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Historical Conditions (historical + condition)
Selected AbstractsThe International Relations of the "Transition": Ernest Gellner's Social Philosophy and Political Sociology,INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2007Roland Dannreuther Ernest Gellner's political sociology has been relatively neglected not only in international relations (IR) but also in sociology and social anthropology. This article provides an overview of Gellner's ambitious vision of our modern condition. Central to this vision is the salience of the "transition" from agrarian to industrial society, which Gellner believed had transformed and revolutionized not only our philosophical outlook but also our sociological and historical condition. This article argues that Gellner's work provides an intellectually rich, demanding, and fruitful model which has much relevance to IR. We illustrate this by showing how Gellner's sociological insights into the study of nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism continue to have a direct application to contemporary concerns within IR, as well as providing an illustration of how IR can benefit from a multidisciplinary engagement with the disciplines that Gellner most creatively borrowed from: sociology, anthropology, and philosophy. [source] Modeled Effects of Sagebrush-Steppe Restoration on Greater Sage-Grouse in the Interior Columbia Basin, U.S.A.CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2002Michael J. Wisdom Consequently, managers of FS,BLM lands need effective strategies to recover sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats on which this species depends. In response to this need, we evaluated the potential benefits of two restoration scenarios on Greater Sage-Grouse in the interior Columbia Basin and adjacent portions of the Great Basin of the western United States. Scenario 1 assumed a 50% reduction in detrimental grazing effects (through changes in stocking rates and grazing systems) and a six-fold increase in areas treated with active restoration (e.g., prescribed burning, native seedings, wildfire suppression) compared with future management proposed by the FS,BLM. Scenario 2 assumed a 100% reduction in detrimental grazing effects and the same increase in active restoration as scenario 1. To evaluate benefits, we estimated the risk of population extirpation for sage grouse 100 years in the future under the two scenarios and compared this risk with that estimated for proposed (100-year) FS,BLM management. We used estimates of extirpation risk for historical (circa 1850,1890) and current time periods as a context for our comparison. Under historical conditions, risk of extirpation was very low on FS,BLM lands, but increased to a moderate probability under current conditions. Under proposed FS,BLM management, risk of extirpation on FS,BLM lands increased to a high probability 100 years in the future. Benefits of the two restoration scenarios, however, constrained the future risk of extirpation to a moderate probability. Our results suggest that expansive and sustained habitat restoration can maintain desired conditions and reduce future extirpation risk for sage grouse on FS,BLM lands in western North America. The continued spread of exotic plants, however, presents a formidable challenge to successful restoration and warrants substantial research and management attention. Resumen: Los hábitats del urogallo (Centrocercus urophasianus) han disminuido a lo largo de la región occidental de Norteamérica, y la mayoría de los hábitats restantes ocurren en terrenos administrados por el Servicio Forestal de E.U.A. (SF) y el Buró de Administración de Tierras ( BAT ). Por lo tanto, los encargados de las tierras SF,BAT necesitan estrategias eficaces para recuperar los hábitats de artemisa (Artemisia spp.) de los cuales depende esta especie. En respuesta a esta necesidad, evaluamos los beneficios potenciales de dos escenarios de restauración sobre el urogallo en el interior de la Cuenca del Columbia y porciones adyacentes de la Gran Cuenca del occidente de los Estados Unidos. El escenario 1 supone una reducción del 50% en los efectos perjudiciales del pastoreo ( por medio de cambios en las tasas de aprovisionamiento y en los sistemas de pastoreo) y un incremento de seis veces en la superficie de las áreas tratadas con restauración activa ( por ejemplo, quemas prescritas, plántulas nativas, supresión de fuego no controlado) comparada con la administración futura propuesta por el SF,BAT. El escenario 2 supone una reducción del 100% en los efectos de pastoreo perjudiciales y el mismo aumento en la restauración activa que en el escenario 1. Para evaluar los beneficios, estimamos el riesgo de extirpación de la población de urogallos en 100 años bajo los dos escenarios y comparamos este riesgo con el riesgo estimado por la propuesta de manejo de SF,BAT (100-años). Utilizamos estimaciones del riesgo de extirpación en períodos históricos (entre 1850 y 1890) y actuales como contexto para nuestra comparación. Bajo condiciones históricas, el riesgo de extirpación fue muy bajo en los terrenos SF,BAT pero aumentó a una probabilidad moderada bajo condiciones actuales. Bajo la administración propuesta por SF,BAT, el riesgo de extirpación en los terrenos SF,BAT aumentó a una alta probabilidad 100 años en el futuro. Sin embargo, los beneficios de los dos escenarios de restauración constriñen el riesgo de extirpación a una probabilidad moderada. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la restauración expansiva y sostenida del hábitat puede mantener condiciones deseadas y reduce el riesgo de extirpación de urogallos en terrenos SF,BAT en la región occidental de Norteamérica. Sin embargo, la continua extensión de plantas exóticas representa un reto formidable para la restauración exitosa y justifica considerable investigación y atención de manejo. [source] Is the matrix a sea?ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 1 2005Habitat specificity in a naturally fragmented landscape Abstract., 1. Metapopulation and island biogeography theory assume that landscapes consist of habitat patches set in a matrix of non-habitat. If only a small proportion of species conform to the patch,matrix assumptions then metapopulation theory may only describe special cases rather than being of more general ecological importance. 2. As an initial step towards understanding the prevalence of metapopulation dynamics in a naturally fragmented landscape, the distribution of beetle species in three replicates of three habitat types was examined, including rainforest and eucalypt forest (the habitat patches), and buttongrass sedgeland (the matrix), in south-west Tasmania, Australia. 3. Ordination methods indicated that the buttongrass fauna was extremely divergent from the fauna of forested habitats. Permutation tests showed that the abundance of 13 of 17 commonly captured species varied significantly among habitats, with eight species confined to eucalypts or rainforest, and three species found only in buttongrass. Approximately 60% of species were confined to forested habitat implying that metapopulation theory has the potential to be very important in the forest,buttongrass landscape. 4. Although floristically the rainforest and eucalypts were extremely distinct, the beetle faunas from eucalypts and rainforests overlapped substantially. Therefore rainforest patches connected by eucalypt forest represent continuous habitat for most species. 5. Other studies report a wide range of values for the proportion of patch-specific species in fragmented landscapes. Understanding the environmental or historical conditions under which a high proportion of species become patch specialists would help to identify where spatial dynamic theory may be especially applicable, and where habitat loss and fragmentation poses the greatest threat to biodiversity. [source] Sitting in Silence: Self, Emotion, and Tradition in the Genesis of a Charismatic MinistryETHOS, Issue 4 2001Assistant Professor Albert Schrauwers David Willson was the charismatic leader of a small Utopian Quaker sect, the Children of Peace (1812,89), who prophesied a millenarian transformation of the British empire. This article examines the confluence of social forces and historical conditions that made this charismatic ministry possible. Following Csordas, the emphasis is placed on the means by which followership is created, rather than on the personality of the leader. I argue that Willson's charismatic leadership was predicated upon inculcating a distinctive habitus, on shaping and molding cultural conceptions of self and of emotion, which create the distinctive disposition to obey infollowers. A "theology of mind" was critical to Willson's ministry, and the culturally and historically distinctive emotions and dispositions it described were inculcated in the communal ritual practice of "sitting in silence." [source] The Question of Market DependenceJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 1 2002Ellen Meiksins Wood Capitalism is a system of social-property relations in which survival and social reproduction are dependent on the market; a system that is, therefore, driven by the imperatives of competition and a relentless drive to improve the forces of production. This article explores the nature of that market dependence and the specific historical conditions in which it emerged. In debate with Robert Brenner's recent article in this journal (vol.1, no.2) about the early development of capitalism in the Low Countries, it is suggested that, while the Dutch Republic was a highly developed commercial society, it seems to have lacked the specific conditions that made market dependence a basic property relation, as it was in early modern English agrarian capitalism. The differences between Dutch and English patterns of economic development reflect some fundamental differences between commercial and capitalist societies. [source] Conceptualising spirituality and religion for healthcareJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 21 2008Barbara Pesut Aims., To discuss some of the challenges of conceptualising spirituality and religion for healthcare practice. Background., With the growing interest in spirituality in healthcare, has come the inevitable task of trying to conceptualise spirituality, a daunting task given the amorphous nature of spirituality, the changing understandings of spirituality among individuals and the diverse globalised society within which this task is taking place. Spirituality's relationship to religion is a particularly challenging point of debate. Design., Critical review. Conclusions., Three social and historical conditions , located in the context of Western thought , have contributed to current conceptualisations of spirituality and religion: the diminishment of the social authority of religion as a result of the Enlightenment focus on reason, the rise of a postmodern spirituality emphasising spiritual experience and current tensions over the ideological and political roles of religion in society. The trend to minimise the social influence of religion is a particular Western bias that seems to ignore the global megatrend of the resurgence of religion. Current conceptualisations are critiqued on the following grounds: that they tend to be ungrounded from a rich history of theological and philosophical thought, that a particular form of elitist spirituality is emerging and that the individualistic emphasis in recent conceptualisations of spirituality diminishes the potential for societal critique and transformation while opening the door for economic and political self interest. Relevance to clinical practice., Constructing adequate conceptualisations of spirituality and religion for clinical practice entails grounding them in the wealth of centuries of philosophical and theological thinking, ensuring that they represent the diverse society that nursing serves and anchoring them within a moral view of practice. [source] Selection power and selection labor for information retrievalJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 7 2007Julian Warner This study examines the relation between selection power and selection labor for information retrieval (IR). It is the first part of the development of a labor theoretic approach to IR. Existing models for evaluation of IR systems are reviewed and the distinction of operational from experimental systems partly dissolved. The often covert, but powerful, influence from technology on practice and theory is rendered explicit. Selection power is understood as the human ability to make informed choices between objects or representations of objects and is adopted as the primary value for IR. Selection power is conceived as a property of human consciousness, which can be assisted or frustrated by system design. The concept of selection power is further elucidated, and its value supported, by an example of the discrimination enabled by index descriptions, the discovery of analogous concepts in partly independent scholarly and wider public discourses, and its embodiment in the design and use of systems. Selection power is regarded as produced by selection labor, with the nature of that labor changing with different historical conditions and concurrent information technologies. Selection labor can itself be decomposed into description and search labor. Selection labor and its decomposition into description and search labor will be treated in a subsequent article, in a further development of a labor theoretic approach to information retrieval. [source] Does It Make Sense to Restore Wildland Fire in Changing Climate?RESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2008Peter Z. Fulé Abstract Forest restoration guided by historical reference conditions of fire regime, forest structure, and composition has been increasingly and successfully applied in fire-adapted forests of western North America. But because climate change is expected to alter vegetation distributions and foster severe disturbances, does it make sense to restore the ecological role of wildland fire through management burning and related activities such as tree thinning? I suggest that some site- and date-specific historical conditions may be less relevant, but reference conditions in the broad sense are still useful. Reference conditions encompass not only the recent past but also evolutionary history, reflecting the role of fire as a selective force over millennia. Taking a long-term functional view of historical reference conditions as the result of evolutionary processes can provide insights into past forest adaptations and migrations under various climates. As future climates change, historical reference data from lower, southerly, and drier sites may be useful in places that are higher, northerly, and currently wetter. Almost all models suggest that the future will have substantial increases in wildfire occurrence, but prior to recent human-caused fire exclusion, fire-adapted pine forests of western North America were among the most frequently burned in the world. Restoration of patterns of burning and fuels/forest structure that reasonably emulate historical conditions prior to fire exclusion is consistent with reducing the susceptibility of these ecosystems to catastrophic loss. Priorities may include fire and thinning treatments of upper elevation ecotones to facilitate forest migration, whereas vulnerable low-elevation forests may merit less management investment. [source] EXIT GHOST: DOUGLAS HUEBLER'S FACE VALUEART HISTORY, Issue 5 2009GORDON HUGHES Beginning with his early systems-based works, Douglas Huebler's photo-conceptualism takes direct aim at various efforts to heighten or exaggerate the expressive content of photography. This essay examines a heretofore unnoticed but crucial strategy in this practice of negation: Huebler's use of images broadly associated with surrealism's efforts to tap into ,the Marvellous', mannequins, identical twins, extreme coincidence, and ghosts. Far from reinforcing the uncanny effects of such images and tropes, Huebler, I claim, is on the contrary concerned to flatten and drain all traces of subjective resonance from these once expressive forms. Examining a range of works in which Huebler effectively transforms the Marvellous into the risible, I argue that one reason for this transformation is that the historical conditions by which photography could be charged with uncanny affect are no longer in place. As a result, we are now able to recognize only signs and images of the Marvellous/uncanny in photography, but our emotive response, like Huebler's photographs, is essentially empty. The essay concludes with Roland Barthes' mournful description of the loss of the photographic uncanny, or what he calls the ,madness' of photography, as it occurs in the final pages of Camera Lucida. [source] | |||||||||||||