Transdisciplinary transformative change: an analysis of some best practices and barriers, and the potential of critical social science in getting us there

Biodiversity experts now widely acknowledge that transformative change is best supported through transdisciplinary collaborations. Yet, such collaborations rarely successfully occur in major biodiversity research institutions and those that do rarely achieve the paradigmatic effects they aim to deliver. To gain some insight into this global phenomenon, we surveyed Swiss-based researchers and non-academic stakeholders addressing global change and biodiversity. In this article, we connect our findings to global patterns in transdisciplinary transformative change initiatives (TTCIs) and heuristically divide collaboration barriers into two categories: lack of resources and lack of vital functional elements. Two of the major themes that emerged from this research were the continued difficulties with (1) establishing a common ‘language’, understanding, and goals, and (2) meaningful pluralization of knowledge in transdisciplinary collaborations aimed at addressing global change and biodiversity loss. The former is widely cited in the literature as contributing to the failure of TTCIs in the form of incoherent problem-framing, while the latter is often identified as contributing to the lack of structural transformative change (e.g., paradigmatic shifts) in completed initiatives. Another major theme reflected in TTCI literature was limited time. Moreover, based on our own extensive inter- and transdisciplinary experience, we agree with other experts that there is a persistent lack of understanding of the potential contributions of critical social science (CSS) to TTCIs. We thus argue that enhancing resource availability for TTCIs, especially tools for improving CSS literacy, could save time and support both problem-framing alignment and delivery of the structural/paradigmatic changes we aspire to

Find the one you like! Profiling Swiss parks with user generated content

The establishment of national parks originated from the desire to preserve scenic landscape areas of national or regional importance. With more recent diversification of protected area types and goals, obtaining knowledge on how parks are recreationally used has become more challenging for (local) policy makers and park managements, as there is a general lack of systematic and publicly available visitor monitoring data. We analyze recreational park use for 20 Swiss parks of national importance and develop park profiles, using user-generated content from Flickr. The 20 Swiss parks are described by 111,437 unique images taken by 6,468 unique users between 2007 and 2020. We fill an existing research gap by defining park use across three dimensions space, time and users, and combining these in our analyses. The park profiles provide information on diversity of recreational use and serve as a starting point for analyzing how the three dimensions contribute to this diversity. Our results show diverging park uses for the three dimensions indicating that park location matters, especially in terms of peri-urbanity and geographic region. Our method can be translated into European scale analyses, provided that different languages are considered. Park profiles are easy to communicate and easy to interpret tools for (local) policy-makers and park managers to segment the tourism market and develop new park marketing strategies to e.g. streamline visitation flows and reduce the negative impacts of outdoor recreation. In broader terms, our study serves as input for future recreation policy to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of protected areas Management implications • We offer insights into recreational park use in terms of users, space and time, particularly valuable for parks where monitoring visitation is vital (i.e. protected areas). • Park profiles provide easy to communicate and interpret extensible tools for (local) policy-makers and park managers. • Park profiles can be used for among others the development of new park marketing strategies catering preferences for differentiated user groups. • Since different recreational user groups differ in their recreational behavior and in turn their environmental impact, park profiles can help in streamlining visitors as a potentially effective management measure for increased park sustainability (e.g. biodiversity conservation)

Maternal outcomes and risk factors for COVID-19 severity among pregnant women.

Pregnant women may be at higher risk of severe complications associated with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which may lead to obstetrical complications. We performed a case control study comparing pregnant women with severe coronavirus disease 19 (cases) to pregnant women with a milder form (controls) enrolled in the COVI-Preg international registry cohort between March 24 and July 26, 2020. Risk factors for severity, obstetrical and immediate neonatal outcomes were assessed. A total of 926 pregnant women with a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 were included, among which 92 (9.9%) presented with severe COVID-19 disease. Risk factors for severe maternal outcomes were pulmonary comorbidities [aOR 4.3, 95% CI 1.9-9.5], hypertensive disorders [aOR 2.7, 95% CI 1.0-7.0] and diabetes [aOR2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.5]. Pregnant women with severe maternal outcomes were at higher risk of caesarean section [70.7% (n = 53/75)], preterm delivery [62.7% (n = 32/51)] and newborns requiring admission to the neonatal intensive care unit [41.3% (n = 31/75)]. In this study, several risk factors for developing severe complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection among pregnant women were identified including pulmonary comorbidities, hypertensive disorders and diabetes. Obstetrical and neonatal outcomes appear to be influenced by the severity of maternal disease

How conceptions of equity and justice shape national park negotiations: The case of Parc Adula, Switzerland

This article engages with conceptions of equity and justice in protected area negotiations and ties in with recent scientific discourses on the importance of social equity for successful biodiversity conservation. I follow the question of how conceptions of justice shaped discussions surrounding a national park project in Switzerland, Parc Adula. The project was rejected in a public vote in 2016. Drawing on qualitative interview data, this article analyses park negotiations and sheds light on a plurality of senses of justice. Whereas Parc Adula as a bottom-up project based on direct democracy already respected just procedures, perceptions of (in-)justice still informed day-to-day discussions and disputes. Thus, I argue that understanding justice as a process that reveals itself in disputes, and acknowledging its plurality, can help understand struggles over conservation and regional development

‘What is a national park for?’ – Principles of worth in a Swiss national park project

This contribution analyses an environmental dispute and its underlying moral issues in a direct-democratic and bottom-up setting to understand principles of worth in national park negotiations. I follow the question ‘what is a national park for?’ and point to the complex nature of conservation negotiations. I argue that loosely defined ideas of park rationales and therefore different ideas of the common good can lead to additional difficulties for a bottom-up project

Conflicting discourses: understanding the rejection of a Swiss national park project using data analysis triangulation

This article pursues 2 objectives: First, we show how a national park project in the Swiss Alps, Parc Adula, was addressed in contemporary neoliberal discourses on conservation and how these discourses influenced the rejection of the park. Second, we use triangulation to bridge the gap between 2 data analysis approaches, combining qualitative methods with the quantitative analytical tools of corpus linguistics. This allows an in-depth analysis of discourses surrounding and influencing national park planning. Furthermore, we outline challenges faced by conservation incentives based on discursive gaps and different uses of language in the arguments of government officials and residents affected by park negotiations. In the case of Parc Adula, these discursive gaps and language differences created distrust and made park planning difficult. This further reinforced a discursive disruption within and between neoliberal understandings of conservation and local discourses, eventually leading to the rejection of the national park project. This paper presents a novel analytical perspective on current conservation issues in Alpine areas and opens up ground for further research on communication practices, their local embeddedness, and their impacts on protected area establishment

Natur & Landschaft sind wichtig in unserem Alltag

«Welcher Ort in der Natur ist für Sie wichtig im Alltag?» Dieser Frage ging Rebecca Schneiter im Rahmen ihrer Masterarbeit an der Universität Zürich mit Interviews im Jurapark Aargau nach. Die Arbeit untersucht die Bedeutung von Natur und Landschaft und zeigt die Diversität von Mensch-Natur-Beziehungen auf

Passen Solaranlagen in den alpinen Raum?

Zur Debatte: •Wie beurteilen Einheimische und lokale Touristen verschiedene Standorte im alpinen Raum für die Nutzung von Solarenergie? •Welche Rolle spielt bei dieser Einschätzung die Einstellung zu erneuerbaren Energien, welche die Ortsbeziehung? •Wie kann die Nutzung der Solarenergie im alpinen Raum gefördert werden