Social identity, perception and motivation in adaptation to climate risk in the coffee sector of Chiapas, Mexico

Most investigation into climate adaptation to date has focused on specific technological interventions and socio-economic aspects of adaptive capacity. New perspectives posit that socio-cognitive factors may be as or more important in motivating individuals to take adaptive actions. Recent research indicates that incorporating insights from motivation theory can enhance theorization of adaptive capacity. Yet unexplored, and what we propose here, is the addition of social identity to models of adaptive capacity and adaptation. To apply this conceptual framework, the first author undertook in-depth interviews with a sample of farmers who had participated in broader surveys the previous year to explore their perceptions of their social identity, climate-related information and its sources, and climate risk. These interviews elicited compelling evidence that social identity mediates between risk perception and adaptation through its influence on motivation. Interviews revealed significant links between social identity and perception of information, risk perception and adaptation, of which the most salient were the relative credibility and legitimacy of information sources (related to us vs. them social group differentiation); the role of coffee organizations; and ethnicity and geographic marginalization. Strong in-group identity and perceptions of potentially influential out-groups such as the scientific community appear to particularly influence perception and use of information. These findings have rich policy implications for adaptation management and merit further investigation to identify how, where and why social identity plays a role in climate-risk perception, motivation and adaptation in other geographic areas of vulnerability worldwide.     

Human geography in higher education in Malaysia: Issues and challenges

This paper reviews the state of higher education human geography in contemporary Malaysia in relation to four main challenges: defending the unity of identity of higher education geography as a coherent and distinct discipline; ensuring the institutional survival of geography in higher education; enhancing the visibility of geographers as public intellectuals; and fostering the internationalization of human geography in Malaysia. It also suggests possible measures in responding to these. Moreover, while sharing the problems of developing higher education human geography experienced in other countries, Malaysia suffers most from national education policies that place lesser importance on the teaching of geography in schools, that stipulate a non‐English (Malay) medium of instruction, and that have been late in espousing an outward looking research university concept. In summing up the prevailing conditions as depicting a mixed bag of benign contentment, hard‐nosed pragmatism and continuing frustrations, it is uncertain whether recent policy changes to advance research environments in public universities can appreciably alleviate the fourfold challenges mentioned above.     

生态足迹模型测度可持续发展的缺陷分析

近年来,生态足迹模型被众多研究者和一些国际机构作为测度可持续发展的方法,但在用于区域可持续发展测度时,测度结果有时是与可持续发展原则相悖的。因此,学术界对该方法一直存在争议。目前的一些研究认为:生态足迹模型不能作为可持续发展的测度方法,区域生态赤字也不能指示区域生态超载,但全球生态赤字可以指示全球生态超载;这是由于生态足迹模型存在的生态偏向性和否认贸易合理性造成的。本文将生态足迹模型具有的测度功能分别与测度可持续发展和生态可持续性应具备的功能进行比较,得出:无论在全球还是在区域尺度上,生态足迹模型不仅不能作为可持续发展的测度方法,也不能作为生态可持续性的测度方法,当然,生态赤字也不能指示生态超载;这是由于生态足迹模型不仅存在生态偏向性和否认贸易合理性的缺陷,同时还存在混淆概念的逻辑错误。这个结论进一步推进了当前生态足迹模型的研究结论,有助于生态足迹模型的正确运用。     

中国人口和富裕对环境的影响

辨明人类活动各因素对环境影响作用的大小,并依此找寻发展的对策是当前可持续发展研究的核心问题之一.分析了IPAT等式在分解环境影响中人文因素的作用;采用生态足迹作为环境影响的测量指标,利用STIRPAT模型,以1999年中国各省市的截面数据为例,分析了人口数量、富裕程度、现代化及经济区位和自然区位对环境影响的具体作用,并在此基础上探讨了中国各省(市)的技术生态效益.结果表明:人口数量是当前环境影响的一个主要驱动因子,环境影响与人口数量近同比例变化,富裕程度或现代化程度增加也将加剧人类对环境的影响.在观测数据范围内,分析结果不支持存在环境Kuznets曲线的观点.最后分析讨论了不支持存在环境Kuznets曲线的原因及STIRPAT模型的优缺点,并指出社会适应性能力可作为下一步深入研究的方向.     

Aussiedler migration and its impact on Braşov's ethnic German population and built environment

The expression of different ethnic identities in the landscape is a product of the creation, destruction and preservation of the built environment. This may illustrate the changing processes over the evolution of a landscape. In the case of Braşov, Romania, it is possible to see in the urban landscape a reflection of the changing nature of the relationship between the ethnic German and Romanian populations, and the German and Romanian governments. This paper will demonstrate the persistence of ethnic German culture in the built environment and social organisation of Braşov in spite of the exodus of the ethnic German population. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

REVISITING THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE: TRANSMILLENNIAL CONJURINGS*

ABSTRACT. Ever anxious about real and apparent “identity” crises, Australians have in recent years been increasingly better served by interdisciplinary academic writings. A common theme is the clarification and resolution of recurrent national uncertainty. Others, intimately related, include the divide between indigenous and imported conceptualizations, especially notions of sacredness, together with broadly targeted historical interpretations of environmentalism, environmental management, and violent social clashes on settlement frontiers. Although these academic writings represent welcome additions to civic scholarship, they are also variously influenced, and their purchase on the public imagination limited, by the effects of current intellectual trends. While it might be expected that fictional exemplars would address place‐making and place‐securing in rather more comfortable fashion, they have not been immune to similar destabilizations. Nonetheless, one intriguing, problematical work makes a useful civic point in dealing creatively with Australia's epidemic of premillennial doubt.     

基于集体记忆的红色旅游地地方性建构

红色历史的集体记忆嵌入动态的地方建构和空间生产过程,成为地方性重构的有力素材。文章以云南省宾川县新庄红军村为例,通过参与式观察和访谈文本分析等质性方法,从地方性景观与话语的再建构,以及地方性情境创设的空间实践,探讨新庄村的地方性建构机制。研究发现：具体的地方要素在地方-记忆的互动关系中起中介承启作用。地方要素既促进红色旅游情境下记忆的唤起、存储与再创造,又对集体记忆重新建构的地方特质、意义与场所精神进行地方性元素表达。旅游情境创设与地方性展演使集体记忆不断得到投影、表达与重构,推动差异化的地方叙述与体验。     

基于扎根理论和探索性因子分析的大学生地方认同维度研究——以武汉大学为例

为探索大学生地方认同的组成结构,以武汉大学为例,通过非结构访谈手段获取第一手研究资料,运用扎根理论分析大学生地方认同维度,并在此基础上设计调查问卷,利用探索性因子分析方法进一步分析大学生地方认同维度结构特征。研究发现：武汉大学大学生地方认同具有认知、情感、行为、自我效能和承诺5个维度的结构特征;学生对学校的地方认同较高;入学时间、所属学部、高考志愿、籍贯是地方认同形成的主要影响因素。大学生的个人背景（年级、所属学部、高考志愿、籍贯）不同,在地方认同及其各个维度上有较大差异。     

文化认同和参与能力视角下的乡村治理路径探索——基于鄂东某村落春节期间的乡村治理实践

在市场化、城市化和现代化冲击下,中国乡村作为一个村集体“大家庭”的身份认同日渐式微。这种集体认同的消解不断侵蚀乡村治理的文化基础。同时,快速城市化背景下,随着大量年轻劳动力的外流和弱势村民的留守,中国乡村“空心化”现象十分普遍。其结果是,村民很难实质性地参与到乡村发展和乡村治理过程中去,中国乡村治理工作普遍面临治理主体缺位和治理无方等结构性问题。重点参照文化认同和参与能力的理论基础,具体从乡村治理主体地位的培养、乡村治理能力的提升两方面,笔者通过在其家乡湖北东部FX村开展村民论坛、尽孝道和摆长桌宴等活动,试图探索中国乡村治理的有效路径。实践表明：第一,基于“共同体”的乡村社区文化认同感和归属感的建立,是乡村治理的前提和基础;第二,根植乡村公共性,激发村民的表达和参与意愿,增强村民议事能力,是乡村治理的本质和关键。最后,对目前如火如荼的乡村（村镇）规划,提出若干启示：1）乡村（村镇）规划的核心议题是社区、社区关系和社区能力;2）乡村（村镇）规划不能沿袭城市（镇）规划的思维;3）乡村（村镇）规划需要充分尊重乡土知识;4）比起物质性规划,乡村（村镇）的社会性规划（social planning）更加重要;5）质性分析和质性思维非常重要。     

Food,Morality and Identity: mobility,remittances and the translocal community in Paama,Vanuatu

Migration and remittances characterise many small Pacific islands, where local livelihoods are limited, and the need for money has increased. A majority of Paamese have left the island of Paama, in the central island chain of Vanuatu, and more now live in the capital city, Port Vila, than on Paama. Remittances are bidirectional, between the island and Vila, a duality that has rarely been discussed in Melanesia. Almost every household on Paama and in Vila is involved in sending and receiving remittances. Remittances usually involve food: ‘modern’ foods (such as rice) flowing from Vila, and island foods (yams and laplap) travelling to Vila. While such transfers make little formal economic sense, they emphasise a constant process of negotiating and manipulating social relationships. Food, as an expression of identity and locality, is a powerful and repetitive reminder of moral obligations and rural–urban kinship connections. The material significance of exchange is thus less than its affective significance, within the field of reciprocity that structures kin relationships. Food and remittances have become metaphors for defining the experience of migration, as their meaning and function are more than to merely provide a source of nutrition. They have also become the means of structuring a translocal moral economy.