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1 – 10 of 29Learning and development occur in many spaces both within and outside formal education settings. This chapter explores progress and possibilities of a knowledge exchange programme…
Abstract
Learning and development occur in many spaces both within and outside formal education settings. This chapter explores progress and possibilities of a knowledge exchange programme with a third sector organisation involved with community development, playwork and youth work in an urban area of the East Midlands. Theoretical concepts draw on a growing international interest in intergenerational play (Graves, 2002) and ‘cultural circles’ (Gill, 2020) as a method of challenging power and communication barriers between practitioners and families from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Using Foucault, post-structuralist feminism and autoethnography, as well as insight from a knowledge exchange partnership – the chapter offers a critique of a national initiative aimed at addressing ‘holiday hunger’ and community engagement. Practitioners in international contexts may benefit from the chapter’s attempt to address a series of co-constructed questions that include:
How do we raise the profile of children’s play as a non-negotiable starting point for universal service provision to children and young people?
What can be done to ‘connect’ diverse communities living in close proximity and sharing amenities within urban areas?
How can we celebrate differences whilst designing universal services, which promote social cohesion through play and leisure spaces?
How do we raise the profile of children’s play as a non-negotiable starting point for universal service provision to children and young people?
What can be done to ‘connect’ diverse communities living in close proximity and sharing amenities within urban areas?
How can we celebrate differences whilst designing universal services, which promote social cohesion through play and leisure spaces?
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Climate change has been identified as a pressing social, environmental and economical challenge that has been unequivocally linked to human activity through latest…
Abstract
Climate change has been identified as a pressing social, environmental and economical challenge that has been unequivocally linked to human activity through latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. It is here to stay with us for generations to come and is already causing severe tribulations across the world. As nations devise policies to mitigate to climate change to stay within the 1.5 degrees Celsius target and small island developing states (SIDS) like Mauritius and the developing world in general find means to adapt to its consequences, a core shortcoming highlighted is the lack of community engagement and grassroots action so that policies permeate to concrete action. Of prime importance for this to happen is raising awareness on the climate change phenomenon, which has so far been a topic deemed complex for the general public, hence creating systemic barriers for climate action. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) can play a significant role in designing such community outreach programmes based on outcomes reported in literature in the educational sector in support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education. There is growing interest for a green lifestyle in the world population, and this chapter shows how the home can be used as a basic building block for allowing each household to contribute to climate action, while offering an effective case study to raise awareness on climate change through practical examples and demonstration, in support for SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Based on an energy-water-materials nexus, the circular home concept is a clear contribution to SDG 13: Climate Action, with huge potential to use AI techniques and underpinning technologies to implement and optimise the efficacy of the proposed measures.
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Tory H. Hogan, Larry R. Hearld, Ganisher Davlyatov, Akbar Ghiasi, Jeff Szychowski and Robert Weech-Maldonado
High-quality nursing home (NH) care has long been a challenge within the United States. For decades, policymakers at the state and federal levels have adopted and implemented…
Abstract
High-quality nursing home (NH) care has long been a challenge within the United States. For decades, policymakers at the state and federal levels have adopted and implemented regulations to target critical components of NH care outcomes. Simultaneously, our delivery system continues to change the role of NHs in patient care. For example, more acute patients are cared for in NHs, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has implemented value payment programs targeting NH settings. As a part of these growing pressures from the broader healthcare delivery system, the culture-change movement has emerged among NHs over the past two decades, prompting NHs to embody more person-centered care as well as promote settings which resemble someone's home, as opposed to institutionalized healthcare settings.
Researchers have linked culture change to high-quality outcomes and the ability to adapt and respond to the ever-changing pressures brought on by changes in our regulatory and delivery system. Making enduring culture change within organizations has long been a challenge and focus in NHs. Despite research suggesting that culture-change initiatives that promote greater resident-centered care are associated with several desirable patient outcomes, their adoption and implementation by NHs are resource intensive, and research has shown that NHs with high percentages of low-income residents are especially challenged to adopt these initiatives.
This chapter takes a novel approach to examine factors that impact the adoption of culture-change initiatives by assessing knowledge management and the role of knowledge management activities in promoting the adoption of innovative care delivery models among under-resourced NHs throughout the United States. Using primary data from a survey of NH administrators, we conducted logistic regression models to assess the relationship between knowledge management and the adoption of a culture-change initiative as well as whether these relationships were moderated by leadership and staffing stability. Our study found that NHs were more likely to adopt a culture-change initiative when they had more robust knowledge management activities. Moreover, knowledge management activities were particularly effective at promoting adoption in NHs that struggle with leadership and nursing staff instability. Our findings support the notion that knowledge management activities can help NHs acquire and mobilize informational resources to support the adoption of care delivery innovations, thus highlighting opportunities to more effectively target efforts to stimulate the adoption and spread of these initiatives.
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Abdul Rauf, Daniel Efurosibina Attoye and Robert H. Crawford
Recently, there has been a shift toward the embodied energy assessment of buildings. However, the impact of material service life on the life-cycle embodied energy has received…
Abstract
Purpose
Recently, there has been a shift toward the embodied energy assessment of buildings. However, the impact of material service life on the life-cycle embodied energy has received little attention. We aimed to address this knowledge gap, particularly in the context of the UAE and investigated the embodied energy associated with the use of concrete and other materials commonly used in residential buildings in the hot desert climate of the UAE.
Design/methodology/approach
Using input–output based hybrid analysis, we quantified the life-cycle embodied energy of a villa in the UAE with over 50 years of building life using the average, minimum, and maximum material service life values. Mathematical calculations were performed using MS Excel, and a detailed bill of quantities with >170 building materials and components of the villa were used for investigation.
Findings
For the base case, the initial embodied energy was 57% (7390.5 GJ), whereas the recurrent embodied energy was 43% (5,690 GJ) of the life-cycle embodied energy based on average material service life values. The proportion of the recurrent embodied energy with minimum material service life values was increased to 68% of the life-cycle embodied energy, while it dropped to 15% with maximum material service life values.
Originality/value
The findings provide new data to guide building construction in the UAE and show that recurrent embodied energy contributes significantly to life-cycle energy demand. Further, the study of material service life variations provides deeper insights into future building material specifications and management considerations for building maintenance.
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Informal dwellings describe makeshift lodgings made from temporary materials, such as plastic, corrugated iron, sheeting, packing cases, or wood. These units allow low-income…
Abstract
Purpose
Informal dwellings describe makeshift lodgings made from temporary materials, such as plastic, corrugated iron, sheeting, packing cases, or wood. These units allow low-income groups to informally occupy land and create their habitable space in a phased manner. This article focuses on elements of the urban morphology, such as density, accessibility, and operating assortment of informally built areas in the southern region of Montenegro.
Design/methodology/approach
The author examines the urban morphologies of four urban areas, whose informality is traditionally viewed as markers of decline and despair. Using observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews, the investigator maps dwellings in Ulcinj, Budva, Tivat, and Herceg Novi neighbourhoods. The researcher interrogated participants about land distribution during the construction of sheds, buildings' outline and orientation toward the street, and activities performed in their dwellings, such as living, working, and accommodating relatives and guests. This methodology tests the hypothesis, formulated as a deeper understanding of urban morphology for examining the interweaving of informally built settlements with the rest of the city.
Findings
A cartographic investigation is used to reframe customary rights of low-income populations to land inclusion and their place in the city. The results clearly show that the location and lifestyle are designed to obfuscate the vulnerable populations from the public view, disconnected from policymaking, and ignored by urban planning projects. However, the interviewees' destinations orientation away from the downtowns represents the possibility of reconfiguring existing urban planning practices. For creating alternative urbanisation, the orientation of less visible neighbourhoods presents a model for building regulations embedded in social forces and cultural habits of all social and ethnic groups.
Research limitations/implications
This study did not address the implementation of social hosing policies and the logistical limitations of realising them by the local and national governments. During firework, the author encountered dwellers outside four studied low-income neighbourhoods in the south region of Montenegro. Mapping morphological elements of these generally small clusters of informal built units are left for future research. Future studies could examine how informality is performed in Montenegro by moderate and high-income groups as an assemblage of different power relationships and urban practices.
Practical implications
The argument is based on counter urbanism as the orientation and destination of less visible neighbourhoods for creating building regulations embedded in social forces and cultural habits of all social and ethnic groups. This study showed that the urban morphology of informality in the coastal cities of Montenegro lays the ground for alternative urban planning practices based on the different interconnection of districts. The outcome is a strong link between different social and ethical groups through self-building practices.
Social implications
In coastal cities of Montenegro, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian live with other low-income groups in unsanitary settlements characterised by poor living conditions, low-quality illegally built housing, no plumbing or sewage systems, and overcrowded urban areas. Mapping morphological elements of less visible urban areas propose shifting from top-down urban planning policies to a participatory model of developing urban areas.
Originality/value
The assemblage of informally built urban areas legitimise place in the city that goes against the housing market's dominant logic and exceeds alternative logics of building production. This article outlined the urban morphologies of four urban areas for turning the image of informality away from decline and despair to lessons of urban interconnection. By creating different maps, the author presented a diverse orientation of four case studies based on density, accessibility, and operating assortment.
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Robert Cole, Heli Gittins and Norman Dandy
This paper's purpose is to explore the current interest and knowledge that UK consumers hold around agroforestry. Despite the many reported benefits of agroforestry systems…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper's purpose is to explore the current interest and knowledge that UK consumers hold around agroforestry. Despite the many reported benefits of agroforestry systems, uptake in the UK, as well as other temperate nations, has been low. As the consumer has a role to play in the transition of agriculture to methods that are more environmentally friendly it is vital to have an understanding of their perceptions. Yet to date no work has looked at agroforestry from the perspective of the UK consumer.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted using a convenience sample accessed by floating a link through social media and messaging apps. The survey was also shared to the members of a private Facebook group associated with an organic vegetable box service. A mix of multiple choice and open text boxes were used. The survey received 139 responses.
Findings
Non-parametric tests indicate that this sample of UK consumers would be mostly likely to buy, and willing to pay more for, agroforestry produce; and the sample showed a split group regarding familiarity. Inductive thematic analysis of the qualitative data highlighted some important barriers to the purchase as well as capturing a snapshot of this sample's perceptions.
Originality/value
This paper presents, to the authors knowledge, the first set of data regarding a sample of UK consumers' perspective of agroforestry produce. The findings could bolster producers' confidence in adopting agroforestry practices, but also highlight the need for policymakers to bolster consumer support through parallel means.
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David Eugene Johnson and Debora Jane Shaw
The purpose of this paper is to inform or alert readers to the extensive use and ready availability of genetic information that poses varying degrees of social and legal danger…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to inform or alert readers to the extensive use and ready availability of genetic information that poses varying degrees of social and legal danger. The eugenics movement of the 1920s and the general acceptance of genetic essentialism provide context for considering contemporary examples of the problem.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper takes an argumentative approach, supporting proposals with ideas from historical and current research literature.
Findings
The limits of data protection, extensive use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing and use of genetic information in white nationalist circles portend a resurgence of eugenic beliefs from a century ago.
Social implications
Research-based recommendations may help to avoid extreme consequences by encouraging people to make informed decisions about the use of genetic information.
Originality/value
The paper counterposes contemporary understanding of genetic testing and data accessibility with the much older ideology of eugenics, leading to concerns about how white nationalists might further their aims with 21st century technology.
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Maike Buhr, Dorli Harms and Stefan Schaltegger
Individual change agents for corporate sustainability can drive the transformation of organizations and foster sustainable development. Current research literature is growing and…
Abstract
Purpose
Individual change agents for corporate sustainability can drive the transformation of organizations and foster sustainable development. Current research literature is growing and is published in a wide variety of journals. This systematic literature review provides an overview and synthesis of different understandings of individual change agents for corporate sustainability transformation. It identifies gaps and puts forward propositions to contribute to theoretical development in the field.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper conducts a systematic literature review and thematic content analysis of individual agency in light of corporate sustainability transformation.
Findings
The analysis identifies five research streams, three key dimensions of individual change agency for sustainability (beliefs, actions and competencies) and presents levels of individual agency for transformation. An integrated definition of change agents for sustainability is proposed.
Research limitations/implications
The review concludes with implications to support individuals in fostering sustainability transformations of organizations, markets and societies. The synthesis and propositions help in identifying which dimensions are already and could in future be addressed by individual change agents. While acknowledging the usual limitations of literature reviews, this paper can inspire future empirical research on the effectiveness of individual change agents for sustainability.
Originality/value
By synthesizing different understandings in the literature of individual change agents for sustainability, this article contributes to the theoretical development of individual agency in the areas of understandings, research streams, dimensions and perspectives. It also develops propositions on how individual change agency can effectively contribute to sustainability transformations at individual, organizational and systems levels.
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