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Local Communities (local + community)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	34%
Life Sciences	31%
Medical Sciences	13%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	6%
Psychology	5%
Law and Criminology	4%
Education	2%
Earth and Environmental Science	2%
2 Other Domains	3%

Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences

General & Introductory Geography	17%
General & Introductory Development Studies	14%
General & Introductory Anthropology	8%
General Sociology	5%
20 Other Subdomains	51%

Selected Abstracts

Revitalization of Local Community and Ethnicity: Nagasaki's Lantern Festival Among the Immigrant Chinese

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF JAPANESE SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2003
Wei Wang
Abstract: The Nagasaki's Lantern Festival is gaining popularity through the continued partnership between the immigrant Chinese (Kakyo) and Nagasaki city, largely owing to the ethnic Chinese revitalization movement and the distinct way of life typical in Nagasaki. Following my past research, I would like to discuss the development and modification of Nagasaki's Lantern Festival, to examine the relationship between the features specific to the Nagasaki area and the changes in the Kakyo community's sense of ethnicity amid the wave of globalization. By the Meiji period, ethnic Chinese society in Nagasaki consisted mainly of immigrants from Fu Jian province. Today the community is experiencing rapid transformation. In particular, the restoration of Sino,Japanese relations and the wave of internationalization have led to the creation of the Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown Shopping District Promotion Association and the renewal of Chinatown for the ethnic Chinese. The Chinese Spring Festival, originally aimed toward community vitalization, not only included the Kakyo (immigrant Chinese) but the Japanese in the district and private corporations. Nagasaki was transformed not only into a strategic point for East Asia's multilateral trade, but also served as a trading center for the entire nation. But as Japanese ports opened their doors to the world after 1850, Nagasaki was reduced to only one of the local trading centers. As for overseas business, Nagasaki took advantage of its heavy industry by expanding its share in the Asian international market and has been striving in the domestic market to activate the local economy through tourism. Such strategy hinges on the rich historical and cultural resources formed and nurtured within the 400 years of relations with Asian nations. The historical merger between the Kakyo community and its cultural tradition in Nagasaki society served as one of the incentives for such development and progress. The enlargement of Nagasaki's Lantern Festival has been achieved as part of this concept of "Asian-oriented region", in line with the city's plan on tourism promotion. [source]

Exploring Issues of Importance to the Local Community through the University Museum The Exhibition Facing HIV/AIDS: Reality and Response

MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2001
Professor Tamara L. Bray
[source]

Environmental adult education and community sustainability

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT & CONTINUING EDUCATION, Issue 99 2003
Jennifer Sumner
Local communities face many challenges in an increasingly globalized world. A new framework for sustainability that includes environmental adult education can help them survive, and even thrive, in the age of globalization. [source]

Partnering for Greater Success: Local Stakeholders and Research in Tropical Biology and Conservation

BIOTROPICA, Issue 5 2009
Karen A. Kainer
ABSTRACT Local communities are important stakeholders in resource management and conservation efforts, particularly in the developing world. Although evidence is mixed in suggesting that these resident stakeholders are optimal forest stewards, it is highly unlikely that large tracts of tropical forests will be conserved without engaging local people who depend on them daily for their livelihoods. Stakeholders, who reside in biodiverse ecosystems like tropical forests, are the largest direct users and ultimate decision-makers of forest fate, can be important investors in conservation, harbor local ecological knowledge that complements Western science and frequently have long-term legitimate claims on lands where they reside. Research partnerships with local stakeholders can increase research relevance, enhance knowledge exchange and result in greater conservation success. Different phases of the research cycle present distinct opportunities for partnership, with flexibility in timing, approaches and strategies depending on researcher and local stakeholder needs and interests. Despite being the last step in the research process, dissemination of results can be the best starting point for researchers interested in experimenting with local stakeholder engagement. Still, tropical biologists might not choose to partner with local people because of lack of institutional rewards, insufficient training in stakeholder engagement, insecure research infrastructure in community settings, and time and funding limitations. Although not appropriate in all cases and despite significant challenges, some biological scientists and research institutions have successfully engaged local stakeholders in the research process, proving mutually beneficial for investigators and local people alike and resulting in important innovations in tropical biology and conservation. [source]

Local Participation in Natural Resource Monitoring: a Characterization of Approaches

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
FINN DANIELSEN
conservación; evaluación de la biodiversidad; esquemas de monitoreo; intereses locales; manejo de recursos naturales Abstract:,The monitoring of trends in the status of species or habitats is routine in developed countries, where it is funded by the state or large nongovernmental organizations and often involves large numbers of skilled amateur volunteers. Far less monitoring of natural resources takes place in developing countries, where state agencies have small budgets, there are fewer skilled professionals or amateurs, and socioeconomic conditions prevent development of a culture of volunteerism. The resulting lack of knowledge about trends in species and habitats presents a serious challenge for detecting, understanding, and reversing declines in natural resource values. International environmental agreements require signatories undertake systematic monitoring of their natural resources, but no system exists to guide the development and expansion of monitoring schemes. To help develop such a protocol, we suggest a typology of monitoring categories, defined by their degree of local participation, ranging from no local involvement with monitoring undertaken by professional researchers to an entirely local effort with monitoring undertaken by local people. We assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each monitoring category and the potential of each to be sustainable in developed or developing countries. Locally based monitoring is particularly relevant in developing countries, where it can lead to rapid decisions to solve the key threats affecting natural resources, can empower local communities to better manage their resources, and can refine sustainable-use strategies to improve local livelihoods. Nevertheless, we recognize that the accuracy and precision of the monitoring undertaken by local communities in different situations needs further study and field protocols need to be further developed to get the best from the unrealized potential of this approach. A challenge to conservation biologists is to identify and establish the monitoring system most relevant to a particular situation and to develop methods to integrate outputs from across the spectrum of monitoring schemes to produce wider indices of natural resources that capture the strengths of each. Resumen:,El monitoreo de tendencias en el estatus de especies o hábitats es rutinario en los países desarrollados, donde es financiado por el estado o por grandes organizaciones no gubernamentales y a menudo involucra a grandes números de voluntarios amateurs competentes. El monitoreo de recursos naturales es menos intenso en los países en desarrollo, donde las agencias estatales tienen presupuestos pequeños, hay menos profesionales o amateurs competentes y las condiciones socioeconómicas limitan el desarrollo de una cultura de voluntariado. La consecuente falta de conocimientos sobre las tendencias de las especies y los hábitats presenta un serio reto para la detección, entendimiento y reversión de las declinaciones de los recursos naturales. Los tratados ambientales internacionales requieren que los signatarios realicen monitoreos sistemáticos de sus recursos naturales, pero no existe un sistema para guiar el desarrollo y la expansión de los esquemas de monitoreo. Para ayudar al desarrollo de tal protocolo, sugerimos una tipología de categorías de monitoreo, definidas por el nivel de participación local, desde ningún involucramiento local con el monitoreo realizado por investigadores profesionales hasta un esfuerzo completamente local con el monitoreo llevado a cabo por habitantes locales. Evaluamos las fortalezas y debilidades de cada categoría de monitoreo, así como su sustentabilidad potencial en países desarrollados o en desarrollo. El monitoreo basado localmente es particularmente relevante en los países en desarrollo, donde puede llevar a decisiones rápidas para resolver amenazas clave sobre sus recursos naturales, puede facultar a las comunidades locales para un mejor manejo de sus recursos naturales y puede refinar las estrategias de uso sustentable para mejorar la forma de vida local. Sin embargo, reconocemos que la precisión y exactitud del monitoreo llevado a cabo por comunidades locales en situaciones diferentes requiere de mayor estudio y los protocolos de campo requieren de mayor desarrollo para obtener lo mejor del potencial de este método. Un reto para los biólogos de la conservación es la identificación y establecimiento del sistema de monitoreo más relevante para la situación particular, así como el desarrollo de métodos para integrar los resultados de una gama de esquemas de monitoreo para producir índices de recursos naturales más amplios que capturen las fortalezas de cada uno. [source]

The Northwest Forest Plan as a Model for Broad-Scale Ecosystem Management: a Social Perspective

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2006
SUSAN CHARNLEY
conservación y desarrollo; comunidades rurales; gestión forestal; monitoreo socioeconómico Abstract:,I evaluated the Northwest Forest Plan as a model for ecosystem management to achieve social and economic goals in communities located around federal forests in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. My assessment is based on the results of socioeconomic monitoring conducted to evaluate progress in achieving the plan's goals during its first 10 years. The assessment criteria I used related to economic development and social justice. The Northwest Forest Plan incorporated economic development and social justice goals in its design. Socioeconomic monitoring results indicate that plan implementation to achieve those goals met with mixed success, however. I hypothesize there are two important reasons the plan's socioeconomic goals were not fully met: some of the key assumptions underlying the implementation strategies were flawed and agency institutional capacity to achieve the goals was limited. To improve broad-scale ecosystem management in the future, decision makers should ensure that natural-resource management policies are socially acceptable; land-management agencies have the institutional capacity to achieve their management goals; and social and economic management goals (and the strategies for implementing them) are based on accurate assumptions about the relations between the resources being managed and well-being in local communities. One of the difficulties of incorporating economic development and social justice goals in conservation initiatives is finding ways to link conservation behavior and development activities. From a social perspective, the Northwest Forest Plan as a model for ecosystem management is perhaps most valuable in its attempt to link the biophysical and socioeconomic goals of forest management by creating high-quality jobs for residents of forest communities in forest stewardship and ecosystem management work, thereby contributing to conservation. Resumen:,Evalué el Plan Forestal del Noroeste como un modelo para la gestión de ecosistemas para alcanzar metas sociales y económicas en comunidades localizadas alrededor de bosques federales en el Pacífico Noroeste de E.U.A. Mi evaluación se basa en los resultados del monitoreo socioeconómico desarrollado para evaluar el progreso en el logro de las metas del plan durantes sus 10 primeros años. Los criterios de evaluación que utilicé se relacionan con el desarrollo económico y la justicia social. El diseño del Plan Forestal del Noroeste incorporó metas de desarrollo económico y de justicia social. Sin embargo, los resultados del monitoreo socioeconómico indican que éxito en la implementación del plan para alcanzar esas metas fue combinado. Postulé la hipótesis de que hay dos razones importantes por las que las metas socioeconómicas del plan no se cumplieron totalmente: algunas de las suposiciones clave en las estrategias de implementación fueron deficientes y la capacidad institucional de la agencia para alcanzar las metas era limitada. Para mejorar la gestión de ecosistemas a gran escala en el futuro, los tomadores de decisiones deberán asegurarse que las políticas de gestión de recursos naturales sean aceptables socialmente; que las agencias de gestión de tierras tengan la capacidad institucional para cumplir sus metas de gestión; y que las metas de gestión sociales y económicas (y las estrategias para su implementación) se basen en suposiciones precisas de las relaciones entre los recursos a gestionar y el bienestar de las comunidades locales. La manera de vincular comportamiento de conservación y actividades de desarrollo es una de las dificultades para la incorporación de metas de desarrollo económico y de justicia social en las iniciativas de conservación. Desde una perspectiva social, el Plan Forestal del Noroeste como modelo para la gestión de ecosistemas quizás es más valioso por su intento de vincular las metas biofísicas y socioeconómicas de la gestión forestal mediante la creación de empleos de alta calidad para residentes de las comunidades en labores de regulación y supervisión forestal y de gestión de ecosistemas, por lo tanto contribuye a la conservación. [source]

Mexico's Community-Managed Forests as a Global Model for Sustainable Landscapes

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
David Barton Bray
On the other hand, conservationists have declared that the only way to stem the tide of deforestation is to place as many tracts as possible under strict protection. In this context, Mexico presents a national laboratory for studying the social and ecological benefits of delivering forests to local people. As a little-noticed result of the Mexican Revolution in the second decade of the twentieth century, well over half of the forests of Mexico were placed in community-held lands. In historic struggles that passed through several phases, most of these communities have now gained substantial control over the use of their forests. Because of the substantial degree of social capital in rural forms of organization in Mexico, this control of forest resources has led to an estimated 290,479 community forest enterprises ( CFEs ), through which communities are producing timber on their own lands. New studies are beginning to suggest that important gains in both social and economic justice, good forest management, and biodiversity protection are resulting from the actions of these CFEs. As more forests globally are being devolved to local communities, it is important to carry out more research on the Mexican model of community forest management for timber production. Resumen: Investigadores preocupados por el manejo sostenible de bosques en los trópicos han argumentado que el camino para una custodia mas efectiva de los recursos forestales es la transferencia de la responsabilidad a las comunidades locales que obtienen sustento de ellos. Por otro lado, conservacionistas han declarado que la única manera de detener la ola de deforestación es colocar bajo protección estricta tantas regiones como sea posible. En este contexto, México representa un laboratorio para el estudio de los beneficios sociales y ecológicos de entregar los bosques a los habitantes locales. Como un resultado poco conocido de la Revolución Mexicana, en la segunda década del siglo veinte, más de la mitad de los bosques de México se ubicaban en tierras que estaban en manos de las comunidades. Las comunidades forestales han atravesado por distintas etapas de conflicto, tras la cuáles han obtendio un control sustancial de los usos de sus bosques. Debido al nivel considerable de capital social en formas de organización rural en México, este control de los recursos forestales ha conducido a la integración de entre 290,479 empresas forestales comunitarias ( EFC ), en las que las comunidades están produciendo madera en sus propias tierras. Nuevos estudios están comenzando a sugerir que se están produciendo ganancias importantes en las acciones de estas EFC están generando beneficios importantes, tanto en lo que se refiere a justicia social como económica, la administración correcta de bosques y la protección de la biodiversidad. A medida en que se deleguen mayores extensiones de bosques a comunidades locales, es importante llevar a cabo más investigación sobre el modelo mexicano de manejo comunitario de bosques para la producción de forestal maderable. [source]

Building Peace with Conflict Diamonds?

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2009
Development in Sierra Leone, Merging Security
ABSTRACT This article examines the merging of security and development agendas in primary commodity sectors, focusing on the case of peace-building reforms in Sierra Leone's diamond sector. Reformers frequently assume that reforming the diamond sector through industrializing alluvial diamond mining will reduce threats to security and development, thereby contributing to peace building. Our findings, however, suggest that the industrialization of alluvial diamond mining that has taken place in Sierra Leone has not reduced threats to security and development, as it has entailed human rights abuses and impoverishment of local communities without consolidating state fiscal revenues and trust in local authorities. This suggests alternative strategies for resource-related peace-building initiatives, which we consider at the end of the article: the decriminalization of informal economic activities; the prioritization of local livelihoods and development needs over central government fiscal priorities and foreign direct investment; and better integration between local economies and industrial resource exploitation. [source]

Rapid humanitarian assessments and rationality: a value-of-information study from Iraq, 2003-04

DISASTERS, Issue 1 2007
Aldo Benini
Rapid assessments are one of the standard informational tools in humanitarian response and are supposed to contribute to rational decision-making.1 The extent to which the assessment organisation itself behaves rationally, however, is an open question. This can be evaluated against multiple criteria, such as the cost and value of the information it collects and its ability to adapt flexibly design or samples when the survey environment changes unforeseeably. An unusual data constellation from two concurrent recent (2003,04) rapid assessments in northern Iraq permits us to model part of the actual assessment behaviour in terms of geographical, community and prior substantive information attributes. The model correctly predicts the decisions, in 79 per cent of the 2,425 local communities in focus, that data collector teams in the Emergency Mine Action Survey made to visit or not to visit. The analysis demonstrates variably rational behaviour under conditions of insecurity, repeated regrouping and incomplete sampling frames. A pronounced bias towards very small rural settlements is irrational for the overall results, but may be a rational strategy of individual survey workers seeking to prolong their employment. Implications for future assessments are sketched in the areas of tools for urban surveys, greater adaptability, including early feedback from users, and sensibility to value-of-information concepts. [source]

Public opinion on needle and syringe programmes: avoiding assumptions for policy and practice

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 4 2007
CARLA TRELOAR
Abstract Despite evidence for their effectiveness, harm reduction services such as needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) are highly vulnerable to perceptions of community disapproval. This paper reviews Australian research on community attitudes to harm reduction services and its impact on research, policy and practice. The literature on community attitudes to NSPs in Australia comprises a small number of representative national samples and surveys of local communities affected by specific services. Despite these extremely limited data, negative community attitudes are often cited by policy-makers and health professionals as a primary constraint on policy-making. The main finding of this literature review is that community perceptions of NSPs are largely positive. Also, support for NSPs was not synonymous with condoning drug use. The failure of policy-makers and politicians to recognise positive community attitudes to NSPs has led in some instances to hasty political responses to adverse media reports, including the closure of services. This literature review showing positive community attitudes to harm reduction services should embolden researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to challenge such reactionary responses. Further, this evidence should be used in countering negative publicity surrounding these services. [Treloar C, Fraser S. Public opinion on needle and syringe programmes: avoiding assumptions for policy and practice. Drug Alcohol Rev 2007;26:355,361] [source]

On the estimation of species richness based on the accumulation of previously unrecorded species

ECOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2002
Emmanuelle Cam
Estimation of species richness of local communities has become an important topic in community ecology and monitoring. Investigators can seldom enumerate all the species present in the area of interest during sampling sessions. If the location of interest is sampled repeatedly within a short time period, the number of new species recorded is typically largest in the initial sample and decreases as sampling proceeds, but new species may be detected if sampling sessions are added. The question is how to estimate the total number of species. The data collected by sampling the area of interest repeatedly can be used to build species accumulation curves: the cumulative number of species recorded as a function of the number of sampling sessions (which we refer to as "species accumulation data"). A classic approach used to compute total species richness is to fit curves to the data on species accumulation with sampling effort. This approach does not rest on direct estimation of the probability of detecting species during sampling sessions and has no underlying basis regarding the sampling process that gave rise to the data. Here we recommend a probabilistic, nonparametric estimator for species richness for use with species accumulation data. We use estimators of population size that were developed for capture-recapture data, but that can be used to estimate the size of species assemblages using species accumulation data. Models of detection probability account for the underlying sampling process. They permit variation in detection probability among species. We illustrate this approach using data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). We describe other situations where species accumulation data are collected under different designs (e.g., over longer periods of time, or over spatial replicates) and that lend themselves to of use capture-recapture models for estimating the size of the community of interest. We discuss the assumptions and interpretations corresponding to each situation. [source]

Plant genetics shapes inquiline community structure across spatial scales

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 4 2009
Gregory M. Crutsinger
Abstract Recent research in community genetics has examined the effects of intraspecific genetic variation on species diversity in local communities. However, communities can be structured by a combination of both local and regional processes and to date, few community genetics studies have examined whether the effects of instraspecific genetic variation are consistent across levels of diversity. In this study, we ask whether host-plant genetic variation structures communities of arthropod inquilines within distinct habitat patches , rosette leaf galls on tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima). We found that genetic variation determined inquiline diversity at both local and regional spatial scales, but that trophic-level responses varied independently of one another. This result suggests that herbivores and predators likely respond to heritable plant traits at different spatial scales. Together, our results show that incorporating spatial scale is essential for predicting the effects of genetically variable traits on different trophic levels and levels of diversity within the communities that depend on host plants. [source]

Regional enrichment of local assemblages is robust to variation in local productivity, abiotic gradients, and heterogeneity

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 2 2006
Amy L. Freestone
Abstract Theory predicts that the effects of regional richness on the richness of local communities may depend on the productivity, resource availability, and/or heterogeneity of local sites. Using the wetland plant communities of 50 independent streams as ,regions', we tested whether: (1) local richness in 1-m2 quadrats and 50-m stream segments was positively related to regional richness, even after environmental influences were considered; and (2) the effect of regional richness would interact with the effects of biomass, soil moisture, and/or heterogeneity on local richness. In models that explained up to 88% of variation in local richness, we found that richness at both local scales was positively related to regional richness, and that regional richness did not interact with any of the environmental gradients that also shaped local richness. We conclude that species availability from the regional pool may consistently enrich local communities, even while other constraints on local richness operate. [source]

Dispersal, spatial scale, and species diversity in a hierarchically structured experimental landscape

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 5 2005
Marc W. Cadotte
Abstract Although there has been growing interest in the effect of dispersal on species diversity, much remains unknown about how dispersal occurring at multiple scales influences diversity. We used an experimental microbial landscape to determine whether dispersal occurring at two different scales , among local communities and among metacommunities , affects diversity differently. At the local scale, dispersal initially had a positive effect and subsequently a neutral effect on diversity, whereas at the metacommunity and landscape scales, dispersal showed a consistently negative effect. The timing in which dispersal affected beta diversity also differed sharply between local communities and metacommunities. These patterns were explained by scale- and time-dependent effects of dispersal in allowing spread of species and in removing spatial refuges from predators. Our results suggest that the relative contribution of opposing mechanisms by which dispersal affects diversity changes considerably over time and space in hierarchical landscapes in which dispersal occurs at multiple scales. [source]

The metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 7 2004
M. A. Leibold
Abstract The metacommunity concept is an important way to think about linkages between different spatial scales in ecology. Here we review current understanding about this concept. We first investigate issues related to its definition as a set of local communities that are linked by dispersal of multiple potentially interacting species. We then identify four paradigms for metacommunities: the patch-dynamic view, the species-sorting view, the mass effects view and the neutral view, that each emphasizes different processes of potential importance in metacommunities. These have somewhat distinct intellectual histories and we discuss elements related to their potential future synthesis. We then use this framework to discuss why the concept is useful in modifying existing ecological thinking and illustrate this with a number of both theoretical and empirical examples. As ecologists strive to understand increasingly complex mechanisms and strive to work across multiple scales of spatio-temporal organization, concepts like the metacommunity can provide important insights that frequently contrast with those that would be obtained with more conventional approaches based on local communities alone. [source]

What Happens When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: An Empirical Analysis of the Discount Retailing Industry

ECONOMETRICA, Issue 6 2008
Panle Jia
In the past few decades multistore retailers, especially those with 100 or more stores, have experienced substantial growth. At the same time, there is widely reported public outcry over the impact of these chain stores on other retailers and local communities. This paper develops an empirical model to assess the impact of chain stores on other discount retailers and to quantify the size of the scale economies within a chain. The model has two key features. First, it allows for flexible competition patterns among all players. Second, for chains, it incorporates the scale economies that arise from operating multiple stores in nearby regions. In doing so, the model relaxes the commonly used assumption that entry in different markets is independent. The lattice theory is exploited to solve this complicated entry game among chains and other discount retailers in a large number of markets. It is found that the negative impact of Kmart's presence on Wal-Mart's profit was much stronger in 1988 than in 1997, while the opposite is true for the effect of Wal-Mart's presence on Kmart's profit. Having a chain store in a market makes roughly 50% of the discount stores unprofitable. Wal-Mart's expansion from the late 1980s to the late 1990s explains about 40,50% of the net change in the number of small discount stores and 30,40% for all other discount stores. Scale economies were important for Wal-Mart, but less so for Kmart, and the magnitude did not grow proportionately with the chains' sizes. [source]

The political economy of direct legislation: direct democracy and local decision,making

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 33 2001
Lars P Feld
Local and regional governments account for an important share of total government spending and, given the decentralization trend in OECD nations, this is likely to increase. How should this spending be governed? This article argues that direct democracy is best suited to organize decision,making at the state and local level. To support this, we present the main theoretical arguments on why and how referenda and initiatives affect fiscal policy outcomes. The basic argument concerns voter control. Under representative democracy, citizens only have direct control at election time. With referenda and initiatives, citizens can selectively control their representatives on specific policies whenever they deviate sufficiently from citizens' preferences. As a result, fiscal policy outcomes are likely to more closely reflect voter preferences. We empirically test this on Swiss data since Switzerland provides a ,natural laboratory' for local governance. The governance structures of Swiss cantons and localities with respect to fiscal issues range from classic parliamentary democracy to pure direct democracy, and an important part of spending and taxation is controlled at these levels. Specifically, we estimate an econometric model of fiscal behaviour using data from 1986 to 1997 for the 26 Swiss cantons, and 1990 data on 134 local communities. It is shown that mandatory referenda on fiscal issues at both levels have a dampening effect on expenditure and revenue, and at the local level also on public debt. Combining this with existing empirical evidence leads to a relatively uncontested result, namely that elements of direct democracy are associated with sounder public finances, better economic performance and higher satisfaction of citizens. [source]

Never Leave Yourself: Ethnopsychology As Mediator of Psychological Globalization among Belizean Schoolgirls

ETHOS, Issue 1 2003
Eileen P. Andepson-Fye
How do transnational ideas and images become psychologically salient to youth in local communities? Based on five years of fieldwork among high school girls in a rapidly changing Belizean community, this article investigates how some transcultural symbolic material (e.g., gender-based maltreatment) becomes psychologically salient in a given society and yet other constructs (e.g., thin body image) can pass by with relatively few consequences in an increasingly transnational world. The ethnopsychological practice of self-protection among young Belizean women, which girls describe as "Never Leave Yourself, " mediates how girls make sense of and incorporate transnational concepts into their lived experience. The current material realities and particular historic moment in Belize also influence variations in how transnational concepts are incorporated. [source]

ENVIRONMENTAL NICHE EQUIVALENCY VERSUS CONSERVATISM: QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES TO NICHE EVOLUTION

EVOLUTION, Issue 11 2008
Dan L. Warren
Environmental niche models, which are generated by combining species occurrence data with environmental GIS data layers, are increasingly used to answer fundamental questions about niche evolution, speciation, and the accumulation of ecological diversity within clades. The question of whether environmental niches are conserved over evolutionary time scales has attracted considerable attention, but often produced conflicting conclusions. This conflict, however, may result from differences in how niche similarity is measured and the specific null hypothesis being tested. We develop new methods for quantifying niche overlap that rely on a traditional ecological measure and a metric from mathematical statistics. We reexamine a classic study of niche conservatism between sister species in several groups of Mexican animals, and, for the first time, address alternative definitions of "niche conservatism" within a single framework using consistent methods. As expected, we find that environmental niches of sister species are more similar than expected under three distinct null hypotheses, but that they are rarely identical. We demonstrate how our measures can be used in phylogenetic comparative analyses by reexamining niche divergence in an adaptive radiation of Cuban anoles. Our results show that environmental niche overlap is closely tied to geographic overlap, but not to phylogenetic distances, suggesting that niche conservatism has not constrained local communities in this group to consist of closely related species. We suggest various randomization tests that may prove useful in other areas of ecology and evolutionary biology. [source]

Variation in leaf functional trait values within and across individuals and species: an example from a Costa Rican dry forest

FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
Catherine M. Hulshof
Summary 1.,Patterns of species co-existence and species diversity in plant communities remain an important research area despite over a century of intensive scrutiny. To provide mechanistic insight into the rules governing plant species co-existence and diversity, plant community ecologists are increasingly quantifying functional trait values for the species found in a wide range of communities. 2.,Despite the promise of a quantitative functional trait approach to plant community ecology, we suggest that, along with examining trait variation across species, an assessment of trait variation within species should also be a key component of a trait-based approach to community ecology. Variability within and between individuals and populations is likely widespread due to plastic responses to highly localized abiotic and biotic interactions. 3.,In this study, we quantify leaf trait variation within and across ten co-existing tree species in a dry tropical forest in Costa Rica to ask: (i) whether the majority of trait variation is located between species, within species, within individuals or within the leaves themselves; (ii) whether trait values collected using standardized methods correlate with those collected using unstandardized methods; and (iii) to what extent can we differentiate plant species on the basis of their traits? 4.,We find that the majority of variation in traits was often explained by between species differences; however, between leaflet trait variation was very high for compound-leaved species. We also show that many species are difficult to reliably differentiate on the basis of functional traits even when sampling many individuals. 5.,We suggest an ideal sample size of at least 10, and ideally 20, individuals be used when calculating mean trait values for individual species for entire communities, though even at large sample sizes, it remains unclear if community level trait values will allow comparisons on a larger geographic scale or if species traits are generally similar across scales. It will thus be critical to account for intraspecific variation by comparing species mean trait values across space in multiple microclimatic environments within local communities and along environmental gradients. Further, quantifying trait variability due to plasticity and inheritance will provide a better understanding of the underlying patterns and drivers of trait variation as well as the application of functional traits in outlining mechanisms of species co-existence. [source]

AFRICAN, RUSSIAN, AND UKRAINIAN REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT IN PORTLAND, OREGON

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2005
SUSAN E. HUME
ABSTRACT. The residential patterns, adaptation experiences, and impacts of immigrants on North American cities have been well documented in the geographical literature. In this article, we build on prior work by testing the theories of Gaim Kibreab, who identified three factors that shape the experiences of recent refugees: attitudes of the receiving society; current policy environments; and employment opportunities in local communities. We analyze some of the ways in which these factors operate as interrelated systems for two comparative groups of foreign-born migrants in Portland, Oregon: sub-Saharan Africans; and Russians and Ukrainians. Using a mixed-methods approach, we triangulate data from a blend of in-depth interviews, participant observation in the community and at refugee and immigrant social service agencies, census and other statistical records, and cartographic analyses to report on the findings of our work. Data suggest that the residential, economic, and social spaces of new refugees are constructed as a complex multiplicity of networks and relationships that link time and place [source]

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Memoryscape: How Audio Walks Can Deepen Our Sense of Place by Integrating Art, Oral History and Cultural Geography

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2008
Toby Butler
Author's Introduction This article is concerned with the history and practice of creating sound walks or ,memoryscapes': outdoor trails that use recorded sound and spoken memory played on a personal stereo or mobile media to experience places in new ways. It is now possible to cheaply and easily create this and other kinds of located media experience. The development of multi-sensory-located media (,locedia') presents some exciting opportunities for those concerned with place, local history, cultural geography and oral history. This article uses work from several different disciplines (music, sound art, oral history and cultural geography) as a starting point to exploring some early and recent examples of locedia practice. It also suggests how it might give us a more sophisticated, real, embodied and nuanced experience of places that the written word just can not deliver. Yet, there are considerable challenges in producing and experiencing such work. Academics used to writing must learn to work in sound and view or image; they must navigate difficult issues of privacy, consider the power relations of the outsider's ,gaze' and make decisions about the representation of places in work that local people may try and have strong feelings about. Creating such work is an active, multi-sensory and profoundly challenging experience that can offer students the chance to master multi-media skills as well as apply theoretical understandings of the histories and geographies of place. Author Recommends 1.,Perks, R., and Thomson, A. (2006). The oral history reader, 2nd ed. London: Routledge. This is a wonderful collection of significant writing concerned with oral history. Part IV, Making Histories features much of interest, including a thought-provoking paper on the challenges of authoring in sound rather than print by Charles Hardy III, and a moving interview with Graeme Miller, the artist who created the Linked walk mentioned in the memoryscape article. These only feature in the second edition. 2.,Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: a short introduction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. A refreshingly clear and well-written guide to the different theoretical takes on what makes places , a good starting point for further reading. 3.,Carlyle, A. (ed.). (2008). Autumn leaves: sound and the environment in artistic practice. Paris, France: Double Entendre. This is a collection of short essays and examples of located sonic media art; it includes interviews with practitioners and includes Hildegard Westekamp's Soundwalking, a practical guide to leading students on a mute walk. Lots of thought provoking, applied reading material for students here. 4.,Blunt, A., et al. (eds) (2003). Cultural geography in practice. London: Arnold. A great book for undergraduate and postgraduate students , concepts explained and lots of examples of actually doing cultural geography. The chapter on mapping worlds by David Pinder is particularly useful in this context. 5.,Pinder, D. (2001). Ghostly footsteps: voices, memories and walks in the city. Ecumene 8 (1), pp. 1,19. This article is a thoughtful analysis of a Janet Cardiff sound walk in Whitechapel, East London. Online Materials http://www.memoryscape.org.uk This is my project website, which features two online trails, Dockers which explores Greenwich and the memories of the London Docks that are archived in the Museum of London, and Drifting which is a rather strange experiment-combining physical geography and oral history along the Thames at Hampton Court, but still makes for an interesting trail. Audio, maps and trails can be downloaded for free, so students with phones or iPods can try the trails if you are within reach of Surrey or London. The site features an online version, with sound-accompanying photographs of the location. http://www.portsofcall.org.uk This website has three more trails here, this time of the communities surrounding the Royal Docks in East London. The scenery here is very dramatic and anyone interested in the regeneration of East London and its impact on local communities will find these trails interesting. Like Dockers, the walks feature a lot of rare archive interviews. This project involved a great deal of community interaction and participation as I experimented with trying to get people involved with the trail-making process. The site uses Google maps for online delivery. http://www.soundwalk.com This New York-based firm creates exceptionally high-quality soundwalks, and they are well worth the money. They started by producing trails for different districts of New York (I recommend the Bronx Graffiti trail) and have recently made trails for other cities, like Paris and Varanassi in India. http://www.mscapers.com This website is run by Hewlett Packard, which has a long history of research and development in located media applications. They currently give free licence to use their mscape software which is a relatively easy to learn way of creating global positioning system-triggered content. The big problem is that you have to have a pricey phone or personal digital assistant to run the software, which makes group work prohibitively expensive. But equipment prices are coming down and with the new generations of mobile phones developers believe that the time when the player technology is ubiquitous might be near. And if you ask nicely HP will lend out sets of equipment for teaching or events , fantastic if you are working within reach of Bristol. See also http://www.createascape.org.uk/ which has advice and examples of how mscape software has been used for teaching children. Sample Syllabus public geography: making memoryscapes This course unit could be adapted to different disciplines, or offered as a multidisciplinary unit to students from different disciplines. It gives students a grounding in several multi-media techniques and may require support/tuition from technical staff. 1.,Introduction What is a located mediascape, now and in the future? Use examples from resources above. 2.,Cultural geographies of site-specific art and sound Theories of place; experiments in mapping and site-specific performance. 3.,Walk activity: Westergard Hildekamp , sound walk, or one of the trails mentioned above The best way , and perhaps the only way , to really appreciate located media is to try one in the location they have been designed to be experienced. I would strongly advise any teaching in this field to include outdoor, on-site experiences. Even if you are out of reach of a mediascape experience, taking students on a sound walk can happen anywhere. See Autumn Leaves reference above. 4.,Researching local history An introduction to discovering historical information about places could be held at a local archive and a talk given by the archivist. 5.,Creating located multimedia using Google maps/Google earth A practical exercise-based session going through the basics of navigating Google maps, creating points and routes, and how to link pictures and sound files. 6.,Recording sound and oral history interviews A practical introduction to the techniques of qualitative interviewing and sound recording. There are lots of useful online guides to oral history recording, for example, an online oral history primer http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/audiovis/oral_history/index.htm; a more in depth guide to various aspects of oral history http://www.baylor.edu/oral%5fhistory/index.php?id=23566 or this simple oral history toolkit, with useful links to project in the North of England http://www.oralhistorynortheast.info/toolkit/chapter1.htm 7.,Sound editing skills Practical editing techniques including working with clips, editing sound and creating multi-track recordings. The freeware software Audacity is simple to use and there are a lot of online tutorials that cover the basics, for example, http://www.wikieducator.org/user:brentsimpson/collections/audacity_workshop 8.,Web page design and Google maps How to create a basic web page (placing pictures, text, hyperlinks, buttons) using design software (e.g. Dreamweaver). How to embed a Google map and add information points and routes. There is a great deal of online tutorials for web design, specific to the software you wish to use and Google maps can be used and embedded on websites free for non-profit use. http://maps.google.com/ 9,and 10. Individual or group project work (staff available for technical support) 11.,Presentations/reflection on practice Focus Questions 1What can sound tell us about the geographies of places? 2When you walk through a landscape, what traces of the past can be sensed? Now think about which elements of the past have been obliterated? Whose past has been silenced? Why? How could it be put back? 3Think of a personal or family story that is significant to you. In your imagination, locate the memory at a specific place. Tell a fellow student that story, and describe that place. Does it matter where it happened? How has thinking about that place made you feel? 4What happens when you present a memory of the past or a located vision of the future in a present landscape? How is this different to, say, writing about it in a book? 5Consider the area of this campus, or the streets immediately surrounding this building. Imagine this place in one of the following periods (each group picks one): ,,10,000 years ago ,,500 years ago ,,100 years ago ,,40 years ago ,,last Thursday ,,50 years time What sounds, voices, stories or images could help convey your interpretation of this place at that time? What would the visitor hear or see today at different points on a trail? Sketch out an outline map of a located media trail, and annotate with what you hear/see/sense at different places. Project Idea small group project: creating a located mediascape Each small group must create a located media experience, reflecting an aspect of the history/geography/culture of an area of their choosing, using the knowledge that they have acquired over the course of the semester. The experience may be as creative and imaginative as you wish, and may explore the past, present or future , or elements of each. Each group must: ,,identify an area of interest ,,research an aspect of the area of the groups choosing; this may involve visiting local archives, libraries, discussing the idea with local people, physically exploring the area ,,take photographs, video or decide on imagery (if necessary) ,,record sound, conduct interviews or script and record narration ,,design a route or matrix of media points The final project must be presented on a website, may embed Google maps, and a presentation created to allow the class to experience the mediascape (either in the classroom or on location, if convenient). The website should include a brief theoretical and methodological explanation of the basis of their interpretation. If the group cannot be supported with tuition and support in basic website design or using Google mapping with sound and imagery, a paper map with locations and a CD containing sound files/images might be submitted instead. For examples of web projects created by masters degree students of cultural geography at Royal Holloway (not all sound based) see http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/MA/web-projects.html [source]

Free floating in the cosmopolis?

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 4 2010
Exploring the identity-belonging of transnational knowledge workers
Abstract In this article I explore what I call the ,identity-belonging' of transnational knowledge workers, a diverse group of serially migrating career professionals who have spent extended periods of time in at least three countries, usually following career opportunities. Unlike most recent writing on transnationalism, which focuses on enduring connections of migrants with their ,home' countries/places, here I explore a transnationalism that may transcend the national, and generally the territorial, principle, with repercussions for identity-belonging. In this context, how transnational knowledge workers position themselves towards belonging to a nation and towards the idea of cosmopolitanism is of particular interest. From data collected through in-depth interviews in Australia and Indonesia, I conclude that their globally recognized profession forms the central axis of their identity-belonging, alongside a weak identification with their nation of origin. The feeling of belonging to and identifying with particular locales and local communities was articulated flexibly and instrumentally in association with professional and wider social networks, while no primordial territorial attachments could be identified. [source]

Factors affecting participation in Sure Start programmes: a qualitative investigation of parents' views

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2007
Mark Avis BA(Hons) MSc RN RNT Cert Ed
Abstract The objectives of the present study were to examine the factors that parents identify as promoting or hindering participation in Sure Start programmes, and to identify methods for enhancing parents' engagement with Sure Start. A qualitative, in-depth interview study was conducted with parents registered with two local Sure Start programmes based in the East Midlands, UK, and located in inner city areas with a range of health and social problems associated with social exclusion and disadvantage. Sixty parents, guardians or carers of children living in both Sure Start areas were recruited during autumn of 2004 on the basis of whether they were identified as a ,frequent user' or ,non-frequent user' of Sure Start services. The data were analysed using a thematic approach supported by NVivo computer software, and explanatory themes were subsequently tested for completeness and adequacy. The results of the study indicated that parents who used Sure Start services were positive about the benefits that they obtained for themselves and their children, in particular in overcoming a sense of isolation. Parents who were non-frequent users identified a number of practical reasons that prevented them using Sure Start services, although parents also recognised a loss of confidence and trust in the local communities summarised in the phrase ,keeping myself to myself'. Parents' awareness of the targeted nature of Sure Start can also lead to stigma and reluctance to use services. It is concluded that continued investment of time and effort in maintaining communication networks between Sure Start staff and local parents is vital if parents and children are to make the best use of Sure Start services. [source]

The effect of involvement in participatory research on parent researchers in a Sure Start programme

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 6 2006
Ann Rowe M Med Sci BA RN RHVArticle first published online: 24 AUG 200
Abstract Involving service users, patients and members of local communities in health and social care research is becoming increasingly common. However, surprisingly little research has been carried out to examine the experiences of such lay researchers. This paper presents the findings of a study to investigate the experiences of a group of parent researchers involved in a community survey within a UK Sure Start programme. The survey was undertaken to provide insight into the early impact of the programme and inform Sure Start programme expansion. Researchers were recruited from the local community and were given an accredited training programme, before working on the development of the research itself. They took a lead role in the development, data collection, analysis and report writing phases of the survey and have been actively involved with the dissemination of findings. In order to gain insight into the experiences of the lay researchers involved in this work, three separate methods were used to collect data: questionnaires before and after the study, a focus group at the end of the data collection phase and by analysis of personal diaries kept by the parent researchers. Findings reported include lay researchers responses to the accredited training programme, the development of new skills and understanding, access and the conduct of interviews and the impact of the work both for Sure Start and the researchers themselves. Some of the strengths and difficulties of participatory research are discussed and comment made on the extent to which lay involvement impacted on the conduct of the survey. [source]

,The pooreste and sympleste sorte of people'?

HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 208 2007
The selection of parish officers during the personal rule of Charles I
The successful implementation of Charles I's personal rule relied much on the co-operation of parish officers whose workload increased significantly in the sixteen-thirties. There is little evidence that the mounting pressure and conflicting loyalties Charles I's reform projects caused resulted in widespread unwillingness to serve as parish officer or led to a changing social composition among office-holders. Local customs continued to determine the appointments of officers. The frequent use of rotas in allocating parish offices, the fact that many parishioners served several terms of office, and the presence of men from all social strata of local communities among parish officers all suggest that Caroline parochial government was considerably inclusive and that the village élites continued to serve for crown and parish. Consequently, parish offices, including the demanding office of petty constable, did not experience a loss of prestige during the personal rule, but parishioners served because they accepted their turn or appreciated the status of the office. Many contemporaries may also have valued parish offices because they provided opportunities to adapt government policies to the political culture of the parish and to enforce only selectively some of the controversial schemes of the sixteen-thirties. [source]

The role of monitored natural recovery in sediment remediation

INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2006
Victor S Magar
Abstract The long-term goal of monitored natural recovery (MNR) is to achieve ecological recovery of biological endpoints in order to protect human and ecological health. Insofar as ecological recovery is affected by surface-sediment-contaminant concentrations, the primary recovery processes for MNR are natural sediment burial and contaminant transformation and weathering to less toxic forms. This paper discusses the overall approach for effective implementation of MNR for contaminated sediment sites. Several lines of evidence that may be used to demonstrate natural recovery processes are summarized, including documentation of source control; evidence of contaminant burial; measurement of surface sediment mixing depths and the active sediment benthic layer; measurement of sediment stability; contaminant transformation and weathering; modeling sediment transport, contaminant transport, and ecological recovery; measuring ecological recovery and long-term risk reduction; knowledge of future plans for use and development of the site; and watershed and institutional controls. In general, some form of natural recovery is expected and should be included as part of a remedy at virtually all contaminated sediment sites. Further, MNR investigations and an understanding of natural recovery processes provide cost-effective information and support the evaluation of more aggressive remedies such as capping, dredging, and the use of novel amendments. The risk of dredging or capping may be greater than the risk of leaving sediments in place at sites where capping or dredging offer little long-term environmental gain but pose significant short-term risks for workers, local communities, and the environment. [source]

Structure analysis of Antonovsky's sense of coherence from an epidemiological mental health survey with a brief nine-item sense of coherence scale

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 1 2007
Olav Martin Klepp
Abstract Antonovsky has proposed the sense of coherence (SOC) as a crucial factor that protects against symptoms of mental disease. A central issue in research on the SOC construct is whether this is most appropriately considered as one-dimensional or three-dimensional with comprehensibility (C), manageability (Ma) and meaningfulness (Me) as separate dimensions. In this paper we address this issue by means of confirmatory factor analysis of a shortened nine-item version of Antonovsky's original 29- and 13-items Sense of Coherence Scale (SOCS-29), using epidemiological data from a mental health survey of adults in local communities (N = 1,062). In addition to analysing the internal structure of the SOC items, we examine the association between estimated factor scores and variables expected to be statistically related to SOC. Goodness-of-fit indices were very good for the three-factor model but acceptable even for the one-factor model. In the three-factor model, however, the factors were found to be very highly or, with regard to Ma and C, even perfectly correlated. Moreover, the factor scores had very similar correlations with measures of psychological wellbeing, depression and anxiety and they are also very similarly related to age (and none of them are related to gender). We therefore conclude in favour of a one-factor model. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Regional voices talk theatre: audience development for the performing arts

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 1 2008
Rebecca ScollenArticle first published online: 6 MAR 200
Audience development is somewhat of a ,buzz word' within the Australian performing arts sector at present. However, rather than actually engaging with audiences and with non-attenders to discover how to best serve the community, most of the performing arts organisations approach audience development from a product-centred viewpoint. In direct contrast to this, the Talking Theatre project (2004,2006) was implemented in regional Queensland and in the Northern Territory in Australia as an audience development initiative focused on the consumer. The project sought to assist performing arts centres (PACs) to better engage with their local communities and to build new audiences for the future. In particular, the research aimed to understand non-attenders, their reasons for non-attendance and their reactions to a range of live performances they experienced under study conditions. The Talking Theatre project provided the vehicle for introduction, communication and relationship building to occur to assist in attitudinal and behavioural change. The non-attenders enjoyed their experiences at the PACs and have begun attending performances outside of study conditions. Limited awareness of the performing arts' relevance to their lives combined with a lack of positive peer influence to attend, were the chief deterrents to attendance for the participants in the study. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Can Remittances Spur Development?

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 1 2006
A Critical Survey
The increasing volume of global remittances has impressed policymakers and social scientists alike. Besides outpacing official development assistance and private capital flows, remittances have proven markedly stable and counter-cyclical. They represent an essential nondebt creating, safety-net vehicle administered by extended families and local communities rather than provincial and national governments. This essay surveys the recent pattern of remittances and critically examines the theoretical and empirical literature on their determinants and welfare impact. The argument is made that the developmental contribution of remittances can be significantly enhanced through complementary macroeconomic policies in labor exporting countries and financial innovations in remittance transmission. Enhanced policy coordination on temporary transnational worker migration,as facilitated by Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services,can prove instrumental in helping remittances offset the traditional brain drain besetting developing economies. [source]