525 research outputs found
Tariffs
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) is collaborating with a group of municipalities to initiate a program to replace all fixtures in its service territory with LED fixtures. In this presentation we discuss this program and its timing, results, and tariff impacts
Digital play and the actualisation of the consumer imagination
In this article, the authors consider emerging consumer practices in digital virtual spaces. Building on constructions of consumer behavior as both a sense-making activity and a resource for the construction of daydreams, as well as anthropological readings of performance, the authors speculate that many performances during digital play are products of consumer fantasy. The authors develop an interpretation of the relationship between the real and the virtual that is better equipped to understand the movement between consumer daydreams and those practices actualized in the material and now also in digital virtual reality. The authors argue that digital virtual performances present opportunities for liminoid transformations through inversions, speculations, and playfulness acted out in aesthetic dramas. To illustrate, the authors consider specific examples of the theatrical productions available to consumers in digital spaces, highlighting the consumer imagination that feeds them, the performances they produce, and the potential for transformation in consumer-players
Sustainable rural development in England: Policy problems and equity consequences
Spatial planning policies ensure a 'no development' ethic for rural areas in England, brought about by strong restrictive housing polices and an urban-centric view of sustainable development. Such an ethic is unlikely to be ameliorated by the Localism Bill passing through the English Parliament in 2010-11. Economic development policies provide confusing signals for rural sustainable development as they appear simultaneously to require the pursuit of productivity, well-being, endogenous development and income support: objectives that are not compatible. Together these policy sets are likely to exacerbate inequalities in both wealth and opportunity in rural areas. This inhibits the achievement of sustainable development when viewed as having equity considerations at its core. © The Author(s) 2012
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Scripts people live in the marketplace: an application of script analysis to Confessions of a Shopaholic
This paper shows how Script Analysis can produce new marketing theory by applying it to
contemporary shopping behaviour via British novelist Madeleine Wickhamâs novel,
Confessions of a Shopaholic. We show how Becky Bloomwood, the central character, is a
Scripted Shopaholic for whom shopping is the activity around which everything else in her
live falls in and out of place. In presenting a Scripted Shopaholic Racket System, we theorise:
how shopping is used to structure time and relationships with others; the role of injunctions
and attributions and related discounting in fulfilling shopping scripts; and, the possibility of
freedom from excessive shopping scripts. We therefore bring together psychoanalysis, literary
texts, and shopping theories to generate new insights about why people shop (and often shop
too much), and how such behaviours might be transforme
Human wellâbeing and climate change mitigation
Climate change mitigation research is fundamentally motivated by the preservation of human lives and the environmental conditions which enable them. However, the field has to date rather superficial in its appreciation of theoretical claims in wellâbeing thought, with deep implications for the framing of mitigation priorities, policies, and research. Major strands of wellâbeing thought are hedonic wellâbeingâtypically referred to as happiness or subjective wellâbeingâand eudaimonic wellâbeing, which includes theories of human needs, capabilities, and multidimensional poverty. Aspects of each can be found in political and procedural accounts such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Situating these concepts within the challenges of addressing climate change, the choice of approach is highly consequential for: (1) understanding interâ and intraâgenerational equity; (2) defining appropriate mitigation strategies; and (3) conceptualizing the socioâtechnical provisioning systems that convert biophysical resources into wellâbeing outcomes. Eudaimonic approaches emphasize the importance of consumption thresholds, beyond which dimensions of wellâbeing become satiated. Related strands of wellâbeing and mitigation research suggest constraining consumption to within minimum and maximum consumption levels, inviting normative discussions on the social benefits, climate impacts, and political challenges associated with a given form of provisioning. The question of how current socioâtechnical provisioning systems can be shifted towards lowâcarbon, wellâbeing enhancing forms constitutes a new frontier in mitigation research, involving not just technological change and economic incentives, but wideâranging social, institutional, and cultural shifts
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