Linking Research and Policy: Assessing a Framework for Organic Agricultural Support in Ireland

This paper links social science research and agricultural policy through an analysis of support for organic agriculture and food. Globally, sales of organic food have experienced 20% annual increases for the past two decades, and represent the fastest growing segment of the grocery market. Although consumer interest has increased, farmers are not keeping up with demand. This is partly due to a lack of political support provided to farmers in their transition from conventional to organic production. Support policies vary by country and in some nations, such as the US, vary by state/province. There have been few attempts to document the types of support currently in place. This research draws on an existing Framework tool to investigate regionally specific and relevant policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops a case study of Ireland within the framework of ten key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, consumer issues, inter-agency activities, and future developments. Data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies provide the basis for an assessment of support in each category. Assessments are based on the number of activities, availability of information to farmers, and attention from governmental personnel for each of the ten categories. This policy framework is a valuable tool for farmers, researchers, state agencies, and citizen groups seeking to document existing types of organic agricultural support and discover policy areas which deserve more attention

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Politics of coalition at Standing Rock

My research examines the politics of coalition surrounding the 2016-17 Standing Rock movement, led by Oceti Sakowin Tribal members, on the borders of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The movement resisted the pipeline in the name of water protection, Indigenous sovereignty, protection of sacred burial grounds, treaty rights, climate justice, and more. Approximately ten months into the movement, it was halted by the US federal government and the pipeline was installed. This study engages with a range of qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with activists and content analysis of documents from TigerSwan, a private military and security contractor hired to surveil the movement. Findings show that for activists in the camps, placework, or place-based protest, strengthened coalition work across social differences, and enacted a "call and response" form of politics, based on shared callings to protect and shared critical responses to settler colonial-capital culture, specifically dispossession of land and property. Challenges in coalition work amongst activists were rooted in US settler colonial-informed racialized hierarchies of power, which perpetuate white supremacy and privilege. Finally, the militarized coalitional responses of public and private forces, specifically the use of racialized ideologies, militarized tactics and operations, and overt violent actions and arrests, was excessive, generated a diffusion of accountability, and inflicted harm and trauma upon activists at Standing Rock.Includes bibliographical references