In the globalized economy, companies compete on their value-added service offer. Japanese firms have a long tradition of outstanding manufacturing quality. However, the Japanese service industry is less developed in comparison with other OECD countries. Services have often been bundled together with products or internalized in manufacturing firms without separate visibility. We argue that this service bundling can be highly valuable in certain industries where there is a need to increase the service content. The paper uses the interface between product and package to show the potential strengths of the Japanese firms in terms of increasing value-added service in the value-chain. It offers a theoretical contribution to the discussion on the service economy and gives empirical examples from an industry in Japan.

Studies of the professions clearly illustrate the intricate interplay between general conceptions of society and history, sociological theory, definitions of social categories, empirical research and political values – or, more briefly, between theory, ’facts’ and politics. In this article the interplay is illustrated by the two dominant theory-constructions on professions in sociology. The first is the functionalist or ’naive’ tradition, the second the neoweberian or ’cynical’ alternative. It is argued that both traditions are permeated by several shortcomings. In particular, they have universalistic claims, but are in fact outcomes of professionals’ own self-images during specific and limited social and historical circumstances. Sociologies of professions turn out to be ideologies of professionals. In a concluding section the preconditions for a more realistic approach to the professions are outlined.

According to Paul Seabright, “the unplanned but sophisticated coordination of modern economies is a remarkable fact that needs an explanation.” In this paper, I explore what is remarkable about modern economies and investigate what Seabright identifies as the aspect “that needs an explanation.” Essentially, Seabright is interested in the fact that modern economies require a great deal in the way of trustworthy behavior (and trust) in order to function well—and these trust relations must operate specifically among “strangers”! The puzzle for him is how relations of trust (and trustworthiness) among strangers could conceivably have arisen from our tribal evolutionary past. I raise several queries about his diagnosis of this puzzle and of his answer to it.

The Synthesis Report (SYR), constituting the final product of the FifthAssessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC), is published under the title Climate Change 2014. Thisreport distils, synthesizes and integrates the key findings of the threeWorking Group contributions – The Physical Science Basis, Impacts,Adaptation, and Vulnerability and Mitigation of Climate Change – tothe AR5 in a concise document for the benefit of decision makers inthe government, the private sector as well as the public at large. TheSYR also draws on the findings of the two Special Reports brought outin 2011 dealing with Renewable Energy Sources and Climate ChangeMitigation, and Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters toAdvance Climate Change Adaptation. The SYR, therefore, is a compre-hensive up-to-date compilation of assessments dealing with climatechange, based on the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economicliterature in the field.

This framing chapter has two primary purposes: to provide a frame-work for viewing and understanding the human (social) perspective on climate change, focusing on ethics and economics; and to define and discuss key concepts used in other chapters. It complements the two other framing chapters: Chapter 2 on risk and uncertainty and Chapter 4 on sustainability. The audience for this chapter (indeed for this entire volume) is decision makers at many different levels. The significance of the social dimension and the role of ethics and economics is underscored by Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which indicates that the ultimate objective of the Convention is to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Two main issues confronting society are: what constitutes ‘dangerous interference’ with the climate system and how to deal with that interference (see box 3.1). Providing information to answer these inter-related questions is a primary purpose of the IPCC. Although natural science helps us understand how emissions can change the climate, and, in turn, generate physical impacts on ecosystems, people, and the physical environment, determining what is dangerous involves judging the level of adverse consequences, the steps necessary to mitigate these consequences, and the risk that humanity is willing to tolerate. These are questions requiring value judgement. Although economics is essential to evaluating the consequences and trade-offs associating with climate change, how society interprets and values them is an ethical question. Our discussion of ethics centres on two main considerations: justice and value. Justice requires that people and nations should receive what they are due, or have a right to. For some, an outcome is just if the process that generated it is just. Others view justice in terms of the actual outcomes enjoyed by different people and groups and the values they place on those outcomes.

This chapter surveys some of the issues that arise in policymaking when the well-being of future generations must be taken into account. It considers the different sorts of discounting that may be applied to future well-being, and considers whether any of them are permissible. It next argues that policymakers cannot properly ignore the effects that different policies have on the number of future people who will come into existence. These effects are pervasive, and the chapter goes on to consider what theoretical basis is available for setting a value on them. Finally it describes the “nonidentity effect,” through which a choice of policy affects the identity of people born in the future, and examines what implications it has for intergenerational justice and for the Pareto principle.

Since the inclusion of ecological considerations in Germany’s social market economy model in the 1990s and the approval of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (RESA) in 2000, the debate on climate policy in Germany has intensified. Opposition to ambitious targets currently focuses on delaying the Energiewende, the ongoing, country- and sector-wide transition to renewable energy. This opposition comprises both climate change deniers and actors who want to preserve Germany’s centralized fossil fuel energy structures. Recent policy adjustments have included the expansion for the building of the infrastructure for liquefied natural gas and weakening of laws mandating decarbonization in heating. Even greater efforts have been made to delay effective carbon reduction strategies, such as advocating carbon offsets and weakening auto emissions standards. This chapter identifies and analyzes German companies’, politicians’, and interest groups’ climate obstruction activities, which centre on using think tanks and nongovernmental organizations to influence public opinion.

This paper provides a critical analysis of European service research. The paper reviews the state of service research in 1991 and critically evaluates the subsequent two decades of academic research. The paper then identifies key research challenges that must be addressed over the next decade. The key issues identified include: the development of new conceptual frameworks; the creation of new metaphors that might supplant the dominance of the networking metaphor; research that would explore the production of translocal distributed co-produced service expertise; further work on embodied expertise/labour; research on services and manufacturing; modifications to national statistics and a critical analysis of the relationship between knowledge and business, and professional services.