Place and exile: resource conflicts and sustainability in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland

This paper reflects on two controversial resource projects – the Bellanaboy gas refinery (Ireland) and the Barvas Moor wind farm (Scotland) – and critical arguments made by key local actors. Although risk, health, environment and development dominated the official decision-making processes, these actors articulated views which cut across or existed beyond such orthodox ideas and framings. Focusing on these, I show that the Gaelic concepts of dùthchas and deoraíocht, summarised as place and exile, help to explain why some residents decided to protest. This paper illustrates the role that history, culture and language can play in conflicts, emphasises the need for greater sensitivity to these and suggests that place and exile can inform alternative visions of sustainability.     

Older rural women living with drought

ABSTRACT

Women’s experiences of drought are often made invisible particularly in terms of their long-term effects. Drought differs from other “natural disasters” in that droughts are, by definition, experienced over an extended time. This means those experiencing drought do so as they age, with elderly cohorts particularly vulnerable. As such, there is a need to better understand the longitudinal needs and experiences of women living with drought. This study investigates the experiences of drought for 15 Australian women aged over 70, over a period of 12 years. Longitudinal qualitative free-text comments written by the oldest cohort of women in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health were subject to a thematic analysis. Findings indicate that experiences of drought have a relationship to women’s ability to age in ways they may have hoped. Themes of Work and Physical activity, Connection to place, and, Service access were prominent in women’s comments. These results demonstrate that place is an important aspect in the experience of ageing, that work and physical activity often intensify during drought for elderly people who might otherwise be expecting to retire, and that drought presents particular challenges for older women in terms of access to services. This study highlights the complex interactions of living and ageing in drought for Australian women.     

The vulnerable do‐gooders: security strategies of German aid agencies

Humanitarian and development agencies have confronted growing insecurity in some of the regions in which they work over the course of the past decade. Consequently, aid agencies are changing their approach to security issues. Compared to aid agencies from other countries, especially the United Kingdom and the United States, German aid agencies have been relatively slow to adopt security measures. In addition, the security measures they have selected differ from one agency to another, even in comparable security contexts. The literature on organisational learning helps to explain these differences. The findings show that external and internal organisational factors influence an aid agency's choice of a particular security measure. The different responses of German aid agencies to the changing security environment demonstrate that security measures are not only influenced by an organisation's identity but also can be a way for them to demonstrate their identity and thereby distinguish themselves from other actors that deliver aid.     

Critical pedagogy of place to enhance ecological engagement activities

Scientists in higher education institutions around the globe recognize the importance of engaging with public stakeholders to share their enthusiasm, explain their science, and encourage primary and secondary students to enter the sciences. However, without direct consideration of students’ and teachers’ perspectives and interests, scientists may design activities around their own goals, limiting the impact on school stakeholders (i.e., students, teachers, paraprofessional staff, students’ parents, and other caregivers). We drew from natural and social science research to describe how expanding the conception of place beyond the biophysical can help engage school stakeholders in meaningful ways. We describe the multidimensional PLACE framework that we developed to integrate perspectives, knowledge, and values of all stakeholders in engagement programming. The framework is organized around topics that stakeholders should discuss early on to ensure successful partnerships. We recommend that scientists identify and use pedagogy that is inclusive; language framed around dialogic communication methods; aims and motivations centered on engagement; cultural funds of knowledge of place (i.e., disciplinary, personal, or experiential knowledge); and evaluation of engagement based on meaningful metrics. Two case studies are presented to illustrate how the PLACE framework components, when addressed, can lead to robust, successful partnerships between scientists and schools.     

Retiring: Role identity processes in retirement transition

Retirement transition has become a prolonged process of adaptation, including changes in role identity. However, there is a dearth of research on the process by which retirees cope with the role transition, including how pre-retirement role identities shape the transition, the forms of identity work undertaken by retirees, and the unfolding nature of retirement transition. In an in-depth qualitative examination of the transition process, we identify pre-retirement role identity profiles based on work and nonwork role identities. We then examine how pre-retirement role identities influence the transition process, including the nature of identity work in transition and the transition pathways demonstrated by retirees. Our findings provide insights into strengths and limitations afforded by pre-retirement identities: They facilitate agentic coping in which retirees shed old and adopt new identities but also impose inertia and prolong the transition until identity crises force the retirees to undergo identity exploration and adoption of new identities.     

The importance of group‐focused transformational leadership and felt obligation for helping and group performance

Leaders face a challenge to simultaneously motivate workgroups and the individuals within them. Recent criticisms highlight the need to deconstruct broad leadership constructs to offer better theoretical insight into the effects of specific leadership behaviors on groups versus individuals. We address this call by exploring the effects of group‐focused and individual‐focused aspects of transformational leadership. Applying social identity theory, we theorize that group‐focused transformational leadership is key to fostering felt obligation, motivating helping behavior, and enhancing group performance, whereas individual‐focused leadership may only foster helping when individuals also feel a sense of obligation toward their workgroup. In a field study of 260 employees reporting to 36 supervisors in a skilled trade company, we find support for these predictions using multilevel structural equation modeling and multilevel mixed effects modeling. Thus, group‐focused (vs. individual‐focused) transformational leadership and subsequent felt obligation are important antecedents for encouraging helping and, in turn, workgroup performance.     

中国1990~2004年生态足迹动态变化效应的分解分析

通过构建生态足迹分解模型,论文将中国1990~2004年生态足迹的动态变化分解为经济规模、产业结构和足迹强度这3种因素的变化效应,并对各分解效应进行了测度与分析。结果表明:生态足迹年度间变化均值为1.065 5×10⁸hm²。其中,由经济规模、产业结构和足迹强度所引起的足迹变化分别为2.108 2×10⁸hm²,-0.439 8×10⁸hm²和-0.602 9×10⁸hm²。总的看,经济规模的变化助长了总足迹的增长,而足迹强度和产业结构的变化对总足迹的扩张起到了一定的遏制作用。生态足迹变化是由各因素共同作用的结果,而在不同时期各因素对足迹变化所发挥的效应不同。该研究结果对于理解我国生态足迹变化与经济发展之间的关系,以及产业发展政策调整及可持续发展研究具有一定参考价值。     

The multiple ways of behaving creatively in the workplace: A typology and model

Evidence in the literature suggests that employees can engage in other types of creative behavior at work beyond producing something new and useful for their organization. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of these “atypical” creative behaviors. We conceptualize a typology that encompasses both the commonly studied form of employee creativity (conventional steward‐type) and three other types of employee creativity that have not been previously theorized (critical steward‐type, cunning agent‐type, and innocent agent‐type). We then advance a conceptual model to identify situations that may lead employees to use their creative potential one way versus another. Further, we examine the different implications of these creative behaviors for the organization, employee, and society. Our conceptual framework provides a broader perspective of workplace creativity in which a wider range of behaviors, mechanisms, and outcomes must be considered. It provides new directions for future research as well as implications for managing creativity in different organizational and cultural contexts.     

Voice as Entry to Agriculturalists’ Conservationist Identity: A Cultural Inventory of the Yellowstone River

We explored the communicative construction of a conservationist identity among primary producers by excavating voices of agriculturalists operating along the Yellowstone River (Montana, USA). We used a cultural inventory approach to discover and then listen to informants’ voices as they constructed their conservation identity. Those who self-identified as conservationists talked about their ecological and social responsibilities, and described challenges they faced in protecting individual resources and system processes of the watershed. For these agriculturalists, conservation and production are inextricably linked, and enable them to provide a sustainable resource base for future generations. Insight from these voices enhances understanding of what sustainability could mean to those who self-identify as both conservationists and primary producers.     

Conservatism vs. conservationism: differential influences of social identities on beliefs about fracking

ABSTRACT

Although recent expansions in hydraulic fracking operations across the United States have led to greater news coverage and attention from the public, overall understanding remains fairly low. For some, relevant social identities, including environmental or political, may provide a short cut to becoming informed about fracking, or to determining what they believe about it and how that influences their positions on fracking policies. Social identity influence frameworks provide an approach to understanding the relationships between belief and identity, which this study investigates through its affiliational and attitudinal components. National survey data are used to model pathways from environmental and political identities to beliefs about risks associated with fracking. Environmental attitudes significantly predicted belief that fracking has health risks, and mediated a relationship from environmental group affiliation, but environmental information was not significant. Ideology had direct and indirect effects, through partisan media use, while partisanship had direct effects on beliefs about environmental risks.