The national dialogue on behaviour change in UK climate policy: some observations on responsibility, agency and political dimensions

This chapter explores the politics around the role of agency in the UK climate change debate. Government interventions on the demand side of consumption have increasingly involved attempts to obtain greater traction with the values, attitudes and beliefs of citizens in relation to climate change and also in terms of influencing consumer behaviour at an individual level. With figures showing that approximately 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions are attributable to household and transport behaviour, policy initiatives have progressively focused on the facilitation of “sustainable behaviours”. Evidence suggests however, that mobilisation of pro-environmental attitudes in addressing the perceived “value-action gap” has so far had limited success. Research in this field suggests that there is a more significant and nuanced “gap” between context and behaviour; a relationship that perhaps provides a more adroit reflection of reasons why people do not necessarily react in the way that policy-makers anticipate. Tracing the development of the UK Government’s behaviour change agenda over the last decade, we posit that a core reason for the limitations of this programme relates to an excessively narrow focus on the individual. This has served to obscure some of the wider political and economic aspects of the debate in favour of a more simplified discussion. The second part of the chapter reports findings from a series of focus groups exploring some of the wider political views that people hold around household energy habits, purchase and use of domestic appliances, and transport behaviour-and discusses these insights in relation to the literature on the agenda’s apparent limitations. The chapter concludes by considering whether the aims of the Big Society approach (recently established by the UK’s Coalition Government) hold the potential to engage more directly with some of these issues or whether they merely constitute a “repackaging” of the individualism agenda.

Assessing and monitoring impacts of genetically modified plants on agro-ecosystems: the approach of AMIGA project

The environmental impacts of genetically modified crops is still a controversial issue in Europe. The overall risk assessment framework has recently been reinforced by the European Food Safety Authority(EFSA) and its implementation requires harmonized and efficient methodologies. The EU-funded research project AMIGA − Assessing and monitoring Impacts of Genetically modified plants on Agro-ecosystems − aims to address this issue, by providing a framework that establishes protection goals and baselines for European agro-ecosystems, improves knowledge on the potential long term environmental effects of genetically modified (GM) plants, tests the efficacy of the EFSA Guidance Document for the Environmental Risk Assessment, explores new strategies for post market monitoring, and provides a systematic analysis of economic aspects of Genetically Modified crops cultivation in the EU. Research focuses on ecological studies in different EU regions, the sustainability of GM crops is estimated by analysing the functional components of the agro-ecosystems and specific experimental protocols are being developed for this scope.

Travail des enfants et droit à l’éducation au Burkina Faso: L’exemple de la carrière de Pissy

Cet article décrit et analyse le travail des enfants dans une carrière de granit d’un quartier de la ville de Ouagadougou, interroge le rapport entre l’école et le travail du point de vue des acteurs du site pour apprécier l’argument de la scolarisation comme solution alternative au travail des enfants. Les données proviennent d’une enquête réalisée dans le cadre de notre recherche doctorale au Burkina Faso, de février à avril 2009, dont la carrière de Pissy a été un des terrains d’enquête1. Les enquêtés sont constitués de parents et de leurs enfants âgés de moins de 16 ans ayant des trajectoires différentes : non scolarisés,scolarisés, déscolarisés et à la fois écoliers et travailleurs. Les personnes ont été choisies aléatoirement selon leur accord et disponibilité, en variant leur emplacement. L’approche choisie privilégie le point de vue des différents acteurs du site,l’analyse de leurs discours et l’observation de leurs pratiques de travail. La prise en compte du point de vue des enfants s’appuie sur la perspective théorique développée par James & Prout (1997), où les enfants sont des acteurs compétents dans la sphère du travail et de la vie sociale. L’article présente d’abord le processus d’institutionnalisation de l’école et la situation du travail des enfants au Burkina Faso, puis décrit les logiques autour du travail des enfants dans la carrière en montrant que celui-ci n’est pas seulement lié à la nécessité économique. Enfin, il confronte les alternatives au travaildes enfants invoquées par les enfants et leurs parents aux solutions d’éducation proposées par l’état et la société civile. This article is about a particular case of children in working situation: children crushing the granite in the quarry of Pissy. Their working conditions are considered as dangerous by national and international legal texts. This article aims to grasp the experience of children who work in this frame in order to test the hypothesis according to which schooling would be an effective tool of struggle against child labour. The fieldwork reveals that child labour in the quarry is not only guided by economic aspects. The wish of the parents (and of some children and teenagers) to find another job for working children reopen the debate on “the right to work” for children.

Trycksaker till Utvecklingshuset och Skönhetsbanken

A number of publications has been produced for two companies in Dalarna, Utvecklingshuset andSkönhetsbanken.Utvecklingshuset is working, among other things, with stressyndroms and by treating crises. Theirpublications consist of a number of product sheets, a folder and a brochure. They want to use the publicationsfor information to their customers.Skönhetsbanken is a beauty saloon who will have a brochure to mediate the services they can offer.Photos have been taken, existing and for this purpose written texts have been used.The softwares Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Adobe Indesign 2.0 have been used for all publications andthe work with producing these has been satisfactory.The effect of a good cooperation with the companies has resulted in that they are pleased with thepublications and feel that they have been part of the end of the results.All of the publications have been or will be printed with digital printing methods, which is the reasonfor the choice of the litterature survey.The survey deals with, among other things, how the digital press works, which papers that are suitable,economic aspects and what a graphic designer should have in mind when it comes to graphic productsthat will be printed with digital printing methods.

Road Design for Future Maintenance : Life-cycle Cost Analyses for Road Barriers

The cost of a road construction over its service life is a function of design, quality of construction as well as maintenance strategies and operations. An optimal life-cycle cost for a road requires evaluations of the above mentioned components. Unfortunately, road designers often neglect a very important aspect, namely, the possibility to perform future maintenance activities. Focus is mainly directed towards other aspects such as investment costs, traffic safety, aesthetic appearance, regional development and environmental effects. This doctoral thesis presents the results of a research project aimed to increase consideration of road maintenance aspects in the planning and design process. The following subgoals were established: Identify the obstacles that prevent adequate consideration of future maintenance during the road planning and design process; and Examine optimisation of life-cycle costs as an approach towards increased efficiency during the road planning and design process. The research project started with a literature review aimed at evaluating the extent to which maintenance aspects are considered during road planning and design as an improvement potential for maintenance efficiency. Efforts made by road authorities to increase efficiency, especially maintenance efficiency, were evaluated. The results indicated that all the evaluated efforts had one thing in common, namely ignorance of the interrelationship between geometrical road design and maintenance as an effective tool to increase maintenance efficiency. Focus has mainly been on improving operating practises and maintenance procedures. This fact might also explain why some efforts to increase maintenance efficiency have been less successful. An investigation was conducted to identify the problems and difficulties, which obstruct due consideration of maintainability during the road planning and design process. A method called “Change Analysis” was used to analyse data collected during interviews with experts in road design and maintenance. The study indicated a complex combination of problems which result in inadequate consideration of maintenance aspects when planning and designing roads. The identified problems were classified into six categories: insufficient consulting, insufficient knowledge, regulations and specifications without consideration of maintenance aspects, insufficient planning and design activities, inadequate organisation and demands from other authorities. Several urgent needs for changes to eliminate these problems were identified. One of the problems identified in the above mentioned study as an obstacle for due consideration of maintenance aspects during road design was the absence of a model for calculating life-cycle costs for roads. Because of this lack of knowledge, the research project focused on implementing a new approach for calculating and analysing life-cycle costs for roads with emphasis on the relationship between road design and road maintainability. Road barriers were chosen as an example. The ambition is to develop this approach to cover other road components at a later stage. A study was conducted to quantify repair rates for barriers and associated repair costs as one of the major maintenance costs for road barriers. A method called “Case Study Research Method” was used to analyse the effect of several factors on barrier repairs costs, such as barrier type, road type, posted speed and seasonal effect. The analyses were based on documented data associated with 1625 repairs conducted in four different geographical regions in Sweden during 2006. A model for calculation of average repair costs per vehicle kilometres was created. Significant differences in the barrier repair costs were found between the studied barrier types. In another study, the injuries associated with road barrier collisions and the corresponding influencing factors were analysed. The analyses in this study were based on documented data from actual barrier collisions between 2005 and 2008 in Sweden. The result was used to calculate the cost for injuries associated with barrier collisions as a part of the socio-economic cost for road barriers. The results showed significant differences in the number of injuries associated with collisions with different barrier types. To calculate and analyse life-cycle costs for road barriers a new approach was developed based on a method called “Activity-based Life-cycle Costing”. By modelling uncertainties, the presented approach gives a possibility to identify and analyse factors crucial for optimising life-cycle costs. The study showed a great potential to increase road maintenance efficiency through road design. It also showed that road components with low investment costs might not be the best choice when including maintenance and socio-economic aspects. The difficulties and problems faced during the collection of data for calculating life-cycle costs for road barriers indicated a great need for improving current data collecting and archiving procedures. The research focused on Swedish road planning and design. However, the conclusions can be applied to other Nordic countries, where weather conditions and road design practices are similar. The general methodological approaches used in this research project may be applied also to other studies.

Simple Question, Complex Answer : Pathways Towards a 50% Decrease in Building Energy Use

Addressing building energy use is a pressing issue for building sector decision makers across Europe. In Sweden, some regions have adopted a target of reducing energy use in buildings by 50% until 2050. However, building codes currently do not support as ambitious objectives as these, and novel approaches to addressing energy use in buildings from a regional perspective are called for. The purpose of this licentiate thesis was to provide a deeper understanding of most relevant issues with regard to energy use in buildings from a broad perspective and to suggest pathways towards reaching the long-term savings objective. Current trends in building sector structure and energy use point to detached houses constructed before 1981 playing a key role in the energy transition, especially in the rural areas of Sweden. In the Swedish county of Dalarna, which was used as a study area in this thesis, these houses account for almost 70% of the residential heating demand. Building energy simulations of eight sample houses from county show that there is considerable techno-economic potential for energy savings in these houses, but not quite enough to reach the 50% savings objective. Two case studies from rural Sweden show that savings well beyond 50% are achievable, both when access to capital and use of high technology are granted and when they are not. However, on a broader scale both direct and indirect rebound effects will have to be expected, which calls for more refined approaches to energy savings. Furthermore, research has shown that the techno-economic potential is in fact never realised, not even in the most well-designed intervention programmes, due to the inherent complexity of human behaviour with respect to energy use. This is not taken account of in neither current nor previous Swedish energy use legislation. Therefore an approach that considers the technical prerequisites, economic aspects and the perspective of the many home owners, based on Community-Based Social Marketing methodology, is suggested as a way forward towards reaching the energy savings target.

A Serious Gaming Approach For Serious Stakeholder Participation

Serious games are a category of games which are designed for a specific purpose other than for pure entertainment. It is not a new concept but serious games using real data, coupled with real time modelling and combining model results with social and economic factors opens up a new paradigm for active stakeholder participation. DHI and UNEP-DHI Centre initiated a project called Aqua Republica where a virtual world is developed which allows participants to develop a river basin and visualise the consequences of their decisions. The aim of this project is to raise awareness of the interconnectivity of water and educate on integrated water resources management. Aqua Republica combines a game layer with a water allocation model, MIKE BASIN, to create an interactive, realistic virtual environment where players play the role of a catchment manager of an undeveloped river catchment. Their main objective is to develop the river catchment to be as prosperous as it can be. To achieve that, they will need to generate a good economy in the catchment to provide the funds needed for development, have a steady food supply for their population and enough energy and water for the catchment. Through these actions by the player, a meaningful play is established to engage players and to educate them about the complex relationships between developmental actions in a river basin and the natural environment as well as their consequences. The game layer also consists of a reward system to encourage learning. People can play and replay the game, get rewarded from performing the right principles and penalised from failures in the game. This abstract will explain the concept of the game and how it has been used in a stakeholder participation environment.

Decision Support Systems And Promoting Socially Just Environmental Management

The Mauri Model DMF is unique in its approach to the management of water resources as the framework offers a transparent and inclusive approach to considering the environmental, economic, social and cultural aspects of the decisions being contemplated. The Mauri Model DMF is unique because it is capable of including multiple-worldviews and adopts mauri (intrinsic value or well-being) in the place of the more common monetised assessments of pseudo sustainability using Cost Benefit Analysis. The Mauri Model DMF uses a two stage process that first identifies participants’ worldviews and inherent bias regarding water resource management, and then facilitates transparent assessment of selected sustainability performance indicators. The assessment can then be contemplated as the separate environmental, economic, social and cultural dimensions of the decision, and collectively as an overall result; or the priorities associated with different worldviews can be applied to determine the sensitivity of the result to different cultural contexts or worldviews.

O uso de derivativos e gerenciamento de riscos em empresas brasileiras não-financeiras

Este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa sobre uso de derivativos junto a 50 empresas não-financeiras brasileiras. A proporção de empresas que usam derivativos no Brasil não é significativamente diferente da de outros países que foram objeto de pesquisa, com exceção dos EUA. A exemplo do que foi verificado internacionalmente, as evidências sugerem que os gestores de empresas não-financeiras brasileiras usam derivativos principalmente com o propósito de gerenciar risco, e não com fins especulativos. O uso de derivativos por classes de risco no Brasil segue os padrões internacionais, ou seja, o tipo de exposição mais comumente gerenciada com derivativos é a cambial, seguido pelo risco de taxas de juros, de commodities e de patrimônio. Apesar da alta volatilidade dos mercados brasileiros, as preocupações principais dos gestores de risco brasileiros parecem estar mais ligadas às questões do arcabouço legal e institucional do que aos aspectos econômico-financeiros diferentemente do encontrado em outros países.

Empresários brasileiros em Boston

O trabalho teve como objeto de estudo as pequenas empresas criadas pelos brasileiros que emigraram para Boston a partir de meados da década de 80. Foi feito um levantamento e uma caracterização das firmas, assim como de seus proprietários. Entretanto, o foco da análise incorporou outras dimensões, e não apenas aquelas de caráter econômico/empresarial. Ou seja, também foi analisada a dimensão sócio-cultural do papel desempenhado por estas empresas e que, do ponto de vista conceitual, caracteriza a chamada "economia étnica" organizada pelos grupos imigrantes daquele país.

Competitividade Brasil: uma análise face às nações BRICs

Este estudo objetiva uma contextualização, no cenário global, do papel representado por quatro grandes países emergentes: Brasil, Rússia, índia China. Ainda que haja muito se discutir respeito da ligação entre estas economias quanto guarda de parceria e quanto de concorrência fato que, recentemente, elas passaram ser tratadas como participantes de um mesmo fenômeno; constituem epicentro de uma mudança que poderá alterar quadro mundial de forças em um futuro não muito distante. conceito de "competitividade das nações" norteia estudo. análise do desempenho de cada país tem por substrato definição de prosperidade como integração multifatorial em grande escala, envolvendo economia, política, sociedade, meio-ambiente, instituições públicas, performance da classe empresária, capacidade de inovação dos meios científicos cultura. trabalho revelou, especificamente com relação estrutura econômica brasileira, sérias assimetrias que limitam as possibilidades de crescimento do país. Percebe-se que os fundamentos sócio-econômicos políticos apresentam lacunas importantes, que deixam descoberto setores como qualificação profissional, gestão pública e a regulação das atividades produtivas. Não obstante, foi possível ao Brasil alcançar altos níveis de desenvolvimento em várias áreas, partir da atuação de agentes privados que conseguem fazer frente um ambiente de negócios temerário. Neste ponto formaliza-se uma dicotomia entre papel tíbio ou ineficaz dos entes públicos, que não conseguem qualificar gestão institucional, uma notável capacidade empresarial para desenvolver processos sofisticados inovadores gerar resultados positivos. Faz-se urgente reparo desse desequilíbrio, com vistas participação eqüitativa de todos os setores da sociedade no desenvolvimento do potencial competitivo do país.

Um Banco Central do Brasil independente: à procura de uma estrutura administrativa autônoma e descentralizada

o tema sobre a estrutura administrativa mais adequada para um Banco Central do Brasil, que procura sua autonomia, se desenrola a partir da situação administrativa do BACEN, que se apresenta no dias de hoje, e os questionamentos a respeito de sua independência, nos Capítulos 1 e 2, passando por modelos teóricos de estrutura administrativa e por modelos funcionais de Bancos Centrais independentes, comparados entre si e com o modelo brasileiro, nos Capítulos 3 e 4. Em seguida, são demonstrados os empenhos que se efetivam em realidade para que o BACEN chegue à sua autonomia, através de projetos que tramitam no Congresso Nacional e do Plano de Ação Estratégica para o BACEN, referidos nos Capítulos 5 e 6, até se chegar às opiniões de especialistas, no Capítulo 7, que serviram para reforçar a conclusão de que a mudança organizacional em busca da autonomia do Banco Central do Brasil não é apenas em decorrência do levantamento de aspectos técnicos, políticos e econômicos e, sim, uma consequência de um processo maior de integração entre estes e os aspectos comportamentais e administrativos dessa organização.

Critérios de decisão para investimentos em treinamento e desenvolvimento de recursos humanos

A importância dos aspectos econômicos da atividade de treinamento e desenvolvimento de recursos humanos é o ponto focal deste trabalho, através da utilização dos conceitos da "teoria do capital humano" e da mudança de enfoque da eficiência para a eficácia do treinamento. Desta análise surge um modelo que descreve os critérios de decisão que levam as empresas a investir valores maiores ou menores no treinamento, bem como um conjunto de indicações práticas destina das a melhor orientar o profissional de treinamento.

Ideologia da casa própria... sem casa própria: o Programa de Arrendamento Residencial na cidade de João Pessoa-PB

Brazilian Housing policy has always promoted homeownership. In 1999, a new form of housing promotion was set up in the country with the PAR (Programa de Arrendamento Residencial, or residential rental programme). This is a sort of leasing, in which a right to buy is granted at the end of contract. Again, with this, the final objective is homeownership. This dissertation aims at further understanding the role of PAR in the wake of the country s housing policies of the post-BNH period, analysing the case of João Pessoa, capital city of Paraíba state. By focusing in the city, it has been possible to analyse also the impact of the programme in the dynamics of the city s urban development. Accordingly, the analysis of PAR seeks to understand the programme s operational aspects as well as its location, urban and architectural aspects. The operational aspects refer to how the programme is operated, considering the differences to the other housing programmes in the country. The urban and architectural aspects refer to location, typology and construction characteristics of housing estates produced under the scheme. This study gives a general view of the country s recent housing policy and programmes and the specific characteristics of PAR, observing also its impacts in the city development

A reestruturação produtiva e as novas formas de organização do trabalho: a experiência do transporte alternativo no município de Belém/PA

The study made in this thesis analyzes the new form of work organization at the urban collective transportation sector, so called Altemative Transportation which is a new form of public transportation that appears in the Brazilian urban context by the mid ninety' s, this work is made by independent or sub-contracted workers, usually organized in cooperatives . It reflects the investigation of new forms of precarious work, unformal which has been expanding in the urban transportation sector. Thus, discusses non regulation of the services sector problem the ways of survival of exc1uded workers from the formal work market mainly afier the capital productive restructure. It has as privileged area of investigation, the sector policy of urban transportation that make field of the main nets of political articulations that define the dynamic of the urban space. It is known that the urban collective transportation allows the access to the production, circulation and general consumption being necessary to the mobility of the resident population, mainly to those with low purchasing capacity. It becomes a field of empirical investigation at the Belem municipal, located at the Amazonic region - north Brazil. The main points dealed on this research start from concrete relations from the daily life of workers that deve1op their activity on the altemative transport mediated with theoretical references needed for understanding and interpretation of the studied reality. The investigation strategies were built from the abstract (theorical knowledge produced for the reality analyze) in concrete by the investigation quantitative-qualitative from this area of urban policy, making up possible the formation of a references chart to the analyses of the studied subject. Rescue his historicity, from characterization of the urban space of the metropolitan region of Belem passing true the forms of organization and urban services performances while essential production and reproduction element of the social relations. Identifies the main individuals that historically have been participating in the construction of the municipality transport policy and the ways of expression of the local political strength relations. Outstand the State paper on the net of established relations near the local power, as well as outstand the importance of social sciences in the understanding of urban policies in the transportation area, trying to bring input to the academicals -scientific debate .The above e1ected and mentioned points in this study are crucial for a critical reflection of the transportation policies. That relation is not given, but historically built at the power relation chart that makes up this unique area of the urban policies