814 research outputs found
The (onto) politics of classifying biocultural diversity: a tale of chaos, order and control
No full textThe issue of classification plays a central role in Wiersum’s work on biocultural diversity. The design of classification systems has enabled Wiersum to classify landscapes into natural, cultural and various intermediate categories. These classification systems do not merely mirror the world, but can only be understood in the light of the social and political values and desires they highlight and seek recognition for. In this chapter we employ a performative perspective of classification by analysing the social work that classification systems do in practice: how they influence not only how the world is known, but also how it is acted upon, and how social and material relationships are remade in the process. We conclude that by performing a world that consists of various natural, cultural and mixed categories, Wiersum’s work (1) privileges local/indigenous communities to manage the nature-culture mixtures; (2) creates a nature-culture continuum to allow for coordination across the nature-human divide; and (3) creates a network of scientists and practitioners from diverse disciplines who can arrive at a division of labour in the research into and management of the biological, human and cultural categories that are distinguished
Creating scientific narratives: Experiences in contructing and interweaving empirical and theoretical plots
No full textTaking an interpretive perspective, this chapter argues that practice research has a narrative character in the sense that it is a speech act that retrospectively verbalises something (namely practices) that did not exist previously, and that is written from the (unique) perspective of its author. Although the narrative turn in research methodology is gaining significant scholarly attention, little is known about how scientific narratives are created by researchers and how researchers can be held accountable for them. We present two autoethnographies, to obtain insight into our own practice as scientific narrators. Our analysis reveals that our scientific narratives were created by interweaving an empirical plot and a theoretical plot. It also shows that researchers can be held accountable for their narratives by means of a ‘narrative contract’ with the narrative’s audience according to which the researchers must deliver (1) meaning, by means of a plot that offers a certain criticality (both empirically and conceptually) and (2) ‘truthfulness’, by resonating with the standards that their audience adheres to. We conclude by discussing the implications of such a narrative turn in research methodology for the conceptualisation of practices, practice based research and practice theory
Forest-People Interfaces: from local creativity to global concerns
No full textThis book takes the reader on a journey through four major themes that have dominated research on the people-forest interface since the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published its Forestry for Rural Development paper and launched its Programme on Forestry for Local Community Development in 1976. This was the prelude to the FAO VIIIth Forestry Congress entitled 'Forestry for People', organised two years later, which drew attention to the role of forests in meeting people's livelihood needs. These events marked the emergence of social forestry as a new approach to forest management that aimed to increase community participation in the development and management of forest resources (Arnold, 1991; FAO, 1976; Wiersum, 1999). In the 1980s social forestry marked a shift away from an exclusive focus on industrial, timber-oriented forestry to participatory and cooperative management schemes (Colchester et al., 2003). In the same period, the Canadian forester John Bene (Bene et al., 1977) coined the term 'agroforestry' for the practice of integrating trees, food crops and/or animals in a combined production system compatible with the cultural practices of the local population. Bene played an important role in the establishment of the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi in 1997 (King, 1987). This is now known as the World Agroforestry Centre and has regional offices in India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi and Mali
Intra-operative bacterial contamination : control and consequences
No full textEen combinatie van gedragsmaatregelen en een beter luchtinblaassysteem in de operatiekamer leidt tot een afname van het aantal bacteriën bij plaatsing van een knie- of heupprothese. Hierdoor neemt de kans af op infectie van de prothese en op problemen met wondgenezing na de operatie. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van Bas Knobben, uitgevoerd bij de afdeling Orthopedie en de vakgroep Biomedical Engineering van het Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen. Deze bevindingen kunnen ertoe bijdragen dat gewrichtsprothesen minder vaak infecteren en vervangen moeten worden. Hij promoveert op 26 april 2006 op zijn onderzoek aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
In elke operatiekamer kunnen ondanks strenge hygiënische maatregelen bacteriën voorkomen die een mogelijk risico vormen voor infectie van prothesen en problemen met wondgenezing na de operatie. Tot nu toe was de omvang hiervan onduidelijk. Uit het onderzoek van Knobben blijkt dat bij 36 procent van de plaatsingen van heupprothesen bacteriën aanwezig waren op het instrumentarium en op verwijderde botsnippers bij het inbrengen van de prothesen. Ook bleek er een verband te zijn tussen het vóórkomen van deze bacteriën en het optreden van verstoorde wondgenezing en infectie van de prothesen.
Gedragsmaatregelen
Knobben onderzocht of gedrags- en technische maatregelen, aanvullend op de gebruikelijke hygiënerichtlijnen, de kans op bacteriële besmetting tijdens de operatie verkleinen. Uit zijn onderzoek blijkt dat de combinatie van deze maatregelen in een operatiekamer de kans op aanwezigheid van bacteriën deed afnemen van 34 procent naar 8 procent. Tegelijk nam de kans op infectie van prothesen, verstoorde wondgenezing en wondinfectie beduidend af.
De gedragsmaatregelen die onder andere werden genomen, zijn het beperken van het spreken en het in- en uitlopen van de operatiekamer door het operatiekamerpersoneel, het gecontroleerd bewegen, het juiste gebruik van het neus-/mondkapje en een beter gebruik van het gebied onder de luchtstroom. Een van de technische maatregelen betrof het gebruik van een beter luchtinblaassysteem (laminaire airflow). Hierbij vindt een constante aanvoer van schone lucht plaats boven het operatiegebied en worden bacteriën via verticale luchtstromen afgevoerd.
Kosteneffectief
Met dit onderzoek toont Knobben aan dat gedragsmaatregelen en een beter luchtinblaassysteem in de operatiekamer infecties van prothesen en problemen met wondgenezing kunnen voorkomen. De maatregelen zijn bovendien kosteneffectief: de gemiddelde totale kosten per patiënt met een eerste (primaire) prothese zonder infectie zijn ongeveer € 15.000, zo’n 3,5 keer lager dan die van een patiënt met een geïnfecteerde prothese (ongeveer € 52.000). De resultaten van dit proefschrift hebben ertoe geleid dat het Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen de aanvullende gedrags- en technische maatregelen toepast bij het plaatsen van prothesen.
Verdubbeling
In Nederland zijn in 2004 ongeveer 25.000 heup- en 20.000 knieprothesen geplaatst. De belangrijkste indicatie voor het plaatsen hiervan is gewrichtsslijtage. De verwachting is dat door vergrijzing het aantal mensen dat in aanmerking komt voor deze operaties de komende twintig jaar zal verdubbelen. Bij ongeveer één tot vier procent van de patiënten treedt na plaatsing een bacteriële infectie op.
The promise of practice: the value of the practice based approach for forest and nature governance studies
No full textA practice based approach is new to studies of forest and nature governance and fairly new to governance studies in general. In this chapter, we outline the promise of such an approach for such studies. The chapter is in two parts. Firstly, a number of conclusions are drawn from the preceding individual chapters. They relate to: (1) the types of forest and nature governance practices that can be empirically distinguished; (2) the way the sensitising concepts of logic of practice, situated agency, and performativity have been used to move beyond mainstream governance approaches; and (3) the specific characteristics of a practice based approach to forest and nature governance. The second part of the chapter discusses the academic and societal value of the practice based approach as offered in this book, firstly by comparing this approach to an interpretative approach in governance studies and addressing similarities and differences, and then by discussing whether the practice based approach can contribute to policy making and steering social change. We conclude that a practice based approach can convincingly address some points that mainstream accounts of governance cannot, but only if certain long-held convictions about what governance really is are abandoned
Prelude to practice: Introducing a practice based approach to forest and nature governance
No full text‘Forest and nature governance’ is a field that has recently emerged from forestry sciences. It analyses the governance of a diverse set of issues, including deforestation, biodiversity loss and illegal logging, producing insights useful for science and policy. Its main theoretical base consists of two mainstream social theories: rational choice and neo-institutionalism. However, since these models rest upon problematic conceptualisations of ‘the social’, this chapter proposes a practice based approach, which offers a comprehensive understanding of the social dynamics related to trees, forests and biodiversity. It goes beyond some of the old dualisms in social theory, such as subject and object, and agency and structure. Three sensitising concepts—situated agency, logic of practice and performativity—will be introduced. In addition, the chapter identifies a number of methodological guidelines for the practice based approach, based on a short review of the practice literature. These concepts and guidelines not only define the practice based approach, but also bind together the individual chapters. Finally, this chapter introduces the book’s contents
Classical Humanism and the Challenge of Modernity. Debates on classical education in Germany c. 1770-1860
No full textClassical humanism was a living tradition until far into the nineteenth century. In scholarship, classical (Renaissance) humanism is usually strictly distinguished from so-called ‘neo-humanism,’ which, especially in Germany, reigned supreme at the beginning of the nineteenth century. While most classical humanists focused on the practical imitation of Latin stylistic models, ‘neohumanism’ is commonly believed to have been mainly inspired by typical modern values, such as authenticity and historicity . ‘Neohumanists’ attached more value to the Greeks than to the Romans. Moreover, they were not intent on imitating classical writers, but on historically reconstructing the ancient world at large. Bas van Bommel shows in his thesis that this common view is based on highly selective source material. Whereas ‘neohumanism’ was mainly adhered to at the universities, at the German Gymnasien a much more traditional educational ideal prevailed, which remained remarkably constant between c. 1770 and c. 1860. This ideal involved the prioritisation of the Romans above the Greeks, as well as the belief that imitation of Roman and Greek models brings about man’s aesthetic and moral elevation. Typically ‘neohumanistic’ aspects were almost completely absent in this Gymnasium-based educational ideal. As humanists at the Gymnasien were much more numerous than academic philologists, not ‘neohumanism,’ but classical humanism should be seen as the dominant educational ideal in the period c.1770 -1860. Van Bommel makes clear that 19th century classical humanism dynamically related to modern society. On the one hand, classical humanists were keen on illustrating the value of classical education by using typically modern concepts, such as ‘the public sphere’ or ‘formal education.’ On the other hand, classical humanism succeeded in influencing even its strongest competitors. The German (höhere) Bürgerschule, for example, almost completely derived its educational ideology from the classical Gymnasium. 19th century classical humanism, in other words, should not be seen as a dried-out remnant of a dying past, but as the continuation of a living tradition. Recommendations • Bas van Bommel criticises the widespread tendency among historians to write history on the basis of mere innovations. All sound historiography pays as much attention to continuities as to discontinuities. • Bas van Bommel also advocates a reintegration into modern educational debates of a number of humanistic core values – such as the prioritization of alpha- above bèta-subjects, anti-utilitarianism, as well as a major focus on aesthetic and moral education. Reintegrating those values could significantly increase the quality of modern pre-university education
Ton van Kalmthout, Huib Zuidervaart (eds.), The Practice of Philology in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands
No full textTon van Kalmthout, Huib Zuidervaart (eds.), The Practice of Philology in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands (History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands 14; Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015, 258 pp., ISBN 978 90 8964 591 3)
Biogeochemical redox proxies in sediments from Schandelah during the Toarcian (Early Jurassic)
No full textAuthor contributions:
The sampling was led by Bas van de Schootbrugge and measurements performed by Nina Papadomanolaki, with supervision of Niels A. G. M. van Helmond and Caroline P. Slomp. Measurements were gathered, processed and analysed by Itzel Ruvalcaba Baroni
Hoe centrale groepsuitbreidingen ontstaan uit oppervlaktes van driehoeken
No full textIn deze scriptie volgen we de lijn die in W. van Est in “A group theoretic interpretation of area in the elementary geometries” heeft uitgezet, maar we gaan grondiger in op de stof en bewijzen de meeste claims die door Van Est worden gedaan. We kijken naar wat triviale en nontriviale centrale groepsuitbreidingen zijn, wat die te maken hebben met cocykels en coranden en cohomologieklassen. We zien dat iedere cocykel een corresponderende homogene cocykel heeft. Aan de hand van het oppervlaktebegrip in een tweedimensionale ruimte kunnen we een homogene cocykel definiëren en daarmee kunnen we dan een centrale groepsuitbreiding construeren van de symmetriegroepen op het tweedimensionale hyperbolische, euclidische en elliptische vlak. We zien dat die uitbreidingen niet triviaal zijn, maar dat wanneer we ieder van deze uitbreidingen verheffen naar hun universele overdekking, de uitbreiding op de symmetriegroep van het hyperbolische vlak triviaal wordt, in tegenstelling tot die van het euclidische vlak
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