Towards an Ecological Pedagogy: Body Movement for Ecological Consciousness

This paper examines the moving body as a vehicle for raising ecological consciousness. Due to the modern over-preoccupation with the pursuit of rational aims, human interactions with the surrounding environment increasingly lack conscious awareness. Consequently, in the modern world people tend to lack an ecological consciousness. Nevertheless, the human body is a rich reservoir of ecological significance. From birth, humans are woven into tremendous interconnection with the world. However, humans thrive when their sensitivity to the physical world exists in harmony with their ability to pursue their rational aims. It is the combination of these characteristics that enables humans to survive in capricious surroundings and prosper in a wide array of contexts. Today, the human species faces an unprecedented crisis that threatens to collapse the reciprocality of the ecological bonds bolstering the prosperity of all worldly beings. This paper proposes that it is no longer a rational strategy for people to remain inattentive to their embodied ecological resonance, and that the moving body is an adequate pedagogical site for raising ecological consciousness. Ritualized body movements derived from Chinese traditional cultivation systems such as Taijiquan could orient practitioners to reestablish a perceptual intimacy with the larger cosmic world, thereby raising their ecological consciousness.

From traditional resource to global commodities: a comparison of Rhodiola species using NMR spectroscopy - metabolomics and HPTLC

The fast developing international trade of products based on traditional knowledge and their value chains has become an important aspect of the ethnopharmacological debate. The structure and diversity of value chains and their impact on the phytochemical composition of herbal medicinal products has been overlooked in the debate about quality problems in transnational trade. Different government policies and regulations governing trade in herbal medicinal products impact on such value chains. Medicinal Rhodiola species, including Rhodiola rosea L. and Rhodiola crenulata (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Ohba, have been used widely in Europe and Asia as traditional herbal medicines with numerous claims for their therapeutic effects. Faced with resource depletion and environment destruction, R. rosea and R. crenulata are becoming endangered, making them more economically valuable to collectors and middlemen, and also increasing the risk of adulteration and low quality. We compare the phytochemical differences among Rhodiola raw materials available on the market to provide a practical method for Rhodiola authentication and the detection of potential adulterant compounds. Samples were collected from Europe and Asia and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis software and high performance thin layer chromatography techniques were used to analyse the samples. A method was developed to quantify the amount of adulterant species contained within mixtures. We compared the phytochemical composition of collected Rhodiola samples to authenticated samples. Rosavin and rosarin were mainly present in R. rosea whereas crenulatin was only present in R. crenulata. 30% of the Rhodiola samples purchased from the Chinese market were adulterated by other Rhodiola spp. Moreover, 7 % of the raw-material samples were not labelled satifactorily. The utilisation of both 1H-NMR and HPTLC methods provided an integrated analysis of the phytochemical differences and novel identification method for R. rosea and R. crenulata. Using 1H-NMR spectroscopy it was possible to quantify the presence of R. crenulata in admixtures with R. rosea. This quantitative technique could be used in the future to assess a variety of herbal drugs and products. This project also highlights the need to further study the links between producers and consumers in national and trans-national trade.

Reconceptualising International Intervention: Statebuilding, ‘Organic Processes’ and the Limits of Causal Knowledge

This article examines the transformation in the conceptual understanding of international intervention over the last two decades. It suggests that this conceptual shift can be usefully interrogated through its imbrication within broader epistemological shifts highlighting the limits of causal knowledge claims: heuristically framed in this article in terms of the shift from policy interventions within the problematic of causation to those concerned with the management of effects. In this shift, the means and mechanisms of international intervention have been transformed, no longer focused on the universal application of Western causal knowledge through policy interventions but rather on the effects of specific and unique local and organic processes at work in societies themselves. The focus on effects takes the conceptualisation of intervention out of the traditional terminological lexicon of International Relations theory and instead recasts problems in increasingly organicised ways, suggesting that artificial or hubristic attempts at socio-political intervention should be excluded or minimised.

Nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban areas: perspectives on indicators, knowledge gaps, barriers, and opportunities for action

Nature-based solutions promoting green and blue urban areas have significant potential to decrease the vulnerability and enhance the resilience of cities in light of climatic change. They can thereby help to mitigate climate change-induced impacts and serve as proactive adaptation options for municipalities. We explore the various contexts in which nature-based solutions are relevant for climate mitigation and adaptation in urban areas, identify indicators for assessing the effectiveness of nature-based solutions and related knowledge gaps. In addition, we explore existing barriers and potential opportunities for increasing the scale and effectiveness of nature-based solution implementation. The results were derived from an inter- and transdisciplinary workshop with experts from research, municipalities, policy, and society. As an outcome of the workshop discussions and building on existing evidence, we highlight three main needs for future science and policy agendas when dealing with nature-based solutions: (i) produce stronger evidence on nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation and raise awareness by increasing implementation; (ii) adapt for governance challenges in implementing nature-based solutions by using reflexive approaches, which implies bringing together new networks of society, nature-based solution ambassadors, and practitioners; (iii) consider socio-environmental justice and social cohesion when implementing nature-based solutions by using integrated governance approaches that take into account an integrative and transdisciplinary participation of diverse actors. Taking these needs into account, nature-based solutions can serve as climate mitigation and adaptation tools that produce additional cobenefits for societal well-being, thereby serving as strong investment options for sustainable urban planning.

Learning from one another: evaluating the impact of horizontal knowledge exchange for environmental management and governance

There is increasing advocacy for inclusive community-based approaches to environmental management, and growing evidence that involving communities improves the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Most community-based approaches rely on partnerships and knowledge exchange between communities, civil society organizations, and professionals such as practitioners and/or scientists. However, few models have actively integrated more horizontal knowledge exchange from community to community. We reflect on the transferability of community owned solutions between indigenous communities by exploring challenges and achievements of community peer-to-peer knowledge exchange as a way of empowering communities to face up to local environmental and social challenges. Using participatory visual methods, indigenous communities of the North Rupununi (Guyana) identified and documented their community owned solutions through films and photostories. Indigenous researchers from this community then shared their solutions with six other communities that faced similar challenges within Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, French Guiana, and Brazil. They were supported by in-country civil society organizations and academics. We analyzed the impact of the knowledge exchange through interviews, field reports, and observations. Our results show that indigenous community members were significantly more receptive to solutions emerging from, and communicated by, other indigenous peoples, and that this approach was a significant motivating force for galvanizing communities to make changes in their community. We identified a range of enabling factors, such as building capacity for a shared conceptual and technical understanding, that strengthens the exchange between communities and contributes to a lasting impact. With national and international policy-makers mobilizing significant financial resources for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, we argue that the promotion of community owned solutions through community peer-to-peer exchange may deliver more long-lasting, socially and ecologically integrated, and investment-effective strategies compared to top-down, expert led, and/or foreign-led initiatives.

Community owned solutions: identifying local best practices for social-ecological sustainability

Policies and actions that come from higher scale structures, such as international bodies and national governments, are not always compatible with the realities and perspectives of smaller scale units including indigenous communities. Yet, it is at this local social-ecological scale that mechanisms and solutions for dealing with unpredictability and change can be increasingly seen emerging from across the world. Although there is a large body of knowledge specifying the conditions necessary to promote local governance of natural resources, there is a parallel need to develop practical methods for operationalizing the evaluation of local social-ecological systems. In this paper, we report on a systemic, participatory, and visual approach for engaging local communities in an exploration of their own social-ecological system. Working with indigenous communities of the North Rupununi, Guyana, this involved using participatory video and photography within a system viability framework to enable local participants to analyze their own situation by defining indicators of successful strategies that were meaningful to them. Participatory multicriteria analysis was then used to arrive at a short list of best practice strategies. We present six best practices and show how they are intimately linked through the themes of indigenous knowledge, local governance and values, and partnerships and networks. We highlight how developing shared narratives of community owned solutions can help communities to plan governance and management of land and resource systems, while reinforcing sustainable practices by discussing and showcasing them within communities, and by engendering a sense of pride in local solutions.

Trust, confidence, and equity affect the legitimacy of natural resource governance

Social-ecological systems are often highly complex, making effective governance a considerable challenge. In large, heterogeneous systems, hierarchical institutional regimes may be efficient, but effective management outcomes are dependent on stakeholder support. This support is shaped by perceptions of legitimacy, which risks being undermined where resource users are not engaged in decision-making. Although legitimacy is demonstrably critical for effective governance, less is known about the factors contributing to stakeholders’ perceptions of legitimacy or how these perceptions are socially differentiated. We quantitatively assessed stakeholder perceptions of legitimacy (indicated by support for rules) and their contributory factors among 307 commercial fishers and tourism operators in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Legitimacy was most strongly associated with trust in information from governing bodies, followed by confidence in institutional performance and the equity of management outcomes. Legitimacy differed both within and among resource user groups, which emphasizes the heterogeneous nature of commonly defined stakeholder groups. Overall, tourism operators perceived higher legitimacy than did commercial fishers, which was associated with higher trust in information from management agencies. For fishers, higher levels of trust were associated with: (1) engagement in fisheries that had high subsector cohesion and positive previous experiences of interactions with governing bodies; (2) location in areas with greater proximity to sources of knowledge, resources, and decision-making; and (3) engagement in a Reef Guardian program. These findings highlight the necessity of strategies and processes to build trust among all user groups in large social-ecological systems such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Furthermore, the social differentiation of perceptions that were observed within user groups underscores the importance of targeted strategies to engage groups that may not be heard through traditional governance channels.

Farmers’ knowledge and use of soil fauna in agriculture: a worldwide review

General knowledge of the small, invisible, or hidden organisms that make soil one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth is thought to be scarce, despite their importance in food systems and agricultural production. We provide the first worldwide review of high-quality research that reports on farmers’ knowledge of soil organisms in agriculture. The depth of farmers’ knowledge varied; some farming communities held detailed local taxonomies and observations of soil biota, or used soil biological activity as indicators of soil fertility, while others were largely unaware of soil fauna. Elicitation of soil biota knowledge was often incidental to the main research goal in many of the reviewed studies. Farmers are rarely deliberately or deeply consulted by researchers on their existing knowledge of soil biota, soil ecology, or soil ecological processes. Deeper understanding of how farmers use and value soil life can lead to more effective development of collaborative extension programs, policies, and management initiatives directed at maintaining healthy, living soils.

Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems

Indigenous communities have actively managed their environments for millennia using a diversity of resource use and conservation strategies. Clam gardens, ancient rock-walled intertidal beach terraces, represent one example of an early mariculture technology that may have been used to improve food security and confer resilience to coupled human-ocean systems. We surveyed a coastal landscape for evidence of past resource use and management to gain insight into ancient resource stewardship practices on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. We found that clam gardens are embedded within a diverse portfolio of resource use and management strategies and were likely one component of a larger, complex resource management system. We compared clam diversity, density, recruitment, and biomass in three clam gardens and three unmodified nonwalled beaches. Evidence suggests that butter clams (Saxidomus gigantea) had 1.96 times the biomass and 2.44 times the density in clam gardens relative to unmodified beaches. This was due to a reduction in beach slope and thus an increase in the optimal tidal range where clams grow and survive best. The most pronounced differences in butter clam density between nonwalled beaches and clam gardens were found at high tidal elevations at the top of the beach. Finally, clam recruits (0.5-2 mm in length) tended to be greater in clam gardens compared to nonwalled beaches and may be attributed to the addition of shell hash by ancient people, which remains on the landscape today. As part of a broader social-ecological system, clam garden sites were among several modifications made by humans that collectively may have conferred resilience to past communities by providing reliable and diverse access to food resources.

Adapting the social-ecological system framework for urban stormwater management: the case of green infrastructure adoption

Stormwater management has long been a critical societal and environmental challenge for communities. An increasing number of municipalities are turning to novel approaches such as green infrastructure to develop more sustainable stormwater management systems. However, there is a need to better understand the technological decision-making processes that lead to specific outcomes within urban stormwater governance systems. We used the social-ecological system (SES) framework to build a classification system for identifying significant variables that influence urban stormwater governance decisions related to green infrastructure adoption. To adapt the framework, we relied on findings from observations at national stormwater meetings in combination with a systematic literature review on influential factors related to green infrastructure adoption. We discuss our revisions to the framework that helped us understand the decision by municipal governments to adopt green infrastructure. Remaining research needs and challenges are discussed regarding the development of an urban stormwater SES framework as a classification tool for knowledge accumulation and synthesis.

Context-Based Sound and the Ecological Theory of Perception

This paper aims to investigate the ways in which context-based sonic art is capable of furthering a knowledge and understanding of place based on the initial perceptual encounter. How might this perceptual encounter operate in terms of a sound work’s affective dimension? To explore these issues I draw upon James J. Gibson’s ecological theory of perception and Gernot Böhme’s concept of an ‘aesthetic of atmospheres’. Within the ecological model of perception an individual can be regarded as a ‘perceptual system’: a mobile organism that seeks information from a coherent environment. I relate this concept to notions of the spatial address of environmental sound work in order to explore (a) how the human perceptual apparatus relates to the sonic environment in its mediated form and (b) how this impacts on individuals’ ability to experience such work as complex sonic ‘environments’. Can the ecological theory of perception aid the understanding of how the listener engages with context-based work? In proposing answers to this question, this paper advances a coherent analytical framework that may lead us to a more systematic grasp of the ways in which individuals engage aesthetically with sonic space and environment. I illustrate this methodology through an examination of some of the recorded work of sound artist Chris Watson.

KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE BRIEFING PAPER ON JOURNAL BUSINESS MODELS

Over the past few years many studies have been published on the costs and economic benefits of journal business models. Early studies considered only the costs incurred in publishing traditional journals made available for purchase on a subscription or licensing business model. As the open access business model became available, some studies also covered the cost of making research articles available in open access journals. More recent studies have taken a broader perspective, looking at the position of journal publishers in the market and their business models in the context of the economic benefits from research dissemination. This briefing paper also looks at the outcomes of the broadly cited RIN study and various national studies performed by John Houghton. All links provided in footnotes in this Briefing Paper are to studies available in open access.

Knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance: an investigation into the effects of knowledge infrastructure and processes on organizational performance

Knowledge is one of the most important assets for surviving in the modern business environment. The effective management of that asset mandates continuous adaptation by organizations, and requires employees to strive to improve the company's work processes. Organizations attempt to coordinate their unique knowledge with traditional means as well as in new and distinct ways, and to transform them into innovative resources better than those of their competitors. As a result, how to manage the knowledge asset has become a critical issue for modern organizations, and knowledge management is considered the most feasible solution. Knowledge management is a multidimensional process that identifies, acquires, develops, distributes, utilizes, and stores knowledge. However, many related studies focus only on fragmented or limited knowledge-management perspectives. In order to make knowledge management more effective, it is important to identify the qualitative and quantitative issues that are the foundation of the challenge of effective knowledge management in organizations. The main purpose of this study was to integrate the fragmented knowledge management perspectives into the holistic framework, which includes knowledge infrastructure capability (technology, structure, and culture) and knowledge process capability (acquisition, conversion, application, and protection), based on Gold's (2001) study. Additionally, because the effect of incentives ̶̶ which is widely acknowledged as a prime motivator in facilitating the knowledge management process ̶̶ was missing in the original framework, this study included the importance of incentives in the knowledge management framework. This study also identified the relationship of organizational performance from the standpoint of the Balanced Scorecard, which includes the customer-related, internal business process, learning & growth, and perceptual financial aspects of organizational performance in the Korean business context. Moreover, this study identified the relationship with the objective financial performance by calculating the Tobin's q ratio. Lastly, this study compared the group differences between larger and smaller organizations, and manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms in the study of knowledge management. Since this study was conducted in Korea, the original instrument was translated into Korean through the back translation technique. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the validity and reliability of the instrument. To identify the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance, structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple regression analysis were conducted. A Student's t test was conducted to examine the mean differences. The results of this study indicated that there is a positive relationship between effective knowledge management and organizational performance. However, no empirical evidence was found to suggest that knowledge management capabilities are linked to the objective financial performance, which remains a topic for future review. Additionally, findings showed that knowledge management is affected by organization's size, but not by type of organization. The results of this study are valuable in establishing a valid and reliable survey instrument, as well as in providing strong evidence that knowledge management capabilities are essential to improving organizational performance currently and making important recommendations for future research.

Effective and ecological half-lives of 90Sr and 137Cs observed in wheat and rice in Japan

Published pre-Fukushima food monitoring data from 1963 to 1995 were used to study the long-term presence of 137Cs and 90Sr in rice and wheat. Effective half-lives (T eff) were calculated for rice (137Cs: 5.6 years; 90Sr: 6.7 years) and wheat (137Cs: 3.5 years; 90Sr: 6.2 years), respectively. In rice, 137Cs exhibits a longer T eff because putrefaction processes will lead to the formation of NH4 + ions that are efficient ion exchangers for mineral-adsorbed cesium ions, hence making it more readily available to the plant. Knowledge on the long-term behavior of radiocesium and radiostrontium will be important for Japanese food-safety campaigns after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Integrating Environmental Justice and Social-Ecological Resilience for Successful Adaptation to Climate Change: Lessons from African American Communities on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay

This research concerns the conceptual and empirical relationship between environmental justice and social-ecological resilience as it relates to climate change vulnerability and adaptation. Two primary questions guided this work. First, what is the level of resilience and adaptive capacity for social-ecological systems that are characterized by environmental injustice in the face of climate change? And second, what is the role of an environmental justice approach in developing adaptation policies that will promote social-ecological resilience? These questions were investigated in three African American communities that are particularly vulnerable to flooding from sea-level rise on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, I found that in all three communities, religious faith and the church, rootedness in the landscape, and race relations were highly salient to community experience. The degree to which these common aspects of the communities have imparted adaptive capacity has changed over time. Importantly, a given social-ecological factor does not have the same effect on vulnerability in all communities; however, in all communities political isolation decreases adaptive capacity and increases vulnerability. This political isolation is at least partly due to procedural injustice, which occurs for a number of interrelated reasons. This research further revealed that while all stakeholders (policymakers, environmentalists, and African American community members) generally agree that justice needs to be increased on the Eastern Shore, stakeholder groups disagree about what a justice approach to adaptation would look like. When brought together at a workshop, however, these stakeholders were able to identify numerous challenges and opportunities for increasing justice. Resilience was assessed by the presence of four resilience factors: living with uncertainty, nurturing diversity, combining different types of knowledge, and creating opportunities for self-organization. Overall, these communities seem to have low resilience; however, there is potential for resilience to increase. Finally, I argue that the use of resilience theory for environmental justice communities is limited by the great breadth and depth of knowledge required to evaluate the state of the social-ecological system, the complexities of simultaneously promoting resilience at both the regional and local scale, and the lack of attention to issues of justice.