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.     

生态文明视阈下公民环境教育的文化价值思考

生态文明建设要有坚实的公民环境教育作支撑。公民环境教育的文化价值是环境教育价值的内在表现形式之一。作为生态文明建设的重要组成部分,环境教育与生态文明建设有着不可断裂的天然的关系。生态文明建设需要环境教育的文化价值体现。环境教育的文化价值能够促进生态文化的生成与人文资源的开发,能够发挥环境教育的文化选择与批判功能,促进价值观念转型,能够发挥环境教育的文化传播功能,促进人文理性精神的活化。     

节俭还是低碳——我国语境下居民低碳行为探讨

为了解低碳在我国居民中的推广程度,通过问卷法对南京市某社区居民进行实地调查。结果发现:大部分居民由于受节俭文化的影响往往将低碳当作节俭进行理解,表现在行为上就是节俭行为与低碳行为混杂。但从社会文化角度分析,节俭与低碳并不等同,两者既有区别又有联系。因此,在我国语境下推行低碳既要注意到节俭与低碳的区别,又要充分挖掘节俭文化中蕴含的低碳内容,促进低碳社会的构建。     

Nature,Crisis, Risk,Science, and Society: What is Our Ethical Responsibility?

In his keynote address, Robert Cox raised key questions, many of which force us to consider the larger question of the role of academics in society. The authors respond by suggesting that environmental communication, like other communication studies, is inherently normative and that environmental communication scholarship is closely aligned to risk as a centerpiece to crisis analysis. The authors discuss the productive connections among science, communication and sound public policy that make society more fully functional, including the formation of effective public policy through science that is normative while seeking objectivity, evaluating and symbolizing motives in discourse, acknowledging uncertainty and acceptable uncertainty, and that material and symbolic dimensions of the environment are interdependent. Thus, such studies focus on the ethics of environment and must balance sound science and cultural considerations.     

Culture as trigger for sustainability transition in the water domain: the case of the Spanish water policy and the Ebro river basin

There is a mounting body of literature dealing generally with the dynamics of transitions of human systems towards sustainability and specifically with the different stages and processes of transitions. However, the question of why transition processes occur in the first place remains largely unexplained. This paper explores the concept of transition triggers, such as culture or material resource scarcity, and provides a theoretical framework to explain the emergence of a transition and its relation to recent developments in Spanish water policy. We adapt the general framework provided by current transition theory and gather empirical evidence and insights from processes occurring within the Spanish policy context and the Ebro river basin in particular. Our results show that the sole existence of biophysical limits to water use or development cannot explain the start of a possible sustainability transition in this domain in Spain. Changes in the existing water policies in the direction of sustainability were not ignited by people directly affected by water scarcities but by a coalition of sensitive agents, mostly from academia, NGOs and local constituencies, who managed to articulate new identities, integrate multiple sources of policy relevant knowledge, and develop new values under the umbrella of the new water culture movement.

声学环境影响评价——大剧院设计声学案例分析

大剧院观众厅是音乐家最后的乐器,音乐效果是由观众厅声学反应出来的。前面演奏者要把声音传播给观众席,再从观众席后排反声回给演奏者,这样的互动是最完美的剧院设计。     

陕西潼关南寨子遗址人口的平均预期寿命与死亡模式

作为社会存在和发展的基础和主体,人口因素在人类文明发展中起着重要作用.我们通过编制生命表,对陕西潼关南寨子遗址4个墓葬出土的人骨进行古人口学分析,计算出关中平原东部地区仰韶文化中期人口的平均预期寿命为27.8岁,高出我国西北、东北地区和太湖流域新石器时期的人口平均预期寿命约8岁.而与山东沿海地区大汶口文化时期的王因遗址...     

Studying organisational cultures and their effects on safety

How do organisational cultures influence safety? To answer this question requires a strategy for investigating organisational culture. By far the most widely used research strategy is the perception survey. An alternative is for researchers is to immerse themselves in one or more organisations, making detailed observations about activities and drawing inferences about the nature of the organisation’s culture (the ethnographic method). A third technique makes use of the wealth of material that is assembled by inquiries into major accidents. This paper describes how this material can be used to provide insights into organisational cultures. It draws on specific examples from the author’s own work as well as the cultural analysis carried out by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. It concludes with some additional suggestions for carrying out research on safety-relevant aspects of organisational culture.     

Culture,Progress and the Media: The Shad as Synecdoche in Environmental News Coverage

This essay examined the use of synecdoche in newspaper coverage of a dispute over water rights between the Mattaponi Indians and the city of Newport News, Virginia. The Mattaponi used the shad as a rhetorical trope to explain the tribe's relationship to the river and their fears about the reservoir's impact. The reservoir proponents, however, treated the shad as a representation of the conflict surrounding the reservoir, and this construction was reflected in articles that appeared in The Daily Press, a local daily newspaper. This essay argued that, ultimately, the treatment of a single species as a synecdoche in environmental disputes undermined the Mattaponi's position. The media which are instrumental in defining environmental issues for the public, misinterpreted a rhetorical trope that was proffered as a representation for a complex set of values and instead focused attention on the species itself rather than the values that it represented.     

Malnutrition among the Akamba of Kenya -Problem or response to a problem?

Two recent studies amongst the Kenyan Akamba are contrasted to illustrate how malnutrition can be regarded either as a response to a problem in the local environment, or as the problem itself, arising from general conditions of poverty and ignorance. Differences in methodology are compared and it is shown that nutrition studies often ignore local factors in reaching conclusions on nutritional status. Consequently, nutrition policy recommendations provide general solutions of limited value. It is suggested that factors in the local environment which may cause malnutrition be investigated by hypothesis testing, in order to provide specific information for community-based action.
The category of the poor is not merely inadequate for evaluative exercises and a nuisance for causal analysis, it can also have distorting effects on policy matters. On the causal side, the lack of discrimination between different circumstances leading to poverty gives rise to a lack of focus in policy choice.