Public Engagement in Social-Ecological Systems Management: An Application of Social Justice Theory

Public engagement is important for improving outcomes of social-ecological systems management. We used a social justice theoretical framework to measure residents’ attitudes toward public engagement processes and satisfaction with outcomes of a restoration project in Western Montana. We predicted process control and decision control domains of procedural justice would significantly predict stakeholder satisfaction, with decision control partially mediating the relationship between process control and satisfaction. We tested these predictions using a path analysis of intercept survey data collected from residents within the project area. We found process control had a significant and positive effect on satisfaction but was fully mediated by decision control, suggesting that successful engagement requires opportunities for stakeholders not only to participate but to clearly shape decisions and outcomes. We discuss implications for public engagement, human dimensions research, and social monitoring of social-ecological systems.     

Contingencies of environmental justice: the case of individual mobility and Grenoble’s Low-Emission Zone

Low-emission zones (LEZs) are core urban areas where vehicles that are deemed especially polluting are prohibited, in the hope of reducing the population’s exposure to outdoor air pollution. LEZs have proliferated in Europe during the past decade. While an emerging body of literature considers LEZs’ impacts on pollution, studies thus far have not tackled LEZs’ impacts on mobility. This article uses household-travel survey data to assess how a projected LEZ in Grenoble, France could affect individuals’ mobility, specifically enquiring whether or not the impact would be socially differentiated and might constitute a social injustice. Four likely scenarios are considered and logistic regressions show that, indeed, the probability that people will be affected by the LEZ is related to their social group. However, interpretations in terms of social justice may vary, depending on the reference population considered and hypotheses regarding the reduction of pollution exposure.     

“The Community Helped Me:” Community Cohesion and Environmental Concerns in Personal Assessments of Post-Disaster Recovery

Abstract

This study investigates long-term appraisals of community recovery after a major environmental disaster. Specifically, we conducted a survey of 351 individuals living in coastal counties in Alabama and Florida on the five-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Using mixed methods that combined content analysis and ordinary least squares regression, we find that residents who believe they live in a community where neighbors help each other are more likely to see their communities as recovering. Conversely, reporting major effects from environmental problems, like lost fishing income, reduces perceptions of community recovery. Five years after the oil spill a majority of respondents saw little economic recovery and almost half perceived low environmental recovery. This reflects the importance of the environment to the long-term health and success of areas dependent on natural resources. It also suggests the need for directing funding toward community-level programs and preserving shared natural resources post-disaster.     

Geographic Polarization,Partisan Voting,And The Battle Over Same‐Sex Marriage Within The Culture War

Geographic polarization arises when partisan, or like‐minded, voters live in enclaves separate from voters of differing partisan behavior. Research studies at multiple scales of analysis suggest that geographic polarization most typically occurs regarding partisan voting behavior; however, few studies have analyzed polarization with a focus on policy preferences. This research examines same‐sex marriage policy through two statewide issues that shared the presidential election ballot in 2004. The results of that presidential election and these two ballot initiatives are examined in Cincinnati, Ohio, and counties in its surrounding Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in both Ohio and Kentucky. A geographically polarized relationship was found between partisan results and same‐sex marriage results. In addition, the findings suggest that despite a close link between partisan voting and issue voting on same‐sex marriage, spatial clustering (geographic polarization) was identified of those who voted differently from their fellow partisans.     

Watering the suburbs: distinction,conformity and the suburban garden

Research on domestic water use has conventionally been confined to understanding the role of physical variables such as rainfall and temperature in influencing patterns of consumption. In limiting research to this narrow focus, the significance of socio‐cultural variables has been largely ignored. This paper seeks to develop socio‐cultural understandings of domestic water use by examining water consumption as part of a broader set of consumption practices associated with suburban space. In particular, the socio‐cultural dimensions are explored on a local scale through an exploration of water‐use patterns associated with the new suburban garden: an important site of home‐making processes, and one associated with a substantial proportion of domestic water consumption. The notion of cultural capital is adopted as a framework for examining these consumption patterns. Water consumption is analysed as a practice through which cultural capital can be accumulated. It is argued that the contrasting notions of social distinction and social conformity in the suburban garden shape the accumulation of cultural capital and influence patterns of water consumption. Understanding these socio‐cultural dimensions of water consumption is important in shaping water‐use management, an issue discussed throughout the paper.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Stuart C. Aitken, Family Fantasies and Community Space Robert M. Bone, The Regional Geography of Canada Michael R. Curry, Digital Places: Living with Geographic Information Technologies John Fraser Hart, The Rural Landscape Guntrum Herb and David Kaplan, Nested Identities: Nationalism, Territory, and Scale Klaus Frantz, Indian Reservations in the United States: Territory, Sovereignty, and Socioeconomic Change Linda Mcdowell, Gender, Identity and Place Wolfgang G. Natter, Literature at War, 1914–1940 Allen J. Scott, Regions and the World Economy Hilgard O' Reilly Sternberg, A Água e o Homem na Várzea do Careiro     

Rural restructuring in China: Theory,approaches and research prospect

Rural restructuring is a process of reshaping socio-economic morphology and spatial pattern in rural territory in response to the changes of elements both in kernel system and external system of rural development, by optimally allocating and efficiently managing the material and non-material elements in the two systems. It aims at ultimately optimizing the structure and promoting the function within rural territorial system as well as realizing the coordination of structure and complementation of function between urban and rural territorial system. This paper establishes a theoretical framework of rural restructuring through elaborating the concept and connotations as well as analyzing the mechanism pushing forward rural restructuring based on the evolution of “elements-structure-function”, and probes the approaches from the three aspects of spatial restructuring, economic restructuring and social restructuring. Besides, the authors argue that the study of rural restructuring in China in the future needs to focus on the aspects of long-term and multi-scale process and pattern, mechanism, regional models, rural planning technology system and standard, policy and institutional innovations concerning rural restructuring as well as the impacts of globalization on rural restructuring, in order to serve the current national strategic demands and cope with the changes of rural development elements in the process of urban-rural development transformation.     

苏州老城区衰退邻里居住满意度及影响因素

转型时期中国社会经济经历了巨大转型,居住分异加剧,新城市贫困现象在特定人群和空间集聚,老城衰退邻里就是其中之一。通过对苏州老城区6个典型社区的调查,发现老城区居民居住满意度存在环境类型、空间类型、更新类型和人群分异。居住满意度主要受住房条件、社区环境、配套设施和社会网络影响,其中城市历史社会空间结构奠定了城市环境质量的总体格局,具体设施条件受建成时间、维护水平、人口密度和更新机会的影响;城市更新、原住民比例下降和外来人口迁入导致的人口置换过程破坏了原本良好的社会网络,降低了居住满意度,减少了脱贫机会。从微观社区尺度研究老城衰退邻里的居住满意度及影响因素,不仅能加深对新城市贫困现象的理解,也有利于未来有针对性地制定城市更新规划和扶贫策略。     

社会科学和公共政策的空间化和GIS的应用

近年来社会科学的发展出现三大潮流,即“科学化”(强调借用自然科学的计量分析方法和模型)、“空间化”(关注社会经济现象的空间变化和相互作用) 和“应用化”(侧重于政策性规划性强的实用课题)。空间化的社会科学,尤其是应用研究离不开地理信息系统(GIS) 方法的应用,因为GIS 在整合、分析各种数据尤其是空间数据方面有独特优势。本文举例演示GIS 在相关领域(如经济学、语言历史、社会学特别是犯罪学、公共卫生和规划)的广泛应用。选取的案例来源于笔者多年研究的经验,包括美国联邦政府多家研究机构(NSF、NIH、NIJ) 资助的多项研究成果,旨在说明GIS在社会科学和公共政策研究中的应用价值。     

在韩中国朝鲜族社会网络地理特征对其中国认同的影响

许多研究表明,人们在流动到其他国家后,其族群认同、国家认同会因为迁入地的社会条件的影响而发生变化。这个结论已经毋庸论证,人们需要知道的是影响这些认同的因素和机制为何。在当今世界中,要破解复杂的国家认同问题,需要将影响国家认同的机制做细致分解。研究组设计了一般性分析框架,将社会网络之地理特性作为影响因素,旅居海外公民的母国认同作为影响结果,再以之分析在韩国的朝鲜族对中国认同的变化趋势,并对这种认同变化做一个基本的评价。分析结论是:在韩朝鲜族社会网络的三个地理特征对他们的中国认同有正向促进作用,其一是近年在韩朝鲜族的业缘网络对中国的覆盖度不断增加;其二是家庭长者作为亲缘网络中的核心人物位于中国;其三是中国的国际地位逐渐提高。地理学视角有助于更清晰地分析国家认同。未来需要分析在韩朝鲜族对哪个国家的认同更强,这对移入国和移出国双方或许更为重要。