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.     

Fiscal spending and the environment: Theory and empirics

During economic crises, governments often increase fiscal spending to stimulate the economy. While the fiscal spending surge may be temporary, spending composition is often altered in favor of expenditures on social programs and other public goods which may persist over time. We model and measure the impact of fiscal spending patterns on the environment. The model predicts that a reallocation of government spending composition towards social and public goods reduces pollution. However, increasing total government spending without altering its composition does not reduce pollution. We empirically test these predictions for air and water pollutants showing that they are fully supported.     

Achieving Integrative, Collaborative Ecosystem Management

Abstract:  Although numerous principles have been identified as being important for successfully integrating social and ecological factors in collaborative management, few authors have illustrated how these principles are used and why they are effective. On the basis of a review of the ecosystem management and collaboration literature, we identified eight factors important for integrative, collaborative ecosystem management—integrated and balanced goals, inclusive public involvement, stakeholder influence, consensus group approach, collaborative stewardship, monitoring and adaptive management, multidisciplinary data, and economic incentives.We examined four cases of successful ecosystem management to illustrate how the factors were incorporated and discuss the role they played in each case's success. The cases illustrate that balancing social and ecosystem sustainability goals is possible. Collaborative efforts resulted in part from factors aimed at making plans economically feasible and from meaningful stakeholder participation in ongoing management. It also required participation in monitoring programs to ensure stakeholder interests were protected and management efforts were focused on agreed-upon goals. Data collection efforts were not all-inclusive and systematic; rather, they addressed the ecological, economic, and social aspects of key issues as they emerged over time. Economic considerations appear to be broader than simply providing economic incentives; stakeholders seem willing to trade some economic value for recreational or environmental benefits. The cases demonstrate that it is not idealistic to believe integrative, collaborative ecosystem management is possible in field applications.     

环境保护工作新思路研究

中国环境保护工作的新形势和公益性属性为环境保护工作中实施社会治理提供了现实需求和理论基础.本文从社会治理的内涵入手,结合中国环境保护工作的形势和环境保护工作的公益属性分析,探讨了在环境保护工作中推进社会治理的可行性;从环境影响评价中公众参与存在的问题出发,分析了中国环境保护社会治理当前存在的问题;再此基础上,从社会治理制度、参与渠道等方面提出了以社会治理思路推进中国环境保护工作的思路.     

Places and People: Rhetorical Constructions of “Community” in a Canadian Environmental Risk Assessment

This paper addresses the issue of public engagement in environmental risk contexts through a rhetorical analysis of the key term “community” in a risk assessment of mining-caused soil contamination. Drawing on Burke's concept of terministic screens and method of cluster criticism, the analysis shows the divergent constitutions of “community” in the Sudbury Soils Study's official discourse and the citizen-activist rhetoric of the Community Committee on the Sudbury Soils Study. Tracing the verbal and visual clusters within each organization's articulation of “community” as place and people reveals how the official Study's technical-regulatory ideology of environmental risk and citizen participation is countered by the Community Committee's contestatory environmental justice ideology. These competing views of “community” are mutually constitutive in that the official Study's mainstream risk discourse establishes the terms for the Community Committee's reactive counter-discourse, thus limiting citizen participation mainly to questions of “downstream” impacts. Our rhetorical analysis of “community” suggests a generative method for understanding the complex power relations animating specific risk communication contexts as well as for potentially reinventing “community” in terms more conducive to meaningful citizen engagement.     

发挥城市基层组织作用,有效进行公众参与工作

根据作者从事环境评价工作的经验,结合北京市的城市建设项目的案例,说明在公众参与工作中结合中国城市基层组织特点,发挥基层组织作用,能够有效使公众参与环境保护、体现公众环境知情权、制止群体事件的发生,进一步做好公众参与工作。     

人员位置固定的公共场所分区疏散研究

通过将分区疏散转化为分配问题(Allocation Problem),并采用启发式的A*优化算法,对人员位置固定的公共场所分区疏散进行研究。进一步利用基于元胞自动机模型的大型公共场所人员疏散行为模拟仿真系统,在充分考虑公共场所中每个人员的状态、人员之间以及人员与周围环境的相互作用的前提下,对疏散分区的效果进行模拟;通过与未分区的模拟结果相比较,可以认为,分区疏散有助于人员快速疏散,大大缩短整体避难时间,而且基于移动路径搜索的分区更加切合实际。     

安全信息学视域下安全舆情演化及引导策略研究

为正确引导和控制负面安全舆情,基于安全信息学与舆情理论,利用事故树分析方法研究安全舆情演化过程,计算负面安全舆情最小割集、最小径集和结构重要度,提出安全舆情引导方法.结果表明:利用最小割集得到负面安全舆情产生原因组合,利用最小径集得到避免负面安全舆情产生最低限度事件组合,通过结构重要度得到系统改进重点及优化顺序;在事故...     

Contrasting stories on overcoming governance challenges: the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) has provided the European Member States with a range of interacting governance challenges. This article studies three of these (the need for new administrative arrangements, public participation, and the enforced strict time frame). It questions how these interacting governance challenges were addressed in implementing the WFD in the Netherlands – a particularly interesting country since the European Commission assesses its implementation process in relatively positive terms, while an in-depth study reported on in this article tells a contrasting story. Based on this study, the article concludes that especially the interaction effects between the governance challenges may help us to better understand the outcome of the WFD-implementation process, and to provide more suitable advice as to how to improve the implementation process in future rounds.     

论高职高专英语教学改革——我院英语分级教学探索

根据目前我院英语教学状况,英语公共课有必要改革"单一目标"的教学模式,采用多目标个性化分层教学模式,提高学生英语素质.文中具体探讨了多目标个性化分级教学模式的内涵、实施的前提条件、依据及策略.