Innovations in Consumption: Three Case Studies on Alternative Systems of Provision in Halifax, NS
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Given the challenges of climate change, mass consumerism is dominant in mitigation discourse. This thesis studies alternative systems of provision to investigate alternative sustainable consumption options. Systems of provision are the parameters of consumption, including all stakeholders involved from the beginning of production to the consumption of a good or service. It is an applied lens to study consumption. Alternative systems of provision seek to establish sustainable consumption that have a lesser ecological footprint, a greater sense of community, affordability, and social equity. This thesis seeks to gain a greater understanding of alternative systems of provision and the obstacles and challenges that they face. Three case studies are conducted in Halifax, Nova Scotia on organizations participating in alternative systems of provision. The case studies are Off the Hook, CarShare Atlantic, and the Halifax Tool Library. The study finds that alternative systems of provision challenge the culture of individualized and commodified systems of provision through their focus on social equity, economic benefits to consumers and producers, and reducing their ecological impact. They face challenges from lack of public awareness, funding limitations, and exhaustion of human capital. This research contributes to the literature on systems of provision, sociotechnical transitions, and consumption. The thesis recommends future research to study consuming members of alternative systems of provision, public perception, and the sharing economy.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".