1,720,985 research outputs found
Deliberation and Legitimacy in Transnational Governance: The Case of Environmental Impact Assessments
Full text linkThis paper begins by recognising that transnational environmental governance structures have been the subject of criticism as lacking democratic legitimacy. The author suggests, however, that instead of using the traditional liberal view of democracy where decisions are made by majority agreement, deliberative democracy may provide a solution. This approach focuses not on the aggregation of fixed interests within a given territory but on a continual process of dialogue between decisionmakers and all those affected, a process of mutual justification by the exchange of reasons. The author examines the possible application of this theory, using environmental impact assessments carried out pursuant to environmental conventions as an example of the theory in practice. The author shows how a deliberative democratic approach brings a range of advantages to decisionmaking concerning crossborder environmental harm, concluding that this approach has the potential to enhance the legitimacy of environmental decisionmaking beyond the state
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Governing Carbon Removal: Deploying Direct Air Capture Amidst Canada’s Energy Transition
Full text linkCarbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, such as direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), will be critical in limiting the rise of the global temperature over the next century. Compared to other forms of CDR, DACCS requires little land and carries fewer environmental risks. Still, scaling up DACCS technologies requires the support of a complex array of policies and infrastructure across multiple overlapping policy areas, such as climate, energy, technology innovation and natural resource management. DACCS policies will be built on the foundations of existing policies in these areas and will be influenced by the structure and content of this policy landscape. While the literature on DACCS and other CDR technologies acknowledges the path-dependent nature of policy development, it has tended to focus on abstract policy prescriptions that are not rooted in the specific political, social and physical (infrastructural) context of the implementing state. This thesis addresses this deficit by identifying the key policy foundations for developing and deploying DACCS at scale in Canada. Drawing on socio-technical transitions theory, particularly the multi-level perspective, I identify the constituent policy areas that are likely to form the future DACCS policy regime. The purpose of this policy review and analysis is to show that the policies used to deploy DACCS will need to address systemic issues of social acceptability; financing climate mitigation innovations; energy system and resource constraints; coordinating and regulating carbon storage and transport; and establishing general climate policies that support the role of DACCS in the transition process. Using a database of Canadian climate policies (n=457), I populate these key policy areas with existing policies, which enables me to map and analyze the emergent DACCS policy landscape in Canada. The growing body of literature on the policies needed for scaling up DACCS provides a basis for analyzing the adequacy of Canada’s current policies while creating system maps has allowed me to identify the potential trajectories of the system by identifying potential niches and broader landscape influences within the system, as well as identifying gaps and potential barriers to the system transition process. This thesis contributes to our understanding of national-level DAC policy development by providing a framework for identifying components of the DAC system and linking those components to desired policy outcomes
Examining Applications of Earth System Law in Canada's Species at Risk Act
No full textThe worsening biodiversity crisis poses urgent questions regarding the capabilities of our legal systems to address ecological issues in the face of increasing human pressures and rapid environmental change. Earth System Law (ESL) is a novel approach to legal regulation that embeds the principles of inclusivity, complexity and interdependency according to an Earth-system perspective into legal systems. Such an approach better accounts for the larger spatial and temporal scales of Earth systems while utilizing a less anthropocentric orientation. To date, ESL research has generally been limited to conceptual analysis, however this study explores the empirical application of ESL by developing an assessment tool that incorporates ESL characteristics. The tool is then used to critically assess Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA). Drawing on the ESL literature, the study develops detailed criteria which are used to conduct a directed content analysis of a selection (n=sixteen) of SARA documents, consisting of five recovery strategies, five multi-species action plans, five management plans and the SARA legislation itself. The specific ways and extents that SARA, via its instruments, aligns and misaligns with ESL are outlined. Results from the content analysis indicate that SARA exhibits only select ESL characteristics, particularly the meaningful inclusion of present-day beings, the recognition of unknowns in a complex world and the consideration of adaptation and precaution as productive responses to complexity. SARA is misaligned with ESL by working against many of its characteristics, such as the meaningful inclusion of both future humans and geographic areas, complete acceptance of Earth-system complexity, full commitment to adaptation and the acknowledgement of Earth-system interdependencies, outlining an anthropocentric orientation. Overall, the study offers contributions regarding the conceptual development and real-world application of ESL, the shortfalls of SARA and measures to improve outcomes for biodiversity through legal systems
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Equator Principles and Climate Change Issues: Examining the EPs’ Climate Change Policies and Analyzing the Likely Effectiveness of these Policies
No full textClimate change is a global environmental issue that adversely affects economic activities; on the other hand, economic activities, in particular infrastructure project financing, are one of the main drivers of current increases in atmospheric greenhouses gas (GHG) concentrations. Accordingly, based on the principles of shareholder, stakeholder, and institutional theories, a number of financial institutions, called the Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs), voluntarily developed the Equator Principles (EPs) as “a risk management framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in projects” (EPs-website). In 2013, EPs were updated (EPIII) to include project-related climate change issues in project assessment. Doing so enables the EPFIs to reduce credit risks, enhance reputation, and gain legitimacy. However, despite the development of EPIII, its climate change policies are left vague, and different opinions have evolved around their likely effectiveness in helping the EPFIs to manage their climate risks and change their behavior towards climate change management. Apart from existing criticisms that the EPs fail to enforce the EPFIs’ commitment to voluntary standards, this study examines the likely effectiveness of the EPs’ mandates from a climate change perspective. This study follows two main methodological approaches: 1) primary document and policy analysis and 2) comparative legal and synthetic analysis to analyze the EPs’ climate change policies and identifying potential challenges to address climate change issues through Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This research analyzes the existing guidelines on climate change management and elaborates underlying principles and motivators for climate change policies to develop a set of generalized criteria for the effective incorporation of climate change issues into EIA. In light of these criteria, I then examine how EPIII include climate change in the EIA for projects proposed for bank financing. This study will analyze whether the EPs are having a positive impact on managing climate change issues and reveal to which extent the EPs confirms the principles of underlying theories and fulfills the primary motivators
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