Fish Stories: Science, Advocacy, and Policy Change in New England Fishery Management

Once the poster child for government-sponsored overfishing, New England by 2005 had become a fishery conservation success story. This article develops and deploys a problem-definition framework to explain the dramatic shift from a permissive to a protective fishery management regime in New England. I argue that neither new and improved scientific information nor pressure from powerful commercial interests caused government officials to modify their approach to fishery management. Instead, environmentalists used lawsuits to threaten fishery managers' autonomy and thereby forced them to replace fishers' risk-tolerant definition of the problem with environmentalists' more precautionary one as the basis for management. Environmentalists had legal leverage because they were able to demonstrate convincingly a substantial discrepancy between what the agency's governing statute required and what managers actually did. Two factors were critical to environmentalists' success: a compelling and credible scientific story about the relationship between fishing and the health of fish stocks, and an explicit conservation requirement in the language governing fishery management.     

Industry,Science and Politics

Abstract

Today industry is much criticized for its lack of responsibility – for fast cars, for side-effects of drugs and for the dangers of nuclear power. However, industry means mass production and mass consumption, essential for the high standard of living enjoyed in Europe. To achieve progress in society, industry must show enlightenment in addition to using the results of scientific research. In this the media have an essential role to fulfil. At present the societal system is too specialised and interdisciplinary scientists must take the lead in bridge-building between industry, science and politics, as interdisciplinary engineers have done within BMW.     

Gender,Science, Politics and Geographies of the City

Most histories of urban studies represent the theoretical statements of the Chicago School of Sociology in the 1920s as foundational. However, perspectives on sociospatial relationships associated with Robert Park and his co-workers could be recognised as a distinctively masculinised form of knowledge, centred on science, objectivity and distancing. Contemporaneous research on the city by women in the Chicago School of Social Service Administration has been ignored by (predominantly male) urban geographers and sociologists. I argue that this neglect can be explained by a downgrading of knowledge produced by these women in relation to scientific sociology, by the context of political radicalism within which the research was produced, and by subsequent developments in urban studies which were unsympathetic to their ideas. In making this case, I first identify significant theoretical contributions made by women in the School of Social Service Administration. Second, the marginalisation of the women's research is related to the sexist attitudes of male sociologists coupled with the claims of a masculinised social science, positioned above other forms of knowledge. The question of gendered knowledge is explored through object relations theory and, particularly, the work of Evelyn Fox Keller. Thirdly, I discuss the politics of women in the School of Social Service Administration and the Hull House Settlement. Their embrace of socialism, feminism and pacifism contributed further to their marginalisation .     

Energy and Environmental Politics in Post-Corporatist Mexico

No government that is serious about environmental protection will imitate the Mexican model. The undrinkable waters and defiled deserts of Mexico's northern border towns and the poisoned air of its capital city are infamous. But there are noticeable changes in Mexican politicians' and lawmakers' attitudes toward the country's environmental ills, in no small part because of changing public attitudes toward these problems. As Mexico's political system becomes more open and democratic, policy elites are increasingly attentive to environmental problems, as ordinary citizens, and especially urbanites, vent their frustration at the ballot box. Perhaps ironically, Mexico's hydrocarbon industries are potential leaders in the nascent environmental reform process. Inducements for better environmental behavior by the oil and natural gas industries are new, municipal and federal environmental regulations, stepped-up enforcement, and local and cross-border markets for Mexico's gas.     

Current Research on the Gulf Coast of Mexico

The Gulf Coast of Mesoamerica is a culturally and environmentally heterogeneous area that encompasses the lowlands along the Gulf of Mexico as well as rugged inland highlands. Blessed with a wealth of valued resources and a favorable geographical setting, the pre-Hispanic Gulf Coast played a critical role as a cultural and economic crossroads, and its cultures contributed vital elements to other Mesoamerican traditions. Gulf Coast archaeology currently is experiencing the most active period in its history. This recent research underscores the diversity and dynamism of the area's cultures and environment. An enormous expansion of settlement pattern studies reveals considerable diversity in sociopolitical organization, urbanism, and human–land relationships. A second important trend focuses on documenting and understanding variation in craft production and exchange systems. A third is the continuing emphasis on interregional interaction through all time periods. These three foci merge in a growing interest in variation and change in Gulf Coast political economies. Future research will need to incorporate theoretical perspectives that focus on the generation of cultural variation, including agency-based models of technological choice and political economy, as well as those, like Darwinian approaches, that emphasize the differential persistence of variation.     

Religion and the US Presidency: Politics,the Media,and Religious Identity

Abstract

The relationship between religion and the presidency impacts both the viability of candidates and the manner in which decisions are made in the voting booth. Today we are living in culture where religion is front and center in politics. This article examines the role of religion in political discourse with special attention to the 2012 presidential election. It focuses on the manner in which religion and politics have become inextricably interwoven in the past sixty years. It begins by establishing the role of religion in the broader political arena. The article then turns to the manner in which religious identity and participation influence voting patterns, and how religious affiliation shapes the office of the presidency. The conclusion offers some reflections on the future of religion in presidential politics, an issue that will continue to be a significant factor in how and why voters support and marginalize particular candidates.     

Recreational Business Districts in Gulf of Mexico Seaside Resorts

Within the body of literature addressing tourism imprints upon the cultural landscape, the recreational business district (RBD) has been identified as a key component of a resort area, and the seaside has been no exception. Comprised of tourist-oriented businesses and historically focused upon the beach, incipient RBDs evolved at seaside termini of railroads, highways, and footpaths. Construction of bathhouses, casinos or beach hotels at these sites was followed by nearby clustering of secondary and tertiary recreational enterprises. Lateral expansion of coastal roads often led to RBD elongation, but RBD core areas usually remained as the central focus of tourist activity. Variations in RBD development have resulted from shifts in beach access corridors and/or ‘redevelopment’ of older resort landscapes. Along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the RBD persists as an artifact of the touristic landscape.     

明清时期安庆地区的渔业经济

本对明清时期安庆地区的河湖水系形态及其演变做了较为详细的阐述,揭示了部分湖泊水体逐渐淤塞湮废的过程,并初步探讨了导致其迅速淤浅湮塞的原因;本还从该地区的渔税征收机构河泊所的设置分布及裁革情况,渔课的数量、比重及变化等分析和探讨了明清时期这一区域的渔业经济状况夏其变迁。     

美国环境政治史研究的兴起和发展

环境政治史是因环境问题而衍生的各种社会政治关系史。美国环境政治史研究萌芽于20世纪六七十年代的资源保护史;八九十年代以环境政治的现实和学科交融为背景,研究内容得到拓宽;2000年前后,以总结过去、面向未来为主旨,美国的环境政治史研究步入一个新阶段。美国环境政治史研究主要关注现代环境政治,研究内容十分广泛,学科交融特点也十分突出。     

The 'Mardi Gras' Shipwreck: Results of a Deep-Water Excavation, Gulf of Mexico, USA

The 'Mardi Gras' Shipwreck is the remains of an early-19th-century sailing vessel lost in approximately 1220 m of water in the Gulf of Mexico. A recent archaeological investigation documented the wreck and recovered several artefacts, including glassware, ceramics, navigational instruments, a cannon, and a stove. Analyses of these artefacts and the surviving hull have led to preliminary conclusions on the nature of the vessel and its crew.
© 2009 The Authors     

Diverse origins and timing of formation of basinal brines in the Gulf of Mexico sedimentary basin

A review of five different field areas in the Gulf of Mexico sedimentary basin (GOM) illustrates some of the potentially diverse chemical and physical processes which have produced basinal brines. The elevated salinities of most of the formation waters in the GOM are ultimately related to the presence of the Middle Jurassic Louann Salt. Some of these brines likely inherited their salinity from evaporated Mesozoic seawater, while other saline fluids have been produced by subsequent dissolution of salt, some of which is occurring today. The timing of the generation of brines has thus not been restricted to the Middle Jurassic. The mechanisms of solute transport that have introduced brines throughout much of the sedimentary section of the GOM are not entirely understood. Free convection driven by spatial variations in formation water temperature and salinity is undoubtedly occurring around some salt structures. However, the driving mechanisms for the broad, diffusive upward solute transport in the northern Gulf rim of Arkansas and northern Louisiana are not known. In the Lower Cretaceous of Texas, fluid flow was much more highly focused, and perhaps episodic. It is clear that many areas of the Gulf basin are hydrologically connected and that large‐scale fluid flow, solute transport, and dispersion have occurred. The Na‐Mg‐Ca‐Cl compositions of brines in the areas of the Gulf Coast sedimentary basin reviewed in this article are products of diagenesis and do not reflect the composition of the evaporated marine waters present at the time of sediment deposition. Large differences in Na, Ca, and Mg trends for waters hosted by Mesozoic versus Cenozoic sediments may reflect differences in: (i) the sources of salinity (evaporated seawater for some of the Mesozoic sediments, dissolution of salt for some of the Cenozoic sediments); (ii) sediment lithology (dominantly carbonates for much of the Mesozoic sediments, and dominantly siliciclastics for the Cenozoic sediments); or (iii) residence times of brines associated with these sediments (tens of millions of years versus perhaps days).     

Preferences for Water Policy in the Ogallala Region of New Mexico

In the late-1970s, Congress formed the High Plains Study Project to assess and study various management and water supply strategies for the Ogallala basin. In the early-1980s, the High Plains Study Council released its findings and recommendations, which in turn stimulated numerous interpretive critiques. A decade has passed since the High Plains Study Council report, yet water management problems persist. Using data from a survey of water experts in New Mexico, we identify the determinants of support and opposition to three water management options: voluntary conservation, mandatory regulation, and water importation. Preference for water management strategies is a function of how policy is perceived (regulatory vs. distributive). Water users in the Ogallala East region of New Mexico tended to oppose mandatory regulatory policies that provide the best option for conserving ground water resources for future generations; voluntary conservation-the least effective option—enjoyed the strongest support from respondents. The findings of this research should be of interest to persons concerned with the future of the Ogallala aquifer and to students of public policy.