The Limitations of Wintering Away From Customary Pastures in Relation to Dzud in Mongolia's Gobi Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-110
Author(s):  
Annika Ericksen

This article, based on ethnographic research in a Gobi district in Mongolia, focuses on herders 'wintering away' from customary winter campsites to access better pasture elsewhere. Because of the drawbacks associated with wintering at non-customary as opposed to 'home' pastures, many herders consider 'wintering away' to be a last resort. In the 2009–10 dzud (winter disaster), in Bayanlig soum, most households that wintered away were hit by unusually heavy snowfall and suffered higher livestock losses than those households that stayed at their customary campsites. While herders' migration decisions are guided by expert knowledge of the environment, complicating factors and high uncertainty can contribute to livestock losses despite their best efforts. Mobility is essential to herders' success in a variable environment, but not all forms and instances of migration are equally beneficial. This article draws on herders' accounts to explore a migration dilemma in the Gobi that may become more common.

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Young

School governing bodies in England have considerable powers and responsibilities with regard to the education of pupils. This article explores how power relations operate, within governing bodies, through struggles over which types of knowledge are claimed and valued. The article draws on the analysis of policy and on ethnographic research in the governing bodies of four maintained schools to explore the complex interactions between lay, educational and managerial knowledge. The article suggests that educational and managerial expertise are privileged over lay knowledge. Hence, the concept of ‘lay’ knowledge, which is attached to external governors, is easily coopted by managerial knowledge as it does not have alternative expert knowledge attached to it.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia F Gruson-Wood

Applied behavioural therapies are widely adopted interventions that have become the standard of healthcare and expert knowledge for autistic people in Canada. These therapies are methods of individualized behavioural modification whereby skills are taught, and socially “undesirable” or “inappropriate” behaviour is regulated according to expert claims that focus on correction, imitation, repetition, reinforcements, and environmental modification. Despite their prevalence, these therapies are highly controversial methods within autism communities, with mostly non-autistic parents and clinicians as their main proponents, and autistic self-activists as their critics. The ethnographic research presented will examine the culture, training, and knowledge practices of behavioural therapy providers in Ontario, to study disciplinary techniques that are used to create expert subjects. In order to operate as a technology for producing optimal results in the autistic subject, working as a behavioural therapist involves multiple techniques such as completing intensive exercises consisting of audible and textual surveillance, recorded sessions, and intra-therapeutic replicability. These techniques and exercises often work to discipline expressions of care in accordance with a “psychocentric” framework for understanding autism and supporting autistic people. 


2008 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 781-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Therriault ◽  
Leif-Matthias Herborg

Abstract Therriault, T. W., and Herborg, L-M. 2008. A qualitative biological risk assessment for vase tunicate Ciona intestinalis in Canadian waters: using expert knowledge. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 781–787. Non-indigenous species (NIS) can pose a significant level of risk, through potential ecological or genetic consequences, to environments to which they are introduced. One way to characterize the overall risk posed by a NIS is to combine the probability and consequences of its establishment in a risk assessment that can be used to inform managers and policy-makers. The vase tunicate Ciona intestinalis is considered to be a cryptogenic species in eastern Canadian waters, but has not yet been reported from Pacific Canada. Because it is unclear what level of risk it poses for Canadian waters, we conducted a biological risk assessment for C. intestinalis and its potential pathogens, parasites, and fellow travellers. An expert survey was conducted to inform the risk assessment. The ecological risk posed by C. intestinalis was considered high (moderate uncertainty) on the Atlantic coast, and moderate (high uncertainty) on the Pacific coast. The genetic risk posed by C. intestinalis was considered moderate on both coasts, with low uncertainty on the Atlantic coast and high uncertainty on the Pacific coast, where hybridization with Ciona savignyi may be possible. Pathogens, parasites, and fellow travellers were considered to be a moderate ecological risk and a low genetic risk (with high uncertainty) for both coasts.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Staszewski ◽  
Alan D. Davison ◽  
David J. Dippel ◽  
Julia A. Tischuk

2018 ◽  
pp. 114-131
Author(s):  
O. Yu. Bondarenko

his article explores theoretical and experimental approach to modeling social interactions. Communication and exchange of information with other people affect individual’s behavior in numerous areas. Generally, such influence is exerted by leaders, outstanding individuals who have a higher social status or expert knowledge. Social interactions are analyzed in the models of social learning, game theoretic models, conformity models, etc. However, there is a lack of formal models of asymmetric interactions. Such models could help elicit certain qualities characterizing higher social status and perception of status by other individuals, find the presence of leader influence and analyze its mechanism.


2008 ◽  
pp. 110-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Yakovlev

Using the data of SU-HSU enterprises surveys and internal statistics of KPMG company the paper provides a non-conventional view on three economic problems which have recently been in the center of expert discussions in Russia: competitiveness of firms, corruption in the government and level of taxation. The paper argues the necessity of pragmatic approach to economic phenomena, especially under conditions of high uncertainty caused by the increasing global financial crisis.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-164
Author(s):  
Michelle J. Moran-Taylor

Understanding the return aspect of international migration is vital because returnees replete with new ideas, perceptions on life, and monies affect every dimension of social life in migrants’ places of origin.  Yet, return migration remains uneven and an understudied aspect of migratory flows because migration scholars have privileged why individuals migrate, the underlying motivations for their moves abroad, and how migrants assimilate and succeed in their destinations abroad. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article addresses the migratory flows of Ladino and Mayan Guatemalans:  those who go North, but in particular, those who come South. And in doing so, it highlights their similar and divergent responses towards migration processes.


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