The mobile cooling and climate control industry provides a range of diverse solutions concerning the maintenance of temperature for comfortable living and safe transportation of goods over long distances. One of the major focuses of the industry is the transport sector for which products like cooling boxes and mobile air conditioners are exclusively designed for commercial and leisure purposes. However, the associated emissions released due to their use and the impact they have in the wake of the global climate crisis has led the industry to initiate activities and set targets to address this issue. This study aims to draw sustainable strategy recommendations to the mobile cooling and climate control industry by conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of four products and a materiality assessment for a company manufacturing cooling boxes and mobile air conditioners, therefore accelerating the industry’s transition towards sustainability. The objectives are to identify potential material and process-related environmental hotspots over the life cycle of the products and carry out a materiality assessment that identifies topics of materiality for the company, this to outline strategies based on the results of both the LCA and the materiality assessment to improve the company’s sustainability in its operations. The results of the LCA highlighted the role of the use phase as one of the main contributors to the environmental impact from the use of cooling boxes and mobile air conditioners, while the manufacturing of the products and the end-of-life phase are shown to contribute also to the overall impact. Furthermore, different sensitivity scenarios revealed the potential that different materials, the use of batteries and the implementation of a take-back system have to decrease the environmental impacts of the products. From the materiality assessment fourteen material topics were identified to have significance and priority to the company. Based on these results, a total of nine strategies addressing the sustainability of the company and its products were outlined. Across the assessment, three key focus aspects were observed which can facilitate the sustainability transition of the company and industry: energy both in products and operations, collaboration with stakeholders, and circular economy principles and product innovation. Efforts within these areas can potentially improve the industry’s ability to tackle pressures from climate change and the increasing future demand. This study also exemplifies the potential benefits of a synergy between LCA and materiality assessment. It was observed that aiding the materiality assessment with the LCA results provides more tangibility to the results and decreases the subjectivity from the assessment in order to set future sustainability targets. / Mobilkylnings- och klimatkontrollsindustrin erbjuder många lösningar till temperaturhållning för bekvämt boende och säker transport av gods. Ett viktigt fokus för industrin är transportsektorn där produkter som kylboxar och mobil luftkonditionering specialkonstruerad för kommersiell och rekreationell användning. Växthusgasutsläppen från produkterna under användning har mot bakgrund av den globala klimatkrisen fått industrin att sätta mål och starta ett arbete för att minska utsläppen. Den här studien avser att ge hållbara strategier och rekommendationer till mobilkylnings- och klimatkontrollsindustrin genom att genomföra livscykelanalys (LCA) av fyra produkter och en materialanalys till ett företag som tillverkar kylboxar och mobila luftkonditioneringar för att driva industrins övergång till hållbarhet. Målen är att identifiera material- och processrelaterade miljöbelastningar över hela livscykeln av produkterna och genomföra en materialitetstsanalys för att identifiera materialitetsämnen. Utifrån LCA och materialitetsanalysen går att göra strategier att förbättra företagets hållbarhetsarbete. Resultat från LCAn visade vikten av användningsfasen som stod för den största miljöpåverkan från kylboxar or mobil luftkonditionering. Tillverkning och end-of-life hade också påverkan. Känslighetsanalyser visade också den potential materialval, batterianvändning och retursystem har att minska miljöpåverkan från produkter. Fjorton materialitetsämnen utpekades från materialitetsanalysen som viktiga för företaget. Dessa hanteras genom nio strategier som togs fram. Genom analys var tre övergripande fokusområden identifierade som kan underlätta företagets och industris hållbarhetsövergång. De är: energianvändning i både produkterna och företagets arbete, samarbeten med stakeholders samt cirkulär ekonomi och produktinnovation. Ansträngningar inom dessa områden kam förbättra industris förmåga att tackla trycket från klimatkrisen och ökad framtida efterfrågan. Studien visar också på synergin mellan LCA och materialitetsanalys. Att använda resultat från LCA i materialitetsanalysen gav tydligare resultat och minskar subjektiviteten vilket ger bättre förutsättningar när hållbarhetsmål ska sättas.

By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the preponderance of scholarship examining oil paintings made on stone slabs or metal sheets in Western Europe during the early modern period (fifteenth–eighteenth centuries) had settled on an interpretation of these artworks as artifacts of an elite taste that sought objects for inclusion in private collections of whatever was rare, curious, exquisite, or ingenious. In a cabinet of curiosities, naturalia formed by nature and artificialia made by man all complemented each other as demonstrations of marvelous things (mirabilia). Certainly small-scale paintings on stone or metal exhibited amidst these kinds of rarities aided in aggrandizing a noble or bourgeois collector’s social prestige. As well, they might have derived their interest as collectables because of the painter’s fame or increased capacity for miniaturization on copper plates, or because the painter left a slab of lapis lazuli, for example, partially uncovered to reveal its visually arresting stratigraphy or coloration. Nonetheless, while the lithic and metallic supports might have added value to the oil paintings it was not thought to add meaning. A totalizing theory about this type of artwork, based on a perception of them as if they had only served as conspicuous consumables, therefore overlooks that in other circumstances the stone and metal supports did contribute to the iconographic substance of the paintings. As this dissertation will argue, the introduction of metal and stone supports allowed patrons and painters literally to add another layer of meaning to an oil painting’s imagery. These materials mattered not just as passive receptacles of meaning but as active shapers of significance. Evidence for this hypothesis exists in the historical record in at least three identifiable contexts: Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of Ginevra de’Benci (ca. 1474–1478) in relation to the epistemological debate known as the Paragone; funerary monuments in Roman churches inclusive of painted portraits in relation to theories about color and lifelikeness; medallion-shaped, chest plates known as Escudos de monjas (Nuns’ Shields) worn by nuns of some religious orders in Colonial Mexico in relation to pre-Hispanic sacral materials. All three of these case studies ultimately concern the paradoxical materialization of the immaterial fame of the painter, the soul of the deceased, and the Christian divine. Observing them in tandem provides an outline of the origins and development of the technique of painting with oils on stone and metal, and consequently broadens our understanding of this wider, early modern phenomenon. / Art History

In interpretations of The Dance of Life (1899-1900) by Edvard Munch, the femme fragile and the femme fatale have been considered jointly (i.e. as allusions to the cyclicality of life) or as individuals. Their unique characteristics have been recognized as such: whereas the femme fragile dons white to signify her prepubescent state and thus her innocence, the femme fatale wears red to suggest her sexuality and even her availability. Yet, scholars have failed to probe their iconographical complexities. Doing so would not only lend greater conviction to Munch’s historical identity as a Symbolist (as his archetypes would be recognized for their multivalence), but it would also reveal the didactic possibilities of the work of art itself. Given this void in the literature, the purpose of this thesis will be to elaborate on the formal and narrative qualities of the femme fragile and femme fatale in this painting. These archetypes ultimately allude to misogynistic anxieties, with the femme fragile in particular representing the sickly female body. / Art History

[pt] Este trabalho observa as relações sociais entre crianças de cinco e seis anos com seus brinquedos e brincadeiras a partir de um trabalho de campo etnográfico em um Espaço de Desenvolvimento Infantil na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Desta forma, investiga-se como as mesmas compreendem, contribuem e constroem suas noções de masculino e feminino com base na percepção de que as crianças se constroem junto de suas coisas. Recorrendo às contribuições de Butler (2019; 2003) de que através de práticas altamente reguladas o sexo vai sendo materializado, reiterado e reforçado, abre-se possibilidades de se transcender tais normas regulatórias. As crianças, por sua vez, sendo atores sociais que se relacionam com todas essas dimensões da sociedade, também se apropriam e performatizam o gênero, oferecendo, inclusive, formas outras de ser e estar no mundo. Apoiando-se nas elaborações de Miller (2013) e Mizrahi (2007) de que, para tornar possível a constituição de nosso próprio self necessitamos lançar mão de artefatos e objetos materiais, e de que o uso dos artefatos permitem tornar o gênero performativo, busca-se demonstrar de que maneira as crianças concebem o que é ser menino e o que é ser menina, considerando que as relações das crianças com seus brinquedos auxiliam na formação de suas noções de gênero. A partir disso, o trabalho elabora a respeito de gênero com e a partir das crianças e suas relações entre si e com seus objetos. / [en] This work observes the social relationships among five and six year-old children with their toys and games based on an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Child Development Space in Rio de Janeiro city. Thus, it investigates how they understand, contribute to, and construct their notions of masculinity and femininity based on the perception that children construct themselves alongside their things. Drawing on Butler s contributions (2019; 2003) that through highly regulated practices, sex is materialized, reiterated, and reinforced, possibilities are opened to transcend such regulatory norms. Children, in turn, being social actors who relate to all these dimensions of society, also appropriate and perform gender, offering alternative ways of being and existing in the world. Building on Miller s (2013) and Mizrahi s (2007) elaborations that to make possible the constitution of our own selves we need to make use of artifacts and material objects, and that the use of artifacts allows gender to be performative, the aim is to demonstrate how children conceive what it means to be a boy and what it means to be a girl, considering that children s relationships with their toys assist in the formation of their gender notions. From this perspective, the work elaborates on gender with and from the perspective of children and their relationships with each other and with their objects.

This thesis is an attempt to explore post industrial society and how modern industry can become part of the urban experience. Through the design of a nanotechnology research laboratory, I was able to discover a connection between modern architecture and nanotechnology which revolved around the topics of scale, layering and revealing. / Master of Architecture

This thesis offers a preliminary argument for materiality as the primary medium through which landscape architecture is experienced. An original theory, Transformative Materiality, posits that landscape experience may be heightened, making people more aware of and engaged with their surroundings, if design encourages the changing of materials over time through temporal landscape processes (such as erosion and deposition). Resulting landscape phenomena may translate into passive education about the effects of naturalistic material transformation. And any gained experiential knowledge of the landscape, might, in turn, become a source of meaningful, personal connection to the landscape, potentially inspiring appreciation and stewardship. The theoretical development and argumentation for Transformative Materiality is preceded by its application in the final thesis design project, to provide a basis for common reference. The Beach Outfalls Challenge competition serves to provide a site and problem: the Mississippi commercial beach system, and stormwater management through the immediate beach environment. Three materials, sand, wind, and water, are studied in relation to landscape processes that are purposefully employed to encourage change in the landscape’s material form over time. The final design is a landscape technology that harnesses material processes in order to perform environmental services of cleaning stormwater and creating new habitat, while allowing such processes to diversify material form for a range of phenomena and consequent opportunities for experiential education that may lead to a holistic understanding of the landscape as a dynamic, responsive system. / Master of Landscape Architecture / One may observe and learn how nature works, by noticing its transformations over time. Seeing a rock smoothed into a pebble by rushing river water, or finding a fallen tree being broken down by insects. Noticing weeds pop up from cracks in the sidewalk, or seeing a whole forest turn shades of red in the Fall. These experiences offer a passive, informal education about what nature is, what it can do, and how it works. They may be the initial experiences that spark one’s curiosity, and eventually lead to a deeper connection, investigation, or stewardship of their natural environment. Seeing nature transform itself over time is the basis for a new design theory, called Transformative Materiality. With this theory, design is driven primarily by the materials in a site (rocks, soils, water, plants, etc.) and how they may interact through natural processes in the landscape. Natural processes, such as erosion, deposition, and succession allow each material to transform over time. Visitors may connect each process with its visible effects on landscape materials over time, affording a passive, informal education about nature through direct experience. The designed project, on a beach in Mississippi, uses stormwater runoff from urban areas to flow over sand, across the beach surface. Water flow to the ocean is aided by processes of sand accumulation and dune formation, which help contain the spread of water. Wooden pilings encourage processes of whirling and sand carving, to intentionally create deeper areas of water flow and collection. Introduced water helps irrigate new plant communities, which stabilize dunes, filter water, and create new insect and bird habitats. A minimalistic design framework encourages each process to work together constructively, and visitors experience a continually evolving progression of landscape transformation over time.

This project is a celebration. Inspired by time spent in Baltimore, this thesis examines how standardized elements can be utilized to create Architecture and make astute, functional, contextually sensitive, and pleasurable design accessible for all. With the heavy, stuccoed buildings of New Orleans as precedent, the Neutral Grounds Market utilizes CMUs for both practical and aesthetic purposes. Drawing from a rich lineage of structural polychromy and through knitting CMUs together into a subtle pattern, the building speaks to its colorful context, despite the lack of CMU structures in the area. Weaving ethics and aesthetics, the site sits within a Food Desert and this thesis begins at the seam of three neighborhoods - Freret, Milan, and Uptown. Block by block varies tremendously within these neighborhoods, and the static images of both the opulence and desolation of New Orleans becomes clear here. Aiming to bring not only fresh food into the neighborhood, but to work realistically within the diverse backgrounds of the residents’ lives, the program integrates a Farmer’s Market with a Grocery Store so fresh food will constantly be available and can meet the needs of all the citizens. In addressing context as a matter of both the material, built environment and the personal, human milieu this thesis addresses the economic and the emotional as a pair, realizing the importance of each. This integrated program creates a new civic space which will bolster the vibrant growth already begun on Freret St. and throughout the neighborhoods. This project is a celebration. / Master of Architecture / This project is a celebration. Inspired by time spent in Baltimore, this thesis examines how standardized elements can be utilized to create Architecture and make astute, functional, contextually sensitive, and pleasurable design accessible for all.

Abstract Background: The European Commission has released the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent, targeting a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The directive shifts sustainability reporting from a voluntary to mandatory framework, significantly expanding the range of companies to report. The implementation has gradually started in 2024.   Purpose: The study aims to investigate how Swedish consultancy firms are implementing the CSRD regulations among their clients and how the new regulations are communicated. Understanding this implementation phase can provide insights to manage stakeholder relationships and institutional pressure to remain competitive.  Method: Adopting an interpretivist paradigm, this case study uses Stakeholder and Institutional Theory to explore CSRD implementation among consultancy firms, clients, and other stakeholders. Qualitative interviews were conducted, followed by thematic analysis to identify key mechanisms for implementing the new reporting standards. Conclusion: The findings conclude that sustainability reporting has transitioned from a strategic choice to an institutional requirement. Companies now depend on sustainability consultants to develop strategies for complying with CSRD. Additionally, stakeholder engagement within companies becomes improved with the implementation of CSRD.

Yes / In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of ‘critical performativity’, a concept designed to debate relationships between theory and practice and encourage practical interventions in organizational life. Notwithstanding its laudable ambition to stimulate discussion about engagement between CMS researchers and practitioners, we are concerned that critical performativity theory is flawed as it misreads foundational performativity authors, such as Austin and Butler, in ways that nullify their political potential, and ignores a range of other influential theories of performativity. It also overlooks the materiality of performativity. We review these limitations and then use three illustrations to sketch out a possible alternative conceptualization of performativity. This alternative approach, which builds on Butler’s and Callon’s work on performativity, recognises that performativity is about the constitution of subjects, is an inherently material and discursive construct, and happens through the political engineering of sociomaterial agencements. We argue that such an approach – a political theory of organizational performativity – is more likely to deliver on both theoretical and practical fronts than the concept of critical performativity.

Yes / In this rejoinder, we draw attention to some of the possible performative effects of Spicer et  al.’s (2016) commentary and reaffirm the importance, in our eyes, of the fundamentally political and material dimensions of performativity.