scholarly journals Navigating Regional Environmental Governance

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Balsiger ◽  
Stacy D. VanDeveer

Global environmental governance is growing increasingly complex and recent scholarship and practice raise a number of questions about the continued feasibility of negotiating and implementing an ever-larger set of global environmental agreements. In the search for alternative conceptual models and normative orders, regional environmental governance (REG) is (re)emerging as a significant phenomenon in theory and practice. Although environmental cooperation has historically been more prevalent at the regional than at the global level, and has informed much of what we know today about international environmental cooperation, REG has been a neglected topic in the scholarly literature on international relations and international environmental politics. This introduction to the special issue situates theoretical arguments linked to REG in the broader literature, including the nature of regions, the location of regions in multilevel governance, and the normative arguments advanced for and against regional orders. It provides an overview of empirical work; offers quantitative evidence of REG's global distribution; advances a typology of REG for future research; and introduces the collection of research articles and commentaries through the lens of three themes: form and function, multilevel governance, and participation.

Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts

This book began by stating that histories of religious architecture can be accounts of both buildings and people. This particular history, focused on the archaeological evidence for the development of cult buildings in early central Italy, has reconsidered traditional narratives about the form and function of Etrusco-Italic religious architecture and proposed an alternative reconstruction of how their architects and audiences may have interacted with one another in Rome, Latium, and Etruria between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC. Comparison with the construction of monumental temples elsewhere also indicated that settlements including Rome, Satricum, Pyrgi, and Tarquinia can perhaps be considered part of a network of Archaic Mediterranean settlements with material, commercial, and religious connections, and that monumental architecture may have been a mechanism for successful social interaction. This study has therefore supported the suggestion that the physical and social fabric of ancient communities were closely linked, and that regional studies of Latium and Etruria may furthermore benefit from being set in Italic and Mediterranean contexts. This concluding chapter briefly recapitulates the arguments made in the main body of the book and the significance of each of those arguments for studies of ancient architecture and society. It also assesses how these findings relate to broader debates about Archaic Italy. Finally, it acknowledges the limitations of this analysis and highlights opportunities for future research. Part I of this book demonstrated that ancient religious architecture was a protean phenomenon. Three chapters analysed the ambiguous evidence for Iron Age sacred huts, the range of different buildings types associated with ritual activities in the seventh century BC, and the emergence of a separate architectural language for religious buildings during the Archaic period. Detailed analyses of foundations and roofs revealed that as changes in technology and society led to the widespread use of more permanent building materials, the physical fabric of central Italic settlements was also increasingly marked by the use of particular architectural forms and decorations to differentiate cult buildings from other structures, setting them apart in a form of architectural consecration.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Gruby

This article examines regional environmental governance (REG) through the lens of human geography theory on scale. Drawing on a case study of the Micronesia Challenge, a regional conservation commitment among five Pacific islands, I advance a critical theory of REG as a scaling process and tool of politics through which regions are (re)made and mobilized in support of diverse agendas. Results highlight understudied dimensions of REG, including: motivations for scaling environmental governance to regions; the co-production of regional and global environmental governance; the mutable expression of regionality within REG; and the ways in which REG is leveraged for resource mobilization, global visibility and influence, and conservation. The potential for REG to empower subaltern groups while advancing conservation is promising, and an important area for future research. The overall contribution of this article is a more complex, politicized understanding of REG that complicates a scholarly search for its inherent characteristics.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian McMillan ◽  
Robert Eastham ◽  
Benjamin Brown ◽  
Richard Fitton ◽  
David Dickinson

UNSTRUCTURED This paper briefly outlines the history of the medical record and the factors contributing to the adoption of computerized records in primary care in the United Kingdom. It discusses how both paper-based and electronic health records have traditionally been used in the past and goes on to examine how enabling patients to access their own primary care record online is changing the form and function of the patient record. In addition, it looks at the evidence for the benefits of Web-based access and discusses some of the challenges faced in this transition. Finally, some suggestions are made regarding the future of the patient record and research questions that need to be addressed to help deepen our understanding of how they can be used more beneficially by both patients and clinicians.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052095864
Author(s):  
Neil Shortland ◽  
Elias Nader ◽  
Lisa Thompson ◽  
Marek Palasinski

Scholars have extensively discussed the topic of “online radicalization,” often seeking to understand the form and function of online extremist material. However, this work has neglected to examine the role that the Internet plays alongside individual personality factors in the process through which someone develops violent extremist cognitions. This article aims to extend the understanding of the role of personality differences in the effect of exposure to extremist material online. In this study, we experimentally measure the short-term psychological consequences of exposure to extremist material on extremist cognitions. We use a between-group experimental design in which participants are shown extremist propaganda with either pre- or post-counter messages. Our results indicate that trait personality, and specifically aggression, may be more influential than exposure to extremist propaganda in influencing extremist cognitions. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of future research directions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bevil R. Conway

Inferior temporal cortex (IT) is a key part of the ventral visual pathway implicated in object, face, and scene perception. But how does IT work? Here, I describe an organizational scheme that marries form and function and provides a framework for future research. The scheme consists of a series of stages arranged along the posterior-anterior axis of IT, defined by anatomical connections and functional responses. Each stage comprises a complement of subregions that have a systematic spatial relationship. The organization of each stage is governed by an eccentricity template, and corresponding eccentricity representations across stages are interconnected. Foveal representations take on a role in high-acuity object vision (including face recognition); intermediate representations compute other aspects of object vision such as behavioral valence (using color and surface cues); and peripheral representations encode information about scenes. This multistage, parallel-processing model invokes an innately determined organization refined by visual experience that is consistent with principles of cortical development. The model is also consistent with principles of evolution, which suggest that visual cortex expanded through replication of retinotopic areas. Finally, the model predicts that the most extensively studied network within IT—the face patches—is not unique but rather one manifestation of a canonical set of operations that reveal general principles of how IT works.


Author(s):  
Melanie Zurba ◽  
Anastasia Papadopoulos

AbstractGlobal environmental governance (GEG) forums, such as those convened through the United Nations, result in the development of monumental guiding frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of Parties (COPs) Aichi and post-2020 targets. The ratification of policy frameworks by member and/or signatory states can result in major shifts in environmental policy and decision-making and has major implications for Indigenous communities. In this article, we present systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on Indigenous participation in GEG forums, and focus on the specific questions: (1) what GEG forums include Indigenous participation and (2) how do Indigenous peoples participate in GEG forums, including how their perspectives and knowledges are framed and/or included/excluded within governance discussions, decisions, and negotiations. We provide a bibliometric analysis of the articles and derive seven inductively determined themes from our review: (1) Critical governance forums and decisions; (2) inclusion and exclusion of Indigenous voices and knowledge in GEG forums; (3) capacity barriers; (4) knowledge hierarchies: inclusion, integration, and bridging; (5) representation and grouping of Indigenous peoples in GEG; (6) need for networks among and between Indigenous peoples and other governance actors; and (7) Indigenous peoples influence on GEG decisions and processes. Our findings can be used to improve GEG forums by contributing to the development strategies that address the barriers and inequities to meaningful and beneficial Indigenous participation and can contribute to future research that is focused on understanding the experiences of Indigenous peoples within GEG forums.


Reproduction ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 144 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh W Simmons ◽  
John L Fitzpatrick

Females frequently mate with several males, whose sperm then compete to fertilize available ova. Sperm competition represents a potent selective force that is expected to shape male expenditure on the ejaculate. Here, we review empirical data that illustrate the evolutionary consequences of sperm competition. Sperm competition favors the evolution of increased testes size and sperm production. In some species, males appear capable of adjusting the number of sperm ejaculated, depending on the perceived levels of sperm competition. Selection is also expected to act on sperm form and function, although the evidence for this remains equivocal. Comparative studies suggest that sperm length and swimming speed may increase in response to selection from sperm competition. However, the mechanisms driving this pattern remain unclear. Evidence that sperm length influences sperm swimming speed is mixed and fertilization trials performed across a broad range of species demonstrate inconsistent relationships between sperm form and function. This ambiguity may in part reflect the important role that seminal fluid proteins (sfps) play in affecting sperm function. There is good evidence that sfps are subject to selection from sperm competition, and recent work is pointing to an ability of males to adjust their seminal fluid chemistry in response to sperm competition from rival males. We argue that future research must consider sperm and seminal fluid components of the ejaculate as a functional unity. Research at the genomic level will identify the genes that ultimately control male fertility.


1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. McLean ◽  
Lee K. S. McLean ◽  
Nancy C. Brady ◽  
Rhonda Etter

A structured communication sampling procedure was used to measure the form and function characteristics of intentional communication acts produced by nonverbal adults with severe mental retardation. Four “contact” subjects (who communicated only with contact gestures) and 4 “distal” subjects (who used distal as well as contact gestures) participated in this study. All subjects produced communication acts that were coded as initiations, and all subjects produced protoimperative-type communication acts. However, contact subjects produced no protodeclarative-type communication acts, whereas all distal subjects produced some protodeclaratives. Distal subjects lso produced significantly more repair/recast acts than did contact subjects. Other findings included a tendency for distal subjects to communicate at a higher rate, to initiate more communication acts, and to produce more accompanying wordlike vocalizations than contact subjects. These results are discussed in light of Werner and Kaplan’s (1984) concept of distancing as central to symbolization. Implications for future research and for clinical practice are also discussed.


1988 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 54-71
Author(s):  
Norbert dittmar

Semantic aspects of learner varieties have only recently gained the interest of second language acquistion [SLA] researchers. This is partly a consequence of some shifts in SLA theory and partly due to the discussion of “form” and “function” and the notions “pragmatics” and “semantics” in linguistic theory. There are two corollaries in recent SLA research: interlanguages should be described on the basis of their use in real communication situations, and the process of learning (strategies and stages in course of acquisition) should be the focus of empirical work. (For a discussion of process and product cf., Dittmar 1984.) As a matter of fact, the present standard paradigm in SLA is the description of learner varieties “outside the classroom” with a focus on “learning without explicit teaching” (also known by the somewhat misleading term undirected learning ) under natural conditions of communication with an emphasis on cross-sectional studies in the seventies (cf., Klein and Dittmar 1979) and on longi- tudinal research in the eighties (cf., Perdue 1982).


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suneeti Nathani Iyer ◽  
David J. Ertmer

Purpose This preliminary study explored relationships between form and function in prelinguistic vocalizations to increase our understanding of early communicative development and to provide potential clinical implications for early communicative assessment and intervention. Method Twenty typically developing infants—5 infants in each of 4 age groups, from 3 to 20 months of age—were included. Vocalizations from these infants had previously been categorized for their form (Nathani, Ertmer, & Stark, 2006) and function (Stark, Bernstein, & Demorest, 1993) characteristics. In the present study, cross-classification tabulations between form and function were conducted to examine relationships between vocalization types and their apparent uses. Results As anticipated, earlier developing forms were mostly associated with earlier developing functions, and later developing forms were mostly associated with later developing functions. However, there were some exceptions such that some forms were associated with a variety of functions, and vice versa. Conclusions The results suggest that some forms are more tightly coupled to function than others in the prelinguistic and early linguistic period. Preliminary implications for developmental theory, future research, and clinical applications are discussed. Larger, longitudinal studies with typical and atypical populations and stricter methodological controls are needed to validate these findings.


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