A place in the sun? Discursive constructions of positive outcomes in post-migration stories in the Algarve

This study argues for more comparative research between seemingly different migrant groups, bringing a new focus on intra-European migration in Portugal by examining and comparing the reasons why migrants from different geographical origins choose to settle in the tourism-based Algarve region. Drawing on data collected from a questionnaire survey and interviews, the study first compares the profiles of two apparently distinct migrant groups – Northern and Eastern Europeans – and goes on to explore their discursive representations of migration experiences. Findings reveal that despite differences in initial motivations for moving to the Algarve, there are similarities between the two groups in terms of what leads them to settle in the region. Among both groups there is a high level of positive place-identity, suggesting that the specific context of the destination place plays a significant role in positive post-migration outcomes, something which is often overlooked in migration studies. Furthermore, the lived and perceived lifestyle affordances of the destination place, especially when discursively compared with the place and lifestyle left behind, are flagged by both groups and lend support to the idea that the role of lifestyle in migration has a wider significance than is usually credited.     

Degrees of Engagement: Using Cultural Worldviews to Explain Variations in Public Preferences for Engagement in the Policy Process

Scholars have been studying the concept of public engagement and its role in the policy process for some time. Scholars have argued that understanding the interests and motivations of the public and engaging them in the decision‐making process can lead to better policy designs and, ultimately, better policy outcomes. However, studies of public engagement often assume that people have a desire to get involved in the policy process. This paper tests this key assumption using the case of nuclear facility siting in the United States to ask: what factors influence an individual's stated willingness to want to engage in the policy process? Using data from a national web survey fielded in 2013, we ask the public if and to what extent they would likely engage in the siting process if given the opportunity. Findings indicate that the likelihood of engagement varies rather substantially across individuals. We find that an individual's cultural belief system and existing level of political activity account for some of this variation. These findings suggest that public engagement programs may vary across groups and communities. In other words, the prospects of engagement are likely to appeal to some members of the population and not others.     

Exploring motivation crowding around farmer incentives for riparian management in Nova Scotia

Incentive programs to encourage landowners to protect habitat should be carefully designed to avoid motivation crowding: basically, replacing intrinsic reasons such as a land ethic with extrinsic ones like payments. Little research on motivation crowding tests real programs, and no such work has been done in Canada. We surveyed farmers in Nova Scotia in 2017 to explore whether participation in a new incentive program called Wood Turtle Strides, or knowledge about a similar incentive program potentially available in the future, would alter reported motivations to use riparian setbacks and buffers. Motivations to use setbacks or buffers were heavily intrinsic across all four survey cohorts: wildlife stewardship and sacrifice motivated actions more than social pressures. We were not able to statistically test for motivational crowding due to low program uptake and thus post-program survey responses, but there was no evidence of second-hand crowding: farmers being motivated by hearing about a program in an adjacent jurisdiction. Findings point to the significance of wildlife stewardship for many farmers, and persistent resistance to conservation among others, as well as a risk of low additionality. More post-program research is necessary to fully understand the program's net impact on motivations and conservation.     

From Labrets to Cranial Modification: Credibility Enhancing Displays and the Changing Expression of Coast Salish Resource Commitments

Recent developments in evolutionary psychology expanding on signaling theory provide key insights to the connections between expressing social commitments and resource rights. Credibility enhancing displays (CREDs) are a means to convince individuals of commitment to belief systems and can link costly acts or extravagant displays to social success. In the Salish Sea, the transition from labrets to cranial modification from 3200 to 1000 BP has often been framed in terms reflecting a shift from achieved to ascribed social status. Other researchers have argued that labrets may reflect village scale identity not tied to political power. We suggest that an explicitly evolutionary approach provides novel insights into the changing material expressions of Coast Salish social commitments, specifically reciprocal resource access. The shift to cranial modification reflects increased CRED investment and cost, but not necessarily a transition towards ascribed status. Instead this shift may be changing expressions of the same forms of social commitments.     

‘A este oficio me obligan los dolores ajenos’: In Memoriam,Juan Gelman (1930–2014)

This essay commemorates the poetic work of Juan Gelman on the occasion of his death in January 2014. It considers the controversy surrounding his political and literary work, which was reignited after his death, and counters the charges that his poetry represented a turn away from politics or a redemption of Leftist political militancy through the portrayal of a martyred subjectivity. It argues that contrary to these claims, Gelman's poetry shows how political action necessarily exceeds both redemptive frameworks and subjective autonomy.     

All at Sea. Rethinking fishers' identities in Australia

In fisheries a new ecological order is being created based upon conservation sciences. Bio-economic models of conservation sciences are being pursued globally in response to the crises generated by over-fishing. Drawing upon Haraway's concept of ‘cyborg politics’ we provide a material analysis of the gendered identities belonging to both the ‘old’ and ‘new’ orders. In this case study, empirical evidence is derived from observation and qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with trawlers, deckhands and managers of the Australian South East Trawl Fishery. We show how conservation sciences, framed within the New Right's economic policies, have prioritised performances of masculinity centred on managerialism over those of manual labour.

En pesquerías un nuevo orden ecológico se crea sobre ciencias de conservación. Modelos bíoeconómicos de las ciencias de conservación se persiguen global en reacción a la crisis generado de sobrepescar. Empleándose el concepto de Haraway del ‘político del ciborg’ proveemos un análisis material de las identidades de género que corresponden a los ordenes ‘viejos’ y ‘nuevos’. En este estudio de caso, la evidencia empírica se derivan de observaciones y análisis cualitativa de entrevistas profundas llevado a cabo con jabegueros, marineros de cubierta, y gerentes de la Pesquería Red Barredera de Sudeste Australia. Ilustramos como las ciencias de conservación, enmarcado dentro de las políticas económicas de la nueva derecha, han priorizado los representaciones del papel de masculinidad que se concentran en gerencialisma además de los masculinidades de labor manual.     

Farm women and femocracy

While rural and farm women have a long history of interaction with the Australian state, it is only recently that Commonwealth government departments have established specifically dedicated policy machinery to address their needs. What is notable is that this has occurred at a time when other gender equity infrastructure is being disbanded. This article examines this anomaly. To begin, it documents the material and discursive changes in terms of equity for women which have occurred since the election of the Howard government in 1996. Following this, it details the emergence of a state agenda for rural and farm women in Australia and explains some of the definitive elements of this agenda. In the final section, the article gives attention to explaining why equity for farm and rural women has been emphasised by government in a period marked by the erosion of state-sponsored equity initiatives.