Consumption has emerged as a pivotal concept in environmental sustainability debates. Since the 1992 Earth Summit, there has been an increasing focus on the role that consumption and consumer lifestyles play in global environmental change. Agenda 21 called on countries to promote more 'sustainable consumption' patterns and lifestyles. Despite these recommendations, there are significant political and ideological challenges to implementing effective sustainable consumption policies at a global and national level. This thesis explores the politics of sustainable consumption in New Zealand. Using critical discourse analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine consumers, I employ post-structural and cultural geography theories to unpack the problematic nature of sustainable consumption. In particular, I examine dominant environmental and consumption discourses to explore why barriers to sustainable consumption exist. It is important to examine these issues from a socio-cultural perspective, as the dominant hegemonic discourses relating to the environment and sustainability shape both policy responses and public understandings of environmental change and sustainability issues. Prevailing policy responses to environmental change in New Zealand construct the 'environmental problem' in narrowly scientific and economic terms. Concern has centred on 'managing' carbon emissions, rather than addressing the underlying drivers of environmental degradation which lie in current political-economic structures and consumption levels. As such, environmental policy has been embedded within an ecological modernisation discourse which links sustainability with notions of 'progress' and efficiency. Under this discourse, the consumer has been repositioned as an important 'political' agent responsible for fostering sustainable consumption and environmental care. Through largely non-political and non-regulatory measures, consumers have been encouraged to reduce their 'carbon footprints' by considering the environmental impacts of their daily personal consumption habits. This approach has individualised and depoliticised environmental issues, obscured the complexities of personal consumption and sustainability, and left limited options for participation in processes of change.

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This thesis examines the relationship between commercial television and the more than-human world at a time when global ecological degradation challenges human well-being and the survival of other species. In the latter half of the twentieth century, television became the means by which most people got to know about society and publicly important events or issues. As billions of people the world over regularly view television the planet’s ice caps, rainforests, soil and oceans continue to be depleted. The research considers three questions aimed at a fuller understanding of the role of commercial television in Western society’s approach to global ecological degradation. What arises from being immersed in the more-than-human world? What arises from encountering the broadcast of commercial television? What arises from being immersed in the world of producing commercial television? The literature on global ecological degradation is substantial; the reasons why Western society is having difficulty coming to terms with the issue is less understood. While quantitative studies of the environmental content of television output have been undertaken, there has not been research into understanding the relationship between ecological awareness, television viewing and commercial television production. This research takes a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to the questions above. Firstly, the researcher immerses himself in the native woodlands and creeks of his immediate vicinity and gradually peels back layers of his perception. He then immerses himself in the world of watching contemporary commercial television and reflecting on his memories of Australian television since 1956. He juxtaposes the content of twenty-four hours of commercial television with personal recollections that reflect both the invisible and sedimented experiences of commercial television. Thirdly, the researcher observes a range of commercial television production environments (News, Advertising and Drama). In doing so he reflects on conversations with and between television executives, directors and scriptwriters who occupy this world. The main findings are that commercial television scriptwriters and personalities hold the most available tools for delivering an Australian-based ecological message through the plot and actions of characters, via a ‘green mise-en-scène’. However, there are severe constraints on this process because of the over-riding importance of ratings. Commercial television is a ratings hungry ‘third parent’ that has increasingly occupied the everydayness of Australian homes since 1956. The invisible technological nature of television has created a particular distance between the production of commercial television and how its mise-en-scène is perceived in domestic Australia, by a population that is technologically and procedurally removed from the more-than-human world. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-166).

Ecosystems across the globe are facing a range of anthropogenically-driven changes, including biotic invasions, urbanisation and land-use alterations, which can affect ecosystem structure and stability. To manage both native species decline and invasive species spread it is imperative that we can accurately predict how current global environmental change will affect biotic communities. I examined effects of different land uses at both landscape- and habitat-scales on native (Culex pervigilans) and exotic (Aedes notoscriptus) mosquito distributions in lentic (standing water) freshwater habitats. Because of the importance of land use on habitat characteristics, I expected different land uses would contain different biotic communities, and that mosquitoes would more likely be present in simple communities with fewer predators. Moreover, because habitat disturbance and modification can significantly influence community structure, I expected less diverse pond communities in habitats within highly modified urban and pasture land uses would also be more likely to contain mosquitoes. I found land use affects mosquito presence, and was likely strongly linked with land-use effects on predator presence and taxon richness. Predators were more common in habitats within native forest and tussock grassland, and mosquitoes were almost entirely restricted to urban and pasture habitats. Moreover, local habitat characteristics had a strong influence on both mosquito and predator presence, with deeper and more open habitats supporting greater predator abundance, thereby excluding mosquito larvae. To further investigate the global of climate change on predator-prey interactions involving Ae. notoscriptus and Cx. pervigilans, I conducted two experiments. Firstly, I measured effects of habitat warming and short- and long-term habitat drying on interactions between the two mosquito species and three predatory invertebrates, Anisops wakefieldi backswimmers, Austrolestes colensonis damselflies, and Procordulia smithii dragonflies, which represented predators characteristic of different habitat drying regimes. A second experiment further tested interactions between A. wakefieldi and the two mosquito species in a wider range of temperatures. There was little evidence that short-term habitat drying affected interaction strengths of any of the predator-prey combinations, but strong evidence for the importance of temperature-mediated predation rates which depended on both predator and prey identities. Here, predators characteristic of more temporary hydroperiods showed temperature-mediated predation responses on the two mosquito species: increasing temperature resulted in greater predation on native Cx. pervigilans but not effect on predation on exotic Ae. notoscriptus. The second experiment revealed, again, that predation depended on both temperature and mosquito species with higher predation occurring at increased temperature, but also indicated life history traits could mediate the overall effect of temperature-mediated predation. Overall, I have shown that interactions between temperature, predator identity and mosquito species will be very important in determining the potential for mosquitoes to invade under a changing climate. Considering effects of both climate change and land-use-driven habitat modification on the invasion potential of mosquitoes in freshwater communities will therefore be important for managing both native species decline and spread of invaders. Moreover, research and management decisions on critical species like mosquitoes will need to encompass multiple drivers of climate change at both global and local scales.

Whether it is internationalisation or globalisation, many South African firms are under constant pressure to enter and compete in foreign markets. For some firms, the decision to internationalise is crucial to the sustainability of the firm and in some instances requires a re-evaluation of the strategic intentions and objectives of the firm. Firms in the civil engineering consultant industry are no different, with many having no logical choice of expansion and growth except to enter foreign markets. For the civil engineering consultant, the acquisition of international projects is somewhat different from domestic projects in that key role players and operational norms in the international arena are relatively unknown and often misunderstood. Many firms attempting to enter foreign markets simply do not undertake the necessary analysis to understand the international environment and fail to formulate a sustainable international strategy. The objective of this dissertation is to analyse those factors contributing to the successful identification and formulation of an international strategy. Whilst the dissertation has a bias to civil engineering consultants it is believed that many of the points and issues highlighted can be used by any firm attempting to breach international markets. In order to provide a suitable conclusion to this dissertation, a case study is analysed. The case in point is the international strategy identification and formulation of Goba Moahloli Keeve Steyn (Pty) Ltd, a multi-disciplinary engineering firm whose aims are to acquire and manage large engineering projects beyond national borders. It is evident from this study that in order to be effective in foreign markets, it is extremely important for consulting engineering firms to have a thorough understanding of the market and to ensure that the most sustainable markets are chosen for possible operation. The design, delivery and implementation of services may have to be tailored to suit the environment within which the firm chooses to operate. The main recommendation of the study is that the consultant engineering firm needs to develop and formulate an international strategy that is consistent with the firm's goals and is one that can be easily adapted to a changing environment. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, [2002]. / "This thesis has been presented in fulfilment of the requirements of a PhD at the University of Western Sydney " Bibliography: leaves 252-279, and Appendices.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Australian National University, 2002.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 308-326). Also available on the Internet.

Univ., Diss.--Lancaster.