Exploring insideness in urban children’s sense of place

This study, informed by phenomenology and ethnography, explores urban children’s relationship with their urban environment: In what ways do urban children exhibit “insideness” in their sense of place? This study proposes “insideness” as a conceptual construct to understand urban children’s sense of place in its ecological and dynamic nature. Employing qualitative research methods, the study explores place stories of urban children who live in low-income, immigrant neighborhoods in New York City. The study finds that as children cultivate their sense of place, they construct “insideness” in their sense of place including 1) environmental understanding (i.e., contextualized, comprehensive, and critical understanding of a place), 2) environmental competence (i.e., knowing how to navigate and engage in a place), and 3) diverse, strong affective relationships with a place. Using “insideness” as a conceptual tool, this study discusses children’s emplaced understanding and active and dialogical positionality in the development of their sense of place.     

谈合作学习应用于高职商务英语阅读教学简

针对商务英语阅读过于重视语言知识授课,语言与商务专业知识相脱节,学生无法真正获得英语阅读技巧等问题,结合合作学习理论,提出针对商务英语阅读课程的三个重要时期,即前期、中期和后期,制定课堂目标,进行课堂分组活动,并在课后评估学习效果。实践证明,合作学习模式能够改变传统的英语阅读教学模式,确立了学生的主体地位。     

Adaptive co-management and network learning in the Room for the River programme

Adaptive co-management and learning are paramount for integrated flood risk management. Relevant literature focuses on adaptation at the level of physical and societal systems. The level of projects and programmes is largely overlooked, but they comprise interventions that adapt our physical systems and they provide opportunities for learning to contribute to transitions of societal systems. This paper aims to increase understanding on how learning takes place and can be stimulated within a programme. The mixed-method case study of Room for the River, a €2.3 billion programme for flood risk management, shows that a programme can be organised using various governance arrangements to stimulate learning and be a means for adaptive co-management to deliver upon environmental objectives.     

Investigating urban migrants' sense of place through a multi-scalar perspective

This paper investigates the interconnections between sense-of-place dimensions across different geographical scales. While existing knowledge on sense of place has demonstrated that place meanings rest at various scales, little attention has been devoted to exploring how sense-of-place dimensions at different geographical scales can be interconnected in forming a multi-scalar construction of place meanings. In this paper, we approach this under-theorization of multi-scalarity of sense of place by looking at urban migrants’ sense of place at two geographical scales - a community culture center and the city of Guangzhou, China. In so doing, we also contribute to the scholarship on Chinese urban migrant, particularly in terms of how urban migrants reestablish their psychological connections with place of destination through specific place experiences. Our research methodology combines both quantitative (structural equation modeling analysis with 104 questionnaires) and qualitative (12 in-depth interviews) approaches. Quantitative study reaches a structural model that has not been observed by existing research, while qualitative data provide strong empirical evidence in support of the statistical relations in the structural model. Major findings in this research include: 1. at the scale of culture center, place dependence contributes strongly to both place identity and place attachment, while the latter two dimensions can be seen as parallel constructs; 2. at the scale of Guangzhou, place dependence is a dimension independent of both place identity and place attachment, and on the other hand, it is place identity that has a strong impact on place attachment; 3. migrants’ place dependence on the culture center significantly influences their place identity to Guangzhou, which further contributes to the migrants’ place attachment to the city. Although the scope of this research is limited in its sampling and research location, the empirical evidence in this paper provides a basis to argue that the construction of sense of place involves the working of sense-of-place constructs at various geographical scales. Particularly, we also argue that connecting different places across geographical scales requires a delicate network that involves various sense-of-place constructs that work both within and across scales.     

Local Authority/AcademicCollaboration and Local Agenda 21 Policy Processes

This paper looks at a recent example of local authority/academiccollaboration over a protracted period of time from the different perspectives of those people who were directly involved in the process as key role players. The arena within which this collaboration took place (Local Agenda 21 policy-making in Manchester) has some particular characteristics of its own which influenced this process, and these are identified alongside some of the theoretical issues which affect the way collaborations of this kind are perceived and (much more rarely) are written about. The perspectivesof the client and of the contractor, as the authors reflect on their experiences in these roles, show that in practice processes of adjustment and of learning were taking place, because both sides for various reasons found that the dynamics of this situation meant that their preconceptions both of each other and of the contractual relationship they had thought they were entering had to be modified as the process unfolded. The paper concludes with both specific observations about this collaboration, and more general and more tentative comments about issues that might be experienced in future collaborations of this kind.     

RESTORATIVE EXPERIENCE, SELF-REGULATION, AND CHILDREN''s PLACE PREFERENCES

We examined the role of restorative experience and self-regulation in the formation of place preferences by Finnish children. Girls and boys (n= 55) aged 8–9 or 12–13 and living in downtown Tampere or Helsinki answered open- and closed-ended questions in a structured interview. One or both parents completed a questionnaire. We did not find statistically significant associations between age or gender and type of favorite place, nor was a particular type of favorite place named disproportionately often, independent of age and gender. The latter result contrasts with previous findings with young adults. However, like young adults, over half of the children appeared to use their favorite places for cognitive restoration. One-third of the children reported using their favorite places for emotion-regulation. Use of the favorite place for restoration and emotion-regulation did not necessarily imply visiting the favorite place alone; however, 12–13-year-olds were more likely than the younger age group to visit the favorite place with friends. Surprisingly, many parents did not know their child's favorite place.     

Learning for Sustainability Among Faith-Based Organizations in Kenya

The complex and unpredictable contexts in which environmental and development work take place require an adaptable, learning approach. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) play a significant role in sustainability work around the world, and provide a unique setting in which to study learning. This paper explores individual learning for sustainability within two FBOs engaged in sustainability work in Kenya. Learning outcomes covered a broad range of areas, including the sustainability framework, environment/conservation, skills, community work, interpersonal engagement, and personal and faith development. These outcomes were acquired through embodied experience and activity, facilitation by the workplace, interpersonal interaction, personal reflection, and Bible study and worship. Grounded categories were compared to learning domains and processes described by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory. The findings indicate that for learning in the sustainability field, instrumental learning and embodied learning processes are particularly important, and consequently they require greater attention in the theory when applied in this field.     

Is Learning without teaching possible? The productive tension between network governance and reflexivity

ABSTRACT

Theories of reflexive governance are closely linked with the claim that more traditional modes of coordination have been replaced by networked structures, allowing reflexivity to emerge and reflexive learning to function as a steering mechanism in rapidly changing policy contexts. This paper explores this connection between reflexivity, governance, learning and networks in societal transitions, focusing particularly on the claim that networks will deliver reflexive learning. Using network theories from both policy networks and network governance and a case study of the Canadian agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) policy network, it suggests that the kind of learning produced in networks will be a function of network structure. In particular, higher order reflexive learning will be compromised by the inevitability of the political struggle for nodality or central place in networks and the ensuing distribution of opportunities for bridging and bonding activities. Networks such as the Canadian agbiotech policy network that may promote learning but not necessarily reflexive learning are increasingly disadvantaged in contemporary policy settings.     

A Framework for Exploring Integrated Learning Systems for the Governance and Management of Public Protected Areas

This article discusses how the concept of integrated learning systems provides a useful means of exploring the functional linkages between the governance and management of public protected areas. It presents a conceptual framework of an integrated learning system that explicitly incorporates learning processes in governance and management subsystems. The framework is premised on the assumption that an understanding of an integrated learning system is essential if we are to successfully promote learning across multiple scales as a fundamental component of adaptability in the governance and management of protected areas. The framework is used to illustrate real-world situations that reflect the nature and substance of the linkages between governance and management. Drawing on lessons from North America and Africa, the article demonstrates that the establishment and maintenance of an integrated learning system take place in a complex context which links elements of governance learning and management learning subsystems. The degree to which the two subsystems are coupled influences the performance of an integrated learning system and ultimately adaptability. Such performance is largely determined by how integrated learning processes allow for the systematic testing of societal assumptions (beliefs, values, and public interest) to enable society and protected area agencies to adapt and learn in the face of social and ecological change. It is argued that an integrated perspective provides a potentially useful framework for explaining and improving shared understanding around which the concept of adaptability is structured and implemented.     

What makes neighborhood different from home and city? Effects of place scale on place attachment

Several years ago Hidalgo and Hernandez reported a curvilinear, U-shaped, relationship between scale of place (apartment, neighborhood, city) and strength of attachment to the place. In this paper four studies are presented, carried out in four Central-European cities, that (1) confirmed the reported curvilinear relationship using five places (apartment, building, neighborhood, city district, city) in three out of four cities and for five items of the Place Attachment Scale, (2) revealed a consistent curvilinear, inverse U-shaped relationship between scale of place and percentage of variance of place attachment predicted by three groups of factors: physical (type of housing, size of building, upkeep and personalization of house precincts, etc.), social (neighborhood ties and sense of security in the residence place), and socio-demographic (age, education, gender, length of residence, family size), and (3) identified strength of direct and indirect effects of the three groups of predictors on attachment to the five types of places. The curvilinear relationship between place scale and place attachment was particularly strong in highly attractive cities and in those scale items that described people's emotional reactions to places whereas a linear relationship was obtained in the least attractive city and in the items that referred to sense of security, amount of control and knowledge of place. In all four cities the best predicted variable was attachment to middle ranges of the place scale (building and neighborhood). The overall best direct predictor of place attachment was neighborhood ties, followed by direct and indirect effects of length of residence, building size, and type of housing. In conclusion it is argued that the usual choice of predictors of place attachment is biased by researchers' interest in the middle scales of place (neighborhood) at the expense of other place scales. In the paper a claim is made that attachments to smaller (apartments, homes) and larger (city) scales of place along with their unique predictors deserve more attention from environmental psychologists.     

Young children's strategies when using maps with landmarks

Previous research has demonstrated that when young children use simple maps to locate a place or follow a route they can utilize information about landmarks which is included on the map. In all previous experiments each landmark has been uniquely represented on the map. The aim of our experiments was to find out if children (aged 4–8 years) could still use maps when they included more than one example of the same symbol. In Experiment 1 children had to use a map to locate a specific path in a large-scale layout. The landmark associated with this path was either uniquely represented on the map of the layout or was one of two, three or more identical landmarks also represented on the same map. In the latter conditions children had to use additional information from the map to identify the particular landmark which indicated the required path. They could do this in a number of different ways and therefore the layouts were designed so that the specific strategies used by the children could be identified. Children could only use the maps with ambiguous landmarks after the age of 6 years. Their performance is discussed with reference to the strategies which they adopted. Different layouts prompted different strategies from the children. Experiment 2 was carried out to examine other factors which may have affected the children's ability. Neither the amount of feedback which the children received about their success, nor the visibility of the layout had an effect on the children's performance. The insight's into basic map use, its development with age, and the educational implications of this research are discussed.     

Place attachment in a foreign settlement

This paper examines issues arising from the involuntary relocation of Turkish Cypriot refugees from the southern to the northern portion of the island of Cyprus. After the ceasefire in 1974, participants in this study were relocated into homes originally built and occupied by Greek Cypriots. Using data obtained from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and drawings, the study analyses their place attachment under the unusual circumstances of their own forced relocation coupled with their occupation of homes abandoned by residents also displaced by war and interethnic hostility. The study compares the place attachment of refugees to their children, who were born and brought up in the new community. The results of this study suggest that participants' future expectations shaped their attachment to their new homes and community, whilst their degree of attachment to their previous environments also played an important role in the attachment process. Younger generations, on the other hand, were more attached to their current environment than older generations; however they did not wish to be identified with their current environment.     

Place attachment and place identity in natives and non-natives

Place attachment is an affective bond that people establish with specific areas where they prefer to remain and where they feel comfortable and safe. Place identity, however, has been defined as a component of personal identity, a process by which, through interaction with places, people describe themselves in terms of belonging to a specific place. Most research has observed positive correlations between these variables in populations that have maintained ongoing interactions over long periods of time. This work presents two studies in which we compare place attachment to place identity in samples differentiated according to birthplace and length of residence, and the magnitude of these bonds to different places. The results of the first study revealed differences between intensity of attachment and identity depending on place of origin and place assessed. The second study found that identity and attachment tend to coincide in natives, while individuals from other places give higher scores for attachment than for identity. Results from the two studies have enabled us to consider that place attachment develops before place identity, at least in the case of the non-natives. Both studies reveal that bonds are stronger with the city than with the neighbourhood, but that attachment and identity with the island are stronger than either of them.     

Social learning from public engagement: dreaming the impossible?

Learning that transcends participation processes is critical if public engagement is to translate into a legacy of enhanced environmental citizenship. However, a lack of empirical evidence has limited discussion to date to largely ‘aspirational’ claims. This paper offers the first rigorous examination of whether public participation does generate beyond-process social learning. Initially we review the literature on public participation and environmental citizenship to identify the key dimensions of social learning. We then re-visit a well-worked case study of an innovative public engagement process on the Hampshire waste strategy from the 1990s. Approximately one third of the original participants have been interviewed to identify whether and how the experience had a lasting effect on them. Key methodological difficulties are discussed, not least the analytical difficulties of attributing learning to a process that happened ten years previously. However, we argue that there is evidence that both instrumental and communicative learning have taken place, and conclude by identifying key areas that require further research.     

Children's appreciation of outdoor places in a poor neighborhood

Children 7–12 years of age, living in a poor neighborhood, photographed outdoor places where they liked to go in their neighborhood. In individual interviews, they discussed their photos, selected their favorite place, and discussed the places they disliked. Children identified parks and playgrounds most often both as liked and disliked places, and spaces near an acquaintance's home as their favorite place. Liked places varied according to children's age and degree of vegetation. Children's negative perceptions of places were centered on safety threats. Children distinguish favorite places from liked places only by the greater number of positive characteristics and activities they offer children. The study highlights how positive and negative features coexist in places of importance to these children.     

The impact of sensory learning modalities on children’s sensitivity to sensory cues in the perception of their school environment

Learning style models recognised that individuals differ in the sense learning modality of stimuli from which they best absorb, retain and process new information. The effect of sensory learning modalities on individual children’s sensitivity to sensory cues has so far been neglected. This paper reports on a study that sought to establish whether individual differences in children’s sensitivity to sensory cues in their perception of their school environmental features is influenced by their sensory learning modalities. Participants included Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils (N = 151) from four primary schools in South Gloucestershire, UK. The study used a child-friendly Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic questionnaire to establish children’s learning style modality. All children, independent of their learning style category, were exposed to three types of sensory cues, consisting of photo-safari, speech frequency and Global Positioning System. The analysis revealed that children’s sensitivity to sensory cues in their perception of school environmental features varied significantly between the three sensory learning modalities: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. The implications of these findings on research, policy and practice are discussed.     

Evolution of co-management: Role of knowledge generation,bridging organizations and social learning

Over a period of some 20 years, different aspects of co-management (the sharing of power and responsibility between the government and local resource users) have come to the forefront. The paper focuses on a selection of these: knowledge generation, bridging organizations, social learning, and the emergence of adaptive co-management. Co-management can be considered a knowledge partnership. Different levels of organization, from local to international, have comparative advantages in the generation and mobilization of knowledge acquired at different scales. Bridging organizations provide a forum for the interaction of these different kinds of knowledge, and the coordination of other tasks that enable co-operation: accessing resources, bringing together different actors, building trust, resolving conflict, and networking. Social learning is one of these tasks, essential both for the co-operation of partners and an outcome of the co-operation of partners. It occurs most efficiently through joint problem solving and reflection within learning networks. Through successive rounds of learning and problem solving, learning networks can incorporate new knowledge to deal with problems at increasingly larger scales, with the result that maturing co-management arrangements become adaptive co-management in time.