Community consultation in public policy: The case of the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia

Community consultation is widely employed in contemporary Australia as a means of improving the formulation and implementation of public policy. However, little is known about the optimal expenditure of effort required for any given consultation. This article develops a rational choice model of community consultation that seeks to encapsulate the major elements involved in optimising consultation effort. The framework is particularly useful for understanding and explaining why actual community consultation processes may be sub-optimal. The rational choice model is then applied to the Living Murray debate over water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia.     

Pronounced bilateral asymmetry of the complete upper extremity: a case from the early Neolithic Baikal,Siberia

An adult male skeleton from the early Neolithic cemetery of Shamanka II on the south coast of Lake Baikal (Siberia, Russia) presents one of most striking examples of upper limb bilateral asymmetry documented without obvious indicators of skeletal pathology or trauma to the afflicted arm. The condition is noteworthy not only for its severity, with asymmetry values as high as 89.5%, but also for its involvement of the whole upper extremity, from clavicle to manual phalanges. The lack of any demonstrable hypertrophy on the unaffected left arm, and the clear evidence of extensive hypotrophy/atrophy on the right, leave little doubt that this asymmetry has a pathological or traumatic basis rather than a functional (activity‐induced) one. It most likely reflects paralysis or paresis of the entire right arm resulting from complete brachial palsy incurred prior to the attainment of skeletal maturity in that limb. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual Accessibility Revisited: Implications for Geographical Analysis in the Twenty‐first Century

Analytical methods for evaluating accessibility have been based on a spatial logic through which the impedance of distance shapes mobility and urban form through processes of locational and travel decision making. These methods are not suitable for understanding individual experiences because of recent changes in the processes underlying contemporary urbanism and the increasing importance of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in people's daily lives. In this paper we argue that analysis of individual accessibility can no longer ignore the complexities and opportunities brought forth by these changes. Further, we argue that the effect of distance on the spatial structure of contemporary cities and human spatial behavior has become much more complicated than what has been conceived in conventional urban models and concepts of accessibility. We suggest that the methods and measures formulated around the mid‐twentieth century are becoming increasingly inadequate for grappling with the complex relationships among urban form, mobility, and individual accessibility. We consider some new possibilities for modeling individual accessibility and their implications for geographical analysis in the twenty‐first century.     

The EU habitats directive: Making the article 6 assessments,the case of Ballyseedy Wood

The Habitats Directive requires that projects likely to have a detrimental impact upon a protected habitat must be subject to an assessment of that impact. If that assessment is negative the project may only proceed if there is an absence of alternative solutions and, if there are no alternatives, where there are imperative reasons of overriding public interest. This article looks at the interpretation of those assessments and their practical implications for a road improvement project in County Kerry in the west of Ireland. The Ballyseedy Wood case demonstrates the level of protection from development now afforded to designated wildlife sites by the European Union.     

Mittlere technische Bildung im deutschen Kaiserreich

Intermeriate organisations between two extremes tend to have a stressed life because of their adjusting character. Intermediate technical education in Prussia existed from 1821 to 1876 enabling graduates either to go to the Berlin Gewerbeakademie or to start a business on their own. This fell a victim when the bourgoisie striving for emancipation by education (and the association of the German mechanical engineers, VDI) insisted on the highest possible school-degree as entry for students of technology. Reports on the positive experience in Switzerland, political considerations to integrate the able workers into the middle classes, local and regional economic interests as well as competition between the ministries of education and commerce from 1890 on resulted in a slow and then rapid extension of intermediate technical education, all this against the massive protests of the engineering professions. Establishing the Landesgewerbeamt and the DATSCH, who embraced all German (and even more German speaking representatives of) technical high schools, who both strongly influenced the shape of technical education in 20th century, mark the successful end of this process of differentiation.