scholarly journals The Pluriversality of Efforts to Reduce Deforestation in Brazil over the Past Decade: An Analysis of Policy Actors’ Perceptions

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1061
Author(s):  
Maria Fernanda Gebara ◽  
Patrícia Gallo ◽  
Alice Brites ◽  
Guilherme Lima ◽  
Tatiane Micheletti
Keyword(s):  
Phase 1 ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Tropical Landscapes ◽  
Reduce Emissions ◽  
The Way

Brazil offers a complex and unique example of tropical landscapes. The country has considerably decreased deforestation since 2004, but Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is arguably under question, both as a concept and as a tool to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as deforestation levels have increased over the last five years. This article investigates how different policy actors have perceived REDD+ over time, how they have engaged in REDD+ efforts over the past decade, and how REDD+ implementation in Brazil should move forward accordingly. We analyzed qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and actors’ “stances”, i.e., their positions—with regards to key issues connected to REDD+ governance and its challenges—over three different time periods (Phase 1: 2010–2011, Phase 2: 2015–2016, and Phase 3: 2019), so as to identify the practical implications of these diverse interpretations. We argue that the way actors perceive REDD+ is intimately related to the way they interpret and assign meanings towards it and, in consequence, the way they coordinate REDD+-related practices and efforts. We focus on the link between perceptions and efforts so as to comprehend the relevance that different interpretations have to both the concept and implementation of REDD+ in Brazil. Our analysis concentrates on the potential to improve the coordination and integration of REDD+ implementation and diverse actors’ efforts with regards to REDD+ activities. Results suggest that actors’ perceptions of REDD+ generated a plurality of meanings, highlighting a range of dialectical and ontological interactions that have, in turn, resulted in multiple REDD+ interpretations. Findings highlight that different actors have the same interests when it comes to their organizational efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, suggesting that there is room for a better coordination of efforts towards this end, as well as increased collaboration.

scholarly journals Destination Assessment and Certification: Challenges and Opportunities

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Grapentin ◽  
Maureen Ayikoru
Keyword(s):  
Future Development ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Online Surveys ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Tourism Destinations ◽  
The Way

This study examines recent developments in destination assessment and certification as a basis for identifying challenges and benefits they engender, from tourist and tourism organizations’ perspectives. It uses online surveys and semi-structured interviews to collect primary data from prospective tourists and key informants on destination assessment and certification. The findings highlight the strengths and weaknesses of schemes currently in use, including various factors that might influence their future development. Specifically, the study finds that destination assessment and certification are affected by four key issues, namely, practicability, reliability, visibility, and (un)availability of incentives. It concludes that the manifestation of these issues and their ensuing complexity affect the way in which tourists and tourism destinations engage with destination assessment and certification. This, therefore, delimits the inherent opportunities and constraints within such schemes.

scholarly journals Whole system approaches to health in higher education

2019 ◽  
Vol 119 (4) ◽  
pp. 246-258
Author(s):  
Mark Dooris ◽  
Alan Farrier ◽  
Susan Powell ◽  
Maxine Holt
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Strategic Influence ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on an evaluation of the UK Healthy Universities Network (UKHUN), which explored engagement of network members; identified what members value about the network; examined facilitators and barriers to engagement; and informed the network’s future development. Design/methodology/approach The study was a two phase mixed-method study, with participants being staff from Higher Education institutions. Phase 1 involved a documentary review and an online 14-question survey (n=32). Phase 2 comprised follow-up semi-structured interviews and focus groups, conducted using Skype (n=11). These were audio recorded and transcripts were thematically analysed in a two-stage process. Findings A number of key themes emerged from the thematic analysis: value of network meetings and events; popularity of the network website; increased communication and collaboration; sense of leadership offered by the network; interest and inclusion of an international perspective; importance of institutional support. Research limitations/implications Only six universities who are involved in the network took part in Phase 2. Although a range of organisations were chosen purposively, it is possible that additional key issues at other universities were excluded. Originality/value The UKHUN is valued by its membership, particularly its biannual meetings, online presence, leadership, ethos and communication methods. Key barriers include the capacity of staff to attend meetings and contribute to the network, influenced by a lack of institutional commitment and prioritisation. Findings from the evaluation have informed a “refresh” of the network’s website and a revision of its membership structure, as well as guiding its positioning to achieve greater strategic influence.

scholarly journals Deadlock or Transformational Change? Exploring Public Discourse on REDD+ Across Seven Countries

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 63-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Di Gregorio ◽  
Maria Brockhaus ◽  
Tim Cronin ◽  
Efrian Muharrom ◽  
Sofi Mardiah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Socioeconomic Outcomes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
The Media ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
Reduce Emissions

This article investigates the public discourses on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) across seven countries, to assess whether they support policy reforms. We argue that transformational discourses have at least one of these characteristics: they advocate specific policy reforms that address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation; take into account the potential risks of a REDD+ mechanism; go beyond technocratic solutions to reduce emissions; and explicitly challenge existing power relations that support drivers of deforestation. The evidence indicates the predominance of win-win storylines, a lack of engagement by state actors with debates on the potential negative socioeconomic outcomes of REDD+, and little attention to the drivers of deforestation. The article concludes that to achieve a shift toward transformational public discourse, reformist policy actors and the media need to engage dominant policy actors in debates about how to reduce pressure on the forest.

scholarly journals How younger students perceive and identify historical significance

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Bergman
Keyword(s):  
Small Groups ◽  
History Education ◽  
Historical Thinking ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Grade 5 ◽  
The Way

Historical significance is a historical thinking concept. Being able to identify historical significance is viewed as important for understanding change and continuity in the past, and for understanding the way ‘history’ is constructed by present society. This article discusses how Swedish students in Grade 5 (age 11 years) perceive and understand historical significance without having received prior instruction on how to identify historical significance. The results show that the students see thrilling and exciting events in the past as significant, as well as the events, inventions, ideas and values that have influenced the present or changed the course of history in some way. In this paper, I compare students’ answers to definitions of historical significance formulated by Christine Counsell (2004) and Matthew Bradshaw (2006) . For the study, 67 students were interviewed in semi-structured interviews in small groups. They attended six different schools in the middle part of Sweden and came from varying backgrounds. Regardless of their backgrounds or origins, the students see the history culture of the majority, as presented in their history education, as their own.

Economic Instruments to Control Greenhouse Gas Emissions: REDD+

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rawshan Ara Begum
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Forest Monitoring ◽  
Emissions Reduction ◽  
Economic Instruments ◽  
Reduce Emissions

Deforestation causes up to 10% of global anthropogenic carbon emissions. Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks can contribute to controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and limit global warming and climate change. However, global warming cannot be limited without decreasing the use of fossil fuel or emission-intensive energy sources. The forestry sector could contribute 7%–25% of global emissions reduction by 2020. Apart from emissions reduction and sink (mitigation), forests also provide cobenefits such as ecosystem services (providing food, timber, and medicinal herbs); biodiversity conservation; poverty reduction; and water quality, soil protection, and climate regulation. In 2005, the UNFCCC introduced a cost-effective mitigation strategy to reduce emissions from deforestation (RED) in developing countries. The UN’s initiative to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) aims to transform forest management in developing countries, where the majority of tropical forests are located, using finances from developed countries. REDD+ seeks to reward actors for maintaining or restoring forests, acting as an economic instrument by putting a monetary value on every tonne of CO2 that is prevented from entering the atmosphere. Implementation of REDD+ requires economic and policy instruments that can help to control GHG emissions by enhancing carbon sinks, reducing deforestation and forest degradation, and managing sustainable forests. Payment for environmental services offers opportunities for either cofinancing or economic valuation in regard to REDD+ implementation. The challenge is to identify the most appropriate and cost-effective instrument. REDD+ fulfills the current needs for economic instruments and incentives that can be implemented with existing land use and forestry policies to control global GHG emissions. However, REDD+ requires forest governance, law enforcement, clarification of land and resource rights, and forest monitoring to work in the long term. REDD+ payments can be made for results-based actions, and the UNFCCC has identified potential ways to pay for them, but challenges remain, such as clarifying financing or funding sources, distribution of funding and sharing of benefits or incentives, carbon rights, and so on. Different aspects pf the implementation, effectiveness, and scale of REDD+ and their interactions with economic, social, and environmental benefits are important for successful REDD+ implementation.

scholarly journals CURATING MEMORIES: THE ROLE OF EMOTION IN THE DIGITAL MEMORY WORK OF YOUNG WOMEN ON INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Annabell
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Digital Memory ◽  
Feeling Rules ◽  
The Way

A core understanding in memory studies is that memory is not formed by an individual in insolation. Instead, it is guided by social frameworks and enacted within a particular social context. This is articulated by van Dijck (2007) as an inseparability of mediated memories from culture. Accordingly, the active, purposeful creation of and re-engagement with digital traces of the past in the present on Instagram and Facebook by young women can be situated in the postfeminist, neoliberal environment. Significantly, the particular expectations and pressures on how young women should feel and act intersect with the performance of digital memory work. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the particular ‘feeling rules’ (Kanai, 2019) articulated by the young women and consider more broadly the role that emotion plays in shaping the performance of digital memory work on Instagram and Facebook. I draw on data gathered from semi-structured interviews with young women aged between 18 and 21 living in London, and ethnographic observations of their Instagram and Facebook profiles. This is complemented with a socioeconomic platform analysis (van Dijck, 2013) and a technical walkthrough (Light et al. 2016), carried out to examine how Instagram and Facebook encourage particular emotions to be expressed and the entanglement of memory and emotion in their memory product. The analysis explores the overlap between the encouragement by platforms and expectations of the postfeminist environment for happy moments to be shared with the way that different emotions influence what is shared by participants.

A year in neurology: key issues of 2020 and challenges for 2021

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 280-282
Author(s):  
Sue Thomas
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Way

Significant changes in the way neurology services operate were triggered in 2020. Sue Thomas outlines the key issues of the past 12 months and looks towards the main possible challenges for 2021.

Key issues in policy research for psychosocial risk management and the way forward

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Leka ◽  
T. Cox ◽  
G. Zwetsloot ◽  
A. Jain ◽  
E. Kortum
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Psychosocial Risk ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Way

Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Prevailing View ◽  
The Way

At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland’s national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism. Whereas 19th-century Scotland is popularly depicted as a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows how Scotland’s national heroes were once the embodiment of a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality. Whether celebrating the legacy of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, the reformer John Knox, the Covenanters, 19th-century Scots rooted their national heroes in a Presbyterian and unionist view of Scotland’s past. Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers collective memories of Scotland’s past entirely opposed to 21st-century assumptions of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery. Detailed studies of 19th-century commemoration of Scotland’s national heroes Uncovers an all but forgotten interpretation of these ‘great Scots’ Shines a new light on the mindset of nineteenth-century Scottish national identity as being comfortably Scottish and British Overturns the prevailing view of Victorian Scottishness as parochial, sentimental tartanry

Profilometry. Using Corneo-scleral topography for scleral lens fitting

The Eye ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (128) ◽  
pp. 19-22
Author(s):  
Gregory DeNaeyer
Keyword(s):  
Ocular Surface ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Contact Lenses ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Way

The world-wide use of scleral contact lenses has dramatically increased over the past 10 year and has changed the way that we manage patients with corneal irregularity. Successfully fitting them can be challenging especially for eyes that have significant asymmetries of the cornea or sclera. The future of scleral lens fitting is utilizing corneo-scleral topography to accurately measure the anterior ocular surface and then using software to design lenses that identically match the scleral surface and evenly vault the cornea. This process allows the practitioner to efficiently fit a customized scleral lens that successfully provides the patient with comfortable wear and improved vision.

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