Operationalizing a contested concept: indicators of territorial cohesion

European territorial policies increasingly refer to broad goals such as sustainability, well-being and cohesion. For their operationalization as political goals, there is a need to create indicators. But how can an indicator be meaningful in relation to a complex concept that is not well defined? If the creation of an indicator is primarily aimed at quantifying a concept and making it more operational, in the case of a contested concept (such as territorial cohesion), the process of building indicators also helps stabilize it, allowing a potential decontestation. A participatory constructivist approach – as used by the ESPON project Indicators for Territorial Cohesion (INTERCO) – is considered to be the most suitable for building indicators of contested concepts. While ensuring computability of the indicators, it allows more flexibility and reconciles the different meanings of the concept in order to stabilize it. Ultimately, the validity of indicators of contested concepts lies in pragmatic criteria: usability, usefulness and use.     

Engaging Local Knowledge in Biodiversity Research: Experiences from Large Inter- and Transdisciplinary Projects

Abstract

The management of biodiversity represents a research topic that needs to involve not only several (sub-) disciplines from the natural sciences but, in particular, also the social sciences and humanities. Furthermore, over the last couple of years, the need for the integration of other kinds of knowledge (experience based or indigenous knowledge) is increasingly acknowledged. For instance, the incorporation of such knowledge is indispensable for place-based approaches to sustainable land management, which require that the specific ecological and social context is addressed. However, desirable as it may be, such an engagement of the holders of tacit knowledge is not easy to achieve. It demands reconciling well-established scientific procedural standards with the implicit or explicit criteria of relevance that apply in civil society — a process that typically causes severe tensions and comes up against both habitual as well as institutional constraints. The difficulty of managing such tensions is amplified particularly in large integrated projects and represents a major challenge to project management. At the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research — UFZ, several integrated research projects have been conducted over the past years in which experience has been gained with these specific challenges. This paper presents some of the lessons learned from large integrated projects, with an emphasis on project design and management structure. At the centre of the present contribution are experiences gained in the coordination and management of LEGATO (LEGATO stands for Land-use intensity and Ecological EnGineering — Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems, see www.legato-project.net), an ongoing, large-scale, inter- and transdisciplinary research project dealing with the management of irrigated rice landscapes in Southeast Asia. In this project, local expertise on traditional production systems is absolutely crucial but needs to be integrated with natural and social science research to identify future-proof land management systems.     

“坎曼尔诗签”真乎,伪乎?

我国新疆出土于唐代元和年间的“坎曼尔诗签” ,在70年代初期于北京展出后 ,学术界引起很大震动 ,但也产生了一些不同观点的争论。本文围绕“诗签”的真伪问题 ,对主要观点作了述评     

Rubber plantations and their implications on gender roles and relations in northern uplands Vietnam

Abstract

In recent years, rubber plantations have been strongly promoted in the northern uplands of Vietnam–especially in the northwest, where it is an ill agro-ecological fit–with an aim to improve ethnic minority livelihoods and to modernize peasants by transforming them into rubber workers. A large area of land has been taken away from farmers to make way for rubber plantations. This land acquisition and agrarian transformation have impacted local people and their livelihoods in various ways. Drawing on ethnographic research, in combination with interviews with authorities and studying related documents, this article focuses on the gendered consequences of rubber plantation in northern uplands Vietnam. It argues that the process of becoming a rubber worker and adapting to the new way of living has indeed added new roles and responsibilities for women. At the same time, it has undermined men’s values and reshaped gender relations both within and outside the home.     

Strengthening the Role of Public Health in Environmental Policy

Over the past 25 years there has been a steady decline in the role of public health agencies in environmental protection. This paper examines the major factors that have contributed to that decline, including the impact of federal environmental laws, the disparity in funding between regulatory and public health activities in environmental protection, and the emergence of risk assessment as a basis for environmental decisions. The methods of risk assessment and traditional public health approaches are contrasted, and the advantages of the involvement of public health agencies are discussed. Recommendations are presented for strengthening the role of public health in environmental decisionmaking to address more effectively public concerns about environmental risks.     

A HARMONIZATION OF FIRST AND SECOND NATURES*

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the joint impact of the first nature and the second nature forces on industry location. Toward this aim, we develop a two‐region new economic geography model where local factor congestion and location advantages compete with demand linkages and product market crowding. In particular, we study the case of absolute location advantage in a single industry model and the case of comparative advantages in a two‐industry model. We characterize the structure of industries and discuss the possibilities of catastrophic changes, endogenous industrial asymmetries and specialization. We find that absolute location advantage are associated with a smooth agglomeration process and comparative advantages with a catastrophic process.     

关于商代青铜面具的几个问题

本文对商代青铜面具的起源、文化内涵、传播等问题进行了探讨。认为青铜面具起源于石器时代,青铜面具的源地在北方,青铜面具的使用与巫术有关,墓葬中的青铜面具反映了死者的身份等级。     

The SpatialARMED Framework: Handling Complex Spatial Components in Spatial Association Rule Mining

Recent research has identified spatial association rule (SAR) mining as a promising technique for geographic pattern mining and knowledge discovery. Nevertheless, important spatial components embedded in the studied phenomenon, in particular complex spatial functional relations such as neighborhood effects and spatial spillover effects have largely been neglected. This article unravels this specific problem to enhance the effective application of SAR mining practices in spatial data analytics. The main discussion focuses on the specification of complex spatial components by means of spatial dependence properties of the data and on how to integrate them in the process of SAR mining. A comprehensive framework dubbed SpatialARMED is proposed for the effective extraction of spatial patterns. The framework is then showcased through its application to crime analysis.     

DISPERSION FORMS: AN INTERACTION OF MARKET ACCESS,COMPETITION, AND URBAN COSTS*

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes a two‐region model including multiple industries with different transport costs. Two results are derived. First, dispersion occurs for small transport costs, but the specific dispersion patterns depend on the level of urban costs. This results from an interaction of the market‐access effect on consumers, the market‐access effect on firms, the competition effect, and the urban‐cost effect. Second, decreasing transport cost tends to let industries with lower transport costs disperse, although the shares of industries locating in the larger region are not in order of their transport costs. We further provide some empirical data concerning the second result.     

基于GIS的区域经济分析与决策初步研究

GIS技术能为区域经济分析直接提供一种交互式的、可视化的决策支持,已广泛应用于地方、区域和国家各级水平的经济分析、规划决策过程中。在本文中,作者首先对区域经济分析决策的各种方法进行了必要的分析,说明了在区域经济分析中GIS所能提供的技术支持,然后对建立一个基于GIS的区域经济分析与决策信息支持系统进行了初步研究,并举例说明了GIS技术在经济分析与决策中的应用。