Building resilience for social-ecological sustainability in Atlantic Europe

This thesis argues that complex adaptive social–ecological systems (SES) theory has important implications for the design of integrated ocean and coastal governance in the EU. Traditional systems of governance have struggled to deal with the global changes, complexity and uncertainties that challenge a transition towards sustainability in Europe’s maritime macro-regions. There is an apparent disconnect between governance strategies for sustainability in Europe’s maritime macro-regions and a sound theoretical basis for them. My premise is that the design of governance architecture for maritime regional sustainability should be informed by SES theory. Therefore, the aim of this research was to gain insight into a multilevel adaptive governance architecture that combines notions of sustainability and development in the context of the Atlantic Europe maritime macro-region. The central research question asked whether it is possible to achieve this insight by using a SES as a framework and analytical tool. This research adopted social ecology and sustainability science as a foundation for understanding society–nature relations. Concepts from complex adaptive systems, SES and resilience theories were integrated into a conceptual framework that guided the investigation and analysis. A study was conducted to conceptualise the European Atlantic social–ecological system (EASES). This was used to represent and understand the Atlantic Europe macro-region as a SES. The study examined the proposition that governance can be focused on building SES resilience to help achieve maritime regional sustainability. A workbook method was developed and used to elicit expert opinion regarding EASES. The study identified sources of resilience and resilience dynamics that require management in the context of multilevel adaptive governance. This research found that the Atlantic Europe macro-region is a key focal level for multilevel adaptive governance architecture. The majority of the findings are specific to Atlantic Europe and not generalisable to other maritime macro-regions in Europe

Free Culture and the Digital Library Symposium Proceedings 2005

This book of proceedings includes seventeen papers from a symposium held at Emory University. The symposium papers discuss subjects relating to free culture in digital libraries

Damnant quodnon intelligent? Trinity Western University's School of Law

As the 21st Century progresses and Canadian society becomes more diverse, organizational challenges arise when conflicting worldviews collide. The case study Damnant Quodon Intelligent? explores Trinity Western University’s proposal to establish a School of Law and the resistance it faces, principally because of organizational policies that flow from the university’s identity as a private, Christian post-secondary institution. The case seeks to invite discussion regarding organizational / societal ethical behavior, the management of dichotomous worldviews, the balancing of competing rights, and the salience of diverse stakeholder perspectives

Operationalizing Cost-Volume-Profit analysis under uncertainty

Cost-Volume-Profit analysis is a major business planning tool. It is limited by its assumptions about known price and costs. This study uses MAPLE software to operationalize CVP under uncertainty for practical application. Illustrated examples show that the impact of expected selling price and expected variable cost on expected breakeven quantity is more sensitive than the impact of the standard deviations of selling price and variable cost. Specifically, when expected selling price decreases, the expected breakeven quantity increases rapidly. However, as the standard deviations of selling price or variable cost increases, expected breakeven quantity increases at the same rate