Opportunities and limits of the ecosystem services framework in capturing the cultural dimension of sustainable regional and landscape development in protected areas

With regard to protected areas, the concepts of ecosystem services and the cultural dimension of sustainable development (SD) are increasingly under debate. This contribution analyses the role of cultural aspects within the ecosystem services framework using the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment classification as a reference. The limits of the ecosystem services framework in capturing the cultural dimension are highlighted. Potential ways of strengthening the position of cultural values within this framework are discussed.

Agrarian learning processes in Switzerland 1918–1939

This paper examines the social impacts of weather extremes and the processes of social and communicative learning a society undertakes to find alternative ways to deal with the consequences of a crisis. In the beginning of the 20th Century hunger seemed to be expelled from Europe. Switzerland – like many other European countries – was involved in a global interdependent trade system, which provided necessary goods. But at the end of World War I very cold and wet summers in 1916/17 (causing crop failure) and the difficulties in war-trade led to malnutrition and enormous price risings of general living-standards in Switzerland, which shocked the people and caused revolutionary uprisings in 1918. The experience of malnutrition during the last two years of war made clear that the traditional ways of food supply in Switzerland lacked crisis stability. Therefore various agents in the field of food production, distribution and consumption searched for alternative ways of food supply. In that sense politicians, industrialists, consumer-groups, left-wing communitarians and farmers developed several strategies for new ways in food production. Traditionally there were political conflicts in Switzerland between farmers and consumers regarding price policies, which led mainly to the conflict in 1918. Consumers accused famers of holding back food to control extortionate prices while the farmers pointed to the bad harvest causing the price rising. The collaboration of these groups in search for new forms of food-stability made social integration possible again. In addition to other crisis-factors, weather extremes can have disastrous impacts and destroy a society’s self-confidence to its core. But even such crisis can lead to processes of substantial learning that allows a regeneration of confidence and show positive influence on political stabilization. The paper focuses on the process of learning and the alternative methods of food production that were suggested by various agents working in the field during the Interwar period. To achieve that goal documents of the various associations are analyzed and newspapers have been taken into consideration. Through the method of discourse-analysis of food-production during the Interwar period, possible solutions that crossed the minds of the agents should be brought to light.

Cohort-specific effects of the expansion of the welfare state on job opportunities: a longitudinal analysis of three birth cohorts in the Federal Republic of Germany

Ziel der Untersuchung war es, Einflüsse auf den Arbeitsmarkt der Bundesrepublik durch das Anwachsen des Wohlfahrtsstaates zu ermitteln. Zu diesem Zweck wurden zwischen 1981 und 1983 2.171 Männer und Frauen der Geburtskohorten 1929-31, 1939-41 und 1949-51 mit standardisierten Interviews befragt zu ihrem Lebensverlauf, speziell unter den Gesichtspunkten: Soziale Herkunft, Ausbildung, Beschäftigung, Familie, Mobilität. Insbesondere interessierte die Frage nach der Beschäftigung im öffentlichen Dienst oder in der Privatwirtschaft bzw. ob und wann ein Wechsel von einem in den anderen Bereich stattgefunden hat. Einige Ergebnisse: Die Bildungsexpansion in den 70er Jahren führte dazu, daß eine steigende Anzahl von Universitätsabsolventen im öffentlichen Dienst Beschäftigung fand; seit der Stagnation des Wohlfahrtsstaates ab ca. 1980 sind die Beschäftigungschancen für hochqualifizierte Berufsanfänger dort wieder gesunken. In der Privatwirtschaft wird unqualifizierte Beschäftigung durch höher qualifizierte ersetzt, während im öffentlichen Dienst bei geringerem Arbeitsplatzangebot weniger hochqualifizierte Berufsanfänger nachgefragt werden.

Progenitor cell therapies for traumatic brain injury: barriers and opportunities in translation.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) directly affects nearly 1.5 million new patients per year in the USA, adding to the almost 6 million cases in patients who are permanently affected by the irreversible physical, cognitive and psychosocial deficits from a prior injury. Adult stem cell therapy has shown preliminary promise as an option for treatment, much of which is limited currently to supportive care. Preclinical research focused on cell therapy has grown significantly over the last decade. One of the challenges in the translation of this burgeoning field is interpretation of the promising experimental results obtained from a variety of cell types, injury models and techniques. Although these variables can become barriers to a collective understanding and to evidence-based translation, they provide crucial information that, when correctly placed, offers the opportunity for discovery. Here, we review the preclinical evidence that is currently guiding the translation of adult stem cell therapy for TBI.

Getting Old Here and There: Opportunities and Pitfalls of Transnational Care Arrangements

This article focuses on challenges of transnational aging and family care among „guest-workers‟ from Italy and Spain. It is based on two qualitative studies on aging in migration and experiences of family care. These migrants‟ situations tend to be socioeconomically underprivileged, yet they have the option to either stay in Switzerland or return to Italy or Spain. Our results show that an additional option is available by combining elements of both national systems of reference. However, these options are often costly and have short-comings which are particularly relevant when ill health conditions demand intensified care. By then, decisions taken within the context of transnational ways of living have far-reaching consequences that affect not only the elderly migrants but also their adult children. The empirical data presented in this article illustrate how specific constellations of caring options emerge from the Swiss „guest-worker‟ migration regime and from transnational practices and choices made in earlier years.

Adaptation of career goals to self and opportunities in early adolescence

Development of career goals that are adapted to self and opportunities is a central component of adolescent career preparation. The present longitudinal study (conducted throughout the eighth grade with three assessment points) investigated how 330 Swiss adolescents simultaneously adapt career goals to interests, scholastic achievement and environmental opportunities. Results demonstrated that students increasingly adapt their goals to the environment. Mean adaptation to environment related positively to degree of adaption to interests and achievement. Increased adaptation to environment over time related to increased adaptation to achievement but to decreased adaptation to interests. Gender, attended school type and nationality moderated adaptation processes. Structurally disadvantaged students (girls, lower requirements school track, immigrant students) reported more conflict in aligning adaptation to environment with adaptation to interests.

Challenges and opportunities related to the creation of a unique society of specialists in general internal medicine in 2015

A common training plan in general internal medicine was a brave enterprise started in 2011 in accordance with the common objectives of the Swiss Society of General Medicine and the Swiss Society of Internal Medicine. The next challenge will be the dissolution of the two Societies and therefore the creation of an unique new association in 2015. This is an extraordinary opportunity to bring together the specific qualities of each association and to create a new society. Issues, objectives and secondary benefits expected from the creation of the largest national society of a medical discipline are explored as a joint discussion in this article.

An initiative for participatory monitoring of large scale acquisitions: Opportunities and results thus far

Increasing commercial pressures on land are provoking fundamental and far-reaching changes in the relationships between people and land. Much knowledge on land-oriented investments projects currently comes from the media. Although this provides a good starting point, lack of transparency and rapidly changing contexts mean that this is often unreliable. The International Land Coalition, in partnership with Oxfam Novib, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), University of Pretoria, Centre for Development and Environment of the University of Bern (CDE), and GIZ, started to compile an inventory of land-related investments. This project aims to better understand the extent, trends and impacts of land-related investments by supporting an ongoing and systematic stocktaking exercise of the various investment projects currently taking place worldwide. It involves a large number of organizations and individuals working in areas where land transactions are being made, and able to provide details of such investments. The project monitors land transactions in rural areas that imply a transformation of land use rights from communities and smallholders to commercial use, and are made both by domestic and foreign investors (private actors, governments, government-back private investors). The focus is on investments for food or agrofuel production, timber extraction, carbon trading, mineral extraction, conservation and tourism. A novel way of using ITC to document land acquisitions in a spatially explicit way and by using an approach called “crowdsourcing” is being developed. This approach will allow actors to share information and knowledge directly and at any time on a public platform, where it will be scrutinized in terms of reliability and cross checked with other sources. Up to now, over 1200 deals have been recorded across 96 countries. Details of such transactions have been classified in a matrix and distributed to over 350 contacts worldwide for verification. The verified information has been geo-referenced and represented in two global maps. This is an open database enabling a continued monitoring exercise and the improvement of data accuracy. More information will be released over time. The opportunities arise from overcoming constraints by incomplete information by proposing a new way of collecting, enhancing and sharing information and knowledge in a more democratic and transparent manner. The intention is to develop interactive knowledge platform where any interested person can share and access information on land deals, their link to involved stakeholders, and their embedding into a geographical context. By making use of new ICT technologies that are more and more in the reach of local stakeholders, as well as open access and web-based spatial information systems, it will become possible to create a dynamic database containing spatial explicit data. Feeding in data by a large number of stakeholders, increasingly also by means of new mobile ITC technologies, will open up new opportunities to analyse, monitor and assess highly dynamic trends of land acquisition and rural transformation.