Does Social Learning Lead to Better Natural Resource Management? A Case Study of the Modern Farming Community of Practice in Sweden

This study investigates whether social learning among large-scale farmers in central Sweden leads to better natural resource management in the agricultural landscape. Three different frames of social learning are first identified: social learning as a fundamental social phenomenon, social learning as collaborative learning, and social learning as deeper learning. This article investigates the role of social learning and other factors through semistructured in-depth interviews. Results show that learning among farmers is inherently social, but that this learning does not necessarily improve natural resource management or lead to better environmental governance. The article discusses when social learning can be expected to influence natural resources management, and finds that without the presence of policy, individual leadership, or facilitation, it is not an important factor. Furthermore, the call for social learning based on results from successful instrumental application risks obscuring findings indicating that both social learning and better natural resource management are conditioned on the same external factors.     

Community Action and Tiger Conservation: Assessing the Role of Social Capital

Tiger conservation often requires local-level support to avoid facing serious political challenges. In order to address the political challenges, the social capital of communities can be utilized to create community action and to help understand local dynamics. We studied the social capital in two villages bordering Corbett Tiger Reserve, India. Our results indicate that social capital of local communities is a significant determinant of potential for community action to support or oppose tiger conservation outcomes. Our results also indicate that specific components of social capital (solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation, networks, and mutual support) were critical in this potential community action. Further, the data suggest that the decline of social capital was led by the financial disparities created by unplanned growth of tourism outside the reserve boundaries. We suggest that policy and management interventions should consider social capital of local communities and ways in which it may support tiger conservation in India.     

A Review of: “Remote Sensing of Soils and Vegetation in the USSR”. By P. J. CURRAN,G. M. FOODY,K. YA. KONDRATYEV,V. V. KOZODEROV and P. P. FEDCHENKO. (London: Taylor & Francis, 1990.) [Pp. 200.] Price £30·00. ISBN 085066 4020.

As they increase in popularity, social media are regarded as important sources of information on geographical phenomena. Studies have also shown that people rely on social media to communicate during disasters and emergency situation, and that the exchanged messages can be used to get an insight into the situation. Spatial data mining techniques are one way to extract relevant information from social media. In this article, our aim is to contribute to this field by investigating how graph clustering can be applied to support the detection of geo-located communities in Twitter in disaster situations. For this purpose, we have enhanced the fast-greedy optimization of modularity (FGM) clustering algorithm with semantic similarity so that it can deal with the complex social graphs extracted from Twitter. Then, we have coupled the enhanced FGM with the varied density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise spatial clustering algorithm to obtain spatial clusters at different temporal snapshots. The method was experimented with a case study on typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and Twitter’s different interaction modes were compared to create the graph of users and to detect communities. The experiments show that communities that are relevant to identify areas where disaster-related incidents were reported can be extracted, and that the enhanced algorithm outperforms the generic one in this task.     

Marketing the Chinese Dream Home: Gated Communities and Representations of the Good Life in (Post-)Socialist Shanghai

This paper examines the advertising themes and rhetoric that have been assembled in the place-marketing of Shanghai's newly built gated communities. We demonstrate how place-marketing strategies, in this case selling the Chinese dream home, draws upon specific landscape meanings and values that are embedded in Chinese/Shanghainese history, even as symbolic and cultural capital from the contemporary scene also exert their influences. Collectively, these representations of the good life both reflect and reinforce the exclusivist housing aspirations and privatist visions of middle-class residents of gated communities in contemporary Shanghai. While advertisements do not always achieve the outcomes that property developers wish for, there is no doubt that they play significant roles in both shaping and reflecting landscape meanings and values. As medium and outcome, they reveal the growing aspirations of a new Chinese middle class.     

Changes in groundwater bacterial community during cyclic groundwater-table variations

Column experiments containing an aquifer sand were subjected to static and oscillating water tables to investigate the impact of natural fluctuations and rainfall infiltration on the groundwater bacterial community just below the phreatic surface, and its association with the geochemistry. Once the columns were established, the continuously saturated zone was anoxic in all three columns. The rate of soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization was higher when the water table varied cyclically than when it was static due to the greater availability of NO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻. Natural fluctuations in the water table resulted in a similar NO₃⁻ concentration to that observed with a static water table but the cyclic wetting of the intermittently saturated zone resulted in a higher SO₄²⁻ concentration. Rainfall infiltration induced cyclic water-table variations resulted in a higher NO₃⁻ concentration than those in the other two columns, and a SO₄²⁻ concentration intermediate between those columns. As rainwater infiltration resulted in slow downward displacement of the groundwater, it is inferred that NO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻ were being mobilized from the vadose zone. NO₃⁻ was mainly released by SOM mineralization (which was enhanced by the infiltration of oxygenated rainwater), but the larger amount of SO₄²⁻ release required a second mechanism (possibly desorption). Different groundwater bacterial communities evolved from initially similar populations due to the different groundwater histories.     

Planktonic rotifers in mining lakes in the Silesian Upland: Relationship to environmental parameters

The effects of coal-mine waters on the structure and the density of planktonic rotifer communities were studied in lakes formed as a result of subsidence due to mining (collapse of underground tunnels). Water samples were collected according to the standard methods from four mining lakes in Tychy-Czu?ów (near Katowice, southern Poland), twice a month from June till October in 2004-2006. Two of the studied lakes were fed by mine waters but differed in flow rate, conductivity, water pH, and the amount of aquatic vegetation. The effects of those factors on the planktonic rotifer communities were analysed. In total, 83 species and forms of rotifers were recorded. The highest diversity of rotifers was found in the lakes with the largest patches of aquatic vegetation, while the highest density of rotifers was observed in the smallest and the most eutrophicated lake. High-water conductivity limited both species diversity and densities of rotifers. The rotifer communities of the studied lakes differed significantly in species diversity, although all the lakes were dominated by eurytopic species: Keratella cochlearis, Brachionus angularis, Brachionus calyciflorus, and Polyarthra sp. In the largest lake, characterized by the lowest conductivity and pH, the superdominant was Polyarthra luminosa, which in the other lakes was rare or absent. Higher conductivity was correlated with a lower density of P. luminosa, Brachionus diversicornis, K. cochlearis f. tecta, and a higher density of B. calyciflorus. In the lakes with the largest patches of aquatic vegetation, conductivity affected the number of dominant rotifer species. Apparently no other abiotic factors (pH, phosphates, and nitrates) affected the rotifer communities.     

社会文化制度对门禁社区发展的影响——中国和荷兰的对比研究

作为后现代城市主义的典型空间形态,门禁社区在全球的蔓延引起了学界的广泛关注。当前对门禁社区发展机制的探讨主要集中于全球性宏观社会环境和消费者需求的层面,但对供给方的推动和制约因素关注不够。本文从制度视角出发,以中国和荷兰为案例,分析了门禁社区发展的异同,并具体从住房开发政策过程、历史传统和价值观两方面去理解和解释产生这种差异的原因。研究既是对从供给角度研究门禁社区的补充和拓展,同时也显示了本土制度环境解释人文地理学问题的必要性和重要性。指出在借鉴西方理论理解中国城市空间结构和社会变迁问题的同时,也不可忽视中国自身历史文化因素和社会制度背景。     

Ethnobotanical study towards conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants in upper catchments of Dhauli Ganga in the central Himalaya

The present study broadly focused on medicinal plant species collected from wild by the villagers for different purposes in the upper catchment of Dhauli Ganga in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve(NDBR),in the central Himalaya.A schedule based survey was conducted during the years 2003-2005 in 15 villages of Chamoli district part of the NDBR.Information was collected from collectors, vaidya(medicine man)and those dealing with domestication and marketing of the medicinal plants. The aim of the study was to understand the prioritiesed medicinal plants,their mode of collection and document their ethnobotanical uses by the Bhotiya tribal communities,in this world heritage site. During the survey,50 medicinal plants belonging to 31 families and 44 genera were documented.Out of these,70% were harvested from the wild,22% were cultivated and 8% were cultivated as well as wild harvested.Of the cultivated species,8% were found growing in the kitchen gardens and 14%in the agricultural fields.However,42%of the plants had their roots and rhizomes used followed by leaves (26%),seeds(10%),seed and leaf(8%),bark and whole plant(6%)and flower(1%).Most plants were reported to be used for rheumatism(16),followed by stomach disorder(14),cold and cough(11),and jaundice(9).Thirty three plants species were reported to have more than one therapeutic uses,while 17 species were reported to be used against single ailment.The distance of villages from road head was one of the factors contributing to the decline in the medicinal plant population in their natural habitats. The availability of medicinal plants increased with increase in distance from road head and also the peoples’dependence on them.Documentation of the traditional knowledge will help in conservation of knowledge and also opportunity for using it for future training and use.The result of this study will help in promoting sustainable cultivation and implementation in conservation protocol of those species,which are in the verge of extinction in this region.