Governing the human-environment relationship: systemic practice

In attending to contemporary breakdown in human-environment relations rarely is a co-evolutionary- dynamics framing employed. Framings in terms of (i) praxis, or theory informed practical action, and (ii) systems and cybernetic intellectual traditions that evoke relational thinking and practice are also rare. This review addresses these deficiencies and highlights innovations warranted by current circumstances based on (i) understanding dualities; (ii) purposeful action in relation to practice; (iii) choosing to be reflexive, (iv) engaging in purposeful systemic praxis for governing and (iv) appreciating the interplay between systemic sensibility, systems literacy and systems thinking in practice capability. Two promising systems praxis trajectories for improving human-environment relations are explored. The case for systems thinking in practice capacity and capability development concludes the review

Editorial: Federal developments

On 10 May 2011, Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan MP delivered the Federal Budget for the 2011–2012 financial year. The Budget contains a number of new initiatives, financial redistributions and reductions that relate to Australia's current regulatory framework governing the environment, climate change and renewable energy. These are set out below..

Ensuring good behaviour in schools : a summary for heads, governing bodies, teachers, parents and pupils

"The role of the Government is to give schools the powers they need to provide a safe and structured environment in which teachers can teach and children can learn...This document summarises the legal powers and duties that govern behaviour and attendance in school and explains how they apply to teachers, governing bodies, pupils and parents." - page 1

Governing of agrarian sustainability

The new developing interdisciplinary methodology of the New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics (combining Economics, Organization, Law, Sociology, Behavioral and Political Sciences) is incorporated into agrarian sphere, and a framework for governing of agrarian sustainability suggested. It takes into account the role of the specific institutional environment (formal and informal property rights, and systems of their enforcement); and the behavioral characteristics of individuals (bounded rationality, tendency for opportunism, entrepreneurships, preferences, risk aversion etc.); and the transaction costs associated with protection and exchange of property rights; and the critical factors of each transaction (such as frequency, uncertainty, asset specificity, and appropriability); and the comparative efficiency of market, private, public, and hybrid governing modes. The discrete structural analysis is applied, and the principle forms for governing of transactions with specific critical dimensions specified. The cases of market and private sector failures are identified, and the needs for a third party (Government, international assistance etc.) intervention justified. The comparative advantages and disadvantages of different modes for public involvement (property rights modernization, regulations, taxes, assistance and support, public provision, hybrid modes) are assessed. The effective governance mix for public intervention in environmental transactions is presented.Agrarian Governance; Governing of Agrarian Sustainability; Efficiency of Market, Private, Public and Hybrid Modes; New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics

Assessment of Sustainability of Bulgarian Farms

The New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics framework is incorporated to transitional Bulgarian agriculture, and level of sustainability of dominating subsistent farming, production cooperatives, small-scare commercial farms, and large agro-firms assessed. New framework for assessing sustainability of farms and for governing of sustainable development is suggested taking into account: role of specific institutional environment, comparative efficiency of various market, private, public and hybrid governing modes, transaction costs and critical factors (frequency, uncertainty, asset specificity, and appropriability) of farm transactions. Analysis of sustainability of different types of Bulgarian farms is made, and further domination of subsistence farming, cooperatives, large agrofirms, and some part of small commercial farms projected.Agribusiness,

Gophers: socially oriented pervasive gaming

Gophers is an open-ended gaming environment which relies on location data, user generated content and player interactions to shape gameplay. It seeks to investigate social collaboration within localised and distributed gaming communities, the potential of pervasive gaming as a technique to collect useful data about the physical world and additionally, use of novel peer-judging methods to allow self-governing of the game world. In this paper, we introduce the game in its current state and provide an overview of early test results