The community morphology of skilled migration: the changing role of voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in the grounding of British migrant identities in Paris (France)

Research into skilled migrant communities tends to emphasize the grounding of identities through transnationalism and mobility. Less research has been conducted into how skilled migrants actually ground their identities within the city through everyday social networks. The paper addresses this imbalance by examining the changing significance of British voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in Paris, France. Combining qualitative and quantitative data, findings show local migrant networks to be important focal points for the British even though migrants’ lives may increasingly be transnational in orientation. The research also shows that in situ social networks are evolving. Specifically, traditional forms of elite expatriate communality are not as omnipotent as they once were, with the popularity of some high-profile British VCOs in Paris declining over recent decades. The paper argues that the link between social dynamism and communal morphology helps explain this shift: as British middle-class lifestyles have fragmented, and as the British migrant population in Paris has grown in scale and scope, so the range of VCOs and associated informal networks has grown. Whilst some skilled migrants still embed within traditional expatriate organisations, Britishness is increasingly grounded elsewhere; both within the city through alternative social networks, and located beyond the city through transnational ties.     

绿色社区可持续发展评价指标体系构建

从绿色社区的概念出发，结合可持续发展理念．探讨了绿色社区的内涵和评价的内容，提出了一组测评绿色社区可持续发展的评价指标体系。该组指标体系综合考虑了绿色社区的环境、资源及人与城市发展的需要和对未来发展的支撑，具有可操作性。     

国外自发地理信息研究进展及对我国的启示

在内涵解析的基础上,主要从数据质量评估、贡献者分类与动机以及法律议题三方面归纳与梳理国外自发地理信息的研究情况。相比较而言,我国对自发地理信息的研究无论从深度还是广度上都处于起步阶段,未来研究应从四个方面深入开展:政府主导下的公众贡献自发地理信息;数据质量控制;移动自发地理信息以及自发地理信息涉及的法律议题。     

Analyzing empowerment: An ongoing process of building state-civil society relations - The case of Walnut Way in Milwaukee

Arguments regarding citizen involvement and empowerment within neoliberal urban politics are ample in geographic literature. Existing discussions often define and evaluate empowerment as either some social, political, or economic end-product of a specific event. Such singular conceptualization is problematic. First, different kinds of social, political, and economic changes can simultaneously empower/disempower communities in contradictory ways. In addition, the view of empowerment as an end-product of a present event obscures a more nuanced understanding of empowerment as an ongoing process of state-civil society relation-building. An in-depth assessment of such a process is only possible with reference to the past and the potential future occurrences. Elwood’s (2002) multi-dimensional conceptualization of empowerment recognizes the limitations of a singular definition of empowerment. However, it falls short of operationalizing empowerment as a temporal process with a historically and geographically contingent past, dynamic present, and future in the making. Therefore, in this paper I expand on Elwood’s framework to show how a process-based view as opposed to a narrow end-product-based or event-based one can provide a deeper understanding of state-civil society interaction and community empowerment. This paper analyzes the interaction between the City of Milwaukee, the residents of a predominantly black inner-city neighborhood, the Walnut Way, and their community organization, the Walnut Way Conservation Corp. within a land-use dispute related to the development of a park space into a housing project. Using data collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews, archival research, and participant observation, this paper emphasizes that despite methodological limitations of collecting long-term data, community empowerment can and should be studied as a process with reference to the past, present, and potential future state-civil society interactions.     

我国城市规划中的公众参与研究

公众参与是随着政治文明和法制建设不断成熟、发展而产生的一种民主理念,已经成为城市规划工作中一项必不可少的内容。文章就我国城市规划中公众参与的现状提出我国城市规划过程中公众参与的必要性和紧迫性,总结出我国现阶段公众参与的现状与问题,并提出对策和合理化建议,从而把公众参与真正落实到我国的城市规划过程当中。     

Exploring Saturation of Themes and Spatial Locations in Qualitative Public Participation Geographic Information Systems Research

Use of public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) studies that collect local knowledge in a spatial format is increasing as a tool in natural resources management. Qualitative PPGIS studies have been conducted as individual interviews, as workshops, and in focus groups. As the number of qualitative PPGIS studies increases, so does the need to understand their quality. Saturation, the point when the researcher determines that the collection of additional data will provide minimal new information as it relates to a particular issue, directly reflects on the validity of the study. While the concept of saturation is well established, it is still inconsistently assessed and reported. Furthermore, how saturation applies to qualitatively collected spatial data has not been addressed. A method is presented to assess spatial saturation of qualitative PPGIS data from 19 focus groups that were conducted to investigate important places for recreation, livelihoods, and the environment in the Florida Panhandle.     

Fishing for opinions: Stakeholder views on MSFD implementation in European Seas

Stakeholder participation is vital when introducing and implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) at any scale. This paper presents the results of a survey covering four European Regional Seas (Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and North-East Atlantic Ocean) aimed to collect stakeholders׳ perspectives on their Regional Sea governance to implement the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). In this survey, drivers of good governance including stakeholder involvement, willingness and capacity to cooperate, efficiency, institutional ambiguity and decision-making were explored. The results indicate a clear gap in perception between the current, the ideal and the foreseen situation regarding the implementation of the MSFD. The preferences for the future governance structures vary between stakeholders and across seas although some similarities can be found. Based on the results of the survey, this paper concludes that tailor-made rather than off-the-shelf solutions will be needed to accommodate regional cooperation in the European marine environment for implementing ecosystem-based management under the MSFD.     

Research on Paleoecology of Middle Permian-Middle Triassic in the Western Sichuan Basin

The research area is located in the western part of Sichuan basin as a Yangtze ecotope of Cathaysian Tethyan area. It is dominated by benthic fauna, including brachiopods, Fusulinids, corals, bivalves, foraminifers, ammonites, bryozoans,Crinoids and pleopods which are less common with traces of trilobites, stromatoporas, nautilus and sporopollens seen in one or two areas,which are obviously controlled by sedimentary environments and in accordance with sedimentary facies.Through the analysis of fossils and research on burial characteristics from middle Permian middleTriassic, based on the combination of the feature of fossils in time and space, seventeen communities are recognized, the coposition, construction and palaeoenvironment of each community are expounded. Study shows that different ecological type biocoenose are distributed in different locations, which are mainly represented by sessile benthic community in the main research area, composed of Mianzhu, Mianyang, Deyang and Santai and nektonic community in marginal areas in the research area subdivided into two parts: Areas around Guangyuan-Nanjiang-Tongjiang, located at the margins in the northeast of the research area, and areas around Wenchuan-Maoxian-Dayidafeishui situated at the western borders of the research area. According to the combination of communities with sedimentary characteristics,six kinds of biofacies have been recognized and described in the study area and biofacies pattern are established. Category,ecotype, typical community and sedimentary facies of each biofacies are elucidated in this paper. The subdivision and analysis of community are meaningful for the studies of paleoenvironment ,paleogeography and their evolutions,The research of biaofacies is important for the recovery of paleobiogeography and paleoplate tectonic characteristics.     

Simulated impacts of irrigation on evapotranspiration in a strongly exploited region: a case study of the Haihe River basin,China

Irrigation is the major water supply for crop production in water‐limited regions. However, this important water component is usually neglected or simplified in hydrological modelling primarily because information concerning irrigation is notably difficult to collect. To assess real effects of irrigation on the simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) in water‐limited region, the Community Land Model version 4 was established over a typical semi‐humid agricultural basin in the northern China – the Haihe River basin. In the irrigated cropland, incorporating an irrigation scheme can enhance the simulated ET and improve the simulation of spatial variability of soil moisture content. We found that different configurations in the irrigation scheme do not cause significant differences in the simulated annual ET. However, simulated ET with simulated irrigation differs clearly from that with observed irrigation in mean annual magnitude, long‐term trend and spatial distribution. Once the irrigation scheme is well‐calibrated against observations, it reasonably reproduces the interannual variability of annual irrigation, when irrigation water management is relatively stable. More importantly, parameter calibration should be consistent with the configuration of the source of irrigation water. However, an irrigation scheme with a constant parameter value cannot capture the trend in the annual irrigation amount caused by abrupt changes in agricultural water management. Compared with different remotely sensed ET products, the enhancement in the simulated ET by irrigation is smaller than the differences among these products, and the trend in simulated ET with the observed irrigation cannot be captured correctly by the remotely sensed ET. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Land tenure and REDD+: The good,the bad and the ugly

A number of international donors, national governments and project proponents have begun to lay the groundwork for REDD+, but tenure insecurity – including the potential risks of land grabbing by outsiders and loss of local user rights to forests and forest land – is one of the main reasons that many indigenous and other local peoples have publicly opposed it. Under what conditions is REDD+ a threat to local rights, and under what conditions does it present an opportunity? This article explores these issues based on available data from a global comparative study on REDD+, led by the Center for International Forestry Research, which is studying national policies and processes in 12 countries and 23 REDD+ projects in 6 countries. The article analyses how tenure concerns are being addressed at both national and project level in emerging REDD+ programs. The findings suggest that in most cases REDD+ has clearly provided some new opportunities for securing local tenure rights, but that piecemeal interventions by project proponents at the local level are insufficient in the absence of broader, national programs for land tenure reform. The potential for substantial changes in the status quo appear unlikely, though Brazil – the only one with such a national land tenure reform program – offers useful insights. Land tenure reform – the recognition of customary rights in particular – and a serious commitment to REDD+ both challenge the deep-rooted economic and political interests of ‘business as usual’.