title: A sustainable society logic for marketing

authors: Varey, Richard J.

subjects: overconsumption

abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this discussion is to raise consciousness on the purpose and form of marketing required for a sustainable society. Whilst acts of consumption avoidance and anti-brand boycotts and campaigns might seem to be clear signs of citizen concern for the environmental impact of consumption and a desire for products that are 'planet-friendly', 'green' products have been received with lukewarm interest, and even indifference and scepticism. Green marketing is met with anti-consumption behaviour. The rally cry for businesses to acknowledge that 'business is good for the environment, and the environment is good for business' grows louder, and there is also increasing acknowledgment that that there is necessary conflict of environmental goals and growth-based corporate profit motive.
Approach: A necessary distinction of weak and strong sustainability explains this confusion. This is a reframing of marketing in relation to sustainable development that acknowledges that socio-political issues cannot be resolved exclusively in the technologised economic market.
Findings: Marketing that radically transcends 'weak' 'green consumption' has the capacity to support transformations towards a sustainable society.
Limitations: This is a conceptual (abstract) discussion intended to propose an alternative way of thinking about marketing. As such, the richness of citizens' life experiences are not recounted here. Much more can be learned from the stories of 'social marketers in action' in many diverse situations.
Implications: A form of marketing in which consumption is brought into harmony with ecosystem carrying capacity is considered, and practical guidance in this direction is suggested. Sustainable marketing has a noble purpose: it sustains, instead of consumes, our world.
Contribution: A form of marketing that isn't focused primarily on consuming natural capital for corporate profit is a central aspect of social business. Understood as a social process, rather than a managerial technology, marketing for sustainable society is not growth-driven, but rather a service-based means to realise well-being. This article highlights the inherent constructive and transformative power of a form of social organisation we can truly call 'social marketing' because it is at the heart of social business.

text: A sustainable society logic for marketing Purpose: The purpose of this discussion is to raise consciousness on the purpose and form of marketing required for a sustainable society. Whilst acts of consumption avoidance and anti-brand boycotts and campaigns might seem to be clear signs of citizen concern for the environmental impact of consumption and a desire for products that are 'planet-friendly', 'green' products have been received with lukewarm interest, and even indifference and scepticism. Green marketing is met with anti-consumption behaviour. The rally cry for businesses to acknowledge that 'business is good for the environment, and the environment is good for business' grows louder, and there is also increasing acknowledgment that that there is necessary conflict of environmental goals and growth-based corporate profit motive.
Approach: A necessary distinction of weak and strong sustainability explains this confusion. This is a reframing of marketing in relation to sustainable development that acknowledges that socio-political issues cannot be resolved exclusively in the technologised economic market.
Findings: Marketing that radically transcends 'weak' 'green consumption' has the capacity to support transformations towards a sustainable society.
Limitations: This is a conceptual (abstract) discussion intended to propose an alternative way of thinking about marketing. As such, the richness of citizens' life experiences are not recounted here. Much more can be learned from the stories of 'social marketers in action' in many diverse situations.
Implications: A form of marketing in which consumption is brought into harmony with ecosystem carrying capacity is considered, and practical guidance in this direction is suggested. Sustainable marketing has a noble purpose: it sustains, instead of consumes, our world.
Contribution: A form of marketing that isn't focused primarily on consuming natural capital for corporate profit is a central aspect of social business. Understood as a social process, rather than a managerial technology, marketing for sustainable society is not growth-driven, but rather a service-based means to realise well-being. This article highlights the inherent constructive and transformative power of a form of social organisation we can truly call 'social marketing' because it is at the heart of social business.

year: 2011

title: A shift from traditional pedagogy in Nepali Rural Primary Schools ? Rural teachers’ capacity to reflect ICT policy in their practice

authors: Rana, Karna

subjects: ICT

abstract: Policy by the government of Nepal emphasises the need to develop ICT competencies and suggests the use of ICT will transform traditional models of teaching to ones that are studentcentred. This article reports a study of primary teachers’ experiences of using digital technologies in rural primary schools in Nepal, and investigates their preceptions of how the availability and use of ICT in their schools has transformed traditional teaching models. It further examines the resources they can access and the training they received. Teachers’ accounts of their experiences indicated that the integration of available digital technologies in instructional activities changed their role in the classroom to some extent, created a learner-friendly learning environment and improved aspects of their teaching. The study also found that there was often insufficient access to ICT in and outside the school premises, and that pre-service teacher education, as well as government-provided in-service training, does not cover the use of ICT in instructional activities. Rather provision of infrastructures and training in the use of digital devices is carried out by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The article argues that for policy to be realised in practice, more sustainable and comprehensive systems need to be developed to train teachers in ICT use and to provide them with necessary facilities.

text: A shift from traditional pedagogy in Nepali Rural Primary Schools ? Rural teachers’ capacity to reflect ICT policy in their practice Policy by the government of Nepal emphasises the need to develop ICT competencies and suggests the use of ICT will transform traditional models of teaching to ones that are studentcentred. This article reports a study of primary teachers’ experiences of using digital technologies in rural primary schools in Nepal, and investigates their preceptions of how the availability and use of ICT in their schools has transformed traditional teaching models. It further examines the resources they can access and the training they received. Teachers’ accounts of their experiences indicated that the integration of available digital technologies in instructional activities changed their role in the classroom to some extent, created a learner-friendly learning environment and improved aspects of their teaching. The study also found that there was often insufficient access to ICT in and outside the school premises, and that pre-service teacher education, as well as government-provided in-service training, does not cover the use of ICT in instructional activities. Rather provision of infrastructures and training in the use of digital devices is carried out by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The article argues that for policy to be realised in practice, more sustainable and comprehensive systems need to be developed to train teachers in ICT use and to provide them with necessary facilities.

year: 2018

title: Re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of Being: Deconstructing the notion of mental illness

authors: Southey, Kim Marie

subjects: Maori

abstract: This thesis examines metaphysics in order to re-present Māori and indigenous understandings of Being and deconstruct the notion of mental illness.  A holistic understanding of Being is crucial to Māori and indigenous worldviews and takes priority as a focus for this thesis. Holistic notions of Being allow indigenous peoples to reimagine potentiality in general and the possibility of a renewed experience of being-in-the-world more specifically. Through an exploration of Māori and indigenous (complex) holism, I seek to re-turn to the influence of things in the world that exist outside of the self-contained individual - that is, beyond the cognitive rational agent.  Doing so shifts the concept of well-being to reside not simply within the person (or the individual’s reactions), but within the entire world in which we live.  

It is posited that a dominant Western metaphysics poses a fundamental risk to Māori and indigenous expressions of Being.  This deeper layer of influence – the metaphysics of presence - is examined to expose its structure – one that insists that things in the world will be represented as fully discernible objects.  The implications that a dominant Western metaphysics has for the notion of mental illness are explored within the context of the metaphysics of presence that sets up things in the world as Beings whose essential meaning is identified only through qualities that can be seen, measured, described and defined.  Within this view of the world, the notion of mental illness is solidified, reflected in a focus on the most discernible aspects of Being – the observable and physical parts of a person that can be examined through science.  To counter this, the more mysterious and unthinkable aspects of Being reflected in Māori and indigenous metaphysics are highlighted as a way of re-turning to holism, to the extent that they resist the expectation that things in the world will be reduced to fit the dominant (metaphysical) framework.  

I engage the relational holistic research approach of whaiwhakaaro (a non-method implicating the more-than-human entities that push thinking and characterised by a free-flowing style of reflection), to draw out the possibilities that exist for re-presenting Māori and indigenous metaphysics and the notion of mental illness.  Eleven interviews were conducted with participants from varying professional and community-based backgrounds.  While the participants represent different views on metaphysics and mental illness, each has a passion for exploring the philosophies that shape the experience of being-in-the-world and how we understand ourselves in relation to all other things.  Their responses provide important signals for how human nature, more-than-human nature, and (mental) well-being are re-conceptualised.  

The main ideas that emerged through the interviews and the process of reflecting on participant responses (whaiwhakaaro) provoked thinking about the possibilities of holism in reconsidering the notion of mental illness.  Māori and indigenous understandings of Being were used to re-turn to ideas of well-being as a collective experience. I posit that, if there is illness, then it resides in the world rather than being centred solely on the individual who experiences the world.  If there is a way to talk about illness and well-being, then it need not be restricted to assigned concepts or pre-determined categories that explain behaviour.  Through a re-turn to complex holism – to Māori and indigenous metaphysical premises – I suggest we can engage with people’s experiences on different terms.  These are the terms that carry excessive meaning, that allow for mystery – to break from conventions and categories. These terms support a different view of individualism where the person is free to express their experience of thorough interconnection – of whakapapa.  In its broadest sense, the re-turn to holism is an understanding of the self as part of a thoroughly connected whole.

text: Re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of Being: Deconstructing the notion of mental illness This thesis examines metaphysics in order to re-present Māori and indigenous understandings of Being and deconstruct the notion of mental illness.  A holistic understanding of Being is crucial to Māori and indigenous worldviews and takes priority as a focus for this thesis. Holistic notions of Being allow indigenous peoples to reimagine potentiality in general and the possibility of a renewed experience of being-in-the-world more specifically. Through an exploration of Māori and indigenous (complex) holism, I seek to re-turn to the influence of things in the world that exist outside of the self-contained individual - that is, beyond the cognitive rational agent.  Doing so shifts the concept of well-being to reside not simply within the person (or the individual’s reactions), but within the entire world in which we live.  

It is posited that a dominant Western metaphysics poses a fundamental risk to Māori and indigenous expressions of Being.  This deeper layer of influence – the metaphysics of presence - is examined to expose its structure – one that insists that things in the world will be represented as fully discernible objects.  The implications that a dominant Western metaphysics has for the notion of mental illness are explored within the context of the metaphysics of presence that sets up things in the world as Beings whose essential meaning is identified only through qualities that can be seen, measured, described and defined.  Within this view of the world, the notion of mental illness is solidified, reflected in a focus on the most discernible aspects of Being – the observable and physical parts of a person that can be examined through science.  To counter this, the more mysterious and unthinkable aspects of Being reflected in Māori and indigenous metaphysics are highlighted as a way of re-turning to holism, to the extent that they resist the expectation that things in the world will be reduced to fit the dominant (metaphysical) framework.  

I engage the relational holistic research approach of whaiwhakaaro (a non-method implicating the more-than-human entities that push thinking and characterised by a free-flowing style of reflection), to draw out the possibilities that exist for re-presenting Māori and indigenous metaphysics and the notion of mental illness.  Eleven interviews were conducted with participants from varying professional and community-based backgrounds.  While the participants represent different views on metaphysics and mental illness, each has a passion for exploring the philosophies that shape the experience of being-in-the-world and how we understand ourselves in relation to all other things.  Their responses provide important signals for how human nature, more-than-human nature, and (mental) well-being are re-conceptualised.  

The main ideas that emerged through the interviews and the process of reflecting on participant responses (whaiwhakaaro) provoked thinking about the possibilities of holism in reconsidering the notion of mental illness.  Māori and indigenous understandings of Being were used to re-turn to ideas of well-being as a collective experience. I posit that, if there is illness, then it resides in the world rather than being centred solely on the individual who experiences the world.  If there is a way to talk about illness and well-being, then it need not be restricted to assigned concepts or pre-determined categories that explain behaviour.  Through a re-turn to complex holism – to Māori and indigenous metaphysical premises – I suggest we can engage with people’s experiences on different terms.  These are the terms that carry excessive meaning, that allow for mystery – to break from conventions and categories. These terms support a different view of individualism where the person is free to express their experience of thorough interconnection – of whakapapa.  In its broadest sense, the re-turn to holism is an understanding of the self as part of a thoroughly connected whole.

year: 2020