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Practical Concerns (practical + concern)
Selected AbstractsCurrent Issues in the Economics of Groundwater Resource ManagementJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 5 2004Phoebe Koundouri Abstract., The issue of groundwater management remains a practical concern in many regions throughout the world, while water managers continue to grapple with the question of how to manage this resource. In this article, we attempt to bring the most advanced and appropriate tools to bear on the issue of resource allocation involving groundwater. Our objective is to demonstrate the state of the art in the literature on ways to think about this complex resource and to deal with the important economic issues emanating from its complexity. We present the conceptual framework within which economists examine the elements interacting in the management of groundwater resources, indicate why the role of the market is limited with respect to the price of this very complex resource, and point to the mechanisms that can pull competitive groundwater price and quality-graded quantity of groundwater in line with their equilibrium levels. In particular, we critically review economic models of groundwater use, examine the potential for groundwater management, discuss the difficulties encountered in the estimation of the relevant control variables of such models, and identify the advantages and limitations of the instruments devised for the efficient use (allocation) of this resource. Finally, we argue that devised regulatory schemes usually ignore the information and knowledge needed for their implementation, and we suggest a core of conditions necessary for successful groundwater management reforms. [source] Front and Back Covers, Volume 23, Number 5.ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 5 2007Ocotober 200 Front and back covers caption, volume 23 issue 5 Front cover The front cover illustrates Julie J. Taylor's article on the outcome of the San people's court case against the Botswana government. The photo shows Roy Sesana, leader of the San organization First People of the Kalahari and chief appellant in the case, with Gordon Bennett, the San group's lawyer, at the start of the case in July 2004. In the course of the last century, the San or Bushmen of southern Africa became possibly the most studied indigenous group in the world. In addition to suffering land dispossession and violence during the colonial period, their image in the West has long been that of exotic and innocent ,Other', fuelled over time by the work of scientists, anthropologists and filmmakers among others. In recent years the San have become part of wider debates about indigeneity, poverty and development, often in relation to land rights. Many San have formed their own representative institutions and have also entered into relationships with national and international NGOs to campaign for their rights as an indigenous minority. From 2004, San claims to land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana drew unprecedented attention in the international media, due in part to the efforts of local NGOs and the British-based advocacy group Survival International. After protracted court proceedings and much controversy, the case finally came to an end in late 2006. At first sight the outcome appeared to offer victory to San applicants, but matters in the Central Kalahari are far from resolved, raising questions about the role of advocacy groups and the fate of marginalized San groups elsewhere. Back cover (IM)PERSONAL MONEY Roboti of Giribwa Village, Trobriand Islands (above) is seen wearing the armshell Nanoula and the necklace Kasanai. Both have been circulating in the kula for at least a century and were already famous when Malinowski saw them. He was sure that these valuables were not money because they were not an impersonal medium of exchange, but Marcel Mauss, in a long footnote to The gift, wrote: ,On this reasoning there has only been money when precious things have been really made into currency , namely have been inscribed and impersonalised, and detached from any relationship with any legal entity, whether collective or individual, other than the state that mints them, One only defines in this way a second type of money , our own.' This exchange was in some ways the high point of economic anthropology. The world of national currencies issued and controlled by states and banks must now come to terms with innumerable virtual instruments such as those seen flashing on the screens of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (below). But, as the current ,sub-prime mortgage' crisis shows, these anonymous money instruments are still closely linked to personal credit. The challenge facing anthropologists today is to renew the legacy of Mauss and Malinowski in ways that illuminate such matters of universal practical concern. In this issue, Keith Hart argues that money, like society itself, is and always has been both personal and impersonal. A pragmatic anthropology should aim to show that the numbers on people's financial statements constitute a way of summarizing their relations with society at a given time. The next step is to explain how these numbers might serve in building a viable personal economy. When we are able to take responsibility for our own economic actions, we will understand better the social forces impinging on our lives. Then it will become more obvious how and why ruling institutions need to be reformed for all our sakes. [source] Fluvial Geomorphology and River ManagementGEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2000I. Douglas Australian river landscapes offer many challenges for management. Much Australian river research is novel, but practical concerns have always had an influence on the research agenda. Australia's distinctive contributions to fluvial geomorphology include recognition of the great age of many fluvially eroded landscapes; understanding complex levee, terrace and valley fill sequences; analysing the impacts of rare major floods; interpreting the effects of impoundment, mining and urbanisation; and understanding the great anastomosing inland river systems. River restoration is now a major theme in the literature of river engineering, fluvial geomorphology and landscape design. Great achievements are occurring in geo-ecological river management and engineering. Changing people's thinking is becoming at least as important as gaining new scientific knowledge. The existing understanding needs to be more widely shared and enhanced by greater involvement with Asian countries where river management issues daily affect the lives of millions of people. [source] Researching ethnic diversity in the British NHS: methodological and practical concernsJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 4 2000Kate Gerrish BNurs MSc PhD RGN RM DN Cert Researching ethnic diversity in the British NHS: methodological and practical concerns The collection of data on ethnic groupings has become an increasingly pervasive feature of contemporary health policy and research in the United Kingdom, with attention concentrating primarily on monitoring access to and utilization of services by different ethnic groups, together with epidemiological data on morbidity and mortality. At the same time, the collection of data on ethnic populations by census and health agencies has been the subject of a wide-ranging and contentious debate and there is a growing critique that challenges the collection and use of such data on political, methodological and practical grounds. This paper explores the nature of these debates as they apply to health research. Issues of validity and reliability arising from the application of pre-defined ethnic categories, such as those used within the National Health Service derived from the 1991 census, are considered and alternative approaches which utilize a range of variables such as language, religion and length of residency in a country suggested. Experiences derived from an ethnographic study of the provision of district nursing care to patients from different ethnic backgrounds are used to illustrate some of the practical issues of researching ethnic diversity. Strategies for addressing some of the methodological and practical concerns are proposed. [source] Organizing and delivering training for acute mental health services: a discussion paperJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 2 2005P. E. BEE phd bsc Recent policy statements that address the quality of care provided by acute mental health services have highlighted an urgent need for specialist nurse education and training. However, examples of how to design and implement such training initiatives are sparse. Drawing on recent experience of developing an innovative training programme for acute psychiatric settings, this paper seeks to examine some of the key issues associated with current training provision for acute inpatient mental health workers. The methodological and practical concerns surrounding this type of initiative are discussed with the main aspects of programme content, service user participation, team training and organizational challenges being explored. Resulting from this work, several recommendations regarding the content, organization and delivery of future training initiatives are made. [source] Inhaled insulin: weighing up the benefits and practical concernsPRACTICAL DIABETES INTERNATIONAL (INCORPORATING CARDIABETES), Issue 2 2006FRCP Consultant Physician, Ian W Gallen MD No abstract is available for this article. [source] Considering "The Professional" in Communication Studies: Implications for Theory and Research Within and Beyond the Boundaries of Organizational CommunicationCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 2 2007George Cheney This essay positions contemporary "professionalism" as a contested term and a nexus of important theoretical and practical concerns for communication scholars, including, for example, those engaged in the empirical, interpretive, and critical examinations of culture and the self. We advance communication-based understandings of the meanings and practices of professionalism as a complement to the predominantly sociological conceptions of the rise and place of the professional in modern industrialized societies. We are deliberately playful with the term professionalism in demonstrating the power of its ambiguity for reflecting, shaping, and indexing particular kinds of social relations and expectations for them. Part of our argument concerns the complex interplay of symbolism and materiality in the domains of interaction and artifacts surrounding "the professional," and especially its embodiment in work and other settings. This brings us directly to an examination of the "intersectionality" of aspects of difference in the world of the professional (and by implication, the nonprofessional), including race, gender, and class, and to observe a broad-based cultural dialectic of the civilized and the primitive. Finally, we briefly consider extensions as relevant to domains of communication studies beyond the accustomed domain of organizational communication. [source] | |||||||||||||