A conceptual framework and practical structure for implementing ecosystem condition accounts

Ecosystem condition is a fundamental component in the ecosystem accounting framework as part of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA). Here, we develop a conceptual framework and present a practical structure for implementing ecosystem condition accounts to contribute to the revision process of the SEEA EEA, focussing on six core elements: (1) developing a common definition of ecosystem condition, (2) establishing a conceptual framing for ecosystem condition, (3) portraying the role of condition within the SEEA EEA accounting system, (4) deriving an inclusive multi-purpose approach, (5) describing the components of condition accounts and (6) developing a three-stage structure for reporting accounts. We develop a conceptual framework for an inclusive condition account, building on an ecological understanding of ecosystems upon which definitions, concepts, classifications and reporting structures were based. The framework encompasses the dual perspectives of first, the interdependencies of ecosystem composition, structure and function in maintaining ecosystem integrity and second, the capacity of ecosystems to supply services as benefits for humans. The following components of ecosystem condition accounts are recommended to provide comprehensive, consistent, repeatable and transparent accounts: (1) intrinsic and instrumental values, together with ecocentric and anthropocentric worldviews; (2) a formal typology or classification of characteristics, variables and indicators, based on selection criteria; (3) a reference condition used both to compare past, current and future levels of indicators of condition and as a basis for aggregation of indicators; and (4) a three-stage approach to compiling accounts with increasing levels of information and complexity that are appropriate for different purposes and applications. The recommended broad and inclusive scope of ecosystem condition and the demonstrated practical methods for implementation of accounts will enhance the ecosystem accounting framework and thus support a wider range of current and potential applications and users.

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ECHOLOCATING THE DIGITAL SELF: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research ◽

10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11272 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Annette N Markham

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Analysis ◽

Conceptual Framework ◽

Autonomous Vehicles ◽

Social Space ◽

Symbolic Interaction ◽

Interaction Model ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Close Attention ◽

Response Versus ◽

And Function

This paper explores echolocation as a conceptual framework to extend our understanding of digital sociality. Echolocation is a process whereby the characteristics of an echo build a map of location and relation. Most often we think of how bats, whales, and dolphins echolocate to navigate. If we think of radar, sonar, or lidar, we might think of submarines, autonomous vehicles, or even geolocation on our mobile devices. In this paper, I discuss echolocation as a symbolic interaction framework for describing how the Self is negotiated and identified in and as a part of social space. It focuses attention on the character and function of pings, push notifications, red dots on device screens, and other responses in ongoing interactions between people in social media or between humans and nonhuman or more than human elements of media ecologies. The interpretive qualitative analysis is part of a six year ethnographic study of youth. The analysis of echolocation emerges from a subset of the larger study, those who feel anxiety and even existential vulnerability when disconnected. Based on this qualitative analysis of narratives, the paper builds and extends echolocation as a theory of digital sociality that pays close attention to the response versus the performance in the interaction model.

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Commute as Ritual: Wellington Harbour Ferry Terminal

10.26686/wgtn.17000278.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Andrew R. Mitchener

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Framework ◽

Economic Value ◽

Transport Infrastructure ◽

Modern World ◽

End User ◽

A Value ◽

Infrastructure Design ◽

And Function ◽

Block Sizes

<p>Transport infrastructure is the template upon which we build our inhabitations. Decisions regarding street arrangements, block sizes, and larger scale infrastructure design for example have an enduring and profound affect on the quality of our spatial environments. The conceptual framework we apply when generating and subsequently manipulating this template sets the parameters by which it is judged. By convention, transport infrastructure is considered a purely technical undertaking, within which designers rarely play any meaningful part. The spaces of mobility are thus from their very genesis conceived as instrumental in nature, judged as mere conduits whose function is to join meaningful places such as work and home, fulfilling an economic imperative. Recent research has shown however that affective, symbolic factors play a greater role than instrumental considerations in modal choice of commuters, suggesting that, to the end user at least, transport possesses a value beyond simple utility. Indeed, mobility itself is often cited as a defining characteristic of the modern world, implying a highly symbolic status. This gap between the instrumental conceptual framework we apply to transport infrastructure and the symbolically loaded experience of mobility is an opportunity for design to enrich the experience of users, framed in this research as commuters. Through investigation of the commute as a quotidian, secular ritual greater consideration is given to extra-economic value in the spaces of transport infrastructure. This research analyses the nature and function of ritual in contemporary secular life and argues for the applicability of a ritual framework for understanding value in transport infrastructure. The spatial implications of ritual (defined as symbol + action and exhibiting the key sociocultural functions of mnemonic and liminality) are explored through the design of a harbour ferry terminal for Wellington.</p>

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Ideology

On Inhumanity ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190923006.003.0015 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 101-108

Author(s):

David Livingstone Smith

Keyword(s):

Core Elements ◽

And Function ◽

Clear Conception

This chapter argues that dehumanizing beliefs are ideological beliefs. So, to understand how dehumanization works, and to resist it effectively, the chapter stresses the need for a clear conception of ideology. One popular conception of ideology is that ideologies are beliefs that have the function of fostering oppression. The chapter agrees with and adopts this notion of ideology, because it homes in on something important that we do not have the term for. But to truly understand what ideology is, this chapter pushes the analysis further and looks closely at the two core elements of the definition: the concepts of oppression and function.

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Refined Systems of National Accounts and Experimental Ecosystem Accounting Versus the Simplified Agroforestry Accounting System: Testing in Andalusian Holm Oak Open Woodlands

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11040393 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 393

Author(s):

Pablo Campos ◽

Alejandro Álvarez ◽

José L. Oviedo ◽

Paola Ovando ◽

Bruno Mesa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Environmental Accounting ◽

Holm Oak ◽

Accounting System ◽

National Accounts ◽

Economic Activities ◽

System Of National Accounts ◽

Ecosystem Accounting ◽

The Government ◽

Environmental Income

The scientific debate over how to make visible the connections between the standard System of National Accounts (SNA) and its ongoing satellite Environmental Economic Ecosystem Accounting–Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA–EEA) is a challenge that is still pending. The literature on environmental accounting of agroforestry and silvopastoral landscapes rarely values the multiple ecosystem services of an area, an economic unit (e.g., farm), or a vegetation type (e.g., holm oak—Quercus ilex L.—open woodland). Generally, the literature presents the market value of the products consumed directly or a correction of the latter that reduces their exchange values in order to approximate them to their resource rents. In our previous publications, we have applied and compared our Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS) with the System of National Accounts (SNA), and we refined the latter to avoid the lag between income generation and its accounting in the period in which the product is extracted. These previous publications did not develop experimental applications of the SEEA–EEA with comparisons to the SNA and it being integrated into the AAS. The main novelty of this article is that, for the first time, we present detailed applications and comparisons of our developments of the refined SEEA–EEA and refined SNA with a simplified version of the AAS. The accounting frameworks applied take the production and capital accounts in the process of being updated by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) at the scale of the holm oak open woodlands of Andalusia into account. In this study, we compare three environmental accounting approaches for ecosystem services and environmental income measurements at basic and social prices: our slightly refined standard System of National Accounts (rSNA); our refined, updated and ongoing satellite System of Environmental Economic Accounting–Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (rSEEA–EEA); and our simplified Agroforestry Accounting System (sAAS). We tested them for 15 economic activities in 1408 thousand hectares of the predominantly mixed holm oak open woodland (HOW) land use tiles in the region of Andalusia, Spain. We considered the government institutional sector to be the collective owner of public economic activities, which we incorporated in the rSNA and the sAAS approaches. We discuss consistencies in environmental incomes identified from the results of the three ecosystem accounting frameworks applied to the HOW. The discrepancies in the measurement of ecosystem services of the government institutional sector between the rSEEA–EEA and the sAAS were due to the omission in the former of the government manufactured costs incurred in the supply of freely consumed public final products. The most notable finding of our comparison is that the ecosystem services and the environmental income results for individual market products offered the same values, whichever the ecosystem accounting framework applied. This was not the case with the ecosystem services of public products without market prices, due to the fact that the rSNA estimates these products at production cost and the rSEEA–EEA did not consider the government manufactured production costs and ordinary manufactured net operating margin of government final public product consumption. We also found that, according to modeling of the scheduled management of future biological resources of the HOW, the environmental income shows biological sustainability of the individual nature-based total product consumption.

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Introduction

Orchestration ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197526347.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

James Reilly

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Conceptual Framework ◽

Research Methodology ◽

Hierarchical Structures ◽

Economic Statecraft ◽

Policy Goals ◽

Core Elements ◽

Interest Alignment

This introductory chapter develops a new conceptual framework for understanding how China’s complex domestic structures influence the practice and effectiveness of China’s economic statecraft. China’s orchestration approach integrates three core elements: the “nesting” of orchestration tactics within its hierarchical structures; the use of lucrative “tournaments” designed to attract eager participants while facilitating oversight and discipline; and designing economic statecraft initiatives to maximize interest alignment between central leaders’ foreign policy goals and the interests of key implementing actors. The chapter concludes with the book’s research methodology and a book overview.

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Hierarchical classification system of Germany’s ecosystems as basis for an ecosystem accounting – methods and first results

One Ecosystem ◽

10.3897/oneeco.5.e50648 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

Author(s):

Karsten Grunewald ◽

Burkhard Schweppe-Kraft ◽

Ralf-Uwe Syrbe ◽

Sophie Meier ◽

Tobias Krüger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Classification System ◽

Hierarchical Classification ◽

Data Sources ◽

Accounting System ◽

Federal States ◽

German Federal States ◽

First Results ◽

Ecosystem Accounting ◽

Accounting Changes

Information on changes in the area of different ecosystems is needed in order to establish an accounting system for ecosystem conditions and services. Currently, there are no comprehensive field mappings for the German federal states that obey a uniform mapping system. To create a nationwide “ecosystem accounting”, it is necessary to develop a uniform system of ecosystem classifications that can consistently deal with diverse nationwide data sources on the extent and condition of ecosystems, some of which use their own forms of classification. Against this background, we present a concrete proposal on how to combine and blend GIS land-use and ecosystem data that is compatible with EU-wide approaches with other regularly collected data sources, for example, from sample-based surveys, so as to generate a complete, updatable picture of the state of Germany’s ecosystems. The area shares of ecosystem types (ETs) can be shown in maps. Allocation tables with different classes or levels (layers) enable an ecosystem extent accounting, which are used to help draw up balances (area balance, status balance, service balance) and can be further detailed, depending on the task at hand. First results and trends of areal changes of main and sub-ecosystem types in Germany, based on the proposed classification system, are presented and discussed. However, the brevity of the considered timeframe (the three periods 2012-2015-2018) does not yet allow us to pinpoint trends or migratory movements, as these may be masked by methodological changes in the classification of land use and land cover. Nonetheless, the presented system for accounting changes in ecosystem areas should be continued and developed in the future in order to create a useful tool for biodiversity monitoring in Germany.

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Standard-Setters Versus Big4 Opinion, Concerning Iasb Revision Project of the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting. the Case of Presentation and Disclosures Chapter

Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series ◽

10.1515/sues-2015-0014 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 81-107

Author(s):

Valentin Burca ◽

Dorel Mates ◽

Adriana Puscas

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Framework ◽

Financial Reporting ◽

Financial Statements ◽

Financial Information ◽

Economic Systems ◽

Accounting System ◽

Narrow Scope ◽

Comment Letters ◽

Current List

Abstract On the last decades the accounting system haven‘t been able to follow the dynamics of the economic systems generated by the globalization process. In order to reduce the lag between the demand of financial information and the offer of financial information, IASB has started numerous initiatives aiming the increase on the quality of the financial information. Among the current list of current IASB major projects there is also the project of revising the actual conceptual framework for financial reporting. This study is designed to give some directions that will be considered on the exposure draft of this project, analyzing the comment letters submitted by the members of ASAF and the Big4 as well. The study reveals the increasing importance the preparers and users give to the disclosures included on the notes to the primary financial statements. Moreover, on this study we emphasize several challenges that IASB has to face on issuing the exposure draft for this important project. Some of the main challenges refer to the narrow scope of the financial statements, the criteria used on classification, aggregation and offsetting, or the use of the materiality concept

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The Conceptual Framework of Postmodern Gender-Labelled Periodicals in Ukraine

Postmodern Openings ◽

10.18662/po/12.1sup1/276 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1Sup1) ◽

pp. 149-163

Author(s):

Myroslava Chornodon ◽

Khrystyna Verbytska ◽

Zoriana Haladzhun ◽

Bozhena Ivanytska ◽

Valentyna Mudrokha

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Framework ◽

Gender Stereotypes ◽

And Function ◽

Derivatives Of

The article reveals the features of the contemporary periodicals conceptual sphere for women and men (based on examples from magazines of all-Ukrainian and regional purposes. The study made it possible to determine which interpretations of the concepts of "woman" and "man" can be found on the pages of modern gender-labeled periodicals, and thus analyze in detail the gender conceptual sphere through the prism of the specific characteristics of the concepts. The features of the use of gender concepts in modern periodicals for women and men were determined. The most frequently used derivatives of these macroconcepts were identified and analyzed in detail. It has been found that publications for women and men are full of various gender concepts that are used in different contexts. In general, the analysis of the concept-maximums and concept-minimums of gender and their characteristics is carried out in the context of gender stereotypes that have been formed and function in the society, systematizing the actual presentations.

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Symbiosis and the Anthropocene

Symbiosis ◽

10.1007/s13199-021-00794-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 84 (3) ◽

pp. 239-270 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Erik F. Y. Hom ◽

Alexandra S. Penn

Keyword(s):

Conceptual Framework ◽

Ecosystem Processes ◽

Structure And Function ◽

Ecosystem Change ◽

Anthropogenic Change ◽

Case Examples ◽

Evolutionary Innovation ◽

The Earth ◽

And Function

AbstractRecent human activity has profoundly transformed Earth biomes on a scale and at rates that are unprecedented. Given the central role of symbioses in ecosystem processes, functions, and services throughout the Earth biosphere, the impacts of human-driven change on symbioses are critical to understand. Symbioses are not merely collections of organisms, but co-evolved partners that arise from the synergistic combination and action of different genetic programs. They function with varying degrees of permanence and selection as emergent units with substantial potential for combinatorial and evolutionary innovation in both structure and function. Following an articulation of operational definitions of symbiosis and related concepts and characteristics of the Anthropocene, we outline a basic typology of anthropogenic change (AC) and a conceptual framework for how AC might mechanistically impact symbioses with select case examples to highlight our perspective. We discuss surprising connections between symbiosis and the Anthropocene, suggesting ways in which new symbioses could arise due to AC, how symbioses could be agents of ecosystem change, and how symbioses, broadly defined, of humans and “farmed” organisms may have launched the Anthropocene. We conclude with reflections on the robustness of symbioses to AC and our perspective on the importance of symbioses as ecosystem keystones and the need to tackle anthropogenic challenges as wise and humble stewards embedded within the system.

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John’s Gospel as “Apocalyptic” Gospel

John among the Apocalypses ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198784241.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 117-143

Author(s):

Benjamin E. Reynolds

Keyword(s):

Gospel Of John ◽

Core Elements ◽

John's Gospel ◽

And Function ◽

Similar Elements ◽

Beloved Disciple

This chapter summarizes the conclusions of the previous two chapters and notes that the Gospel of John contains core elements of the Semeia 14 “master-paradigm” of an apocalypse. Even though the Gospel contains similar elements of form, content, and function, it is not an apocalypse. The manner of revelation (i.e., an otherworldly mediator disclosing heavenly revelation to a human recipient) draws attention to John’s similarity to Jewish apocalypses, but ironically, these form elements contain striking differences. For example, John has visual revelation, yet lacks visions, and John’s otherworldly mediator is also a human, is one with God, and is the content of the revelation. The Gospel has multiple human recipients even though the beloved disciple is the privileged recipient of revelation. Although John does not participate in the genre of apocalypse, it is a gospel that is shaped by the genre of apocalypse. It is a gospel with an apocalyptic mode.

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