1,720,962 research outputs found
Ecosystem-Based Governance of Forest Commons - The Case of Shkumbini River Basin, Albania [Governance basata sui principi dell’ecosistema sui beni comuni forestali - Il bacino fluviale di Shkumbin, Albania]
No full textLe interazioni uomo-ambiente incorporate nei sistemi socio-ecologici stanno diventando sempre più complesse, a causa dell'aumento del dominio umano sulle risorse del pianeta. Da più di mezzo secolo, il discorso su queste interazioni è dominato dal paradigma dello sviluppo sostenibile, ma l’applicabilità di questa nozione astratta è ancora in evoluzione a causa del suo principale dilemma: l'incertezza. La resilienza degli ecosistemi e delle istituzioni, quindi la loro adattabilità e solidità, è un percorso critico verso la comprensione degli sviluppi sostenibili e dei mezzi per raggiungerli. Tuttavia, nonostante le crescenti conoscenze sulla resilienza dei sistemi socio-ecologici, altre tre lacune necessitano di ulteriori ricerche, in particolare: 1) il sistema umano di valori utilizzato per indirizzare le risorse naturali nella pianificazione e nella governance. Questo sistema è principalmente utilitaristico e ha considerazioni limitate sulle prospettive egualitarie e morali ed etiche delle risorse naturali; 2) il lento processo di integrazione dei principi e dei valori dell'ecosistema nella governance e nella pianificazione territoriale, come mezzo per collegare la governance con uno sviluppo territoriale equilibrato; 3) e la mancata corrispondenza tra i livelli di governance, dai regimi tradizionali di successo dei beni comuni alle minacce e politiche globali. Le lacune sopracitate mostrano che i collegamenti tra il lavoro teorico sulle risorse dei beni comuni - un modello di successo dell'azione collettiva su piccola scala comunitaria e la ecosystem-based governance - un modello di governance scientifica e territoriale sono entrambi mancanti o deboli. L’intenzione di questa ricerca è esplorare le opportunità per stabilire questi collegamenti e, auspicabilmente, il contribuire al discorso globale sul superamento della mancata corrispondenza spazio-temporale tra istituzioni e modelli di governo, attraverso la creazione di un modello di ricerca. È necessaria una governance basata sulla ecosystem-based governance delle risorse naturali per attenuare le mancate corrispondenze territoriali e ottenere uno sviluppo territoriale sostenibile ed equilibrato. Questa ricerca si sviluppa attorno alla seguente questione centrale: possono i modelli / regimi dei beni comuni forestali influenzare positivamente l'impostazione della governance convenzionale a favore della sostenibilità e superare la mancata corrispondenza tra "confini e scale"? Metodologicamente, l'area geografica di ricerca è un bacino fluviale, come spazio naturale e funzionale per i confini dei servizi degli ecosistemi. Oltre a sviluppare una discussione critica sulle teorie delle risorse del bene comune e dei servizi dell’ecosistema, la ricerca include il lavoro sul campo attraverso: l’ osservazione diretta del bacino e delle foreste, focus groups con gli utenti delle risorse del bene comune per identificare e testare gli 8 principi di design delle solide istituzioni delle risorse comuni, interviste con funzionari ed esperti per analizzare le variabili SESMAD per commons su larga scala, e test dell'acqua e questionari per gli utenti della foresta per decostruire il concetto di valutazione dei servizi dell’ecosistema. Una mappatura dei bilanci della domanda e dell'offerta (SE) è realizzata per collegare il sistema di governance agli effetti territoriali dei servizi dell’ecosistema. L'esistenza di vari valori viene quindi verificata all'interno delle istituzioni delle risorse comuni. La ricerca fornisce un quadro logico per l'ulteriore e più approfondito studio della governance basata sui principi dell’ecosistema sui beni comuni forestali, come mezzo per collegare le istituzioni con il territorio e le conoscenze scientifiche sui servizi degli ecosistemi.Human-environment interactions, embedded into socio-ecological systems are becoming more and more complex, due to increasing human dominance over the planet’s resources. Since more than half a century, the discourse on these interactions is dominated by the sustainability development paradigm, but the operationalization of this abstract notion is still in evolution due to its main dilemma – uncertainty. Resilience of ecosystems and institutions, therefore their adaptability and robustness, is a critical path towards understanding sustainable developments and means for achieving it. However, despite growing knowledge on the resilience of socio-ecological systems, three other gaps need further research, namely: 1) the human system of values used to address natural resources in planning and governance. This system is mainly utilitarian and has limited considerations on the egalitarian and moral & ethics perspectives on natural resources; 2) the slow process of embedding ecosystem principles and values in governance and spatial planning, as a mean to linking governance with balanced territorial development; 3) and the mismatch between scales of governance, from the successful traditional commons’ regimes to the global threats and policies.
The above gaps show that linkages between theoretical work on common pool resources – a successful model of collective action at small community scale, and ecosystem based governance – a scientific and territorial governance model, are either missing or weak. It is in the intention of this research to explore opportunities for establishing these linkages, and hopefully contribute to the global discourse on spatial-temporal mismatches between institutions and governance models, through creating a model of research. An ecosystem-based governance of the natural resources is needed to mitigate territorial mismatches, and achieve sustainable and balanced territorial development.
This research is developed around the central question of whether forest commons’ models/regimes can positively influence the conventional governance setting in favour of sustainability, and outmatch the ‘boundaries and scales’ mismatch. Forest is chosen as the natural resource that contributes through its ecosystem services to balanced and resilient territorial development on both, the small and the global scale. Methodologically, the geographical area of research is one river basin, as a natural and functional space for ecosystems services boundaries. The river basin is composed of several ecosystems and human settlements in a continuous interaction, and constitutes a larger-scale common, or a polycentric network of commons.
Besides developing a critical discussion on common pool resources and ecosystem services theories, the research includes fieldwork through: visually surveying the basin and the forests; focus groups with commoners to identify and test the 8 design principles of robust commons’ institutions; interviews with officials and experts to analyse SESMAD variables for the large scale commons; and water tests and questionnaires for forest users to unravel the concept of ecosystem services (ES) valuation. A mapping of ES supply-demand budgets is made to link the governance system with the territorial effects of ecosystem services. The existence of various values within the common’s institutions is then verified. The research provides a logical framework for the further and deeper study of ecosystem-based governance of forest commons, as a means for linking institutions with the territory and scientific knowledge on ecosystem services. The latter is the key to enabling sustainable development in a world of spatial-temporal scale mismatches as regard natural resources and the services they render to humanity
Planning for sustainable city tourism in the Netherlands
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to examine policies and planning for sustainable city tourism in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and relate them to the notions of ‘tourism reset’ that emerged during the COVID pandemic period. Amsterdam is a prime European tourist city and has been suffering from problems associated with overtourism. Rotterdam receives much less tourists and can be seen as an emerging tourist city. Both cities have recently adopted new tourism policies, essentially future tourism visions. The case of Amsterdam and to a lesser extent that of Rotterdam show that formulating and agreeing on a tourism policy vision is easier than the decision-making process and implementing a vision. The instruments and powers of local government to manage the quantity and qualities of tourism are limited. Overtourism problems have stimulated carrying capacity thinking, which is considered inadequate for a multi-faceted problem like urban tourism
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Ambiguous memorial landscapes in post-socialist cities: The case of Tirana's Pyramid
No full textThis article is a descriptive study that narrates the history of the so-called “Pyramid” since 1991 and explores why it was never either restored or demolished. The Pyramid is a memorial landscape in Tirana, constructed to commemorate former socialist leader Enver Hoxha. The Pyramid became a landmark building in Tirana and has been recurrently discussed. The Pyramid has survived all discussions, decisions, and plans, but is now in decay. Generating clear answers regarding the continued existence of the Pyramid proved to be arduous, as the Pyramid has been subject to overlapping discourses around architecture and urban design, politics, history, memory, and identity. The first main conclusion of the study is that the Pyramid is hardly recognized as a memorial landscape. A second is that various governments have developed ideas, discussed, and quarrelled, but political parties could not reach an actionable conclusion – refunctioning of the Pyramid is apparently too complex. A survey was carried out to understand what the general population thinks about the Pyramid. Most respondents indicated that their attachment to the Pyramid is not very strong and they are in favour of redevelopment. The paper concludes with recommendations for adding elements of a memorial landscape to the planned redevelopment of the Pyramid
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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
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