Promoting behavioral change towards lower energy consumption in the building sector

Climate change and environmental issues have been increasingly in the forefront of the media and government agendas. However, despite much discussion and fanfare, little has been done in the way of serious commitment and clear course of actions since the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 to bring carbon emissions to sustainable levels. To tackle the immensity of the climate change challenge, a paradigm shift in understanding is necessary to balance the course of global human development with energy demand and consumption patterns. Accounting for over 40% of global energy demand and more than 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, the building sector offers the greatest mitigation potential for reducing carbon emissions in both the short and long term, with positive implications for a range of associated sectors and industries. Promoting behavioral change among end-users for reduced energy consumption as well as encouraging the building industry to embrace sustainable design, low-carbon construction practices and materials, and renewable technologies, is fundamental to mitigating the impact of the built environment on planetary biospheres and preserving quality of life for generations to come. This paper starts by drawing attention to the building sector and related EU policy, outlining the challenges and opportunities for reducing energy consumption and carbon emission levels. Such policy provides the essential framework to engage stakeholders and allow supporting factors to foster progress in the sector. The paper contends that information on climate change has not led to significant improvements in meeting global targets and that what is needed is behavioral change among individuals and society as a whole. On the basis of research project experiences and literature review, it puts forth and explores five key elements contributing to behavioral change for reduced energy consumption and lower carbon emissions in the building sector, focused on: information and education; financial incentives and energy services; modern technologies and sustainable design; social and community norms; and biophilia (contact with the natural environment). The paper suggests opportunities for further research and concludes with recommendations for policy-makers and related stakeholders.     

Islam and patriarchy: how robust is Muslim support for patriarchal values?

Evidence that Muslims support patriarchal values more than non-Muslims is abundant but the nature of this evidence is contested. The ‘cultural’ interpretation suggests that patriarchal values are an inherent element of Muslim identity. The ‘structural’ interpretation holds that patriarchal values reside in structural characteristics and have little to do with Muslim identity. Evidence on these contradictory claims is inconclusive. Neither have advocates of the cultural position shown that Muslim support for patriarchal values remains robust under control of structural characteristics; nor have proponents of the structural position demonstrated that Muslim support for these values vanishes under such controls. Filling this gap, we use multi-level models to test whether Muslim support for patriarchal values vanishes under control of patriarchy's structural underpinnings. We find that Muslim support for patriarchal values is robust against various controls; and we identify mosque attendance as a mechanism to sustain Muslim support for patriarchy in non-Muslim societies. Yet, rising levels of education, labor market participation, and a glacial emancipative trend diminish Muslim support for patriarchy, especially among women.     

“低碳”视野下大学生环保理念与行为的培育

改革开放以来我国经济得到了迅速的发展,在经济得到发展的同时也出现了资源紧张、污染严重、生态恶化等一系列环境问题,对人民生活生存质量的不良影响在不断加剧,由此＂低碳生活＂理念应运而生。当代大学生是未来国家的建设者,他们的价值观与行为将会影响到我国的长远发展。在高等教育阶段对他们进行环保理念的培育有利于为缓解和改变我国经济发展中出现的生态恶化问题、提高我国人民的生活生存质量、转变我国的经济增长方式。这对我国高等教育的发展和社会的长远发展都有着深远的意义。     

关于凝练形成社会主义核心价值观的几点思考

社会主义核心价值观与社会主义核心价值体系既在深层本质上一致,又在内容和作用上有区别。任何社会都要有且必须有核心价值观,社会主义核心价值观有着重要的社会功能,所以我们有必要从社会主义核心价值体系中凝练形成社会主义核心价值观。能够成为社会主义核心价值观的价值观念,应在社会主义核心价值体系中居于重要地位,能被全社会绝大多数民众普遍认同,它应既具有现实性又具有理想性,还要尽量能够兼容中华民族传统价值观中有积极意义的内容。文章认为,民主、公正、富裕、仁爱、和谐等价值目标、价值理想应该成为中国特色社会主义核心价值观。     

中央苏区时期毛泽东文化教育思想的价值及现实意义

中央苏区时期毛泽东文化教育思想包括学校教育、文学艺术、体育卫生事业等内容,他丰富了马克思主义文化教育思想,为党的新民主主义文化教育理论的形成积累了丰富的思想资料。其现实意义体现为：战略上高度重视文化教育事业,道路上开拓了传统文化现代化的一条新路,理论上坚持马克思主义与中国革命实际相结合,行动上充分发动广大人民群众的积极性,业务上充分发挥专业人才的领军和骨干作用,实践上展现了鲜明的创新性。     

Managers' personal values as predictors of importance attached to training and development: a cross-country exploratory study

Few empirical studies have examined the effect of personal values on the importance attached by individuals to training and development in organizations. We argue that personal values play an important role in decision-making processes (i.e. commitment to training and development) and that such values are the product of socialization processes operating at an organizational and societal level. Questionnaire data were collected from 340 Irish and Canadian line managers to test the hypothesis that personal values affect the importance attached by respondents to training and development. Capability values were found to be a significant positive predictor of the perceived importance of training and development. The findings emphasize the need for simultaneously examining both personal values and organizational factors as predictors of training and development activity.     

Participation satisfaction and organizational commitment: moderating role of employee's cultural values

This paper explores the moderating role of cultural values on relationships between participation satisfaction (PS) and employees’ organizational commitment (OC). A survey of 1390 employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, a Government of India Public Sector Undertaking providing telecommunication services across India, shows that PS is directly related to OC, and is moderated by employees’ cultural values at individual level. The form of moderation reveals: positive and insignificant relationship between PS and affective commitment for employees high in uncertainty avoidance; positive and significant relationship between PS and normative commitment for employees high in individualism/collectivism, low in masculinity/femininity, and low in power distance. No moderation has been found in the relationship between PS and continuance commitment.     

Environmental and social supply chain management sustainability practices: construct development and measurement

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and operationalise the concept of supply chain management sustainability practices. Based on a multi-stage procedure involving a literature review, expert Q-sort and pre-test process, pilot test and survey of 156 supply chain directors and managers in Ireland, we develop a multidimensional conceptualisation and measure of social and environmental supply chain management sustainability practices. The research findings show theoretically sound constructs based on four underlying sustainable supply chain management practices: monitoring, implementing systems, new product and process development and strategy redefinition. A two-factor model is then identified as the most reliable: comprising process-based and market-based practices.     

Mobilizing motherhood: The gendered burden of environmental protection

Maternalist framing has been a consistent part of a long history of powerful, often successful organizing for environmental protection and justice. Yet today's calls on individuals to simultaneously engage in proenvironmental behavior and to protect themselves from environmental threats through consumption have mobilized maternal discourse in a way that is likely demobilizing in the long run. Indeed, the increasing individualization of the environmental movement is intersecting with persistent, unequal gendered structures of labor in a way that places the burden of environmentalism and environmental risk management on women and mothers. I argue that precautionary consumption and other forms of individualized environmental risk management add to the “third shift,” on top of the disproportionate burden of household labor and care work that women already face. This phenomenon is concerning because it has the potential to (1) limit women's engagement in other forms of environmental advocacy and leadership, and to (2) reproduce existing gender inequalities not only between men and women but also among women of different levels of race and class privilege. Thus, the increasing individualization of the environmental movement also potentially exacerbates environmental injustice at the household level. Despite such emerging concerns, the domestic scale remains an often overlooked site of environmental harm and gendered burden.     

竞争供应链中制造商环保技术投资决策研究

本文考虑消费者对质量差异化产品的异质性偏好以及环保意识,建立了消费者效用函数以及产品需求函数,构建了差异化竞争制造商及其零部件供应商之间的动态博弈模型;进而,研究了竞争供应链中制造商环保技术投资策略,考察了市场竞争对供应链均衡定价决策、环保技术投资决策以及消费者福利的影响。研究结果表明：拥有较高技术水平的制造商总是会选择更高的环保技术投资水平,但消费者也需为此支付更高的产品溢价;制造商环保技术投资会影响产品销售价格并有利于提升消费者福利,拥有较高技术水平的制造商总是有动机选择投资环保技术,而技术水平较低的制造商则不会有动机选择投资环保技术;市场竞争会导致供应商和制造商定价决策的变化,但此时供应商反而能够获得更多利润。