This study focuses on persuasive design concerning the household users&rsquo / energy saving behavior while using electrical household appliances for the housework. Household users form a balance at home determined by the household resources they have, and they do not want to change this fragile balance because it is established as a result of household users&rsquo / habitual behavior. It is crucial to persuade household users to save energy at home without disturbing the balance among resources. Persuasion becomes an effective tool at this stage. The study provides an efficient reallocation of the resources for energy saving behavior, which is supported by household resource reallocation and persuasion literature, and an empirical study.

As the situation of politics and economy becomes more and more unstable in Taiwan, people have higher criticism and expectation to government efficiency. However, both of Taipei Household Registration Office and Department of Health Kaohsiung City Government have successfully implemented many innovations in organization and started the initial change in less than 3 years. Thus, this research tries to analyze why and how innovations could be diffused efficiently in these two government organizations and started the change. This research collects abundant data and information through studying documents and many deep interviews at first. Then, these data or information are made a static analysis by Everett M. Rogers¡¦ theory of Diffusion of Innovations and Innovation Process in Organizations, and a dynamic analysis by Casual Loop Diagrams of Systmes Thinking. All analyses include the comparison of these two cases. There are 15 findings as followed: 1. Creating can bring better performance than problem-solving. 2. Characteristics of innovations and inertia of organization will affect the speed of innovations diffusion and the acceptability of innovations. 3. Both of innovations and organization will be modified to fit each other. 4. The leader is the most influent point for diffusion of innovations in bureaucracy. 5. The leader sets an example with his/her own conduct and starts change from small things can be helpful to diffusion of innovations. 6. The leader persistence of innovations is helpful to diffusion of innovations. 7. How the leader diffuses innovations is a process of dynamic coordination. 8. The leader is a designer of loops. 9. Different cases have similar key successful loops and key successful factors because they have the same structure of bureaucracy. 10. Structure can help and block leaders to diffuse and implement innovations in bureaucracy. 11. The innovation process in organization should be observed in a larger structure or system. 12. Reports of Media can motivate employees effectively and facilitate the phenomenon of ¡§lock-in¡¨. 13. Examination and evolution have much efficiency in changing employees¡¦ behaviors in bureaucracy. However, what can change employees¡¦ attitude often are others¡¦ appreciation, work results or leader¡¦s moral integrity. 14. Reports of Media, education training and visits can break the closed system of bureaucracy. This is helpful for diffusion of innovations in organization. 15. No matter the focal point of innovations is on easy and small things whose results are obvious, or on fundamental, long-term and more difficult things such as system and value change, ¡Ketc, all can result in profound changes in organizations. Moreover, this research also finds whether ¡§democratization¡¨, ¡§media¡¨, and ¡§bureaucracy¡¨ will bring good or bad contribution, these three things aren¡¦t the point and the most important thing is how we use them. We should take the responsibility by ourselves.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves [382]-405.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning). Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

The geographical distance between home and workplace is present and increases within modern society. Along with changing economic structures and technological developments it has increased the spatial division of labour and changed the pressure on global, regional and local markets. Regional development strategies today emphasize on more mobile, flexible and larger geographical labour markets to improve matchmaking between jobs and labour force to reach and obtain development. Commuting has therefore increased and is often promoted as a positive solution for involved individuals and the regional society at large. Although, the notion and benefits of such regional development strategies have been questioned as commuting involves a consideration between economic and social circumstances and effects on all involved household members. The social and economic effects on commuting households in Umeå enlarged local labour market region have therefore been studied in and investigated in this thesis. Empirical data has been collected through qualitative interviews with four commuting households with different home-work locations and commuting situations. Results of this study goes in line with previous studies and pictures how commuting is a strategy to obtain or maintain desired living conditions within desired location when the local labour opportunities are limited. Commuting households therefore gain “quality of life” and labour opportunities. But, the economic benefits are reduced by transport costs and reduction of labour hours, and the social consequences of reduced time in the home environment effects relations between family members and the division of household responsibilities’. This study have also broaden the understanding of commuting effects and showed that shorter commuting distance also hold social and economic implications for commuting households.

This study aims to evaluate the waste management in Norrbottens municipalities in key areas such as possibilities to reach the two national waste goals, information to the public, the effect of legislation, future of waste management and differences in geographic- and demographic areas. The Waste Framework Directive (WFD) issued by the EU and incorporated into Swedish law plays a major part in waste management by defining a hierarchy in five steps how waste should be treated. Interviews conducted with each of the fourteen municipalities aimed to find out what step in the hierarchy they are at and what effect the implementation of EU-legislature into Swedish law has had. Based on the interviews a diverse range of answers was found in relation to the questions asked, generally the more populated municipalities saw a more positive future of waste management, mainly because more developed infrastructure to handle waste is already in place. However the smaller the municipality is the harder it is to allocate resources for waste management and problems arise in the form of expensive transports of waste. A few municipalities think that the WFD has had a positive effect in the form of clearer responsibility for all parties involved in waste management but in general the answers point to a greater effect on a national level rather than a local. Regarding the national waste goals 7 of 14 municipalities believe they will reach the food waste goal but only 1 of 14 believe they will reach the construction waste goal.

Studies of food insecurity have frequently focused on rural dwellers as vulnerable populations. However, during the ‘global food crisis’ of 2007-2008, riots in more than 50 countries visibly demonstrated the vulnerability of urban populations to food insecurity due to rapidly rising food prices. This study examines factors associated with participation in an urban garden project (UGP), utilizing surveys (n=61) and in-depth household interviews (n=37) to examine food security and dietary diversity of households in urban Lesotho. Households that participated in the garden project were more food insecure and had lower dietary diversity than those that did not participate. However, it cannot be determined if participation in the project caused this difference, or if households already experiencing these issues self-selected to participate. Factory workers households, which make up a large part of the target population, did not appear to be much difference between factory worker and non-factory worker households. More female-headed households than male-headed households were categorized as severely food insecure and experienced lower levels of dietary diversity, though this difference is not statistically significant. Because the study did not utilize random sampling, the findings cannot be generalized. Nonetheless, they provide important direction for future studies. Lack of awareness was the primary barrier to participation in the project. Another barrier was not having enough time to attend demonstrations, to plant, or to tend a garden. Time constraints were often work-related but sometimes included to other obligations such as attending funerals. Participants in the urban garden project were very knowledgeable about the costs and benefit of participating, reported having taught others how to replicate the gardens, and had even shared seeds with friends and neighbors. Despite the project having started a mere six weeks before the time of this study, and the fact that the garden demonstrations were being held during the winter season in Lesotho, UGP participants reported having already eaten and sold leafy greens from their gardens.  Key areas for follow up study include a randomized, longitudinal examination of participation in the garden program, as well as an evaluation of the effectiveness of the project. Further, an examination of coping strategies such as the use of funerals as a source of food also deserves systematic study. Finally, there should be consideration of how information is disseminated to communities, with careful examination of what defines “community” and how social networks strongly influence the distribution of knowledge about such projects.

In recent years, a growing proportion of the population has moved into gated communities in response to an increasingly pandemic fear of crime. While a sizable body of research has addressed fear of crime and perceived safety in gated communities, few studies have investigated actual rates of victimization. The studies that do compare victimization in gated and non-gated communities tend to be localized assessments and present mixed findings on the effectiveness of community gating as a form of protection from crime. The present study utilizes a cross-section of National Crime Victimization Survey data to investigate the micro-level effects of living in gated communities across the United States. Additionally, a routine activities approach is used to determine whether increasing levels of guardianship exhibit differential effects in gated versus non-gated communities. Findings from logit and rare events logit regression analyses generally suggest that living in a gated community does not significantly influence the likelihood of victimization, although in some cases the odds either increased or decreased. Other measures of guardianship exhibit a variety of positive and negative effects on victimization likelihood. Suggestions for future research on gated communities and victimization include more comprehensive measurement of community- and household-level security as well as taking account of community characteristics such as informal social control and residential solidarity. Policy implications from this research include greater attention to gated community design and layout in order to reduce the likelihood of residents being victimized. In addition, residents may benefit from education on the actual risks of crime and realistic steps to reduce the likelihood of being targeted by potential offenders.