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Article
Publication date: 31 July 2021

Redvin Bilu, Faizah Darus, Haslinda Yusoff and Intan Salwani Mohamed

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of environmental offences committed in Malaysia charged under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (EQA1974).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of environmental offences committed in Malaysia charged under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (EQA1974).

Design/methodology/approach

This study used secondary data of the environmental court cases report by the Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia from 2008 until 2016 to examine the nature of environmental offences based on the Treadmill of Production (ToP) approach.

Findings

In comparison with the GDP growth (Department of Statistic Malaysia, 2016), the findings support ToP argument that as far as the treadmill accelerates, the more would be the environmental crime committed. However, all offences charged were weighted more on the ecological additions rather than ecological withdrawn. The trend analysis showed a decreasing trend for all types of offences committed, reflecting that Malaysia's regulatory authorities are committed to fighting against environmental crime perpetrators. Therefore, all parties must be made to internalise the values of conducting business sustainably.

Originality/value

This paper is the first that examines the environmental offences committed in Malaysia using the ToP approach to analyse the nature of the crime committed in Malaysia associated with the growing literature of Green Criminology.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2003

Richard York, Eugene A. Rosa and Thomas Dietz

Ascientific consensus has emerged indicating that the global climate is changing due to anthropogenic (i.e., human induced) driving forces. Our previous research reformulated the…

1843

Abstract

Ascientific consensus has emerged indicating that the global climate is changing due to anthropogenic (i.e., human induced) driving forces. Our previous research reformulated the well‐known I=PAT (environmental Impacts equal the multiplicative product of Population, Affluence, and Technology) model into stochastic form, named it the STIRPAT model, and used it to assess the effects of population and affluence on carbon dioxide loads. Here we extend those findings by examining the impacts of population, affluence and other factors on the emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as the combined global warming potential of these two gases. We also assess the potential for “ecological modernization” or an “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC) effect to curb GHG emissions. Our findings suggest that population is a consistent force behind GHG emissions, that affluence also drives emissions, that urbanization and industrialization increase emissions, and that tropical nations have lower emissions than non‐tropical nations, controlling for other factors. Contrary to what ecological modernization and EKC theorists predict, we find that to date there is no compelling evidence of a decline in emissions with modernization. These results support both the “treadmill of production” thesis and the “metabolic rift” thesis.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 23 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2013

Michael J. Lynch and Paul B. Stretesky

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon concepts in community‐oriented policing in order to explore the distribution of citizen water‐monitoring organizations and their role in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon concepts in community‐oriented policing in order to explore the distribution of citizen water‐monitoring organizations and their role in community environmental policing, in order to address the issue of environmental justice. The empirical portion of the analysis examines the distribution of these organizations across states, and the relationship of this distribution to social inequity.

Design/methodology/approach

This study design is cross‐sectional in nature and examines the distribution and density of 1,308 citizen water‐monitoring organizations across states. Ordinary least squares regression is used to examine the relationship between the density and social disadvantage while controlling for environmental enforcement patterns, rates of non‐compliance, water quality, region of the country, water area, and coastal states.

Findings

Race and ethnicity are negatively correlated with the density of water‐monitoring organizations across states. Median household income is positively correlated with water‐monitoring organizations across states.

Practical implications

This paper suggests that community environmental policing is a response to ecological disorganization. More specifically, in the case of citizen‐led water‐monitoring organizations it is critical that states with relatively large proportions of low income, black and Hispanic residents help provide resources to encourage the development of these community groups.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to draw upon the ideas found in the community‐oriented policing literature to examine water‐monitoring organizations. While the literature suggests that collaborative efforts between state law enforcement agencies and water‐monitoring organizations may help combat ecological disorganization, it is also the first study to suggest that environmental injustice could be an unintended drawback of community environmental policing.

Article
Publication date: 27 February 2023

Alper Karasoy

This study aims to examine the effects of industrialization, deindustrialization and financialization on Turkey’s energy insecurity by controlling the impacts of urbanization and…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of industrialization, deindustrialization and financialization on Turkey’s energy insecurity by controlling the impacts of urbanization and alternative energy generation for the 1980–2018 period.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposed an econometric model relying on the literature. Moreover, based on different financialization variables, this study estimated two specifications of this model using the augmented nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach.

Findings

The results are as follows: first, industrialization increased Turkey’s long-run energy insecurity, whereas deindustrialization did not affect Turkey’s energy security. Second, urbanization worsened Turkey’s energy insecurity. Third, financialization aggravated Turkey’s energy insecurity. Last, alternative energy generation improved Turkey’s energy security.

Research limitations/implications

This study identifies the energy security’s drivers in Turkey with a focus on industrialization and financialization. Nonetheless, further research is needed on other emerging economies with high energy insecurity levels, and a disaggregated approach can be followed to examine how various industrial sectors impact energy security.

Practical implications

To combat energy insecurity, quantifiable, innovative and energy-efficient goals should be set for Turkey’s industry sector. Additionally, to achieve these goals, financial opportunities should be provided by reforming the financial sector. This reformative approach can also curb financialization’s negative effect on Turkey’s energy security.

Social implications

Deindustrialization is not a solution to Turkey’s energy insecurity. Also, unless necessary actions are taken, industrialization, financialization and uncontrolled urbanization may continue to threaten Turkey’s energy security. Finally, promoting alternative energy generation seems to be a viable long-run solution to energy insecurity.

Originality/value

Although a significant number of studies investigated industrialization’s and financialization’s impacts on energy demand or environmental damage, only a few studies examined their impacts on energy insecurity. Similar to other developing nations, as Turkey is facing chronic energy security problems, the author believes that the analysis provides important policy insights regarding energy (in)security’s drivers. By differentiating the impacts of industrialization and deindustrialization, this study also shows that deindustrialization may not be a proper solution to deal with energy insecurity.

Details

International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 17 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6220

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2018

Manjula S. Salimath and Vallari Chandna

By drawing attention to the finite rather than unlimited nature of physical resources, the purpose of this paper is to: examine the implications of the (near absolute) emphasis…

1708

Abstract

Purpose

By drawing attention to the finite rather than unlimited nature of physical resources, the purpose of this paper is to: examine the implications of the (near absolute) emphasis placed on firm growth on sustainable consumption; and discuss complementary perspectives spanning individual, firm and societal levels that allow for both firm growth and sustainable consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors integrate multidisciplinary insights from marketing, sociology, environmental sciences, management and economics, to understand the inherent tensions between unchecked firm growth, consumption and sustainability. Five propositions link production, consumption and marketing from a resource standpoint.

Findings

A ceaseless economic growth paradigm and overconsumption causes an unwarranted depletion of resources and is at odds with sustainability. Firms can play an important role by guiding future marketing and production toward sustainable ends. Several alternate perspectives support the case that growth may coexist and align with sustainable consumption. Consequently the authors consolidate and reflect on seven approaches (voluntary simplicity, humane consumption, CSR 2.0, social marketing, marketing 3.0, anti-positional economy and degrowth) that hold promise for achieving sustainability via responsible growth and consumption.

Originality/value

The authors consider the complex triad of growth, consumption and sustainability that spans multiple levels. A focus on the pattern and nature of growth and consumption helps to identify its effects on sustainability. Specifically, two value chain activities – production and marketing may be leveraged as firm level initiatives to achieve sustainable goals. In addition, the authors present seven heterogeneous perspectives that complement firm attempts to achieve growth with sustainable consumption. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 59 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 February 2021

Ujjaini Das

The purpose of the study is to review some of the existing gaps in the third-generation of critical environmental justice (EJ) research and then propose promising combinations of…

1210

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to review some of the existing gaps in the third-generation of critical environmental justice (EJ) research and then propose promising combinations of theoretical concepts by adjoining (EJ) literature with other bodies of work with the use of qualitative research methods.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a critique of the third-generation of critical EJ literature. It demonstrates how the scope of this scholarship, particularly the third world EJ studies, can be expanded further by deploying various combinations of other theories and qualitative research methods.

Findings

Conceptually, this paper provides insights into the new directions that third world EJ theory can take by drawing from other bodies of work including the developmental state, caste, waste, informal sector and labor studies within its fold. Methodologically, the paper shows why and how qualitative research methods including single and multiple case study, participatory action research and ethnography can assist in developing these new integrations between theories.

Research limitations/implications

This research calls for the need to conduct studies in each of the new research dimension suggested in this paper in novel empirical spaces. Such studies will enable the practice of EJ and will help to advance the field of EJ scholarship forward.

Social implications

Analysis of new research combinations with qualitative research methods in new empirical spaces might create scope for practicing EJ in such spaces where various forms of environmental injustices prevail.

Originality/value

This paper identifies gaps in the third-generation of critical EJ research and proposes new research directions by combining other theories and qualitative methods.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 June 2021

Jacob A. Miller

The purpose of this paper is to explain the US society’s insignificant mitigation of climate change using Niklas Luhmann’s (1989) autopoietic social systems theory in ecological…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explain the US society’s insignificant mitigation of climate change using Niklas Luhmann’s (1989) autopoietic social systems theory in ecological communication. Specifically, the author’s analysis falls within the context of Luhmann re-moralized while focusing on particular function systems’ binary codes and their repellence of substantive US climate change mitigation policy across systems.

Design/methodology/approach

The author achieves this purpose by resituating Luhmann’s conception of evolution to forgo systems teleology and better contextualize the spatial-temporal scale of climate change; reinforcing complexity reduction and differentiation by integrating communication and media scholar John D. Peters’s (1999) “communication chasm” concept as one mechanism through which codes sustain over time; and applying these integrated concepts to prominent the US climate change mitigation attempts.

Findings

The author concludes that climate change mitigation efforts are the amalgamation of the systems’ moral communications. Mitigation efforts have relegated themselves to subsystems of the ten major systems given the polarizing nature of their predominant care/harm moral binary. Communication chasms persist because these moral communications cannot both adhere to the systems’ binary codes and communicate the climate crisis’s urgency. The more time that passes, the more codes force mitigation organizations, activist efforts and their moral communications to adapt and sacrifice their actions to align with the encircling systems’ code.

Social implications

In addition to the conceptual contribution, the social implication is that by identifying how and why climate change mitigation efforts are subsumed by the larger systems and their codes, climate change activists and practitioners can better tool their tactics to change the codes at the heart of the systems if serious and substantive climate change mitigation is to prevail.

Originality/value

To the author’s knowledge, there has not been an integration of a historical communication concept into, and sociological application of, ecological communication in the context of climate change mitigation.

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2003

Dana R. Fisher

This paper presents the theory of the global environmental system to explain the different climate change regimes emerging from advanced industrialized nations. Using data…

1530

Abstract

This paper presents the theory of the global environmental system to explain the different climate change regimes emerging from advanced industrialized nations. Using data collected regarding the formation of domestic climate change regimes in the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands, the specifics of the theory are outlined. I begin by analyzing the expectations of some of the more prominent sociological theories about the society‐environment relationship in the advanced world finding that they do not explain the disparate responses to the regulation of greenhouse gases in these countries. The theory of the global environmental system is proposed as an alternative to the rather extreme expectations of the sociological literature on society/environment relationships. Through this proposed theory, we can better understand successful cases of global climate change regimes within the context of the interrelations among domestic and international actors.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 23 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 July 2016

Julia A. Flagg and Diane C. Bates

This study aims to test whether faculty and students who have developed the most pro-environmental values and concerns are also the most likely to reduce the on-campus waste…

2249

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to test whether faculty and students who have developed the most pro-environmental values and concerns are also the most likely to reduce the on-campus waste stream. It does so by using the theory of ecological modernization.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaires were created and disseminated to a representative sample of 590 undergraduate students and faculty on one college campus. This research took place after widespread efforts were made to increase faculty and student knowledge of the college’s recycling guidelines.

Findings

Among the measures of environmental orientation (values, concern about pollution and green consumption), only environmental values were associated with claiming to know guidelines and self-reporting higher levels of recycling effort. None was associated with knowledge about local recycling guidelines.

Research limitations/implications

Research on recycling programs at other campuses would help move beyond this specific case. The use of longitudinal surveys would help establish time-order.

Originality/value

This research makes an important contribution by measuring the impact well-intentioned people have on the waste stream. Without thorough knowledge of local recycling guidelines, even the most environmentally oriented people with the best of intentions may contribute to the waste stream by throwing away things that can be recycled and contaminating recycling bins with non-recyclable materials. The authors conclude that activist interventions are necessary to teach about campus recycling guidelines to reduce the waste produced on campus.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 December 2021

Lijun Zhou and Zongqing Zhang

China's increasing income inequality might cause a series of problems, such as the slowdown of economic growth, social and economic tension, the decline of the ecological…

Abstract

Purpose

China's increasing income inequality might cause a series of problems, such as the slowdown of economic growth, social and economic tension, the decline of the ecological environment quality and the threat to citizens' health. Consequently, income inequality will inevitably affect the ecological well-being performance (EWP) level of China's provinces through the above aspects. Analyzing the impact of income inequality on EWP and its spatial spillover effects are conducive to improving the level of EWP in China. Therefore, the research purpose of this paper is to use China's provincial data from 2001 to 2017 to analyze the impact of income inequality on EWP and the spatial spillover effect based on the evaluation of the EWP value of each province.

Design/methodology/approach

At first, this study utilizes the super efficiency slacks-based measure model (Super-SBM model) to calculate the EWP values of 30 provinces in China, which can evaluate and rank the effective decision units in the SBM model and make up for the defect that the effective decision units cannot be distinguished. Then this study applies the spatial Durbin model and Tobit regression model (SDM-Tobit model) to explore the impact of income inequality and other influencing factors on EWP and the spatial spillover effects in adjacent areas.

Findings

Firstly, the average EWP in China fluctuated slightly and showed a downward trend from 2001 to 2017. In addition, the EWP values of the provinces in the western region are usually weaker than those in the eastern and central regions. Moreover, income inequality is negatively correlated with EWP, and the EWP has a spatial spillover effect, which means the EWP level in a region is affected by EWP values in the adjacent regions. Furthermore, the industrial structure and urbanization level are both negatively related to EWP, while technology level, investment openness, trade openness and education level are positively related to EWP.

Originality/value

Compared with the existing research, the possible contribution of this research is that it takes income inequality as one of the important influencing factors of EWP and adopts the SDM-Tobit model to analyze the impact mechanism of income inequality on EWP from the perspective of time and space, providing new ideas for improving the EWP of various provinces in China.

1 – 10 of 258