Multi-level policies and adaptive social networks. A conceptual modeling study for maintaining a polycentric governance system

International audienceInformation and collaboration patterns embedded in social networks play key roles in multilevel and polycentric modes of governance. However, modeling the dynamics of such social networks in multilevel settings has been seldom addressed in the literature. Here we use an adaptive social network model to elaborate the interplay between a central and a local government in order to maintain a polycentric governance. More specifically, our analysis explores in what ways specific policy choices made by a central agent affect the features of an emerging social network composed of local organizations and local users. Using two types of stylized policies, adaptive co-management and adaptive one-level management, we focus on the benefits of multi-level adaptive cooperation for network management. Our analysis uses viability theory to explore and to quantify the ability of these policies to achieve specific network properties. Viability theory gives the family of policies that enables maintaining the polycentric governance unlike optimal control that gives a unique blueprint. We found that the viability of the policies can change dramatically depending on the goals and features of the social network. For some social networks, we also found a very large difference between the viability of the adaptive one-level management and adaptive co-management policies. However, results also show that adaptive co-management doesn't always provide benefits. Hence, we argue that applying viability theory to governance networks can help policy design by analyzing the trade-off between the costs of adaptive co-management and the benefits associated with its ability to maintain desirable social network properties in a polycentric governance framework

Planetary boundaries:Governing emerging risks and opportunities

The climate, ecosystems and species, ozone layer, acidity of the oceans, the flow of energy and elements through nature, landscape change, freshwater systems, aerosols, and toxins—these constitute the planetary boundaries within which humanity must find a safe way to live and prosper. These are thresholds that, if we cross them, we run the risk of rapid, non-linear, and irreversible changes to the environment, with severe consequences for human wellbeing. The concept of planetary boundaries, though recent, has already gained traction in scientific and in some policy circles, and is generating debate more broadly. Nevertheless, despite decades of talk on sustainable development, reform of international governance and institutions has not kept pace with the scale and urgency of the global environmental crisis. The notion of planetary boundaries can be seen as a way to frame governance reform. This discussion introduces key elements of governance in a world with boundaries: deep reform of international governance, such as the United Nations system and trade treaties; emerging ecological concepts and principles in international law; the role of economics for the biosphere; and, the need to integrate different kinds of knowledge—from the local to the global. The literature is rich with ideas for solutions and real-world experiences. One recent example from south-eastern Australia demonstrates innovative approaches to knowledge sharing and communication between scientists, urban planners, and local communities for sustainable development in a changing climate. Finally, there is need for a mobilizing narrative: a story grounded in the concept of planetary boundaries, uniting the solutions, and framed in such a way as to offer opportunities for learning, innovation, and creativity at all levels, in both the North and South. There are no simple solutions to what are complex problems involving politics and trade-offs. Ongoing debate and discussion—in academia, in policy circles, and in society at large—is healthy, but we should not allow debate about the precise nature of planetary boundaries to stymie progress. Exploring these issues and the interface between different fields is a challenging task, to be sure. Still, it is essential if the concept of planetary boundaries is to fulfill its potential as a guide for human action in the Anthropocene

Orientation and symmetries of Alexandrov spaces with applications in positive curvature

We develop two new tools for use in Alexandrov geometry: a theory of ramified orientable double covers and a particularly useful version of the Slice Theorem for actions of compact Lie groups. These tools are applied to the classification of compact, positively curved Alexandrov spaces with maximal symmetry rank.Comment: 34 pages. Simplified proofs throughout and a new proof of the Slice Theorem, correcting omissions in the previous versio

Accurate classification of 75 counterparts of objects detected in the 54 month Palermo Swift/BAT hard X-ray catalogue

Through an optical campaign performed at 4 telescopes located in the northern and the southern hemispheres, we have obtained optical spectroscopy for 75 counterparts of unclassified or poorly studied hard X-ray emitting objects detected with Swift/BAT and listed in the 54 month Palermo BAT catalogue. All these objects have also observations taken with Swift/XRT, ROSAT or Chandra satellites which allowed us to reduce the high energy error box and pinpoint the most likely optical counterpart/s. We find that 69 sources in our sample are Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs); of them, 35 are classified as type 1 (with broad and narrow emission lines), 33 are classified as type 2 (with only narrow emission lines) and one is an high redshift QSO; the remaining 6 objects are galactic cataclysmic variables (CVs). Among type 1 AGNs, 32 are objects of intermediate Seyfert type (1.2-1.9) and one is Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy; for 29 out of 35 type 1 AGNs, we have been able to estimate the central black hole mass and the Eddington ratio. Among type 2 AGNs, two display optical features typical of the LINER class, 3 are classified as transition objects, 1 is a starburst galaxy and 2 are instead X-ray bright, optically normal galaxies. All galaxies classified in this work are relatively nearby objects (0.006 - 0.213) except for one at redshift 1.137.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publications on Astronomy and Astrophysics, main journal. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1206.509

Espacios barriales y convivencia: reflexiones sobre las concentraciones de población inmigrada y la territorialidad urbana / Neighborhoods and coexistence: reflections on migrant concentrations and urban territoriality

Los espacios barriales de las ciudades con presencia de población inmigrada, conforman actualmente un paisaje urbano heterogéneo, en el que el cruce de desigualdades sociales, culturales y económicas, han desembocado en una ocupación desigual del espacio, surgiendo una nueva expresión de vulnerabilidad urbana y fracturas en la convivencia ciudadana. De esta manera, asistimos a espacios barriales fragmentados y polarizados dentro de las ciudades, algunos como polos de atracción para parte de la población inmigrada, como es el caso de los barrios en Santiago de Chile que son analizados en este artículo, a través de un análisis cualitativo. Por ello es importante preguntarse qué factores explicativos socio-territoriales determinan la vulnerabilidad en los barrios con alta concentración de población inmigrada y qué efectos se derivan de estos cruces de desigualdades en sujetos específicos. Esto porque las características del territorio constituyen una realidad que nos remite permanentemente a la estructura social y a los códigos culturales de las colectividades que los habitan, quienes a su vez despliegan sobre ese contexto, imaginarios sociales (Mafessoli, 2003) y reacciones que impactan en la relación con la territorialidad y en las relaciones entre sujetos considerados o no como ciudadanos.   The neighborhood spaces of cities with an immigrant population, currently make up a heterogeneous urban landscape, in which the crossing of social, cultural and, economic inequalities, have led to an unequal occupation of space, emerging a new expression of urban vulnerability and fractures in the citizen coexistence. In this way, we witness fragmented and polarized neighborhood spaces within cities, some of them like as poles of attraction for immigrant population, as is the case of some neighborhoods in Santiago of Chile which are analyzed in this article, through a qualitative analysis. Therefore, it is important to ask what socio-territorial explanatory factors are determining vulnerability in neighborhoods with a high concentration of immigrant population and what effects are derived from these inequality crossings in specific subjects. This, because the characteristics of the territory, constitutes a reality that permanently refers us to the social structure and to the cultural codes of the communities that inhabit them, who in turn display on this context, social imaginaries (Mafessoli, 2003) and reactions which impact on the relationship with territoriality and in relations between subjects considered or not as citizens

BL Lacertae identifications in a ROSAT-selected sample of Fermi unidentified objects

The optical spectroscopic followup of 27 sources belonging to a sample of 30 high-energy objects selected by positionally cross correlating the first Fermi/LAT Catalog and the ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Source Catalog is presented here. It has been found or confirmed that 25 of them are BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), while the remaining two are Galactic cataclysmic variables (CVs). This strongly suggests that the sources in the first group are responsible for the GeV emission detected with Fermi, while the two CVs most likely represent spurious associations. We thus find an 80% a posteriori probability that the sources selected by matching GeV and X-ray catalogs belong to the BL Lac class. We also show suggestions that the BL Lacs selected with this approach are probably high-synchrotron-peaked sources and in turn good candidates for the detection of ultra-high-energy (TeV) photons from them.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, one appendix, accepted for publication on A&A, main journal. Tables 1-3 and Figures 2-6 will only be published in the electronic edition of the journa

Unveiling the nature of INTEGRAL objects through optical spectroscopy. VII. Identification of 20 Galactic and extragalactic hard X-ray sources

Within the framework of our program of assessment of the nature of unidentified or poorly known INTEGRAL sources, we present here spectroscopy of optical objects, selected through positional cross-correlation with soft X-ray detections (afforded with satellites such as Swift, ROSAT, Chandra and/or XMM-Newton) as putative counterparts of hard X-ray sources detected with the IBIS instrument onboard INTEGRAL. Using 6 telescopes of various sizes and archival data from two on-line spectroscopic surveys we are able to identify, either for the first time or independent of other groups, the nature of 20 INTEGRAL hard X-ray sources. Our results indicate that: 11 of these objects are active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts between 0.014 and 0.978, 7 of which display broad emission lines, 2 show narrow emission lines only, and 2 have unremarkable or no emission lines (thus are likely Compton thick AGNs); 5 are cataclysmic variables (CVs), 4 of which are (possibly magnetic) dwarf novae and one is a symbiotic star; and 4 are Galactic X-ray binaries (3 with high-mass companions and one with a low-mass secondary). It is thus again found that the majority of these sources are AGNs or magnetic CVs, confirming our previous findings. When possible, the main physical parameters for these hard X-ray sources are also computed using the multiwavelength information available in the literature. These identifications support the importance of INTEGRAL in the study of the hard X-ray spectrum of all classes of X-ray emitting objects, and the effectiveness of a strategy of multi-catalogue cross-correlation plus optical spectroscopy to securely pinpoint the actual nature of unidentified hard X-ray sources.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics, main journal. Slight changes made to match the proof-corrected version; references adde