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This book facilitates the existing dialogue between community sociologists and environmental sociologists on the ecological and social significance of place, the challenges of local sustainability, and local environmental politics. Even after many years into this general intellectual discussion, much remains to be clarified, defined, explained, and understood if we are to provide other concerned actors with meaningful social scientific insights. As such, we conclude this chapter by briefly identifying seven fruitful avenues for future research that follow directly from the contributions to this book.

This chapter shows that it is important to avoid descending to either an extreme of naturalizing disasters or sociologizing them. Safety depends on the appropriateness of social constructions for nature's constructions, whether inadvertent or based on sophisticated risk assessment. Worse-case scenarios need to be taken into account even if improbable, because assessments of their probability and timing have serious limitations. This chapter demonstrates that modern technology and organization can increase vulnerability to natural disasters. Antimodern communities avoided disaster in this case by stepping off the treadmill of production and practicing technological triage. The challenge for modern communities is to make an ecologically reflexive triage.

The article sets out to formulate a theory of the so-called New Middle Class (Neuer Mittelstand) which is drawn from the writings of the German sociologist Emil Lederer. To this end, prior to formulating this theory, the article briefly mentions contributions by other fellow German sociologists to this field of studies. Subsequently, Lederer's theory is being set in the context provided by contemporary formulations in stratification theory, such as those by Giddens, Parkin, Murphy, Goldthorpe, and Wright. The comparison has shown the presence of continuities, but also of fundamental differences, between such theoretical formulations. Based on Lederer's related work, an alternative theory of the Neuer Mittelstand, then is being put forward. This alternative theory, which has been reformulated as a set of mutually consistent statements, should not encounter the objections that may be raised against previous formulations. It concurs with Lederer's position in stressing the New Middle Class's expectations and requests of social honor as a status group and its inner heterogeneity as a cause of its social and political weakness. It adds, however, that the absence or scarcity of property of the means of production might carry more weight than insufficient social status for those Neuer Mittelstand members who aspire to social recognition and power.

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.– Aldo Leopold in A Sand County Almanac (1949/1989, p. 204)

This research replicates and extends Frey et al. (2003), using a typical e‐mail query to investigate e‐mail customer service by 260 Tunisian hotels. Based on the hotel responses, this study found that guests had one chance in ten of receiving a reply within a day and even less chance that hotels answered the inquiry professionally, promptly, politely and personally. Diffusion of innovations failed to explain differences in responsiveness by Tunisian hoteliers but did help explain the quality of e‐mail replies. The results suggest that reply quality differs across hotel size and hotel affiliation. Hotel affiliation as well as hotel category and website presence showed no significant differences in responsiveness. Differences aside, the results highlight that Tunisian hotels can gain an immediate competitive advantage by analysing common e‐mail queries and implementing basic e‐mail procedures.

In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from gossip theory, this research focuses on two key suppressors of consumer vulnerability: transparency and control. Previous studies conceptualize transparency and control from rationalistic approaches that overlook individual experiences and present a unidimensional conceptualization. This research aims to understand how individuals interpret transparency and control concerning privacy vulnerability in the online environment. Additionally, it explores strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

An interpretivism paradigm and phenomenology were adopted in the research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 participants, including consumers and experts, and analyzed through thematic analysis.

The findings identify key conceptual dimensions of transparency and control by adapting justice theory. They also reveal that firms can communicate assurance, functional, technical and social values of transparency and control to address consumer vulnerability.

This research makes the following contributions to the data privacy literature. The findings exhibit multidimensional and comprehensive conceptualizations of transparency and control, including user, firm and information perspectives. Additionally, the conceptual framework combines empirical insights from both experiencers and observers to offer an understanding of how transparency and control serve as justice mechanisms to effectively tackle the issue of unsanctioned transmission of personal information and subsequently address vulnerability. Lastly, the findings provide strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

Victim narratives consistent with anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution rhetoric leave little room for understanding agential labor in the sex industry, which profoundly impacts sex workers’ experiences in other domains. One such domain – academia – is often understood as antithetical to the “body work” of sex work. It is, after all, the domain of the mind. Drawing from my experiences as an undergraduate and graduate student as well as from my work as a sex worker, I use auto-ethnography to demonstrate the lasting impact of (1) mind/body dualisms, (2) the virgin/whore dichotomy, and (3) narratives of sexual danger on perceptions of legitimation and status for sex workers in academia. I also discuss implications for broader social concerns like legal policy.

A number of recent studies have suggested that many small businesses are opting to become members of strategic alliances with other firms in order to minimise the perceived barriers to adoption of electronic commerce (E‐commerce). This study compares the perception of barriers to E‐commerce adoption between a sample of Swedish small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that have become members of some form of strategic alliance and those that have remained outside such arrangements. The results show that, in general, SMEs that are part of a strategic alliance perceive barriers as less applicable than their counterparts that are not part of a strategic alliance.

Aims to present a framework for licensing school principals in the United States, specifically the state of Connecticut. Contains three elements that depart substantially from other initiatives to reform preparation and licensure. (1) Pre‐service preparation of principals will focus on the knowledge base for teaching and learning. As currently conceived, it is possible for a candidate to qualify for initial certification without taking formal coursework in educational administration. (2) Study of educational administration will occur during the beginning years of administrative service. (3) Licensure will be performance‐based. Candidates for initial certification will need to demonstrate their knowledge of teaching and learning and their ability to evaluate and supervise teaching. Prior to professional certification, principals will be required to show that they fostered a school culture that focused on teaching and learning and where all students achieved. Begins with discussion of the role of licensing and recent calls for reform of principal preparation and licensure. Following a review of the literature that supports Connecticut′s reform strategy, presents five postulates it is believed will advance the revision of preparation and licensure. Follows a hypothetical candidate from pre‐service through to professional certification to explain how Connecticut′s proposal is implemented. Includes a consideration of licensing in countries other than the United States in the summary.