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1 – 10 of over 21000Zimbabwe is a small developing country that has been independent for 17 years. In its short post‐colonial history it has been attempting to grapple with lessening the imbalances…
Abstract
Zimbabwe is a small developing country that has been independent for 17 years. In its short post‐colonial history it has been attempting to grapple with lessening the imbalances on resource distribution, like land, water and other natural resources, from its colonial path. The path towards achieving “growth and equity” in the economy has not been easy. It has moved from a centrist approach to one that is governed by market forces ushered in by economic reforms that encourage deregulation of state controls. Water pricing policy and distribution are reviewed, in the light of this background. Some key issues relating to institutions, legislation, and economic theory considerations in the management of scarce water resources are discussed in the light of Zimbabwe’s experience.
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To review and provide a new perspective on how Wroe Alderson contributed to marketing theory, and rekindle interest in his lines of research and the further development of…
Abstract
Purpose
To review and provide a new perspective on how Wroe Alderson contributed to marketing theory, and rekindle interest in his lines of research and the further development of marketing theory.
Design/methodology/approach
A metaphor is woven into the paper to provide a new way of thinking about Alderson and his work. This provides an alternative to the more traditional analyses and comparison of Alderson's work that suggests new linkages and ways of looking at his theories, constructs and concepts.
Findings
Alderson was a creative, hard working, practical marketing theorist with a drive to develop a theory of marketing. He challenged underlying assumptions of marketing, and set the discipline on a new course. Alderson himself worked on a general theory of marketing, and also inspired others to work on marketing theories. His approach and ideas still have value to today's marketing scholars.
Practical implications
Marketing scholars will benefit by taking up Alderson's work where he left off, as well as integrating the research completed since his death with his theory of marketing.
Originality/value
This paper uses a unique method to look at one of the key influencers of marketing; a metaphor encourages one to look at how Alderson was able to significantly impact the field of marketing, and suggests that there is still value in his work to today's marketing scholars. It also evokes ways that marketing theory can be further developed.
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Doug Mercer, Thomas Leschine, Christina H. Drew, William Griffith and Timothy Nyerges
To derive from the environmental risk and knowledge management literatures a model that integrates organizational form, democratic vision and epistemological needs of public…
Abstract
Purpose
To derive from the environmental risk and knowledge management literatures a model that integrates organizational form, democratic vision and epistemological needs of public agencies responsible for addressing environmental risks. To analyze the knowledge management practices of the United States Department of Energy (USDOE) that is responsible for cleaning up landscapes contaminated by 50 years of plutonium production.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was used as a framework for a case study analysis of the USDOE knowledge management practices.
Findings
Conceptual: a vision of democracy and an understanding of the type of knowledge process can facilitate organizational constancy. Organizational forms should be matched to knowledge process and democratic vision. Empirical: USDOE has behaved erratically in addressing environmental risks viewed through this model of knowledge management.
Research limitations/implications
The model idealizes democratic visions, epistemological processes and organizational forms. Care should be taken in making predictions for the success or failure of an organizational approach based solely on this model.
Practical implications
Practically, the model aids scholars in making connections between knowledge management and public sector environmental risk management literatures; and provides managers with a systematic framework for relating democratic context knowledge production processes to particular organization forms. Use of this model particularly during agency restructuring may facilitate resolving environmental risks though improving organizational legitimacy, constancy, and knowledge generation capacity.
Originality/value
This is a first attempt at integrating two related but so‐far disconnected literatures (environmental risk management and knowledge management).
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Vernacular transformations of underused places give shape to Ephemeral Urban Dwellings (EUD). By reading the spatial patterns of use of three of these buildings, this paper…
Abstract
Vernacular transformations of underused places give shape to Ephemeral Urban Dwellings (EUD). By reading the spatial patterns of use of three of these buildings, this paper demonstrates that EUD replicate the way activities and ideas of privacy are related to space in the previous and permanent homes left behind by its inhabitants. The case studies are located in central areas of Bogotá and, although ephemeral, they have stayed for years. Personal interviews and mental maps drawn by the interviewees as well as on site drawings and photography by the author are the main sources of this study.
The paper recalls the processes of cultural appropriation that take place when people adjust to new cultural contexts. In the case of the dwellings studied, these processes give clues on how the ideas that shape the way people use space are translated into new places. The paper's conclusion calls for further research on EUD as an object of academic interest.
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Michele Bigoni, Simone Lazzini, Zeila Occhipinti and Roberto Verona
The study investigates the use of early forms of environmental accounting in the implementation of environmental strategies in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany between the 16th and 17th…
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigates the use of early forms of environmental accounting in the implementation of environmental strategies in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany between the 16th and 17th centuries.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts the Foucauldian concept of raison d’État to shed light on the ways in which environmental accounting practices were used by Tuscan Grand Dukes to form a detailed knowledge of the territory to be governed and act accordingly.
Findings
Financial and non-financial information relating to environmental issues enabled the Grand Dukes to “visualise” the territory to be managed as an enclosed disciplinary space whereby the conduct of people living therein could be decisively influenced. Accounting practices as a tool for the implementation of environmental strategies did not merely aim to protect the environment but were a means to reinforce the power of the State.
Research limitations/implications
The paper can inform future works that investigate the ways in which environmental policies and accounting are used to pursue far-reaching governmental goals. It encourages scholars to examine further the origins of environmental accounting and its early forms.
Social implications
The study documents how environmental strategies and the related use of accounting can have a significant influence on how individuals are allowed to conduct themselves. It also shows that environmental accounting practices can be an important tool in a State’s machinery of power.
Originality/value
The study offers a novel perspective on the use of environmental accounting information as a tool in the exercise of State power. It explores explicitly the interrelations between accounting, sustainability and power. It also adds new evidence to historical research that has engaged with early forms of environmental accounting.
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A report on this subject has recently been issued by the Local Government Board. It owes its origin to the interest—unfortunately brief—that was aroused some two years ago, when…
Abstract
A report on this subject has recently been issued by the Local Government Board. It owes its origin to the interest—unfortunately brief—that was aroused some two years ago, when certain allegations were made concerning the methods in vogue on the other side of the Atlantic for, the preparation of meat products intended to be placed on the English market, and has been drawn up by Dr. A. W. J. MACFADDEN. The report is based on the results obtained by Public Analysts throughout the country, who, in the performance of their official duties, were called upon to examine various samples of canned meat sent out by the United States packing houses; on certain statements made by trade representatives to Dr. MACFADDEN; and, finally, on the results of some analyses of canned meats made by Mr. ELLIS RICHARDS, F.I.C., at the request of the Board. The figures must be regarded as representative of the state of affairs then and now. By far the greater quantity of canned meat that reaches this country and is consumed therein is imported from the United States, and hence, almost of necessity, any criticisms that are made regarding this part of our food supply resolve themselves into criticisms of the Federal Meat Inspection law of the United States and the way in which it is applied by the officials there. The conclusion that Dr. MACFADDEN draws as to the efficacy of this law so far as it regards ourselves is one that was expressed in this journal in May last. He observes that “our position, so far as safeguards provided by American law are concerned, is apparently much as it was before the enactments came into force,” that “so far as the use of preservatives is concerned, the new law has not affected the conditions under which the canned meat trade has been conducted with this country in past years,” and that “the onus of protecting their inhabitants in this respect continues to rest, in the first place, with the Governments of the foreign countries themselves.” The first two statements are sufficiently damning, and the corollary is, of course, obvious. The difficulties must be tackled from this side, but the entire absence, up to the present, of all official standards renders the task of the Public Analyst and the other municipal officials who are jointly concerned with him as regards the health of the districts with which they are connected, a most difficult one, and the business of the unscrupulous “poisoner for dividends,” to use an American phrase, correspondingly easy. We go a little farther than Dr. MACFADDEN, and say that the new law does not protect us even with regard to the general wholesomeness of these products. As late as January last the Inspecting Officer of the Manchester Port Sanitary Authority had occasion to draw attention to the unsatisfactory nature of certain canned goods that were imported direct from America. The examination of a consignment of 1,200 six‐pound tins of canned meat showed that 157 tins were blown, and that 156 tins were of doubtful quality. It follows that in this single instance 1,800 pounds of garbage were exported to this country from the United States, the new law notwithstanding.
Ting Shang, Xin Hu, Kunhui Ye and Vivian W. Y. Tam
This study aims to map out contractors' thoughts on construction-related environmental recovery as an excuse for deliberately carrying on unsustainable construction.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to map out contractors' thoughts on construction-related environmental recovery as an excuse for deliberately carrying on unsustainable construction.
Design/methodology/approach
A typical highway construction project in China was investigated. Textual materials were collected through semistructured interviews. Content analysis was conducted to derive qualitative data from the textual materials.
Findings
The research findings reveal a trend of environmental recovery associated with construction activities. It is found that contractors utilize this trend to maintain unsustainable construction. Furthermore, the effects of environmental recovery equip local governments with a tolerance for environmental degradation, and the environmental tolerance allows contractors to continue unsustainable construction without being discovered.
Originality/value
This paper presents an environmental recovery-based perspective on unsustainable construction and sheds some light on the promotion of sustainable construction.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe and make sense of the confluence of theoretical and practical preoccupations that contribute to the current interest in place management.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and make sense of the confluence of theoretical and practical preoccupations that contribute to the current interest in place management.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents an overview and interpretation of trends that have led both policy‐makers and academics to an interest in the management and development of places. It demonstrates how various streams of thought coalesce into five key concepts: participation, distinctiveness, knowledge, relationships and values – that provide, at their meeting point, a cross‐disciplinary conceptual framework for place management and development.
Findings
The field of place management is located – both strategically and challengingly – at the crux of key contemporary policy issues in development and governance. There is a need to draw together insights across disciplines into a conceptual framework that will help both practitioners and academics make sense of the challenges we face.
Research limitations/implications
Understanding where we have come from helps them to chart where we are going. There is opportunity to build a new a theoretical and policy framework around place management that articulates why and how place is important in the context of larger development and governance debates.
Originality/value
As a big‐picture overview of a cutting‐edge space, this paper is intended to help both practitioners and academics position their work in its broader context.
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This paper reviews, summarizes and pieces together scattered information on the newly completed Chicago Riverwalk in Chicago, Illinois. It explains the design process that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reviews, summarizes and pieces together scattered information on the newly completed Chicago Riverwalk in Chicago, Illinois. It explains the design process that transformed an outmoded infrastructure and disused river banks into an attractive gathering civic space, a linear urban park and a functional transportation corridor.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature review.
Findings
Overall, the paper reports on one of the latest projects in Chicago that symbolizes the city's long history and earnest commitment to urban sustainability.
Research limitations/implications
The paper identifies key urban sustainability lessons that are transferable to other cities.
Originality/value
It is the first paper that stitches together scattered information on the topic.
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