Recordkeeping culture in Switzerland: the impact of language and communication on the success of recordkeeping initiatives

Purpose Records management has been heavily influenced by practice in English-speaking countries but is often seen as a foreign import in non-Anglophone countries. This study aims to investigate how using English terminology or translating records management terminology into French in a Francophone environment impacts on the success of recordkeeping strategies. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Francophone archivists and records managers in Switzerland to assess their communication strategies and the language used to communicate recordkeeping objectives. Findings The research findings indicate that in a Francophone environment, archivists and records managers who use French terminology are more successful in promoting recordkeeping objectives than those who use English terminology. Given that research was limited to one Swiss canton, more research is needed to test these findings in other Francophone cantons, provinces and countries. Originality/value This study is important for the success of recordkeeping initiatives in non-Anglophone countries. It highlights the need to take into account the local information culture and use terminology with which people are most familiar.

COVID-19-related school disruptions and well-being of children and adolescents in Geneva

Background Various studies showed the negative impact of COVID-19-related lockdowns and school closures on the well-being of children and adolescents. However, the prevalence and consequences of occasional short-term school disruptions due to COVID-19-related quarantine or isolation remain unknown. This study evaluated their impact on the well-being and stress level of children and adolescents. Methods In June/July 2021, we conducted a survey selecting a representative sample of children and adolescents of a Swiss canton population. Parents of school-aged children reported information about them missing school because of COVID-19, from August 2020 to June 2021, as well as about their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measured with the KINDL® scale and their stress level. Results Among the 538 participants, 216/538 (40.1%) pupils missed school at least once for COVID-19-related causes, with a total of 272 absences. We observed no relationship between the frequency of COVID-19-related absences and the HRQoL or stress level, even when stratifying by the type of absence or socio-demographic factors. Discussion Overall, these findings are reassuring in that quarantines and related school disruptions, which we know are a common and effective way of controlling SARS-CoV-2 transmission, did not seem to meaningfully impact children and adolescent's wellbeing and stress. Finding the right balance between SARS-CoV-2 control and young populations' well-being is challenging, and the current results provide additional information for decision makers.

Oribatid mites (Acari, Oribatida) from “Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime” (Piedmont, Italy)

Oribatid mites were investigated in six sites in the Alpi Marittime Natural Park (Prov. Cuneo, Piedmont, northern Italy) which is part of the NATURA 2000 network. The selected locations cover 4 forested (fir, ash, 2 beech forests) and 2 grassland sites (mountain meadow, xeric grassland). Altogether 173 described oribatid species belonging to 51 families were encountered, complemented by one undetermined species (Scheloribates (Topobates) cf. carpathicus), added together 174 species. Among them 11 species are new records for Italy. A comparison with other Italian alpine provinces shows high similarity of the oribatid species composition from the investigated sites with the provinces of Bolzano, Trento, Sondrio. A total of 37 species from the Marittime Alps has also been recorded in the southern part of the nearby Swiss canton Ticino. The majority of the species in the investigated sites are known as silvicolous; xerophilous species were mainly found in the xeric grassland site at lower altitude. High species similarities are observed between the forested sites, which also show high species numbers (up to 96 spp. found in the fir forest), lowest similarities are found between the open grassland sites and the forested sites, as well as between the grassland sites themselves.

On the Relation between School Alienation and Social School Climate

In recent years, scholars have referred to school alienation as a severe problem that affects the socio-emotional and cognitive development of students. In this study, the authors examined how the relationships with teachers and classmates are associated with students’ state of alienation from learning, from teachers, and from classmates, applying a cross-sectional research design. Participants included 543 Grade 7 students from the Swiss canton of Bern who took part in the binational research project “School Alienation in Switzerland and Luxembourg (SASAL, 2015-2019)”. Results of correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that the student-teacher and student-student relationships were associated with alienation from school.

Multiple Understandings of Sustainability among Alternative Food Organizations in Geneva

Alternative Food Organizations (AFOs) seek to establish more sustainable practices in the food system. However, they might hold different conceptualizations of sustainability. Hence, we miss an overview of AFOs’ conceptualizations of sustainability that allows grasping their overall transformative potential. In this paper, we analyze a broad range of AFOs active in food production, distribution, and consumers’ advocacy to examine to what extent they share a common understanding of sustainability. Our empirical analyses focus on the Swiss canton of Geneva, we build on organizational survey data and detailed coding of the discourses published on their websites. We find that the environmental dimension of sustainability is more prominent and that weak and strong conceptualizations of sustainability are equally present in AFOs’ discourses. However, important differences appear between food producers and distributors. The former have a multidimensional and strong conceptualization of sustainability, while the latter focus on fewer dimensions and a weak conceptualization. In spite of these differences, AFOs interact within a small but heterogeneous network.

Quantification of existing rooftop PV hourly generation capacity and validation against measurement data

The spatio-temporal patterns of the existing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) production can provide valuable insights for the design of effective strategies for PV integration at large scale. In this work, we quantify the hourly production of existing rooftop PV installations by combining two large-scale methods, for detecting rooftop solar panels and for estimating their hourly PV generation, which are both applicable at the Swiss national scale. A validation against measured data of PV installations from 16 roofs in the Swiss Canton of Aargau shows that the existing PV area is detected accurately, while the hourly profiles overestimate the PV production, with higher errors in winter than in summer. These errors result in a mean overestimation of the annual PV production by 16%, assuming a triangular panel placement at low tilt (15°) on flat roofs.

The Swiss Primate Case: How Courts Have Paved the Way for the First Direct Democratic Vote on Animal Rights

A citizens’ initiative was launched in 2016 in the Swiss canton of Basel-Stadt, demanding that the rights catalogue in the Cantonal Constitution be complemented by a fundamental right to life and a right to bodily and mental integrity for non-human primates. This initiative became the subject of a three-year legal dispute that ended with a decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in September 2020, ruling that the initiative is legally valid and must be put to the people for a vote. This case note discusses the key developments in the dispute, including the groundbreaking decision by the Constitutional Court of Basel-Stadt, which held that cantons are free to ‘expand the circle of rights holders beyond the anthropological barrier’. The authors, who were involved in the drafting of the initiative and acted as legal advisers in the judicial proceedings, offer first-hand insights into legal strategies and shed light on the importance of the case in the context of the ongoing efforts to secure rights for primates around the world.