Search Results (28)

Improving alignment between timber sawmilling and prefabrication, defined as the coordination of information, materials, and decision-making across the supply chain, is critical for sustainable construction. This study examined integration through semi-structured interviews with 15 industry practitioners. Using framework analysis supported by NVivo, eight interlinked themes were identified: supply chain fragmentation and market cycles; data-driven forecasting; inventory and moisture management; digital integration; smart planning and production; quality assurance and workforce capability; circular economy and residue utilisation; and systemic enablers and constraints. The findings show that technical capabilities such as optimisation, grading, and QR-based traceability are often undermined by organisational and policy barriers, including distributor-mediated purchasing, limited interoperability, outdated standards, and uneven skills pathways. Integration was considered more feasible for mass timber prefabrication, where batch planning, tighter quality assurance, and vertical integration align with mill operations, compared with frame-and-truss networks that rely on just-in-time project workflows. The study provides empirical evidence of practitioner perspectives and identifies priorities for action that translate into sustainability gains through improved material efficiency, waste reduction, higher-value residue pathways, and supportive policy settings. Full article

This study examines how anti-gender actors represent themselves as legitimate participants in debates on equality politics. Drawing on Mouffe’s distinction between agonism and antagonism, we argue that anti-gender actors foster conflict and exclusion through “moral panic” and the “politics of fear” regarding the issues related to equality politics, while at the same time presenting themselves as neutral, rational, and pluralistic. This dual strategy allows them to insert themselves into democratic debate and present themselves as legitimate “adversaries” rather than “enemies” to those who genuinely advocate for equality politics. We contend that such efforts to simulate agonism are particularly evident in Slovenia, where anti-gender organisations operate as covert allies of the Roman Catholic Church. In a context where public trust in the Church is low and the separation of church and state is strongly valued, efforts to re-Catholicise society rely on secularised means. We argue that this renders strategies of simulating agonism and conforming to secular–democratic values especially salient in the Slovenian context. To identify these strategies, we conducted semi-structured interviews with Slovenian anti-gender actors. Our analysis revealed four interrelated tactics: “self-victimisation”, portraying themselves as excluded and marginalised; “call for dialogue,” stressing a purported willingness to engage with opponents; “depoliticisation”, framing their role as neutral and non-ideological; and “claim of public support”, invoking a “silenced majority” allegedly constrained by a prevailing climate of “leftist” fear and censorship. The significance of this study lies in the fact that, despite extensive scholarly work on anti-gender mobilisations, analyses drawing on interviews with anti-gender actors themselves remain rare. Full article

Complex organisations require coherence to achieve adaptive goals through agency. This paper introduces Mindset Agency Theory (MAT), a metatheoretical framework designed for modelling and diagnosing agency within culturally diverse populations. MAT, a cybernetic multi-ontology framework, delineates five formative traits defining agency character. Its cognitive style trait (with bipolar values of Patterning–Dramatising) elucidates how agencies acquire information. Examining diverse agencies requires an appreciation of the social relationships that exist there, but MAT is currently devoid of this capability. Using the configuration approach to enable the integration of Tönnies’ social organisation theory into MAT, social relationships can be suitably explored, thus enhancing its capacity to investigate agency coherence. Tönnies’ theory of social organisation (with bipolar values of Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft) that frames inter-agent interactions is configured within MAT. This integration births a new formative trait, pairing cognitive style with social organisation, and is thus capable of indicating the likelihood of operative coherence. Configuration is applied by relating propositional attributes of a holding metatheory framework such as MAT, with an entry theory such as Tönnies’ social organisation theory as determined from the literature. The elaborated MAT serves as a diagnostic tool, linking trait instabilities with agency pathologies that deliver dysfunction. A subsequent paper will apply this framework to ASEAN, a regional intergovernmental organisation addressing cultural diversity issues. The study aims to evaluate ASEAN’s mindset and diagnose its pathologies, such as narcissism and paradoxical behaviour. Full article

Implementing a well-integrated procurement system and applying uniform practices to achieve the strategic goals of any company is a complex phenomenon. Navigating the digital procurement systems in achieving supply-chain resilience remains a predicament. Framed within the technology acceptance model (TAM), which is a key model in understanding the predictors of human behaviour toward the potential acceptance or rejection of the technology. This study explored the benefits and barriers of digital procurement at Airports Company South Africa (ACSA). A qualitative approach in a form of a single holistic case study design was adopted. The sample involved 18 employees and individuals who were supply chain management (SCM), information technology (IT), and programme management office (PMO) professionals. Semi-structured interviews conducted focused on those with extensive experience on procurement, digital technologies, procurement automation or the implementation of transformation programmes. Digital procurement is a value-adding function at ACSA with the possibilities of providing cost reduction in the supply chain. However, the participants highlighted job losses, cyber security, lack of interoperability, lack of skills and system downtimes as obstacles affecting the adoption of digital procurement and as organizational barriers. The infusion of digital technologies into various aspects of organisational processes and outcomes remains a complex, dynamic, fluid, and volatile phenomenon. A framework highlighting critical focus areas when it comes to the adoption of digital procurement of digitalization is presented. Full article

In this paper, I explore whether and how New Public Management (NPM) inhibits the long-term sustainability of co-production between non-profit practitioners and service users in the United Kingdom. I show how the key elements of NPM (contracts and competitive tendering, performance measurement, a pressure for non-profits to become more ‘business-like’, and the framing of citizens as ‘customers’) provide distinct barriers for non-profits to engage in co-production over the longer term, inhibiting the long-term creation of value for citizens. Through an analysis of seven case study organisations, this paper contributes to building theory about the sustainability of co-production, the factors that shape enduring co-production, and the compatibility/incompatibility of NPM tools with co-production. Full article

Biodiversity offsetting is a nature conservation instrument that is increasingly used but also strongly criticised. Previous studies have identified the ethical underpinnings of this criticism, but if and how ethically-based objections exist among persons active in nongovernmental environmental organisations is not clear. This study, therefore, explores occurring ethical views through seven in-depth interviews within this group of stakeholders. Among the results, the respondents in general took a consequential ethical view, according to which both benefits and costs with biodiversity offsetting should be considered and balanced, resting on a strong biocentric or ecocentric base, albeit within an ethical frame of restrictions for when to not use the instrument, indicating a strong deontological ethical basis. Overall, the respondents did not consider that the existence of intrinsic nature values, which they recognised, nor the potential commodification of such values, constituted definite barriers to biodiversity offsetting. Moreover, they did not see that offsetting, per se, would lead to non-virtuous attitudes towards nature. On social justice issues, the views diverged significantly. However, all respondents underlined a strong need for improved governance, including to prevent biodiversity offsetting of high nature values, to restrict flexibilities, and to apply multipliers with sufficient margins. Full article

Women’s empowerment is one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 5, gender equality. However, little research has highlighted the contributions of sustainable female leadership in academic governance. In order to fill this gap, this study identifies and analyses the satisfactions, opportunities, and contributions of women academics to university governance and their perceptions of the potential impact of gender in this process. Forty-eight women leaders participated in the study. A purposive sampling technique was used because the research involved leaders who had held a management position in the university. The research methodology was qualitative, the instrument used for the collection of information was a semi-structured interview, and the analysis of the narratives was carried out with Aquad v. 7 software (Günter Huber, Tübingen, Alemania). The study revealed that the leadership style of the female academics is framed within the sustainable leadership approach. Beyond personal satisfactions, the main reward derived from the performance of the position lies in becoming transformative and catalysing agents of the institution, who try to find a balance between the economic and social interests of the organisation. The functions these female academics perform, within the framework of sustainable development, have a technical and, at the same time, humanised vision, as they focus on people and on personal and social values. Gender issues have not been a determinant in the satisfactions, opportunities, and contributions that the leaders make to the institution; however, participants emphasise that this was a strength for leadership. Full article

This study explores the relationship between organisational culture and total quality management (TQM) implementation in Australia, with the purpose of identifying the particular culture that dominants the Australian construction industry, and distinguishing which cultures determine the successful implementation of TQM. Although the application of the competing values framework (CVF) for evaluating organisational culture (OC) in the construction industry has been studied by some scholars, research into OC and its impact on TQM procedures in connection to the CVF in project-based industries such as construction has received less attention. Thus, this research intends to determine the relationship between OC and TQM regarding the CVF in the Australian construction industry. The research methodology used the validated organisational culture assessment instrument (OCAI) CVF to frame OC, and TQM practices identified from the literature review. An online questionnaire was distributed through Qualtrics, whereby 42 valid responses representing various construction organisations in Australia were analysed through IBM SPSS Statistics 26 through endorsing k-means cluster analysis, and analysis of variance. The findings support that Australian construction organisations are dominated by the market and external focused cultures according to the CVF of organisational classification. Furthermore, the findings acknowledge that organisations that are dominated by hierarchical cultural characterises could provide an unfavourable environment for the successful implementation of TQM. Whilst an organisation that obtains a mix of cultures, specifically with the adhocracy and market cultures dominating could provide a favourable environment for the successful implementation of TQM. Full article

Social distancing is an utmost reliable practice to minimise the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). As the new variant of COVID-19 is emerging, healthcare organisations are concerned with controlling the death and infection rates. Different COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and administered worldwide. However, presently developed vaccine quantity is not sufficient to fulfil the needs of the world’s population. The precautionary measures still rely on personal preventive strategies. The sharp rise in infections has forced governments to reimpose restrictions. Governments are forcing people to maintain at least 6 feet (ft) of safe physical distance to stay safe. With summers, low-light conditions can become challenging. Especially in the cities of underdeveloped countries, where poor ventilated and congested homes cause people to gather in open spaces such as parks, streets, and markets. Besides this, in summer, large friends and family gatherings mostly take place at night. It is necessary to take precautionary measures to avoid more drastic results in such situations. To support the law and order bodies in maintaining social distancing using Social Internet of Things (SIoT), the world is considering automated systems. To address the identification of violations of a social distancing Standard Operating procedure (SOP) in low-light environments via smart, automated cyber-physical solutions, we propose an effective social distance monitoring approach named DepTSol. We propose a low-cost and easy-to-maintain motionless monocular time-of-flight (ToF) camera and deep-learning-based object detection algorithms for real-time social distance monitoring. The proposed approach detects people in low-light environments and calculates their distance in terms of pixels. We convert the predicted pixel distance into real-world units and compare it with the specified safety threshold value. The system highlights people violating the safe distance. The proposed technique is evaluated by COCO evaluation metrics and has achieved a good speed–accuracy trade-off with 51.2 frames per second (fps) and a 99.7% mean average precision (mAP) score. Besides the provision of an effective social distance monitoring approach, we perform a comparative analysis between one-stage object detectors and evaluate their performance in low-light environments. This evaluation will pave the way for researchers to study the field further and will enlighten the efficiency of deep-learning algorithms in timely responsive real-world applications. Full article

Small-scale farming production systems are integral drivers of global sustainability challenges and the climate crisis as well as a solution space for the transition to climate compatible development. However, mainstreaming agricultural emissions into a climate action agenda through integrative approaches, such as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), largely reinforces adaptation–mitigation dualism and pays inadequate attention to institutions’ linkage on the generation of externalities, such as Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This may undermine the effectiveness of local–global climate risk management initiatives. Literature data and a survey of small-scale farmers’ dairy feeding strategies were used in the simulation of GHG emissions. The effect of price risks on ecoefficiencies or the amount of GHG emissions per unit of produced milk is framed as a proxy for institutional feedbacks on GHG emissions and effect at scale. This case study on small-scale dairy farmers in western Kenya illustrates the effect of local-level and sectoral-level institutional constraints, such as market risks on decision making, on GHG emissions and the effectiveness of climate action. The findings suggest that price risks are significant in incentivising the adoption of CSA technologies. Since institutional interactions influence the choice of individual farmer management actions in adaptation planning, they significantly contribute to GHG spillover at scale. This can be visualised in terms of the nexus between low or non-existent dairy feeding strategies, low herd productivity, and net higher methane emissions per unit of produced milk in a dairy value chain. The use of the Sustainable Food Value Chain (SFVC) analytical lens could mediate the identification of binding constraints, foster organisational and policy coherence, as well as broker the effective mainstreaming of agricultural emissions into local–global climate change risk management initiatives. Market risks thus provide a systematic and holistic lens for assessing alternative carbon transitions, climate financing, adaptation–mitigation dualism, and the related risk of maladaptation, all of which are integral in the planning and implementation of effective climate action initiatives. Full article

UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) technologies, also known as UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), drones, or Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) and GIS (Geographic Information System) are recognised for the value of the results that can be achieved by their combined use. However, their use and the results achieved are rarely framed within the context of Digital Era Governance (DEG), an undertaking that would significantly reduce the capabilities of knowledge transfer from the academic and/or private environment to the public domain. The purpose of this study was to highlight, by a bibliometric analysis, the areas of proposed use of this team of tools and the extent to which these can enter the sphere of interest of public administrations, especially local ones. From a methodological point of view, based on the 439 articles filtered from the Web of Science database where UAS/UAV and GIS technologies were used, several bibliometric analyses have emerged. VOSviewer and R (Bibliometrix tool) were used to conduct the bibliometric analyses. Most scientific publications that used UAV technology as a working tool have predominant applicability in photogrammetry, while GIS applications are found in publications dedicated to image processing, landslides, and cultural and archaeological heritage. We point out that from the point of view of international cooperation, at the level of institutions or countries, certain international organisations from the USA, China, and the central and northern European states have a high interest in this topic, and a low cooperation between academia and public administration is exhibited. The conclusion is represented by the apparent lack of framing of the results of UAS–GIS technologies usage into wider and more topical contexts, such as digital era governance, and also a reduced applicability of the research results. Full article

Objectives: to report on acute hospital care experiences for persons with dementia and family/carers in a pilot study (PiP) of person-centred care compared with usual care. Methods: participants were recruited from one acute aged care ward and one mixed medical/surgical ward. One-on-one interviews occurred soon after discharge using a semi-structured interview guide framed by person-centred principles whereby the person is: V—valued; I—treated as an individual; P—perceived as having a unique identity; and S—supported socially and psychologically. Data were analysed deductively with reference to these a priori principles. Results: 11 consented persons with dementia and 36 family/carers participated. A total of eight core VIPS concepts were derived from the data. While many occasions of person-centred care occurred, there was variability in staff expertise, interest and aptitude for dementia care work. Neglect of person-centred principles more frequently occurred for the usual care group, where staff failed to place the person and their family/carer at the centre of service. Conclusions: person-centred services for persons with dementia requires that hospital executive equip staff with the relevant knowledge, skills and support to adhere to person-centred care guidelines. Hospitals must address workplace cultures and procedures that favour organisational systems over person-centred services. Full article

Despite many initiatives to reframe and support inclusion for people with disabilities, people with intellectual disabilities continue to experience social exclusion in their local communities. This study shares the perspectives of people with an intellectual disability on what matters to them in their local communities. This study aims to inform local governments of the value of engaging with and listening to local people with intellectual disabilities and is an important exploration of how the social sustainability of cities is framed and valued by people who have historically been socially and geographically excluded. Focus groups and interviews were conducted in six local government areas, with a mix of metropolitan and regional areas, in two states of Australia—NSW and Victoria. The study analysed how 45 Australian adults with intellectual disabilities described their local communities and conceptualised better inclusion. The results were collated and organised by applying an adapted framework of inclusive cities. The participants expressed the need for safe, accessible and clean public amenities; accessible information; appropriate communication; and for people to be more respectful, friendly and understanding of the needs of people with intellectual disabilities. This study suggests that local governments can take action in order to improve social sustainability by engaging with local people with intellectual disabilities as citizens, advisors and employees, and by educating the wider community about respect and social inclusion for all. Full article

Drawing on data gathered through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document analysis at five-star hotels in UK and Germany, this paper examines the competing pressures driving waste generation and prevention at different stages in the food production and service cycle. Primary data indicated that senior managers recognised the potential savings that could be achieved by preventing food waste. Despite this, many wasteful practices were normalised within routine operations. This was partly attributed to the corporatised business model and brand strategy in which premium pricing and luxury experiential propositions potentially transformed food waste reduction strategies into sources of risk. Past research generally categorised food as being edible or inedible. In contrast, the terms usable/unusable are proposed and this paper discusses how corporatised practices and value propositions rendered usable foods unusable. It considers how this type of corporate system frames waste problems and thus solutions, leading to various consequences. The discussion also explores how those systems shaped the organisational culture and the agency of staff who engaged with the service cycle at and across multiple points. The findings of this paper are based on primary data collected from a small number of corporately governed luxury hotels. Consequently, the closing parts of this paper outline how the insights generated here could be applied to the study of alternative organisational arrangements and operational types. Full article

That dogs can live and breed as free-living animals contributes to public health risks including zoonotic transmission, dog bites, and compromising people’s sense of safety in public spaces. In Australia, free-living dog populations are comprised of domestic dogs, dingoes, and dog–dingo hybrids, and are described using various terms (for example, stray or community), depending on social or geographic context. Urban expansion and regional migration mean that risks associated with contact between humans and free-living dogs are increasing. Public health authorities, local governments, and community organisations have called for transdisciplinary partnerships to address dog-related health risks with a sustainable long-term approach. Values pluralism and a lack of sustained community engagement in affected areas have meant that the outcome of such efforts to date has been mixed. To identify ideas in public circulation about the impact of unrestrained and free-living dogs on human health and well-being, and understand the framework through which these animals are problematised and solutions are proposed in public discourse, we systematically examined coverage of these issues in print media. Our analyses indicate that reporting in Australian newspapers tends to frame the public health impacts of free-living dogs as problems of public order requiring direct government action to re-establish control. The public health impacts of free-living dog populations in Australia have complex causes that intersect at the nexus between human and canine behaviour, agricultural and land management practices, local bylaws, and efforts to conserve ecological systems. Placing responsibility on governments limits opportunities for greater community involvement in developing integrated One Health approaches. Better-quality evidence of the impacts of dog populations on community health and well-being, and broad community support are needed to reshape public debates on animal control, which, ultimately, will promote more effective approaches to mitigate dog-related public health risks at the human–animal–environment interface. Full article