Conviviality Under Pressure of Market-Modernist Expertocracy: The Case of Water Commons in Rural Switzerland

Citizens outside of the built-up zone in the Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland are self-responsible to establish and maintain their water services. In response many independent, collective water schemes emerged in rural areas. We describe these schemes as commons, since citizens organize legal, institutional, and infrastructural aspects of water access in a collective manner. Since the late 19th century such commons serving farming households have been subsidized by the State. In this article, we develop a conviviality lens to analyze how water commons are being supported and regulated by public institutions. We show how the introduction of neoliberal policy reforms summarized under the term New Public Management (NPM) put pressure on this public support. By describing a specific project in detail, we demonstrate how the failure of a market-modernist expertocracy to recognize these commons as alternative forms of social organization negatively affects their viability. We argue that for the proliferation of these commons their complexity, networked autonomy, and rooted notions of belonging need to be recognised.</p

A Narrative Approach to Helping Families and Their Children Who Identify as Transgender or Gender Nonconforming

Counselors can help families of transgender or gender nonconforming youth adjust after a child or adolescent expresses differences in gender identity. We propose a community based narrative group therapy which may increase family cohesion and acceptance within the changing family dynamic. The program is psychoeducational and experiential, lasting eight sessions, and begins with psychoeducation about transgender individuals and heteronormative societies. It culminates in re-authoring and witnessing the family’s story in a manner which honors the youth’s gender identity. We propose this program as a strategy for helping practitioners connect diverse LGBTQ+ families with other families experiencing similar transitions

Rooted Water Collectives in a Modernist and Neoliberal Imaginary: Threats and Perspectives for Rural Water Commons

Water schemes that rely on user (co-) ownership and collective action have been described in the irrigation sector for a long time. Still, interest in such forms of (co-) investment in the domestic/multiple use sector is more recent. To address the persisting issue of rural water service, (what has been coined) self-supply is proclaimed to be a (supposedly) low-cost, sustainable manner to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). User (co-) investments are to be promoted and realized through the creation of an enabling policy environment and development of, and training on, low-cost technologies through government and NGO support and private sector-steered access to such technologies. In this article, we apply the Rooted Water Collectives (RWC) framework to describe two such schemes, one in South Africa and one in Switzerland. The data collection followed an action research methodology, with the main author being involved in interventions in all three schemes. We show here that these collectives create positions of purpose within societies and that what motivates people is to help themselves and contribute to the greater good of the community. This article shows that interventions to foster and sustain such collective actions that follow a neoliberal/modernist imaginary negatively affect their viability since these collectives, through their other-than-capitalist interactions, form part of and depend on an alternative imaginary. We conclude that interventions aiming to strengthen forms of collective action can only succeed if they recognize contextuality, unequal power relationships, and grass-rooted forms of interdependence and collaboration, and actively build on and work toward such alternative, more convivial imaginaries.</p

Survey of Occupational Therapy Students\u27 Attitudes, Knowledge and Preparedness for Treating LGBT Clients

Members of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) populations are sexual and gender minorities and are at risk for significant health disparities compared to heterosexual populations. This study examined occupational therapy students’ and recent graduates’ (n=435) basic knowledge, clinical preparedness and attitudinal awareness for working with LGBT clients using the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Development of Clinical Skills Scale (LGBT-DOCSS; Bidell, 2017). Students in the study generally rated themselves low (between three and four on a seven-point scale) on questions related to clinical preparedness, indicating they felt they did not have adequate training relative to working with LGBT clients. Both basic knowledge and clinical preparedness for working with LGBT populations was positively influenced by hours of curriculum content related to sexual minority populations. However, 21% (n=91) of participants reported the topic was not covered in the curriculum, while an additional 68% (n=295) reported less than two hours of time developed to LGBT topics. It is suggested that education focus on terminology, health disparities, an examination of personal and societal attitudes that affect outcomes, important health and psychosocial needs, culturally sensitive communication, creating inclusive practice setting and clinical practice and communication unique to this population

Survey of Occupational Therapy Students\u27 Attitudes, Knowledge and Preparedness for Treating LGBT Clients

Members of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) populations are sexual and gender minorities and are at risk for significant health disparities compared to heterosexual populations. This study examined occupational therapy students’ and recent graduates’ (n=435) basic knowledge, clinical preparedness and attitudinal awareness for working with LGBT clients using the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Development of Clinical Skills Scale (LGBT-DOCSS; Bidell, 2017). Students in the study generally rated themselves low (between three and four on a seven-point scale) on questions related to clinical preparedness, indicating they felt they did not have adequate training relative to working with LGBT clients. Both basic knowledge and clinical preparedness for working with LGBT populations was positively influenced by hours of curriculum content related to sexual minority populations. However, 21% (n=91) of participants reported the topic was not covered in the curriculum, while an additional 68% (n=295) reported less than two hours of time developed to LGBT topics. It is suggested that education focus on terminology, health disparities, an examination of personal and societal attitudes that affect outcomes, important health and psychosocial needs, culturally sensitive communication, creating inclusive practice setting and clinical practice and communication unique to this population

Scoping report on the potential impact of on-board desulphurisation on the water quality in SOx emission control areas

The input of acid substances (like SO2) into the sea has been recognized as an environmental issue that needs to be considered in terms of ocean acidification; acid inputs and techniques to deal with them have implications for member states' obligations under the Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive. This study provides an initial assessment on the potential impact of on-board desulphurisation equipment (open loop scrubbers) on the seawater quality with focus on SOx Emission Control Areas (SECAs). The study focuses on the potential impact of shipborne SO2 on acidification (pH) of seawater in comparison to the impact from climate change. The report comprises a literature study and a dedicated modelling exercise covering the North Sea region. Most available studies and the peer reviewed literature found only a small additional impact from SO2 emissions on acidification in the various investigated parts of the world ocean. However these studies generally assessed spatially averaged effects and regional and coastal oriented studies are mostly lacking from the literature, which means that potential effects to vulnerable ecosystems in such areas have not previously been considered. A coupled hydrodynamic-chemistry model was employed to assess the impact of adding SO2 and CO2 on the complex carbonate system in sea water. The impact on the pH decrease in the open North Sea region from discharging the acid wash water into the seawater was found to be small, but not insignificant, and regionally varying. The calculated annual mean decrease of pH due to SO2 injection for the North Sea total water column is 0.00011; when considering only the change in the surface layer (0-20m), the annual decrease is 0.00024. The total annual impact from increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations on the acidification of the North Sea surface area is about 8 times stronger (0.001) than the impact from wash water injection. However because of the pronounced spatial variations the mean impact does not reflect the overall situation well. Consequently we find critical regions with high ship traffic intensity, for example along the shipping lanes and in the larger Rotterdam port area. Here, the contribution from SO2 injection can be double the impact from increasing CO2 concentrations and 20 times larger than the North Sea mean value. These critical regions indicate potential problems related to the surface water quality in ports, estuaries and coastal waters that are subject to regulation under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). In addition, the problem of decreasing pH caused by SO2 input from ship exhaust gases in regional seas (North Sea) is relevant to the obligation of the Member States to assess the environmental state of their marine areas and to establish a Good Environmental Status (GES) under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MFSD), as pH value is one of the GES criteria

Modeling of Covalent Bonding in Solids by Inversion of Cohesive Energy Curves

We provide a systematic test of empirical theories of covalent bonding in solids using an exact procedure to invert ab initio cohesive energy curves. By considering multiple structures of the same material, it is possible for the first time to test competing angular functions, expose inconsistencies in the basic assumption of a cluster expansion, and extract general features of covalent bonding. We test our methods on silicon, and provide the direct evidence that the Tersoff-type bond order formalism correctly describes coordination dependence. For bond-bending forces, we obtain skewed angular functions that favor small angles, unlike existing models. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, we derive a Si interatomic potential which exhibits comparable accuracy to existing models.Comment: 4 pages revtex (twocolumn, psfig), 3 figures. Title and some wording (but no content) changed since original submission on 24 April 199