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Against the backdrop of the imperatives for actors within the institutional framework of energy socio-technical systems to engage with the public, the aim of this paper is to consider interdependencies between the principles and practice of engagement and the nature of the imagined publics with whom engagement is being undertaken. Based on an analysis of 19 interviews with actors in the renewable energy industry, the paper explores how publics are imagined in the construction of the rationales, functions and mechanisms for public engagement. Three main themes are identified. First, the perceived necessity of engagement – which is not contingent on public responsiveness. Second, engagement is primarily conceptualised in terms of instrumental motives of providing information and addressing public concern. Third, preferences for engagement mechanisms were often a function of the specific characteristics attributed to imagined publics. Implications of this analysis for future engagement around siting renewable energy technologies are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper empirically tests the extent to which economic restructuring and gentrification affect viability and vulnerability businesses, with specific focus on arts and cultural industries in West Chelsea from 2000 through 2012. Based on the theoretical framework, gentrification stage model and adopting discrete-time survival analysis, we separately compare the risks of opening and closing between businesses established before/early stage of revitalisation (early-arrivers) and those established in the later stage (late-arrivers) within West Chelsea, versus their counterparts in the remainder of the study area in New York. We find that West Chelsea has been an advantageous location overall for late-arrivers in surviving in their market, while the early-arrived gallery and individual artists’ enterprises have faced a higher risk of their operations closing. On the other hand, a higher proportion of new gallery and arts and cultural industries remain attracted to West Chelsea after 2000, suggesting that firms in those industries may be benefiting from the agglomeration effects and localisation economies associated with colocation. The higher opening probability of lodging venues (e.g. hotels) and other amenities signals an overall transformation of the neighbourhood and influx of new uses (and visitors) observed during this time frame. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the results of comparative empirical research on the emergence of new institutional arrangements on what we might call the 'borderlines between research and industry', in the context (especially) of radical economic liberalization in the Czech Republic. The research focused on creative links between academic and industrial research, the exploitation of research by industry, and the growth of new intermediary institutions between these two spheres. The paper analyzes the potential for such developments by looking at the institutional shaping of different sectors of the research system, the environment of centralist regulatory practices before 1989, and their de-institutionalizaton following radical economic reform in the early 1990s. The latter process has had a mobilizing effect, prompting (among other thing) a number of local 'bottom-up' initiatives - which, in various ways, promise to enhance links between research and industry - in response to pressures on the research system. Three exemplary cases are described (from industrial, academy and university research respectively) in order to illustrate both the opportunities and the limits to such developments. It is argued in conclusion that additional, 'top-down' efforts are required if this potential is to be fully realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years of controversy have established the Hawthorne Experiments as industrial sociology's most durable legend and Elton Mayo as one of its most enigmatic figures. The precise pan played by Mayo has been the subject of widely different interpretations both favourable and unfavourable. New evidence from his personal papers and from the Hawthorne archives support the view that his was a central role in developing as well as publicising the Experiments. This is confirmed by new information about (1) the frequency and duration of his visits to the plant (2) his close collaboration with Western Electric executives (3) his part in the presentation and publication of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the meaning and implications of Bourdieu’s construct of the field of power and integrate it into a wider conception of the formation and functioning of elites at the highest level in society. Corporate leaders active within the field of power hold prominent roles in numerous organizations, constituting an ‘elite of elites’, whose networks integrate powerful participants from different fields. As ‘bridging actors’, they form coalitions to determine institutional settlements and societal resource flows. We ask how some corporate actors (minority) become hyper-agents, those actors who ‘make things happen’, while others (majority) remain ‘ordinary’ members of the elite. Three hypotheses are developed and tested using extensive data on the French business elite. Social class emerges as persistently important, challenging the myth of meritocratic inclusion. Our primary contribution to Bourdieusian scholarship lies in our analysis of hyper-agents, revealing the debts these dominants owe to elite schools and privileged classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article critically examines the application of the individualization thesis to China. Factors presented in support of the case for Chinese individualization are shown to be either ambiguous or, on examination, counter-indicators. Family transformations from the Mao period to the present maintain family obligation. Labour migration, rather than leading to individualization expresses family commitment. Rights awareness similarly provides no clear evidence of individualization while rural and labour struggles around collective rights do not support the thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the close relationship between the Australian and New Zealand business communities to ask whether the relationship is best characterized as simply e bi-lateral trading relationship, or whether there is evidence of the formation of a transnational business community. This article also seeks to explore the nature of Australia-New Zealand integration, and specifically the degree to which the relationship is interdependent or asymmetrical. Data are drawn from quantitative sources - including a dataset developed from the IBISWorld's Largest 2000 Enterprises in Australia and New Zealand. Who's Who in Australia, and Who's Who in Business in Australia - and qualitative sources, including interviews with business and policy elites. Our findings are that the relationship between the Australian and New Zealand business communities is much deeper than a bi-lateral trading relationship, but also falls short of forming one transnational community. We also find that the relationship is substantially asymmetrical in nature, raising concerns among a number of New Zealand business executives about New Zealand sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the process of manufacturing fatness as a correctable problem and what might it mean among men in everyday life and its irrational relation with mcdonaldization. As observed on the research, there is still some space for resistance during the war on obesity. The irrational correlation between medical fatness and mcdonaldization is still rational in nature if leaned against the worst features of mcdonaldization.

We address a problem examined by sociologists of ‘Big Science’: the coordination of individuals on large-scale projects—in this case, industrial technology projects. We consider co-ordination to be a problem of social order which can be addressed through ethnomethodology's understanding of accountable action. We propose that the technology producers studied attend to the problem of the coordination of their work in the design of their actions and interactions as organizationally accountable. We subsequently examine the methodical practices through which they interrelate their actions within an organizational context, and thus organize the co-ordination of their technological work and the production of their technology outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]