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Visual Distinctive Language (VDL)-based iconic tags are structured visual information annotation. They explicate the content and organization of tagged information by graphical and symbolic features in order to improve the vocabulary problems of textual tags. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how these special icons help in tagged-based user information searching.

A two-stage experiment was designed and conducted so as to follow and quantify the searching process in specific searching target case and no specific searching target case when using VDL-based iconic tags.

The experimental results manifested that VDL-based iconic tags enhanced the role of tag in information searching. They could make user better understand tag clusters, which, in turn, provide global structure of involved topics. Also, VDL-based iconic tags helped user to find out searching target more quickly with higher accuracy by taking advantages of visual representation of tag categories and symbolic signification of tag content.

This study is one of the first to verify how structured icons work in information searching and how user’s graphical cognition impacts on tag-based information searching process. The research findings are dedicated to the theory of VDL-based iconic tags, as well as to a new visualization method for search user interface design.

Tourists and visitors currently tend to consider environment and the purity of nature, educational tourism, culture and history, large‐ and small‐scale events, and entertainment and fun as crucial issues. For certain specific target groups, these wishes and needs may be satisfied by a new form of tourism called “geotourism”, which is an multi‐interest kind of tourism exploiting natural sites and landscapes containing interesting earth‐science features in a didactic and entertaining way. Relative to demand, a form of tourism based on imagination and emotion, favouring experience and sensations, and explaining the natural environment by playing with its temporal and spatial dimensions may provide opportunities of economic development. Different target groups (e.g. seniors, families, schools) potentially interested in cultural and natural landscapes seem to constitute specific markets to consider. In this sense, on‐site interpretation needs to be more adapted to the visitors' expectations and a more original and striking way of communication has to be used. From a promotional point of view, “geomarketing”, a kind of image communication that explores the temporal and spatial dimensions of the rocks (e.g. minerals, fossils) and forms (e.g. glaciers, caves) of the Earth's surface, may be developed. This will not only generate inquisitiveness among the target groups selected, but also give a clear position to a destination, in order to distinguish itself from similar territories. Of course, product communication must complete this marketing strategy with the creation, promotion and sale of specific and original products, especially for the summer period (from spring to autumn). For instance, a mix of walking, wellness, “agro‐tourism” and “geotourism” may be profitable for regional economic development. Thus, this paper is a conceptual contribution based on a theoretical work and a literature review.

Launched in the 1960s, the nine French New Towns are generally considered as a pragmatic response to the urban growth of the Paris region, before it was extended as a national policy to other regions (Merlin, 1997). If their creation is usually placed in the continuity of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City Movement and of previous New Towns experiments, especially those conducted in England, this historical lineage has never been appreciated in terms of architectural and urban research. Were the French New Towns projects formulated against these early ideas and models or, on the contrary, planned in light of them? Moreover, what are the main characteristics of their projects, their points of resemblance and particularities? These questions, often raised by observers, cannot be answered without a comprehensive knowledge of each New Town’s story, which is not yet available. But a renewed comprehension of their common history can be proposed by analysing their creation in light of the French urban debate of the twentieth century, and by giving special attention to two housing projects which, in Évry and Le Vaudreuil, were presented as ‘landmark operations of contemporary urban planning’ (New Towns Program, 1971).

In this chapter, we will be describing the situation of minority groups in the labour market and in organizations in Québec and Canada. We will be focussing mainly on the situation of women and ethnocultural minorities. First, we will present a statistical picture of their situation. Second, we will explore in more depth the situation of two ethnocultural groups – the Maghrebians and the French – in Québec, ¹ to demonstrate the complexity of the situation of minority groups that cannot be portrayed by statistics alone. Then, third, we will examine some tensions specific to Western societies that have an impact on the dynamics of culturally diverse enterprises. This assessment will show that even though much progress has been made, especially for women, there is still much to do to ensure full equality and greater fairness between minority and majority groups in Québec and Canada. Furthermore, by means of a more qualitative analysis of the situation of these two ethnocultural groups, we will see that statistics do not tell the whole story.

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to theorize and describe the main characteristics of the social construction of the policy of electro-amplified popular music (EAPM) in the French context.

Design/methodology/approach – To explain the significance and the institutionalization of EAPM through the conflict and mediation between two modes of legitimation of the rebellion and recognition of identity: deliberative rationality and verbalization of protest, on the one hand, and “musicalization” of revolt and globalization of the rebellious feeling attitude, on the other hand.

Findings – The meaning of the so-called “musicalization of revolt” is defined. This phenomenon emerged, in France, at the end of 1960s, after a long and traditional period of “politization” and rationalization of protest. The main sociological and economic dimensions of this new historical process are designated: a special standardization of the emotional expression and a transcultural and global matrix of rebellion. Then, the public policy of EAPM is examined in depth. The paradox of the French voluntarism (the regulation of EAPM practices) is accentuated. What to do with the liberal origin of these styles and the institutional policy that began in 1982? Why and for what reasons has this public policy been still going on? What are the advantages of the public support from musicians’ as well as local and national authorities’ point of view? What are the topics of EAPM public policy (support for social creation, status of drugs, and ritualization of violence)?

Originality/value of chapter – This academic text offers some key concepts explaining the normalization of the emerging and anarchistic musical cultures.

The author presents a synthesis of research on the concept of territory in the field of tourism, taking into consideration the point of view of visitors, local population, politics an dpublic administration, as well as organizers and sales persons. His research is based on the results of studies in the alpine region as one of the most important tourism areas.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories:

The thinking of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza is gradually entering the field of social science. In this paper, we are particularly interested in applying his theory of affects to the analysis of passionate collective behaviours at work in the field of financial markets. The general hypothesis that underpins our work is the idea that, in a context of radical uncertainty about the future, the succession of common affect regimes translates into passionate sequences that determine investor behaviour and produce market dynamics. Using an analysis of the stock market cycles of Taffler, Bellotti, and Agarwal (2018), Taffler, Agarwal, and Wang (2019), we show that the Spinozist concept of common affects can help us to understand the mechanisms in the production of collective emotion and to account for the speculative dynamics at the origin of the great financial bubbles.

This chapter aims to use the theory of commons to reflect on the mechanisms that supported the recent (micro)financial crisis. This approach naturally extends the analysis of the growing field of green microfinance and the financialization of commons and in particular the environment.

The study provides a theoretical analysis of the recent crisis and the introduction of the environmental dimension to microfinance. This theoretical analysis is supported by extensive experience in many years of field research and qualitative and quantitative analysis of the (micro)financial crisis and green microfinance. The theoretical analysis is based on the results of previous research developed using primary and secondary data.

Using the theory of commons we interpret the recent crisis and the financialization of the environment as the tragedy of commons.

We highlight that when the private profit prevails over community benefit, both at the financial and environmental level, efforts toward financial inclusion and environmental conservation could instead lead to financial crisis and environmental damage.

Financial inclusion and environmental economy cannot be analyzed simply in terms of economic utility; a systemic view that embraces the complexity of poverty and the human–environment system is required to assess the actual outcomes of programs dealing with financial inclusion.

Policymakers, international agencies, and implementing institutions such as financial intermediary institutions should question an oversimplistic view of financial inclusion and the economic value of environmental goods. They should instead include in their analysis and program design considerations of the complex interactions between actors, collective behavior, and emerging properties of human and environmental systems.

The theory of commons is employed to analyze both financial inclusion and green microfinance. We propose that (micro)finance should be understood and managed as a common good to support the development of a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable financial system.