scholarly journals Governing Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture—Taking Stock of an Emerging Field of Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 528
Author(s):  
Inga C. Melchior ◽  
Jens Newig
Keyword(s):  
Small Scale ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Local Case ◽  
Management Technology ◽  
The Status ◽  
Consumer Habits ◽  
Agricultural Transitions ◽  
Lock In

The need for fundamental changes in the way humans interact with nature is now widely acknowledged in order to achieve sustainable development. Agriculture figures prominently in this quest, being both a major driver and a major threat to global sustainability. Agricultural systems typically have co-evolved with other societal structures—retailers, land management, technology, consumer habits, and environmental and agricultural law—and can therefore well be described as socio-technical regimes in the sense of the sustainability transitions literature. This paper aims to give an overview of the emerging field of governing transitions to sustainability agriculture and the topics and trends covered, focusing on how agricultural transitions are being governed through a variety of actors and at a variety of levels. We conduct a systematic review of 153 articles published before the year 2019. We identify two main perspectives: papers that analyse the status quo in farming practices and reasons for lock-in, and papers that explore potential transition pathways and their governance. Predominantly, papers study (local) niche developments and discuss governance options for upscaling, rather than actual regime change. Seven distinct perspectives emerge from our reading of the selected articles: application of theoretical perspectives from the literature on socio-technical transitions; governance and regulation; knowledge and learning; concrete approaches to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural systems; urbanisation, urban agriculture, and local food networks; the role of agri-food businesses; as well as the role of gender. While a variety of local case studies shows potential for small-scale changes that might be transferable to other regions and higher levels of governance, it generally appears that more integrative, comparative work and perhaps more coherence in conceptual approaches would benefit the currently highly fragmented field.

Electronic human resource management: Enhancing or entrancing?

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Poisat ◽  
Michelle R. Mey
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Status ◽  
Managerial Implications

Orientation: This article provides an investigation into the current level of development of the body of knowledge related to electronic human resource management (e-HRM) by means of a qualitative content analysis. Several aspects of e-HRM, namely definitions of e-HRM, the theoretical perspectives around e-HRM, the role of e-HRM, the various types of e-HRM and the requirements for successful e-HRM, are examined.Research purpose: The purpose of the article was to determine the status of e-HRM and examine the studies that report on the link between e-HRM and organisational productivity.Motivation for the study: e-HRM has the capacity to improve organisational efficiency and leverage the role of human resources (HR) as a strategic business partner.Main findings: The notion that the implementation of e-HRM will lead to improved organisational productivity is commonly assumed; however, empirical evidence in this regard was found to be limited.Practical/managerial implications: From the results of this investigation it is evident that more research is required to gain a greater understanding of the influence of e-HRM on organisational productivity, as well as to develop measures for assessing this influence.Contribution: This article proposes additional areas to research and measure when investigating the effectiveness of e-HRM. It provides a different lens from which to view e-HRM assessment whilst keeping it within recognised HR measurement parameters (the HR value chain). In addition, it not only provides areas for measuring e-HRM’s influence but also provides important clues as to how the measurements may be approached. 

scholarly journals Study on the optimization path of SME financing services in the context of the epidemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 275 ◽  
pp. 01034
Author(s):  
Weijian Gu ◽  
Rui Zhou ◽  
Jingwen Yan
Keyword(s):  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Imperfect Information ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Product Service ◽  
The Status ◽  
Banking Business ◽  
Punishment Mechanism ◽  
Countermeasures And Suggestions

The status of SMEs in the national economy has become increasingly prominent, but due to the factors like their small scale, imperfect information disclosure, the problem of financing difficulty and high financing has always restricted the health of SMEs in China. This report takes Wuhan as an example, which is the earliest affected by the COVID epidemic, starting from the new financing difficulties and the development of banking business of SMEs in Wuhan under the background of the epidemic, explores the methods to guide the three parties of banks, enterprises and governments to improve services, so as to better play the role of alleviating the new financing pressure of SMEs, and puts forward some suggestions, such as promoting the interaction of government and banks’ information, establishing an efficient punishment mechanism for enterprises’ dishonesty, and strengthening the supervision A series of countermeasures and suggestions, such as accurate product service innovation of fast financial institutions, guiding the docking of supply chain and bill financing platform. These suggestions have important reference significance and practical reference value for better adapting to the new characteristics of financing in the post epidemic era and alleviating the financing pressure of SMEs.

Reflection and Learning Conversations in the Sociology Classroom

2022 ◽  
pp. 309-332
Author(s):  
Iona H. Tanguay
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
The Status ◽  
Action Research Study ◽  
Learning Conversations

This study is a small-scale action research study about the role of reflection in learning that was set in an international school in Romania during the time of a pandemic. The aim of the research was to listen to sociology students' feedback about the experience of focusing on reflection and to uncover the meaning that it had for them. It was a response to engaging with Deborah Eyre's high-performance learning (HPL) philosophy, which argues that the skills of high achieving learners can be taught to all students. The status of evidence-based methods, as a justification for educational initiatives towards social change, is considered alongside a short discussion of Hattie's synthesis of evidence-based methods and his focus on “making learning visible” in the classroom. The potential for HPL methods to provide an inclusive template of teaching and learning is briefly considered. This study describes the journey of a small action research study in the classroom and assesses its qualitative findings whilst acknowledging that some aspects of the study design were flawed.

Jokering Bodies

2021 ◽  
pp. 194084472110495
Author(s):  
Vonzell Agosto ◽  
LaSonja Roberts ◽  
María Migueliz Valcarlos ◽  
Tara Nkrumah ◽  
Tanetha Grosland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
School Students ◽  
Online Distance Education ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Status ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
Professional Leadership ◽  
Online Distance ◽  
Technological Analysis

This article brings forth the difficulties and possibilities of enacting the role of “Joker” from Boal’s (1979) Joker System—formerly called the poetics of the oppressed. The authors acknowledge jokering as an apprehensive performance of brokering, of bodies that matter and are matter, that can provoke anti-oppressive actions and reinscribe oppressions. As such, four backdrops are engaged to further the methodological, theoretical, and curricular/pedagogical force of jokering as a performance that unsettles the status quo: Latina/Chicana feminist theories used in mentoring, performance-based action research with middle-school students, professional leadership development for schools, and socio-technological analysis with theatre in online/distance education. Each example from our praxis illustrates how the roles of emerging researcher, mentor-researcher, and researcher-practitioner are performed and troubled (jokered) from different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives to foster social justice praxis and outcomes.

scholarly journals Small hydropower in Southern Africa – an overview of five countries in the region

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qim Jonker Klunne
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Small Hydropower ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Grid Applications

This paper looks at the status of small hydropower in Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. For each country, an overview will be given of the electricity sector and the role of hydropower, the potential for small hydropower and the expected future of this technology. Small hydropower has played an important role in the history of providing electricity in the region. After a period with limited interest in applications of small hydropower, in all five countries, a range of stakeholders from policy makers to developers are showing a renewed interest in small hydropower. Although different models were followed, all five countries covered in the paper do currently see activities around grid connected small scale hydropower. Particular frameworks that facilitate IPPs and Power Purchase Agreements with the national utility do provide a basis for (local) commercial banks to provide finance. Off-grid hydropower for rural electrification purposes sees activities in the countries with an active (support) role of government in this respect only. Small hydropower, renewable energy technology has large potential across the southern Africa region, both for grid connected and off-grid applications. Historically, small hydropower played an important role in the development of the region. Since the mid-1960s, however, the main emphasis has been on centralised fossil fuel-based electricity generation. Developers and policy makers have only recently begun looking at small hydropower again.

The study of interfacial reactions of nickel thin films on GaAs

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 156-157
Author(s):  
L.J. Chen ◽  
Y.F. Hsieh
Keyword(s):  
Thin Films ◽  
Integrated Circuits ◽  
Interfacial Reactions ◽  
Metal Contacts ◽  
Nickel Thin Films ◽  
Thin Foils ◽  
The Status ◽  
Si Doped ◽  
Electron Microscopes

One measure of the maturity of a device technology is the ease and reliability of applying contact metallurgy. Compared to metal contact of silicon, the status of GaAs metallization is still at its primitive stage. With the advent of GaAs MESFET and integrated circuits, very stringent requirements were placed on their metal contacts. During the past few years, extensive researches have been conducted in the area of Au-Ge-Ni in order to lower contact resistances and improve uniformity. In this paper, we report the results of TEM study of interfacial reactions between Ni and GaAs as part of the attempt to understand the role of nickel in Au-Ge-Ni contact of GaAs.N-type, Si-doped, (001) oriented GaAs wafers, 15 mil in thickness, were grown by gradient-freeze method. Nickel thin films, 300Å in thickness, were e-gun deposited on GaAs wafers. The samples were then annealed in dry N2 in a 3-zone diffusion furnace at temperatures 200°C - 600°C for 5-180 minutes. Thin foils for TEM examinations were prepared by chemical polishing from the GaA.s side. TEM investigations were performed with JE0L- 100B and JE0L-200CX electron microscopes.

Strategic Role of Zakat in Multidimensional Quality of Life in Sijunjung, Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Herlin Hamimi ◽  
Abdul Ghafar Ismail ◽  
Muhammad Hasbi Zaenal
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Absolute Poverty ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Status ◽  
Being There ◽  
The Impact

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam which has a function of faith, social and economic functions. Muslims who can pay zakat are required to give at least 2.5 per cent of their wealth. The problem of poverty prevalent in disadvantaged regions because of the difficulty of access to information and communication led to a gap that is so high in wealth and resources. The instrument of zakat provides a paradigm in the achievement of equitable wealth distribution and healthy circulation. Zakat potentially offers a better life and improves the quality of human being. There is a human quality improvement not only in economic terms but also in spiritual terms such as improving religiousity. This study aims to examine the role of zakat to alleviate humanitarian issues in disadvantaged regions such as Sijunjung, one of zakat beneficiaries and impoverished areas in Indonesia. The researcher attempted a Cibest method to capture the impact of zakat beneficiaries before and after becoming a member of Zakat Community Development (ZCD) Program in material and spiritual value. The overall analysis shows that zakat has a positive impact on disadvantaged regions development and enhance the quality of life of the community. There is an improvement in the average of mustahik household incomes after becoming a member of ZCD Program. Cibest model demonstrates that material, spiritual, and absolute poverty index decreased by 10, 5, and 6 per cent. Meanwhile, the welfare index is increased by 21 per cent. These findings have significant implications for developing the quality of life in disadvantaged regions in Sijunjung. Therefore, zakat is one of the instruments to change the status of disadvantaged areas to be equivalent to other areas.

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