Industry Proponents Research Articles

“Unless you get to know us, you’re not going to know our passion”

In British Columbia, First Nation consultation is formally operationalized through land referrals, a system by which governments and industry proponents share information with First Nations about specific developments on their territories. Using the lenses of equal capacity, social learning, and Indigenous knowledge, this research examines land referrals processes on Nadleh Whut’en First Nation Territory to explore experiences with current consultation practices. Despite efforts to move towards equal decision-making authority over First Nation Territories, consultation remains a key aspect of Indigenous-Crown relations and it is critical that planners enhance their understanding of the duty to consult. Interviews with Nadleh Whut’en knowledge holders and land users and forestry key informants highlight deficiencies in the referrals process as a vehicle for engaging communities in decision making. Challenges include short timelines that manufacture false consent and a lack of cross-cultural dialogue centered on community values and needs. This research fills a gap by advancing understandings of the technical and procedural details of current consultation practice, including where it falls short in protecting Aboriginal rights and how such shortcomings impact people’s lives.

Fossil Fuels and Fossil Kin: An Environmental Kin Study of Weaponised Fossil Kin and Alberta’sSo‐Called“Energy Resources Heritage”

AbstractAlberta produces 80% of the crude oil extracted in Canada. Canadian resource industry proponents and governments claim to be climate leaders, but Canada produces the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions of all G20 countries, and is among the top ten carbon dioxide producers globally. Much of this pollution can be tied back to Alberta’s petro‐economy, an industry whose fossil wealth dates back millions of years to a time when flora and fauna were deposited in the lands and waters that Alberta now claims. Expanding on my earlier work on oil, gas, water, fish, and the Cree legal‐ethical principle of wahkohtowin in Alberta’s fossil‐scapes, this article examines what happens when the weaponised fossil kin of Alberta’s fossil and petro‐deposits are extracted and transformed into waste and pollution that disrupt reciprocal relationalities between human and nonhuman beings in Alberta’s watersheds, landscapes, atmospheres, and beyond.

Status Quo Sorrows: The Failures of Energy Project Consultations and Reconciliatory Paths Forward

Canada’s prevailing Aboriginal consultation regime for major energy projects is not working. Indeed, Indigenous peoples, industry proponents, and the Crown have all expressed increasing frustration and dismay at the uncertainty and acrimony that a legal regime intended to facilitate reconciliation between Canada and Indigenous peoples has counterproductively generated. In this paper, I describe the underlying principles of a process-oriented reconciliation that animate the Court’s jurisprudence on section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. I then identify the failures in effectively translating these principles to the major energy context, focusing in particular on the harms generated by the lack of accountability and transparency of the National Energy Board/Canada Energy Regulator administrative scheme. I finally consider two alternatives or additions to contemporary resource project consultations – namely, Impact and Benefit Agreements (IBAs) and a proposed Indigenous veto – finding that an Indigenous veto may be an especially effective means of introducing greater equity, fairness, and certainty to major energy project development in Canada, to the benefit of all relevant stakeholders.

Impact and benefit agreements in natural resource development: a way to fulfil the ILO 169 benefit-sharing duty?

This article examines whether impact and benefit agreements (IBAs) between industry proponents and indigenous communities, a common standard in natural resource development in Canada, could be a way to fulfil the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 benefit-sharing duty in Latin America, as many suggest. The article begins by analysing and determining the main features of this duty. It also reviews the key components of IBAs against the backdrop of the ILO Convention 169 benefit-sharing duty, concluding that it would be problematic to think of these agreements as ways to fulfil the obligation established in ILO Convention No. 169.

Governing energy transitions in Australia: Low carbon innovation and the role for intermediary actors

High solar Photovoltaic (PV) penetration and expensive electricity rates have positioned Australia to become the number one market for battery storage in the world. To date however, there has been little research that explores the governance of such energy transitions in the Australian context. This paper explores the role of intermediary actors through a case study of battery storage in Canberra, one of the first such projects in Australia which is rolling out energy storage to more than 5000 homes and businesses. Drawing on empirical research, the paper focuses on industry proponents and draws out a tripartite framing of industry-industry, industry-government, and industry-consumer relationships to explore the process of intermediation and consider how this extends the capacity of these actors beyond their traditional roles. The findings highlight both visible and invisible roles for intermediary actors, which have important implications for governance in terms of responsibility and transparency. Overall, the paper provides new insights into how intermediation is shaping the dynamics of energy transitions and facilitating technological innovation in Australia.

Reinvestment, Resource “Rushes,” and the Inalienability of Place: Land’s Active Layerings in Mozambique

For industry proponents, the Xinavane Sugar Mill, Mozambique’s largest sugar estate, has been rehabilitated from postconflict subsistence farming to agroindustrial productivity. Such investment-oriented narratives seek to erase earlier land dispossessions and uneven accumulation. Drawing ethnographic research together with Mozambican Land Cadaster and archival documents, this article rethinks land and place to challenge the global resource “rush” literatures, taking seriously the layers of investment, disinvestment, and reinvestment that enable contemporary financial flows. The article argues to understand land in its historical layerings, to examine how colonial legacy in southern Africa configures land use today. Analyzing three waves of Xinavanian investment, the article examines dispossession, contestation, and plantation expansions and contractions, to yield two key interventions. First, rather than providing mere background to today’s investment and land transformations, Xinavane’s historical layers actively produce the possibilities and limits for making land an investable commodity. Second, through fictions of capitalist success wrought by land and labor control, capitalist state–private efforts have sought to alienate Xinavane. This has been a repeated attempt to resignify Xinavane from being a deeply rooted, heterogeneous African place, to a space of capitalist industrial placelessness. Residents assert, however, that Xinavane cannot be rent from its multivalent meanings and social fabrics, disrupting these capitalist-centric fictions. Xinavanians maintain that land, and place, are in fact inalienable.

People, Pipelines, and Probabilities: Clarifying Significance and Uncertainty in Environmental Impact Assessments.

Determinations of significance play a pivotal role in environmental impact assessments because they point decision makers to the predicted effects of an action most deserving of attention and further study. Impact predictions are always subject to uncertainty because they rely on estimates of future consequences. Yet uncertainty is often neglected or treated in a perfunctory manner as part of the characterization, evaluation, and communication of anticipated consequences and their significance. Proposals to construct fossil fuel pipelines in North America provide a highly visible example; casual treatment of how uncertainty affects significance determinations has resulted in poorly informed stakeholders, frustrated industry proponents, and inconsistent choices on the part of public decision makers. Using environmental assessments for recent pipeline proposals as examples, we highlight five ways in which uncertainty is often neglected when determining impact significance and suggest that a mix of known methods, new guidelines, and appropriate oversight could greatly improve current practices.

Determining the impacts of coal seam gas extraction on water resources and water-dependent assets

As recently as two years ago, there were numerous proposals to develop coal seam gas projects across eastern Australia. Today the picture is very different. While significant coal seam gas development has occurred in the Surat Basin, Metgasco has surrendered their licences and AGL have indicated that they will not proceed in Gloucester. The only coal seam gas development that is still proceeding in NSW is Santos’s proposal in the Liverpool Plains (Namoi). However, recent developments in Australian Government policy to increase gas supply on the eastern seaboard means that the results of these assessments will inform future decisions. Research carried out as part of the Bioregional Assessment Programme (BAP) has shown some surprising results in the Richmond River (Clarence-Moreton bioregion) regarding the potential impacts of coal seam gas development on the water resources and water-dependent assets of that region. This study will show how we developed a groundwater and surface water cumulative impact model in the Clarence-Moreton bioregion, and present the key findings from that modelling. Similar cumulative impact assessments are currently underway in the Maranoa-Balonne-Condamine, Gloucester, Hunter, Galilee, and Namoi regions and we expect these to be published by late 2017. As part of a core tenet of transparency in the BAP, the data collected and models developed as part of these assessments will be freely available for Industry proponents, State regulators and other interested parties to access and utilise. The Surat cumulative management area in south-eastern Queensland has provided a structure for developing coal seam gas resources while protecting water resources via a cumulative approach to management. We propose that the models we have developed would provide the basis of a similar structure to assess and manage cumulative impacts in regions across Australia that may see coal seam gas or other forms of unconventional gas development.

Managing Mobile Banking to Address the Needs and Protect the Vulnerability of Poor People in Bangladesh

Mobile banking places a wide set of financial services – transferring money for savings, investment, paying bills, to relatives – into the palm of a person’s hand. Mobile money transfers have rapidly grown in Kenya, Tanzania, the Philippines, and is set to grow rapidly in Bangladesh in the next few years. Proponents of mobile banking such as the Gates Foundation (2015), World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim (World Bank 2015), and the G20 report (Klapper and Singer 2014) are claiming that this technology has the potential to make a significant dent in poverty. Regarding the impact on citizens, the G20 report identifies benefits (e.g., lower costs, increased control, and increased women’s empowerment) and challenges (e.g., limited consumer knowledge, customer experience, and gender disparities to mobile phone users) (Klapper and Singer 2014). The report highlights the role of government and business but does not identify the critical role of development practitioners. Moreover, most of the work regarding mobile banking is being undertaken by industry proponents (Duncombe 2012). And new technologies – such as the green revolution, agricultural mechanization, the internet – have had a mixed impact on poor people. Mobile banking’s rapid growth and the mixed poverty alleviation record of other technologies mean that it is essential for development practitioners to engage in planning, implementation and evaluating the impact of mobile banking to ensure it benefits poor people. Development practitioners can play an important role regarding mobile banking to ensure that it meets the needs of poor people, that it builds on their capacities, and that it protects their vulnerabilities.

What is the social licence to operate? Local perceptions of oil and gas projects in Russia’s Komi Republic and Sakhalin Island

Oil and gas companies are increasingly aware of the need to earn the trust of local communities and secure a ‘social licence to operate’ in addition to formal legal licenses and permits. By comparing two case studies from the Russian North and Far East, the aim of this paper is to explore local perspectives on what constitutes a social licence and to better understand how a social licence is established in a particular local context. The paper concludes that the success of efforts to establish a social licence that benefits all parties depends on local expectations and historical experience in particular socio-cultural and political contexts. It depends on the willingness of all parties, including government, to engage in constructive dialogue; the ability of industry proponents to understand local needs and culture; and the ability of local stakeholders to actively shape relations and outcomes to reflect their own values and expectations. The case studies also demonstrate that a social licence may be in place where trust relations do not exist between industry, government and society, suggesting that the term ‘social licence’ may be only partially useful as an analytical concept for understanding and defining the responsibilities of business towards society.

SCM competencies in construction: issues and challenges in New Zealand

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the nature and extent of current practice of construction supply chain management (CSCM) in the New Zealand (NZ) construction industry; consequently, to examine the challenges and issues that the industry is confronted in implementing an efficient CSCM. The construction industry, which contributes around 5 per cent to gross domestic product, is a vitally important industry in NZ. With over 50,000 businesses, the construction industry is the third largest industry by business count in NZ’s economy (Statistics New Zealand, 2009). Although it is widely accepted that productivity can be improved by adoption of effective supply chain management (SCM), no studies have investigated this at the tactical level in the NZ context. Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach is used for probing SCM practice on a NZ$75-million commercial project located in Auckland Central Business District. The supply chain network of the principal ground works and superstructure construction stages was studied. Findings – The key findings of the case study suggest that the flow of materials remains the main focus of CSCM practice. It was found that essential skills training for CSCM was extremely limited and largely ill-defined in terms of its nature and content. Finally, it was identified that as the NZ construction industry moves towards a significantly more collaborative framework, the efficacy of CSCM operations is expected to substantially improve. However, this last point did not negate the requirement to expand and improve skills training in CSCM. Originality/value – The results of the case study present that our best industry proponents are inadequate in their knowledge of CSCM as a result of education and training. This is a key issue that needs to be addressed through education at all levels. Similarly, they have virtually nil capability with logistics and the efficiency of transportation as a result of standard contractual costing procedures. Until the SCM/logistics knowledge gap is recognised and addressed, the improvements in logistics and, therefore, SCM will not occur in the NZ construction industry. That said, the findings related to partnering and collaborative thinking in NZ are encouraging. NZ has these elements largely in place already and a willingness to engage, particularly in alliances, in the future. It remains to be seen whether there will be sufficient energy expended in NZ by the leading players to create effective partnering and alliancing through improving SCM and logistics competencies.

DOES SIZE REALLY MATTER? A REVIEW OF THE ROLE OF STAKE AND PRIZE LEVELS IN RELATION TO GAMBLING-RELATED HARM

Regulatory and industry decisions influencing commercial gambling activities require clear understanding of the role that stakes and prizes play in the development and facilitation of gambling-related harm. Although industry proponents argue for increases in stakes and prizes to meet market demands, regulators remain cautious about the potential implication for gambling-related harm, while industry opponents generally condemn relaxing aspects of gambling policies. To inform this debate, this paper provides a critical examination of the relevant literature. From the review, it is concluded that limitations of the existing literature restrict our ability to draw definitive conclusions regarding the effects of stake and prize variables. Most studies contain multiple, methodological limitations, the most significant of which are diluted risk and reward scenarios used in analogue research settings not reflective of real gambling situations. In addition, there is a lack of conceptual clarity regarding many constructs, particularly the parameters defining jackpots, and the interactive nature and effect of the differing configurations of game parameters and environments are often not taken into consideration when investigating changes to one or more variables. Notwithstanding these limitations, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that stake and prize levels merit consideration in relation to harm minimisation efforts. However, substantial knowledge gaps currently exist, particularly in relation to understanding staking and prize thresholds for risky behaviour, how the impact of stakes and prizes change depending on the configuration and interaction of other game characteristics, and the role of individual and situational determinants. Based on the potential risk factors and the implications for commercial appeal, a player-focussed harm minimisation response may hold the most promise for future research and evaluation in jurisdictions where gambling is a legal and legitimate leisure activity.

CAFOs and Environmental Justice: The Case of North Carolina

On the coastal plain of eastern North Carolina, families in certain rural communities daily must deal with the piercing, acrid odor of hog manure—reminiscent of rotten eggs and ammonia—wafting from nearby industrial hog farms. On bad days, the odor invades homes, and people are often forced to cover their mouths and noses when stepping outside. Sometimes, residents say, a fine mist of manure sprinkles nearby homes, cars, and even laundry left on the line to dry.1 Today’s industrial-scale farms—called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—house thousands of animals whose waste is periodically applied to “spray fields” of Bermuda grass or feed crops.2,3 The waste can contain pathogens, heavy metals, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria,4,5 and the spray can reach nearby homes and drinking water sources. The odor plume, which often pervades nearby communities, contains respiratory and eye irritants including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia.6,7,8 A growing body of research suggests these emissions may contribute not only to mucosal irritation9 and respiratory ailments10 in nearby residents but also decreased quality of life,11 mental stress,12,13 and elevated blood pressure.14 The home of a minority family in Kenansville, North Carolina, situated next to a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO. Dust, odors, and manure from CAFOs can reach nearby residents’ homes, including their laundry. Although the Midwest is the traditional home for hogs, with Iowa still the top-producing state, North Carolina went from fifteenth to second in hog production between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s.15 This explosive growth resulted in thousands of CAFOs located in the eastern half of the state—squarely in the so-called Black Belt, a crescent-shaped band throughout the South where slaves worked on plantations.16,17 After emancipation many freed slaves continued to work as sharecroppers and tenant farmers. A century later, black residents of this region still experience high rates of poverty, poor health care, low educational attainment, unemployment, and substandard housing.18,19 The clustering of North Carolina’s hog CAFOs in low-income, minority communities—and the health impacts that accompany them—has raised concerns of environmental injustice and environmental racism.20 As one pair of investigators explained, “[P]eople of color and the poor living in rural communities lacking the political capacity to resist are said to shoulder the adverse socio-economic, environmental, or health related effects of swine waste externalities without sharing in the economic benefits brought by industrialized pork production.”21 Although North Carolina is not the only area with environmental justice concerns vis-a-vis CAFOs, it has become one of the best studied.

Methane Flaring, Venting Draws Attention to Unconventional Plays

Industry proponents and many leading academic institutions agree that natural gas is the safest, cleanest-burning bridge fuel capable of heralding the alternative energy market of the future. One risk in the development of this resource involves the inevitable leakage of methane. As a greenhouse gas (GHG), methane is considered more detrimental than carbon dioxide (CO2).

News analysis: Offshore wind needs more than optimism to meet its targets

When the great and the good of offshore wind energy congregated in Amsterdam in November for the EWEA Offshore 2011 conference it was hard not to ride the wave of optimism sweeping through the assembled throng. Yet despite the positive messages emanating from the industry's proponents, it is clear that there are some significant hurdles to overcome before the technology's true potential can be realised.

Industry and government perspectives on First Nations' participation in the British Columbia environmental assessment process

Research was conducted with West Moberly First Nations, Halfway First Nation and the Treaty 8 Tribal Association (located in northeastern British Columbia, Canada) on effective engagement in environmental assessment processes. As part of this research, we examined the perspectives of a subset of resource industry proponents and their consultants, as well as staff from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office on their experiences with the requirement to consult with Canada's indigenous peoples. Research into the perspectives of industry proponents and consultants is almost non-existent, yet industry and governments are key participants within environmental assessments. This research found that industry proponents were disenfranchised by the British Columbia environmental assessment process and its mechanisms for consulting with First Nations, and that they sought changes to that process. Their concerns and their implications are documented and some recommendations are offered for addressing those concerns. Understanding industry and government views on First Nations engagement could suggest not only potential improvements in EA processes that facilitate all parties but provide common grounds for mutually engaging to resolve challenges.

DRILLING PROCESS DRAWS SCRUTINY

THE U.S. HAS a plentiful supply of natural gas—a clean-burning, efficient fuel that could help solve the nation’s energy problems, ranging from climate change to dependence on foreign oil, industry proponents contend. But critics say this view is overly optimistic, because the technology for releasing gas embedded deep underground in massive shale fields has not yet been shown to be economical. Such technology could also contaminate water supplies with toxic drilling chemicals. Geologists have long known that natural gas is abundant in shale rock formations running from the Appalachian Basin to the Rocky Mountains. But the resource has remained largely untapped because of the difficulty in extracting it. In recent years, however, advances in a technology developed decades ago by the petroleum industry to boost production at aging oil wells has helped unlock vast reserves of once-inaccessible natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing is a process in which millions of gallons of chemically treated water and ...

HEGEMONY OR PLURALISM? THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN TAIWAN'S FDI DEREGULATIONS IN CHINA, 1996-2001.

Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings includes abstracts of all papers and symposia presented at the annual conference, plus 6-page abridged versions of the “Best Papers” accepted for inclusion in the program (approximately 10%). Papers published in the Proceedings are abridged because presenting papers at their full length could preclude subsequent journal publication. Please contact the author(s) directly for the full papers. ArticlesHEGEMONY OR PLURALISM? THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN TAIWAN'S FDI DEREGULATIONS IN CHINA, 1996-2001.Published Online:30 Nov 2017https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2008.33649800AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail AbstractWe propose a state-centered approach to analyze how a state actively seizes political opportunities and mobilizes resources to influence regulatory change. By drawing from theories of social movements and political sociology, our empirical analysis shows that the ability of the Taiwanese state to sustain its FDI regulations in China across 37 industries depended upon its relative capacity in an industry, political party competition, resources of both industry proponents and opponents, and embeddedness between the state and industry.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 2008, No. 1 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 30 November 2017 Published in print 1 August 2008 InformationCopyright of Academy of Management Journal is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.KeywordsFOREIGN investmentsTRADE regulationGOVERNMENT policyPRACTICAL politicsTAIWAN -- Relations -- ChinaCHINA -- Relations -- TaiwanDownload PDF

RFID privacy workshop

Radio frequency identification devices (RFID) are at the center of much debate and controversy. Backers have hyped them as a godsend to supply-chain efficiency, while some privacy advocates have labeled RFID as the worst thing that ever happened to consumer privacy.A group of technologists, industry proponents, academics, and privacy advocates gathered for the RFID Privacy Workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 15 November 2003 to discuss privacy issues in RFID systems.

Interlace and Progressive Scan Comparisons Based on Visual Perception Data

Progressive scan is favored over interlace by the computer industry and many proponents of video transmission systems because of the artifacts present in interlaced displays. Visibility of interlaced artifacts depends on the acquisition method, display, and viewing conditions. Perceived sharpness of an image is considerably less for an interlaced image than for a progressive image. The reasons for this will be explained based on visual perception data, and the differences in perceived sharpness will be quantified. All of the advantages of progressive scans can be realized with receiver signal processing of a standard interlaced transmission system provided the originating camera and final display are in progressive format. In that case, all interlaced artifacts will be removed, however, the vertical resolution will be slightly lower than with a progressive camera or film scanner.