scholarly journals Can Broadband Support Environmental Sustainability? An Exploration of Claims at the Household Level

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine A. Middleton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Broadband Networks ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Sustainable Action

This paper looks at the ways in which broadband networks can support sustainability, focusing on the actions of individual consumers in Australia. It centres on the arguments that broadband can be used to substitute physical products with digital ones, and to substitute physical activities (like travel) with digital ones (like videoconferencing and telework). Data on current broadband availability, uptake and usage in Australia are presented. The idea that broadband technologies are currently taken up in ways that encourage sustainable action is challenged, noting that average users are not yet sufficiently interested in, or comfortable with broadband technologies to act in ways that enable sustainability. Recognising that broadband networks do have the potential to encourage sustainability at the household level, the paper identifies current constraints and offers some suggestions on mitigating them.

scholarly journals Can Broadband Support Environmental Sustainability?: an Exploration of Claims at the Household Level

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine A. Middleton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Broadband Networks ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Sustainable Action

This paper looks at the ways in which broadband networks can support sustainability, focusing on the actions of individual consumers in Australia. It centres on the arguments that broadband can be used to substitute physical products with digital ones, and to substitute physical activities (like travel) with digital ones (like videoconferencing and telework). Data on current broadband availability, uptake and usage in Australia are presented. The idea that broadband technologies are currently taken up in ways that encourage sustainable action is challenged, noting that average users are not yet sufficiently interested in, or comfortable with broadband technologies to act in ways that enable sustainability. Recognising that broadband networks do have the potential to encourage sustainability at the household level, the paper identifies current constraints and offers some suggestions on mitigating them.

scholarly journals COVID-19 As an Opportunity for a Healthy-Sustainable Food Transition. An Analysis of Dietary Transformations during the First Italian Lockdown

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5661
Author(s):  
Raffaele Matacena ◽  
Mariangela Zenga ◽  
Marco D’Addario ◽  
Silvia Mari ◽  
Massimo Labra
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Generational Cohort ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Daily Food ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 emergency and the consequent social distancing requirements have caused major disruptions in daily food-related practices at the household level. In this paper, we evaluate the transformations that occurred in the daily nutritional choices and behaviors of a convenience sample (n = 2288) of Italian residents during the first nation-wide lockdown (March–May 2020) to assess the impact on the health and socio-environmental sustainability of their diets. Results portray a scenario of wide-spread change, especially in relation to the quantity of daily food consumed, the composition of diets and the time and commitment devoted to home-cooking, with young individuals emerging as the most impacted generational cohort. Through the construction of an indicator for healthy–sustainable transition (HST index), we demonstrate that such changes unfold on a gradient, revealing that while for many respondents lockdown nutrition implied overeating and weight gain, a substantial segment of the population conversely improved the healthiness and sustainability of their daily nutritional patterns. In this sense, improvements are associated with young age, socio-economic status, frequency and enjoyment of cooking-from-scratch and, more generally, an attentive attitude towards the quality, provenance and materiality of food that, in turn, the COVID-19 crisis appears to have re-kindled. We conclude by highlighting five areas of institutional intervention (i.e., young people, time, tools, food supply at work, and local food chains) on which to focus in order to ensure the current crisis does not represent a missed opportunity for creating the necessary conditions for sustainable food production and consumption to take hold as the ‘new’ normal in the post-pandemic era.

The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Daminger
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Household Labor ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Cognitive Dimension ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Division Of Household Labor ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Monitoring Progress

Household labor is commonly defined as a set of physical tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping. Sociologists sometimes reference non-physical activities related to “household management,” but these are typically mentioned in passing, imprecisely defined, or treated as equivalent to physical tasks. Using 70 in-depth interviews with members of 35 couples, this study argues that such tasks are better understood as examples of a unique dimension of housework: cognitive labor. The data demonstrate that cognitive labor entails anticipating needs, identifying options for filling them, making decisions, and monitoring progress. Because such work is taxing but often invisible to both cognitive laborers and their partners, it is a frequent source of conflict for couples. Cognitive labor is also a gendered phenomenon: women in this study do more cognitive labor overall and more of the anticipation and monitoring work in particular. However, male and female participation in decision-making, arguably the cognitive labor component most closely linked to power and influence, is roughly equal. These findings identify and define an overlooked—yet potentially consequential—source of gender inequality at the household level and suggest a new direction for research on the division of household labor.

How Responsible Are Consumers?

2022 ◽  
pp. 219-230
Author(s):  
Namita Kapoor
Keyword(s):  
Social Issue ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Environmental Economic ◽  
Food Waste ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Important Concern ◽  
Responsible Consumption ◽  
Growing Population

One of the most important concern the economies are facing is food security amidst the growing population. The population growth has exerted tremendous pressure on food security and has raised concerns over food sustainability. The sustainability of food waste is an environmental, economic, and social issue, which has useful policy implications. The issue has been studied through the analysis of responsible consumption and food waste. The literature has emphasised improving the efficiency in supply chain to reduce food waste, but researches on food waste at the consumer level are still in the natal stage. It is important to understand to develop the framework for responsible consumption and to assess the factors that may contribute to reduction in food waste at the household level. The study aims to examine the scope of responsible consumption to attain environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals Are Traditional Food Crops Really ‘Future Smart Foods?’ A Sustainability Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adhikari ◽  
Tuladhar ◽  
Hussain ◽  
Aryal
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Calorie Intake ◽  
Food Crops ◽  
Traditional Food ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Production Cycles

Abstract: This study attempted to assess the potential of traditional food crops (TFCs) to be ‘future smart foods’ through the lens of sustainability. Our study mainly relied on the primary data collected from farm households (n = 89) in the high mountains of Nepal and the hills of Bangladesh. The study found that farmers are gradually abandoning the cultivation of TFCs. In the last decade, cash crops such as mustard and cardamom in study villages in Nepal (SVN) and fruits and coffee in study villages in Bangladesh (SVB) were adopted to replace TFCs. In overall calorie intake at the household level, TFCs contributed only 3% and 7% respectively, in SVN and SVB. A sustainability analysis showed that TFCs have a huge potential to be ‘future smart foods’ because they are socially acceptable, have high nutritional values (social sustainability), and are key to the agrobiodiversity and resilience of farming systems (environmental sustainability). They also have the potential to improve famers’ income and are more efficient in energy use during production cycles (economic sustainability). To promote TFCs as a sustainable solution for local farming systems and nutrition security, there is the need for a behavior change of both farmers and consumers, respectively, through the favorable policy environment and public awareness.

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