Articoli di riviste sul tema "Industrie et commerce de la viande"

La filière avicole française, qui bénéficie encore d’une croissance de la demande intérieure, a enregistré une baisse de sa production au cours de la dernière décennie, surtout en dindes. Cette évolution traduit une perte de compétitivité par rapport à d’autres pays, notamment européens, particulièrement structurés en termes productif et industriel et dynamiques en termes d’innovations et de réseaux commerciaux. Les importations françaises de viande de volailles, qui proviennent en priorité de pays voisins (Allemagne, Belgique et Pays-Bas) et beaucoup plus marginalement des grands acteurs du commerce mondial (Brésil, USA, Thaïlande…), sont devenues préoccupantes. Elles représentent, en 2014, plus de 30% de la consommation intérieure contre un peu moins de 15% en 2000. Si la balance commerciale de la France en viande de volailles avec les pays tiers (hors Union Européenne) demeure positive, rien n’est acquis pour le futur. A court terme, la mise à zéro des restitutions n’a pas encore produit tous ses effets et les exportateurs français ont bénéficié depuis mi-2014 d’une parité entre l’euro et le dollar favorable. A moyen terme, la concurrence entre les grandes zones exportatrices pourrait s’accentuer en raison des différentiels de compétitivité, de l’ouverture croissante des marchés et de la sensibilité des flux commerciaux à l’évolution des parités monétaires. Le nombre de pays clients de la France est limité, ce qui accentue le niveau de dépendance à des considérations ciblées d’ordre géopolitique ou économique. Enfin, l’évolution récente des règles européennes relatives aux aides à l’export peut fragiliser les produits historiquement bénéficiaires. En conclusion, une attention est portée aux principales raisons d’espérer pour la filière avicole française : une forte dynamique de la demande mondiale ; un marché français à forte valeur ajoutée sur certains créneaux (volaille de qualité) ; l’amorce d’une restructuration de la filière française qui devrait favoriser une reconquête au moins partielle du marché domestique.

L’augmentation de la consommation de viande bovine dans plusieurs pays asiatiques contribue à renforcer les jeux concurrentiels entre les principaux exportateurs mondiaux de viande bovine, dont l’Australie, l’Inde, le Brésil ou les États-Unis. Les principaux importateurs de viande bovine, dont les États-Unis, la Chine (avec Hong-Kong), le Japon et la Russie, connaissent des trajectoires différenciées en fonction de l’évolution de la demande intérieure en viande bovine, des conditions sanitaires propres aux pays fournisseurs et, parfois, de questions géopolitiques. L’Union Européenne, qui connait à la fois une baisse de sa production et de sa consommation de viande bovine, n’est pas un acteur majeur du commerce international dans ce secteur. La demande intérieure est satisfaite essentiellement par des produits européens, mais des flux importants de bovins vivants et de viande bovine ont lieu entre les États membres. En utilisant les bases de données des douanes disponibles, tant à l’échelle mondiale (« Comtrade » et « Baci ») que de l’Union Européenne (« Comext »), cet article propose une analyse sur l’évolution de la situation productive et commerciale des principaux acteurs du secteur bovin mondial pour la période 2000 à 2015.

De nos jours, les processus industriels d’élevage et de mise à mort des animaux de boucherie sont relégués vers des bâtiments anonymes, à l’abri des regards. Dans ces non-lieux aseptisés, mécanisés et invivables que sont les élevages et les abattoirs industriels, le rapport homme-animal est à jamais rompu, la vie et la mort animales ne font plus sens. La mise en récit de ces non-sens pose un défi pour la création littéraire, mais quelques écrivains français contemporains s’engagent à « rendre visible ce qui a été conçu pour être invisible» (Anne Simon, « Animal: l’élevage industriel », [s. p.]). Notre analyse, qui se concentrera sur 180 jours d’Isabelle Sorente et Comme une bête de Joy Sorman, propose d’examiner comment ces ‘non-lieux’ de l’industrie de la viande deviennent, dans l’univers littéraire, des lieux symptomatiques de maux qui affligent notre société moderne. Ces huis clos cachés, que l’on analysera comme des hétérotopies foucaldiennes, nous confrontent au malaise de notre propre humanité qu’engendre le traitement des animaux sous la contrainte capitaliste de la rentabilité. En employant le topos littéraire du regard animal, les écrivains font apparaître notre « reflet dans l’œil d’une truie » (Sorente, 180 jours, 485) ; et suscitent un questionnement des non-sens de l’industrie de la viande. Mots clés : industrie – viande - abattage - industrie - non-lieu – hétérotopie - regard animal

Ces dernières décennies, l’intensification de la production animale a été favorisée par l’usage des médicaments vétérinaires, en particulier les antibiotiques. Dans ce contexte, cette étude a été menée afin de rechercher la présence de résidus d’antibiotiques dans les denrées alimentaires d’origine animale comme la viande de bovins et les œufs de poules. Des échantillons ont étés prélevés (166 issus de viande bovine et 227 d’œufs) dans différents points d’abattage et de commerce des villes de N’Djaména et Moundou au Tchad. Les résultats ont montré la présence de résidus d’antibiotiques dans 72 des 166 échantillons de viande, soit une prévalence de 43,3 %, et dans 60 des 227 échantillons d’œufs, soit une prévalence de 26,4 %. Ces pourcentages élevés de résidus d’antibiotiques dans les denrées alimentaires fréquemment consommées constituent un problème de santé publique. Des études avec des méthodes quantitatives plus poussées devraient être conduites pour identifier la nature des antibiotiques présents dans ces denrées, ainsi que pour en quantifier les teneurs.

La demande croissante de viande de brousse en Afrique menace d’extinction de nombreuses espèces animales. Certaines sont en situation précaire, tel le porc-épic à crête (Hystrix cristata). Menacé d’extinction, il reste chassé dans plusieurs pays africains pour sa viande, très prisée par les populations locales, mais aussi ses poils modifiés en piquants. Peu connu, il présente des particularités qui lui sont spécifiques. Seul représentant de la famille des hystricidés au Bénin, il est exploité à diverses fins, dont l’alimentation humaine, en tant que source de protéines pour les populations locales, et la médecine traditionnelle. Par des enquêtes, des entrevues, des discussions informelles et des observations de terrain, nous avons étudié les usages du porc-épic à crête par les populations des réserves de biosphère de Pendjari et du W au Bénin. Cette espèce animale est utilisée dans quatre domaines : alimentation, pharmacopée, commerce et ornement. Les fréquences d’usage répertoriées sont la nourriture (100 % des personnes interrogées), la pharmacopée (80,3 %), le commerce (37,5 %) et l’ornement-artisanat (2,2 %). Les parties qui présentent les valeurs d’usage (VU) les plus élevées, toutes catégories d’usage confondues, sont la chair et la peau (viande) (VU = 1,00), les piquants (VU = 0,76) et l’estomac (VU = 0,42). La gestion effective du porc-épic à crête et de son milieu de vie suppose de conduire des recherches plus approfondies, notamment sur son importance économique et les éventuelles possibilités de son élevage en captivité.

En 2005, l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) fêtait son dixième anniversaire. Mais cet anniversaire n’était pas porteur que de bonnes nouvelles pour le Canada à l’OMC. L’abrogation de l’Accord sur les textiles et les vêtements, le premier jour du 121e mois après la prise d’effet de l’Accord sur l’OMC, a heurté de plein fouet une industrie textile canadienne visiblement incapable de trouver son créneau face à la concurrence asiatique et a rapidement entraîné, au début de 2005, des milliers de pertes d’emplois au Canada.

Cet article propose de dénaturaliser la notion de « tactile » et le vocabulaire métaphorique qui l’accompagne – telle que la « fluidité », l’« interactivité » ou la « reponsivité » – qui engagent un rapport fasciné à l’écran contemporain. Nous nous intéressons pour cela au coup de doigt sur l’écran, c’est-à-dire au moment où l’usager manipule du bout du doigt l’interface : c’est dans cette rencontre entre du technique et du corporel que se joue la continuité entre le corps et l’écran. Il s’agit d’observer les manières dont ce doigt est digitalisé, traité par l’écran ; d’interroger le tactile à la fois comme processus technique, informatique ; humain, sémiotique et anthropologique ; et économique, typique d’une industrie nouvelle. Dans un premier temps, nous reviendrons sur les conditions d’élaboration de la critique de la notion de « tactile » et l’outillage conceptuel qu’elle demande, celui de l’écriture. Nous proposons de réinscrire l’écran d’abord dans sa dimension technique, ergonomique et interprétative. Puis, nous analysons les pratiques de conception qui participent à produire l’illusion d’une continuité entre le corps et l’écran. Enfin, il s’agit de montrer que, alors que les écrans dépassent largement la frontière du doigt pour produire de la donnée à partir du corps entier, ses discours et ses imaginaires contribuent à faire diversion des enjeux économiques et de pouvoir qui les traversent.

Cet article analyse le processus par lequel une industrie de la beauté des années 1960 devient globalisée. Il le fait au travers du prisme de l’industrie hongkongaise de la perruque, – alors n° 1 mondial des industries globales de la beauté aux États-Unis, valant 1 milliard de dollars. Suivre cette industrie de son ascension jusqu’à son déclin permet d’appréhender l’histoire de la mondialisation différemment : non pas comme l’avènement du laissez-faire et d’un capitalisme global dématérialisé, mais comme un ensemble de relations complexes historiquement constituées (connexions à l’Inde et à la Chine), ayant un caractère accidentel découlant de la politique de Guerre froide (embargo surprise contre les cheveux « communistes » asiatiques), ou encore résultant de la surveillance intrusive du commerce hongkongais par le gouvernement britannique, qui, en garantissant la qualité et l’origine, surmonta la méfiance envers la distance inhérente au commerce global.

C'est principalement vers la fin des années 1950 que les problèmes rencontrés dans le commerce international du textile et du vêtement devinrent de plus en plus aigus. Selon la plupart des pays importateurs et exportateurs engagés dans ce segment important du commerce international, l'Accord général sur les tarifs douaniers et le commerce (GATT), qui régit les relations commerciales internationales dans leur ensemble, s'avérait insuffisant pour prévenir ou corriger ces problèmes. Afin de pallier cette situation, les pays participants au commerce international des textiles de coton adoptèrent, au début des années 1960, l'Accord à court terme sur les textiles de coton. À cet accord succéderont l'Accord à long terme sur les textiles de coton, qui régira le commerce international des textiles de coton de 1961 à 1973, et l'Arrangement concernant le commerce international des textiles (AMF), celui-ci régissant le commerce international d'à peu près tous les textiles et vêtements depuis le 1er janvier 1974. Le but du présent article est d'étudier la mise en oeuvre de l'AMF au Canada au cours de la période 1974-1984. Dans un premier temps, nous examinerons la réglementation canadienne applicable au commerce du textile et du vêtement avant l'entrée en vigueur de l'AMF. Cette analyse nous permettra de constater que dès 1974 le Canada disposait déjà des instruments juridiques nécessaires à la mise en oeuvre de l'AMF. Plus particulièrement, nous démontrerons que l'adhésion du Canada à l'AMF était des plus compatible avec la politique commerciale canadienne applicable au secteur du textile et du vêtement. Dans un second temps, nous verrons comment le Canada a mis en oeuvre et exécuté ses obligations internationales. Bien qu'il ait été favorable en principe à la libéralisation des échanges, le Canada s'est largement prévalu des dispositions de l’AMF pour protéger son industrie du textile et du vêtement. Pour ce faire, et à l'instar des grands pays importateurs, le Canada a conclu des ententes de restriction volontaire à l'exportation avec ses partenaires commerciaux et a exceptionnellement recouru à l'imposition d'un contingentement global des importations dans le cadre du GATT. De façon générale, force est de reconnaître que si le Canada a accordé une protection considérable à son industrie, il l'a fait dans le respect des dispositions de l'AMF.

Le régime alimentaire des Inuits du Nunavik s’est modifié considérablement au cours des dernières décennies. Leur alimentation traditionnelle, constituée de viande et de poisson, a évolué vers un régime composé majoritairement de produits alimentaires importés du Sud, bien que l’apport en protéines demeure largement basé sur la consommation de gibier et de poisson. En raison du coût important lié à cette nouvelle forme d’alimentation, la transformation des habitudes alimentaires des Inuits modifie l’état de la sécurité alimentaire au Nunavik. Parce qu’elle permettrait de générer des revenus supplémentaires aux Inuits, la commercialisation de la viande de caribou et de ses sous-produits pourrait contribuer à renforcer l’accessibilité économique des Inuits aux produits du Sud et ainsi participer à l’atteinte d’une sécurité alimentaire durable au Nunavik. La Convention de la Baie-James et du Nord québécois et ses conventions complémentaires, qui établissent le régime de chasse des Inuits, permettent effectivement à ces derniers de pratiquer la chasse commerciale du caribou tout en leur assurant un accès sécurisé à cette ressource faunique dans une perspective de développement durable. Toutefois, certaines dispositions de ces conventions posent problème, principalement en cas de diminution importante des populations de caribous. De plus, des difficultés sont prévisibles quant au respect des règles nationales et internationales liées au commerce des produits alimentaires, notamment en ce qui a trait aux règles d’innocuité et de salubrité.

L’innovation constitue un facteur central de survie et de développement d’une firme, d’une branche, voir d’un pays. Si l’innovation industrielle a donné lieu à des approches manageriales riches et diversifiées, les outils d’analyse de l’innovation dans les activités commerciales font cruellement défaut. L’objet du présent article est de compléter les outils d’analyse existants en les adaptant aux problématiques de la distribution et du management de la chaîne de l’offre. La première partie de l’article examine deux approches de l’innovation, l’une marketing, l’autre stratégique ; une classification spécifique distinguant les innovations de concept, de flux, d’organisation ainsi que les innovations architecturales est ensuite proposée. La seconde partie présente une première évaluation de l’impact des innovations ainsi repérées au sein des activités commerciales sur les rapports industrie-commerce. En conclusion des pistes de recherche sont esquissées .

Peut-on être féministe et manger des animaux ? Si cette question parait saugrenue, c’est que nous n’avons pas l’habitude de voir l’élevage comme une industrie qui exploite le corps des individu·es, qui contrôle leur sexualité et leur reproduction, et qui passe outre leur consentement. En creusant un peu, on s’aperçoit que la consommation de viande est associée à la virilité et que les justifications à l’exploitation animale font écho à la culture du viol. Lorsqu’on exploite une vache sous prétexte qu’elle y consent, lorsqu’on sexualise les truies pour mieux se les approprier, lorsqu’on enferme les poules pour les prétendre « en liberté », on bafoue le consentement et l’intégrité corporelle qui sont si chèr·es au féminisme. De même, à prétendre que manger des animaux n’est qu’un choix personnel, on oublie que le privé est politique – le slogan le plus iconique de la pensée féministe. Et que dire de l’affirmation selon laquelle l’éleveur exploite « par amour », un refrain bien connu des victimes de violence conjugale ? Ce texte présente une critique féministe de l’exploitation animale. Il est composé d’extraits adaptés du livre que l’autrice fera bientôt paraitre.

Résumé RÉSUMÉ: La réforme du secteur électrique a été d’emblée la plus radicale ayant jamais touché les «Public Utilities» d’Angleterre. En effet, le gouvernement de M. Thatcher ne s’est pas contenté de privatiser l’électricité, il a simultanément imposé: -la déintégration verticale et horizontale des métiers et des entreprises, -et l’implantation de «marchés ouverts», en amont et en aval du secteur, pour le commerce de gros et de détail. Cependant, dans le fonctionnement concret du secteur électrique anglais, des règles correspondant à un «service public partiel» ont été maintenues pour encadrer les activités de transport et de distribution ainsi que le service aux clients non-éligibles.

Résumé En prologue de cet article, nous rappelons les circonstances qui ont amené Jochen Hoock à contribuer à une nouvelle Histoire de Rouen. Il vise aussi à caractériser la spécificité de son approche par rapport à celle développée par Jean-Pierre Bardet dans la précédente Histoire de Rouen. Puis est envisagé, en deux temps, l’apport principal de l’auteur. Durant la première moitié du XVIIe siècle Rouen apparaît comme une grande ville marchande sous tension du fait notamment des guerres européennes. Les années 1650-1700 sont marquées par des difficultés économiques liées à l’exacerbation des tensions religieuses avant que le commerce colonial et international serve d’appui à l’expansion industrielle des années 1680-1740. En conclusion, la démarche de Jochen Hoock paraît essentielle en ce qui concerne l’articulation entre commerce et industrie et aussi entre différents niveaux d’analyse, du local à l’international et au global.

La médiatisation de type publicitaire affecte-t-elle l’expression de préoccupations liées aux enjeux sociaux et environnementaux de l’industrie de la mode comparativement à une activité délibérative ? Le protocole expérimental présenté conduit à l’observation d’un écart significatif entre les expressions spontanées influencées par l’espace vécu, les expressions recueillies dans un contexte sémio-communicationnel expérimental de type persuasif marketing (baisse significative de l’évocation de ces enjeux) et celles produites après un exercice délibératif (forte hausse). L’introduction de produits proposés par des acteurs du commerce équitable ne permet pas d’infléchir fortement les réponses. Ces résultats éclairent les discussions sur les modalités d’alimentation des débats dans l’espace public par des démarches de type marketing mais constituent également un défi pour les acteurs défendant des formes commerciales alternatives promotrices du développement durable. Pour eux, le recours à des espaces publics autonomes complémentaires apparaît nécessaire pour ne pas s’en remettre à la seule éthique du consommateur.

Cet article traite de la production manufacturée dans les économies avancées. Il analyse les tendances générales à l’œuvre à la fois dans ces économies et dans l'économie mondiale. L’article refuse l’idée selon laquelle les économies avancées pourraient s’appuyer, à titre principal, sur les services, et souligne qu’une industrie puissante est vitale pour leur prospérité. L’industrie dans ces économies a déjà subi une restructuration douloureuse et de nouveaux problèmes l’attendent, mais il y a des occasions nouvelles d’ exportation offertes par la croissance des marchés dans les pays en voie de développement. L’article conclut par une analyse de la structure du commerce global et de l’impact des firmes transnationales.

Depuis le milieu des années 80, les détaillants alimentaires de l’Europe du Nord ont pris progressivement le contrôle du canal de distribution, notamment en assurant le pilotage des flux logistiques à la place de leurs fournisseurs industriels. Pour éviter que ce contrôle ne conduise à une prolifération de comportements abusifs, les Pouvoirs Publics ont cherché à établir les bases d’une compétition verticale saine et loyale entre industrie et commerce. Prenant le cas français de la loi Galland (1996), l’article indique que l’interventionnisme étatique semble néanmoins avoir des effets paradoxaux confortant la puissance des détaillants alimentaires plutôt que de l’éroder .

En rapprochant très directement, au début des années 1990, la question liée à l’émergence des Prestataires de Services Logistiques (PSL) au sein de chaines logistiques multi-acteurs à celle ayant trait à la formation d’un mur logistique au coeur même des relations industrie-commerce en France, cet article, basé sur une approche empirique du terrain à un niveau régional, aborde la question des enjeux et des conséquences liées à l’irruption d’un troisième acteur au sein d’un canal actuellement dominé par le distributeur.

L'aspect commercial de l'édition musicale n'a pas, jusqu'à présent, beaucoup retenu l'attention des chercheurs. Si l'on dispose maintenant de bonnes monographies concernant quelques grandes maisons européennes, on n'a qu'une idée assez vague de la manière dont elles se partageaient le marché mondial et de l'évolution de l'offre et de la demande. L'une des raisons de cette lacune est la difficulté de trouver des sources fournissant quantitativement les mouvements de partitions d'un pays à l'autre. Pour la France, les registres tenus à partir de 1827, par l'administration des douanes, dans lesquels sont consignées, année par année, toutes les entrées ou sorties de marchandises sur notre sol, livrent des renseignements précieux sur ces échanges. Le contenu de ces registres, bien que partiel, puisqu'aucune information n'est livrée sur les catégories musicales ayant fait l'objet des échanges et que le suivi des transactions est parfois fragmenté dans le temps, livre néanmoins une image globale du développement du marché de la musique entre 1827 et 1896. Il révèle aussi l'amplitude de certains phénomènes commerciaux se rapportant à cette industrie, dont on ignorait à ce jour l'existence.

Cet article traite de l’évolution des prix de détails dans la grande distribution française suite à la promulgation de la loi Châtel en janvier 2008. Il ressort de cette étude que les relations industrie-commerce témoignent en France d’une concentration stratégique du canal autour d’une structure spécifique de marché, que nous qualifions d’oligopole bilatéral à frange non concurrentielle, consubstantielle d’une hausse générale du prix des produits de détail. En France, le rôle de la structure de marché semble donc un élément plus déterminant que l’évolution législative du cadre réglementaire observée au travers des effets induits par la loi Châtel.

Aux xive et xve siècles, Venise, placée favorablement en Méditerranée, à proximité des grands fleuves et de cols alpins qui conduisent en Lombardie ou en Allemagne et en Flandre, tente d’imposer un monopole de navigation et de commerce à la mer Adriatique considérée comme son Golfe. Elle bénéficie de son avance technique et de son organisation (l’Arsenal), de ses bateaux (nefs coques, galères), de ses connaissances financières, de sa richesse et de l’expérience acquise par ses marchands sur les places du Levant comme à l’Ouest. Cité sans campagne (ville sans contado), elle fait venir de l’extérieur, par la mer ou par les fleuves, tout ce qui est nécessaire à sa population (matériaux de construction, bois de chauffage, et tout le vivre, céréales, vin, huile et bétail) et à son industrie navale ou textile (draperie et soierie), elle craint de manquer et met à contribution une vaste partie de l’Europe, Pourtant, elle se heurte à de graves difficultés en Adriatique même, à la piraterie, aux puissances riveraines, aux ports concurrents, Raguse et Ancône, à l’intrusion du capital et de marchands toscans dans les ports de Dalmatie, elle cherche à appliquer son monopole aux territoires qu’elle domine politiquement et qui constituent son empire, mais, par peur de la contrebande qui ruinerait ses recettes douanières et fiscales, elle réduit l’activité maritime et commerciale de ses territoires-sujets. Les marchands vénitiens font certes commerce où ils veulent mais dès qu’ils entrent en Adriatique, ils doivent se rendre à Venise avec leurs marchandises et non dans un autre port. Venise semble forte de sa puissance assise sur des points d’appui solides et sur la faiblesse de ses adversaires : si Gênes n’est plus une menace, de nouveaux dangers menacent en Adriatique même, les Turcs ottomans contre qui Venise commence à mener d’épuisantes guerres.

Des mesures prises par les États en vue de préserver leur identité culturelle ne sont pas sans supposer des obstacles à la libéralisation des échanges internationaux, et, dès lors, sont susceptibles de donner lieu à des différends. Ainsi, les États-Unis ont contesté devant l'Organisation mondiale du commerce des mesures de protection de l'industrie canadienne des périodiques. Dans ce qui risque de constituer un précédent, des mesures appliquées par le Canada afin de protéger une industrie d'une grande importance culturelle ont été jugées incompatibles avec les obligations commerciales internationales. En fait, le principe de l'exception culturelle n'est pas reconnu au niveau multilatéral, et la logique marchande s'y révèle prédominante. Dans ces conditions, le Canada voit sérieusement réduite sa marge de manoeuvre pour protéger ses périodiques et l'ensemble de ses industries culturelles, et se retrouve en pleine incertitude quant à la conformité de ses politiques culturelles avec les présentes règles multilatérales. En mai 1999, une entente canado-américaine conclue afin de mettre un terme au différend sur les périodiques laisse entrevoir des possibilités d'accommodement sur les questions culturelles. Toutefois, le principe de l'exception culturelle n'a pas fini de mobiliser une bonne partie des efforts du Canada dans le domaine de la politique étrangère et des relations internationales.

L'évolution des productions animales de 1964 à 1994 montre une diminution des protéines disponibles par habitant et par jour. Elle montre également une part faible de l'Afrique subsaharienne (Ass) dans le marché mondial des produits animaux. Les prospectives de 1994 à 2020 ont été faites en fonction d'un maintien du niveau de consommation actuelle, de la croissance démographique, du développement des villes et du niveau des revenus des ménages. Elles montrent que la consommation globale des viandes devrait croître de 3,9 p. 100 par an, celle des produits laitiers et des oeufs de 3,3 p. 100. L'offre, en fonction des ressources alimentaires disponibles pour l'alimentation des animaux, pourrait multiplier par 1,3 la production de viandes rouges, par 4,25 celle de viandes blanches, par 1,75 celle de lait et par 3,1 celle d'oeufs. Les consommations examinées par sous-régions indiquent plusieurs types de consommation et une grande diversité dans les quantités de protéines animales consommées par jour et par habitant allant de 4,2g en zone centrale à 13,8g dans la zone de l'Igad (Intergovernmental Authority on Drought). Les évolutions des consommations selon les produits montrent une forte augmentation des viandes blanches dans les régimes dans la plupart des zones. Ce bilan général de l'évolution de l'offre peut paraître pessimiste. Il ne doit pas occulter les efforts entrepris. En 30 ans, les productions de viande ont plus que doublé et les productions de produits laitiers ont été multipliées par 1,8. Pour prévoir la demande dans une génération, c'est-à-dire en 2020, trois facteurs qui influencent fortement sa croissance sont retenus: la démographie, l'urbanisation et l'élévation du niveau de vie. L'hypothèse selon laquelle la consommation individuelle de produits animaux en Afrique subsaharienne, où la sous-nutrition est déjà présente, ne peut continuer de baisser est également émise. Les facteurs d'évolution conditionnant l'offre sont passés en revue : ils portent sur les accords mondiaux sur le commerce et sur des facteurs propres à l'Ass (régionalisation...). Les conclusions développent l'obligation de l'intensification des productions animales qui passe par l'organisation des professionnels, la privatisation, les infrastructures.

Les exportations d’armements en direction du Moyen-Orient ont longtemps constitué un volet important de ce qu’il était convenu d’appeler « la politique arabe de la France ». La construction d’une industrie d’armements indépendante a été une constante des gouvernements de la IV e République et des débuts de la V e . En outre, de par sa situation internationale, les industries de guerre françaises ne connaissent pas les limitations, ou, du moins, les réserves imposées aux industries allemande et japonaise. Il est logique que, dans ces conditions, le poids économique de la France, qui a dépassé celui du Royaume-Uni dans les années 1970, en fasse, à partir de cette époque, le troisième exportateur d’armes mondial. Pendant longtemps, Israël est, pour des raisons politiques, le principal (voire le seul) client de la France dans le monde arabe. Cependant, au début de 1970, la vente de 110 Mirage à la Libye symbolise les nouvelles orientations du commerce français. L’Irak s’équipe également en Mirage à partir de 1972. Enfin au cours des années 1980, le Moyen-Orient occupe une place fondamentale dans les exportations françaises. Avec la première guerre du Golfe, ces exportations connaissent un net ralentissement ; ce qui, au fond, va mettre un terme aux ambitions et aux illusions d’une certaine politique arabe de la France.

Comment mieux répondre aux besoins d’accompagnement humain des porteurs de projet ? À partir de cette demande, l’article cherche à mieux comprendre dans quelles situations et de quelle façon des accompagnateurs seniors mobilisent les différentes postures d’accompagnement. Six situations problématiques principales ont été identifiées, ainsi que les stratégies d’action et de communication généralement associées. Plus que jamais d’actualité, l’article questionne la façon dont il est possible de soutenir un individu engagé dans un projet qui concerne aussi son identité et génère de fortes émotions tout en respectant un contrat implicite de réussite du projet. L’article s’appuie sur la recherche-action menée en 2011 avec les Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie qui a impliqué une vingtaine de conseillers de différents niveaux d’expérience. Il discute finalement la place spécifique des émotions dans les postures et stratégies d’accompagnement et propose des démarches pour aller plus loin aujourd’hui.

Quails are small sized pheasants having a long history of domestication and utilization. The management and welfare systems of Quail production at Songhai Delta farm were surveyed and reviewed. The young quails were sexed by the feather and vent methods when at 6 weeks old and they begin to lay eggs at about that age. Fertile eggs are managed in hatchery until chicks are hatched. Other set of eggs laid are also collected and sold in the farm shop. The quails were fed three types of ration - starter mash at 1-4 weeks of age, grower mash 4-6 weeks and layer mash as from 6 weeks of age. Quails are susceptible to some common poultry diseases; but good management and welfare practices ensure safety and healthy birds. A ratio of 1male to 3 females is the stocking rate in breeder cages in the farm, to obtain fertile eggs. High feed cost and poor market for farm products were the most significant problems of the enterprise. The cost and return estimate for quail bird production indicate that quail venture is highly profitable. The bird has early sexual maturity resulting in a short generation intervals and high rate of lay. Thus, raising quail offers many advantages when compared to producing other domestic or food animals. Quail venture is excellent and recommended for beginners in poultry business, because the birds begin to lay eggs at young age of about 6weeks; and can be slaughtered for food at 5weeks of age. Many developing countries presently faced with problem of inadequate supply of animal protein should find quail production a viable industry. The study recommends a step up of extension services to enlighten farmers and the populace on the importance of quail meat and eggs and the profitability of quail farming. Les cailles sont de petite taille ayant une longue histoire de domestication et d'utilisation. Les systèmes de gestion et de bien-être de la production de cailles à la ferme du delta de Songhai ont été considéré et examinés. Les jeunes cailles sont sexées par les méthodes de 'feather and vent' lorsqu'elles ont 6 semaines et qu'elles commencent à pondre des œufs vers cet âge. Les œufs fertiles sont gérés dans l'écloserie jusqu'à ce que les poussins soient éclos. D'autres œufs pondus sont également recueillis et vendus dans la boutique de la ferme. Les cailles ont été nourries de trois types de ration - purée de démarrage à l'âge de 1-4 semaines, purée de grower 4-6 semaines et purée de couche à partir de 6 semaines d'âge. Les cailles sont sensibles à certaines maladies courantes de la volaille ; mais de bonnes pratiques de gestion et de bien-être assurent la sécurité et la santé des oiseaux. Un rapport de 1male à 3 femelles est le taux de stockage dans les cages d'élevage dans la ferme, pour obtenir des oeufs fertiles. Le coût élevé des aliments pour animaux et le mauvais marché des produits agricoles ont étéles problèmes les plus importants de l'entreprise. L'estimation du coût et du rendement de la production d'oiseaux caille indique que l'entreprise de cailles est très rentable. L'oiseau a une maturité sexuelle précoce résultant en un intervalle de génération court et un taux élevé de produire des oeufs. Ainsi, l'élevage de cailles offre de nombreux avantages par rapport à la production d'autres animaux domestiques ou alimentaires. L'entreprise de caille est excellente et recommandée pour les débutants dans le secteur de la volaille, parce que les oiseaux commencent à pondre des œufs à un jeune âge d'environ 6 semaines ; et peut être abattu pour la nourriture à l'âge de 5 semaines. De nombreux pays en voie du développement confrontés à un problème d'approvisionnement insuffisant en protéines animales devraient trouver la production de cailles une industrie viable. L'étude recommande une augmentation des services d'extension pour éclairer les agriculteurs et la population sur l'importance de la viande et des œufs de caille et la rentabilité de l'élevage de cailles.

Résumé L'année 1998 aura été marquée par une nette bascule entre les pays industriels qui ont bénéficié de gains de termes de l'échange et les pays en développement dont la croissance s'est effondrée. Fin 1998, les marchés financiers internationaux se sont ressaisis. Le risque principal réside maintenant dans le niveau élevé des Bourses des pays développés et surtout de la Bourse américaine. L'hypothèse retenue ici est que la Fed évitera de resserrer sa politique monétaire et que le krach sera évité. Les taux d'intérêt en Europe devraient baisser au deuxième trimestre 1999, avant de remonter légèrement entre la fin 1999 et la mi-2000. Le mouvement récent d'appréciation du dollar vis-à-vis de l'euro devrait s'inverser à partir du troisième trimestre 1999 et l'euro remonterait 1,2 dollar fin 2000. Le yen se déprécierait modérément. Le commerce mondial progresserait de près de 4,5% en 1999 et de 7% en 2000. L'Asie hors Japon entre en convalescence. Elle connaîtrait une crois sance de 3,3% en 1999 et de 4,9% en 2000. La dévaluation du yuan pourrait être utilisée pour soulager l'économie chinoise. Les pays d'Amérique latine font l'objet d'une nouvelle crise de défiance des investisseurs étrangers. La situation n'est pas encore stabilisée au Brésil, l'Argentine devrait souffrir de la contagion commerciale. La zone devrait voir chuter de 3% son PIB en 1999. En 2000, les conditions de la reprise permettraient une croissance de 2,5%. La situation reste inextricable en Russie, qui collectionne les déséquilibres. Les pays d'Europe centrale et orientale devraient connaître en 1999-2000 un net ralentissement dû à des politiques budgétaires et monétaires restrictives et à la répercussion de la crise russe. Aux États-Unis, les effets richesse, le dynamisme de l'emploi et la faiblesse du coût du capital ont soutenu la demande intérieure. L'économie américaine bénéficie de la qualité de son policy mix. La croissance du PIB atteindrait 3,5% en 1999 et 2,6% en 2000. D'après une variante réalisée avec le modèle MIMOSA, une chute brutale de la Bourse amputerait le PIB de 0,8% point la première année, puis de 0,3 point l'année suivante. Le Japon s'est enfoncé dans la récession tout au long de 1998. La politique budgétaire devrait fournir en 1999 une impulsion de l'ordre de 3 points de PIB, Pratiquement nulle en 1999, la croissance japonaise pourrait atteindre 2,5% en 2000. Le ralentissement économique est à l'oeuvre au Royaume-Uni, pénalisé par le haut niveau de la livre. Des politiques budgétaire et monétaire plus expansionnistes autoriseraient une croissance proche de 1% en 1999 et de 2,2% en 2000. La croissance de la zone euro a été proche de 3% en moyenne en 1998. Quelques pays ont fait nettement mieux (Espagne, Pays- Bas,...), tandis que l'Italie et l'Allemagne pâtissaient du poids de leur industrie et souffraient particulièrement des crises asiatique et russe. Malgré le net ralentissement industriel du second semestre 1998 et du pre mier trimestre 1999, la zone devrait échapper à une récession généralisée, en raison de la dynamique autonome du secteur des services et du main tien de la confiance des consommateurs.

O estudo pretende compreender a dinâmica dos diversos tipos de ocupações implantadas no entorno da Rodovia Estadual GO- 060, entre a cidade de Goiânia (GO) e Trindade (GO), e os seus reflexos na mobilidade urbana. O problema se identifica na relação causa e efeito no conflito entre o espaço urbano e o sistema de transportes, em áreas conurbadas da Região Metropolitana de Goiânia (GO). O objetivo consiste em analisar as áreas de ocupação do recorte espacial, o fluxo veicular dos modos de transportes e o índice de mobilidade, em função das tipologias de ocupação, caracterizadas como polos geradores de viagens (PGVs). Para se identificar tais ocorrências, foram utilizadas metodologias adaptadas para análise espaço-temporal e redes. Os resultados mostraram as diferenças em áreas de ocupação nos PGVs Tipo Comércio/Indústria 25,74% e 30,77% e Tipo Residencial 11,41% e 38,78% para as Regiões Oeste/Mendanha e Trindade 2, para os períodos (2011/2016) e (2009/2015), respectivamente. Essa dinâmica ocupacional gerou um aumento de +87% no total de viagens do fluxo dos diversos modos de transporte e um acréscimo de +79% no índice de mobilidade para o período de 2013 a 2016, mostrando a tendência de motorização das regiões e os reflexos na mobilidade urbana. Palavras-chave: Ocupação espacial. Sistema viário. Fluxo veicular. Transporte. Mobilidade. REFLEXES OF URBAN OCCUPATIONS ON MOBILITY TO THE MARGINS OF THE STATE ROAD GO-060 BETWEEN GOIÂNIA (GO) AND TRINDADE (GO) ABSTRACT The study aims to understand the dynamics of the various types of occupations implanted around the State Highway GO-060, between the city of Goiânia (GO) and Trindade (GO), and their reflexes on urban mobility. The problem is identified in the cause and effect relationship in the conflict between urban space and the transport system in conurbated areas of the Metropolitan Region of Goiânia (GO). The objective is to analyze the areas of occupation of the spatial area, the vehicular flow of the modes of transport and the mobility index, according to the types of occupation, characterized as travel generating poles (TGPs). To identify such occurrences, methodologies adapted for spatiotemporal analysis and networks were used. The results showed the differences in occupation areas in the Trade / Industry Type 25.74% and 30.77% and Residential Type 11.41% and 38.78% for the West / Mendanha and Trindade 2 Regions for the periods (2011/2016) and (2009/2015) respectively. This occupational dynamic generated an increase of + 87% in the total travel flow of the different modes of transport and an increase of + 79% in the mobility index for the period from 2013 to 2016, showing the trend of motorization in the regions and the reflexes in urban mobility. Keywords: Spatial occupation. Road system. Vehicular flow. Transport. Mobility. REFLETS DES OCCUPATIONS URBAINES SUR LA MOBILITÉ LE LONG DE LA ROUTE D’ÉTAT GO-60 ENTRE GOIANIA (GO) ET TRINDADE (GO) RÉSUMÉ L’étude prétend comprendre la dynamique des divers types d’occupations implantées le long de la Route d’État GO-060, entre les villes de Goiânia (GO) et Trindade (GO), et ses retombées sur la mobilité urbaine. Le problème s’identifie dans la relation de cause à effet dans le conflit entre espace urbain et système de transport, dans les aires urbanisées de la Région Métropolitaine de Goiânia (GO). L’objectif est d’analyser les zones d’occupation du découpage spatial, le flux routier des modes de transport et l’indice de mobilité selon les typologies d’occupation, caractérisées comme pôles générateurs de voyages (PGVs). L’identification de ces faits s’est réalisée par l’utilisation de méthodologies adaptées à l’analyse spatio-temporelle et de réseaux. Les résultats montrent des différences de PGVs dans les zones d’occupation du type Commerce/Industrie 25,74% et 30,77% et du type résidentiel 11,41% et 38,78% pour les régions Ouest/Mendanha et Trindade 2, respectivement pour les périodes (2011/2016) et (2009/2015). Cette dynamique d’occupation révèle une augmentation de +87% du total de voyages de flux des différents modes de transport et une croissance de +79% de l’indice de mobilité pour la période de 2013 à 2016, montrant la tendance de motorisation des régions et ses reflets sur la mobilité urbaine. Mots clés: Occupation spatial. Système routier. Flux de véhicules. Transport. Mobilité.

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 208988, “Novel Application of Abrasive Jet Perforating To Restore Productivity of a High-Potential Inactive Horizontal Oil Producer,” by Sadaf S. Chishti, SPE, Steven H. Craig, SPE, Baker Hughes, and Edward J. Wheatley, SPE, ADNOC, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The complete paper illustrates a novel methodology that enabled the safe application of coiled tubing (CT) abrasive perforation to increase production in a sour horizontal extended-reach (ER) oil producer. The well was underperforming at 10% of the anticipated production rate because of a damaged lower completion. To avert a costly workover, abrasive perforation with CT was selected as a safe alternative to conventional explosives-based perforating conveyed on electric line. Introduction An offshore horizontal ER producer well was drilled with a total depth (TD) in excess of 24,000-ft measured depth (MD). During the completion phase, a 4.5-in. liner with 16 inflow control devices (ICDs) and eight swellable packers was run with the ICDs in the closed position. Swellable packers were placed after every two ICDs. To open these ICDs, an internal pressure of 2,500 psi was required, achieved by dropping a ball that would seat in the float collar. Multiple attempts were made to pressure up and open the ICDs without success. The decision was made to run the upper completion with a plan to activate the ICDs using rigless CT intervention. After a drift CT run, multiple attempts were made to run a through-tubing inflatable packer bottomhole assembly (BHA) on CT to isolate and pressure up the well. All attempts failed to reach target depth, with repeated holdup at approximately 20,273-ft MD. Production-logging passes performed in injection mode determined that the well interval between 20,262 and 20,300 ft was taking more than 80% of the injected fluid. In a subsequent CT logging run, a caliper log identified that the liner section in this interval was parted and identified an openhole section with washouts in excess of 7-in. inner diameter. The results from the log are shown in Fig. 1, with the enlarged section representing the parted liner/openhole interval. Because the ICDs remained closed along with a damaged liner section, the options of recovery leaned heavily toward a rig-based workover for sidetrack and recompletion. Considering time and cost constraints, studies commenced to identify an efficient alternative to establish flow contribution from the inactive compartments by adding perforations. CT was chosen as the conveyance method based on previous success in reaching TD, and three options were evaluated. Based on the lowest risk level and availability of resources, the safest and most-viable option was abrasive perforation with CT. This technique uses a sand jet perforator, a downhole tool that uses high-pressure abrasive-laden fluids to penetrate the casing, liner, and cement and extend a cavity into the reservoir.

By its very nature, fashion consumption assumes a diverse and updated relevance in light of social, cultural, and economic transformations. The global fashion industry is undergoing a paradigm shift driven by rapid technological advances (Bertola & Teunissen, 2018; Lee, 2022), increased awareness of environmental sustainability (Heim & Hopper, 2022; Mishra et al., 2020), and the changing values of individuals (Bürklin, 2018; Camacho-Otero et al., 2020; Domingos et al., 2022). These transformations are forcing creative, production, distribution and communication systems and, not least, the “end consumer” to critically reflect on the role and impacts of the fashion system (Luchs et al., 2015). Digital technologies, for example, have revolutionized how fashion is produced, distributed, and consumed. Digital platforms enable unprecedented levels of interaction between brands and consumers, fostering new forms of engagement and co-creation (Gielens & Steenkamp, 2019). These are widespread, ubiquitous platforms that expand and fragment the fashion narrative (Sadler, 2021), creating a more interconnected, immediate ecosystem within which to experiment with new systems of relationship and mediation. In addition, the growing recognition of the fashion industry’s environmental and social impact has catalyzed a movement toward more sustainable practice. On the one hand, the fast fashion model, characterized by rapid production cycles and disposable garments, is being challenged by consumers and activists calling for greater accountability and transparency (Mazzarella et al., 2019). Conversely, sustainable fashion emphasizes ethical production, resource efficiency and circularity, seeking to minimize negative impacts and promote long-term well-being (Centobelli et al., 2022). Finally, European legislation has been proactive in promoting sustainability within the textile and fashion industries through several key legislative initiatives and strategies aimed at reducing the environmental and social impacts of textile production and consumption (European Commission, 2022; Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 Establishing a Framework for the Setting of Ecodesign Requirements for Sustainable Products, Amending Directive (EU) 2020/1828 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and Repealing Directive 2009/125/ECText with EEA Relevance., 2024). The term “consumption” is inherently multivalent and nuanced. Its very etymology encompasses several facets: consumption means “transformation” of natural resources into fungible goods, but also of signs and symbols into systems of meaning and value. This dual nature of consumption underscores its complexity. On the one hand, it involves converting resources into products that satisfy human needs and desires (Boivin, 2008). On the other hand, it involves the symbolic process of attributing meanings to these products that resonate within cultural and social contexts (Davis, 1992). This duality is particularly evident in fashion, where clothing has both functional and self-expression purposes. Consumption also means “destruction”, that is, the reduction to nothingness of tangible or intangible elements, in turn rendering them unusable through the very act of use. This aspect of consumption highlights the inherent tension between use and waste. Every act of consumption carries with it a potential for depletion and degradation, whether physical goods or intangible experiences. In fashion, this is manifested in the life cycle of clothing, from creation and use to eventual disposal (Shirvanimoghaddam et al., 2020). The environmental cost of producing and discarding garments is significant and prompts a critical examination of consumption practices and their sustainability. Obviously, in its most common meaning, consumption stands for “use” or “utilization”, which consists of the activity of making use of a tangible or intangible item but also, in a broader sense, in the act of enjoying services, experiences or activities that do not involve transformation or destruction. This broader interpretation of consumption emphasizes the experiential dimension, where value derives from enjoyment and engagement with fashion as a social and cultural phenomenon (Woodward, 2007). Fashion consumption thus encompasses a wide range of activities, from the purchase and use of clothing to its enjoyment in cultural terms to the experience provided by virtual worlds. The fashion system has always intertwined its practices and processes with this multivalent universe that constitutes the landscape of the consumption system of both the creative, material and human resources along the entire fashion supply chain and the fashion object itself, its images and projections. The interaction between creation and consumption is a distinctive feature of the fashion industry. Designers and brands create products that are functional and charged with symbolic meanings, anticipating how consumers will interpret and interact with them. This relationship extends throughout the supply chain, influencing decisions about material sourcing, production processes, communication strategies, and retail experiences. In the current digital and sustainable transformation context, this intertwining opens up broad areas for thinking about consumption practices, processes and impacts with a more critical and responsible approach (Colombi & D’Itria, 2023). Digital technologies have expanded the possibilities for creating, sharing and experiencing fashion. Virtual and augmented reality, for example, offer consumers new ways to interact with fashion products and brands, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds (Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2022). These innovations enable more personalized and immersive experiences, fostering deeper connections between consumers and fashion. On the one hand, focusing on more sustainable forms of natural resource use promotes new business models and circular forms of production, which involve reducing, recovering, and reusing finished products and their waste. Circular fashion models aim to extend the life cycle of garments, reducing the need for new resources and minimizing waste. Practices such as upcycling, recycling, and using sustainable materials are integral to this approach (de Aguiar Hugo et al., 2021). By designing long-lasting products and encouraging practices such as repair and resale, the fashion industry can reduce its environmental footprint and promote a more sustainable consumption pattern. On the other hand, new forms of collaborative consumption are emerging, aimed at extending the life cycle of products through the adoption of curation practices, re-signification and rethinking. These practices promote more active and conscious consumer participation, emphasizing the shift from passive consumption to an engaged and responsible use of fashion (McNeill & Venter, 2019). Collaborative consumption models, such as clothing rental services, fashion exchanges, and peer-to-peer resale platforms, encourage consumers to share and reuse clothing, reducing demand for new products (Arrigo, 2021). These models not only promote sustainability but also create communities of individuals who share values and practices. The third issue of Fashion Highlight investigates the dynamics, practices, and impacts of fashion consumption in the light of the transformations taking place, questioning the role and potential that fashion industries, creative communities, consumers and education can express. The issue comprehensively covers the different declinations of contemporary fashion consumption, highlighting the trajectories that shape practices, processes and methods within the context of the - long and complex - fashion value chain. The contributions cover three relevant and promising macro-areas to understand the state of the art of fashion design, manufacturing and consumption and to get a preview of the near future: “Consumed fashion”, with a focus on the economic-productive dimension of fashion within a context for which digital and sustainable transformation is crucial, with necessary implications in terms of reconfiguring and updating processes and competences; “Consumer communities”, through the investigation of new and contemporary orientations towards more responsible and sustainable consumption practices; “Consumer culture”, concerning the dynamics, approaches and practices through which fashion is narrated, conveyed, and experienced. The first section, “Consumed Fashion”, brings together articles that critically explore the trajectories within which fashion manufacturing systems are evolving, highlighting both the criticalities and impacts of a socio-economic system dominated by hyper-production and hyper-consumption, and outlining and experimenting with new and more responsible approaches to design and manufacturing. Likewise, the selected articles highlight transformational dynamics involving the fashion “know-how”, delving into the implications needed to reconfigure and update processes and skills and emphasizing the need for continuous evolution in how fashion is understood and practiced. These dynamics require a shift in the sector’s knowledge base, leading to a re-examination of traditional practices and the development of new sustainable approaches that respond to contemporary transformations. Jacopo Battisti and Alessandro Spennato critically examine the profound impact of fast fashion on individuals and societies in the context of globalization and consumer capitalism. The study explores how the industry’s rapid replication of trends and profit motivations have transformed clothing consumption, leading to hyper-consumption and disposability, with negative impacts in terms of economic dependency and inequalities to the detriment of low labour-cost countries. The paper underscores the need to address these systemic injustices through collective action, stressing the importance of prioritizing social and environmental responsibility to envision a more ethical and equitable fashion industry. Erminia d'Itria and Chiara Colombi propose an examination of sustainable innovation dynamics within the fashion industry, scrutinizing various merchandising strategies through fashion companies’ case studies. The authors build a system model centered on refashioning, formulated from diverse strategies aimed at enhancing product longevity and curbing overconsumption and overmanufacturing. Through their analysis, they identify three thematic frameworks that encapsulate sustainable design approaches, responsible practices, and conscious consumption strategies, thus providing reference for future research to explore the implications, challenges, and benefits of a viable, eco-sustainable future scenario. Isabella Enrica Alevato Aires and Stefan Lie explore the integration of next-generation materials into products with psychological significance to improve consumer acceptance and achieve environmental benefits. The study hypothesizes that customizing products with users’ genetic material can better represent their environmental concerns and individuality. Focusing on biofabricated bags, the research moves from secondary research to materials testing and prototyping to investigate whether incorporating the user’s genetic material into a bag can symbolize self-extension and advances in materials design, thus supporting environmental sustainability. Gianni Denaro and Andrea Pruiti’s article delves into the evolution of production and consumption paradigms in the fashion industry, highlighting the growing emphasis on customising fashion products through local craftsmanship, an approach considered more environmentally, economically, socially and culturally sustainable. Beginning with a renewed interest in local craft traditions, particularly in Italy, where the “Made in Italy” label exemplifies a fusion of creative manual skills and taste rooted in local tradition, the article explores how designers are integrating these craft practices into industrial production, promoting a new dimension of “know-how” that combines local specificity with industrial processes. Ludovica Rosato, Alberto Calleo, Simona Colitti, Giorgio Dall’Osso e Valentina De Matteo present an interesting case study on a multidisciplinary, multistakeholder model designed for a hybrid research-education-business environment. This model shows how involving research and industry professionals in a collaborative learning model can produce results that address contemporary fashion industry challenges. The study emphasizes the importance of collective intelligence in design-led innovation, particularly in the framework of open innovation, and through the adoption of co-design processes, proposes new strategies for industry transformation, especially in the shaded realm of technical apparel and uniforms. The article by Angelica Vandi, Paola Bertola and Emma Suh explores the evolution of the concept of “materiality” in fashion, influenced by Industry 4.0 technologies, and its implications in human-computer interaction (HCI). The research, resulting from a collaboration between the Gianfranco Ferré Research Center of the Politecnico di Milano and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, employs a Reverse Engineering approach to study and deconstruct a garment from the Gianfranco Ferré archive. This process aims to rematerialize the garment and integrate HCI principles into educational applications in culture and design. The results underscore the innovative potential of the fusion of traditional craftsmanship and advanced production, highlighting the democratization and dissemination of archival knowledge through technological hybridization and interdisciplinary collaboration. The second section, “Consumer Communities”, brings together articles that critically reflect on the changing dynamics of fashion consumption and the growing influence of consumer communities, highlighting their intrinsic motivations and imagining future trajectories. This section analyses how consumer behaviour, social movements and community-led initiatives are reshaping the fashion industry towards sustainability and ethical approaches. By examining different case studies and research findings, the selected articles provide insights into how consumer participation, digital platforms and innovative consumption patterns are beginning to contribute to a more sustainable and responsible fashion ecosystem and what - desirable - impacts they may have on the future of fashion. Claudia Morea and Silvia Gambi explore the central role of consumers in the transition to sustainable fashion. Recent consumer purchasing decisions have shaped new trends and business models, with one segment viewing purchasing as a political choice and in line with European legislation promoting sustainability in the fashion industry. The research surveyed Generation Z to investigate their familiarity with eco-design strategies related to the use phase, revealing a gap between policy and design orientations and actual consumer engagement. The study highlights the need to bridge the gap between policy, design and consumer behaviour for true sustainability in fashion. Lam Hong Lan and Donna Cleveland’s article analyzes the shift to sustainable consumption through pre-owned fashion in Vietnam. The research includes observations of local media, analysis of two major pre-owned fashion platforms, and insights from an online survey of Vietnamese consumers. This comprehensive study reveals how online media, particularly celebrity endorsements and social commerce, contribute significantly to this transformation by building e-communities that support circular fashion practices. The findings reveal that these e-communities are crucial in promoting responsible consumption among Vietnamese youth, driven by economic, environmental, and style considerations that make second-hand fashion attractive. Iryna Kucher’s article examines fashion consumption by analyzing clothing purchase, use, and disposal practices in Denmark and Ukraine. Employing the theory of fashion consumption temporalities, the study analyzes how these practices have evolved due to social changes. Through wardrobe studies of different age groups, the research highlights the unique and common aspects of sustainable clothing consumption among Western and post-Soviet consumers. It also introduces an additional temporality of clothing consumption, challenging previous studies and offering new perspectives for understanding the transition to sustainability in fashion. Laura Giraldi, Marta Maini, and Francesca Morelli examine the contemporary fashion consumption landscape, focusing on consumers' growing awareness of sustainability in the fashion industry. Analyzing the current state and highlighting exemplary sustainable practices, the article reveals emerging service design solutions that promote more sustainable and conscious fashion consumption. These practices, such as second-hand shopping, collaborative wardrobe sharing, and clothing customization, reshape consumer experiences and push brands to adapt their communication strategies to appeal to the more conscious Gen Z audience. Remaining in collaborative fashion consumption practices, Gabriela Fabro Cardoso analyzes the final stages of retail dynamics as potential pathways to a more sustainable future, focusing on the distribution and use phases through collaborative consumption models such as resale, rental and subscription services. Through case studies, the research explores the relationship between community involvement in retail activities - such as product authentication, promotion, price negotiation, and transaction completion - and corporate commitments to sustainability, including consumer education on circularity, financial support for sustainable practices, and progress monitoring systems. Finally, Giovanni Conti and Martina Motta explore the resurgence of knitwear in the contemporary fashion industry, emphasizing its role as a bridge between creation and consumption and challenging traditional fashion norms. Their qualitative research highlights knitwear’s response to changing consumer attitudes, technological advances and global events, showing its potential to promote creativity, sustainability and ethical practices. The article investigates the space created by knitwear, questioning the new role of individuals, who are freer to experiment and experiment with interconnected aspects, breaking away from being mere consumers and becoming conscious makers. The third and final section, “Consumer Culture”, presents a selection of articles that aim to analyze, adopting different points of view, the dynamics, approaches and practices through which fashion is narrated, transmitted and experienced. This section explores fashion narratives and recent evolutions in terms of languages, content and formats, focusing on the impact of digital technologies. Examining historical perspectives, philosophical readings and the transformative power of digital media, these articles offer a comprehensive understanding of how consumer culture shapes and is shaped by fashion. The studies provide insights into the cyclical nature of fashion, the intersection of fashion and social class, the emerging role of the metaverse, the motivations behind digital fashion consumption, and the implications of technologies in sustainable fashion. Karmen Samson opens the discussion with a theoretical reflection on fashion as an “economy of the ephemeral”, emphasizing its cyclical and transitory nature within consumer culture. Using the concepts of “blooming” and “decay”, the author elucidates the temporal dynamics of fashion, integrating these natural processes with the temporal politics of industry. By investigating the interplay between time, consumerism, and fashion’s impermanence, the article provides a deeper understanding of cycles that extend beyond traditional notions and presents a detailed and nuanced analysis of fashion's fleeting essence, encouraging to reconsider the significance of decay within the fashion industry. Shajwan Nariman Fatah’s article delves into the social dynamics captured in the narratives of the Toile de Jouy textile through a philosophical perspective. This study aims to reveal the fundamental connection between working-class labor and bourgeois consumption patterns as depicted in Toile de Jouy. Utilizing the theoretical frameworks of Karl Marx and Jean Baudrillard, the research examines the links between fashion, production methods, consumer behavior, and the concept of simulation, highlighting how the capitalist system commodifies/appropriates the product without regard for its aesthetic qualities, labor origins, or intrinsic value. Finally, diving into the impacts of digital technologies on fashion consumption, Romana Andò delves into the emerging and evolving concept of the Metaverse within the fashion industry. Through qualitative research focused on international Millennials and Generation Z consumers, the study explores the meanings associated with the Metaverse, its intersection with the digitization of fashion and digital apparel, and its target audience's media literacy and expectations. The investigation highlights the relationship between fashion and individual self-presentation in the Metaverse and examines how these digital environments are transforming consumption processes in the fashion industry. Adil Boughlala and Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice’s article explores the intricate relationship between contemporary fashion consumption and digital tools, from pre-purchase browsing to post-purchase sharing on social media. The study delves into the growing field of digital fashion, particularly the motivations behind consumer adoption of digital fashion end products such as NFT fashion, video game skins, and AR filters. The research, adopting a mixed-media approach, examines the profiles and cultures surrounding digital fashion consumption, suggesting that digital fashion contributes significantly to identity formation and self-expression, creating a new “phygital” hybrid identity paradigm in which the physical and digital realms merge, reinforcing socio-cultural dynamics within brand communities. By means of data from web platforms and social media recommendation systems, Tommaso Elli proposes research to identify and analyze significant local projects in sustainable fashion and design initiatives in the Milanese context. The research aims to investigate the relationships between urban actors, highlight key sustainability advocates, and evaluate the effectiveness of digital methods in studying local phenomena. The results demonstrate the potential of these methodologies to improve the understanding and promotion of sustainable practices in fashion and design. To conclude, Ermanno Petrocchi investigates the influence of persuasive technologies on consumer behavior in sustainable fashion. The study addresses the ethical concerns surrounding sustainability labels and their implementation within digital platforms, highlighting potential consumer risks in the digital age. By analyzing consumption patterns and consumer preferences, the paper reveals how persuasive technologies can manipulate individuals with weak preferences for sustainable fashion, thereby affecting the formation and expression of their identity. Together, these sections offer a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted nature of fashion consumption in the contemporary world. By examining the economic, social and cultural dimensions of consumption, the issue provides a nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics shaping the fashion industry today. Contributors highlight the critical need for a more responsible and reflective approach to fashion consumption that recognizes the interconnectedness of production, distribution and use and the potential for more sustainable and ethical practices. Through this critical lens, this issue thus advances the discourse on sustainable fashion and deepens understanding of the changing landscape of fashion consumption.

Les productions animales représentent 16 % du commerce agroalimentaire international. Le déséquilibre croissant entre l’offre et la demande de produits animaux dans les pays asiatiques où la consommation progresse, surtout en Chine, stimule les échanges au bénéfice des grands pays exportateurs que sont l’Union européenne (UE), les États-Unis, la Nouvelle-Zélande, le Brésil et l’Australie. Si cette évolution offre des opportunités commerciales pour les pays structurellement excédentaires, les achats ne sont pas toujours réguliers d’une année à l’autre et la concurrence par les prix est très forte, même si certains pays ont des exigences qualitatives. L’UE, qui est excédentaire en produits laitiers et en viande porcine, mais déficitaire (en valeur) en viande bovine et en viande de volailles, est le premier exportateur mondial de productions animales (avec 22 % du total, hors commerce intra-UE en 2016). En utilisant les données statistiques des douanes (BACI et COMEXT) de 2000 à 2016, cet article traite de l’évolution du commerce en productions animales. Il présente l’évolution du commerce international pour différents types de biens (produits laitiers, viande bovine, viande porcine, viande de volailles) et met en évidence les trajectoires commerciales des principaux pays déficitaires (Chine, Japon et Russie) et excédentaires (Inde, Australie, Nouvelle-Zélande, Brésil, États-Unis et UE).

A significativa participação do estado de Santa Catarina na atual produção agroindustrial brasileira, especialmente no setor de carnes, é um fato incontestável. Na mesma direção tem sido a representatividade, cada vez maior, de agroindústrias catarinenses no mercado externo. Assim inseridas, grandes empresas mantêm suas relações de produção, industrialização e comercialização nas distintas escalas geográficas, de modo que essas transições resultem no atendimento às suas demandas e aos seus objetivos. No entanto, para que se chegasse ao estágio atual de engajamento socioespacial e econômico, faz-se necessário analisar o processo de formação e consolidação das agroindústrias de carnes do Oeste catarinense e considerar as diversas mudanças promovidas na base econômica regional, resultado de investimentos de diferentes suportes institucionais e financeiros. Para este artigo, desenvolve-se uma análise crítica e explicativa com base no argumento de que o Estado, tanto em âmbito nacional quanto estadual, dispunha de recursos e de articulações com as agroindústrias para direcionar os investimentos almejados por esse capital industrial e passou a intervir na economia com o intuito de facilitar seu processo de acumulação. Sendo assim, o Estado apresenta-se como suporte para o desenvolvimento do capital privado, no caso analisado o capital agroindustrial. Resumé LE CAPITAL AGRO-INDUSTRIEL CATARINENSE ET L’ÉTAT La significative participation de l’état de Santa Catarina dans l’actuelle production agro-industrielle brésilienne, spécialement le secteur de viandes, est un costume incontesté. Dans le même direction ce a été la représentativité, à chaque fois plus grande, d’entreprises catarinenses dans le marché externe. Ainsi d’insérées, grandes entreprises il maintient leurs relations de production, industrialisation et comer cialisation dans les distinctes échelles géographiques de manière que ces transitions résultent dans la participation à leurs exigences et à leurs objectifs. Néanmoins, pour qu’il s’arrive au stage actuel d’engagement économique, se fait nécessaire analyser le processus de formation et la consolidation des entreprises agro-agroindustrielles de viandes de l’Ouest catarinense et considérer les divers changements promus dans la base économique régionale, en résultant d’investissements de différents supports institutionnels et financiers. Pour cet article, se développe une analyse critique et explicative sur base de l’argument dont l’État, de telle façon dans contexte national combien de l’état, il disposait de ressources et de joints avec les agro-industries pour diriger les investissements convoités par ce capital industriel et a commencé à intervenir dans l’économie avec l’intention de faciliter son processus d’accumulation. En étant ainsi, l’État se présente comme le support pour le développement du capital privé, dans le cas analysé le capital agro-industriel. Abstract THE RECENT DYNAMIC OF THE SEGMENT OF THE URBAN NETWORK IN TOCANTINS: THE IMPLICATION OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PALMAS TO PORTO NACIONAL In the Tocantins State, the recent dynamic of the urban network reviles significant changes, reflex of the political, economic, social and cultural transformation, for it has passing this area, especially after the political device of the Tocantins State and the Goiás State and the insertion of Eastern Amazon in 1989. In this context, of the research objective to show the occurrence of the processes between Porto Nacional and Palmas towns, or, to understand the implications of the construction of Palmas, the projected capital, to Porto Nacional, one of the main centre of the antique of the north of the Goiás State, today Tocantins, considering the urban-regional role and the processes of re-hierarquization

Abstract: This article situates brand-based marketing within broader processes of risk communication. Over the past few decades, branding has become more pronounced in the Canadian beef industry, due in large part to structural changes that have placed greater emphasis on marketing and promotion as ways of responding to and managing consumer concerns. Government-mandated levies on the sale of livestock provide funds for these initiatives, blurring the line between industry and government support for agricultural commodities. To illustrate, I examine the Alberta beef industry’s branding initiatives prior to and following the BSE-inspired trade ban. These campaigns negotiate messages about risk by enhancing the links between beef consumers and small-scale producers while rendering opaque more complex processes of industrialization and globalization.Résumé : Cet article situe la marque de commerce au sein de processus plus larges dans la communication des risques. Au cours des dernières décennies, la marque est devenue plus importante dans l’industrie canadienne du boeuf, du fait en grande partie de changements de structure qui ont mis davantage l’accent sur le marketing et la promotion comme façons de gérer et assouvir les inquiétudes des consommateurs. Les impôts sur la vente de bétail recueillis par le gouvernement fournissent des fonds pour ces initiatives, brouillant la ligne de démarcation entre l'appui de l’industrie et celle du gouvernement pour l’agriculture de base. Pour illustrer, j’examine l’industrie du boeuf en Alberta et la promotion de marques avant et après la crise d’interdiction du commerce entraînée par l’ESB. Ces campagnes négocient des messages sur le risque enm renforçant les liens entre les consommateurs de viande bovine et les petits producteurs, tout en rendant plus opaques des processus plus complexes de l’industrialisation et de la mondialisation.

Au tournant des xixe et xxe siècles, on assiste à l’émergence d’une industrie de masse du préservatif en caoutchouc, un dispositif technique dont la fabrication a été rendue possible par la mondialisation et qui connaît rapidement une diffusion aux quatre coins du globe. Cet article suggère que la mondialisation du marché du préservatif a conduit à une uniformisation de la communication commerciale autour de cet objet, et que celle-ci a durablement influé sur sa consommation et encadré ses usages. L’étude du marketing adopté par les industriels français et étrangers sur le territoire français entre 1890 et 1940 (qu’il s’agisse des conditionnements et étiquettes choisis, des marques de fabrique et de commerce utilisées ou des stratégies publicitaires mises en place) montre que ces stratégies ont contribué à genrer le préservatif au masculin et à l’associer étroitement aux maladies vénériennes et aux sexualités extra-conjugales. La période qui voit émerger un marché mondialisé du préservatif a donc joué un rôle central dans la marginalisation durable de ce dispositif dans l’arsenal des méthodes contraceptives, a fortiori au sein des couples.

Dr Aboubacar Tiécoura TIO-TOURE, Pharmacien, Associé Co Fondateur Ylancia Conseil SAS, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire Biographie : Dr Aboubacar Tiécoura TIO-TOURE est né le 14 février 1970 à Paris. Il est titulaire du diplôme de pharmacien de l’Université de Montréal, Canada depuis 1996, d’un Advanced Certificate : Innovation et entreprenariat de HEC (Paris)/BABSON Business School (Boston), du diplôme de Finance for Executives de l’INSEAD Business School (France) et d’un Master en Marketing pharmaceutique de l’Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (France). Il a occupé de multiples fonctions au sein des Laboratoires Pharmaceutiques Smithkline Beecham, Aventis Pharma et Sanofi Aventis en tant que Chef Produit Junior, Délégué médical Hôpital, Business Team leader / Chef Produits, Directeur des Opérations Afrique de l’Ouest, Afrique de Est et Afrique centrale de 1998 à 2009. De 2009 à 2017, il fut Country Chair & Directeur Général CCS – Afrique Francophone Subsaharienne du Laboratoire Pharmaceutique Sanofi Afrique Subsaharienne, basé à Dakar (Sénégal) pour la Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mauritanie, Togo, Guinée, Niger, Gambie, Sierra Leone, Liberia et Cap Vert. Ensuite, en Janvier 2017, il fut Directeur Général de l’usine de production pharmaceutique à Dakar (Winthrop Pharma Sénégal - WPS). Actuellement, Dr TIO-TOURE est Titulaire de la Nouvelle Pharmacie Notre Dame (Treichville) et aussi enseignant vacataire en Initiation au Marketing Pharmaceutique à l’Université F. Houphouët-Boigny d’Abidjan (UFR Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques). Dr Aboubacar Tiécoura TIO-TOURE est aussi Co-Fondateur et Associé de PCA SARL puis Ylancia Group SA (depuis 2020), basé à Abidjan pour toute l’Afrique Sub Saharienne. PCA SARL est un service pharmaceutique support spécialisé dans les conseils et services du domaine de l’industrie, de la santé publique et privée et dans la gestion des affaires règlementaire. (Ex : quelques Clients : MSHP CI / C2D, Min industrie et Commerce CI, NPSP, SANOFI, UPSA,….). Résumé : L'industrie pharmaceutique est un processus complexe et multidimensionnel. Chaque étape nécessite des compétences spécifiques et offre des opportunités de carrière pour les diplômés en pharmacie, bien au-delà de l'officine traditionnelle. De plus, l'univers pharmaceutique est en pleine mutation grâce aux avancées technologiques et aux évolutions des besoins de la société. L'industrie pharmaceutique évolue avec l'émergence de nouvelles technologies et l'évolution des normes réglementaires. Dans cette présentation, nous embarquerons pour un voyage découverte des métiers qui animent cette industrie essentielle à partir d’une description de la chaîne de valeur pharmaceutique. En explorant ces métiers, nous verrons comment les professionnels s'adaptent pour répondre aux défis complexes de la recherche, de la production et de la commercialisation de médicaments tout en maintenant les plus hauts standards de qualité et de sécurité.

Abstract: Advertising is the most visible element of modern marketing and an essential component of trading. However the activity is often accused by its critics of being intrusive and pervasive, and neither of these accusations can be refuted by a worldwide industry which spends billions of dollars each year reaching and persuading its target markets through daily bombardment of thousands of ads in most developed countries. However, when advertising does offend, mislead, or is untruthful, a structure needs to be in place in order to provide protection to all parties and, in most cases, a country's legal system is complemented by a self-regulatory scheme. The advertising self-regulatory scheme in Australia was dismantled at the end of 1996 and is currently in a state of flux as the industry grapples with the design of a new system. Canada's advertising self-regulation system, on the other hand, is unique, healthy, and successful; much can be learned from both failure and success. In this article a conceptual framework of "acceptable advertising'' is presented, discussed, and used to analyze the regulation of advertising in Australia and Canada, with a view to assisting in the formation of a new scheme in Australia. Résumé: La publicité est l'élément le plus visible du marketing moderne et une composante essentielle du commerce. Cependant, les critiques de cette activité l'accusent souvent d'être importune et omniprésente. Ces deux accusations sont difficiles à réfuter, étant donné qu'une industrie mondiale dépense des milliards de dollars à chaque année pour rejoindre et persuader ses marchés cibles, au moyen d'un bombardement quotidien de milliers de pubs dans la plupart des pays développés. C'est pourquoi, lorsque la publicité est offensive, trompeuse ou mensongère, il faut qu'une structure soit en place pour protéger toutes les parties en cause; en conséquence, dans la plupart des cas, un schéma d'auto-réglementation de la publicité complète le système légal d'un pays. L'Australie a démantelé son schéma d'auto-réglementation à la fin de 1996. Le pays se trouve actuellement dans une période transitoire, l'industrie s'efforçant de concevoir un nouveau système. Le système canadien d'auto-réglementation, quant à lui, est unique, bien portant et réussi. On peut beaucoup apprendre à partir de succès et d'échecs. Cet article présente et discute une conception de "publicité acceptable", qu'il utilise pour analyser la réglementation de la publicité en Australie et au Canada. L'objectif est d'aider à la formation d'un nouveau schéma en Australie.

Economics of Cute There are many ways to study cute: for example, neuro-biology (cute as adaptation); anthropology (cute in culture); political economy (cute industries, how cute exploits consumers); cultural studies (social construction of cute); media theory and politics (representation and identity of cute), and so on. What about economics? At first sight, this might point to a money-capitalism nexus (“the cute economy”), but I want to argue here that the economics of cute actually works through choice interacting with fixed costs and what economists call ”the substitution effect”. Cute, in conjunction with the Internet, affects the trade-offs involved in choices people make. Let me put that more starkly: cute shapes the economy. This can be illustrated with internet animals, which at the time of writing means Grumpy Cat. I want to explain how that mechanism works – but to do so I will need some abstraction. This is not difficult – a simple application of a well-known economics model, namely the Allen-Alchian theorem, or the “third law of demand”. But I am going to take some liberties in order to represent that model clearly in this short paper. Specifically, I will model just two extremes of quality (“opera” and “cat videos”) to represent end-points of a spectrum. I will also assume that the entire effect of the internet is to lower the cost of cat videos. Now obviously these are just simplifying assumptions “for the purpose of the model”. And the purpose of the model is to illuminate a further aspect of how we might understand cute, by using an economic model of choice and its consequences. This is a standard technique in economics, but not so in cultural studies, so I will endeavour to explain these moments as we go, so as to avoid any confusion about analytic intent. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a way that a simple economic model might be applied to augment the cultural study of cute by seeking to unpack its economic aspect. This can be elucidated by considering the rise of internet animals as a media-cultural force, as epitomized by “cat videos”. We can explain this through an application of price theory and the theory of demand that was first proposed by Armen Alchian and William Allen. They showed how an equal fixed cost that was imposed to both high-quality and low-quality goods alike caused a shift in consumption toward the higher-quality good, because it is now relatively cheaper. Alchian and Allen had in mind something like transport costs on agricultural goods (such as apples). But it is also true that the same effect works in reverse (Cowen), and the purpose of this paper is to develop that logic to contribute to explaining how certain structural shifts in production and consumption in digital media, particularly the rise of blog formats such as Tumblr, a primary supplier of kittens on the Internet, can be in part understood as a consequence of this economic mechanism. There are three key assumptions to build this argument. The first is that the cost of the internet is independent of what it carries. This is certainly true at the level of machine code, and largely true at higher levels. What might be judged aesthetically high quality or low quality content – say of a Bach cantata or a funny cat video – are treated the same way if they both have the same file size. This is a physical and computational aspect of net-neutrality. The internet – or digitization – functions as a fixed cost imposed regardless of what cultural quality is moving across it. Second, while there are costs to using the internet (for example, in hardware or concerning digital literacy) these costs are lower than previous analog forms of information and cultural production and dissemination. This is not an empirical claim, but a logical one (revealed preference): if it were not so, people would not have chosen it. The first two points – net neutrality and lowered cost – I want to take as working assumptions, although they can obviously be debated. But that is not the purpose of the paper, which is instead the third point – the “Alchian-Allen theorem”, or the third fundamental law of demand. The Alchian-Allen Theorem The Alchian-Allen theorem is an extension of the law of demand (Razzolini et al) to consider how the distribution of high quality and low quality substitutes of the same good (such as apples) is affected by the imposition of a fixed cost (such as transportation). It is also known as the “shipping the good apples out” theorem, after Borcherding and Silberberg explained why places that produce a lot of apples – such as Seattle in the US – often also have low supplies of high quality apples compared to places that do not produce apples, such as New York. The puzzle of “why can’t you get good apples in Seattle?” is a simple but clever application of price theory. When a place produces high quality and low quality items, it will be rational for those in faraway places to consume the high quality items, and it will be rational for the producers to ship them, leaving only the low quality items locally.Why? Assume preferences and incomes are the same everywhere and that transport cost is the same regardless of whether the item shipped is high or low quality. Both high quality and low quality apples are more expensive in New York compared to Seattle, but because the fixed transport cost applies to both the high quality apples are relatively less expensive. Rational consumers in New York will consume more high quality apples. This makes fewer available in Seattle.Figure 1: Change in consumption ratio after the imposition of a fixed cost to all apples Another example: Australians drink higher quality Californian wine than Californians, and vice versa, because it is only worth shipping the high quality wine out. A counter-argument is that learning effects dominate: with high quality local product, local consumers learn to appreciate quality, and have different preferences (Cowen and Tabarrok).The Alchian-Allen theorem applies to any fixed cost that applies generally. For example, consider illegal drugs (such as alcohol during the US prohibition, or marijuana or cocaine presently) and the implication of a fixed penalty – such as a fine, or prison sentence, which is like a cost – applied to trafficking or consumption. Alchian-Allen predicts a shift toward higher quality (or stronger) drugs, because with a fixed penalty and probability of getting caught, the relatively stronger substance is now relatively cheaper. Empirical work finds that this effect did occur during alcohol prohibition, and is currently occurring in narcotics (Thornton Economics of Prohibition, "Potency of illegal drugs").Another application proposed by Steven Cuellar uses Alchian-Allen to explain a well-known statistical phenomenon why women taking the contraceptive pill on average prefer “more masculine” men. This is once again a shift toward quality predicted on falling relative price based on a common ‘fixed price’ (taking the pill) of sexual activity. Jean Eid et al show that the result also applies to racehorses (the good horses get shipped out), and Staten and Umbeck show it applies to students – the good students go to faraway universities, and the good student in those places do the same. So that’s apples, drugs, sex and racehorses. What about the Internet and kittens?Allen-Alchian Explains Why the Internet Is Made of CatsIn analog days, before digitization and Internet, the transactions costs involved with various consumption items, whether commodities or media, meant that the Alchian-Allen effect pushed in the direction of higher quality, bundled product. Any additional fixed costs, such as higher transport costs, or taxes or duties, or transactions costs associated with search and coordination and payment, i.e. costs that affected all substitutes in the same way, would tend to make the higher quality item relatively less expensive, increasing its consumption.But digitisation and the Internet reverse the direction of these transactions costs. Rather than adding a fixed cost, such as transport costs, the various aspects of the digital revolution are equivalent to a fall in fixed costs, particularly access.These factors are not just one thing, but a suite of changes that add up to lowered transaction costs in the production, distribution and consumption of media, culture and games. These include: The internet and world-wide-web, and its unencumbered operation The growth and increasing efficacy of search technology Growth of universal broadband for fast, wide band-width access Growth of mobile access (through smartphones and other appliances) Growth of social media networks (Facebook, Twitter; Metcalfe’s law) Growth of developer and distribution platforms (iPhone, android, iTunes) Globally falling hardware and network access costs (Moore’s law) Growth of e-commerce (Ebay, Amazon, Etsy) and e-payments (paypal, bitcoin) Expansions of digital literacy and competence Creative commons These effects do not simply shift us down a demand curve for each given consumption item. This effect alone simply predicts that we consume more. But the Alchian-Allen effect makes a different prediction, namely that we consume not just more, but also different.These effects function to reduce the overall fixed costs or transactions costs associated with any consumption, sharing, or production of media, culture or games over the internet (or in digital form). With this overall fixed cost component now reduced, it represents a relatively larger decline in cost at the lower-quality, more bite-sized or unbundled end of the media goods spectrum. As such, this predicts a change in the composition of the overall consumption basket to reflect the changed relative prices that these above effects give rise to. See Figure 2 below (based on a blog post by James Oswald). The key to the economics of cute, in consequence of digitisation, is to follow through the qualitative change that, because of the Alchian-Allen effect, moves away from the high-quality, highly-bundled, high-value end of the media goods spectrum. The “pattern prediction” here is toward more, different, and lower quality: toward five minutes of “Internet animals”, rather than a full day at the zoo. Figure 2: Reducing transaction costs lowers the relative price of cat videos Consider five dimensions in which this more and different tendency plays out. Consumption These effects make digital and Internet-based consumption cheaper, shifting us down a demand curve, so we consume more. That’s the first law of demand in action: i.e. demand curves slope downwards. But a further effect – brilliantly set out in Cowen – is that we also consume lower-quality media. This is not a value judgment. These lower-quality media may well have much higher aesthetic value. They may be funnier, or more tragic and sublime; or faster, or not. This is not about absolute value; only about relative value. Digitization operating through Allen-Alchian skews consumption toward the lower quality ends in some dimensions: whether this is time, as in shorter – or cost, as in cheaper – or size, as in smaller – or transmission quality, as in gifs. This can also be seen as a form of unbundling, of dropping of dimensions that are not valued to create a simplified product.So we consume different, with higher variance. We sample more than we used to. This means that we explore a larger information world. Consumption is bite-sized and assorted. This tendency is evident in the rise of apps and in the proliferation of media forms and devices and the value of interoperability.ProductionAs consumption shifts (lower quality, greater variety), so must production. The production process has two phases: (1) figuring out what to do, or development; and (2) doing it, or making. The world of trade and globalization describes the latter part: namely efficient production. The main challenge is the world of innovation: the entrepreneurial and experimental world of figuring out what to do, and how. It is this second world that is radically transformed by implications of lowered transaction costs.One implication is growth of user-communities based around collaborative media projects (such as open source software) and community-based platforms or common pool resources for sharing knowledge, such as the “Maker movement” (Anderson 2012). This phenomenon of user-co-creation, or produsers, has been widely recognized as an important new phenomenon in the innovation and production process, particularly those processes associated with new digital technologies. There are numerous explanations for this, particularly around preferences for cooperation, community-building, social learning and reputational capital, and entrepreneurial expectations (Quiggin and Potts, Banks and Potts). Business Models The Alchian-Allen effect on consumption and production follows through to business models. A business model is a way of extracting value that represents some strategic equilibrium between market forms, organizational structures, technological possibilities and institutional framework and environmental conditions that manifests in entrepreneurial patterns of business strategy and particular patterns of investment and organization. The discovery of effective business models is a key process of market capitalist development and competition. The Alchian-Allen effect impacts on the space of effective viable business models. Business models that used to work will work less well, or not at all. And new business models will be required. It is a significant challenge to develop these “economic technologies”. Perhaps no less so than development of the physical technologies, new business models are produced through experimental trial and error. They cannot be known in advance or planned. But business models will change, which will affect not only the constellation of existing companies and the value propositions that underlie them, but also the broader specializations based on these in terms of skill sets held and developed by people, locations of businesses and people, and so on. New business models will emerge from a process of Schumpeterian creative destruction as it unfolds (Beinhocker). The large production, high development cost, proprietary intellectual property and systems based business model is not likely to survive, other than as niche areas. More experimental, discovery-focused, fast-development-then-scale-up based business models are more likely to fit the new ecology. Social Network Markets & Novelty Bundling MarketsThe growth of variety and diversity of choice that comes with this change in the way media is consumed to reflect a reallocation of consumption toward smaller more bite-sized, lower valued chunks (the Alchian-Allen effect) presents consumers with a problem, namely that they have to make more choices over novelty. Choice over novelty is difficult for consumers because it is experimental and potentially costly due to risk of mistakes (Earl), but it also presents entrepreneurs with an opportunity to seek to help solve that problem. The problem is a simple consequence of bounded rationality and time scarcity. It is equivalent to saying that the cost of choice rises monotonically with the number of choices, and that because there is no way to make a complete rational choice, agents will use decision or choice heuristics. These heuristics can be developed independently by the agents themselves through experience, or they can be copied or adopted from others (Earl and Potts). What Potts et al call “social network markets” and what Potts calls “novelty bundling markets” are both instances of the latter process of copying and adoption of decision rules. Social network markets occur when agents use a “copy the most common” or “copy the highest rank” meta-level decision rule (Bentley et al) to deal with uncertainty. Social network markets can be efficient aggregators of distributed information, but they can also be path-dependent, and usually lead to winner-take all situations and dynamics. These can result in huge pay-offs differentials between first and second or fifth place, even when the initial quality differentials are slight or random. Diversity, rapid experimentation, and “fast-failure” are likely to be effective strategies. It also points to the role of trust and reputation in using adopted decision rules and the information economics that underlies that: namely that specialization and trade applies to the production and consumption of information as well as commodities. Novelty bundling markets are an entrepreneurial response to this problem, and observable in a range of new media and creative industries contexts. These include arts, music or food festivals or fairs where entertainment and sociality is combined with low opportunity cost situations in which to try bundles of novelty and connect with experts. These are by agents who developed expert preferences through investment and experience in consumption of the particular segment or domain. They are expert consumers and are selling their “decision rules” and not just the product. The more production and consumption of media and digital information goods and services experiences the Alchian-Allen effect, the greater the importance of novelty bundling markets. Intellectual Property & Regulation A further implication is that rent-seeking solutions may also emerge. This can be seen in two dimensions; pursuit of intellectual property (Boldrin and Levine); and demand for regulations (Stigler). The Alchian-Allen induced shift will affect markets and business models (and firms), and because this will induce strategic defensive and aggressive responses from different organizations. Some organizations will seek to fight and adapt to this new world through innovative competition. Other firms will fight through political connections. Most incumbent firms will have substantial investments in IP or in the business model it supports. Yet the intellectual property model is optimized for high-quality large volume centralized production and global sales of undifferentiated product. Much industrial and labour regulation is built on that model. How governments support such industries is predicated on the stability of this model. The Alchian-Allen effect threatens to upset that model. Political pushback will invariably take the form of opposing most new business models and the new entrants they carry. Conclusion I have presented here a lesser-known but important theorem in applied microeconomics – the Alchian-Allen effect – and explain why its inverse is central to understanding the evolution of new media industries, and also why cute animals proliferate on the Internet. The theorem states that when a fixed cost is added to substitute goods, consumers will shift to the higher quality item (now relatively less expensive). The theorem also holds in reverse, when a fixed cost is removed from substitute items we expect a shift to lower quality consumption. The Internet has dramatically lowered fixed costs of access to media consumption, and various development platforms have similarly lowered the costs of production. Alchian-Allen predicts a shift to lower-quality, ”bittier” cuter consumption (Cowen). References Alchian, Arman, and William Allen. Exchange and Production. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1967. Anderson, Chris. Makers. New York: Crown Business, 2012. Banks, John, and Jason Potts. "Consumer Co-Creation in Online Games." New Media and Society 12.2 (2010): 253-70. Beinhocker, Eric. Origin of Wealth. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Bentley, R., et al. "Regular Rates of Popular Culture Change Reflect Random Copying." Evolution and Human Behavior 28 (2007): 151-158. Borcherding, Thomas, and Eugene Silberberg. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: The Alchian and Allen Theorem Reconsidered." Journal of Political Economy 86.1 (1978): 131-6. Cowen, Tyler. Create Your Own Economy. New York: Dutton, 2009. (Also published as The Age of the Infovore: Succeeding in the Information Economy. Penguin, 2010.) Cowen, Tyler, and Alexander Tabarrok. "Good Grapes and Bad Lobsters: The Alchian and Allen Theorem Revisited." Journal of Economic Inquiry 33.2 (1995): 253-6. Cuellar, Steven. "Sex, Drugs and the Alchian-Allen Theorem." Unpublished paper, 2005. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.sonoma.edu/users/c/cuellar/research/Sex-Drugs.pdf›.Earl, Peter. The Economic Imagination. Cheltenham: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1986. Earl, Peter, and Jason Potts. "The Market for Preferences." Cambridge Journal of Economics 28 (2004): 619–33. Eid, Jean, Travis Ng, and Terence Tai-Leung Chong. "Shipping the Good Horses Out." Wworking paper, 2012. http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~ngkaho/Research/shippinghorses.pdf Potts, Jason, et al. "Social Network Markets: A New Definition of Creative Industries." Journal of Cultural Economics 32.3 (2008): 166-185. Quiggin, John, and Jason Potts. "Economics of Non-Market Innovation & Digital Literacy." Media International Australia 128 (2008): 144-50. Razzolini, Laura, William Shughart, and Robert Tollison. "On the Third Law of Demand." Economic Inquiry 41.2 (2003): 292–298. Staten, Michael, and John Umbeck. “Shipping the Good Students Out: The Effect of a Fixed Charge on Student Enrollments.” Journal of Economic Education 20.2 (1989): 165-171. Stigler, George. "The Theory of Economic Regulation." Bell Journal of Economics 2.1 (1971): 3-22. Thornton, Mark. The Economics of Prohibition. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991.Thornton, Mark. "The Potency of Illegal Drugs." Journal of Drug Issues 28.3 (1998): 525-40.

IntroductionIn July 1997, the Mackay campus of Central Queensland University hosted a conference with the theme Regional Australia: Visions of Mackay. It was the first academic conference to be held at the young campus, and its aim was to provide an opportunity for academics, business people, government officials, and other interested parties to discuss their visions for the development of Mackay, a regional community of 75,000 people situated on the Central Queensland coast (Danaher). I delivered a presentation at that conference and authored a chapter in the book that emerged from its proceedings. The chapter entitled “Mackay Online” explored the potential impact that the Internet could have on the Mackay region, particularly in the areas of regional business, education, health, and entertainment (Pace). Two decades later, how does the reality compare with that vision?Broadband BluesAt the time of the Visions of Mackay conference, public commercial use of the Internet was in its infancy. Many Internet services and technologies that users take for granted today were uncommon or non-existent then. Examples include online video, video-conferencing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), blogs, social media, peer-to-peer file sharing, payment gateways, content management systems, wireless data communications, smartphones, mobile applications, and tablet computers. In 1997, most users connected to the Internet using slow dial-up modems with speeds ranging from 28.8 Kbps to 33.6 Kbps. 56 Kbps modems had just become available. Lamenting these slow data transmission speeds, I looked forward to a time when widespread availability of high-bandwidth networks would allow the Internet’s services to “expand to include electronic commerce, home entertainment and desktop video-conferencing” (Pace 103). Although that future eventually arrived, I incorrectly anticipated how it would arrive.In 1997, Optus and Telstra were engaged in the rollout of hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) networks in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane for the Optus Vision and Foxtel pay TV services (Meredith). These HFC networks had a large amount of unused bandwidth, which both Telstra and Optus planned to use to provide broadband Internet services. Telstra's Big Pond Cable broadband service was already available to approximately one million households in Sydney and Melbourne (Taylor), and Optus was considering extending its cable network into regional Australia through partnerships with smaller regional telecommunications companies (Lewis). These promising developments seemed to point the way forward to a future high-bandwidth network, but that was not the case. A short time after the Visions of Mackay conference, Telstra and Optus ceased the rollout of their HFC networks in response to the invention of Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), a technology that increases the bandwidth of copper wire and enables Internet connections of up to 6 Mbps over the existing phone network. ADSL was significantly faster than a dial-up service, it was broadly available to homes and businesses across the country, and it did not require enormous investment in infrastructure. However, ADSL could not offer speeds anywhere near the 27 Mbps of the HFC networks. When it came to broadband provision, Australia seemed destined to continue playing catch-up with the rest of the world. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2009 Australia ranked 18th in the world for broadband penetration, with 24.1 percent of Australians having a fixed-line broadband subscription. Statistics like these eventually prompted the federal government to commit to the deployment of a National Broadband Network (NBN). In 2009, the Kevin Rudd Government announced that the NBN would combine fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), fixed wireless, and satellite technologies to deliver Internet speeds of up to 100 Mbps to 90 percent of Australian homes, schools, and workplaces (Rudd).The rollout of the NBN in Mackay commenced in 2013 and continued, suburb by suburb, until its completion in 2017 (Frost, “Mackay”; Garvey). The rollout was anything but smooth. After a change of government in 2013, the NBN was redesigned to reduce costs. A mixed copper/optical technology known as fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) replaced FTTP as the preferred approach for providing most NBN connections. The resulting connection speeds were significantly slower than the 100 Mbps that was originally proposed. Many Mackay premises could only achieve a maximum speed of 40 Mbps, which led to some overcharging by Internet service providers, and subsequent compensation for failing to deliver services they had promised (“Optus”). Some Mackay residents even complained that their new NBN connections were slower than their former ADSL connections. NBN Co representatives claimed that the problems were due to “service providers not buying enough space in the network to provide the service they had promised to customers” (“Telcos”). Unsurprisingly, the number of complaints about the NBN that were lodged with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman skyrocketed during the last six months of 2017. Queensland complaints increased by approximately 40 percent when compared with the same period during the previous year (“Qld”).Despite the challenges presented by infrastructure limitations, the rollout of the NBN was a boost for the Mackay region. For some rural residents, it meant having reliable Internet access for the first time. Frost, for example, reports on the experiences of a Mackay couple who could not get an ADSL service at their rural home because it was too far away from the nearest telephone exchange. Unreliable 3G mobile broadband was the only option for operating their air-conditioning business. All of that changed with the arrival of the NBN. “It’s so fast we can run a number of things at the same time”, the couple reported (“NBN”).Networking the NationOne factor that contributed to the uptake of Internet services in the Mackay region after the Visions of Mackay conference was the Australian Government’s Networking the Nation (NTN) program. When the national telecommunications carrier Telstra was partially privatised in 1997, and further sold in 1999, proceeds from the sale were used to fund an ambitious communications infrastructure program named Networking the Nation (Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts). The program funded projects that improved the availability, accessibility, affordability, and use of communications facilities and services throughout regional Australia. Eligibility for funding was limited to not-for-profit organisations, including local councils, regional development organisations, community groups, local government associations, and state and territory governments.In 1998, the Mackay region received $930,000 in Networking the Nation funding for Mackay Regionlink, a project that aimed to provide equitable community access to online services, skills development for local residents, an affordable online presence for local business and community organisations, and increased external awareness of the Mackay region (Jewell et al.). One element of the project was a training program that provided basic Internet skills to 2,168 people across the region over a period of two years. A second element of the project involved the establishment of 20 public Internet access centres in locations throughout the region, such as libraries, community centres, and tourist information centres. The centres provided free Internet access to users and encouraged local participation and skill development. More than 9,200 users were recorded in these centres during the first year of the project, and the facilities remained active until 2006. A third element of the project was a regional web portal that provided a free easily-updated online presence for community organisations. The project aimed to have every business and community group in the Mackay region represented on the website, with hosting fees for the business web pages funding its ongoing operation and development. More than 6,000 organisations were listed on the site, and the project remained financially viable until 2005.The availability, affordability and use of communications facilities and services in Mackay increased significantly during the period of the Regionlink project. Changes in technology, services, markets, competition, and many other factors contributed to this increase, so it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which Mackay Regionlink fostered those outcomes. However, the large number of people who participated in the Regionlink training program and made use of the public Internet access centres, suggests that the project had a positive influence on digital literacy in the Mackay region.The Impact on BusinessThe Internet has transformed regional business for both consumers and business owners alike since the Visions of Mackay conference. When Mackay residents made a purchase in 1997, their choice of suppliers was limited to a few local businesses. Today they can shop online in a global market. Security concerns were initially a major obstacle to the growth of electronic commerce. Consumers were slow to adopt the Internet as a place for doing business, fearing that their credit card details would be vulnerable to hackers once they were placed online. After observing the efforts that finance and software companies were making to eliminate those obstacles, I anticipated that it would only be a matter of time before online transactions became commonplace:Consumers seeking a particular product will be able to quickly find the names of suitable suppliers around the world, compare their prices, and place an order with the one that can deliver the product at the cheapest price. (Pace 106)This expectation was soon fulfilled by the arrival of online payment systems such as PayPal in 1998, and online shopping services such as eBay in 1997. eBay is a global online auction and shopping website where individuals and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. The eBay service is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged modest fees when they make a sale. It exemplifies the notion of “friction-free capitalism” articulated by Gates (157).In 1997, regional Australian business owners were largely sceptical about the potential benefits the Internet could bring to their businesses. Only 11 percent of Australian businesses had some form of web presence, and less than 35 percent of those early adopters felt that their website was significant to their business (Department of Industry, Science and Tourism). Anticipating the significant opportunities that the Internet offered Mackay businesses to compete in new markets, I recommended that they work “towards the goal of providing products and services that meet the needs of international consumers as well as local ones” (107). In the two decades that have passed since that time, many Mackay businesses have been doing just that. One prime example is Big on Shoes (bigonshoes.com.au), a retailer of ladies’ shoes from sizes five to fifteen (Plane). Big on Shoes has physical shopfronts in Mackay and Moranbah, an online store that has been operating since 2009, and more than 12,000 followers on Facebook. This speciality store caters for women who have traditionally been unable to find shoes in their size. As the store’s customer base has grown within Australia and internationally, an unexpected transgender market has also emerged. In 2018 Big on Shoes was one of 30 regional businesses featured in the first Facebook and Instagram Annual Gift Guide, and it continues to build on its strengths (Cureton).The Impact on HealthThe growth of the Internet has improved the availability of specialist health services for people in the Mackay region. Traditionally, access to surgical services in Mackay has been much more limited than in metropolitan areas because of the shortage of specialists willing to practise in regional areas (Green). In 2003, a senior informant from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons bluntly described the Central Queensland region from Mackay to Gladstone as “a black hole in terms of surgery” (Birrell et al. 15). In 1997 I anticipated that, although the Internet would never completely replace a visit to a local doctor or hospital, it would provide tools that improve the availability of specialist medical services for people living in regional areas. Using these tools, doctors would be able to “analyse medical images captured from patients living in remote locations” and “diagnose patients at a distance” (Pace 108).These expectations have been realised in the form of Queensland Health’s Telehealth initiative, which permits medical specialists in Brisbane and Townsville to conduct consultations with patients at the Mackay Base Hospital using video-conference technology. Telehealth reduces the need for patients to travel for specialist advice, and it provides health professionals with access to peer support. Averill (7), for example, reports on the experience of a breast cancer patient at the Mackay Base Hospital who was able to participate in a drug trial with a Townsville oncologist through the Telehealth network. Mackay health professionals organised the patient’s scans, administered blood tests, and checked her lymph nodes, blood pressure and weight. Townsville health professionals then used this information to advise the Mackay team about her ongoing treatment. The patient expressed appreciation that the service allowed her to avoid the lengthy round-trip to Townsville. Prior to being offered the Telehealth option, she had refused to participate in the trial because “the trip was just too much of a stumbling block” (Averill 7).The Impact on Media and EntertainmentThe field of media and entertainment is another aspect of regional life that has been reshaped by the Internet since the Visions of Mackay conference. Most of these changes have been equally apparent in both regional and metropolitan areas. Over the past decade, the way individuals consume media has been transformed by new online services offering user-generated video, video-on-demand, and catch-up TV. These developments were among the changes I anticipated in 1997:The convergence of television and the Internet will stimulate the creation of new services such as video-on-demand. Today television is a synchronous media—programs are usually viewed while they are being broadcast. When high-quality video can be transmitted over the information superhighway, users will be able to watch what they want, when and where they like. […] Newly released movies will continue to be rented, but probably not from stores. Instead, consumers will shop on the information superhighway for movies that can be delivered on demand.In the mid-2000s, free online video-sharing services such as YouTube and Vimeo began to emerge. These websites allow users to freely upload, view, share, comment on, and curate online videos. Subscription-based streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have also become increasingly popular since that time. These services offer online streaming of a library of films and television programs for a fee of less than 20 dollars per month. Computers, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, mobile phones, tablets, and other devices provide a multitude of ways of accessing streaming services. Some of these devices cost less than 100 dollars, while higher-end electronic devices include the capability as a bundled feature. Netflix became available in Mackay at the time of its Australian launch in 2015. The growth of streaming services greatly reduced the demand for video rental shops in the region, and all closed down as a result. The last remaining video rental store in Mackay closed its doors in 2018 after trading for 26 years (“Last”).Some of the most dramatic transformations that have occurred the field of media and entertainment were not anticipated in 1997. The rise of mobile technology, including wireless data communications, smartphones, mobile applications, and tablet computers, was largely unforeseen at that time. Some Internet luminaries such as Vinton Cerf expected that mobile access to the Internet via laptop computers would become commonplace (Lange), but this view did not encompass the evolution of smartphones, and it was not widely held. Similarly, the rise of social media services and the impact they have had on the way people share content and communicate was generally unexpected. In some respects, these phenomena resemble the Black Swan events described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (xvii)—surprising events with a major effect that are often inappropriately rationalised after the fact. They remind us of how difficult it is to predict the future media landscape by extrapolating from things we know, while failing to take into consideration what we do not know.The Challenge for MackayIn 1997, when exploring the potential impact that the Internet could have on the Mackay region, I identified a special challenge that the community faced if it wanted to be competitive in this new environment:The region has traditionally prospered from industries that control physical resources such as coal, sugar and tourism, but over the last two decades there has been a global ‘shift away from physical assets and towards information as the principal driver of wealth creation’ (Petre and Harrington 1996). The risk for Mackay is that its residents may be inclined to believe that wealth can only be created by means of industries that control physical assets. The community must realise that its value-added information is at least as precious as its abundant natural resources. (110)The Mackay region has not responded well to this challenge, as evidenced by measures such as the Knowledge City Index (KCI), a collection of six indicators that assess how well a city is positioned to grow and advance in today’s technology-driven, knowledge-based economy. A 2017 study used the KCI to conduct a comparative analysis of 25 Australian cities (Pratchett, Hu, Walsh, and Tuli). Mackay rated reasonably well in the areas of Income and Digital Access. But the city’s ratings were “very limited across all the other measures of the KCI”: Knowledge Capacity, Knowledge Mobility, Knowledge Industries and Smart Work (44).The need to be competitive in a technology-driven, knowledge-based economy is likely to become even more pressing in the years ahead. The 2017 World Energy Outlook Report estimated that China’s coal use is likely to have peaked in 2013 amid a rapid shift toward renewable energy, which means that demand for Mackay’s coal will continue to decline (International Energy Agency). The sugar industry is in crisis, finding itself unable to diversify its revenue base or increase production enough to offset falling global sugar prices (Rynne). The region’s biggest tourism drawcard, the Great Barrier Reef, continues to be degraded by mass coral bleaching events and ongoing threats posed by climate change and poor water quality (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority). All of these developments have disturbing implications for Mackay’s regional economy and its reliance on coal, sugar, and tourism. Diversifying the local economy through the introduction of new knowledge industries would be one way of preparing the Mackay region for the impact of new technologies and the economic challenges that lie ahead.ReferencesAverill, Zizi. “Webcam Consultations.” Daily Mercury 22 Nov. 2018: 7.Birrell, Bob, Lesleyanne Hawthorne, and Virginia Rapson. The Outlook for Surgical Services in Australasia. Melbourne: Monash University Centre for Population and Urban Research, 2003.Cureton, Aidan. “Big Shoes, Big Ideas.” Daily Mercury 8 Dec. 2018: 12.Danaher, Geoff. Ed. Visions of Mackay: Conference Papers. Rockhampton: Central Queensland UP, 1998.Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Networking the Nation: Evaluation of Outcomes and Impacts. Canberra: Australian Government, 2005.Department of Industry, Science and Tourism. Electronic Commerce in Australia. Canberra: Australian Government, 1998.Frost, Pamela. “Mackay Is Up with Switch to Speed to NBN.” Daily Mercury 15 Aug. 2013: 8.———. “NBN Boost to Business.” Daily Mercury 29 Oct. 2013: 3.Gates, Bill. The Road Ahead. New York: Viking Penguin, 1995.Garvey, Cas. “NBN Rollout Hit, Miss in Mackay.” Daily Mercury 11 Jul. 2017: 6.Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Reef Blueprint: Great Barrier Reef Blueprint for Resilience. Townsville: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2017.Green, Anthony. “Surgical Services and Referrals in Rural and Remote Australia.” Medical Journal of Australia 177.2 (2002): 110–11.International Energy Agency. World Energy Outlook 2017. France: IEA Publications, 2017.Jewell, Roderick, Mary O’Flynn, Fiorella De Cindio, and Margaret Cameron. “RCM and MRL—A Reflection on Two Approaches to Constructing Communication Memory.” Constructing and Sharing Memory: Community Informatics, Identity and Empowerment. Eds. Larry Stillman and Graeme Johanson. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 73–86.Lange, Larry. “The Internet: Where’s It All Going?” Information Week 17 Jul. 1995: 30.“Last Man Standing Shuts Doors after 26 Years of Trade.” Daily Mercury 28 Aug. 2018: 7.Lewis, Steve. “Optus Plans to Share Cost Burden.” Australian Financial Review 22 May 1997: 26.Meredith, Helen. “Time Short for Cable Modem.” Australian Financial Review 10 Apr. 1997: 42Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. New York: Random House, 2007.“Optus Offers Comp for Slow NBN.” Daily Mercury 10 Nov. 2017: 15.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Fixed Broadband Subscriptions.” OECD Data, n.d. <https://data.oecd.org/broadband/fixed-broadband-subscriptions.htm>.Pace, Steven. “Mackay Online.” Visions of Mackay: Conference Papers. Ed. Geoff Danaher. Rockhampton: Central Queensland University Press, 1998. 111–19.Petre, Daniel and David Harrington. The Clever Country? Australia’s Digital Future. Sydney: Lansdown Publishing, 1996.Plane, Melanie. “A Shoe-In for Big Success.” Daily Mercury 9 Sep. 2017: 6.Pratchett, Lawrence, Richard Hu, Michael Walsh, and Sajeda Tuli. The Knowledge City Index: A Tale of 25 Cities in Australia. Canberra: University of Canberra neXus Research Centre, 2017.“Qld Customers NB-uN Happy Complaints about NBN Service Double in 12 Months.” Daily Mercury 17 Apr. 2018: 1.Rudd, Kevin. “Media Release: New National Broadband Network.” Parliament of Australia Press Release, 7 Apr. 2009 <https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:"media/pressrel/PS8T6">.Rynne, David. “Revitalising the Sugar Industry.” Sugar Policy Insights Feb. 2019: 2–3.Taylor, Emma. “A Dip in the Pond.” Sydney Morning Herald 16 Aug. 1997: 12.“Telcos and NBN Co in a Crisis.” Daily Mercury 27 Jul. 2017: 6.

Hotspots of Cultural InnovationIn the 1960s, a long list of poets, writers, and musicians flocked to the Chelsea Hotel, 222 West 23rd Street, New York (Tippins). Among them Bob Dylan, who moved in at the end of 1964, Leonard Cohen, who wrote Take This Longing dedicated to singer Nico there, and Patti Smith who rented a room there together with Robert Mapplethorpe in 1969 (Smith; Bell; Simmons). They all benefited not just from the low rents, but also from the close, often intimate, presence of other residents who inspired them to explore new creative paths. Around the same time, across the Atlantic, the Indica Bookshop and Gallery, 6 Mason’s Yard, London played a similar role as a meeting place for musicians, artists and hangers-on. It was there, on the evening of 9 November 1966, that John Lennon attended a preview of Yoko Ono's first big solo exhibition, Unfinished Paintings and Objects. Legend has it that the two met as Lennon was climbing up the ladder of Ono’s installation work ‘Ceiling Painting’, and reaching out to a dangling magnifying glass in order to take a closer look at the single word ‘YES’ scribbled on a suspended placard (Campbell). It was not just Lennon’s first meeting with Yoko Ono, but also his first run into conceptual art. After this fateful evening, both Lennon’s private life and his artistry would never be the same again. There is already a rich body of literature on the geography of music production (Scott; Kloosterman; Watson Global Music City; Verboord and Brandellero). In most cases, these studies deal with the city or neighbourhood scales. Micro-geographies of concrete places are rarer, with some notable exceptions that focus on recording studios and on specific venues (cf. Gibson; Watson et al.; Watson Cultural Production; van Klyton). Our approach focuses on concrete places that act more like third spaces – something in between or even combining living and working. Such places enable frequent face-to-face meetings, both planned and serendipitous, which are crucial for the exchange of knowledge. These two spaces represent iconic cultural hotspots where innovative artists, notably (pop) musicians, came together in the 1960s. Because of their many famous visitors and residents, both spaces are well documented in (auto)biographies, monographs on art scenes in London and New York, as well as in newspapers. Below, we will explore how these two spaces played an important role at a time of cultural revolution, by connecting people and scenes to the micro geography of concrete places and by functioning as nodes of knowledge exchange and, hence, as milieus of innovation.Art Worlds, Scenes and Places The romantic view that artists are solitary geniuses was discarded already long ago and replaced by a conceptualization that sees them as part of broader social configurations, or art worlds. According to Howard Becker (34), these art worlds consist “of all the people necessary to the production of the characteristic works” – in other words, not just artists, but also “support personnel” such as sound engineers, editors, critics, and managers. Without this “resource pool” the production of art would be virtually impossible. Art worlds are also about the consumption of art. The concept of scene has been used to articulate the local processes of taste making and reputation building, as they “provide ways of social belonging attuned to the demands of a culture in which individuals increasingly define themselves” (Silver et al. 2295). Individuals who share certain aesthetic preferences come together, both socially and spatially (Currid) and locations such as cafés and nightclubs offer important settings where members of an art world may drink, eat, meet, gossip, and exchange knowledge. The urban fabric provides an important backdrop for these exchanges: as Jane Jacobs (181) observed, “old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must come from old buildings.” In order to function as relational spaces, these amenities have to meet two sets of conditions. The first set comprises the locational characteristics, which Durmaz identifies as centrality and proximity. The second set relates to socio-economic characteristics. From an economic perspective, the amenity has to be viable– either independently or through patronage or state subsidies. Becoming a cultural hotspot is not just a matter of good bookkeeping. The atmosphere of an amenity has to be tolerant towards forms of cultural and social experimentation and, arguably, even transgression. In addition, a successful space has to have attractors: persons who fulfil key roles in a particular art world in evaluation, curation, and gatekeeping. To what extent did the Indica Gallery and the Chelsea Hotel meet these two sets of conditions in the 1960s? We turn to this question now.A Hotel and a GalleryThe Indica Gallery and the Chelsea Hotel were both highly central – the former located right in the middle of St. James’s in the central London Borough of Westminster (cf. Kloosterman) and the latter close to Greenwich Village in Manhattan. In the post-war, these locations provided a vacant and fertile ground for artists, who moved in as firms and wealthier residents headed for the green suburbs. As Ramanathan recounts, “For artists, downtown New York, from Chambers Street in Tribeca to the Meatpacking District and Chelsea, was an ideal stomping ground. The neighbourhoods were full of old factories that had emptied out in the postwar years; they had room for art, if not crown molding and prewar charm” (Ramanathan). Similarly in London, “Despite its posh address the area [the area surrounding the Indica Gallery] then had a boho feel. William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Anthony Blunt all had flats in the same street.” (Perry no pagination). Such central locations were essential to attract the desired attention and interest of key gatekeepers, as Barry Miles – one of Indica’s founding members - states: “In those days a gallery virtually had to be in Mayfair or else critics and buyers would not visit” (Miles 73). In addition, the Indica Gallery’s next-door neighbour was the Scotch of St James club. The then up and coming singer Marianne Faithfull, married to Indica founder John Dunbar, reportedly “needed to be seen” in this “trendy ‘in’ club for the new rock aristocracy” (Miles 73). Undoubtedly, their cultural importance was also linked to the fact that they were both located in well-connected budding global cities with a strong media presence (Krätke).Over and above location, these spaces also met important socio-economic conditions. In the 1960s, the neighbourhood surrounding the Chelsea Hotel was in transition with an abundance of available and affordable space. After moving out of the Chelsea Hotel, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe (Smith) had no difficulty finding a cheap loft to rent nearby. Rates in the Chelsea Hotel – when they were settled, that is - were incredibly low to current standards. According to Tippins (350), the typical Chelsea Hotel room rate in 1967 was $ 10 per week, which would amount to some $ 67.30 per week in 2013. Again, a more or less similar story can be told for the Indica Gallery. When Barry Miles, Peter Asher and John Dunbar founded the Gallery in September 1965, the premises were empty and the rent was low: "We paid 19 quid a week rent" according to John Dunbar (Perry). These cheap spaces provided fruitful economic conditions for cultural experimentation. Innovative relational spaces require not only accessibility in spatial and financial terms, but also an atmosphere conducive to cultural experimentation. This implies some kind of benevolent, preferably even stimulating, management that is willing and able to create such an atmosphere. At the Chelsea Hotel and Indica Gallery alike, those in charge were certainly not first and foremost focused on profit maximisation. Instead they were very much active members of the art worlds themselves, displaying a “taste for creative work” (Caves) and looking for ways in which their spaces could make a contribution to culture in a wider sense. This holds for Stanley Bard who ran the Chelsea Hotel for decades: “Working besides his father, Stanley {Bard} had gotten to know many of these people. He had attended their performances and exhibitions, read their books, and had been invited to their parties. Young and malleable, he soon came to see the world largely from their point of view” (Tippins 166). Such affinity with the artistic scene meant that Bard was more than accommodating. As Patti Smith recalls (100), “you weren’t immediately kicked out if you got behind on the rent … Mostly everybody owed Bard something”. While others recall a slightly less flexible attitude towards missed rents - “… the residents greatly appreciated a landlord who tolerated everything, except, quite naturally, a deficit” (Tippins 132) – the progressive atmosphere at the Chelsea was acknowledged by many others. For example, “[t]he greatest advantage of life at the Chelsea, [Arthur] Miller had to acknowledge, was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually” (Tippins 155).Similarly at the Indica Gallery, Miles, Asher and Dunbar were not first and foremost interested in making as much money as possible. The trio was itself drawn from various artistic fields: John Dunbar, an art critic for The Scotsman, wanted to set up an experimental gallery with Peter Asher (half of the pop duo Peter & Gordon) and Barry Miles (painter and writer). When asked about Indica's origins, Dunbar said: "There was a reason why we did Indica in the first place: to have fun" (Nevin). Recollections of the Gallery mention “a brew pot for the counterculture movement”, (Ramanathan) or “a haven for the free-wheeling imagination, a land of free expression and cultural collaboration where underground seeds were allowed to take root” (Campbell-Johnston).Part of the attraction of both spaces was the almost assured presence of interesting and famous persons, whom by virtue of their fame and appeal contributed to drawing others in. The roll calls of the Chelsea Hotel (Tippins) and of the Indica Gallery are impressive and partly overlapping: for instance, Allen Ginsberg was a notable visitor of the Indica Gallery and a prominent resident of the Chelsea Hotel, whereas Barry Miles was also a long-term resident of the Chelsea Hotel. The guest books read as a cultural who-is-who of the 1960s, spanning multiple artistic fields: there are not just (pop) musicians, but also writers, poets, actors, film makers, fashion designers, and assorted support personnel. If innovation in culture, as anywhere else, is coming up with new combinations and crossovers, then the cross-fertilisation fostered by the coming together of different art worlds in these spaces was conducive to these new combinations. Moreover, as the especially the biographies of Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, and Patti Smith testify, these spaces served as repositories of accessible cultural capital and as incubators for new ideas. Both Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith benefited from the presence of Harry Smith who curated the Anthology of American Music at the Chelsea Hotel. As Patti Smith (115) recalls: “We met a lot of intriguing people at the Chelsea but somehow when I close my eyes to think of them, Harry is always the first person I see”. Leonard Cohen was also drawn to Harry Smith: “Along with other assorted Chelsea residents and writers and music celebrities who were passing through, he would sit at Smith’s feet and listen to his labyrinthine monologue” (Simmons 197).Paul McCartney, actively scanning the city for new and different forms of cultural capital (Miles; Kloosterman) could tap into different art worlds through the networks centred on the Indica Gallery. Indeed he was credited with lending more than a helping hand to Indica over the years: “Miles and Dunbar bridged the gap between the avant-garde rebels and the rock stars of the day, principally through their friendship with Paul McCartney, who helped to put up the shop’s bookshelves, drew its flyers and designed its wrapping paper. Later when Indica ran into difficulties, he lent his friends several thousands of pounds to pay their creditors” (Sandbrook 526).Sheltered Spaces Inevitably, the rather lenient attitude towards money among those who managed these cultural breeding spaces led them to serious financial difficulties. The Indica Gallery closed two years after opening its doors. The Chelsea Hotel held out much longer, but the place went into a long period of decline and deterioration culminating in the removal of Stanley Bard as manager and banishment from the building in 2007 (Tippins). Notwithstanding their patchy record as viable business models, their role as cultural hotspots is beyond doubt. It is possibly because they offered a different kind of environment, partly sheltered from more mundane moneymaking considerations, that they could thrive as cultural hotspots (Brandellero and Kloosterman). Their central location, close to other amenities (such as night clubs, venues, cafés), the tolerant atmosphere towards deviant lifestyles (drugs, sex), and the continuous flow of key actors – musicians of course, but also other artists, managers and critics – also fostered cultural innovation. Reflecting on these two spaces nowadays brings a number of questions to the fore. We are witnessing an increasing upward pressure on rents in global cities – notably in London and New York. As cheap spaces become rarer, one may question the impact this will have on the gestation of new ideas (cf. Currid). If the examples of the Indica Gallery and the Chelsea Hotel are anything to go by, their instrumental role as cultural hotspots turned out to be financially unsustainable against the backdrop of a changing urban milieu. The question then is how can cities continue to provide the right set of conditions that allow such spaces to bud and thrive? As the Chelsea Hotel undergoes an alleged $40 million dollar renovation, which will turn it into a boutique hotel (Rich), the jury is still out on whether central urban locations are destined to become - to paraphrase John Lennon’s ‘In my life’, places which ‘had their moments’ – or mere repositories of past cultural achievements.ReferencesAnderson, P. “Watch this Space.” Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Apr. 2014.Becker, H.S. Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.Bell, I. Once upon a Time: The Lives of Bob Dylan. Edinburgh/London: Mainstream Publishing, 2012.Brandellero, A.M.C. The Art of Being Different: Exploring Diversity in the Cultural Industries. Dissertation. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, 2011.Brandellero, A.M.C., and R.C. 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