One World
Asynchronous Session
Digital Dopamine and Slow Onset Disasters: Considering the Impact of Technological Compression of Space and Time on Engagement with Long-term Environmental Issues through the Lens of Intertemporal Decision Making View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David Rochlin
This paper explores the implications of digitally catalyzed expectations of immediacy - aka “digital dopamine” - on responses and action in support of the avoidance of slow onset disasters such as climate change related drought, ocean acidification, and environmental toxicity, through the lens of intertemporal choice. This framing highlights that many of the challenges in addressing slow onset disasters relate to both a lack of near-term rewards for foregoing current behaviors in favor of changes necessary for long term benefit, and a lack of evidence of impact, when changes are made. These are exacerbated by expectations of increased immediacy. The paper takes an interdisciplinary approach, and reviews the literature on technological compression of space and time (digital humanities) and intertemporal choice (economics and psychology), and then apply the findings to slow onset disasters (environmental humanities.) When considered together, the impact of intertemporal choice on slow onset disasters in a world of increased expectations of immediacy is acts as a barrier to necessary sacrifices today by effectively raising the discount(ing) rate, and lowering the *relative* cost of inaction. Since discount rates have a greater impact over longer terms, for slow onset issues the discounting of the future value of current sacrificial actions grows substantially. This has far-ranging implications for how to structure rhetoric/messaging, set policy, and select specific actions.
Digital Media and Social Change in Historical Context: Global Civilizational Influence View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ashiyan Rahmani Shirazi
Puchner (2017) and the text 'The Written World', present a history of literature and how it has influenced world civilizations. From Don Quixote to the Communist Manifesto, key texts throughout history have shaped social orders and civilizations. In the current digital age, one might consider digital media, as influencing civilization-building in a similar manner. Looking at the key global social issues of the 21st century - gender inequality, racial/ethnic/class prejudice, income inequality as well as climate change, this paper reflects on the way in which digital media influences discourse, and exacerbates or ameliorates digital divides, broadly and in the context of lessons from the dynamic of historical texts in a civilization-building role, including reflections on the innovation of participatory media that has democratized the public sphere and the global civilization shaping force of ideas in textual and other media, facilitated in digital spaces.
Examining Intentions Using the Theory of Planned Behavior: A Qualitative Assessment of Industrial Sector Managers' Salient Beliefs on Energy Efficiency Investments in Malaysia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Siti Noor Baiti Mustafa
Energy management studies regarding energy efficiency investments in Malaysia has yet to address the lack of empirical research that examines pro- sustainability behavior of managers in the industrial sector and how it influences energy efficiency investments decision-making. This study adopts the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine the relationship between personal attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (PBC), the intention of energy efficiency investments and how does perceptions of Non-Energy Benefits (NEB) influence these intentions among managers in the industrial sector in Malaysia. Managerial level personnel from various sub-sectors companies in the industrial sector were selected from a sample of companies that are participants of the Government-led program named the Energy Audit Conditional Grant (EACG) that aimed to promote energy efficiency. Data collection was conducted surveyed an online semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire and then later interviewed. The results of this explorative sequential qualitative study shows that perceived behavioral control is a significant predictor of energy efficiency investment intentions as compared to factors such as attitude and subjective norms. The level of awareness and perceptions towards NEB further plays a significant factor in influencing energy efficiency investment decision making as well. Various measures and policy recommendations are provided together with insights on factors that influence decision-makers’ intention to invest in energy efficiency whilst new knowledge on NEB perceptions will be useful to enhance the attractiveness of energy efficient investments.
Featured “We Eat Our Own Pigs”: How Economic Principles and Institutions Shape the Emotions of Piggery Employees View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Haiyi Cheng
The “emotional schema” in the piggery illustrates the tension between the construction of the pig as a commodity to be sold and as a life to be suffered in the pig farm. The emotional experience of pig farm employees is not only denied and repressed by masculinity, but also shaped and motivated by the economic principles that govern the pig farm, and by the specialised institutions. Through fieldwork in family pig farms and slaughterhouses in southwestern China, we illuminate how economic principles construct pigs as profitable, edible individuals through the daily interactions in pig farms - feeding, breeding, selling - and how state laws requiring of specialisation normalises the cruel side of the farm-to-eat process through institutionalisation, and thus helps the employees to manage their feelings about pigs. Whereby much of the sociological literature on edible meat production focuses on one end of the chain, we analyse the interactions of the meat production process to reveal how economic principles shape and transform the emotional experience of workers through institutionalisation and specialisation in order to reconcile the tensions of commodity and life, and how changes in the structure of the pig industry and price quotations affect the role of economic principles in the construction of the pig. This provides further insights into how economics principles and institutions influences the human-animal work and our emotional experiences with animals.
The Right to Exist and be Existent Framed in the Ambient Trust of Commons View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lucia Morales, Alexandra Gonçalves
This study reflects on two ambiences: the Ambience-body (communication/recognition and regulation in the thresholds and surroundings of the bodies-ambiences), the body-ambiences (the body-flesh-ambience, limit-boundaries-bodies, the body that absorbs and fattens the ambiences and swallows up the now). Our discussions provide further insights on the meaning of to exist and existent framed in the Ambient Trust Commons and emerging conflicts as we try to understand our relationship with Nature, natural resources and the functioning of our global economy.
Tourist Local Health Centers in Far-flung Areas in Bulacan, Philippines View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bernadette Yalong
The Republic of the Philippines is Located in the Pacific Ocean area, with seven thousand six hundred forty (7, 640) islands and three main areas: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It is considered a country with a strategic tourist spot in Southeast Asia. The Philippines has a lot to offer when it comes to tourism. Thousands of guests, foreigners and locals, visit different tourist destinations and conclude that the country has amazing, one-of-a-kind sceneries that are exploratory and impressive. These should be preserved and sustained in the province of Bulacan. There are tourist destinations located in different far-flung areas of the said province. The main purpose of this study is to identify said tourist destinations in the province that have no existing local health centers for visitors and guests. Integrating effective health programs, not to mention a specific local health center will create a safety, health, and wellness service industry that will be useful to local guests and foreign markets as well. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to arrive at the expected outcome. Since the study focuses on the basic health protocols, the Local Government Code of 1991 was revisited to propose strict implementation of the law concerning the safety and well-being of guests in tourist hubs and centers. This study is based on the scientific method that will improve the local legislation of those destinations and will eventually lead to a more productive tourism industry and protected health services for the tourists and guests in those areas.
Obstacles and Opportunities for the Development of Small Crop and Livestock Farming: The Perception of Small Producers in the Metropolitan Region of the Paraiba Valley of São Paulo, Brazil View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Drauzio Antonio Rezende Junior
This paper studies the self-perception of the socioeconomic reality of the productive process of small rural producers in a metropolitan region of Brazil. Small food production accounts for a significant portion in the country. The objective of this work is to investigate the opportunities for advances in small production and the institutional, environmental and economic obstacles that hinder this process. The hypothesis is that the failure of producers is related to regulatory complexity and the difficulty of adapting to legal regulations. The adopted methodology was documentary and qualitative analysis (online research). The results confirm the hypothesis as in the view of small producers, regulatory complexity impairs the performance of their enterprises. The work also identified an unexpected complaint: difficulties in selling production in the most developed region of the country. It is concluded that the productive activity of small producers faces difficulties both because of the entangling and overlapping divergent laws and because of the production flow infrastructure, which producers point out by as being inadequate.
The Impact of China's Australian Coal Ban on World Economy: An Analysis Based on GTAP Model View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zhongyun Sun
In late 2020, China initiated a series of unofficial measures to reduce imports of coal from Australia. For example, Chinese customs officials tightened their scrutiny of coal shipments from Australia, which led to delays, increased inspections, and disruptions to the clearance procedures. Also, Chinese state-owned utilities and power plants were told not to purchase Australian coal. In this paper, we examine the impact of the unofficial coal ban on the global economy utilizing the GTAP model. The results show that both China and Australia could not get to a better economic condition but might become worse off. Both countries' real GDPs are expected to drop. They are expected to experience a deterioration in the terms of trade, and the loss of welfare. Other Asian countries would get to a better trade condition since they can sell more coal to China at higher prices and import cheaper coal from Australia, resulting in a welfare improvement in those Asian countries. Although the unofficial ban is coming to its end in 2023, it is still of great significance to evaluate its impact through the GTAP model since the results of a computable general equilibrium model are theoretically sound and good for future reference.
The Influence of Demographics on Perceptions Regarding Organisational Citizenship Behaviour in South African Retail Firms View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tandiswa Ngxukumeshe, Noxolo Eileen Mazibuko, Elroy Eugene Smith
The retail industry constitutes an increasingly large percentage of the total jobs in the South African economy and contributes an enormous amount of sales to the gross domestic product of the country. It is one of the most labour-intensive industries and offers products and services that are deemed a necessity in customers’ daily lives. Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) is imperative in retail as it leads to organisational effectiveness, resulting in satisfied customers and profitable retail firms. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships of selected demographical characteristics on OCB in the South African retail industry. Five hundred and fifty-four (554) respondents participated from four provinces (Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape). The relationship between selected demographic characteristics and perceptions regarding OCB (job considerations, role considerations, job security and employment considerations) were investigated. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques (regression analysis, one-way ANOVA, Tukey’s HSD test) were used to analyze the data. Findings reveal that position, education, organisation’s years in existence and retail activity have a significant relationship with perceptions regarding OCB. These findings contribute to the body of knowledge and provide retailers with some practical guidelines regarding the role played by demographics in fostering OCB in retail firms.
