| Critique of the Free Market Justification for Hazardous Waste |
| | Welcomer, Stephanie A. | U. of Maine | welcomer@maine.edu | (207) 581-1931 |
| | Haggerty, Mark | Clarion University | haggerty@vaxa.clarion.edu | (207) 827-3087 |
| | This paper employees critical theory to analyze how tenets of the free market are used by proponents of the hazardous waste industry
to structure issues, shape needs, define legitimate concerns, and constrain alternatives. This
domination is most apparent when states and corporations attempt to site a hazardous waste facility,
thus conflicting with the targeted community's desires. An integral part of this siting process becomes a series
of communication acts aimed at reducing local community resistance and insinuating a view commensurate with
accepting hazardous waste. We argue that free market assumptions and rhetoric plays a
fundamental role in this process. In the communication between 'host' communities and the
state and corporations there is an obfuscation of the questions, issues, and analysis of the hazardous
waste problem. We suggest that a reliance on a more holistic approach is necessary to address
the dilemma facing both a host community and society in general. |
| | Keywords: Critical; Market; Waste |
| Sustainable Development in the Swiss Food Sector: Restrictions and Strategies for Cooperations |
| | Maier, Simone | Idheap | smaier@idheap.unil.ch | 41-71-223 65 11 |
| | Finger, Matthias | Idheap | mfinger@isp.fr | (21) 695 06 50 |
| | Haldimann, Ueli | Haldimann Consulting | haldimann.consulting@thenet.ch | (31) 335 10 14 |
| | Cooperations are often refered to as one suitable instrument to enhance change processes towards a sustainable development.
In a cross case study in the swiss food sector we have studied what improvements were actually achieved by cooperations
and what restrictions against change they encountered. It turned out that most achievements are made regarding
interpretative schemes whereas the major restrictions stem from allocative resources. The paper closes with a short overview
of possible strategies at hand for cooperations to deal with those restrictions. |
| | Keywords: Sustainable Development; Organizational Change; Structural Restrictions |
| Organization and World Design: The Gaia's Hypothesis |
| | Snyder, William M. | Social Capital Group | wsnyder@socialcapital.com | (617)-498-0903 |
| | We live in a society of organizations, therefore the discovery of new organizing methods may be our best chance to solve many of the world's most complex problems. Yet deficiencies in current theory prevent us from identifying emergent opportunities to address critical issues--such as ecological destruction, social injustice, and gross economic inequities. This case-study analysis explores how community-based organizing approaches can enable firms to align ecological, social, and financial objectives. The case explores how a for-profit, start-up firm--with an explicit mission to promote environmental and social welfare--organizes customers and employees into communities around areas of shared interest or practice. This approach will enable the firm to develop "moral markets" that value its emphasis on ecological goals and its commitment to build extraordinary levels of passion and competence among geographically distributed employees. This "revelatory" case generates a number of hypotheses that suggest areas for further research, including applications of community organizing methods on a world-wide scale. |
| | Keywords: World Design; Communities of Practice; Communities of Interest |