In response to climate change, and unsustainable energy consumption, the European Parliament launched a climate and energy package in 2009. This included the 20:20:20 Energy Strategy whose aim was to decrease the effects of climate change, in particular by lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020. This 10-year action plan proposes measures to increase the current efficiency levels of energy use, and raises the share of renewable energies within the energy mix for all 27 EU Member States. As a result, the increased use of biofuels, particularly in the transport sector, will be an important part of a more complex framework. Although, biofuels represent only two per cent of total transport fuels used, political incentives, technology, and efficiency improvements could increase this by eight per cent in Europe by 2020. In line with the 20:20:20 Strategy, the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) was introduced to regulate the overall biofuel market, amongst others. Based on the RED’s definition of sustainability, different certification schemes emerged, aimed at creating a uniform biofuel standard within Europe. At present, the overall scale and scope of environmental and social impacts associated with the biofuel supply chain are not well defined, and this will be evaluated within this work. Furthermore, close ties between the biofuel supply chain, and other sectors, including food and crude oil industries lead to associations with issues such as deforestation, pollution and food supply shortages. Thus, this book will analyse whether RED actually supports such a low-carbon pathway or it mainly supports the local industry.
Diploma Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,0, European School of Business Reutlingen (ESB (IPBS)), language: English, abstract: The combination of the traditional way of the capitalistic thinking company, which aspires to maximise its profits (homo economicus), and the selfless approach of non-profit organisations, which contribute to society and are dependent on generous and periodic donations, create a new and sustainable business concept. This concept has emerged – mainly during the last decade – within the broader context of Social Entrepreneurship and is defined as Social Business. Inspired by the energy of Muhammad Yunus and the time the author spent in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries on a global scale, this research will provide a scientific approach to the sphere of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business as a specific and innovative business model. Furthermore, this academic work examines the sustainability of the concept, evaluating it deductively by means of deriving the necessary information from several case studies and expert interviews carried out among others with Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, as well as Frédéric Dalsace, head of the Social Business Chair at HEC University, Paris. Finally, the thesis conveys an outlook on the upcoming development of Social Entrepreneurship and especially Social Business as well as proposes steps to be taken in order to guarantee the sustainability of Social Businesses within a macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective, based on the academic research and expert interviews.
Diploma Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,0, European School of Business Reutlingen (ESB (IPBS)), language: English, abstract: The combination of the traditional way of the capitalistic thinking company, which aspires to maximise its profits (homo economicus), and the selfless approach of non-profit organisations, which contribute to society and are dependent on generous and periodic donations, create a new and sustainable business concept. This concept has emerged - mainly during the last decade - within the broader context of Social Entrepreneurship and is defined as Social Business. Inspired by the energy of Muhammad Yunus and the time the author spent in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries on a global scale, this research will provide a scientific approach to the sphere of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business as a specific and innovative business model. Furthermore, this academic work examines the sustainability of the concept, evaluating it deductively by means of deriving the necessary information from several case studies and expert interviews carried out among others with Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, as well as Frédéric Dalsace, head of the Social Business Chair at HEC University, Paris. Finally, the thesis conveys an outlook on the upcoming development of Social Entrepreneurship and especially Social Business as well as proposes steps to be taken in order to guarantee the sustainability of Social Businesses within a macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective, based on the academic research and expert interviews.
This guide explains how social scientists can evaluate the reliability and validity of empirical measurements, discussing the three basic types of validity: criterion related, content, and construct. In addition, the paper shows how reliability is assessed by the retest method, alternative-forms procedure, split-halves approach, and internal consistency method.
ETT ODJUR PÅ JAKT I STOCKHOLM Filmen visar en skräckslagen pojke, fängslad i en bur i ett okänt bergrum. Som en mörk, lejonlik skugga rör sig kidnapparen i bakgrunden, under en klocka som obönhörligen räknar ner. När kriminalinspektör Zack Herry ser den direktsända filmen förstår han vilket fruktansvärt öde som väntar pojken om de inte hittar honom i tid. Men samtidigt håller Zack på att förlora kampen mot sitt missbruk, och banden till hans vän och kollega Deniz slits sönder. I ett mörkt och kallt Stockholm följer en skoningslös lek, en lek där Zack Herry aldrig har varit närmare döden. Leon är den andlöst spännande, fristående fortsättningen i den kritikerrosade Herkulesserien. Romanen baseras löst på Herkules första stordåd, kampen mot det nemeiska lejonet. Sagt om Herkulesserien: "Fartfylld, välskriven och bitvis lite väl obehaglig." Lotta Olsson, DN "Den är helt fantastiskt spännande." Jenny Alversjö, TV4 Nyhetsmorgon "Hårdför, hetsig berättelse om utsatta barn, utlämnade unga kvinnor och råa vuxna. En komplex roman ... Den håller god position i genren." Norrköpings Tidningar "Zack har allt som en modern kriminalroman ska ha." Torbjörn Elensky, Tidningen Vi "Romanen speglar angelägna, aktuella debattämnen som rasism och kvinnohat. Det är en vidrig verklighet vi får se." Arbetarbladet "Man kan knappast tänka sig en bättre författarduo. Tänk dig en Beck-film med en modern touch och mycket mer action." Nerikes allehanda "En bra bok med mycket action, Stieg Larsson-vibe." Deckarhuset.se "Oj oj, vad bra! Gillar ni Mons Kallentofts serie om Malin Fors så kommer ni att gilla Zack!" Blogspot Mysterierna Mons Kallentoft har med sina kriminalromaner om Malin Fors blivit hyllad av såväl läsare som kritiker. Hans böcker har översatts till 30 språk och sålts i över 2,5 miljoner exemplar. Mons är född 1968, uppvuxen utanför Linköping och bor idag på Mallorca. Markus Lutteman debuterade med dokumentärromanen El Choco och fick mycket uppmärksamhet med Patrik Sjöbergs biografi Det du inte såg. Tillsammans har böckerna sålt i nästan 400 000 exemplar. Markus är född 1973 och bor i Örebro.
Our Unsustainable Life: Why We Can't Have Everything We Want With the concept of the Imperial Mode of Living, Brand and Wissen highlight the fact that capitalism implies uneven development as well as a constant and accelerating universalisation of a Western mode of production and living. The logic of liberal markets since the 19thCentury, and especially since World War II, has been inscribed into everyday practices that are usually unconsciously reproduced. The authors show that they are a main driver of the ecological crisis and economic and political instability. The Imperial Mode of Living implies that people's everyday practices, including individual and societal orientations, as well as identities, rely heavily on the unlimited appropriation of resources; a disproportionate claim on global and local ecosystems and sinks; and cheap labour from elsewhere. This availability of commodities is largely organised through the world market, backed by military force and/or the asymmetric relations of forces as they have been inscribed in international institutions. Moreover, the Imperial Mode of Living implies asymmetrical social relations along class, gender and race within the respective countries. Here too, it is driven by the capitalist accumulation imperative, growth-oriented state policies and status consumption. The concrete production conditions of commodities are rendered invisible in the places where the commodities are consumed. The imperialist world order is normalized through the mode of production and living.
Modern Privacies addresses emergent transformations of privacy in western societies from a multidisciplinary and international perspective. It examines social and cultural trends in new media, feminism, law, work and intimacy which indicate that our perceptions, evaluations and enactments of privacy in constant flux.
As a world economy emerged from the 16th-17th centuries onwards, a global cashless payment system arose. This had its base in Europe, first in Italy, then in the rising regions of the north-west, with Amsterdam and then London as the central financial market. The mutual quotation of exchange rates, which provide the data tabulated and analysed here, mark the integration into a global network of all areas with significant economic potential. The primary aim of this book is to provide a compact account of the exchange rates in all these financial markets, from the late 16th century up to the First World War. This makes possible an instant conversion between the major world currencies at nearly any date within that period, while the important introduction provides the explanation and context of developments. The present handbook therefore serves as an invaluable resource for those concerned with all aspects of commercial and financial history.
This volume provides an updated analysis of the most significant constitutive aspects for the political sociology of the EU. It examines in detail how civic and political activism regarding the inclusion and integration of gender and sexual minorities, as well as migrants and refugees, have become substantial forces in Europe today. It exhibits a political sociology perspective that moves away from the predominant state-centrism and institutional focus in mainstream analyses of European politics. It brings to the fore the role of citizens, civil society and identity politics as well as transnational societal phenomena impacting on the ambivalent civic in/exclusion tendencies prevalent in the EU. The book highlights the linkage of EU institutions and policies to established and new societal actors in response to recent challenges of the EU.
Kant on Freedom and Rational Agency provides a novel interpretation and rational reconstruction of Kant's doctrine of freedom. Markus Kohl shows how Kant defends the belief that we are free from foreign (natural and super-natural) causes as a presupposition of all meaningful human activity. While this interpretation focuses on the essential role that freedom of will plays in our moral agency, it also examines how our status as rational cognitive agents hinges on our freedom of thought, and why our aesthetic engagement with beauty requires our freedom of imagination. Kohl thereby gives a compelling sense of Kant's estimation that freedom is a "cardinal point"--even the "keystone"--of his entire critical philosophy. Kant's doctrine of freedom emerges in this account as a systematic critique of a naturalistic worldview which regards all our capacities, representations, and actions as the causal upshot of natural laws and forces. Kant holds that the naturalistic worldview fatally undermines our self-conception as rational agents. This critique of naturalism culminates in the argument that naturalistic cognizers cannot explain away our freedom from natural forces because they must presuppose such a freedom in their own cognitive efforts to devise rationally valid naturalistic theories.
With Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD), business customers, testers, and developers can collaborate to produce testable requirements that help them build higher quality software more rapidly. However, ATDD is still widely misunderstood by many practitioners. ATDD by Example is the first practical, entry-level, hands-on guide to implementing and successfully applying it. ATDD pioneer Markus Gärtner walks readers step by step through deriving the right systems from business users, and then implementing fully automated, functional tests that accurately reflect business requirements, are intelligible to stakeholders, and promote more effective development. Through two end-to-end case studies, Gärtner demonstrates how ATDD can be applied using diverse frameworks and languages. Each case study is accompanied by an extensive set of artifacts, including test automation classes, step definitions, and full sample implementations. These realistic examples illuminate ATDD's fundamental principles, show how ATDD fits into the broader development process, highlight tips from Gärtner's extensive experience, and identify crucial pitfalls to avoid. Readers will learn to Master the thought processes associated with successful ATDD implementation Use ATDD with Cucumber to describe software in ways businesspeople can understand Test web pages using ATDD tools Bring ATDD to Java with the FitNesse wiki-based acceptance test framework Use examples more effectively in Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) Specify software collaboratively through innovative workshops Implement more user-friendly and collaborative test automation Test more cleanly, listen to test results, and refactor tests for greater value If you're a tester, analyst, developer, or project manager, this book offers a concrete foundation for achieving real benefits with ATDD now-and it will help you reap even more value as you gain experience.
This short monograph examines the tense relationship between central bank independence and democratic legitimation, which has changed as the European Central Bank (ECB) has been entrusted with new tasks and faced unprecedented challenges. The financial and sovereign debt crisis, in particular, has affected the ECB's position within the Economic and Monetary Union without substantial changes in the Union's legal framework. However, the evolution of an institution primarily obligated to maintain price stability into an actor involved in sustaining financial stability, performing banking supervision and supporting economic policy raises the question of whether the high level of autonomy granted to the ECB is justified with regard to the principle of democracy that demands adequate accountability and control. This book identifies requirements for the democratic legitimation of central bank action in relation to specific tasks. Further, it analyses other scales of independence encountered in EU law in order to allow readers to gain a better conceptual understanding of central bank independence.
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