Environmental or ‘green' education is an important driving force behind the ‘greening' of society as it plays a critical role in raising environmental awareness and preparing students for green jobs. None of the existing environmental attitudes and behavior measures is focused on the evaluation of green education, especially in relation to consumption. To date, no longitudinal studies of children and students' attitudes towards consumption influenced by education exist. Also, little has been done to explore the socio-cultural context in which attitudes toward consumption are being formed and to explain the cross-cultural differences in environmental attitudes. This pilot study is designed to take the first step towards developing methods complementing existing quantitative measurements with qualitative strategies, such as consumption diaries, focus groups, and concept mapping. While this research is just a first attempt to tackle children's knowledge and attitudes consumption, preliminary results of the research on which this chapter is based and enthusiasm of the research participants encourage the author to stress the importance of consumption studies as part of green education for educational program developers. As a chapter of this volume, the author hopes that this study will add to the anthropological depository of research on the cultural variants in the perception of the environment in children. This chapter draws upon the consumption diaries collected from the upper-elementary school children in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, between September 2009 and May 2010. Consumption diaries are chronological documents recording purchase, use, and waste of materials, which can be used both as analytical tools and the means to stimulate environmental awareness. The four main methodological steps involved in this research were as follows. Children were asked to complete the consumption diary, paying specific attention to use and waste materials. Consequently, focus group meetings were held with parents and their children to discuss the diaries. Finally, interviews with the children were conducted in order to generate statements that supplement those generated by focus groups for carrying out the concept mapping analysis. The concept mapping analysis was then conducted to organize the order and analyze the ideas expressed in the focus group and interview sessions. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in "Environmental Anthropology Today" on 8/5/11 available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203806906 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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First, the current study aims to identify the determining factors of the purchase price of sportswear worn by runners. Second, this study aims to demonstrate that diary-methods can be a useful method in sports consumption research as they provide in a large amount of data on a very detailed, non-aggregated level. Based on a dataset of 2,235 running sessions of 192 runners, the results indicate that one fifth of the total variation is due to differences between running sessions of the same runner, instead of between-runner variability. It is found that a runner wears a more expensive outfit at a running event session when compared to a training session. Runners with a higher educational level, income and who run in a fitness center or a health club wear more expensive sports apparel than other runners. Both the regression results and the innovative diary approach bear interesting implications for runners, running enterprises and researchers. For example, implementing running consumption in smartphone tracking applications could improve the running experience, which on their turn provides in big data for further research. https://doi.org/10.1080/24704067.2019.1639064
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Many cities are facing challenges in finding an equilibrium in the use of urban consumption spaces. Urban consumption spaces comprise different sociospatial relationships, bringing together work, consumption, recreation and habitation in a delimited area within the city. This mixed character is a potential source of creative urban quality, but this quality is not always realized, leading to on the one hand 'overheating' in some urban consumption spaces faced with excessive, imbalanced usage, and on the other ‘undercooling’, with declining visitors and vacant lots. We focus on Amsterdam as our living lab, in our aim to develop a new perspective toward reinstating the sociospatial relationships between local community stakeholders and to restore the equilibrium of Amsterdam city center as an urban consumption space. In doing so, we address the research question How do residents, entrepreneurs and visitors perceive ‘hospitality’ in their lived-in experience of Amsterdam as urban consumption space, and how does this contribute to community connectedness?
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As multifunctional places that combine shopping and hospitality with public space and residential functions, urban consumption spaces are sites where different normative orders surface and sometimes clash. In Amsterdam, such a clash emerged over touristification of consumption spaces, eroding place attachment for local residents and urging the city government to take action. Based on policy analysis and interviews with entrepreneurs and key informants, we demonstrate how Amsterdam’s city government is responding to this issue, using legal pluralism that exists within formal state law. Specifically, the city government combines four instruments to manage touristification of consumption spaces, targeting so-called tourist shops with the aim to drive them out of the inner city. This strategic combination of policy instruments designed on various scales and for different publics to pursue a local political goal jeopardizes entrepreneurs’ rights to legal certainty. Moreover, implicitly based on class-based tastes and distrust towards particular minority groups of entrepreneurs, this policy strategy results in institutional discrimination that has far-reaching consequences for entrepreneurs in itself, but also affects trust relations among local stakeholders.
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Currently, there is no common understanding of categorizing, conceptualizing, and measuring consumption motives in the performing arts. Study one presents the results of forty-seven semi-structured, in-depth interviews and deepens the understanding of consumption motives. A new framework consisting of cultural and social motives is introduced. This framework is tested in the second study. Here, a quantitative instrument is developed. The results of the principal components analysis refine the framework and demonstrate the following consumption motives: cultural aesthetics (with two dimensions: artistic value and enjoyment of beauty), cultural relaxation, cultural stimulation, social bonding, social attraction, social distinction, and social duty.
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In reflecting on Dutch Christmas shoppers, this article will discuss environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), postmaterialist values hypothesis, and ecological modernization theory. According to the EKC hypothesis, while at the initial stages of industrialization material resources are often used unsustainably, continuing industrialization leads to a threshold after which lead to progressively more sustainable technologies. According to the postmaterialist values hypothesis, only wealthier societies can ‘afford’ to care about the environment, assuming that wealth will lead to development of greater concern about and valuation of environment. Finally, ecological modernization theory postulates that environmental conditions improve with advanced technological development and suggests that enlightened self-interest, economy and ecology can be favourably combined and that productive use of natural resources can be a source of future growth. In generalizing economic, political and social trends in relation to consumption in The Netherlands, the aim of this article is to consider the consequences of Western-style consumption for the enterprise of global development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2013.05.004 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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This study proposes a framework to measure touristification of consumption spaces, consisting of concentration of retail capital, business displacement and standardization of the consumption landscape. This framework is tested using business registration data and rent price estimates for consumption spaces in Amsterdam between 2005 and 2020. Touristification emerges from concentrations of retail capital and standardization, but occurs without causing significant business displacement. A cluster analysis identifies different variations of touristification. Besides the more typical cases these include nightlife areas, gentrifying consumption spaces and specialized retail areas. This suggests that local contingencies cause consumption spaces to respond differently to increasing tourism.
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The paper briefly describes the outcome of two inventories: 1) an inventory based on fact sheets about daily use and energy consumption of historical buildings (mainly relative small churches) in the North of the Netherlands, and; 2) an inventory based on interviews with owners of historical buildings about motives to reduce energy consumption.
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Objective: The most common methods to calculate energy costs are based on measured oxygen uptake during walking a standardized distance or time. Unfortunately, it is unclear which method is most reliable to determine energy cost of walking in stroke survivors. The objective of this study was to evaluate the 3 most commonly used methods for calculating oxygen consumption and -cost by assessing test-retest reliability and measurement error in community dwelling chronic stroke survivors during a 6 Minute Walk Test. Methods: In this secondary analysis of a longitudinal study, reproducibility of the outcome of walking distance, walking speed, oxygen consumption and oxygen cost from 3 methods (Kendall's tau, assumed steady-state and total walking time oxygen consumption) were determined using Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, Standard Error of Measurement and Smallest Detectable Change. Results: 20 from the 31 participants successfully performed the 6 minute walk test-retest within a timeframe of 1 month. Within the 2 tests the reproducibility of walking distance and walking speed was high. The 3 methods to determine reproducibility for oxygen cost and oxygen consumption were considered good (Kendall's tau), good (assumed steady-state) and excellent (total walking time). Conclusions: The method using oxygen consumption and -cost over the total walking time resulted in the highest reproducibility considering the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, its 95% Confidence Interval, and smaller absolute differences.
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Picture books with characters that promote healthy eating are increasingly being used to make this behavior more attractive. The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the effect of vegetable promoting picture books on toddlers' vegetable consumption differed according to the reading style and the use of a hand puppet during reading. The second aim was to investigate whether these effects were mediated by toddlers’ narrative involvement and character imitation. In a 2 (reading style: interactive vs. passive) x 2 (puppet use: with vs. without puppet) between-subjects design, 163 toddlers (2e3 years) were randomly assigned to one of the four reading conditions. The story was about a rabbit that loves to eat carrots. After the fourth reading day, the eating task was conducted in which children could eat freely from four different snacks, including carrots. The main finding was that interactive reading produced the greatest carrot consumption. The explanation for this effect was that interactive reading stimulated toddlers to imitate poses of the book characters, even more when interactive reading was supported by the use of a hand puppet. The findings underline that young children should be actively involved with health interventions in order for them to be effective.
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