Bringing the Body into Environmental Behavior: The Corporeal Element of Social Practice and Behavioral Change

This paper argues that understanding environmentally responsible behavior as a constellation of practices, specifically practices that involve bodily engagement, provides the most promising avenue for future research seeking to explain and encourage patterns of behavior that are environmentally responsible and promote environmental sustainability. Drawing on scholarship on theories of practice, and sociological research on alternative technology adoption and alternative communities, this essay brings attention to the corporeal nature of practice. To understand environmentally responsible behavior, scholarship must acknowledge that humans are reflexively engaged with the material world, and engaging in alternative practices means engaging in alternative bodily habits, routines, and rituals. Empirical research that focuses on the corporeal elements of environmental practice may offer fruitful insight for enhanced scholarship in environmental social science and the promotion of environmental engagement

Representation and partnership: a case study of the worker committee on fair trade certified farms in the Ecuadorian cut-flower industry

2011 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis explores the effectiveness of the worker committee on fair trade certified flower plantations in Ecuador in an effort to identify the challenges and opportunities for fair trade in its goal to facilitate worker representation and empowerment on large-scale enterprises. Representation starts by giving workers an institutional mechanism through which they can join management in the discussion of fair working conditions. The worker committee serves as this mechanism on certified farms in Ecuador. Empowerment implies that workers have the power to instigate change in order to improve working conditions. Providing worker empowerment is problematic in this context due to the structural limitations of the worker committee. Nonetheless, the extent to which the worker committee can provide representation and communication between workers and management may serve as an important step in the process towards worker empowerment. In order to understand the potential for representation on flower plantations, it is important to acknowledge that the flower industry and the actors involved are operating in a market that favors rationality and productivity. I employ Weber's notion of formal rationality to help situate this discussion. Formal rationality is the governing force behind the rise of modern society and its institutions; including the modern global economy. Formal rationality allows for efficiency and calculability, but also leads to an impersonal world where the needs of individuals are sidestepped in order to create a system of productivity. The goal of this study is to demonstrate how management's drive to rationalize production in order to survive in a competitive flower industry has the potential to both constrain and enable the process toward worker empowerment. For flower producers, the drive to differentiate makes certification an attractive option. Certified farms in turn, provide the institutional space for worker representation and communication with management. This paper argues that representation is a precondition for the type of empowerment that workers ultimately need, but does not assume that representation and empowerment are synonymous. Specifically, this study looks at the potential benefits and limitations of the worker committee in its effort to facilitate representation and communication. It addresses two research questions. What are the rationalization processes that impact the lives of workers and managers? To what extent does the worker committee serve as a forum for communication between workers and managers to promote representation

What’s political about solar electric technology? The user’s perspective

Scholars in science and technology studies have debated the various ways in which technologies are (or are not) political. Here, I examine how users themselves understand and articulate the politics of a specific technology—residential solar electric technology—and how understandings of politics interact with motivations to adopt. Based on interviews with 48 individuals in 36 households across the state of Wisconsin who have adopted residential solar electric technology, I consider the user’s perspective on the question: “What’s political about residential solar electric technology use?” These users were asked about the politics of this technology and how their understanding of the technology’s politics shaped their own motivation for adoption. These solar electric technology adopters saw solar electric technology as both imbued with political character based on the current national political scene and as inherently, innately political. They described how solar electric technology interacts with the politics of environmentalism, challenges “politics-as-usual”and can bring about decentralization and redistribution of wealth. In short, to the users of solar electric technology, this technological artifact is, indeed, political; it both interacts with, and offers an alternative to, current American political structures. Further, their perspectives on the politics of solar technology shaped their understandings of motivations for and limitations to adoption of this alternative technology

Frameworks for understanding and promoting solar energy technology development

In this paper, the contrasting theories of metabolic rift and ecological modernization theory (EMT) are applied to the same empirical phenomenon. Metabolic rift argues that the natural metabolic relationship between humans and nature has been fractured through modernization, industrialization and urbanization. EMT, in contrast, argues that societies in an advanced state of industrialization adopt ecologically benign production technologies and political policies, suggesting that modern societies could be on course to alleviate the ecological damage caused by capitalism. These two theories are fundamentally different in their assumptions about modern economies and technologies, yet both can be used as a theoretical lens to examine the phenomenon of solar energy technology adoption. Furthermore, both theories shed light on the increasing adoption of solar energy technologies in both “developing” and “developed” regions and the potential social conditions for promoting renewable energy technology adoption

Soft energy paths revisited: Politics and practice in energy technology transitions

This paper argues that current efforts to study and advocate for a change in energy technologies to reduce their climate and other environmental impacts often ignore the political, social, and bodily implications of energy technology choices. Framing renewable energy technologies exclusively in terms of their environmental benefits dismisses important questions about how energy infrastructures can be designed to correspond to democratic forms of socio-politics, forms of social organization that involve independence in terms of meeting energy needs, resilience in terms of adapting to change, participatory decision making and control, equitable distribution of knowledge and efficacy, and just distribution of ownership. Recognizing technological choices as political choices brings explicit attention to the kinds of socio-political restructuring that could be precipitated through a renewable energy technology transition. This paper argues that research on energy transitions should consider the political implications of technological choices, not just the environmental consequences. Further, emerging scholarship on energy practices suggests that social habits of energy usage are themselves political, in that they correspond to and reinforce particular arrangements of power. Acknowledging the embedded politics of technology, as the decades’ old concept of soft path technologies encourages, and integrating insights on the politics of technology with insights on technological practices, can improve future research on energy policy and public perceptions of energy systems. This paper extends insights regarding the socio-political implications of energy paths to consider how understandings of energy technologies as constellations of embedded bodily practices can help further develop our understanding of the consequences of energy technologies, consequences that move beyond environmental implications to the very habits and behaviors of patterned energy usage, which are themselves arguably political. This paper calls for future research that involves explicit examination of the relationship between technologies, socio-political distributions of power and access to energy resources, the social organization of energy practices, and options for energy transitions not just in terms of energy source, but also in terms of scale, design, and modes of ownership and control

A Survey of Occupational Therapy Services Provided for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: We examined the services provided to adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by occupational therapists across the United States. Method: This cross-sectional study used an online survey, with a combination of structured and open-ended questions, to collect data from a nonprobability sample. Descriptive, inferential, and nonparametric statistics were used to analyze data. Results: In our sample (N= 57), the majority of the participants spent less than half of their workweek intervening with the adult ASD population. Caregivers were instrumental in both referral and discharge, and Medicaid was the most common payer source. The Adult Sensory Profile was used by more than half of the participants and sensory integration was the most influential model underlying practice (77%). The participants advised new occupational therapists to pursue high quality continuing education courses and formal mentorship from senior colleagues. Conclusion: This study suggests that working with adults with ASD remains a niche area of practice. Further research is needed to examine the pathways to receiving occupational therapy for the adult ASD population

Examining the key drivers of residential solar adoption in upstate New York

This research examines the decision factors influencing adoption of residential solar electric power systems in upstate New York. New York has a goal to provide 100% of electric energy in the State through renewable resources, which includes solar electricity, by 2030. Thus, identifying the most important decision factors may be useful in understanding potential means of promoting solar technology adoption. Through an online survey of homeowners in upstate New York who have installed residential solar systems, the research examined the importance of decision factors influencing the decision to adopt and how factors have changed over time. The research finds that environmental motivations are slightly more important than economics and that perception of solar installers is also important to adopters. This work contributes new insights to the field of research examining solar and renewable energy technology adoption at the residential scale, addresses the role of policy in promoting solar adoption, and provides insights for developers and others looking to enhance the rates of solar technology adoption at the residential scale

Putting research to action: Integrating collaborative governance and community-engaged research for community solar

Community solar involves the installation of a solar electricity system that is built in one central location with the costs and benefits distributed across voluntary investors who choose to subscribe and receive credits based on the generated energy. Community solar is gaining attention because of its potential to increase access to renewable energy and to democratize energy governance. This paper reflects on community-engaged research experiences in two rural community case studies in Michigan, USA, focusing on obstacles that were experienced during the research process rather than empirical findings from the research. We highlight difficulties we experienced to help advance a conceptual argument about incorporating collaborative governance strategies to improve community-engaged research for community energy projects. Our reflections illustrate challenges in community-engaged research that are associated with identifying who should be included in the decision-making process, sustaining participation and avoiding exploitation, establishing and communicating final decision-making power, and giving attention to outputs and outcomes of the research. We argue that collaborative governance strategies can help to address these challenges, as we experienced firsthand in our project

Gambaran Pemenuhan Kebutuhan Spiritual Pasien di Rumah Sakit Santa Elisabeth Medan

Spiritual merupakan salah satu kebutuhan dasar bagi orang sakit karena mencakup usaha untuk meningkatkan integritas pribadi, relasi antar pribadi dalam pencarian makna hidup, kekuatan spirit atau kerohanian yang dapat membangkitkan rasa percaya diri dan optimisme dalam proses penyembuhan. Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengetahui gambaran pemenuhan kebutuhan spiritual asien di Rumah Sakit Santa Elisabeth Medan Tahun 2021. Jenis penelitian yaitu kuantitatif dengan desain deskriptif. Populasi sebanyak 120 orang di ruangan rawat inap. Adapun teknik pengambilan sampel menggunakan purposive sampling. Hasil penelitian ditemukan pemenuhan kebutuhan hubungan spiritual pasien dengan Tuhan terpenuhi sebesar 59,1%, hubungan spiritual pasien dengan diri sendiri terpenuhi sebesar 97.7%, hubungan spiritual pasien dengan orang lain terpenuhi sebesar 95,5% dan hubungan spiritual pasien dengan lingkungan terpenuhi sebesar 97,7%. Bagi petugas kesehatan agar selalu memberikan informasi-informasi penting pemenuhan kebutuhan spritual pasien di Rumah Sakit, yaitu dengan mengetahui bagaimana pemenuhan hubungan spiritual pasien dengan Tuhan, diri sendiri, orang lain, dan hubungan spiritual pasien dengan alam/lingkungan. Oleh karena itu diharapkan agar pihak rumah sakit tetap mempertahankan nilai-nilai rohani yang baik itu dengan tetap membenahi sistem pelayanan spiritual sesuai dengan Visi dan Misi Rumah Sakit

Genetic isolation and morphological divergence mediated by high-energy rapids in two cichlid genera from the lower Congo rapids

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is hypothesized that one of the mechanisms promoting diversification in cichlid fishes in the African Great Lakes has been the well-documented pattern of philopatry along shoreline habitats leading to high levels of genetic isolation among populations. However lake habitats are not the only centers of cichlid biodiversity - certain African rivers also contain large numbers of narrowly endemic species. Patterns of isolation and divergence in these systems have tended to be overlooked and are not well understood.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We examined genetic and morphological divergence among populations of two narrowly endemic cichlid species, <it>Teleogramma depressum </it>and <it>Lamprologus tigripictilis</it>, from a 100 km stretch of the lower Congo River using both nDNA microsatellites and mtDNA markers along with coordinate-based morphological techniques. In <it>L. tigripictilis</it>, the strongest genetic break was concordant with measurable phenotypic divergence but no morphological disjunction was detected for <it>T. depressum </it>despite significant differentiation at mtDNA and nDNA microsatellite markers.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The genetic markers revealed patterns of philopatry and estimates of genetic isolation that are among the highest reported for any African cichlid species over a comparable geographic scale. We hypothesize that the high levels of philopatry observed are generated and maintained by the extreme hydrology of the lower Congo River.</p