The Many Modalities of Social Networking: The Role of Twitter in Greens Politics

The popular microblogging service, Twitter, contains a variety of potential orientations—interpersonal, broadcast, news, advertising, public service, political, and so on—in its operation and applications. As an evolving social media platform, specificity and context are essential in understanding its significance and use-value. This paper investigates the multiple modalities of Twitter in the context of formal politics and, in particular, the Greens party in Australia. Presenting original evidence drawn from the Greens Members of Parliament and their advisers, it is shown how Twitter is mobilized in response to particular news agendas and stories, unfolding political events and processes, and an ongoing need for the Greens to speak simultaneously to committed environmentalists and the broader electorate. These uses reveal that Twitter is an important addition to the “media ecology mix” in the conduct of environmental politics, playing a direct role in political communication, strategies, and actions.     

中国可持续发展信息共享现状和展望

本文阐述了开展可持续发展信息共享的的意义和存在的障碍,介绍了信息共享的现状和中国持续发展信息网的成就,提出了深入开展信息共享的对策建议。     

Applying ecosystem concepts to the planning of industrial areas: a case study of Singapore’s Jurong Island

The application of ecological concepts to the industrial setting has been touched upon by literature across several disciplines. Two emerging ecological planning approaches, landscape ecology and industrial ecology, are applied here to look at alternative ways of planning industrial parks. As an emerging field, landscape ecology provides different viewpoints from the traditional approach of natural conservation, which mainly focuses on the protection of nature. The approach of landscape ecology regards the environment as a land mosaic, a mixture of natural and urban environment, which concerns a manageable human-scale environment across one or two human generations. Industrial ecology, on the other hand, goes beyond the traditional “end of pipe” idea of pollution control and learns from the ecosystem concept. The current paper is an attempt to reconcile these two fields as an integrated approach to the planning of industrial areas. Using a case study of Singapore’s Jurong Island industrial park, two fundamental issues behind the idea of landscape ecology and industrial ecology are raised. If raw materials, energy and by-products are more easily replaced or reused by technology and management, then research on industrial ecology and related knowledge will be crucial for developing natural resource substitution by innovative technology and new ways of environmental management. Where it is difficult to substitute natural resources, the skills of planning and managing natural resources will take priority over other strategies. In this situation, the knowledge of landscape ecology needs to be applied to the prediction, design and evaluation of ecologically optimum resource uses, patterns and processes in the mixture of natural, urban and industrial environment. A new concept, “nurtured landscape”, is proposed for mediating between the natural ecosystem and the urban/industrial environment. The nurtured landscape provides a basis for the development of new ecological technology using landscape to ameliorate the polluting effects of the urban/industrial neighbourhood. The planning of Singapore’s Jurong Island industrial park provides a test of applying the principles of landscape ecology and industrial ecology to the possible transformation of an industrial area.     

产业生态学的技术方法研究及应用

介绍了产业生态学的兴起,阐述了作为一门交叉学科,产业生态学广泛吸取了其他学科的理论和方法,例如生态学中的系统演化理论、经济学中的投入产出分析方法等,并在这些理论和方法的基础上,形成了自身的理论和方法体系,其中包括物质和能量流分析、生态效率、生产者责任延伸制、产品导向的环境政策等。提出随着这些理论和方法研究的不断完善和深入,产业生态学将广泛用于企业、区域、国家甚至全球层面上,在更广的领域和范围内发挥积极作用。     

Eco-industrial park initiatives in the USA and the Netherlands: first lessons

Since the introduction of the industrial ecology concept by Frosch and Gallopoulos in 1989, and the apparent success of the Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis project, attention to planned eco-industrial park (EIP) development projects has grown all over the world. This article includes data from six of these EIP development projects. Three of the projects discussed are located in the Netherlands and three in the US. This article compares the differences in project approach and results on a national level. The approach suggested is derived from the available EIP development literature.Initial research indicates that the Dutch EIP projects are more successful than their US counterparts. This difference in success can be, mostly, attributed to the fact that the US projects are initiated by local and regional governments that see the project as a way to improve the local/regional economy with access to substantial government funds. Because of this heavy government involvement, US companies are, in general, not interested in the project. The more successful Dutch projects, on the other hand, are mostly initiated by the companies themselves with financial and advisory support from the local and regional government.     

A multilevel perspective of interpersonal trust: Individual,dyadic, and cross‐level predictors of performance

While it is generally known that interpersonal trust facilitates individual functioning, few studies have examined the role of specific features of the interpersonal trust network — individual, dyadic, third‐party, and network‐level features — on individual performance. We adopt a multilevel perspective of interpersonal trust to examine how individuals' performance is not only predicted by their individual‐level centrality in the interpersonal trust network but also moderated, at the network level, by the overall centralized nature of that network. Further, we examine whether mutual trust relationships at the dyadic level, as well as shared trust ties to common third parties, can predict individuals' performance. We test our hypotheses with 206 members in 15 professional networking groups and find that interpersonal trust operates at multiple levels to predict members' performance in terms of generating income from business referrals. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications on how interpersonal trust relationships operate and can be managed for performance gains. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Devolving power from the state: local initiatives for nature protection and recreation in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Quests for devolving more power to local actors for nature protection stem from both international and national policies. Also, there is a growing recognition of the need for local governments to promote green infrastructure for citizens to recreate and learn about their environment. Starting in 2004, the Swedish government has allocated special funding towards these goals through the Local Nature Conservation Programme (LONA). Virtually all Swedish municipalities have received such funding in pursuit of facilitating wide access to nature and promoting recreational activities, including the protection of nature areas, creating pathways, information devices, and promoting these areas among new societal groups to enjoy. This study presents the results of ten years of experience with LONA. A survey with respondents from 191 municipalities and 20 county administrations, together with 20 key informant interviews, show that the programme has been a success in several respects. Not only have most municipalities created a wealth of new ways to engage local organisations and citizens in nature conservation and recreation, but they have also broadened the ways they think about how nature is important to their constituencies. Due to innovative ways to count voluntary work as local matching of funding, smaller and less resourceful municipalities have also become engaged. Still, the local needs for further initiatives are deemed considerable. State support coupled with knowledge sharing is important to show policy priority to such bottom-up initiatives.     

Environmental Management Systems at the Industrial Park Level in China

Environmental management systems (EMSs), such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001, can be used as a tool in China by industrial park managers to improve their environmental performance. This article uses the case of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone (DETDZ) to show how to establish a comprehensive environmental management system (CEMS) according to the ISO 14001 standard at the industrial park level by considering local realities. The particularly interesting feature of this case study is the use of a CEMS (in this case, ISO 14001) by the administrative group of the DETDZ to develop a more comprehensive approach to the wide range of environmental issues that they face in running the zone. In essence the goal is to address many of the issues at the level of the zone. The incentives, benefits, and barriers associated with implementing ISO 14001 are described. However, implementation of an EMS should not be thought of as the ultimate objective for an industrial parks environmental management. The next steps include encouraging further public participation and taking an integrated approach leading to an industrial ecosystem, which can realize better environmental performance at the industrial park level. Yong Geng is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Dalhousie University. Raymond Côté is a professor at Dalhousie University.     

Strategies for sustainable development of industrial park in Ulsan,South Korea—From spontaneous evolution to systematic expansion of industrial symbiosis

The Korea National Cleaner Production Center (KNCPC) affiliated to the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) has started a 15 year, 3-phase EIP master plan with the support of Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy (MOCIE). A total of 6 industrial parks, including industrial parks in Ulsan city, known as the industrial capital of South Korea, are planning projects to find the feasibility of shifting existing industrial parks to eco-industrial parks. The basic survey shows that Ulsan industrial complex has been continuously evolving from conventional industrial complexes to eco-industrial parks by spontaneous industrial symbiosis. This paper describes the Korean national policies and the developmental activities of this vision to drive the global trend of innovation for converting the existing industrial parks to eco-industrial parks through inter-industry waste, energy, and material exchange in Ulsan Industrial complexes. In addition, the primary and supportive components of the Ulsan EIP pilot project, which will be implemented for 5 years is elaborated with its schedules and economic benefits.     

Present situation of wastewater treatment in the Iranian industrial estates: Recycle and reuse as a solution for achieving goals of eco-industrial parks

Iran is located in arid and semi-arid region, which means water resource management is a strategic issue for this country. Water scarcity is one of the most critical concerns of industrial estates in Iran. For this reason, recycling and reusing of treated wastewater is the most practical solution for compensating of water shortage in industrial estates. Currently, only 20% of total treated wastewater is used for irrigation and almost 0.81% is consumed for industrial purpose. This study presents an overview on the wastewater management at the Iranian industrial estates for the purpose of achieving the goal of eco-industrial parks by describing the present situation and discussing the experiences of wastewater reuse systems for irrigation and industrial purposes. The aims of this study was to provide an overview of the wastewater management at the industrial estates in Iran towards achieving eco-industrial parks by describing present states and the outcome of wastewater consumption for irrigation and industrial purposes.