Horses in the countryside: conflict or cooperation?

Recognising the growing significance of sport and recreation in the countryside, this paper seeks to examine the changing demand for, and supply of, opportunities for horse riding in the countryside. It considers the physical problems associated with horse riding, together with the changing social context. The paper considers possible solutions to the issues raised, both within existing rights of way legislation and via new opportunities created by the revisions to agricultural support that have occurred in the last decade. The paper concludes that while the new opportunities have ameliorated some of the problems associated with the supply of land for horse riding, no new rights of access have been conferred. The ability of horse riders to guarantee continued provision will be governed partially by the market but also by future agricultural support policy.

Protecting developing countries' forests: enforcement in theory and practice

This paper relates the key findings of the optimal economic enforcement literature to practical issues of enforcing forest and wildlife management access restrictions in developing countries. Our experiences, particularly from Tanzania and eastern India, provide detail of the key pragmatic issues facing those responsible for protecting natural resources. We identify large gaps in the theoretical literature that limit its ability to inform practical management, including issues of limited funding and cost recovery, multiple tiers of enforcement and the incentives facing enforcement officers, and conflict between protected area managers and rural people's needs.

This is me: digital identity and reputation on the Internet

The chapter reports on the ‘This Is Me’ project, that aimed to help students and the wider public to be aware of the impact that online material, particularly that on the Internet, has on their identity and reputation. The chapter explores practical aspects of Digital Identity, relating to issues such as employability, relationships and even death. For example, understanding the impact a photograph posted on a social networking website might have for different groups of people, ranging from friends or parents to future employers. As part of the ‘This is Me’ project stories were collected from students and others about Digital Identity matters, a grounded methodological approach based on action research was used to establish issues related to Digital Identity particularly relevant to those in academia. Drawing from these issues, resources were developed to help inform and educate people about how they can understand and control their own Digital Identity. A number of these resources are presented here, along with reflections on how they are used and can be adapted.

Transaction based indices for the UK commercial real estate market: an exploration using IPD transaction data

The nature of private commercial real estate markets presents difficulties for monitoring market performance. Assets are heterogeneous and spatially dispersed, trading is infrequent and there is no central marketplace in which prices and cash flows of properties can be easily observed. Appraisal based indices represent one response to these issues. However, these have been criticised on a number of grounds: that they may understate volatility, lag turning points and be affected by client influence issues. Thus, this paper reports econometrically derived transaction based indices of the UK commercial real estate market using Investment Property Databank (IPD) data, comparing them with published appraisal based indices. The method is similar to that presented by Fisher, Geltner, and Pollakowski (2007) and used by Massachusett, Institute of Technology (MIT) on National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) data, although it employs value rather than equal weighting. The results show stronger growth from the transaction based indices in the run up to the peak in the UK market in 2007. They also show that returns from these series are more volatile and less autocorrelated than their appraisal based counterparts, but, surprisingly, differences in turning points were not found. The conclusion then debates the applications and limitations these series have as measures of market performance.

Structure and agency

The divide between agency and structural explanations of the causes of social phenomena has dominated research on housing as in other social fields. However, there has been some research that has sought to transcend this schism by combining agency and structural dimensions in the understanding of housing processes and outcomes. The article reviews the two most common approaches to doing this in housing research – structuration (following the work of Giddens) and critical realism. The example of research on homelessness is used to show how the approaches have been applied to housing issues.

Classed femininity, performativity, and camp in British structured reality programming

This article explores the representations and tonal qualities of British “structured reality” programming. Focusing on The Only Way Is Essex and Made in Chelsea, it investigates their glocalizing of the model established by MTV’s Laguna Beach and The Hills. It argues that while they blur boundaries between docusoap, drama, and soap opera, the British programs also recognize and foreground issues of construction for their reality TV-literate youth audience. It suggests the programs play a key role in their respective channel identities and the ideologies of British youth television, connecting to larger issues of class, gender, and taste. This is articulated through their regional and classed femininities, with the article exploring how the programs draw on classed ideologies surrounding “natural” and “excessive” femininities and of the role of this in their engagement with construction and camp play. This play contributes to the tonal shift offered by the British programs, mixing the melodrama of the MTV programs with a knowing, at times comic edge that can tip into mockery. In doing so, the programs offer their audience a combination of performative self-awareness and emotional realism that situates them clearly within British youth television

Integrating Sustainability into Brownfield Regeneration: Rhetoric or Reality? – An Analysis of the UK Development Industry

In the UK and elsewhere the use of the term ‘sustainable brownfield regeneration’ has resulted from the interweaving of two key policy themes, comprising ‘sustainable development’ and ‘brownfield regeneration’. This paper provides a critical overview of brownfield policy within the context of the emerging sustainable development agenda in the UK, and examines the development industry's role and attitudes towards key aspects of sustainable development and brownfield regeneration. The paper analyses results from a survey of commercial and residential developers carried out in mid‐2004, underpinned by structured interviews with eleven developers in 2004–2005, which form part of a two‐and‐half‐year EPSRC‐funded project. The results suggest that despite the increasing focus on sustainability in government policy, the development industry seems ill at ease with precisely how sustainable development can be implemented in brownfield schemes. These and other findings, relating to sustainability issues (including the impact of climate change on future brownfield development), have important ramifications for brownfield regeneration policy in the UK. In particular, the research highlights the need for better metrics and benchmarks to be developed to measure ‘sustainable brownfield regeneration’. There also needs to be greater awareness and understanding of alternative clean‐up technologies to ‘dig and dump’.

Impression management, myth creation and fabrication in private social and environmental reporting: insights from Erving Goffman

This paper explores the nature of private social and environmental reporting (SER). From interviews with UK institutional investors, we show that both investors and investees employ Goffmanesque, staged impression management as a means of creating and disseminating a dual myth of social and environmental accountability. The interviewees’ utterances unveil private meetings imbued with theatrical verbal and physical impression management. Most of the time, the investors’ shared awareness of reality belongs to a Goffmanesque frame whereby they accept no intentionality, misrepresentation or fabrication, believing instead that the ‘performers’ (investees) are not intending to deceive them. A shared perception that social and environmental considerations are subordinated to financial issues renders private SER an empty encounter characterised as a relationship-building exercise with seldom any impact on investment decision-making. Investors spoke of occasional instances of fabrication but these were insufficient to break the frame of dual myth creation. They only identified a handful of instances where intentional misrepresentation had been significant enough to alter their reality and behaviour. Only in the most extreme cases of fabrication and lying did the staged meeting break frame and become a genuine occasion of accountability, where investors demanded greater transparency, further meetings and at the extreme, divested shares. We conclude that the frontstage, ritualistic impression management in private SER is inconsistent with backstage activities within financial institutions where private financial reporting is prioritised. The investors appeared to be in a double bind whereby they devoted resources to private SER but were simultaneously aware that these efforts may be at best subordinated, at worst ignored, rendering private SER a predominantly cosmetic, theatrical and empty exercise.

Dairy farmers’ attitudes and intentions towards improving dairy cow foot health

Dairy cow foot health is a subject of concern because it is considered to be the most important welfare problem in dairy farming and causes economic losses for the farmer. In order to improve dairy cow foot health it is important to take into account the attitude and intention of dairy farmers. In our study the objective was to gain insight into the attitude and intention of dairy farmers to take action to improve dairy cow foot health and determine drivers and barriers to take action, using the Theory of Planned Behavior. Five hundred Dutch dairy farmers were selected randomly and were invited by email to fill in an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions about respondents’ intentions, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control and was extended with questions about personal normative beliefs. With information from such a framework, solution strategies for the improvement of dairy cow foot health can be proposed. The results showed that almost 70% of the dairy farmers had an intention to take action to improve dairy cow foot health. Most important drivers seem to be the achievement of better foot health with cost-effective measures. Possible barriers to taking action were labor efficiency and a long interval between taking action and seeing an improvement in dairy cow foot health. The feed advisor and foot trimmer seemed to have most influence on intentions to take action to improve dairy cow foot health. Most farmers seemed to be satisfied with the foot health status at their farm, which probably weakens the intention for foot health improvement, especially compared to other issues which farmers experience as more urgent. Subclinical foot disorders (where cows are not visibly lame) were not valued as important with respect to animal welfare. Furthermore, 25% of the respondents did not believe cows could suffer pain. Animal welfare, especially the provision of good care for the cows, was valued as important but was not related to intention to improve dairy cow foot health. The cost-effectiveness of measures seemed to be more important. Providing more information on the effects of taking intervention measures might stimulate farmers to take action to achieve improvement in dairy cow foot health.

Impression management, fabrication and myth creation in private social and environmental reporting: insights from Erving Goffman

This paper explores the nature of private social and environmental reporting (SER). From interviews with UK institutional investors, we show that both investors and investees employ Goffmanesque, staged impression management as a means of creating and disseminating a dual myth of social and environmental accountability. The interviewees’ utterances unveil private meetings imbued with theatrical verbal and physical impression management. Most of the time, the investors’ shared awareness of reality belongs to a Goffmanesque frame whereby they accept no intentionality, misrepresentation or fabrication, believing instead that the ‘performers’ (investees) are not intending to deceive them. A shared perception that social and environmental considerations are subordinated to financial issues renders private SER an empty encounter characterised as a relationship-building exercise with seldom any impact on investment decision-making. Investors spoke of occasional instances of fabrication but these were insufficient to break the frame of dual myth creation. They only identified a handful of instances where intentional misrepresentation had been significant enough to alter their reality and behaviour. Only in the most extreme cases of fabrication and lying did the staged meeting break frame and become a genuine occasion of accountability, where investors demanded greater transparency, further meetings and at the extreme, divested shares. We conclude that the frontstage, ritualistic impression management in private SER is inconsistent with backstage activities within financial institutions where private financial reporting is prioritised. The investors appeared to be in a double bind whereby they devoted resources to private SER but were simultaneously aware that these efforts may be at best subordinated, at worst ignored, rendering private SER a predominantly cosmetic, theatrical and empty exercise.

Performance-based contracting in the construction sector

Construction procurement is complex and there is a very wide range of options available to procurers. Inappropriate choices about how to procure may limit practical opportunities for innovation. In particular, traditional approaches to construction procurement set up many obstacles for technology suppliers to provide innovative solutions. This is because they are often employed as sub-contractors simply to provide and install equipment to specifications developed before the point at which they become involved in a project. A research team at the University of Reading has developed a procurement framework that comprehensively defines the various options open to procurers in a more fine-grained way than has been known in the past. This enables informed decisions that can establish tailor-made procurement approaches that take into account the needs of specific clients. It enables risk and reward structures to be aligned so that contracts and payment mechanisms are aligned precisely with what a client seeks to achieve. This is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Rather, it is an approach that enables informed decisions about how to organize individual procurements that are appropriate to particular circumstances, acknowledging that they differ for each client and for each procurement exercise. Within this context, performance-based contracting (PBC) is explored in terms of the different ways in which technology suppliers within constructed facilities might be encouraged and rewarded for the kinds of innovation sought by the ultimate clients. Examples from various industry sectors are presented, from public sector and from private sector, with a commentary about what they sought to achieve and the extent to which they were successful. The lessons from these examples are presented in terms of feasibility in relation to financial issues, governance, economics, strategic issues, contractual issues and cash flow issues for clients and for contractors. Further background documents and more detailed readings are provided in an appendix for those who wish to find out more.

How large is congressional dependence in agriculture. Bayesian inference about ‘scale’ and ‘scope’ in measuring a spatial externality

The political economy literature on agriculture emphasizes influence over political outcomes via lobbying conduits in general, political action committee contributions in particular and the pervasive view that political preferences with respect to agricultural issues are inherently geographic. In this context, ‘interdependence’ in Congressional vote behaviour manifests itself in two dimensions. One dimension is the intensity by which neighboring vote propensities influence one another and the second is the geographic extent of voter influence. We estimate these facets of dependence using data on a Congressional vote on the 2001 Farm Bill using routine Markov chain Monte Carlo procedures and Bayesian model averaging, in particular. In so doing, we develop a novel procedure to examine both the reliability and the consequences of different model representations for measuring both the ‘scale’ and the ‘scope’ of spatial (geographic) co-relations in voting behaviour.

Proprietary estoppel: a functional analysis

This article argues in favour of a functional analysis of proprietary estoppel which focuses on the role of the doctrine in enabling claims to the informal acquisition of property rights in land. The article shows that adopting such an analysis both assists our understanding of two recent decisions of the English House of Lords and helps to resolve issues of taxonomy that arise in relation to the doctrine. A functional analysis both unites the sub-categories of proprietary estoppel into a single principle and distinguishes this principle from other types of estoppel claim. It is suggested, however, that the unification of common law and equitable estoppel remains both possible and desirable as long as ‘unification’ is understood broadly and is not confined to the recognition of a doctrine that is identical in its scope and operation in all cases. It is further shown that despite a lack of discussion of the concept in the House of Lords, unconscionability continues to play a key role in proprietary estoppel and therefore in the informal acquisition of property rights. Unconscionability may now benefit from a closer connection with the other elements of claims which should prevent abuse of the concept and allay concerns of ‘palm-tree justice’.

Financial implications for companies running standby generators in support of a smart grid

Integrating renewable energy into built environments requires additional attention to the balancing of supply and demand due to their intermittent nature. Demand Side Response (DSR) has the potential to make money for organisations as well as support the System Operator as the generation mix changes. There is an opportunity to increase the use of existing technologies in order to manage demand. Company-owned standby generators are a rarely used resource; their maintenance schedule often accounts for a majority of their running hours. DSR encompasses a range of technologies and organisations; Sustainability First (2012) suggest that the System Operator (SO), energy supply companies, Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), Aggregators and Customers all stand to benefit from DSR. It is therefore important to consider impact of DSR measures to each of these stakeholders. This paper assesses the financial implications of organisations using existing standby generation equipment for DSR in order to avoid peak electricity charges. It concludes that under the current GB electricity pricing structure, there are several regions where running diesel generators at peak times is financially beneficial to organisations. Issues such as fuel costs, Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) charges, maintenance costs and electricity prices are discussed.

Visual search for basic emotional expressions in autism; impaired processing of anger, fear and sadness, but a typical happy face advantage

Facial expression recognition was investigated in 20 males with high functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS), compared to typically developing individuals matched for chronological age (TD CA group) and verbal and non-verbal ability (TD V/NV group). This was the first study to employ a visual search, “face in the crowd” paradigm with a HFA/AS group, which explored responses to numerous facial expressions using real-face stimuli. Results showed slower response times for processing fear, anger and sad expressions in the HFA/AS group, relative to the TD CA group, but not the TD V/NV group. Reponses to happy, disgust and surprise expressions showed no group differences. Results are discussed with reference to the amygdala theory of autism.