Transition in practice and action in research. A French case study in piloting eco-innovations

Transition in practice means that diverse organizations – from private foundations to citizen-led movements for “cities in transition” – are experiencing ways to bring about sustainable transitions at the system level. While academic thinking on sustainability transitions can efficiently inform transition in practice, these organizations' initiatives can enrich the analytic understanding of transitions. It is this mutually beneficial trade-off that became the purpose of the action research project with the French private foundation Fondaterra, and which led to the drafting of Fondaterra's own model in piloting eco-innovations towards transition. This paper outlines the main features of the Fondaterra model: the territorial perspective, the idea of piloting change, espousing prospective visions, creating new chains of value, implementing demonstrators and monitoring. The comparison of this model with the transition management model suggests that the latter may resonate with other intervention methodologies that have been developed with strong concern for governance strategies, and that many configurations of transition in practice led by intermediary organizations could achieve tangible results in triggering transitions.     

The evaluation of the PACA regional public health plan: reconciling the managerial, scientific and democratic finalities

For more than a decade now, evaluation has developed considerably in France, thanks in particular to the Société Fran?aise de l'évaluation, whose charter sets out a number of principles designed to guide the work of evaluators. This article examines how the evaluation process surrounding a regional public health plan (referred to as PRSP)--itself being a new instrument for regional planning in France--accords with one of these principles, which specifies that evaluation must be framed according to "a three-fold logic involving public management, democracy and scientific debate." Our analysis shows that while this evaluation was driven primarily by managerial concerns (i.e., assessing the capacity of the plan to structure health policy in a region), it also provided an Opportunity for restoring dialogue with a range of actors by opening up a space of cooperation and consultation. In addition, in order to ensure the legitimacy of the evaluation's conclusions, the knowledge produced by the evaluators had to rest on an irreproachable methodology. This example illustrates how evaluation, in the French tradition, is a process that strives to reconcile the viewpoints and expectations of managers, scientists and the general public; it is also a process that brings out lines of tension and areas of complementariness between these three logics.     

The relationship between pedometer-determined and self-reported physical activity and body composition variables in college-aged men and women

Pedometer-determined physical activity (PA) is inversely related to body composition in middle-aged adults; however, researchers have not established such a relationship in college students. OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: In this study, the authors attempted to characterize PA and examine its relationship with body composition in undergraduate college students (N = 88). METHODS: The authors measured the BC of 44 women (M age = 21 +/- 1 year, M body mass index [BMI] = 23.9 +/- 4 kg/m2) and 44 men (M age = 22 +/- 1 year, BMI = 26.9 +/- 0.9 kg/m2); participants also wore a pedometer for 7 days and completed a PA questionnaire. RESULTS: Men averaged significantly more steps/day (10,027 +/- 3,535) than did women (8,610 +/- 2,252). For women only, the authors observed significant correlations between steps/day and body composition variables. Men reported engaging in vigorous PA significantly more often than did women. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that men engage in PA more often but that PA is related to body composition only in women. In addition, there is better agreement between pedometer-measured and self-reported PA in college-aged men than women.     

The Ex Ante Incentive Compatible Core in the Absence of Wealth Effects

In a differential information economy with quasi–linear utilities, monetary transfers facilitate the fulfillment of incentive compatibility constraints: the associated ex ante core is generically nonempty. However, we exhibit a well–behaved exchange economy in which this core is empty, even if goods are allocated through random mechanisms.