Parallel declines in species and genetic diversity driven by anthropogenic disturbance: a multispecies approach in a French Atlantic dune system.

Numerous studies assess the correlation between genetic and species diversities, but the processes underlying the observed patterns have only received limited attention. For instance, varying levels of habitat disturbance across a region may locally reduce both diversities due to extinctions, and increased genetic drift during population bottlenecks and founder events. We investigated the regional distribution of genetic and species diversities of a coastal sand dune plant community along 240 kilometers of coastline with the aim to test for a correlation between the two diversity levels. We further quantify and tease apart the respective contributions of natural and anthropogenic disturbance factors to the observed patterns. We detected significant positive correlation between both variables. We further revealed a negative impact of urbanization: Sites with a high amount of recreational infrastructure within 10 km coastline had significantly lowered genetic and species diversities. On the other hand, a measure of natural habitat disturbance had no effect. This study shows that parallel variation of genetic and species diversities across a region can be traced back to human landscape alteration, provides arguments for a more resolute dune protection, and may help to design priority conservation areas.

An Explanatory Approach to the Political Uses of ICT Initiatives for Participation : Institutions, Context, and Characteristics of the Actors

Political actors use ICTs in a different manner and in different degrees when it comes to achieving a closer relationship between the public and politicians. Usually, political parties develop ICT strategies only for electoral campaigning and therefore restrain ICT usages to providing information and establishing a few channels of communication. By contrast, local governments make much more use of ICT tools for participatory and deliberative purposes. These differences in usages have not been well explained in the literature because of a lack of a comprehensive explanatory model. This chapter seeks to build the basis for this model, that is, to establish which factors affect and condition different political uses of ICTs and which principles underlie that behaviour. We consider that political actors are intentional and their behaviour is mediated by the political institutions and the socioeconomic context of the country. Also, though, the actor¿s own characteristics, such as the type and size of the organization or the model of e-democracy that the actor upholds, can have an influence in launching ICT initiatives for approaching the public.

Reconsidering the analysis of the uses of ICTs by political parties : an application to the Catalan case

For years a literature on the uses that political parties make of information andcommunication technologies (ICTs) has been developed. It is a rapidly increasing, rich,and interesting field in the forefront of the investigation in political science. Generally,these works start from the expectation that the ICTs have a regenerative potential forliberal democracies and for the political parties as well. In developed societies, politicalparties have experienced some transformations that have leaded them to an increasingdivorce with the public. This divorce is shown by the decay of party adscription andmembership, and also by the decay of the conventional political participation. In thetheoretical discussion this situation has been described as ¿the crisis of the democracy¿(Norris, 1999). According to the more radically oriented scholars this crisis reflects theincapacities of liberal democracies. In this sense, ICTs suppose a great opportunity tosurpass the representative institutions and to institutionalize new forms of directdemocracy. More moderate scholars have considered that ICTs offer the opportunity for¿renaissance¿ for representative institutions, as they can reinforce the bonds between thepublic and its representatives.

From urban political economy to the cultural political economy : rethinking culture and economy in and beyond the urban

Discussions about the culture-economy articulation have occurred largely within theconfines of economic geography. In addition, much attention has been diverted intocaricaturized discussions over the demise of political economy or the invalidity ofculturalist arguments. Moving the argument from the inquiry on the ¿nature¿ of theeconomy itself to the transformation of the role of culture and economy inunderstanding the production of the urban form from an urban political economy (UPE)this paper focuses on how the challenges posed by the cultural turn have enabled urbanpolitical economy to participate constructively in interdisciplinary efforts to reorientpolitical economy in the direction of a critical cultural political economy.

Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), cientista e tradutor de Newton

Although Jean Paul Marat (1743-1793) is known as a political activist and as a founder of the controversial journal L'Ami du Peuple during the French Revolution, an important period of his life was spent as a medical practionner, and as a scientist. In 1765 he went to England, where he remained for eleven years mostly dedicated to medical practice and publications on that subject and on political and moral questions. Returning to France in 1776 he iniciated his researches on fire, electricity and light, that lasted practically until the French Revolution. In 1787 he published a translation of Newton's Opticks. In this article we describe in some detail his medical and scientific practice giving particular emphasis to his experiments on optics and to his theory about colors which strongly departs from newtonian theory, fully accepted by the French scientific community of the time.

Local privatization, intermunicipal cooperation, transaction costs and political interests: Evidence from Spain

Several empirical studies have analyzed the factors that influence local privatization. Variables related to fiscal stress, cost reduction, political processes and ideological attitudes are the most common explanatory variables used in these studies. In this paper, we add to this literature by examining the influence of transaction costs and political factors on local governments’ choices through new variables. In addition to this, we consider the role of additional aspects, such as intermunicipal cooperation as a potential alternative to privatization in order to exploit scale economies or scope economies. We consider two relevant services: solid waste collection and water distribution. Results from our estimates show that privatization (that is, contracting out to a private firm) is less common for water distribution than for solid waste collection. Higher transaction costs in water distribution are consistent with this finding. Furthermore, we find that municipalities with a conservative ruling party privatize more often regardless of the ideological orientation of the constituency. This shows that those political interests able to influence local elections are more important in determining the form of delivery than is the basic ideological stance of the constituency. Finally, we find that intermunicipal cooperation is an alternative to local privatization.

Eurooppalainen näkökulma suomalaiseen kulttuurijohtamiseen ja suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan sopeutuminen

Tässä tutkielmassa korostuu Euroopan sisäinen kulttuurillinen erilaisuus ja sen vaatimukset Suomessa toimiville monikansallisille organisaatioille. Eurooppalaista johtamista on tutkittu jo vuosikymmenten ajan, mutta erityisesti suomalaisesta, Suomessa työskentelevien eurooppalaisten näkökulmasta ei vastaavaa tutkimusta tiettävästi ole aiemmin tehty. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää suomalaisen kulttuurin ja johtajuuden arvoeroja muiden Euroopan Unionin maiden kansalaisten näkökulmasta. Pohjois-Euroopan maista tutkimuksessa on mukana edustajia Ruotsista, Tanskasta ja Hollannista. Keski-Euroopan maista edustusta löytyy Saksasta ja Itävallasta, kun Etelä-Eurooppaa edustavat ranskalaiset ja italialaiset henkilöt. Itäisestä Euroopasta mukana on latvialaisia henkilöitä ja anglo-Euroopasta britannialaisia. Tutkimus kartoittaa tutkimukseen mukaan otettujen maiden yhteisö- ja johtamiskulttuurillisia törmäyskohtia suomalaisen kulttuurin kanssa, jotta Suomessa toimivat monikansalliset työyhteisöt löytäisivät yhä parempia strategioita eurooppalaisen ihmispääoman, eurooppalaisten työntekijöiden ja näiden osaamisen, johtamiseksi ja monikansallisen yhteisön toimivuuden ymmärtämiseksi ja parantamiseksi. Näitä törmäyskohtia tarkastellaan empiirisesti Hofsteden (1984) kulttuuridimensioiden, Housen ym. (1999) GLOBE-tutkimuksen ja Koopmanin ym. (1999) johtajuusulottuvuuksien avulla. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu Internet-pohjaisesta kyselystä, joka suoritettiin keväällä 2010. Siihen osallistui 75 Suomessa työskentelevää Euroopan Unionin kansalaista. Analysointimenetelmänä tutkimuksessa käytetään klusterointia, keskiarvoistuksia, Kruskall Wallisin testiä ja sisällönanalyysiä tukemaan määrällisen analyysin tuloksia ja tuomaan esiin siitä poikkeavia havaintoja. Tutkimuksen ytimessä on johtamiskulttuurilliset erot, joista tehdään laajempaa analyysiä edellä mainituin keinoin. Yhteisökulttuurillisia eroja havainnoidaan tutkimuskyselyyn perustuvien väittämien perusteella tehtyjen histogrammien avulla. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että maantieteellinen, uskonnollinen tai poliittinen läheisyys eivät määritä kulttuurillista läheisyyttä tai johda kulttuurilliseen sopeutumiseen. Poliittinen raja kahden naapurin välillä saattaa johtaa saman asian kokemiseen kahdella täysin eri tavalla. Lisäksi tuloksista käy ilmi, että yhteisökulttuurilliset ja johtamiskulttuurilliset arvot eivät välttämättä kulje käsikkäin Suomessa työskentelevien eurooppalaisten näkökulmasta. Yleisinä kulttuurillisina kipukohtina tutkimuksessa nousee esiin suomalaisen kulttuurin sosiaalisuuden ja kommunikaation puutteellisuus, toisaalta suomalaiseen kulttuuriin sopeutumista helpottaa suomalainen rehellisyys ja suoruus. Johtamiskulttuurillisina haasteina eurooppalaiset kokevat suomalaisen tyyppijohtajan kyvyttömyyden riskien ottamiseen ja kannustusmenetelmien puutteet. Tämän lisäksi tutkimuksessa tulee ilmi useita tiettyihin kansallisuuksiin liittyviä törmäyskohtia. Tutkimus on nähtävä tämän hetken kuvauksena. Kulttuuritutkimus sisältää monia tekijöitä, jotka ovat jatkuvassa muutoksessa ja lisäksi hyvin subjektiivisia. Kulttuurijohtajuus merkitsee kuitenkin nyt ja tulevaisuudessa kykyä olla innovatiivinen, joustava ja herkkä sosiaalisille merkityksille.

Political philosophy, ethnology, and time: a study of the notion of historical handicap

This article starts by identifying the crucial importance of the notion of historical handicap for the present-day social sciences of Latin America. Such notion is not an original invention made by Latinamericanists. On the contrary, I demonstrate that the genealogy of the notion of historical handicap must be sought in the tradition of Western political philosophy. Such genealogy must take into account the way it was integrated into ethnological descriptions. When and how did the Other become the backward, the primitive? While this relation was secondary for ancient Greek thought, theories of historical development became the main source of ethnological categories in the modern era. Interestingly enough, this modern synthesis suited the practical purpose of justifying two successive waves of European imperialistic: the era of discoveries, and 19th century colonialism. The article concludes by raising questions about the present role and application of the social sciences.