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| 1 |
ID:
123281
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The energy conservation behaviour of people is a significant issue given the growing global concern about environmental issues. The current study is part of a larger intervention project aimed at changing the energy use behaviour of people living in rural households in Kerala, India. Preliminary activities of the project started in early 1997. The management and administration of the project spread over a period of 8 years. The study explores the extent of energy saved by these rural households when awareness, availability and training about the technologies are present, and thereby examines the impact of attitudinal variables and contextual factors on the energy-saving behaviour of people. This paper revisits the theories of behavioural change in the context of energy-saving behaviour and investigates whether Attitude, Behaviour, Context theory can be used to predict environmentally significant human behaviour. Findings revealed that traditional habits and beliefs influenced attitude formation in rural households and hence should be treated as an important consideration in changing energy conservation behaviours in the future.
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| 2 |
ID:
123269
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Frantz Fanon, the Afro-French revolutionary and psychiatrist, developed a theory as to how and why the socially marginalized, the abused, the dregs of humanity, The Other!, eventually rose up in an attempt to reclaim their lost humanity. Fanon's political writings dealt primarily with the colonial situation, the colonizer and the colonized and the question of race, especially as it unfolded in the Algerian war for independence (1954-62). Boko Haram is a Nigerian jihadist group that has engaged the Nigerian state in all-out warfare since 2009. We use Fanon's concept of the 'wretched' to explain the emergence of Boko Haram in a post-colonial situation in which the issue of a 'racial foreigner' is completely irrelevant and, in so doing, argue for the continued relevance of Fanonist thinking.
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| 3 |
ID:
123283
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The amnesty programme initiated by the Yar'Adua/Jonathan administration to placate militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, though reactive - like previous governments' strategies - has ensured relative peace in the region thereby bringing oil production to its maximum level thus far. But painfully this has not translated to a better life for the vast majority of those living in the Niger Delta who are not included in the amnesty programme. In this study, based on descriptive analysis, we aim to demonstrate: (i) the futility of the previous government's strong-arm measures in the management of the Niger Delta crisis and how this led inadvertently to the evolution and radicalization of militant groups that needed to be placated in order to curtail their heightened disruptive activities; and (ii) the amnesty programme adopted for this purpose is a short term expediency that could not address the myriad problems confronting the Niger Delta comprehensively. This implies that more broad-based programmes, targeted at the rapid development of the area, creation of job opportunities, environmental restoration and robust support for sustainable socio-economic endeavours geared towards self-reliance, would have to be proposed in order to ensure lasting peace in the region.
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| 4 |
ID:
123276
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Both inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) have implications for the wage rates of home-country workers. Such implications have been particularly noteworthy in Japan where the traditional internal labor-market practices, which value long-term sustainability of employment and wages, collide with the pressure for change in the globalizing Japanese economy on many fronts. In this paper we estimate the impacts of FDI on workers' wages in Japanese manufacturing industries. We find that Japanese employees benefit, in the form of wage gains, from their employers' association with both inward and outward FDI operations. These wage effects differ systematically depending on gender and worker ranks within their employer firms and are likely to weaken the mechanisms underlying the sustainability of Japanese firms' traditional internal labor markets. The presence of FDI effects on worker wages also implies an increasing disparity between the incomes of workers who work for successfully globalizing firms and workers who do not, jeopardizing Japan's traditional policy objective to sustain harmonious economic growth across all economic sectors. This would also deepen the structural divide including the wage gap of the Japanese economy that exists between large firms and small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) since firms which get involved in FDIs are mostly large firms.
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| 5 |
ID:
123277
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Green initiatives are fast becoming a catchphrase among societies and business entities as these entities strive to ensure more sustainable business operations and lifestyle. Research in green behaviors of consumers especially in Asia and Africa is only just emerging. The objective of this study, therefore, is to examine the factors that influence consumers' green buying behavior. The conceptual framework and hypotheses development are grounded on related literature. We examined six independent variables (environmental attitude, pro-environmental behavior, values, eco-literacy, low price sensitivity and social influence) and the effects on consumer (green) buying behavior. The questionnaire was adapted from validated items from related prior works. The analysis was based on 227 valid responses from residents of a southern state in Malaysia. The findings reveal that four of the six hypotheses were supported. Managerial and research implications of the findings are discussed.
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| 6 |
ID:
123275
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
A key feature of India's economic transformation has been a change in the nature of diets. There is a move away from inferior to superior foods and a substitution of traditional staples by primary food products, reflected in higher consumption of proteins, sugars, fats and vegetables. As part of this dietary transition, our analysis focuses on the pervasiveness of eating out and is based on a rich household survey for 2005. We broadly confirm the important role of urbanization, demographic changes, expansion of the middle class and its growing affluence on eating out. Since even more deprived sections are not immune to these evolving dietary patterns and given their limited access to medical care, health outcomes may well be grim.
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| 7 |
ID:
123270
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Drawing on the human capital theory and the pretext and aspiration theory, this paper aims at disentangling and making explicit or visible the pretension wrapped up in the aspiration of the Nigerian state to build universities for national development. It was found that there was and continues to be an aspiration to build universities for creating a knowledge-based economy (KBE). But, simultaneously, there also was, and continues to be, a pretension in it as indicated in the unwillingness of the state to fund universities. To survive, universities have resorted to commercialize their services. To cope with the increasing demand for access to universities, the state too embarked on the privatization of universities. To realize its aspiration to build the KBE, the state was urged to banish its pretension, partner with the Academic Staff Union of Universities in reforming the university system, and widen its university funding sources.
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| 8 |
ID:
123278
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Energy efficiency and conservation in buildings are major concerns and priorities for the Malaysian government. The Japanese Cool Biz concept and campaign has proven to be effective in reducing and conserving energy during the summer period, and other countries are beginning to adopt it. Malaysia, as a country with hot weather throughout the year, may have lots to gain from the concept; particularly in the energy management of office buildings. However, Cool Biz is not well known in Malaysia and the perception of Malaysian office workers toward the Cool Biz concept remains unclear. This study seeks to identify the Cool Biz elements that can contribute to and complement energy conservation efforts, and seeks the opinions of Malaysian office workers toward the concept. The study adopts a discriminant analysis methodology to determine if there are significant differences of opinion among gender category, age groups and races in Malaysia on the Cool Biz concept. The findings showed that overall, Malaysians find Cool Biz a good concept. However, there were significant differences in opinion among the social groups. The most significant differences in opinion were within the race category vis-a-vis Malay, Chinese and Indian office workers.
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| 9 |
ID:
123272
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Dynamics of the May 2010 'Red Shirts' uprising in Bangkok are examined through literature about the primate city, a city that is exponentially larger than a country's other cities. Employing news coverage of events, history about Bangkok's urban and political development, and analyses of class-based inequalities and nationalisms that the city harbors within its confines, attributes of primate city are expanded to include its perennially vulnerable political status. Such a rendering of the politically vulnerable primate city is employed to theorize how the primate city - when functioning as a national capital - is more than a large urban center, but one that collects much of the nation's hopes, dreams, and political struggles.
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| 10 |
ID:
123279
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper has studied electricity pricing under a regulated structure during post power sector reform in Odisha, India. It is found that Odisha has adopted the average cost pricing principle for determining electricity price with the rate of return regulation. This process of tariff determination not only takes a long time but also involves huge cost. Further, actual tariffs levied by the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) are at variance with the broad principles of rational pricing policy. This uneconomic pricing policy has adverse impact on the financial health of the distribution companies. However, the Electricity Act of 2003 has brought about a radical change in the power scenario across the country, including the state of Odisha, by introducing open access and trading of power.
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| 11 |
ID:
123282
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper develops a conceptual framework for increasing understanding of how teachers can contribute to a sustainable bullying-free learning environment in schools. Based on a review and analysis of extant literature, the paper argues for the facilitating roles of mindful social emotional learning implementation and teacher-student relationship quality in building and sustaining a bullying-free learning environment, which can impact the victim of a bullying act, the bully and their peers. The analysis leads to the research and practical implications that conclude the paper.
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| 12 |
ID:
123284
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper develops a conceptual model of sustainable employee motivation and enterprise performance (based on job characteristics) through the juxtaposition of the internal marketing, job characteristics, uncertainty and in/equity theories. It reasons that job characteristics and their effect on motivation and performance in African small- and medium-sized enterprises depends on the degree to which uncertainty in the business environment, perceived inequity and job insecurity resulting from migrant competition can be minimized. Theoretical, managerial and policy implications are elaborated.
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| 13 |
ID:
123271
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article conducts a linguistic analysis of the history textbook from Malaysia. It studies the way language portrays the Malaysians and British during colonization and independence. These periods are chosen because their economic and political changes resulted in social shifts which continue to influence modern Malaysia. The article analyzes the history textbook for secondary years two, three and five. Transitivity from Systemic Functional Linguistics is used as a method of analysis to explain the portrayal of the Malaysians and British during colonization and independence. The linguistic analysis of Participants (the nominal group) and Processes (the verbal group) discloses two major results. First, independence and the Malaysians are portrayed positively in the chapters about independence and identities of class and ethnicity are crucial to understand the Malaysians. Second, colonization and the British are portrayed negatively in the chapters about colonization. This posits a positive us and negative them distinction in the textbook. Hence the language of the history textbook can be interpreted as implying a nationalist version of history.
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| 14 |
ID:
123273
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Child mortality in Sierra Leone is the highest ranked in the world. The main causes for child mortality are maternal factors, environmental factors and health factors. Minimal research has been carried out on health factors in Sierra Leone. The objective of this study is to see how maternal and environmental factors have an effect on health factors, which in turn cause child mortality. The data used were from the 2008 Sierra Leone Demographic and Household Survey (SLDHS). The study showed that child mortality had statistically significant factors associated with it: place of residence, birth number, religion and type of toilet facility. Furthermore, the SLDHS had not given much information regarding the cause of diseases affecting children, so we looked only at the effects they had on children. Acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and measles each had one variable that was statistically significant. As for pneumonia, there were no variables associated with children contracting the disease.
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| 15 |
ID:
123268
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The amnesty granted to the Niger Delta militants by the Nigerian state has stopped active and sustained physical combat in the oil-rich but volatile region. Yet, peace remains elusive in the area. This article, which relies essentially on secondary sources of data, examines this 'no war, no peace' situation by mapping the challenges confronting the amnesty programme and its corollary disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes. It is argued that, until the incentives for violence are identified and checked, the age-long grievances of the region against environmental insecurity, underdevelopment, and distributional injustice in oil rents addressed, perpetrators of human rights violations - including extra-judicial murders - brought to book, and victims of human rights abuses and the protracted conflict compensated, the current peace of the graveyard in the region is likely to subsist.
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