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The Environmental Protection Bureau of Taiwan established the South Star Project in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, as a solution to two problems facing the city—the urgent need to dispose of industrial wastes and the need to increase land for the city. To embank land from the sea, breakwaters were constructed. The material used to construct breakwaters was a mixture of furnace slag (waste from the steel industry) and fly ash (waste from power plants). After constructing the breakwaters, the ‘reclaimed land’ was used as a landfill for construction and public waste. In the future, these reclaimed lands will be used for the development of a deepwater port or sea airport. Construction of breakwaters is a very repetitive process, and any improvements made would help contractors reduce the duration of the operation, improve efficiency in the process and thereby reduce costs. This paper discusses the process of breakwater construction and the utilization of industrial wastes for the concrete work on the project. Data collected from the first stage of the South Star Project is used in the modelling, simulation and analysis of the process, in order to examine the interaction between different resources.

We argue that by conducting systematic research with communities rather than on communities, community-based research (CBR) methods can both advance the study of human interaction and strengthen public understanding and appreciation of social sciences. CBR, among other methods, can also address social scientists’ ethical and social commitments. We recap the history of calls by leading sociologists for rigorous, empirical, community-engaged research. We introduce CBR methods as empirically grounded methods for conducting social research with social actors. We define terms and describe the range of methods that we include in the umbrella term, “community-based research.” After providing exemplars of community-based research, we review CBR’s advantages and challenges. We, next, summarize an intervention that we undertook as members of the Publication Committee of the URBAN Research Network’s Sociology section in which the committee developed and disseminated guidelines for peer review of community-based research. We also share initial responses from journal editors. In the conclusion, we revisit the potential of community-based research and note the consequences of neglecting community-based research traditions.

Strategic innovation through the deployment of a sophisticated collection of information systems and technologies to help accomplish financial inclusion for the urban poor.

This case is suitable for graduate courses on strategic planning and innovation.

Janalakshmi Financial Services (JFS) is a microfinance company that seeks to serve the financial service needs of the urban poor, a market segment with huge growthpotential. This operation involves large numbers of cash transactions making effective control mechanisms necessary. However, small margins make an innovative strategy necessary. JFS states that information technology (IT) is its DNA. The way in which the leadership team used a variety of ITsolutions to create an integrated set of well managed operations provides a very useful lesson in managing the process of strategic innovation.

The primary learning objective is to help the student understand the impact of strategic innovation through the use of information systems and technologies. This is achieved by helping the student to: connect the abilities provided by information technology to the social objective of financial inclusion; understand what financial inclusion means to the urban poor and how this segment differs from other microfinance and banking segments; assess the approach (related to organizational design as well as systems) JFS has employed to accomplish the objective of financial inclusion among the urban poor in India; analyse the systems and processes JFS has used to deliver services to its target market while making processes more transparent and efficient at JFS; and assess the risks to which JFS is exposed throughits business activity as well as the use of information technology.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.

Since the early 1960s, there have been different techniques to schedule linear projects, but for the most part, these have been overshadowed by the critical path method (CPM). Recently, there has been renewed interest in linear scheduling and in adapting some of the CPM techniques to linear scheduling. This necessitates a review of the research in the area of linear scheduling. The present paper provides an overview of linear scheduling, discusses the different approaches that have been used and expresses new avenues for research in the area of resource levelling of linear schedules.

Finding the optimal solution to address problems in sewer management systems has always challenged asset managers. An understanding of deterioration mechanisms in sewers can help asset managers in developing prediction models for estimating whether or not sewer collapse is likely. The effective use of deterioration prediction models along with the development and use of life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) can contribute to the goals of reducing construction, operation and maintenance costs in sewer systems. When sewer system maintenance/rehabilitation options are viewed as investment alternatives, it is important, and in some cases, imperative, to make decisions based on life cycle costs instead of relying totally on initial construction costs. The objective of this paper is to discuss the application of deterioration modelling and life cycle cost principles in sewer system management, and to explore the role of the Markov chain model in decision making regarding sewer rehabilitation. A test case is used to demonstrate the application of the Markov chain decision model for sewer system management. The analysis includes evaluation of this concept using dynamic programming and the policy improvement algorithm.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions and experiences of early adopters of the technology.

Registered dietitians (RDs) (n=14) were recruited from the UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Mexico and Israel. Six qualitative interviews and two focus groups were conducted online using a conference calling platform. Data were recorded, transcribed and thematically analyzed.

Early adopters of nutrigenomics (NGx) were experienced, self-efficacious RDs who actively sought knowledge of NGx through communication with one another and the broader scientific community. They considered NGx an extension of current practice and believed RDs had the skills to deliver it. Perceived barriers to widening the application of NGx were linked to skepticism among the wider dietetics community. Proliferation of unregulated websites offering tests and diets was considered “pseudoscience” and detrimental to dietetics fully embracing NGx. Lack of a sustainable public health model for the delivery of NGx was also perceived to hinder progress. Results are discussed with reference to “diffusion of innovation theory.”

The views of RDs who practice NGx have not been previously studied. These data highlight requirements for future dietetic training provision and more inclusive service delivery models. Regulation of NGx services and formal recognition by professional bodies is needed to address the research/practice translation gap. Further research is required to inquire as to the views of the wider dietetics profession.

Birth and birthright, in relation to citizenship, are entangled in a complex politics of power and patriarchy as well as past and present notions of cultural and national identity in Nepal. The debates highlight how gender inequality intersects historically with social inequality in a highly stratified society based on religion, caste and ethnicity. The constitutional discussion that has been ongoing in Nepal since the end of the 10-year long civil war in 2004 highlights the need for a critical feminist approach that looks at the multi-faceted and intersecting relationship between citizenship, gender, political projects of imagined communities, social inequality and access to political power. Women have become responsible for the containment of attributes, values and identity within nation-state, regional boundaries, and communities or collectivities. They are constituted as both an asset and a threat to the nation-state should there be fluidity in borders or boundaries. With the struggle to produce and promulgate a new constitution in Nepal, we see how women’s interests and equality can be sacrificed in the name of protecting idealized social and political values as well as preserving the nation-state itself.

The cross-pressures and tensions for engaged academics are like those of other activist professionals and advantaged allies. Academic knowledge is more useful when it is put into dialog with the knowledge and experiences of others and academics use their skills to bring new information into community discussions, to provoke discussions, and to carry knowledge between groups. Academics should listen as well as talk, recognize and respect the differences among community members, and actively attend to and seek to amplify the voices of those who are most oppressed and marginalized.

Recent labor market research has called into question whether social capital effects are causal, or are spuriously due to the influence of social homophily. This essay adopts the demand-side perspective of organizations to examine the causal status of social capital. In contrast with supply-side approaches, we argue that homophily is a key mechanism by which organizations derive social capital. We develop an approach to bolster inferences about the causal status of social capital, and illustrate these ideas using data from a retail bank.

This paper proposes a decision‐making framework to assist asset managers in decision making regarding sewer maintenance/rehabilitation (M&R) plans under constraints of limited access to sewer condition data. It discusses the application of probabilistic dynamic programming in conjunction with a Markov chain model to analyze the life cycle cost of combined sewer systems. M&R issues have traditionally been addressed with a crisis‐based approach, but this study contributes to sewer infrastructure management efforts in developing a management system based on life cycle cost analysis. The framework includes the optimal M&R techniques for sewer projects and the optimal times of application. The role of simulation is also explored to obtain the variability of the total cost. By knowing the expected costs and their variabilities, a deeper understanding of life cycle costs of sewer infrastructure can be obtained. The model’s capability is enhanced further by testing its sensivitity to varying discount and inflation rates.