Production-consumption Relationships Research Articles

Allotment Garden Products as Contribution to Sustainable and Resilient Cities: An Analysis in Leipzig, Germany

The food supply and the consumption of resources are already central challenges for the growing world population and increasing demands. Urban areas in particular face problems of resilience and sustainability. The development of alternative food systems by, e.g., urban gardening, can contribute to meet targets of sustainable consumption, inclusive economy, and resilient food systems of cities. Our research presents insights into the available harvest of products from allotments. In addition, the interest and motivation of gardeners to distribute products from their allotments was investigated. The analysis was based on a structured and standardized questionnaire with more than 90 allotment gardeners in Leipzig. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics. Our results showed that especially zucchinis, tomatoes, berries, and apples could be distributed to consumers; however, the greatest obstacle involves the legal framework to economically distribute products from these allotments. On the other hand, some respondents showed that income generation from allotment products is less important than the enjoyment of the garden and the charitable goal of action. They suggested an organized distribution system of surplus from allotments to particularly disadvantaged people. This paper encourages re-examination of the conventional urban–rural relations, the production–consumption relationships, and the norms of economic activity.

Research of Russian meat export to the Chinese market

The specifics of the current state of the meat market in China are largely determined, like the vast majority of production-consumption relationships in global socio-economic processes, by the current organizational constraints aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Thus, the Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China has developed specific guidelines to prevent the spread of the pandemic through the transportation of meat products, At the same time, the economic and organizational mechanism of the State Council of the Republic, aimed at ensuring the prevention and expansion of pandemic control provides for the implementation of a plan of full chain, closed, tracked regulated imported food products. A negative aspect of the implementation of the said mechanism is the increased threat of disruptions in meat supply with the potential for higher prices for imported pork.

Estimation and decomposition analysis of carbon emissions from the entire production cycle for Chinese household consumption

To guide households on implementing low-carbon consumption patterns, it is necessary to comprehensively measure carbon emissions of household consumption. This study expands the input-output relationship into the production-consumption relationship. It uses optimized data of the relationship between household consumption and production industry to calculate the entire production-side carbon emissions, including from capital formation, of Chinese household consumption, and uses LMDI model to analyze the factors affecting the growth of carbon emissions from Chinese household consumption. The results show that the carbon emissions of Chinese household consumption grew steadily from 2005 to 2015 almost 50% of carbon emissions were accounted for by high growth rates in residence consumption. Carbon emissions and growth rate of urban households’ consumption are significantly higher than the same figures for rural households. The carbon emissions intensity of all types of household consumption except residence and education has shown a downward trend. Household consumption structure and income level are the two main factors that promote the growth of household carbon emissions. Urbanization level and population size are secondary factors while household consumption carbon intensity is an important factor for curbing the growth of household consumption emissions. The study also proposes policy recommendations on how to improve the consumption structure of households, reduce the carbon intensity of household consumption, and curb the growth of carbon emissions from urban households.

MUSIC PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION AND THE SERVICE-GOOD SPECTRUM UNDER THE SWAY OF A SHIFT WITHIN A SHIFT

Nowadays music constitutes a phenomenon whose complexion entangles aspects simultaneously related to society, culture, art, business, and technology. Due to the combined influence of these aspects, music production-consumption acquires some unique features. Added to that, the swift evolution and growing influence of the economic-technological association have increasingly affected music as a sociocultural phenomenon, as an art form, and as a corporative business, increasing the complexity of an already convoluted context. Given the composite and dynamic constitution of the music field, the present approach departs from a multidisciplinary analysis, establishing a methodological groundwork that comprehends conceptual and qualitative research, elaborated through exploratory study. Under a standard economic perspective, music production-consumption belongs in the structure of the music supply chain, presenting a rather uncertain status between service and good. Apart from the economic understanding, however, music comprises a wide variety of manifestations, which do not suit conventional production-consumption processes. In order to cope with the inexorable duality of this paradoxical coexistence, this study proposes a model intended to contribute to the building of a comprehensive knowledge on music production and consumption. As this model departs from some specific flows of music production and consumption, it creates an array of patterns, pinpointing their situation within the service-good spectrum. In addition, it considers Digital Revolution and globalized communications as enablers that affect the foundations of traditional music, unbalance routine flows inside the supply chain of the music industry and cause music production-consumption relationships to shift their status from product-oriented to service-oriented.

English

The objectives of the present study were to determine the consciousness and sensitivity levels of Fine Arts students about the meta-esthetics as a consumer and producer and to determine the effects of the courses they took on their meta-esthetic consciousness. The research universe was composed of fine art faculties of the foundation universities located in Ankara during the academic year of 2013-2014. The research sample was composed of 126 students enrolled at Fine Arts Design and Architecture Faculty of BaÅŸkent University. During this academic year, there were 437 students in the faculty. In this study, production-consumption relationships were evaluated within the perspective of whether or not knowing meta-esthetics and development of esthetic awareness will be able to meet the demands of the people in the 21st century. Key words: Meta esthetics, art and design education, meta esthetics in fine arts education.

Il social banking per le filiere corte: aspetti etici e fiscali

The relationship between the banking system and the agricultural sector ismarked by several difficulties related to firm size, variability in agriculturalincomes, technical risks and strict evaluation rules for creditworthiness. On theother hand, a progressive distancing of production from consumers is observedwithin the main production chains, with weakening of product identity and ofproduction with respect to other actors in the chain. The rediscovery, in the nineties,of integration among operators has brought under the spotlight the concepts oftraceability and sustainability of productions and the principle of proximity,making purchase directly, from the producer one of the consumer’s main objectives.Widespread awareness of this factor has contributed to an increase in localproduction and consumption circuits and has awoken interest in some banks, whichhave set out social banking instruments for farming concerns which face difficultiesin accessing ordinary bank loans.The analysis refers to Toscana, a regional context in which short chain examplescoexist with a particular microcredit system. In particular, the aim is evaluatingapproaches to social banking adopted by short chains and identifying the mainentrepreneurial advantages and socio-economic results.The methodology, therefore, took as reference the short chain entrepreneurialforms found in Tuscany and carried out focused interviews with Banca Etica andConsorzio Fidi Toscana in order to comprehend their vision of the overall businessmodel, even though it may not be strictly agricultural. The aim was also to identifyspecial needs and expectations as expressed by the short chain entrepreneurs as wellas their motivation in changing the boundaries of their area of operation. The finalaim of the analysis was to understand what banking services are available and howthey might help in establishing short supply-chains and making them morewidespreads in their region.The starting point was to identify the main manifestations of existing shortsupply-chain operations (direct sales to consumers, solidarity purchase groupsamongst producers and markets). The main characteristics of banking servicesoffered to them were also investigated. Were they responding to the idea itself ofsocial banking for food processing and not merely offering of banking services tomarginal customers? Was this a targeted approach specially adopted for the shortsupply-chain market: a segment characterized by low levels of income and by theneed for innovative financial solutions which are, at the same time, both accessibleand inexpensive. The results enabled us to highlight the key role of social banking inlocal production and consumption circuits in terms of both start-up activities and thesupply of technical assistance and training services. Moreover, they indicated thatshort supply-chain operations are not only associated with shorter distances, but alsowith greater transparency and responsibility in production-consumption relationships.

Considerações teóricas e conceituais acerca do trabalho em vigilância sanitária, campo específico do trabalho em saúde

This paper discusses some of the theoretical-conceptual presupposes to the analysis of the work in sanitary surveillance in a social and historical perspective. As a work in health, the sanitary surveillance presents particularities that are inherent to the elements that are part of its process of work. These elements are inserted in the space of the production-consumption relationships, under the regulatory action of the State. The problematic of the work in sanitary surveillance occurs due to the specificities of its objects. It is identified in these objects a double dimension, at the same time as a "way of life" and "commodity". This confers to its working process a provisory and historical character, permeated by contradictions. The technical and social division of the work determines the organization of the working process in its "technical-scientific" and "political-administrative" organization, taking in account the necessity to guarantee the integrality in the actions of the health protection. It is expected that the sanitary surveillance should be organized and acting in several phases of the productive chain. It is identified and discussed the concepts of inter-dependence and inter-complementary as the principles to build the practices of sanitary control.

Consuming work/productive leisure: the consumption patterns of second home environments

This paper, based on a research project on British second home owners in rural France, uses empirical evidence derived from ethnographic interviews to investigate and analyse the escapism opportunities afforded by the purchase and consumption of a second home in a foreign environment. Escape is the main theme, from pressure of work, everyday routine, from commodification, to a space which is a bolt-hole, a retreat or a genuine break from paramount reality. The actions and activities through which the escape is attempted or effected are examined, leading to some insights into the home-holiday as well as the production-consumption relationship. It seems that the French second home experience provides an example of an alternative to the routines and constraints of the world of work on the one hand and from commodified tourism products on the other. In committing to the project, which mingles production and consumption, owners believe they are achieving a balance which is missing from their lives in Britain, through the mechanism of having a recurrent escape route to a way of life which offers them a degree of permanence. The French house project is also an identity project, in which reflexivity plays an important role. The practice, for those who succeed at it, ultimately can be seen as a form of social and spatial delinquency, breaking through the boundaries of a commodified existence to the lived space of another life.

Sharing the globe: The role of attachment to place

Issues posed by global environmental change can be viewed as the problem of the commons on a larger geographic scale. A framework for analysing how geographic scale affects governments' ability to manage environmental problems is suggested here. It is based on interactions between four dimensions: production-consumption relationships; distribution of the benefits and costs of various activities; level of administrative control; and spatial scale of individuals' attachment to place. Global environmental problems can be viewed as a case where benefits from polluting activities are spatially concentrated relative to costs. The difficulty in addressing such problems stems from the discrepancy in geographic scale between adverse impacts and level of administrative control. The possibility of adapting institutional structures to match the scale of the problems is examined, in light of the increasing spatial scale of production-consumption relationships in the post-industrial world and the growing demand for local control across the globe. The geographic scale of ideological attachment to place is identified as an important variable in determining the ability to respond to large-scale environmental problems.