Search results for "Virtuous circle and vicious circle"
showing 10 items of 21 documents
Physical inactivity and obesity: A vicious circle.
2008
OBJECTIVE: Physical activity (PA) begins to decline in adolescence with a concomitant increase in weight. We hypothesized that a vicious circle may arise between decreasing PA and weight gain from adolescence to early adulthood. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: PA and self-perceived physical fitness assessed in adolescents (16-18 years of age) were used to predict the development of obesity (BMI > or =30 kg/m(2)) and abdominal obesity (waist >/=88 cm in females and > or =102 cm in males) at age 25 in 4,240 twin individuals (90% of twins born in Finland, 1975-1979). Ten 25-year-old monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs who were discordant for obesity (with a 16 kg weight difference) were then carefull…
The resilience of Finnish farms: Exploring the interplay between agency and structure
2020
Resilience implies, in its essence, the capacity of a system to tolerate disturbances while retaining its essential functions. In the context of agriculture, resilience thinking calls for considering the ability of farms to thrive in turbulent times along with the ability of the ecological system – in which the agricultural production is embedded – to retain its function and integrity. Resilience is a relevant conceptual tool to analyse the contradictory management demands that farms are facing within the current neoliberal market regime: being economically viable and environmentally sustainable. In this study, the resilience of farms was operationalised through farmers' perceptions concern…
Saving Process within a Zero Waste Strategy In Sicily: A System Dynamics Approach
2018
Disposable society represents a way of living that is not sustainable anymore, mainly in a context like our planet where resources are really scarce. As theorized by Paul Connett, the guru of zero waste strategy, there is no waste until that material still contains a drop of usefulness. The core point of the paper is the implementation of a zero waste strategy in a small municipality in Sicily. By building up a SD model we can figure out how saving process connected to the decrease of amount of waste piled up in the landfoll, has been boosting this virtuous cycle, which is bound to cope with the citizens claims about environmental care and lower tax burden level.
Economic development and the creative industries: a tale of causality
2014
Cultural and creative industries are thought to be a driver for economic growth. During the last decade, research has tried to link higher intensity of these industries with the region's welfare. However, this is a controversial relationship that still needs to be proved. In this article, we build a conceptual framework to help us test the possible causality between regional income generation and employment in the cultural and creative sectors. Using regional European data for 1999–2008, our results show that there is a significant feedback (bidirectional causality) between the per capita GDP and employment intensity in the cultural and creative industries, allowing us to conclude that ther…
Paradoxes of Mentoring: An Ethnographic Study of a Mentoring Programme for Highly-educated Women with Migrant Backgrounds
2019
This article explores paradoxes that emerge in the mentoring of highly-educated, female, foreign-born job-seekers in Finland. Theoretically, the study is linked to the growing body of research scrutinising the integration or discrimination of migrants in working life. It analyses cultural practices and ideas that are visible and affect the mentoring interaction. On a more practical level, the paper determines how the mentors and mentees experience the mentoring, and how intercultural mentoring could be improved in order to promote mentees’ employment. The article is based on ethnography and 11 semi-structured interviews. Two major paradoxes and their links to cultural meanings were identifi…
New paradigm of ICT productivity – Increasing role of un-captured GDP and growing anger of consumers
2015
Abstract The dramatic advancement of the Internet has led all nations to an information communication technology (ICT) driven development trajectory. This trajectory has resulted in bi-polarization between ICT growing economies and ICT advanced economies. While the former enjoys a virtuous cycle between ICT advancement and productivity increase, the later has fallen into a trap of a vicious cycle between ICT advancement and productivity decrease. This paper identifies that this trap can be attributed to the two-faced nature of ICT in which advancement of ICT contributes to price increases due to functionality development while dramatic advancement of the Internet has resulted in price decre…
The Globalization of Fear
2017
In this chapter, we combine the advances of other disciplines to expand our understanding of terrorism and the fields of emotions. In this respect, as L. Howie puts it, the media industry engendered a culture of witnessing which not only is conducive to terrorism, but enlarged fear to other continents. The globalization of fear operates in a new field which is based on what Baudrillard named ‘the spectacle of disaster’. Though this vicious circle between the spectatorship of disaster and terrorism not to be broken, the problem is far from being solved. Terrorism and 9/11 as founding event ignited a new stage of capitalism which Korstanje called ‘Thana-Capitalism’. Unlike modern sociologist …
Foreste a tavola:i consumi alimentari inducono la crescente deforestazione tropicale e sub-tropicale anche in Italia
2021
L’agricoltura costituisce da sempre una grande minaccia per gli ecosistemi naturali del nostro pianeta,e non solo in quanto attività umana essenziale per la produzione di cibo. Attualmente, in particolarenella regione tropicale e sub-tropicale, le attività agricole sono fattori di pressione cruciali per il mantenimentodei cicli di vita di ecosistemi essenziali per la biosfera, complessi e resilienti, come le foreste. Lesocietà contemporanee, essenzialmente urbane e sempre più disconnesse dai processi naturali ed ecologici,tendono a dimenticare, o semplicemente non considerare, le responsabilità di queste pressioni insostenibili.Tra le maggiori cause di deforestazione, quattro commodities ri…
The virtuous cycle of stakeholder engagement in developing a sustainability culture: Salcheto winery
2020
Abstract Stakeholder engagement in sustainability represents a powerful driver for value creation. Drawing from stakeholder theory, this paper explores how a firm with a proactive sustainable behaviour engages stakeholders in developing innovation and creating value. A longitudinal, single case study of the Salcheto winery was carried out. Since the late 1990s, Salcheto has been at the forefront of wine eco-innovation and it has played a key role in the development of Montepulciano (Tuscany, Italy) as one of the first sustainable wine clusters worldwide. The development of a sustainable wine culture is one of the firm's various innovations. In doing so, the firm has had to face three challe…
El Derecho internacional de las migraciones: entre la crisis y la renovación
2019
The international migration regime currently in force is manifestly insufficient for the regulation and governance of migration flows. The irreducible collision between the right of persons to leave their country and the right of States to reject the admission of migrants in its territory has led, in practice, to a vicious circle resulting in an increase in irregular migration and the multiplication of dramatic situations that hurt humanitarian feelings. In view of this situation, the United Nations promoted the adoption in January of 2019 of two instruments seeking to establish a new framework for international cooperation in this field: a Global Compact on Refugees and a Global Compact on…