247 research outputs found
Representing citizens and consumers in media and communications regulation
No full textWhat do citizens need from the media, and how should this be regulated? Western democracies are witnessing a changing regulatory regime, from "command-andcontrol" government to discursive, multistakeholder governance. In the United Kingdom, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) is required to further the interests of citizens and consumers, which it does in part by aligning them as the citizen-consumer. What is meant by this term, and whether it captures the needs of citizens or subordinates them to those of consumers, has been contested by civil society groups as well as occasioning some soul-searching within the regulator. By triangulating a discursive analysis of the Communications Act 2003, key actor interviews with the regulator and civil society bodies, and focus groups among the public, the authors seek to understand how these terms ("citizen," "consumer," and "citizen-consumer") are used to promote stakeholder interests in the media and communications sector, not always to the benefit of citizens
Low-temperature thermochronology of the South Atlantic margin along Uruguay and its relation to tectonic events in West Gondwana
No full textThe authors gratefully acknowledge the support from Shell Brasil through the “Shell - BG05: UoA-UFRGS-SWB Sedimentary Systems” project at UFRGS and the strategic importance of the support given by ANP through the R&D levy regulation. We thank Peter Reiners and his team at the Arizona Radiogenic Helium Dating Laboratory (US) for the (UTh)/He analyses and support during the data evaluation. The first author thanks the CNPq scholarship (SWE 204254/2017-5) during the exchange period at the University of Aberdeen. A.R. Jelinek also thanks the support from CNPq (Project 303184/2017-5). This manuscript was improved after helpful reviews by Mathias Hueck and an anonymous reviewer.Peer reviewe
Built Orders of Finance, Risk, and Racial Capitalism
No full textThis issue of ATR considers numerous instances in which economic historians and historians of capitalism have turned to architecture as evidence of the workings of economic and financial systems. This collective position paper stems from the attempt to engage more directly with these disciplines; an attempt that was first manifested in the symposium “Built Orders of Finance, Risk and Racial Capitalism,” held online in early 2022. How are built orders shaped by processes of financialization, actuarial calculations of risk and the conditions of racial capitalism? How do built orders mobilize specific economic regimes? What kinds of evidence can be enlisted to discern the constitutive relationships established and maintained between architecture and regimes of finance? What scales are implied in these relationships? What is involved in their historicization? This article invites future conversations between the fields of scholarship it canvases to more comprehensively apprehend the terms, conditions, and histories of financialized space.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Situated Architectur
Reduction of methane emission from landfills using bio-mitigation systems – from lab tests to full scale implementation
No full textLandfills are significant sources of methane, which contributes to climate change. As an alternative to mitigation by gas utilization systems, bio-mitigation systems may be implemented. Such systems are based on microbial methane oxidation in full surface biological covers, so-called biocovers, or open or closed bed biofilter systems. The objective of this paper is to describe the relationship between research on process understanding of the oxidation of landfill gas contained methane and the up-scale to full bio-mitigation systems implemented at landfills. The oxidation of methane is controlled by several environmental factors such as soil texture, temperature, soil moisture content, methane and oxygen supply, and nutrients, and both soils and compost materials have been shown to exhibit high methane oxidation rates. For compost materials high methane oxidation is observed even during cold periods due to self-heating processes. Bio-mitigation can be used as a stand-alone technology or combined with active or passive gas collection. When implementing bio-mitigation systems focus should be on additional fugitive methane emissions or the presence of uncontrolled point releases. A protocol for implementing a bio-mitigation system is presented, and the reported landfill-implemented bio-mitigation systems either established as full-scale or pilot-scale systems are reviewed. It is concluded that bio-mitigation systems have a large potential for providing cost-efficient mitigation options for reducing methane emissions when landfill gas utilization systems cannot be implemented or cease to perform as cost-efficient, sustainable solutions
Richardson, Barbauld, and the construction of an early modern fan club
No full textMPhilMuch has been written about the life and long works of the eighteenth century epistolary novelist, Samuel Richardson, but the prospect of his position as the first celebrity novelist – responsible for courting his own fame as well as initiating his own fan club – has largely been ignored. The body of manuscripts housed at the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London provides the modern scholar with evidence of the skeletal beginnings of an early fan club. This thesis aims to show how these manuscripts were turned into a saleable commodity by the publisher and entrepreneur Richard Phillips, while under the guiding hand of another, slightly later, literary celebrity, Anna Laetitia Barbauld. In order to restore Richardson’s reputation amongst a new nineteenth century audience, Barbauld was required to construct her own idea of him as an eighteenth century celebrity author, and in doing so the insecurities of a self-professed, apparently diffident man, are revealed. Barbauld’s capacious, but heavily edited selection of letters is analyzed in this thesis, providing ample evidence that Richardson’s correspondents were more than just eager letter writers. By using Barbauld’s biography of Richardson this thesis aims to show how she manipulates the genre of life writing in her construction of him.
This thesis offers an alternative reading of how the Richardson manuscripts are viewed, redefining them as not simply a collection of letters, but as a collective entity, deliberately selected and archived as evidence of an early modern fan club, and its celebrity managing director
Convergence and international policy coordination in the EU: A dynamic games approach
No full textMaastricht Treaty;Dynamic Games;EU;Game Theory;International Policy
Consumer participation in commercial hospitality
No full textPurpose – This paper examines customers’ participation in the production of commercial hospitality.
Drawing on a study of queer consumers (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals), the
paper considers the ways in which frequently circulated understandings, or myths, shaped consumers’
actions. The case study is used to highlight previously under examined dimensions of participation.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on an ethnographic study of bar culture. The
principal method of data collection was participant observation, which involved working at one venue
for 27 months, as well as social visits throughout a five-year period. Participant observation was
complemented by semi-structured interviews with 26 informants, 19 of whom were interviewed
repeatedly during the research.
Findings – The paper suggests that three myths were evident in consumers’ behavior: commonality,
mutual safety, and the opportunities for liberated, playful consumption. Focusing on two particular
aspects of participation: performative display and frontline labor, the paper discusses the ways in
which these myths influenced patrons’ actions.
Research limitations/implications – The study suggests that an examination of the cultural
dimensions of patronage provides crucial insights into consumer participation. The results will be
relevant to social scientists and management academics seeking to understand the relationship
between shared interest and identity, consumption, and the production of hospitable spaces.
Originality/value – This study provides a new understanding of both the nature of and motivations
for consumer participation. This challenges existing approaches, which have tended to focus narrowly
on the managerial aspects of participation in the service sector
Approaches for bacteriophage genome engineering
No full textIn recent years, bacteriophage research has been boosted by a rising interest in using phage therapy to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. In addition, there is a desire to use phages and their unique proteins for specific biocontrol applications and diagnostics. However, the ability to manipulate phage genomes to understand and control gene functions, or alter phage properties such as host range, has remained challenging due to a lack of universal selectable markers. Here, we discuss the state-of-the-art techniques to engineer and select desired phage genomes using advances in cell-free methodologies and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR associated protein (CRISPR-Cas) counter-selection approaches.BN/Stan Brouns La
Welfare Restructuring without Partisan Cooperation: The Role of Party Collusion in Blame Avoidance
No full textThis article argues that welfare state restructuring, which is highly unpopular among voters, is politically feasible if government and opposition parties collude informally with each other. Contrary to key arguments made in the literature, restructuring does not require the formation of a formal grand coalition which diffuses blame from voters. Party collusion is a distinctive blame-avoiding strategy that differs not only from other party-oriented strategies such as building a grand coalition, but also from voter-oriented ones. By analyzing the politics of pension reform in Germany from 1995 to 2004, this article shows that party collusion, which emerges through repeated signaling and informal agreements, enables political parties to restructure the welfare state without running the risk of electoral failure. Finally, it suggests that collusion likely explains recent successes of Austrian, French and Italian governments in legislating unpopular welfare cutbacks.political parties, blame avoidance, collusion, welfare state, pension policy
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