Participation in Multiple Decision Making Water Governance Forums in Brazil Enhances Actors’ Perceived Level of Influence

The Ecology of Games Framework (EGF) draws attention to the intertwined nature of different forums in a given policy setting and how this affects governance outcomes. In this article, we associate the EGF with the literature on power asymmetries, in order to investigate hypotheses of actors’ perceived level of influence in a forum. Focusing on the Paraíba do Sul river basin committee in Brazil, we specifically explore actors’ participation in multiple forums, time spent participating in the basin committee, and actors’ degree of involvement in the committee as factors that might explain actors’ level of perceived influence in the forum. The findings suggest participation in multiple forums is a key driver of perceived influence and thus highlight a way to challenge traditional power asymmetries. More research, however, is needed to determine to what extent perceived influence is affecting decision‐making processes and governance outcomes in the Paraíba do Sul river basin committee.     

Smart Growth Policy Choice: A Resource Dependency and Local Governance Explanation

Smart growth is a planning and land use policy objective that generally focuses on where development should occur and how best to protect natural resources. What explains the adoption of smart growth policy by local government? This study focuses on a cooperative intergovernmental program that seeks to enhance local government abilities to work toward achieving state goals on sustainability. Extant research suggests that local interest group preferences shape policy decisions. However, much of the evidence on the influence of local interest groups on smart growth policy is presented within the coercive intergovernmental context. This article argues that resource dependency influences local decisions in pursuing a smart growth agenda when state incentives are provided. The findings suggest that fiscal capacity and the characteristics of local governing institutions are significant predictors in the decision to take part in an intergovernmental program. Business and neighborhood interest groups have a significant effect on policy adoption, as do local characteristics depending on the smart growth functional area.     

Why Are Cross‐Sectoral Forums Important to Actors? Forum Contributions to Cooperation,Learning, and Resource Distribution

Actors within an ecology of games in a polycentric governance system have to choose from a large number of forums they could participate in. This article analyzes why given types of forums are important to actors, as compared to other forums. It shows that functions of an ecology of games, such as cooperation, learning, and resource distribution, influence the importance that actors attribute to forums. The empirical analysis focuses on cross‐sectoral forums, a particular type of forum that is specialized in coordination among actors from different societal sectors, such as government, private interest, or science. Analysis of survey data from eight cross‐sectoral forums in Swiss habitat and land use governance and their 159 members shows that cross‐sectoral forums are comparatively important to actors that perceive their forum to contribute to learning and resource distribution.     

Balancing Costs and Benefits of Collaboration in an Ecology of Games

The growth of collaborative approaches to governance has resulted in increasingly complex policy and management landscapes, where actors are presented with ever‐increasing numbers of decision‐making venues they can participate in and actors they can collaborate with. Given that actors face constraints on their capacity to manage actor and venue relationships in such polycentric governance systems, we assume the marginal benefit of yet another relationship should begin to diminish at some level of engagement. Furthermore, we hypothesize that such capacity limitations are not static, but decrease as actors learn, develop skills, and formulate strategies for how to navigate complex polycentric systems more effectively. Drawing on the Ecology of Games framework, this article investigates two Swedish collaborative governance initiatives where a multitude of actors came together to address a range of different, but interrelated, policy issues and management tasks. The empirical findings suggest that actors’ capacities to successfully navigate polycentric governance arrangements increase as they gain experience and develop their networking skills. Our findings imply there is a need to balance increased complexity in polycentric systems with increased capacity, otherwise the overall effect of an ever‐increasing number of venues and actors could be collaborative fatigue and decreased abilities to address diverse governance challenges.     

Lake levels,mobility and lithic raw material selection and reduction strategies: A Great Lakes case study

Abstract

It has recently been proposed that lowered lake levels after 4250 BP broadened opportunities for mobility and interaction patterns among hunter-gatherer populations in the Saginaw drainage and in Michigan more broadly (; ). Here, data are presented on chipped stone reduction strategies as reflected in two site assemblages in Bay City, Michigan (20BY28, 20BY387) that bridge this key point in time. The earliest Late Archaic components of these sites, occupied during the higher than modern post Nipissing recession ca. 3200 BP, are typified by on-site reduction of local cherts, often utilising a bipolar reduction strategy. Subsequent uses of the area largely shifted to lower elevations. The more recent site components contain both more diverse projectile styles, many of which can be linked with Ontario types, and higher occurrences of non-local raw materials, specifically Onondaga chert apparently arriving at the site as preforms. The last use of these sites occurred during the Late Woodland, also during lower water levels approaching modern, and reflecting the highest use of Onondaga chert. We suggest that these changes resulted from shifting mobility and exchange patterns, facilitated in part by lowered post Nipissing water levels.     

Middle Holocene Taphonomy and Paleozoology at the Prairie-Forest Border,the Itasca Bison Site,MN

The Itasca Bison site near the prairie-forest border in central Minnesota is important to understanding the cultural and ecological role of bison in the upper Midwest during the middle Holocene. Recent reanalyses of this assemblage support the original interpretation of a taphonomically complex, fluvially modified site. Despite this taphonmic complexity, the role of humans in the butchering and possible accumulation of some of the bison fauna is also supported, although not as the only mechanism of accumulation. The bison assemblage is slightly biased toward males, and seasonality estimates are spread throughout the year. New direct accelerator mass spectrometry dates indicate a minimum of two highly mixed depositional events: one at 7970–7790 cal B.P. and an earlier event between 8520 and 8180 cal B.P.     

The Impact of Forum Interdependence and Network Structure on Actor Performance in Complex Governance Systems

One of the main assumptions of the Ecology of Games Framework (EGF) is that governance processes are heavily affected by the interactions among policy actors that take place in multiple decision‐making forums, which often function interdependently. In this article, we use data collected in the Tampa Bay and California Delta water governance systems to examine how “biophysical interdependence”—the extent to which forums deal with interconnected policy problems—impacts the costs that actors face when they participate in forums, which in turn can affect their performance in them. Furthermore, we examine how the individual information exchange networks that actors have (i.e., their ego‐networks) can mediate the previous relationship. We find that actors with networks that have more closure are better able to mitigate the costs associated with participating in biophysically interdependent forums, thus leading to better in‐forum performance. Our findings shed new light on the relationship between structure and function in complex ecologies of games.     

中国城市与区域管治研究十年回顾与前瞻

在理解转型中国的城市与区域发展时,管治的理念提供了一个较为完备的理论框架。管治的研究与其他关于政府的研究不同,它强调政府与市民社会以及市场的互动关系,探讨政府角色的定位和市民社会的责任,构建和谐社会。本文综述十余年来内地以及港澳人文地理学者的主要研究成果,适当结合国内其他社会学科的有关研究,回顾管治研究的发展,追踪其前沿,以期对我国管治研究做一个较为全面的梳理。首先回顾自上个世纪九十年代末管治研究被引入我国人文地理学界以来,其兴起和进展两个阶段的主要研究成果与贡献以及存在问题。文章接着围绕尺度的概念,对当下各相关学科在管治领域的研究做了横向比较,指出人文地理学在管治研究中从尺度切入的优势。进一步地,文章介绍了管治研究的一个新探索——协作管治。文章指出,无论是城市还是区域尺度,地理学界对于\"管治\"的研究可以继续有所贡献。     

The archaeology of scattered wreck-sites: formation processes and shallow water archaeology in western Lake Huron

This paper explores the application of archaeological site formation theory to stranded wooden vessels and the scattered wreck-sites they produce. Shallow water wrecks and wreckage sites in the Au Sable Shores region of western Lake Huron are used to develop a preliminary classification of the processes operating on the breakup and deposition of wooden vessels.     

Cross-Coalition Coordination in Collaborative Environmental Governance Processes

Collaborative governance processes seek to engage diverse policy actors in the development and implementation of consensus-oriented policy and management actions. Whether this is achieved, however, largely depends on the degree to which actors with different beliefs coordinate their actions to achieve common policy goals—a behavior known as cross-coalition coordination. Drawing on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and collaborative governance literatures, this study analyzes cross-coalition coordination in three collaborative environmental governance processes that seek to manage water in the Colorado River Basin. Through comparative analysis, it highlights the complex relationship among the institutional design of a collaborative governance process, how and why actors choose to engage in cross-coalition coordination, and the consequent policy outputs they produce. The findings advance policy scholars’ nascent understanding of cross-coalition coordination and its potential to affect policymaking dynamics.     

We Finished the Plan,So Now What? Impacts of Collaborative Stakeholder Participation on Land Use Policy

There is a growing movement toward collaborative stakeholder participation in environmental policy. Rather than calling for a reliance on government officials to solve environmental problems, this approach calls for empowering a community of stakeholders to contribute meaningfully. Scholars examining citizen participation have investigated the performance of such efforts. This study examines one important aspect of performance, the impact of stakeholder participation on policymaking at the local level. A multiple‐case analysis of county‐level, community‐based task forces working on farmland preservation planning in Ohio, U.S., reveals patterns of policymaking processes and the near‐term impacts of collaborative planning. These patterns are linked to scholarship using prior empirical studies as well as the Institutional Analysis and Development framework, which integrates physical, social, and institutional variables to examine collective decision‐making related to natural resources. Results indicate that the degree of policy change is associated closely with local contextual factors, rather than internal group factors often emphasized in studies of citizen advisory committees and collaborative groups.     

Identity Formation at a French Colonial Outpost in the North American Interior

Identity formation is a central issue in colonial and post-colonial studies. The ways in which people defined and expressed their identities along multiple dimensions have material implications that are archaeologically accessible. For social archaeologists, material variation is actively constituted and the archaeological record is the residue of a system of signs that individuals used in the construction of class, status, gender, race, and ethnic relations. In the context of French and Native interactions, social identities were fluid, situational, and malleable. The interactions engendered by the fur trade and colonialism in New France had material consequences for identity formation that are being investigated at Fort St. Joseph, an 18th-century frontier outpost in the western Great Lakes.     

论井上毅的地方自治观

井上毅作为明治时期最著名的法制官僚,对明治国家的法制建设起到了不可估量的作用。不仅如此,对地方制度问题也不断提出建言,对明治地方制度的建设以很重要的影响。井上早年留学欧洲,倾向于日本学习法国的地方制度,主张在日本的町村一级实行地方自治制度,在府县一级实行行政制度,与主张完全照搬德国,在府县、郡和町村三级都实行地方自治的山县有朋形成了对立。最后井上虽然没有掌握制定地方自治制度的主导权,但对日本近代地方制度的影响还是不容忽视的。而且值得强调的是,二者的地方自治观虽不相同,但在维护天皇制这一目标上却殊途同归。     

俄罗斯转型进程中的社会结构分化及福利政策——以政治国家与市民社会互动为主线

20世纪70年代以后,俄罗斯进入了从传统的高度集权政治经济体制向现代市场经济和现代民主法治体制转轨的社会转型期。私有化、市场化以及民主化造成了俄罗斯贫富差距悬殊、新兴的中间阶层出现和“边缘人群”泛滥等社会结构的分化与危机。针对转型中的诸多社会问题,普京时代俄罗斯社会福利政策的改革策略是强调政治国家与市民社会之间的“正和博弈”。俄罗斯“强国家一强社会”的新的治理模式对于同样处在急剧变革中的中国社会管理和公共服务创新无疑是有借鉴意义的。     

Why Are Some Policy Agendas Larger than Others?

Most research on policy agendas is based on the assumption that space on the agenda is fixed and, hence, focuses on how problems compete for this limited agenda space. This article holds that policy agendas may be limited but not fixed, meaning that problems may not always be traded off but confronted through a larger policy agenda. Based on an extensive collection of local council agendas from 98 Danish municipalities over time, this article investigates variations in agenda size across local governments and examines the extent to which this reflects the local problem environment. The analysis reveals that a large council agenda arises in response to an unfriendly problem environment, particularly if there are many committees to channel problems onto the agenda and, to a lesser extent, if center‐left parties hold office.     

Local Institutions and Environmental Outcomes: Evidence from Wetlands Protection in Massachusetts

Community‐based efforts to address environmental problems occupy an increasingly large space on the environmental policy landscape. Advocates argue that local environmental institutions (LEIs) can deliver both procedural and environmental quality benefits. Yet, despite over a decade of expansive support, the performance of LEIs remains largely unknown, particularly with regard to environmental outcomes. In this article, we consider new environmental outcome data we compiled from local efforts to implement the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act. We find that stronger forms of LEIs generate both quantitatively and qualitatively better environmental outcomes, which suggests that LEIs may live up to their advocates’ expectations.     

The Rush–Bagot Agreement: Canada–US Relations in Transition

In 1817, Great Britain and the United States concluded the Rush–Bagot Agreement to prevent a naval arms race on the Great Lakes. Despite frequent transgressions to the agreement, by the 1920s, the agreement was heralded internationally as a model to emulate. The predominant scholarly focus on the agreement in the nineteenth century fails to explain why a broken agreement in one century was praiseworthy in the next. This article argues that the twentieth-century narrative of the agreement is of critical important to explaining the agreement’s impact on Canada–US relations. Through the lens of three stages of Canadian political leadership, this article demonstrates that the Rush-Bagot Agreement shifted from a rigid compact to a symbolic agreement that not only reflected but aided the transition toward one of the most unique security relationships. The article concludes that this extant agreement reinforces the prevalent notion of the “undefended border” in Canada–US relations.