Fragmenting and isolating neighbourhoods: a way of creating flexible spaces and flexible behaviours?

The paper discusses changes that have occurred in Poznań neighbourhoods over the last decades. All issues discussed in the article are in the context of two kinds of flexibility: flexibility of neighbourhood spaces (city-planning meaning) and flexibility of neighbourhood behaviour (sociological meaning). A flexible neighbourhood space is understood here as one allowing various groups of inhabitants conflict-free and liberal use to pursue their individual lifestyles, but also a possibility of entering collective life. Flexible neighbourhood behaviours are such life strategies which are chosen by an individual without restraints resulting from a strictly developed area, formal commands, or cultural rituals. The aim of the paper is to seek an answer to the question of the extent to which fragmented and isolated neighbourhoods turn into a rigidly defined common territory and the extent to which they are a space allowing flexible behaviour patterns, and what social behaviours can be found in those areas. I examine this issue in two perspectives: city-planning (flexibility of neighbourhood spaces) and sociological (flexibility of neighbourhood behaviour).     

Reaction Between Ultramafic Rock and Fractionating Basaltic Magma II. Experimental Investigation of Reaction Between Olivine Tholeiite and Harzburgite at 1150-1050?C and 5 kb

We present results of experiments on mixtures of olivine tholeiiteand mantle harzburgite, at 5 kb and 1050–1150?C, underconditions of controlled hydrogen fugacity. The basalt end-memberwas Kilauea 1921 olivine tholeiite+3 wt.% H₂O, and the harzburgiteend-member was a mixture of olivine and orthopyroxene mineralseparates made from a mantle-derived lherzolite xenolith. Theexperiments on mixtures of basalt and harzburgite difl not reachequilibrium in runs ranging from 12 to 200 h duration. Relativelylarge concentration gradients persisted in both liquid and solidphases in mixed samples, whereas ‘control’ samplescontaining only basalt were reasonably homogeneous and wereprobably close to equilibrium. Compositions of solid phases produced, measured by electronmicroprobe, show a regular increase in Mg/(Mg+Fe) with increasingproportion of harzburgite at constant temperature, but olivineand clinopyroxene in mixed samples were not in Fe-Mg exchangeequilibrium. Modes measured for each sample show that the fractionof liquid relative to the amount of basalt in the sample wasconstant at constant temperature, and independent of bulk composition:reaction between 1921 basalt and harzburgite does not changethe mass of liquid in the system. Average experimental liquidcompositions for each sample were obtained by mass balance.Using Kds defined by the ‘control’ sample for eachtemperature, and mass balance constraints, phase assemblages(solid- and liquid-phase compositions and proportions) werecalculated for all mixtures. Whether samples included harzburgite or not, all average experimentalliquid compositions, and all predicted liquid compositions,for samples run at 1050?C, are high-alumina basalts by the definitionof Kuno (1960). By the criteria of Irvine & Baragar (1971),all but two average experimental liquid compositions in basalt-harzburgitemixtures, and all predicted liquid compositions in basalt-harzburgitemixtures, are calc-alkaline basalts and basaltic andesites,whereas liquids in samples containing only basalt are tholeiiticbasalts. Combined crystallization and reaction with harzburgitein the upper mantle will produce calc-alkaline derivative liquidsfrom an olivine tholeiite liquid under conditions of temperature,pressure, water and oxygen fugacity, and initial bulk compositionwhich would produce a tholeiitic liquid line of descent by crystallizationin a closed system. ^*Present address: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543Present address: Grant Institute of Geology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK     

The Relationship Between Mineralogical Characteristics and Isotopic Composition of Sphalerite,as Exemplified by the Huxu Deposit,China

The relationship between mineralogical characteristics and isotopic composition of sulfides has not received its proper share of attention from geologists, although many references are available concerning the application of sulfur isotopes to geological problems. Located in the vicinity of the contact region between the Yangtze Platform and the South China Caledonian Folding Zone, the Huxu deposit is hosted in a structural zone in quartz-diorite-porphyrite emplaced in Jurassic volcanic rocks. Sphalerite and galena are the principal ore minerals in the deposit. (1) Sphalerite is highly variable in color and this variation can be related to its chemical composition and sulfur isotopic characters. Dark colored sphalerites are poor in Zn and Ni, rich in Pb, Cu, Fe, Ag and Au and have high δ³⁴S values, while the opposite is true for light-colored ones. (2) δ³⁴S of sphalerite is negatively correlated with the contents of Zn and Ni and positively correlated with the contents of Pb, Cu, Ag and Au, with the absolute values of the correlation coefficients being greater than 0.7. The above two characters suggest that the sulfur isotopic composition of sphalerite is controlled not only by the physicochemical conditions under which the mineral was formed, but also by mineralogical characteristics of the host mineral. (3) Apparent correlations exist among the constituent elements in the sphalerite. For example, Zn is negatively correlated with Cu, Pb, Fe, Ag and Au and positively correlated with Ni. (4) Sphalerites of the same color in the same hand specimen always show similar characters with respect to trace element and sulfur isotopes. (5) Two distinct trends of evolution can be recognized between Zn and Cu, Zn and Pb, Zn and Ag and between these elements on one hand and δ³⁴S on the other, reflecting that the ore-forming solutions may have resulted from mixing of fluids of different origins. (6) Pb is uniformly distributed in sphalerite and shows positive correlations with Cu, Fe, Ag and δ³⁴S, suggesting isomorphic substitution in the sphalerite lattice. This project was financially supported by the Open Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.     

Reconciling indigenous need with the urban welfare state? Evidence of culturally-appropriate services and spaces for Aboriginals in Winnipeg, Canada

Despite the increasing urbanization of the Aboriginal population in Canada over the past 50 years, most municipalities have not developed services and programs designed to meet their unique social and cultural needs. Faced with numerous health and social problems, the Aboriginal population is mainly forced to rely on the non-Aboriginal social services sector. However, little is known about the extent to which such sectors seek to accommodate Aboriginal populations in their programming. We examine the extent to which the recovery system makes space for Aboriginal healing through the provision of culturally-appropriate services and programming. Through the use of 24 in-depth interviews with staff members at seven treatment facilities in Winnipeg (Canada), we find an entrenched reluctance, indifference and lack of desire to create Aboriginal spaces of healing in treatment, save for one facility where Aboriginal healing spaces serve as a focal point of treatment. We discuss the implications in terms of the effectiveness of the non-Aboriginal recovery system (along with other social services) in meeting the needs of Canada’s urban Aboriginal population.     

A Study on the Relations Between Ultrabasic Dikes and Fine Disseminated Gold Deposits in Southwestern Guizhou Province as Exemplified by Zimudang Large—Sized Gold Deposit

The relations between ultrabasic rocks and gold deposits in time,space and genesis are discussed in this paper,the research results show that the ore-forming materials of the gold deposits is characteristic of crust-mantle mixing,The formation of the gold deposits is related with the activity of juvenile fluids along with the intrusion of ultrabasic dikes.The ascending juvenile fluids not only offered part of the gold.water and mineralizers for gold mineralization but also promoted the remobilization,deposition and enrichment of gold in crustal sediments.     

Natural disasters as the end of the insurance industry? Scalar competitive strategies, Alternative Risk Transfers, and the economic crisis

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has piqued interest in the insurance industry, and this scrutiny has led to assumptions that the industry has become unstable and unprofitable with the increased incidence of disasters in highly-insured regions of the world. This paper challenges that assumption by arguing that the insurance industry has responded by spreading risk through scaled and networked recovery schemes. We found that because of competitive strategies of risk-spreading and displacement arrangements, the industry has actually profited as a whole. Regional insurance companies have always relied on the higher financial scales of the reinsurance industry in Munich, Zurich, and London. But with claims reaching into the billions of dollars, the reinsurance industry itself has raised premiums, spread risk farther afield, and jumped scale by spreading risk to futures markets called Alternative Risk Transfers (ARTs). However, the recession beginning in 2008 has called into question the viability of using futures markets as insurance. It is shown through a media analysis of four major business publications (The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal) how the industry responded to the costs of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 hurricane seasons. Because geography is rather new to this literature, this paper also offers a broad review of the insurance industry.     

Environmental governance through “Speaking Like an Indigenous State” and respatializing resources: Ethical livelihood concepts in Bolivia as versatility or verisimilitude?

This research addresses recent environmental governance in Bolivia through its relations to indigeneity and respatializations. It introduces and develops the concept of “speaking like an indigenous state” to examine the Bolivian state’s recent use of a pair of indigenous linguistic concepts, Living Well and Earth Mother, representing the identities of citizens and their rights to resources and livelihoods. State relations to indigenous social movements highlight the use of Living Well and Earth Mother concepts through accommodation, resistance, and protaganism. Six active issues of environmental governance are examined: (1) climate change and justice movement; (2) agrarian reform, agrobiodiversity, and food justice; (3) water resources; (4) indigenous territories; (5) Protected Areas; and (6) extractive industries (mining, hydrocarbons). The usages of Living Well and Earth Mother show versatility as they have been mobilized in the respatializing of the politics and social-power dynamics of environmental issues at scales of the state, global and international institutions, and community and local levels. Analysis also reveals deployment of Living Well and Earth Mother that is discursively influential and yet conceptually reduced and unevenly applied, thus suggesting a characteristic of verisimilitude. My analysis determines that respatialization at various levels, including territorial transitions of sub-national regional spaces, are associated with the heightened articulation of environmental governance through indigeneity and “speaking like an indigenous state” amid resource nationalism. Linkages and logics operating within this conjuncture differ from the prevailing interpretation of the Bolivian state’s use of Living Well and Earth Mother as solely an unwitting contradiction or instrumentalist camouflage.     

Can excellence management models encompass “cleaner production” and “sustainable business” revolution? (European Foundation for Quality Management as a case study)

“Environmental issues” along with raising awareness of people about the value of ecological systems and the growth of environmentalism have affected businesses systems and models by introducing new concepts and models for business such as sustainable business model. European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model provides a clear path for a company to follow in order to achieve its planned results which can be called sustainable business. The purpose of this study is to explore whether the mentioned model is suitable for the businesses that are based on cleaner production and sustainable business models. The method used in this study is an explorative one based on the literature review and exploration of the adaptability of EFQM Excellence Model (2013), including its fundamental concepts and its criteria, to eight archetypes of sustainable business. The results showed that out of eight fundamental concepts of this model, four are aligned with sustainable business model and four need redefining. Moreover, it was found that environmentalism should be added to the five enablers of the model, and results criteria of it needed to be restructured and redefined. In conclusion, it was shown that despite adoptability of the fundamental concepts of EFQM Excellence Model, there were some lacking criteria for adapting them to sustainable business model. Having this in mind, a modified type of model with the new defined criteria was proposed in this study.     

Is use of oil-field brine as a dust-abating agent really benign? Tracing the source and flowpath of contamination by oil brine in a shallow phreatic aquifer

In Ohio, 1985 H.R. Bill 501 authorizes the local authorities to issue permits to use oil-field brine surface spreading as a dust and ice control agent. Such permits are usually given without any necessary hydrogeological expertise as to the potential impact on the shallow aquifers, particularly if the brine spreading occurs in a recharge area. One such case occurred recently in the southwestern suburb of the City of Wooster, OH, USA, where a group of home owners were seeking judicial relief when their water wells began yielding salty water as a result of brine spreading on a nearby large open storage area for oil and gas well drilling supplies. The defendant, owner of the storage yard, acted in accordance with the permit issued by the local authorities. Yet, decentralized decision making and an increased emphasis on local and citizen involvement have created a gap between science and society. The local authorities were not required by law to condition the issuance of the permit on an analysis of the potential environmental impact. The decision to issue that permit was made purely on non-scientific grounds. Therefore, the residents had no choice but to embark on a costly process of proving the damages, causation, and liability in court of law. During the protracted, 6-year long conflict, an extensive hydrogeological and hydrochemical data set (including stable isotopes’ analyses along with the complete chemical analyses of major and minor constituents) was amassed at a great cost to both sides. The following article presents the hydrogeological and hydrochemical interpretation of this data set. In addition, the case illustrates a glaring deficiency in the Ohio, 1985 H.R. Bill 501, and one pitfall in the “politically correct” philosophy of delegating decision-making process entirely to the non-professional local authorities.