			Home About us Contact

Pragmatic Way (pragmatic + way)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

A Freshwater Classification Approach for Biodiversity Conservation Planning

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2005
JONATHAN V. HIGGINS
biodiversidad de agua dulce; clasificación; planificación de conservación; representativo Abstract:,Freshwater biodiversity is highly endangered and faces increasing threats worldwide. To be complete, regional plans that identify critical areas for conservation must capture representative components of freshwater biodiversity as well as rare and endangered species. We present a spatially hierarchical approach to classify freshwater systems to create a coarse filter to capture representative freshwater biodiversity in regional conservation plans. The classification framework has four levels that we described using abiotic factors within a zoogeographic context and mapped in a geographic information system. Methods to classify and map units are flexible and can be automated where high-quality spatial data exist, or can be manually developed where such data are not available. Products include a spatially comprehensive inventory of mapped and classified units that can be used remotely to characterize regional patterns of aquatic ecosystems. We provide examples of classification procedures in data-rich and data-poor regions from the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest of North America and the upper Paraguay River in central South America. The approach, which has been applied in North, Central, and South America, provides a relatively rapid and pragmatic way to account for representative freshwater biodiversity at scales appropriate to regional assessments. Resumen:,La biodiversidad de agua dulce está en peligro y enfrenta amenazas crecientes en todo el mundo. Para ser completos, los planes regionales que identifican áreas críticas para la conservación deben incluir componentes representativos de la biodiversidad de agua dulce así como especies raras y en peligro. Presentamos un método espacialmente jerárquico para clasificar sistemas de agua dulce para crear un filtro grueso que capte a la biodiversidad de agua dulce en los planes regionales de conservación. La estructura de la clasificación tiene cuatro niveles que describimos utilizando factores abióticos en un contexto zoogeográfico y localizamos en un sistema de información geográfico. Los métodos para clasificar y trazar mapas son flexibles y pueden ser automatizados, donde existen datos espaciales de alta calidad, o desarrollados manualmente cuando tales datos no están disponibles. Los productos incluyen un inventario completo de unidades mapeadas y clasificadas que pueden ser usadas remotamente para caracterizar patrones regionales de ecosistemas acuáticos. Proporcionamos ejemplos de procedimientos de clasificación en regiones ricas y pobres en datos en la cuenca del Río Columbia en el noroeste de Norte América y del Río Paraguay en Sudamérica central. El método, que ha sido aplicado en Norte, Centro y Sudamérica, proporciona una forma relativamente rápida y pragmática de contabilizar biodiversidad de agua dulce representativa en escalas adecuadas para evaluaciones regionales. [source]

Collectivism versus individualism in Dutch employment relations

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 1 2004
Jan De Leede
From a very centralistic and collectivistic tradition after World War Two, Dutch employment relations now show a trend towards radical decentralisation and individualisation. What might be the consequences of this trend for labour relations? Do developments still fit within a movement towards ,organised decentralisation' or will the existing system of labour relations be hollowed out and destroyed? And what will be the consequences for ER management at company level? We present empirical data on how companies deal with their decentralised and individualised employment relations. It appears that, in the main areas such as labour contracts, working time arrangements, reward systems and development plans, decentralisation and individualisation are taking place. It has also become clear that management as well as workers support this and that a new form of negotiation between them is developing at workplace level, resulting in what we call ,third contracts' that are additional to the initial labour contract and the collective agreement. Our results also highlight the pragmatic way in which companies deal with these decentralised and individualised employment relations, which, nevertheless, remain linked to the national and collective levels of bargaining. Within the multilevel system of Dutch employment relations a new balance between collectivism and individualism is emerging. [source]

Migrants as Minorities: Integration and Inclusion in the Enlarged European Union,

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 4 2005
RYSZARD CHOLEWINSKI
The developing migration and asylum law and policy of the European Union aim to construct a common normative framework to address the admission and residence of diverse categories of third-country nationals in EU territory. The principles of minority protection, however, are absent from EU law, with the exception of some references in the new Constitutional Treaty and the incorporated Charter of Fundamental Rights, although they have been employed, to a certain degree, in a prescriptive and pragmatic way in the context of the accession of new Member States. However, increased EU attention to the concept of integration in recent Council policy pronouncements and newly adopted legal measures, aimed almost exclusively at lawfully resident third-country nationals, provides a space where migration policy and minority protection principles may engage more directly. This article undertakes a preliminary assessment of the points of convergence and divergence in these two sets of principles, and argues that greater convergence would result in a more coherent EU policy on integration. [source]

Using framing parameters to improve handling of uncertainties in water management practice

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2010
Nicola Isendahl
Abstract Management of water resources is afflicted with uncertainties. Nowadays it is facing more and new uncertainties since the pace and dimension of changes (e.g. climatic, demographic) are accelerating and are likely to increase even more in the future. Hence it is crucial to find pragmatic ways to deal with these uncertainties in water management. We argue for an analytical yet pragmatic approach to enable decision-makers to deal with uncertainties in a more explicit and systematic way and allow for better informed decisions. Our approach is based on the concept of framing, referring to the different ways in which people make sense of the world and of the uncertainties. We apply recently developed parameters of the framing of uncertainty in two sub-basins of the Rhine, the Dutch Kromme Rijn and the German Wupper. We present and discuss the results of a series of stakeholder interactions in the two basins aimed at developing strategies for improving dealing with uncertainties. The strategies are amended and synthesized in a check-list based on the uncertainty framing parameters as a hands-on tool for systematically identifying improvement options when dealing with uncertainty in water management practice. We conclude with suggestions for testing the developed check-list as a tool for decision aid in water management practice. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]