NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

This article examines the governance of organizational networks and the impact of governance on network effectiveness. Three basic models, or forms, of network governance are developed focusing on their distinct structural properties. Propositions are formulated examining conditions for the effectiveness of each form. The tensions inherent in each form are then discussed, followed by the role that management may play in addressing these tensions. Finally, the evolution of governance is explored.

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Modes of Network Governance: Structure, Management, and Effectiveness

A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes

In this paper we explore the development and incidence of alternative food networks within a European-wide context. By developing a consistent definition of short food supply chains, we address both the morphology and the dynamics of these, and then examine empirical evidence concerning their incidence and rural development impact across seven EU member states. These developments need to be seen as one significant contribution to the current transitions in rural Europe concerning the crisis of conventional intensive and productivist agriculture and the public consumer pressure for a larger variety of distinctive 'quality' food products.

/pdf/understanding-alternative-food-networks-exploring-the-role-3j5qleslro.pdf

Understanding Alternative Food Networks: Exploring the Role of Short Food Supply Chains in Rural Development:

Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation

This paper explores the role of short food supply chains in rural development. By developing a theoretical perspective, it seeks to contribute to debates on the generalized theory of rural development. It argues that in order to more fully understand their role and potential we need to move beyond descriptions of product flows to examine how supply chains are built, shaped and reproduced over time and space. Consideration is given to the definition of short food supply chains, and a three level typology is presented. The paper examines the dimensions and evolution of short food supply chains, and identifies four types of evolution: temporal, spatial, demand and associational or institutional. Case studies from the impact research programme are positioned within this framework, and it is argued that we need conceptualizations that reflect the dynamic and evolutionary nature of supply chains and the businesses they involve. A case study of the Llyn Beef Producers Co-operative in Wales is expanded to illustrate the evolution of supply chains and their role in rural development, both at the farm level and within the wider rural economy.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9523.00158

Food supply chain approaches: exploring their role in rural development.

Since the early 1990s, the concept of regional competitiveness has become a hegemonic discourse within public policy circles in developed countries. However, it is a somewhat chaotic and ill-defined discourse based on a relatively narrow conception of how regions compete, prosper and grow. This paper seeks to problematise the discourse with reference to theory, and to explain how and why it has assumed such significance in policy circles. It is argued that the answer lies within the policy process and the imperative of legitimating certain courses of policy action. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Everyone's a Winner: Problematising the Discourse of Regional Competitiveness

Conflict around wind farm development has stimulated interest in ‘community benefits’ – the provision of financial or material benefits by the developers to the area affected by these facilities. By and large, both policy makers and researchers have couched the rationale for community benefits in instrumental terms, i.e. that an increased flow of community benefits will improve the social acceptability of these facilities and thereby expedite planning consent. This paper questions this conventional rationale. Proponents of this rationale neglect the institutionally structured terrain of the planning process; the provision of community benefits can shift in significance depending on whether or not the ‘affected community’ has any significant influence over wind farm projects. Similarly, our discourse analysis conducted in Wales shows that community benefits are seen predominantly as compensation for impacts, without any clear implication that they should change social attitudes. Our conclusion is that the dominant, instrumental rationale for community benefits obscures other, equally important justifications: the role of community benefits in promoting environmental justice; and how flows of community benefits might better serve the long-term sustainability of wind farm development areas.

Acceptance, acceptability and environmental justice: the role of community benefits in wind energy development

Resilience is attracting increasing interest in the thinking and policy discourses around regional development. However, regional development policy remains dominated by a narrow discourse of competitiveness that appears to have negative implications for resilience and is subject to increasing and widespread challenge and critique. Using the Cultural Political Economy approach, this paper explores the complex relationships that exist between competitiveness and resilience and argues that de-contextualised, placeless competitiveness strategies lead to problems of resilience that can be at least partly overcome with respect to more contextualised approaches.

Resilient regions: re-‘place'ing regional competitiveness

Regional resilience: an agency perspective, Regional Studies. This paper argues that in the nascent theorizing and empirical study of regional economic resilience, the role of human agency has been under-explored to date. In seeking to address this gap, the paper focuses on three key questions: why agency is important in resilience; how agents are organized in complex, regional economies and how they might act; and finally, what an agency perspective means for how resilience might be conceptualized and analysed empirically. It is argued that including the human factor in resilience thinking ultimately means that the role of place and context must assume greater significance.

Gillian Irene Bristow

Papers

Food supply chain approaches: exploring their role in rural development.

Everyone's a Winner: Problematising the Discourse of Regional Competitiveness

Acceptance, acceptability and environmental justice: the role of community benefits in wind energy development

Resilient regions: re-‘place'ing regional competitiveness

Regional Resilience: An Agency Perspective