On analysis of data from 350 fair trade consumers we found evidence that suggests fair trade consumption seems to be tinged with political activism at least in a U. S. context. We asked consumers whether politics was meaningful in their consumption practices and on regressing the data we found that there is a positive influence of politics as a decision-making criteria and the frequency of fair trade purchases. That is to say, the more consumers report that they use politics in their consumption decision-making process the more fair trade they purchase.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a human ecology economics (HEE) framework for understanding and addressing homelessness, especially as it exists in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. The role of business and private “stakeholders of the homeless” is emphasized.Design/methodology/approachThe HEE approach relies on evolutionary and complex systems processes, and it incorporates interdisciplinary material from the humanities. Within HEE, an early-stage exploratory research method is used. In-depth interviews with 16 long-term residents who are also managers in various organizations help to identify private-sector perceptions including how businesses can engage with and support the homeless.FindingsIn the current balance between needed supplies of “production capital,” which includes affordable housing, shelter beds, food, clothing, medical supplies and so on and “transaction capital,” which is an interacting mix of social capital, informational capital and financial capital, the authors find that the business community needs to pay greater attention to deficits in “transaction capital.”Research limitations/implicationsIt is beyond the scope of this paper, and beyond the current ability of complex system modeling, to prioritize the best interventions across various types of homeless communities. However, for early-stage research, the authors have provided a useful ontology of the human ecology of homelessness that might inform further research and policy initiatives. Follow-on research might then investigate, with more rigorous methods, the narrower causalities between subcomponents of one’s ontology.Originality/valueScholars, policymakers and business community activists might appreciate the more comprehensive and accessible interdisciplinary framework for understanding the causes and possible responses to homelessness.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how liberal higher education can strengthen vocational higher education.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses Shay's (2013) framework of curriculum differentiation to articulate how the strengths and shortcomings of liberal education differ from those of vocational education and to allow the differences highlighted to inform a resolution to each other's shortcomings.FindingsThere is nothing new in the findings that liberal education differs from vocational education and that both have shortcomings. What the paper presents is a viewpoint that the differences are not confirmation that these two approaches to education are in opposition but rather that they complement each other. The strength of one is the weakness of the other.Originality/valueThe perspective taken in this paper is developed using the language of semantic density (SD) and semantic gravity (SG). Using Shay's semantic field of recontextualized knowledge, this paper suggests that liberal and vocational education inhabit two sides of contexts and concepts continua. The paper further proposes that both are alike in a meaningful way because both have unsuccessfully managed the role of context in their curricula.
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