Sociology's Potential to Improve Forest Management and Inform Forest Policy

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Energy and the Rural Sociological Imagination

Energy is the lifeblood of any society. It drives a society’s material culture and the reproduction of that culture. It is essential for the production of food, shelter, clothing, and for transportation, trade, and communication. This article makes the case for a rural sociology of energy. Relative to the impact that energy issues have for rural places and people, energy, as a subject area, has been understudied by rural sociologists and is infrequently represented in the journals devoted to rural sociology and rural studies. Energy production and distribution activities such as coal mining, uranium mining, hydroelectric dams, wind farms, nuclear, biomass and ethanol production facilities, transmission lines, pipelines, shale gas development, and other energy related activities clearly have major implications for rural life. These activities affect power relations in local areas, landscape and amenity values, labor markets, economic development, income, poverty, health, mobility, and many other thematic areas that are common in rural sociology and rural studies. This article presents an analysis of energy related content to the major journals where rural sociologists publish, including Journal of Rural Social Science (formerly Journal of Southern Rural Sociology), Rural Sociology, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Rural Studies, the Journal of Rural and Community Development, and Society & Natural Resources. Some speculation is offered on historical reasons for the lack of attention to energy issues. The article ends with an invitation to turn our collective sociological imaginations toward an explicit rural sociology of energy across several themes and through several specific research questions

Public Engagement, Planning, and Politics in the Forest Sector in New Brunswick, 1997–2014

This article documents developments and debates in policy formation for Crown land in New Brunswick from the period 1997 to 2014. Particular focus is given to how the public was engaged in those policy deliberations. The Department of Natural Resources experimented with several public engagement exercises from 1997 to 2007. From 2005– 2007 the government sponsored, but then backed away from, a public opinion study that demonstrated the public’s preference for a conservation-first timber-second strategy for Crown land management. Since 2008, successive governments of both major parties have adopted a more closed and less consultative approach to natural resource policy development.Cet article décrit les développements et les débats liés à l’élaboration de politiques visant les terres de la Couronne du Nouveau-Brunswick, et ce, de 1997 à 2014. Une attention particulière est accordée à l’engagement du public à l’égard des délibérations relatives à ces politiques. Le ministère des Ressources naturelles a mis à l’essai plusieurs activités d’engagement du public de 1997 à 2007. De 2005 à 2007, le gouvernement a parrainé une étude d’opinion publique qui montrait la préférence du public pour une stratégie privilégiant la conservation plutôt que l’exploitation quant à la gestion des terres de la Couronne. Or, par la suite, il a pris ses distances par rapport à cela. Depuis 2008, les gouvernements successifs des deux grands partis ont adopté une démarche plus fermée et moins consultative quant à l’élaboration de politiques sur les ressources naturelles

Non-market Valuation Biases Due to Aboriginal Cultural Characteristics in Northern Saskatchewan: The Values Structures Component

Current non-market valuation techniques have been developed based on assumptions about values held within the Eurocentred culture. Contentions between cultures over natural resources are hypothesized to occur because of differences in held values resulting in different values being assigned to the resources in question. This study measured the held values of an Aboriginal band in Northern Saskatchewan as the first dimension of a non-market valuation study of natural resources. These held value structures are presented noting differences by age and gender and in comparison with the local Non-Aboriginal community and another Aboriginal group in northern Alberta.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Capturing Old-Growth Values for Use in Forest Decision-Making

Abstract Old-growth forests have declined significantly across the world. Decisions related to old growth are often mired in challenges of value diversity, conflict, data gaps, and resource pressures. This article describes old-growth values of citizens and groups in Nova Scotia, Canada, for integration in sustainable forest management (SFM) decision-making. The study is based on data from 76 research subjects who participated in nine field trips to forest stands. Research subjects were drawn from Aboriginal groups, environmental organizations, forestry professionals, and rural and urban publics. Diaries, group discussions, and rating sheets were used to elicit information during the field trips. Findings show that different elicitation techniques can influence the articulation of intensity with which some values are held. In addition, certain values are more often associated with old-growth than with other forest-age classes. Some values associated with old-growth are considered more important than others, and some silvicultural treatments are perceived to compromise old-growth values more than others. Demographic characteristics, such as constituency group, gender, and age, are shown to influence value priorities. Ideas on how to incorporate old-growth values into SFM decision-making are highlighted

Faith in the Republic: A Frances Lewis Law Center Conversation

This is a spontaneous conversation discussing Hauserwas’ singular political theology in response to Levinson and Tushnet’s constitutional jurisprudence. It developed into a highly interesting debate concerning constitutional faith. This conversation was recorded at Washington and Lee’s Law Center on December 11, 1987

Faith in the Republic: A Frances Lewis Law Center Conversation

This is a spontaneous conversation discussing Hauserwas’ singular political theology in response to Levinson and Tushnet’s constitutional jurisprudence. It developed into a highly interesting debate concerning constitutional faith. This conversation was recorded at Washington and Lee’s Law Center on December 11, 1987

Deletion of ripA Alleviates Suppression of the Inflammasome and MAPK by Francisella tularensis

Francisella tularensis is a facultative intracellular pathogen and potential biothreat agent. Evasion of the immune response contributes to the extraordinary virulence of this organism although the mechanism is unclear. Whereas wild-type strains induced low levels of cytokines, an F. tularensis ripA deletion mutant (LVSΔripA) provoked significant release of IL-1β, IL-18, and TNF-α by resting macrophages. IL-1β and IL-18 secretion was dependent on inflammasome components pyrin-caspase recruitment domain/apoptotic speck-containing protein with a caspase recruitment domain and caspase-1, and the TLR/IL-1R signaling molecule MyD88 was required for inflammatory cytokine synthesis. Complementation of LVSΔripA with a plasmid encoding ripA restored immune evasion. Similar findings were observed in a human monocytic line. The presence of ripA nearly eliminated activation of MAPKs including ERK1/2, JNK, and p38, and pharmacologic inhibitors of these three MAPKs reduced cytokine induction by LVSΔripA. Animals infected with LVSΔripA mounted a stronger IL-1β and TNF-α response than that of mice infected with wild-type live vaccine strain. This analysis revealed novel immune evasive mechanisms of F. tularensis

Fussy Feeders: Phyllosoma Larvae of the Western Rocklobster (Panulirus cygnus) Demonstrate Prey Preference

The Western Rocklobster (Panulirus cygnus) is the most valuable single species fishery in Australia and the largest single country spiny lobster fishery in the world. In recent years a well-known relationship between oceanographic conditions and lobster recruitment has become uncoupled, with significantly lower recruitment than expected, generating interest in the factors influencing survival and development of the planktonic larval stages. The nutritional requirements and wild prey of the planktotrophic larval stage (phyllosoma) of P. cygnus were previously unknown, hampering both management and aquaculture efforts for this species. Ship-board feeding trials of wild-caught mid-late stage P. cygnus phyllosoma in the eastern Indian Ocean, off the coast of Western Australia, were conducted in July 2010 and August-September 2011. In a series of experiments, phyllosoma were fed single and mixed species diets of relatively abundant potential prey items (chaetognaths, salps, and krill). Chaetognaths were consumed in 2–8 times higher numbers than the other prey, and the rate of consumption of chaetognaths increased with increasing concentration of prey. The highly variable lipid content of the phyllosoma, and the fatty acid profiles of the phyllosoma and chaetognaths, indicated they were from an oligotrophic oceanic food chain where food resources for macrozooplankton were likely to be constrained. Phyllosoma fed chaetognaths over 6 days showed significant changes in some fatty acids and tended to accumulate lipid, indicating an improvement in overall nutritional condition. The discovery of a preferred prey for P. cygnus will provide a basis for future oceanographic, management and aquaculture research for this economically and ecologically valuable species

A Decade of Incorporating Social Sciences in the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research Project (IMBeR): Much Done, Much to Do?

Successful management and mitigation of marine challenges depends on cooperation and knowledge sharing which often occurs across culturally diverse geographic regions. Global ocean science collaboration is therefore essential for developing global solutions. Building effective global research networks that can enable collaboration also need to ensure inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches to tackle complex marine socio-ecological challenges. To understand the contribution of interdisciplinary global research networks to solving these complex challenges, we use the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) project as a case study. We investigated the diversity and characteristics of 1,827 scientists from 11 global regions who were attendees at different IMBeR global science engagement opportunities since 2009. We also determined the role of social science engagement in natural science based regional programmes (using key informants) and identified the potential for enhanced collaboration in the future. Event attendees were predominantly from western Europe, North America, and East Asia. But overall, in the global network, there was growing participation by females, students and early career researchers, and social scientists, thus assisting in moving toward interdisciplinarity in IMBeR research. The mainly natural science oriented regional programmes showed mixed success in engaging and collaborating with social scientists. This was mostly attributed to the largely natural science (i.e., biological, physical) goals and agendas of the programmes, and the lack of institutional support and push to initiate connections with social science. Recognising that social science research may not be relevant to all the aims and activities of all regional programmes, all researchers however, recognised the (potential) benefits of interdisciplinarity, which included broadening scientists’ understanding and perspectives, developing connections and interlinkages, and making science more useful. Pathways to achieve progress in regional programmes fell into four groups: specific funding, events to come together, within-programme-reflections, and social science champions. Future research programmes should have a strategic plan to be truly interdisciplinary, engaging natural and social sciences, as well as aiding early career professionals to actively engage in such programmes.This publication resulted in part from support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant OCE-1840868) to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR)