Institutional dynamics and forest use practices in the Santchou Landscape of Cameroon

2022 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 68-80
Author(s):  
Jude Ndzifon Kimengsi ◽  
Alfred Kechia Mukong ◽  
Lukas Giessen ◽  
Jürgen Pretzsch
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
Forest Use

Land Use Change and Commodity Frontiers

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Cáceres ◽  
Esteban Tapella ◽  
Diego A. Cabrol ◽  
Lucrecia Estigarribia
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Management Recommendations

Argentina is experiencing an expansion of soya and maize cultivation that is pushing the agricultural frontier over areas formerly occupied by native Chaco forest. Subsistance farmers use this dry forest to raise goats and cattle and to obtain a broad range of goods and services. Thus, two very different and non-compatible land uses are in dispute. On the one hand subsistance farmers fostering an extensive and diversified forest use, on the other hand, large-scale producers who need to clear out the forest to sow annual crops in order to appropriate soil fertility. First, the paper looks at how these social actors perceive Chaco forest, what their interests are, and what kind of values they attach to it. Second, we analyze the social-environmental conflicts that arise among actors in order to appropriate forest’s benefits. Special attention is paid to the role played by the government in relation to: (a) how does it respond to the demands of the different sectors; and (b) how it deals with the management recommendations produced by scientists carrying out social and ecological research. To put these ideas at test we focus on a case study located in Western Córdoba (Argentina), where industrial agriculture is expanding at a fast pace, and where social actors’ interests are generating a series of disputes and conflicts. Drawing upon field work, the paper shows how power alliances between economic and political powers, use the institutional framework of the State in their own benefit, disregarding wider environmental and social costs. 

scholarly journals Chinese NGO-Firm Partnerships and CSR from an Institutional Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
Level Of Involvement ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Corporate Social

NGO–firm partnerships have been well studied in the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Marano and Tashman 2012; Dahan et al. 2010; Oetzel and Doh 2009). However, these studies have generally limited their focus to Western multinationals and Western NGOs and, moreover, not by-and-large examine in depth the institutional settings under which either the firm or the NGO operates Building on recent institutional approaches to CSR (Brammer, Jackson, and Matten 2012; Kang and Moon 2012; Matten and Moon 2008), this paper examines how the institutional dynamics of several partnerships between Chinese firms and NGOs affect the manifestation of CSR (e.g. “implicit” vs. “explicit”). The paper also looks into how CSR and NGO–firm collaboration plays out within a changing state-corporatist framework in Chinese context (Unger and Chan 1995, 2008; Hsu and Hasmath forthcoming). The paper then argues 1) that the involvement of an NGO in the partnership reflects a changing institutional setting in China, and 2) that type and level of involvement of Chinese government institutions affects whether a given firm takes an “implicit” or an “explicit” approach to CSR.

scholarly journals Assessing the Risk of Democratic Reversal in the United States: A Reply to Kurt Weyland

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Matias López ◽  
Juan Pablo Luna
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Boolean Algebra ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT By replying to Kurt Weyland’s (2020) comparative study of populism, we revisit optimistic perspectives on the health of American democracy in light of existing evidence. Relying on a set-theoretical approach, Weyland concludes that populists succeed in subverting democracy only when institutional weakness and conjunctural misfortune are observed jointly in a polity, thereby conferring on the United States immunity to democratic reversal. We challenge this conclusion on two grounds. First, we argue that the focus on institutional dynamics neglects the impact of the structural conditions in which institutions are embedded, such as inequality, racial cleavages, and changing political attitudes among the public. Second, we claim that endogeneity, coding errors, and the (mis)use of Boolean algebra raise questions about the accuracy of the analysis and its conclusions. Although we are skeptical of crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis as an adequate modeling choice, we replicate the original analysis and find that the paths toward democratic backsliding and continuity are both potentially compatible with the United States.

scholarly journals Knowing when to talk? Plant genome editing as a site for pre-engagement institutional reflexivity

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252199979
Author(s):  
Robert D.J. Smith ◽  
Sarah Hartley ◽  
Patrick Middleton ◽  
Tracey Jewitt
Keyword(s):  
Genome Editing ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Plant Genome ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
Social Studies Of Science ◽  
High Profile ◽  
A Site

Citizen and stakeholder engagement is frequently portrayed as vital for socially accountable science policy but there is a growing understanding of how institutional dynamics shape engagement exercises in ways that prevent them from realising their full potential. Limited attention has been devoted to developing the means to expose institutional features, allow policy-makers to reflect on how they will shape engagement and respond appropriately. Here, therefore, we develop and test a methodological framework to facilitate pre-engagement institutional reflexivity with one of the United Kingdom’s eminent science organisations as it grappled with a new, high-profile and politicised technology, genome editing. We show how this approach allowed policy-makers to reflect on their institutional position and enrich decision-making at a time when they faced pressure to legitimate decisions with engagement. Further descriptions of such pre-engagement institutional reflexivity are needed to better bridge theory and practice in the social studies of science.

scholarly journals Climate Change and Informal Education in the Opinion of Forest Users in Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7892
Author(s):  
Natalia Korcz ◽  
Jacek Koba ◽  
Agata Kobyłka ◽  
Emilia Janeczko ◽  
Joanna Gmitrowicz-Iwan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Total N ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Agriculture Economics ◽  
Forested Areas ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
Forest Education ◽  
Forest Users

Climate change affects various aspects of the economy, agriculture, economics, and politics, including forestry. There is more and more talk about the real impact of the effects of climate change. This paper presents the results of a survey on the perceptions of two groups, foresters and recreational forest users, about climate change and its impacts on forested areas; 130 foresters and 146 recreational forest users participated in the survey (total n = 276). The survey was conducted from April to November 2019 and consisted of three parts. The first part included questions about the demographic characteristics of the respondents (gender, age, education, place of residence), the second part focused on the respondents’ views on climate change and its implications for forest ecosystems, and the third part focused on informal forest education and its relationship to climate change. The results of our study indicated that progressive climate change affecting forest ecosystems is clearly felt by the professional group related to forests such as foresters, and to a lesser extent by people using forests for tourism and recreation. According to foresters, the effects of climate change on forest areas include rapid changes in weather patterns and more frequent insect infestations. On the other hand, people resting in forests mainly observe the lack of snow cover and occurrence of drought. Informal forest education insufficiently covers the topic of climate change. Thus, our study can help guide informal education towards topics related to climate change and the need for sustainable forest use.

Weak State, Strong Networks: The Institutional Dynamics of Foreign Direct Investment in China. By Hongying Wang. [Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2001. xiii+211 pp. HK$150.00. ISBN 019-590631-4.]

2002 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 1065-1103
Author(s):  
Qi Luo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
New Institutional Economics ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Investment In China

This is a competent work that challenges the claim of new institutional economics and international regime theory that effective state institutions in the host country are vital to the inflow, and indeed growth, of foreign direct investment (FDI). It argues that the large amount of FDI China has attracted so far has been facilitated more by the informal societal institutions represented by strong personal networks operating in the country than by the formal state institutions manifested by the weak legal system. The author validates her arguments with a large number of anecdotes based on over 100 interviews she conducted in China.

Moving Targets

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 742-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAINER EISING ◽  
NICOLAS JABKO
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
National Level ◽  
Electricity Supply ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Moving Targets ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
Electricity Supply Industry ◽  
Supply Industry

After 10 years of controversial negotiations, in 1996 the European Union finally took action to liberalize the electricity supply industry. Given the intensity of bilateral contacts between France and Germany, the reform has often been presented as a straightforward intergovernmental deal. This article argues that the French-German deal was only the tip of the iceberg. Perceptions of national interests evolved considerably in both countries. The most important cause for these changes was at the European Union (EU) level, not at the national level. The institutional dynamics of EU negotiations induced a series of preference changes and key political realignments at the national level.

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