Sustainability indicators in an evolving sustainability information system: The case of Seattle

Sustainability is a contested, normative concept that frames decisions using a holistic, longterm perspective based on environmental, social, and economic considerations. Cities have taken the lead in incorporating this framework into decision-making processes, from Local Agenda 21 processes to city- specific planning. However, as cities have begun to integrate sustainability into decision-making, they have been confronted with several concerns regarding the use of information and indicators. The contested nature of sustainability makes the collection and use of information inherently political and occasionally problematic. Indicators can serve multiple purposes in the policy process, from system monitoring to issue framing and coalition building. As problems or actors’ understanding of them changes, new indicators may be required and old information used in new ways. However, the way indicators are used by different actors in the policy-making process is not well understood. This paper will seek to answer this question by studying the evolving sustainability information system in Seattle, as well as the role of individual indicator users within the city. Seattle, which has used sustainability indicators for over two decades, is an international leader in this area. I use a case study approach that evaluates historical materials, government and organizational documents, and interviews with decision-makers. I highlight the various ways that actors in Seattle collect and use information related to sustainability in policy-making. I demonstrate that, although actors at different scales inside and outside government use information in multiple ways to influence policy, different types of actors emphasize specific uses based on their capacity, goals, and the needs of the system. This creates an evolving sustainability system in which actors work together to provide and discuss information, frame sustainability, and create effective policy to improve sustainability in the city

Major Problems with the Major Questions Doctrine: The Impact of West Virginia v. EPA on Environmental Regulations and Judicial Review

This paper examines the historical and ongoing relationship between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Supreme Court, with a focus on West Virginia v. EPA (2022). In West Virginia, the Court ruled that the EPA lacks the authority to implement the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, invoking the major questions doctrine. Since 1984, the Court has used Chevron deference to guide its rulings on administrative action, which requires judges to defer to the administrative agency if its interpretation is reasonable, and the statute is ambiguous. West Virginia and the major questions doctrine put the future of Chevron deference into question and represent a turning point in judicial review of administrative action. Drawing on scholarly debates regarding the administrative state and judicial deference, this paper argues that the doctrine grants the Court arbitrary power and lacks jurisprudential coherence. It proposes an alternative approach that reconciles concerns about judicial deference with Chevron, while upholding the integrity of the Court\u27s administrative law precedent. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions and debate about the EPA’s authority as the agency announces new proposals to combat climate change

Into Darkness: Representing American Anxieties

The film Star Trek Into Darkness (Abrams, 2013) examines what it means to be human and the fears that are latent within the American subconscious through layered storytelling coupled with the special effects that are now conventional in big budget studio productions. There are many elements within the film that lend themselves to the intricate narrative weaving including mise-en-scene, sound and especially characters. All of these elements combine to create an engaging science fiction thriller that also subtly comments on America’s global status and anxieties about the future

The formation of a model library for a Free Methodist minister

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/2319/thumbnail.jp

Valuation and Decision-Making in Cortical-Striatal Circuits.

Adaptive decision-making relies on a distributed network of neural substrates that learn associations between behaviors and outcomes, to ultimately guide future behavior. These substrates are organized in a system of cortical-striatal loops that offer unique contributions to goal-directed behavior and receive prominent inputs from the midbrain dopamine system. However, the consequences of dopamine fluctuations at these targets remain largely unresolved, despite aggressive interrogation. Some experiments have highlighted dopamine’s role in learning via reward prediction errors, while others have noted the importance of dopamine in motivated behavior. Here, we explored the precise role of dopamine in shaping decision-making in cortex and striatum. First, we measure dopamine in ventral striatum during a trial-and-error task and show that it uniformly encodes a moment-by-moment estimate of value across multiple timescales. Our optogenetic manipulations demonstrate that changes in this value signal can be used to immediately enhance vigor, consistent with a motivational signal, and alter subsequent choice behavior, consistent with a learning signal. Next, I measured dopamine in multiple cortical-striatal loops to examine the uniformity of the value signal. I report that dopamine is non-uniform across circuits, but is consistent within them, implying that dopamine may offer unique contributions to the information processed in each loop. Finally, I performed single-unit recordings in the dorsal striatum, a major recipient of dopamine, to examine whether distinct its subcompartments—the patch and matrix—carry distinct value signals used in the selection of actions. I report preliminary data and summarize improvements in my electrode localization technique.PhDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133227/1/jpettibo_1.pd