiry into subjectivity and its various aspects. My point is simply that investigations of subjectivity can encompass only one part of modernity, one aspect of modern consciousness and only some of the questions that modern literature can pose. Modernity may mean a rise of individual consciousness, yet equally crucial is the possibility that reason can advance human freedom

Lu Tonglin. Misogyny, cultural nihilism, and oppositional politics : contemporary Chinese experimental fiction

This article reviews the book Misogyny, Cultural Nihilism, and Oppositional Poutics: Contemporary Chinese Experimental Fiction written by Lu Tonglin

Surveying the welfare state: challenges, policy development and causes of resilience

This paper takes a closer look at the supposed mechanisms behind German welfare state resilience, which are given in mainstream institutionalist theories. I focus on reform hurdles associated with the make-up of the German welfare state, both at the macro-level (principles) as well as at the meso-level (programmes), exposing systematically mechanisms of path-dependence and other sources of policy stickiness. In addition, I zoom in on the political- institutional sources of resilience. This survey of institutional reform obstacles is complemented by a review of reform pressures and policy developments in the main social policy areas, old age pensions, health care, and unemployment policy between 1975 and 2004. The main conclusion is that despite numerous sources of pressure for far-reaching welfare state reform, the various mechanisms of resilience have made for a pattern of incremental reform, although a number of structural reforms have occurred fairly recently. -- Dieses Arbeitspapier befasst sich mit den Mechanismen, die gemäß institutionellen Wohlfahrtstaatstheorien die Reformresistenz des deutschen Sozialstaats erklären sollen. Es richtet sich dabei auf Reformhindernisse, die auf der institutionellen Struktur des Wohlfahrtsstaats beruhen, sowohl auf Makroniveau (sozialstaatliche Prinzipien) als auch auf Mesoniveau (Teilbereiche). Dabei legt es systematisch dar, wo sich tatsächlich Pfadabhängigkeiten und andere Ursachen von Veränderungsresistenz verbergen. Darüber hinaus wird auf die politisch-institutionellen Quellen der Reformresistenz eingegangen. Die Analyse wird ergänzt durch eine Besprechung der Ursachen des wachsenden Reformdrucks und einer Übersicht der Policy-Entwicklung der letzten 30 Jahre in den Teilbereichen Rente, Arbeitslosenversicherung und Gesundheitspolitik. Das Papier kommt zu dem Schluss, dass trotz des erheblichen Reformdrucks die zahlreichen Resistenzmechanismen ein Muster inkrementeller Veränderungen zur Folge hatten und dieses erst in den letzten Jahren durch eine Reihe von Strukturreformen unterbrochen wurde.