THE EU-AFRICA PARTNERSHIP: THE EU’s CHANGING POLICY TOWARDS AFRICAN IRREGULAR MIGRATION

The EU is changing its African irregular migration management approach from control measures and border protection to addressing the root causes. In 2015, during the EU-Africa Valetta Summit on irregular migration control, the EU took an unprecedented migration management approach - it established the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, whose fundamental objective is to address the root causes of African irregular migration. Recent migration studies suggest that the African partners influenced the EU policy change within the Africa-EU partnership framework. The study aimed to answer the question: how did the African partner countries participate in influencing the EU’s shift of migration policy from border control mechanisms to addressing the root causes of African irregular migration? The study was guided by rhetorical action and used rhetorical analysis as a research methodology. Using official/diplomatic and unofficial rhetoric before, during, and after the 2015 Valletta Summit, the study examined how African and European actors framed rhetoric on African irregular migration to Europe. The study found that the attempt to link African irregular migration to Europe and coloniality started as early as 2008. During the 2015 EU-Africa Valletta summit, African actors were pro-active in articulating the rhetoric of root causes, which links to neo-colonialism, contrary to the then-dominant rhetoric of border control maintained by the EU actors. As a result, having a strong normative identity, the EU found itself morally entrapped. It could neither reject the validity of the African partners' rhetoric of the need to address the root causes of irregular migration nor defend itself against the accusations of inconsistency in its external actions. In other words, the EU was left without an alternative other than embarking on the rhetoric of addressing the root causes of African irregular migration. This policy move can be explained as the EU’s effort to build the legitimacy of its external actions in irregular migration management to African partners

Emergency Services Workforce 2030: Changing landscape literature review

The Changing Landscape Literature Review collates a high-level evidence base around seven major themes in the changing landscape (i.e., the external environment) that fire, emergency service, and rural land management agencies operate in, and which will shape workforce planning and capability requirements over the next decade. It is an output of the Workforce 2030 project and is one of two literature reviews that summarise the research base underpinning a high-level integrative report of emerging workforce challenges and opportunities, Emergency Services Workforce 2030. Workforce 2030 aimed to highlight major trends and developments likely to impact the future workforces of emergency service organisations, and their potential implications. The starting point for the project was a question: What can research from outside the sphere of emergency management add to our knowledge of wider trends and developments likely to shape the future emergency services workforce, and their implications? The seven themes included in the Changing Landscape Literature Review are: 1) demographic changes, 2) changing nature of work, 3) changes in volunteering, 4) physical technology, 5) digital technology, 6) shifting expectations, and changing risk. A second, accompanying literature review, the Changing Work Literature Review, focuses on another nine themes related to emergency service organisation’s internal workforce management approaches and working environments

Unlocking the “Virtual Cage” of Wildlife Surveillance

The electronic surveillance of wildlife has grown more extensive than ever. For instance, thousands of wolves wear collars transmitting signals to wildlife biologists. Some collars inject wolves with tranquilizers that allow for their immediate capture if they stray outside of the boundaries set by anthropocentric management policies. Hunters have intercepted the signals from surveillance collars and have used this information to track and slaughter the animals. While the ostensible reason for the surveillance programs is to facilitate the peaceful coexistence of humanity and wildlife, the reality is less benign—an outdoor version of Bentham’s Panopticon. This Article reconceptualizes the enterprise of wildlife surveillance. Without suggesting that animals have standing to assert constitutional rights, the Article posits a public interest in protecting the privacy of wildlife. The very notion of wildness implies privacy. The law already protects the bodily integrity of animals to some degree, and a protected zone of privacy is penumbral to this core protection, much the same way that human privacy emanates from narrower guarantees against government intrusion. Policy implications follow that are akin to the rules under the Fourth Amendment limiting the government’s encroachment on human privacy. Just as the police cannot install a wiretap without demonstrating a particularized investigative need for which all less intrusive methods would be insufficient, so too should surveillance of wildlife necessitate a specific showing of urgency. A detached, neutral authority should review all applications for electronic monitoring of wildlife. Violati ons of the rules should result in substantial sanctions. The Article concludes by considering—and refuting—foreseeable objections to heightened requirements for the surveillance of wildlife

But what about the men? : storying rural men's experiences and perspectives of the 2016 Kaikōura/Waiau Earthquake, Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Emergency Management at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Listed in 2020 Dean's List of Exceptional ThesesPages 195-198 were removed from the thesis for copyright reasons but the full article © 2020 Elsevier Ltd may be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101648Aotearoa, New Zealand is prone to environmental hazard events, and has experienced numerous significant disasters. While science research has focused on seismic and climate related risks, further research is needed to explore how social constructions of gender shape responses to, and coping strategies in the aftermath of disasters in New Zealand. Gender analyses of disasters also facilitate understanding the ways in which individuals and communities are adversely affected by natural hazard events. This thesis explores 19 rural men’s perspectives and experiences of the 2016 Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake, and critically examines their daily realities in the wake of the disaster. One research participant was Māori, and another was a British migrant, the other seventeen participants were Pākehā [European descent]. The qualitative research was underpinned by a feminist epistemology framed by social constructionism and an interpretivist approach to research. Feminist methodology informed data collection. Semi-structured interviewing was used to gather men’s earthquake stories and identify the subtleties and gendered elements of men’s experiences. Thematic analysis was employed to ascertain key elements embedded within, and across men’s earthquake narratives. Substantive themes identified included: sense of place, emotions, space-time and mobility. Sets of understandings about Antipodean, hegemonic masculinities, coupled with a bricolage of social theories, including the work of Moira Gatens, Pierre Bourdieu, Karen Davies and Doreen Massey provided the analytical framework for the thesis. Theoretical understandings of geographical space in the context of disaster are extended through incorporating Bourdieusian fields and metaphysical forms. An argument is advanced that metaphysical space(s), constituted through memories of, and feelings about the earthquake contribute to shaping participants’ disaster responses and recovery trajectories. The research chapters presented in this thesis explore the ways men’s ontological stories of the Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake were constructed in relation to emotion, sense of place and embedded in multiple mobile temporalities and metaphysical spaces. This doctoral research identifies that rural men’s realities in the aftermath of the Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake were fundamentally shaped by place, spaces and temporalities. Furthermore, place-specific hegemonic masculinity informed men’s behaviours and practices in response and recovery. Participants drew on meanings of, and attachment to place to navigate and cope with adversity and distress. Emotions related to the earthquake were evident throughout the interviews, inferring continuing trauma and anxieties. Nevertheless, men attempted to sustain representations of Antipodean, hegemonic masculinity by actively silencing distress and challenges. The study demonstrates that the research participants’ earthquake experiences were underpinned by multiple, intersecting metaphysical spaces and temporalities that in some cases, complicated and disrupted recovery. The research contributes to an understanding of complexities in relation to men’s personal experiences of disasters. Suggestions are provided for the inclusion of how localised sets of understandings about masculinities shape response and recovery in national and international disaster policies and practices

Establishing and sustaining no-kill communities: best practices for animal services directors

The relationship between humans and non-human animals in the United States has evolved from the capturing and impounding of stray livestock found in colonial times to the billion-dollar industry supporting companion animals that exists today (Irvine, 2002; Zawistowski & Morris, 2013). As people\u27s perceptions and attitudes about the treatment of non-human animals have evolved over time, so have the expectations of the organizations that are in place to care for them. A current movement exists to end the killing of healthy and treatable pets within the United States. Known as the no-kill movement, shelter directors and community stakeholders around the country are working to ensure that their communities are supporting the lifesaving of their shelter pets. Using a qualitative methodology, this study aims to uncover the best practices of animal shelter directors that have successfully achieved no-kill in their communities. Based on the findings, an animal services leadership competency model is introduced

Mining for Solutions: How Expertise Distribution and Influence Structures Impact Team Improvisation

Organizations increasingly must operate in unpredictable, dynamic, and complex situations, and scholars in a wide variety of fields argue that flexibility and adaptation in these changing environments represent important capabilities for high performing groups. In response, teams in these challenging environments often require improvisation to help them react, plan, and execute in a short time frame. Despite widespread acknowledgement in the literature that preparation is essential for teams to be able to productively improvise, few have attempted to define what antecedents would promote and enable it. I develop and test a model of how team structure can influence improvisation. Deriving improvisational behaviors from the experiential learning process, I examine how teams modify these knowledge creation behaviors to perform in situations where planning and execution time are inhibited. I then explore how the distribution of expertise and influence shape the development of these improvisational behaviors and the subsequent ability to respond when the need for improvisation arises. I propose that by structuring teams with a moderate overlap of expertise distributed across team members and variable influence that allow teams to rotate decision-making to members with the most relevant expertise, teams can best perform the improvisational behaviors necessary to successfully respond to unanticipated problems or opportunities. I test this theory in a field study using mine rescue team competitions that finds mixed support for these propositions

Mining for Solutions: How Expertise Distribution and Influence Structures Impact Team Improvisation

Organizations increasingly must operate in unpredictable, dynamic, and complex situations, and scholars in a wide variety of fields argue that flexibility and adaptation in these changing environments represent important capabilities for high performing groups. In response, teams in these challenging environments often require improvisation to help them react, plan, and execute in a short time frame. Despite widespread acknowledgement in the literature that preparation is essential for teams to be able to productively improvise, few have attempted to define what antecedents would promote and enable it. I develop and test a model of how team structure can influence improvisation. Deriving improvisational behaviors from the experiential learning process, I examine how teams modify these knowledge creation behaviors to perform in situations where planning and execution time are inhibited. I then explore how the distribution of expertise and influence shape the development of these improvisational behaviors and the subsequent ability to respond when the need for improvisation arises. I propose that by structuring teams with a moderate overlap of expertise distributed across team members and variable influence that allow teams to rotate decision-making to members with the most relevant expertise, teams can best perform the improvisational behaviors necessary to successfully respond to unanticipated problems or opportunities. I test this theory in a field study using mine rescue team competitions that finds mixed support for these propositions

Geospatial crowdsourced data fitness analysis for spatial data infrastructure based disaster management actions

The reporting of disasters has changed from official media reports to citizen reporters who are at the disaster scene. This kind of crowd based reporting, related to disasters or any other events, is often identified as 'Crowdsourced Data' (CSD). CSD are freely and widely available thanks to the current technological advancements. The quality of CSD is often problematic as it is often created by the citizens of varying skills and backgrounds. CSD is considered unstructured in general, and its quality remains poorly defined. Moreover, the CSD's location availability and the quality of any available locations may be incomplete. The traditional data quality assessment methods and parameters are also often incompatible with the unstructured nature of CSD due to its undocumented nature and missing metadata. Although other research has identified credibility and relevance as possible CSD quality assessment indicators, the available assessment methods for these indicators are still immature. In the 2011 Australian floods, the citizens and disaster management administrators used the Ushahidi Crowd-mapping platform and the Twitter social media platform to extensively communicate flood related information including hazards, evacuations, help services, road closures and property damage. This research designed a CSD quality assessment framework and tested the quality of the 2011 Australian floods' Ushahidi Crowdmap and Twitter data. In particular, it explored a number of aspects namely, location availability and location quality assessment, semantic extraction of hidden location toponyms and the analysis of the credibility and relevance of reports. This research was conducted based on a Design Science (DS) research method which is often utilised in Information Science (IS) based research. Location availability of the Ushahidi Crowdmap and the Twitter data assessed the quality of available locations by comparing three different datasets i.e. Google Maps, OpenStreetMap (OSM) and Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines' (QDNRM) road data. Missing locations were semantically extracted using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and gazetteer lookup techniques. The Credibility of Ushahidi Crowdmap dataset was assessed using a naive Bayesian Network (BN) model commonly utilised in spam email detection. CSD relevance was assessed by adapting Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR) relevance assessment techniques which are also utilised in the IT sector. Thematic and geographic relevance were assessed using Term Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency Vector Space Model (TF-IDF VSM) and NLP based on semantic gazetteers. Results of the CSD location comparison showed that the combined use of non-authoritative and authoritative data improved location determination. The semantic location analysis results indicated some improvements of the location availability of the tweets and Crowdmap data; however, the quality of new locations was still uncertain. The results of the credibility analysis revealed that the spam email detection approaches are feasible for CSD credibility detection. However, it was critical to train the model in a controlled environment using structured training including modified training samples. The use of GIR techniques for CSD relevance analysis provided promising results. A separate relevance ranked list of the same CSD data was prepared through manual analysis. The results revealed that the two lists generally agreed which indicated the system's potential to analyse relevance in a similar way to humans. This research showed that the CSD fitness analysis can potentially improve the accuracy, reliability and currency of CSD and may be utilised to fill information gaps available in authoritative sources. The integrated and autonomous CSD qualification framework presented provides a guide for flood disaster first responders and could be adapted to support other forms of emergencies

Rural Oklahoma and the nexus of disaster vulnerability, risk, and resilience

The concepts of vulnerability, risk, and resilience have experienced a meteoric rise in academic attention among disaster scholars over the past three decades. Vulnerability operates as the set of social conditions which predispose certain populations or social spaces to inequitable environmental burdens precipitated by disaster. The prolific study of risk has led to a robust set of literatures which tell us how people in a variety of contexts perceive and understand risks associated with natural hazards. Research focusing on disaster resilience elucidate the qualities and behaviors which allow social individuals, groups, and systems to cope and adapt to disaster. While these studies have furthered our collective understanding of what factors contribute to adverse outcomes, or allow certain groups to successfully navigate the dangers of environmental hazards, few have focused on how these concepts operate prior to disasters. Moreover, most disaster research has privileged urban areas. Given our current understanding of climate change, rural areas in the Midwest are positioned to experience some of the most severe socio-economic outcomes. Adapting the Community Capitals Framework to a disaster context, this dissertation uses qualitative methodology to analyze 56 semi-structured, in-depth interviews drawn from two distinct rural areas of Oklahoma to explore the nexus of vulnerability, risk, and resilience. Broadly, a deteriorating, reciprocal, and mutually reinforcing relationship between rural spaces and urban areas have led to a cognitive and geographic rural-urban divide. A combination of politically conservative economic policy, a systematic divestment from social welfare programs, and a combination of rural stoicism and cultural stigma creates, maintains, and exacerbates a condition called community disenfranchisement. Rural communities experience feelings of abandonment and neglect and direct that animosity toward urban areas and government agencies. Perceptions of isolation lead to rural insulation as distal communities seal themselves off from larger institutions. Despite this deleterious relationship, rural communities turn to one another, forging constellations of bonding social capital to stitch together what few resources they do have to cultivate resilience. The current study also offers important implications and best practices for cultivating resilience in rural spaces while demonstrating a need for improving social relations across the rural/urban divide

When the war ended. Pragmatic proposals to rescue European Union relations with the Russian Federation

Relations between the EU and Russia are usually analyzed from a political or economic point of view. There is however not enough thinking on the legal impact of political measures or political consequences of a legal response to complex political socio-economic concerns. This approach will allow partially explain the current disagreements. This research critically analyzes the most ideological positions from both sides and answers to the strategic need for a normalization of this bilateral relationship and its management after the war, as we need a European path to recover security and growth. This contribution concentrates on three main aspects of the EU-Russia relationship: the legal obligations in the field of international trade, the security competition, and the legal consequences of the energy market regulation. In all three, I make proposals for fixing these points of contention. These proposals are not idealistic but based on facts that show the need for a correct relationship with a neighboring State. Thereby, the article contributes to the analysis of the bilateral relationship, not only political and economic but also legal. The article ends with several suggestions for a future new Strategy in the years to come, after reaching a consensus among the EU Member States. Nonetheless, it will provide elements to debate for both, the Commission''s Political Priorities and for the European Council Strategic Agenda setting up. © 2022 Asociacion Espanola de Profesores de Derecho internacional y Relaciones internacionales. All rights reserved