Learning for sustainability: participatory resource management in Cambodian fishing villages

Considerable attention is now being given to the role and importance of education and learning implications of participatory resource and environmental governance. The contention is that such learning has the potential to transform behaviour, and in the case of resource management, may help change current patterns in resource use towards a more sustainable social-ecological system. Our purpose is to establish the opportunities for learning afforded to those participating in local level resource management committees in two Cambodian fishing communities and consider the learning outcomes from such opportunities. Our approach was qualitative and used a case study design. The findings establish a wide range of committee resource management activities that resulted in both instrumental (e.g., learning about administrative procedures) and communicative (e.g., insights into the need to conserve mangroves) learning. It was revealed that such learning can lead to changes in behaviour at the community level (e.g., managing local waste). Our findings also indicated a number of motivators and enablers of learning such as opportunities for dialogue, leadership and the presence of declining resources.     

Serving the Common Interest in U.S. Forest Policy: A Case Study of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act

In the United States, the common interest often is conceived as a by-product of the pluralist, interest-group-driven democratic process. Special interests dominate in many political arenas. Consequently, we have lost the language, vocabulary, and ability to talk about the common interest. The way to reverse this trend is to develop and practice with new tools that allow us to articulate what we mean by the common interest in specific contexts. In this article, we leveraged the literature on procedural, substantive, and pragmatic decision making to illustrate how they work together to demonstrate whether and how the common interest was served in three case studies of Healthy Forests Restoration Act implementation on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona. In two of the cases we found that the common interest was mostly served, while in the third case it was not. Our results raise questions about the ability of procedural criteria or substantive criteria alone to determine effectiveness in decision making. When evaluated together they provide a more complete understanding of how the common interest is or is not served.

Song-type sharing in song sparrows: implications for repertoire function and song learning

One hypothesis for the function of song repertoires is that males learn multiple song types so that they may share songs with neighbors, allowing them to match during territorial interactions. In at least one song sparrow population, in Washington, territorial males share a high proportion of song types with their neighbors and use these shared songs in matching. We recorded song sparrows in Pennsylvania and quantified sharing of whole songs and song segments. We found that song sharing is an order of magnitude less common in the Pennsylvania population. We found sharing of song segments to be significantly more common than the sharing of whole songs in three of the five fields we examined, while we found no significant differences between whole and partial song sharing in the remaining two fields. Finally, we found no evidence that sharing is greater between birds in the same field compared to birds in different fields. Taken with the data from Washington song sparrows, these results provide evidence for intraspecific geographic variation in the organization of song repertoires, and suggest that song sharing has not been a strong selective force in the evolution of song repertoires in song sparrows as a species. Furthermore, Washington and Pennsylvania song sparrows differ in how they learn song, in that Washington birds copy whole songs, while Pennsylvania birds appear to copy and recombine song segments, as has been found in laboratory studies of song learning. Thus both song learning and the function of song repertoires differ between populations of song sparrows. Such intraspecific geographic variation offers a unique opportunity to explore the ecological and historical factors which have influenced the evolution of song. Received: 30 June 1997 / Accepted after revision: 8 March 1998     

Towards socially just adaptive climate governance: the transformative potential of conflict

Conflict is an important factor in ongoing climate change debates and its role in management is under increasing scrutiny. In this paper, I present the results of an advanced discourse analysis that analyses trends in the relationship between conflict and climate change. I present two primary discourses dominate discussion: (i) climate as a security risk and (ii) climate as one of many factors affecting power relations that may lead to conflict. Both narratives implicitly or explicitly discuss climate conflict as a cause–outcome relationship, and further primarily construct conflict and climate change within normative frames. Yet, conflict has transformative potential and can be incorporated into management in ways that harness its capacity to drive innovation and lead to more robust and just adaptive governance. I argue for a shift in the discursive frame from a cause– outcome-oriented approach to a process-driven approach, one that treats conflict as an integral part of adaptive governance processes, thus being more just and equitable. Such a shift in focus can lead to positive on ground climate adaptation outcomes, in ways that respect rather than are counter-intuitive to dominant political and societal imbalances and institutional structures.     

Spillover and crossover of work resources: A test of the positive flow of resources through work–family enrichment

In their seminal model of work–family enrichment, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) theorized five categories of work resources to have an impact on work–family enrichment. Using a matched set of 351 dual‐career spouses, we explored how these unique work resources contribute to work–family enrichment and how they spill over to shape job incumbents' family outcomes and cross over to spouse outcomes. Results support indirect effects for the work resources of developmental experiences, supervisor support, schedule control, and self‐efficacy, but not salary, on marital satisfaction and family functioning through the job incumbent's work–family enrichment. In addition, we found support for the crossover of these indirect effects to the spouse through the spouse's positive crossover transmission, which facilitated the spouse's marital satisfaction and commitment to the job incumbent's organization. Our results suggest that multiple work resources have an impact on work–family enrichment and that the flow of positive work resources through work–family enrichment spills over to impact outcomes for the job incumbent and crosses over to the spouse.     

Learning and local government in coastal South Australia: towards a community of practice framework for adapting to global change

Social learning can be a vital tool in assisting communities to adapt to change. Local governments can be a conduit between the communities they serve and the policy that they are trying to implement. Social learning in this context can be an iterative, often organic process. Based on a case study of coastal planning in South Australia, Australia, this paper presents the results of a qualitative mixed-method approach that documents the aspects of social learning within coastal management and evaluates the various lessons learned by local governments in South Australia. The role of social learning and adaptive governance is discussed. The paper concludes that by deliberatively incorporating the notion of communities of practice into learning frameworks, local governments can more effectively manage their coastal zones in response to global change.     

The importance of scientific literacy in fostering education for sustainability: Theoretical considerations and preliminary findings from a Brazilian experience

Scientific literacy can be considered as a new demand of post-industrial society. It seems necessary in order to foster education for sustainability throughout students' academic careers. Universities striving to teach sustainability are being challenged to integrate a holistic perspective into a traditional undergraduate curriculum, which aims at specialization. This new integrative, inter- and transdisciplinary epistemological approach is necessary to cultivate autonomous citizenship, i.e., that each citizen be prepared to understand and participate in discussions about the complex contemporary issues posed by post-industrial society. This paper presents an epistemological framework to show the role of scientific literacy in fostering education for sustainability. We present a set of 26 collaborative concept maps (CCmaps) in order to illustrate an instance of theory becoming practice. During a required course for first-year undergraduate students (ACH 0011, Natural Sciences), climate change was presented and discussed in broad perspective by using CCmaps. We present students' CCmaps to show how they use concepts from quantitative and literacy disciplines to deal with the challenges posed by the need of achieving a sustainable development.