Climate justice: framing a new discourse in Brazil

In this article, we evaluate to what extent the Climate Justice discourse has been associated by the press to extreme climate events in Brazil. The text is based on the examination of articles published by important newspapers in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, after two major rain events which produced floods and landslides in these two cities. Based on these findings, we suggest that the adoption of the Climate Change discourse in Brazil could produce three main positive outcomes: improve the discourse's acceptance in the international arena, increase the chances that the claims of affected groups are heard by Brazilian government, and turn current policies designed to correct effects of extreme climate events into structural policies designed to reduce vulnerability and to adapt to Climate Change.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Influence of Safety Climate on Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Taiwan’s Facilities

Although the social exchange relationships between employers and employees are increasingly important to the performance of safety management systems, the psychological effects of work attitudes on this relationship have been less studied. Using a sample of first-line operators and their supervisors from 188 facilities in Taiwan which had Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18000 (OHSAS 18000) certification, the current research conducted an empirical investigation of the influence of safety climate on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Work attitude was used to disclose the psychological effect. Research results indicated that (a) safety climate was a significant predicator of OCB, (b) the psychological effect significantly influenced social exchange relationships, and (c) job satisfaction showed a stronger mediating influence than organizational commitment due to the frequent top management turnover. Discussions and implications are also addressed.     

Community relations and mining: Core to business but not “core business”

Over the past two decades the global mining industry has witnessed the necessity and emergence of community relations and development (CRD) functions, essentially under the rubric of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR). These functions provide companies with mechanisms through which to engage and manage their relationships with key stakeholder groups, share development benefits and protect business interests. Despite widespread claims by the industry that companies have adopted CSR as a ‘core competence’, we argue that the industry has yet to incorporate the CRD function as part of ‘core business’ at the level of practice. This article characterises a CRD function and related processes within the context of a large-scale mining operation in West Africa. Findings reflect a more universal trend relating to the function and organisational positioning of CRD practice in the resources sector. The authors argue that functional equity needs to be established if the sustainable development agenda is to have a genuine future within the mining industry.     

Evaluating a small deposit next to an economically viable gold mine in West Africa from the points of view of the mining company,the government and the local community

This paper addresses the question of evaluating how much the different stakeholders stand to gain from a mining project. By carefully analysing the breakdown of the cash-flows generated, we were able to estimate the amounts received by the local community and by the national community (outside the mining area), the taxes and royalties received by the government and the profits made by the mining company. A real options framework was used to take account of the inherent uncertainty on the commodity price and the reserves, and the operating flexibility (that is, the possibility for the company to stop mining if the commodity price drops and/or the reserves prove to be lower than that had been envisaged). A synthetic case-study of a gold mine in West Africa was used to illustrate how this procedure could be applied in practice. By using the real option framework we were able to envisage scenarios for developing an extension to a deposit as a function of future values of the commodity price. The procedure proposed should provide governments and NGOs with more objective data for making policy decisions.     

Fuelling an Environmental Conflict through Information Diffusion Strategies

When an environmental conflict occurs, the information people have access to play a crucial role in how the conflict develops. Through a case study of an ongoing conflict related to a highly contested wind farm in Québec (Canada), this paper focuses on how the news of the project was announced by the developer and on how it was then diffused by different involved actors. It aims to answer the following questions: who is informed, when are these people informed, and how does it impact the unfolding conflict? Field observation and in-depth interviews with 93 individuals involved in the public hearing process were conducted. An important part of the analysis was made using social network analysis to reconstruct diffusion of the news of the project among the sample over a 5-year period. The main findings showed that the developer made strategic choices regarding information diffusion (confidentiality, exclusion of some actors—especially the citizens, rumors, etc.) that spurred on opposition in the latest stage of development of the project. The population's awareness was slow to grow, mainly because the news of the project was slow to spread in the community.     

What Is the Environment Doing in My Report? Analyzing the Environment-as-Stakeholder Thesis through Corpus Linguistics

This paper seeks to explore whether business organizations' claims to regard the natural environment as a stakeholder are consistent with the way in which the environment is represented in their corporate social responsibility reporting. It applies corpus linguistic methods to analyze statistical regularities and differences in the discursive construction of core stakeholders, such as customers and employees, and that of the natural environment. Results show that the representation of the environment is not characterized by the agency and capacity for engagement that characterizes other stakeholders. While organizations overtly acknowledge a duty toward the environment, the dominant lexical and grammatical patterns in which it is represented tend to obscure the organization's responsibilities and emphasize its mitigating actions instead. Although the argument for regarding the environment as a stakeholder is based on the fact that it places objective and compelling demands on our actions, we look in vain for recognition of such demands in organizational reporting.     

论社会经济发展主导要素的演替

社会发展是人有目的的行为的结果，因此，社会发展的决策者对社会发展趋势与规律的正确认识与把握是至关重要的。基于此，选取社会发展实践活动中最基本、最具决定意义的经济领域，探讨经济发展主导要素的演替规律，并用中国近50多年经济发展的实证研究佐证理性分析的结果。结论是：在经济发展的不同阶段，主导性发展要素不同，要素整合形式也不同，大致表现为“劳动力为主导→资本（自然资源、人造资本、资金）为主导→知识（科技、信息、管理）为主导→环境质量为主导”各个发展阶段的逐步演替。     

Recreation conflict potential and management implications in the northern/central Black Forest Nature Park

This study explores conflict in recreational use of the Black Forest Nature Park (BFNP) by six different nature sports groups as a function of infrastructure, forest management and other users. A multi-step, methodological triangulation conflict model from US recreation management was applied and tested in the Park. Results from two groups, hikers and mountain bikers, are analysed in depth. The main conflict potentials were due to infrastructure and value conflicts. These were influenced by various visitor characteristics such as resource attachment, experiences, activity-style, expectations and motives. Results of quantitative data analysis were further interpreted by interviews with agency and group leaders. This methodological combination reveals a robust understanding of recreation conflict and management in the BFNP.     

社会环境道德价值观发展阶段与可持续发展

社会环境道德价值观是人们对人与自然环境道德关系的一种普遍的社会意识，它作为环境意识的核心内容，决定着人们的环境行为取向。当前我国社会环境道德价值观发展正处于从传统人类中心主义向现代人类中心主义的转变阶段。为实现我国可持续发展目标，社会环境道德价值观尚须由现代人类中心主义阶段向生存系统协调论阶段迈进。