Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn conventional food systems, there are often large social and geographical distances between production and consumption. Alternative food networks (AFNs) like relationship coffee models aim to shorten these distances through direct contacts, communication, trust, transparency or commitment to improve farmers' livelihoods. These relationship coffee models appear in diverse shapes with various implications for producers. Therefore, we deductively develop a framework to conceptualise proximity in four dimensions (organisational, institutional, cognitive and social) with subdimensions and three transversal dimensions ((temporary) geographical proximity, power, and communication). The analytic framework is complemented by an illustrative case to empirically test it, showing high geographical, organisational, institutional and cognitive proximity but low social proximity between coffee producer and restaurant owner. For future research, the framework can help to conceptualise proximity or to distinguish different types of relationship coffee models and to unpack conditions under which relationship coffees can increase proximity between coffee producers and buyers, often located far apart.

Purpose
Guided by paradox theory, the study aims to significantly advance Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (SHEI) scholarship and inform change agents' (CAs) practices by uncovering the tensions underlying the challenges CAs face in embedding sustainability in their universities and learning about potential strategies to manage these tensions.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a multi-step, mix-methods study including interviews (n = 15), an online survey (n = 36) and focus groups (n = 29) with CAs from 17 of Austria's 22 public universities. Participating CAs consisted of faculty, staff and administrators with leading roles in their Higher Education Institutions' sustainability change processes.


Findings
Austrian SHEI CAs' responses revealed 15 tensions at and between the individual, organizational and system level addressing academic, organizational and external stakeholder engagement aspects. Six tensions were selected for more in-depth exploration including elaboration of management strategies, building on CAs' experiences. Results revealed examples of acceptance, separation and synthesis strategies.


Research limitations/implications
Based on the exploratory nature of our study, the authors do not claim to have identified a comprehensive list of tensions underlying the challenges faced by SHEI CAs, nor of all potential management strategies.


Practical implications
Although this study focused exclusively on Austrian SHEI CAs, the challenges they shared were consistent with those in the literature and, thus, insights should also support the CAs' efforts in other countries.


Originality/value
This study offers novel perspectives on how to manage the challenges to SHEI. To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the first to describe paradox theory-informed management strategies recommended by a heterogenous group of SHEI CAs to address the barriers they face in transforming their universities toward sustainability.

Coupled human and natural systems exhibit complex interactions (e.g. feedback-loops) that are often poorly understood. Decision-makers from regional (e.g., state or provincial) scale environmental stewardship programs to international policy makers are often faced with uncertainties about future climatic and sociopolitical conditions (henceforth, system change) when supporting livelihoods and ecosystem services derived from lands and waters they oversee. Understanding how these system changes interact with adaptive decision-making processes toward stewardship of ecosystem services represents a considerable gap in knowledge. Adaptation, or iterative adjustment of management practices in response to or anticipation of system change, has been forwarded as a means of effective ecosystem stewardship. Furthermore, lack of clarity about value tradeoffs among competing program objectives (e.g., economics and aesthetics) often precludes development and implementation of adaptation. Although there have been several qualitative studies on regional to national adaptation, lacking is an empirical understanding of how the drivers and value tradeoffs associated with adaptation differ among regions and between related sectors spanning multiple countries. Diverse cultural heritages and political structures among regions of central Europe offer great opportunities for examining spatial patterns of limitations to regional-scale adaptation in forest and agricultural sectors. This project will develop a quantitative index of adaptation for examining hypotheses about patterns of rural adaptation within regions of nine countries in central Europe. Alternative hypotheses describe contrasting assumptions regarding geographic variation in the relative importance among drivers and objectives associated with adaptation. Predictions derived from these hypotheses will be examined through a survey instrument that gathers information from programs focused on rural stewardship. Survey data will be analyzed using a hierarchical Bayesian approach ...

Agro-Food Studies setzen sich integrativ und kritisch mit der Produktion und dem Konsum von Nahrung auseinander. Der Band behandelt die Spannungsfelder Tradition und Moderne, Globalisierung und Regionalisierung, Gesellschaft und Umwelt, Natur und Technik, Kopf und Bauch, Mangel und Überfluss. Die interdisziplinäre Einführung richtet sich an Studierende und Akteure der Zivilgesellschaft.

Gemeinschaftliches Gärtnern ist in Städten auf der ganzen Welt zu einer wachsenden Bewegung geworden. In einkommensstärkeren Ländern wie Deutschland, sind es vor allem soziale Faktoren die zur Beteiligung der Bürger*innen in den Gärten führen. Trotz wachsendem Forschungsinteresse, sind die sozialen Faktoren der Gemeinschaftsgärten bisher aber nur wenig erforscht und wissenschaftlich belegt. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist daher, ein tieferes Verständnis der kollektiven und sozialen Prozesse von Gärten zu erlangen, indem Gemeinschaftsgärten als Commons untersucht werden. Mit Hilfe einer Online-Umfrage wurden Daten aus 123 Gemeinschaftsgärten in ganz Deutschland gesammelt. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit liefern detaillierte Einblicke in die kollektiven und sozialen Prozesse von Gärten und zeigen, dass insbesondere Vertrauen, Gruppenheterogenität und das Management die sozialen und kollektiven Prozesse der Gärten beeinflussen. Erkenntnisse wie diese sind sehr hilfreich, um ein besseres Verständnis der sozialen Interaktion und kollektiven Prozesse in urbanen Gemeinschaften zu erlangen und einen Beitrag zur sozialen Nachhaltigkeit zu leisten.

Gemeinschaftliches Gärtnern ist in Städten auf der ganzen Welt zu einer wachsenden Bewegung geworden. In einkommensstärkeren Ländern wie Deutschland, sind es vor allem soziale Faktoren die zur Beteiligung der Bürger*innen in den Gärten führen. Trotz wachsendem Forschungsinteresse, sind die sozialen Faktoren der Gemeinschaftsgärten bisher aber nur wenig erforscht und wissenschaftlich belegt. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist daher, ein tieferes Verständnis der kollektiven und sozialen Prozesse von Gärten zu erlangen, indem Gemeinschaftsgärten als Commons untersucht werden. Mit Hilfe einer Online-Umfrage wurden Daten aus 123 Gemeinschaftsgärten in ganz Deutschland gesammelt. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit liefern detaillierte Einblicke in die kollektiven und sozialen Prozesse von Gärten und zeigen, dass insbesondere Vertrauen, Gruppenheterogenität und das Management die sozialen und kollektiven Prozesse der Gärten beeinflussen. Erkenntnisse wie diese sind sehr hilfreich, um ein besseres Verständnis der sozialen Interaktion und kollektiven Prozesse in urbanen Gemeinschaften zu erlangen und einen Beitrag zur sozialen Nachhaltigkeit zu leisten.

Origin labels, more specifically Geographical Indications (GIs), allow organised producers to define quality standards and defend their food products' reputation while highlighting their geographical origin and value to consumers. Café de Colombia was the first non-European food product registered as Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) under EU legislation (510/2006, followed by 1151/2012). This paper aims to identify the dynamics of collective efforts and the rules of the game developed by coffee growers to protect the collective intellectual property right. Our guiding research questions are: i) to what extent can the Ostrom's design principles explain effective collective action for GI registration and implementation? and ii) can collective action for GIs re-shape relations between supply chain actors and support producers in gaining control over origin products? We collected data using semi-structured interviews and document analysis, which we then processed in a qualitative text analysis. Results show that the principles are very helpful for understanding the internal collective action of coffee growers and also clearly show the challenges in the interaction with industrial coffee processors (e.g. international roasters, brand owners). A pure focus on the producers' collective action for establishing and managing the origin protection does not give a full picture, since green coffee beans are roasted and commercialised abroad. The GI has already re-shaped the relationships along the supply chains, as international roasters sign the producers' rules governing the PGI use. The commercial GI impact however, will depend on consumers' willingness to appreciate and pay extra for high quality origin coffee as well as the readiness of international roasters or brand owners to emphasise on origin coffee, in addition to their brands of blended coffee.