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The bursting of the economic bubble in the 1990s shook the very foundation of the post-war economic 'miracle' and marked the beginning of a gradual shift in the environmental consciousness of the Japanese. Yet, it by no means removed consumption from the pivotal position it occupied within Japanese society. Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan argues that consumption in Japan today is no longer simply a component of everyday economic activities, but rather a reflection of a society guided by the 'logic of late capitalism'. The volume pins down the contradictory nature of the setting in which consuming occurs in Japan today: the veneration of material comfort and convenience on the one hand, and the new rhetoric of recycling and energy conservation on the other. Theoretical insights developed as part of an art-historical enquiry, such as notions of socially engaged art and its critique, offer a new paradigm for investigating this dilemma. By combining case studies analysing the production and consumption of contemporary art with ethnographic material related to ordinary commodities and shopping, this volume provides a novel, transdisciplinary approach to exploring how a 'society of consumers' operates in post-bubble Japan and how contemporary life is a 'consuming project'.

consumption --- recycling --- art --- commodification --- japan

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At present, a lot of metallurgical solid wastes have not been timely and effectively recycled, resulting in serious problems of environmental pollution and waste of resources. As a result, large-scale comprehensive utilization technologies have been initiated, including slag dry granulation technology, steel slag cement technology, slag wool technology, slag waste heat recovery technology, etc. The comprehensive utilization of metallurgical solid waste has attracted worldwide attention. It is an effective way to improve the utilization efficiency of resources and the added value of products by using scientific metallurgical solid waste recycling methods. This book intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of metallurgical solid wastes comprehensive utilization technology. The comprehensive utilization methods of four representative metallurgical solid wastes are emphatically described, such as blast furnace slag, steel slag, tailings and metallurgical dust.

Life Sciences --- Environmental Sciences --- Waste Management --- Recycling

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Few historians have followed the entire "life-cycle" of a product; especially "secondary" forms of use, transfer and alteration - for example repair works or the trade in used goods - often have been neglected. This exclusion of secondary markets and secondary product cycles seems problematic, since they were - regarding the factors of production - of a specific importance for pre-modern economy and society: for many craftsmen especially in the textile branch repair works formed a significant part of their daily business, in addition numerous people found possibilities to earn a living in fields that specialized on trading with second-hand ware or the collecting and reprocessing of scrap materials. Especially metals or glass, but also textiles (rags for paper making) were recycled to a considerable extent, since raw material was often scarce or expensive; therefore many consumers (especially members of lower urban strata) were reliant on the use of second-hand commodities and materials until the nineteenth century. My study focuses on the retail of second-hand commodities during the seventeenth and eighteenth century in the towns of Salzburg and Vienna, but it also discusses findings from other European cities. The empirical part of the study is primarily based on archival sources, but also other forms of tradition were taken into consideration. The rather fragmentary record and the (partial) "invisibility" of market actors necessitated the combination of different types of sources (e.g. contemporary literature or depictions) and methods of reconstruction (qualitative as well as quantitative), which allowed to broaden the analysis - for example to locate individuals within their everyday socioeconomic contexts.Second-hand trade - in shops, stall or on institutionalised market places - formed an important source of income for the urban labouring poor being a temporary (supplementary and occasional) or a middle- or long-term activity, especially for females and members of ethnic or religious minorities. Formalisation and regulation within urban second-hand trade, also high entrance fees or numerical limits tended to exclude several actors from engaging in authorized second-hand trading. These exclusions evoked informal engagement that means activities of licensed and partially licensed as well as of unlicensed dealers - these informal trading activities don't seem marginal, but of a specific relevance for urban second-hand trade.Second-hand trade was undoubtedly dominated by less affluent elements that were often considered only barely respectable, problems like trading with stolen or infected goods fostered ambivalent or negative contemporary perceptions. Nevertheless, second-hand markets and traders formed a substantial and vital part of the urban economy during early modern times - their utilities with respect to household strategies and daily consumption were multiple: Used goods could usually be purchased at significantly lower prices than new commodities, at the same time the second-hand trade helped to convert "unnecessary" or dispensable belongings and commodities from bequests or insolvencies into cash. But second-hand trade was not just a necessity; it also created possibilities for economic management - "cheaper" second-hand goods could be purchased instead of newly manufactured commodities, in addition material belongings that were of a stable value and easily resold functioned as a non-monetary saving strategy. The consumption of used goods was very flexible and adoptable and formed - especially for members of lower urban strata - a basal element of everyday economy. Second-hand markets offered a broad range of products that were immediately available: especially clothing (since textiles embodied quite a high exchange value during the pre-industrial period), furniture and other goods of everyday use, but also scrap materials. Second-hand markets and traders were closely connected (both personally and spatially) t

second-hand trade, economy of makeshifts, recycling, non-elite consumption, secondary markets

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Ecological stoichiometry concerns the way that the elemental composition of organisms shapes their ecology. It deals with the balance or imbalance of elemental ratios and how that affects organism growth, nutrient cycling, and the interactions with the biotic and abiotic worlds. The elemental composition of organisms is a set of constraints through which all the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles must pass. All organisms consume nutrients and acquire compounds from the environment proportional to their needs. Organismal elemental needs are determined in turn by the energy required to live and grow, the physical and chemical constraints of their environment, and their requirements for relatively large polymeric biomolecules such as RNA, DNA, lipids, and proteins, as well as for structural needs including stems, bones, shells, etc. These materials together constitute most of the biomass of living organisms. Although there may be little variability in elemental ratios of many of these biomolecules, changing the proportions of different biomolecules can have important effects on organismal elemental composition. Consequently, the variation in elemental composition both within and across organisms can be tremendous, which has important implications for Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. It has been over a decade since the publication of Sterner and Elser’s book, Ecological Stoichiometry (2002). In the intervening years, hundreds of papers on stoichiometric topics ranging from evolution and regulation of nutrient content in organisms, to the role of stoichiometry in populations, communities, ecosystems and global biogeochemical dynamics have been published. Here, we present a collection of contributions from the broad scientific community to highlight recent insights in the field of Ecological Stoichiometry.

Biological stoichiometry --- Elemental composition --- ecological theory --- C:N:P --- ecological scaling --- Homeostasis --- Nutrient recycling

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Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is the most popular alternative water source in many urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. Although rainwater is fresh in nature, it gets polluted from atmospheric contaminants, roof catchments, and the RWH system itself. The research questions which are the most relevant to RWH system include the optimum rainwater tank size for a given location and set of users, water quality from a RWH system, financial viability of a RWH system, and state regulations on the use of water from a RWH system. You are invited to submit a technical paper to this Special Issue of Water on these aspects of a RWH system.

Rainwater --- rainwater harvesting --- alternative water supply --- rainwater quality --- water cycle management --- rainwater economics --- water regulations --- urban water --- stormwater --- water recycling