Environmentalism and the multinational corporation: a viewpoint‐part II

This is Part Two of a two‐part paper on environmentalism and the multinational corporation. Part One was published in the previous issue of this journal.

In Part One, we explored the concept of “power as capability” as seen in the rationale for international production, namely, ownership, locational, and internalization advantages. In this Part, we apply the concept of “power as influence” to re‐examine the bargaining power of the host country, the MNC, the home country, and Non‐Governmental Organizations. It is argued that in the initial bargaining with LDC host country, the power balance is tipped in favor of MNC as the lack of technical expertise may hinder feasibility assessment of pollution performance. However, over time, the bargaining power of LDC host increases, but constrained by the momentum of globalization. The power of the MNC is higher in manufacturing than in extractive industries. Home country plays an important role in influencing the formulating of corporate environmental policies by the MNC. The influence of NGOs is minimal while a lack of effective international pressure on MNCs arises from the non‐existence of a powerful a supranational IGO.     

Peaceful,Pleasant and Private: The British Domestic Garden as an Ordinary Landscape

This paper uses narrative accounts of private gardens in Britain from the Mass-Observation Archive (MO) to explore ideas of landscape, privacy and attachment that emerge from daily practices and routines in these ordinary domestic spaces. We argue for the domestic garden as a vernacular or ordinary landscape that displays tensions between the private and the public nature of home within ambivalent emotional responses. Extended personal narratives offer privileged access to a site of intense engagement and carefully guarded privacy, yet with varying levels of attachment. The garden is a space well described in Britain in its public form but less well known as a private, everyday landscape. In this way a cultural landscape study becomes a contemporary critical geography of an ordinary space.     

Intra-team boundaries as inhibitors of performance improvement in UK design and build projects: a call for change

The success of the design and build (D&B) procurement route could be undermined by issues arising from the rigid professional cultures of individual participants within project workgroups. These have the potential to inhibit the achievement of a key espoused benefit of D&B procurement, i.e. that it promotes the integration of the design and construction processes for improved project performance. Cultural non-interoperability is identified as a significant potential barrier to effective change management, and to the achievement of innovation within the design and construction processes. This note argues that project responsibilities, which currently are delineated along professional identity lines, produce design and construction solutions that fail to fulfil the potential of D&B procurement. It is suggested that addressing cultural interoperability will require a fundamental and long term reshaping of the industry's structure, beginning with the professional bodies and the higher education system that underpins their future membership.     

The relationship between integrated design and construction and safety on construction projects

The occurrence of accidents and injuries continues to be a major problem in construction worldwide. Even though accident statistics have been improving in most markets there are significant areas requiring further attention. The extent of integrated working between designers and constructors may be an instrumental factor. A comparison is undertaken of the accident performance of 55 large construction projects in the UK, with varying levels of design/construction integration as represented by procurement path. Although a statistical relationship between high levels of integration and low levels of accidents was weak, a follow‐up interview study provided strong support, suggesting that a lack of significance was related to the unreliability of the statistics available. The interview study also indicated reasons for this link. A key element in improved safety was seen to be better communications and a more positive relationship between designers and constructors. Further research into designing for safety for all procurement paths is recommended.     

Feral travel and the transport field: Some observations on the politics of regulating skating in Tasmania

Abstract

This paper summarises skating regulation around Australia, focusing on Tasmania. Such analysis is timely; the Australian Road Rules adopted in December 1999 expand skating from recreation to a mode of transport whose legitimacy assumes access to roads and footpaths, and deploys complex politics of identity and space, citizenship and access, and mobility.     

Australia's housing choices: Retrospect and prospect

This article identifies issues around the Auckland Region's strategy for urban intensification and discusses the ensuing policy implications. Medium density housing forms an important element of the strategy for growth management. Implications for its success are primarily drawn from research into a major housing development in Waitakere City. It is argued that for ideological, political and technical reasons the strategy could be easily undermined. The article also suggests that something of a paradigm shift is underway in urban planning.     

Key factors determining the energy rating of existing English houses

In the UK, the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) is used to rate the energy performance of existing dwellings whenever they are let or sold. This study investigates which of the inputs to SAP account for the most variance in energy rating across existing gas central heated houses in England. Data from the English Housing Survey (EHS) 2009 are used to generate a representative set of dwellings and variance-based global sensitivity analysis is then applied to assess each input's contribution to the variance in the calculated ratings. It is demonstrated that heating system efficiency, external wall U-value and dwelling geometry account for 75% of the variance of the energy rating of gas central heated houses in England. This suggests that improving heating system efficiencies and wall U-values of the worst performing dwellings will go a long way towards improving their energy rating and potentially reducing their energy consumption. It is also demonstrated that dwelling geometry has a much bigger influence on the calculated carbon emissions (accounting for 80% of the variance) than it does on the SAP energy rating (accounting for 30%), meaning that significant improvements in energy rating might not be accompanied by significant reductions in carbon emissions.     

Architecture,Cigarettes AND THE Dispositif

This paper aims to explore the concept of the dispositif and develop arguments as to its value in reconceptualising the social function of architecture. The notion of the dispositif is derived from the writings of Michel Foucault and is explored in respect to the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The notion of the dispositif of concern emerges from Foucault's concepts of an apparatus that manages relationships of power between different bodies and organisations. Foucault considers the dispositif to be at once object and apparatus – a dynamic tension that is well recognised by theorists of architecture as a potentially productive condition. It is upon this dynamic tension that the present paper will focus and present an exploration of Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio as an example of an architectural dispositif.     

Adelaide: Reflections on the scope for public policy

Abstract

Metropolitan Adelaide, a crucible of urban policy innovation in the 1970s, has recently been the subject of pessimistic prognoses about its economic future. The pessimism is overstated. This article documents positive features — economic, institutional, historical — which might form the basis for greater optimism.     

The Australian Manufacturing Shift: The Experience of Country Localities

In Western Europe and the US the experience of nonmetropolitan growth in manufacturing employment plays a vital role in accounting for industrial change, metropolitan declines and regional development. In Australia, the experience of country localities has made minimal or insignificant contributions to these debates. This paper points out that there has, however, been significant widespread growth in manufacturing employment in country localities and that this growth has been characterised by a dynamism in industry sectors and capital restructuring that is closely tied yet contrasting to the traditional industrial areas. The experiences of NSW is examined as a case study. The implications of these findings are to question the appropriateness of US and European models (and Australian conceptions) of regional change.