Suchergebnisse

Buildings and the built environment use vast amounts of energy and other resources in construction, operation, and demolition. In 2009, the residential and commercial building sector was responsible for more than 50 percent of total annual U.S. energy consumption and 74 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption. Beyond that, buildings are responsible for significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants, while the materials in them can "offgas" and contribute to indoor air pollution. Green buildings use land and energy efficiently, conserve water, improve indoor and outdoor air quality, and increase the use of recycled materials. They can also lead to reduced operating costs, offering a better return on investment and overall building value. Written by prominent attorneys and other practitioners in the green building field, The Law of Green Buildings provides an overview of green buildings and sustainable development, explaining what makes a building "green" as well as governmental initiatives to promote these buildings. The authors highlight significant statutes and regulations, examine green building rating systems and siting, address retrofitting, and analyze legal issues that attorneys and other building professionals should be aware of when advising clients seeking to construct, finance, or lease a green building. ; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1061/thumbnail.jpg

Статья посвящена выявлению особенностей когнитивного моделирования области политического дискурса, репрезентирующего концепт «авторитарность». В этой плоскости метафоричность рассматривается как один из основополагающих принципов структурирования политического ландшафта России в условиях актуальной трансформации лингвокультурных, социальных и политических стереотипов. Метафорическая вербализация концепта «авторитарность» в российском политическом дискурсе реконструирует специфический «контекст мнений» говорящего и его адресата. Диалогичность внутри политического ландшафта реализуется и за счет апеллирования к лексике сниженного регистра, просторечных форм. Разнонаправленность коннотативных векторов расширяет поле понимания, метафорического перекодирования дискурсивных парадигм. Обращение к технической терминологии в процессе метафорического осмысления авторитарного дискурса позволяет говорить о формировании в российской политической реальности метафорической модели «Политика это Механизм». Понятийная база данной модели неоднородна, о чем свидетельствует некоторая фрагментарность метафорического пространства дискурса власти в России в . The article regards the concept forming metaphoric features in political discourse, aiming at revealing the constituent peculiarities of Russian authoritarianism. Thus, metaphorical mapping is considered to be one of the fundamental principles of structuring the political landscape in Russia under the circumstances of modern linguocultural, social and political stereotypes' transformation. The principles of metaphorical concept «authoritarianism» being present in the Russian political discourse reconstruct specific «context of various visions» of the speaker and his addressee. Dialog schemes in the political landscape are revealed by appealing to the low language register and vernacular forms. Appealing to the technical terminology as the source domain of metaphoric mapping in the field of Russian authoritarian discourse determines the formation of metaphorical model «Politics is the mechanism». Some metaphoric fragmentation of political discourse in Russia contributed to the situation, when the conceptual framework of this model is not homogeneous.

ABSTRACTTorture has been widely practiced by US forces as an officially-sanctioned information gathering strategy in the war on terrorism. At the same time, public attitudes have exhibited a growing tolerance towards the torture of terrorist suspects. This article examines the role of elite political discourse in constructing and sustaining the conditions necessary for the acceptance and normalisation of torture. It argues that a focus on elite discourse is crucial for understanding how torture comes to be practised because discourses set the logic and parameters of policy formulation and create the wider social legitimacy that is required to enact policy, thereby facilitating the construction of a broader torture-sustaining reality. The study's findings highlight the role of ideational factors in policy analysis and have important normative implications.

The construction sector is an essential in providing physical development for nations to cater to the demand for infrastructures such as education, housing, and manufacturing. However, the adverse impact of the building sector on the environment has triggered a growing awareness of the sustainable approach. Green construction is becoming expected in every construction project, and Malaysia is developing a national pathway to sustainable construction. After a comprehensive literature review, this research used semi-structured face-to-face interviews with industry experts to explore the current practices. In the Malaysian context, the compliance with government policy and industry guidelines has been the primary push factors to deliver green projects. The most common barrier faced was the low level of knowledge and awareness of project stakeholders. This paper helps provide a basis for future research and increase stakeholder awareness of green construction in the Malaysian construction industry and beyond.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Green Building; Green construction, Drivers, Barriers.

In this dissertation it is argued that alcohol problems in Sweden are not strictly an objectivephenomenon, but are largely discursive constructions that have been reconfigured in substantial ways since at least 1910. The empirical work aims to identify and discuss thesereconfigurations. Additionally, a number of consistent features in the ways in which alcoholproblems are defined is presented. Among other things, the Swedish case shows that definitions of the problem and models adopted to describe it, integrate a broad range of socialactors, and encourage consensus. Moreover, these models do not strictly focus on the problematic drinker; they offer scientific support for state intervention into the lives of all members of society. Together these characteristics construct alcohol problems as truly a "social" phenomeonon. Analysis follows a social constructivst approach, recognizing the potential for multipleinterpretations of the problem, which are located in formal collective statements. Six majorconcepts for investigating and analyzing alcohol as a "social problem" are developed: discourse, discursive formation, stories of causality and threat, the dispersion of the problem,the distribution of authority, and the solution complex. These are applied in three relatedstudies. The first study examines medical discourse on alcoholism viewed as disease. Asecond study considers the application and adoption of the "total consumption model" andpublic health approach to alcohol in Sweden within official and scientific discourse. Finally,the author investigates current shifts in these formations within the context of negotiationswith the European Union on Sweden's membership; the study explores the impact of a newdiscourse, originating externally, upon the legitimacy of Swedish approaches. The dissertation ends with several considerations of the implications of the research both for futuredevelopments of the public alcohol discourse in Sweden and for further development of thetheoretical framework presented in the dissertation.

Aria Nakissa shows how hermeneutic theory and practice theory can be brought together to analyze cultural, legal and religious traditions. These ideas are developed through an analysis of the Islamic legal tradition, which examines both Islamic legal doctrine and religious education. In terms of disciplinary orientation, the book combines anthropology and Islamicist history, utilizing both ethnography and in-depth analysis of Arabic religious texts.