The Transnational World of the Cominternians

The 'Cominternians' who staffed the Communist International in Moscow from its establishment in 1919 to its dissolution in 1943 led transnational lives and formed a cosmopolitan but closed and privileged world. The book tells of their experience in the Soviet Union through the decades of hope and terror.

Negotiating conservation: the construction of meaningful spaces in a world heritage debate

According to one’s personal biography, social background and the resultant degree of affectedness, a person has certain ideas about the meaning of, in our example, a World Heritage Site (WHS), what he or she can expect from it and what his or her relation to it can and should be. The handling of potentially different meaningful spaces is decisive, when it comes to the negotiation of pathways towards the sustainable development of a WHS region. Due to the fact that – in a pluralistic world – multiple realities exist, they have to be taken seriously and adequately addressed. In this article we identified the ways the Jungfrau-Aletsch- WHS was constructed by exploring the visual and verbal representations of the WHS during the decision-making process (1998-2001). The results demonstrate that in the visual representations (images), the WHS was to a large extent presented as an unspoiled natural environment similar to a touristy promotion brochure. Such a ‘picture-book’-like portrait has no direct link to the population’s daily needs, their questions and anxieties about the consequences of a WHS label. By contrast, the verbal representations (articles, letters-to-the-editor, comments) were dominated by issues concerning the economic development of the region, fears of disappropriation, and different views on nature. Whereas visual and verbal representations to a large extent differ significantly, their combination might have contributed to the final decision of the majority of people concerned to support the application for inscription of the Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn region into the World Heritage list. The prominence of economic arguments and narratives about intergenerational responsibility in the verbal representations and their combination with the aesthetic appeal of the natural environment in the visual representations might have built a common meaningful space for one part of the population.

Managing a World Heritage Site: Potentials and limitations of transdisciplinary approaches

Balancing the frequently conflicting priorities of conservation and economic development poses a challenge to management of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau- Aletsch World Heritage Site (WHS). This is a complex societal problem that calls for a knowledge-based solution. This in turn requires a transdisciplinary research framework in which problems are defined and solved cooperatively by actors from the scientific community and the life-world. In this article we re-examine studies carried out in the region of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch WHS, covering three key issues prevalent in transdisciplinary settings: integration of stakeholders into participatory processes; perceptions and positions; and negotiability and implementation. In the case of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch WHS the transdisciplinary setting created a situation of mutual learning among stakeholders from different levels and backgrounds. However, the studies showed that the benefits of such processes of mutual learning are continuously at risk of being diminished by the power play inherent in participatory approaches.

Research for sustainable development: Foundations, experiences, and perspectives

Research for Sustainable Development is based on the experiences of a decade of inter- and transdisciplinary research in partnership in nine regions of the world. It presents 29 articles in which interdisciplinary teams reflect on the foundations of sustainability-oriented research, propose and illustrate concrete concepts, tools, and approaches to overcome the challenges of such research, and show how research practice related to specific issues of sustainable development has led to new thematic and methodological insights. The book seeks to stimulate the advancement of research towards more relevant, scientifically sound, and concrete contributions to realising the vision of sustainable development.

Depicting community perspectives: repeat photography and participatory research as tools for assessing environmental services in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal

Efforts have been made to provide a scientific basis for using environmental services as a conceptual tool to enhance conservation and improve livelihoods in protected mountain areas (MtPAS). Little attention has been paid to participatory research or locals’ concerns as environmental service (ES) users and providers. Such perspectives can illuminate the complex interplay between mountain ecosystems, environmental services and the determinants of human well-being. Repeat photography, long used in geographical fieldwork, is new as a qualitative research tool. This study uses a novel application of repeat photography as a diachronic photo-diary to examine local perceptions of change in ES in Sagarmatha National Park. Results show a consensus among locals on adverse changes to ES, particularly protection against natural hazards, such as landslides and floods, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. We argue that our methodology could complement biophysical ecosystem assessments in MtPAS, especially since assessing ES, and acting on that, requires integrating diverse stakeholders’ knowledge, recognizing power imbalances and grappling with complex social-ecological systems.

Genetic engineering and the world trade system

While the WTO agreements do not regulate the use of biotechnology per se, their rules can have a profound impact on the use of the technology for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. This book seeks to identify the challenges to international trade regulation that arise from biotechnology. The contributions examine whether existing international obligations of WTO Members are appropriate to deal with the issues arising for the use of biotechnology and whether there is a need for new international legal instruments, including a potential WTO Agreement on Biotechnology. They combine various perspectives on and topics relating to genetic engineering and trade, including human rights and gender; intellectual property rights; traditional knowledge and access and benefit sharing; food security, trade and agricultural production and food safety; and medical research, cloning and international trade.