Endangered musical heritage as a wicked problem

The issue of the widespread decline and loss of musical heritage has recently found increasing prominence in ethnomusicological discourse, and many applied projects from grassroots to international levels strive to support genres perceived to be under threat. Much recent literature on the subject features rhetoric that draws on metaphors from ecology, including, for example, the ideas of music ‘ecosystems’, ‘endangerment’ and ‘sustainability’. Offering an alternative (though not contradictory) perspective, I here characterise the widespread loss of musical heritage as a ‘wicked problem’– one with complex interdependencies, uncertainties and conflicting stakeholder perspectives, which defies resolution more than some of the ecological metaphors arguably imply. By drawing on theoretical notions of ‘wickedness’ from social policy planning and other areas, I aim to bring interdisciplinary insights to the discussion of strategies to mitigate the global threat to music as intangible cultural heritage. Offering three ‘stories’ about the problem of music genres ‘at risk’ and critiquing each of these stories against the theory of wicked problems, I explore the implications of this conceptualisation for heritage scholars, music researchers, policy-makers and other cultural stakeholders, in terms of moving us closer to realising effective, resilient and innovative approaches to the problem at hand.     

Who does the work in sustainable households? A time and gender analysis in New South Wales,Australia

Households in the affluent West have become an important target of government and NGO campaigns to encourage more environmentally sustainable behaviours, but there has been little research into the gender implications of such policies. This article investigates the role of gender and time in the sustainability practices of six heterosexual households with young children, committed participants in the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge programme in 2009. Women spent more total time on sustainable practices, and did so more often. Men's contributions related mostly to gardening and transport, in longer blocks of time. In these households, sustainability became a highly gendered practice because of the different roles in homemaking. Women resisted constructions of themselves as being closer to nature, and shouldered expectations of sustainability as part of their roles as mothers and household managers. They experienced time as overlapping and fragmented, with no distinction between work and leisure. Men contributed to sustainable practices mainly through activities understood as leisure, in longer blocks of time. Our temporality lens also illustrates the gendered ways that old practices become deroutinised and new practices reroutinised. While men were often responsible for the labour and upfront time required to start or research a project, the responsibility of everyday implementation and habit-changing commonly fell to women. These findings illustrate how gendered analyses help identify both opportunities for, and constraints against, change towards sustainability. Opportunities include the strong connections between both mothers' and fathers' understanding of good parenting and the importance they attach to household sustainability. Constraints include the temporal challenges faced by households, and how these interact with wider structural and labour roles.     

THE RESOURCE CYCLE IN FORESTRY AND FISHING

While renewable resources appear to be the ideal basis for sustainable development, such development assumes that extraction can be restricted to the rate of natural increase in an intact ecosystem. The long record of failure to sustain the yield of biological resources suggests that such restriction is possible only in theory. While fish and timber are renewable, in practice they have not been sustainable. Although both may remain abundant, or at least stable, on a national basis, aggregate data disguise a sequence of regional cycles of boom and collapse, in which the market shares of regions in decline are taken by other regions which have not yet reached the point of crisis. Sustainability in regional resource extraction is achieved only in the chastening aftermath of resource collapse, and usually at levels significantly below those theoretically attainable from the productivity of the original ecosystem. This paper reviews the multiple, and mutually reinforcing, causes of the cycle of overexploitation and collapse, termed the resource cycle. It closes by considering the limitations that the resource cycle imposes on public policy, and their implications for the recovery of depleted resources. Bien que les ressources renouvelables apparaissent idéales pour le soutien du développement durable, un tel développement implique que l'extraction puisse être restreinte au niveau du taux de croissance naturel d'un écosystème intact. La longue liste d'échecs visant à soutenir la production de ressources biologiques semble indiquer qu'une telle restriction n'est possible qu'en théorie. Malgré le fait que le poisson et le bois constituent des ressources renouvelables, en pratique, elles ne sont pas encore durables. Bien que les deux demeurent abondantes, ou du moins stables, à l'échelle nationale, les données agrégées camouflent une séquence de cycles régionaux de croissance et d'effondrement. Ainsi, les parts de marché des régions en déclin sont soutenues par d'autres régions n'ayant pas encore atteint l'état de crise. Le développement durable de l'extraction des ressources régionales s'effectue donc seulement en réponse à l'effondrement de ressources, et généralement à des niveaux nettement plus bas que ceux théoriquement accessibles selon la productivité de l'écosystème d'origine. Cet article examine les causes multiples et mutuellement renforcées du cycle de surexploitation et d'effondrement, que l'on nomme le cycle des ressources. L'article conclue en considérant les limites qu'impose le cycle des ressources sur les politiques gouvernementales ainsi que sur leurs implications pour le recouvrement de ressources épuisées.     

(Education for) Sustainable Development in Geography Education: review and outlook from a perspective of Germany

Nearly 15 years after the Rio Conference and 10 years after the Lucerne Declaration on Geographical Education for Sustainable Development we are interested to what extent the goals of this declaration have been implemented? What role does Geography play in Education for Sustainable Development in higher education? We analyzed the modules of 107 degree programs with Geography as a degree major or as a teacher training subject at 55 German universities, technical colleges and universities of education. We conducted a quantitative text analysis in which we searched the key words “Sustainability”, “Sustainable Development”, “Education for Sustainable Development” and “Nature-Society Studies” in the Module Regulations. Our data indicate great heterogeneity between the degree programs. The key words were predominantly found in majors in “Human Geography”, “Geography” and teacher training programs for “academic high schools”. Aspects of the results considered in the paper include: (a) differences in the orientation of degree programs, (b) varying degree of implementation in the modules, (c) different conceptual understanding of the principles of sustainability, (d) the extent to which concepts of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development are mixed, (e) heterogeneity between mandatory courses and electives.     

The Dark Side of Transformation: Latent Risks in Contemporary Sustainability Discourse

The notion of transformation is gaining traction in contemporary sustainability debates. New ways of theorising and supporting transformations are emerging and, so the argument goes, opening exciting spaces to (re)imagine and (re)structure radically different futures. Yet, questions remain about how the term is being translated from an academic concept into an assemblage of normative policies and practices, and how this process might shape social, political, and environmental change. Motivated by these questions, we identify five latent risks associated with discourse that frames transformation as apolitical and/or inevitable. We refer to these risks as the dark side of transformation. While we cannot predict the future of radical transformations towards sustainability, we suggest that scientists, policymakers, and practitioners need to consider such change in more inherently plural and political ways.     

Space, Time and Sustainability in the Hadejia-Jama'are Wetlands and the Komodugu Yobe Basin, Nigeria

Debates about sustainability still take insufficient account of the significance of space and time. In this paper, their significance is demonstrated empirically through an account of the complex environmental and socio-economic impacts of dam construction on flood-plain wetlands in the Hadejia-Jama'are river basin in Nigeria. Socio-economic data from a rapid rural appraisal exercise and household questionnaire survey (data on patterns of production in the flood plain and patterns of mobility) are appraised in the context of patterns of environmental change and of inundation (analysis of riparian vegetation and time-series aerial photographs). The paper concludes that sustainable river basin development requires more attention to be paid to the perspectives derived from different scales of analysis. This calls for appropriate institutions allowing communication at the interface between village-level producer and river basin manager.     

Export of environmental technologies by publicly owned companies: approaches,drivers and obstacles among Swedish municipal companies

This article focuses on the export of environmental technology by publicly owned companies. The export of such technologies has the potential to contribute to economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. However, research on this emerging topic has so far largely focused on privately owned SMEs compared to publicly owned companies. Using interviews with 12 Swedish municipally owned companies which develop such systems and a survey with 36 others, we analyse their approaches, drivers for and obstacles to export. These companies use a combination of different approaches such as subsidiaries, independent projects, licensing and private-public partnerships to engage in export. However, in contrast to private companies which are often driven by internal factors such as extra sales, these municipally owned companies are largely motivated by external factors such as customer requests and opportunities to contribute to environmental sustainability. Furthermore, their main export barriers relate to differences between the business culture and political systems in their home and target markets. Their export experiences are influenced by their municipal ownership, the types of technologies they develop and the institutional contexts within which they operate. This study reveals an actor type struggling to find a balance between domestic obligations and commercialization in international markets.     

Towards Household Sustainability in Sydney? Impacts of Two Sustainable Lifestyle Workshop Programs on Water Consumption in Existing Homes

Residential water consumption accounts for approximately 70 per cent of Sydney's water consumption. The capacity of households to reduce water consumption is limited by expectations and conventions of water supply shaped by existing water infrastructure ( Allon and Sofoulis, 2006 ) and ‘saver‐unfriendly’ household water fittings ( Sofoulis, 2005 ). Sustainable lifestyle workshop programs – many of which address water use – are relatively new, and rigorous research into their impacts is scarce. Existing research generally relies on reported behaviour change from participants, which is then used to estimate resource savings. This paper examines water consumption data, and the questionnaire responses of participants in two sustainable lifestyle workshop programs, to examine whether reported behavioural and technical changes are translating into significant water savings. The Sustainability Street (Penrith) and GreenHome (Parramatta) programs are changing participant behaviours, but reductions achieved by Sustainability Street are not significant at the 0.05 level. GreenHome reductions, while significant, cannot be fully attributed to the program due to the downward trend commencing prior to the program. The improved behaviour of participants – in comparison to their previous behaviour and the behaviour of non‐participants – is thus not translating into significant water savings. This indicates that the relationship between improved environmental behaviour and actual water savings is not as straightforward as program operators might assume. The implications of this are that research should use real consumption data and not estimations derived from behaviour change, and strategies to reduce household water consumption need to involve bigger technical changes to household water infrastructures.     

可持续的国际领导权:来自968-1885年中越关系的经验教训

后冷战时代的重大挑战是世界秩序的可持续性 ,这种世界秩序并非建立在大国竞争基础之上 ,西方国际关系理论尚没有做好应对这一挑战的准备。笔者利用长达九个世纪的中国与法国殖民主义前独立的越南双边关系的实例 ,回顾了中国对于可持续的单极领导权的经验。认为这种持续不变的非对称关系不是征服和控制的结果 ,而是一种角色模式的演变。在这个模式中 ,双方都理智地确信其切身利益并没有受到威胁 ,维持这种关系对于双方而言都具有普遍的益处。基于角色的非对称关系既有弱点也有长处 ,虽然它不能被直接应用于现代 ,但它揭示出有关处理非对称国际关系的一般性经验教训。