Community cohesion: constructing boundaries between or within communities-of-place?

This paper is concerned with how communities are constructed symbolically and the relation between such symbolically constructed communities and communities-ofplace. Analysis of literature on the symbolic construction of Scottish communities shows that the boundaries of these communities do not necessarily coincide with the boundaries of the geographically defined community-of-place. People identify, and are identified, with more than one community, and such identification is temporary in character. Which community is identified with is dependent on the specific time, place, group of people and activities engaged in.Community cohesion, Scotland, symbolic and geographical boundaries of community, dialectic of identification, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Media representations of museums: a public viewing

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Myths, Monuments, Museums; New Premises? 16-18 July, 199

Key figure of mobility : the pedestrian

Peer reviewedPostprin

The potential for groundwater contamination arising from a lead/zinc mine tailings impoundment.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.The mining industry produces vast quantities of overburden and mill tailings. In many instances the disposal of these wastes on the Earth's surface have caused local, and occasionally even regional, water resources to become contaminated. Contamination typically arises from the oxidation of metal sulfide minerals contained within these wastes. Upon oxidation these minerals release sulfate, their associated metal cations and acidity into solution. This study investigated the potential for groundwater contamination arising from a Pb/Zn tailings impoundment in the North West Province of South Africa (Pering Mine). The tailings is composed predominantly of dolomite, which imparts to the material an alkaline pH and a high acid buffering capacity. Acid-base accounting (ABA) established that the capacity of the tailings to buffer acidity surpasses any acid producing potential that could arise from pyrite (FeS2), galena (PbS) and sphalerite (ZnS) oxidation. These minerals account for about 3 to 6% of the tailings by mass. Total elemental analysis (XRF) showed that the material has high total concentrations of Fe (19083 mg kg-I), Zn (5481 mg kg-I), Pb (398 mg kg-I), S (15400 mg kg-I), Al (9152 mg kg-I) and Mn (29102 mg kg-I). Only a very small fraction of this, however, was soluble under saturated conditions. An estimation of potentially available concentrations, using the DTPA extraction method, indicated that high concentrations of Zn (1056 mg kg-I), and moderate concentrations of Pb (27.3 mg kg-I) and Cu (6.01 mg kg-I) could potentially be available to cause contamination. A number of leaching experiments were undertaken to accurately quantify the release of elements from the tailings material. These experiments were aimed at determining the potential for groundwater contamination and also provided a means whereby the long-term release of contaminants could be modelled using the convection-dispersion equation for solute transport. Four leaching treatments were investigated. Two consisted of using distilled water under intermittent and continuous flow, while a third used intermittent flow of deoxygenated distilled water to assess leaching under conditions of reduced oxygen. The.mobilisation of potential contaminants under a worst case scenario was assessed by means of leaching with an acetic acid solution at pH 2.88 (after the US Environmental Protection Agency's toxicity characteristic leaching procedure). The acid buffering potential of the tailings was considerable. Even after 8 months of weekly leaching with 1 pore volume of acetic acid solution the pH of the effluent was maintained above pH 5.90. The protracted acidity caused very high concentrations of Pb, Zn, Mu, Ca, Mg, Hg and S to be released into solution. Leaching the tailings with distilled water also caused the effluent to have noticeable traces of contamination, most importantly from S, Mg, Mu and Zn. In many instances concentrations significantly exceeded guideline values for South African drinking water. Modelling solute transport with the convectiondispersion equation predicted that sol- and Mu contamination could persist for a very long period of time. (±700 years under continuous saturated leaching), while Mg and Zn concentrations would most likely exceed recommended limits for a much shorter period of time (±300 years under the same conditions). In light of the various column leaching experiments it was concluded that seepage from the Pering tailings impoundment could cause groundwater contamination. A drill-rig and coring system were used to collect both tailings and pore-water samples from eight boreholes spread out across the tailings impoundment. These investigations showed that most of the impoundment was aerobic (Eh ranged from +323 to +454 mY) and alkaline (pH 8.0 to 9.5). This chemical environment favours sulfide oxidation and as a consequence high concentrations of S have been released into the pore-water of the impoundment (S concentrations ranged from 211 to 1221 mg r l ). The acidity released as a by-product of sulfide oxidation was being buffered by dolomite dissolution, which in turn was releasing high concentrations of Mg (175 to 917 mg r l ) and Ca (62.6 to 247 mg r l ) into solution. Metal concentrations in the pore-water were low as a result of the strong metal sorbing capacity of the tailings and possible secondary precipitation. The only metal which significantly exceeded recommended limits throughout the impoundment was Hg (concentrations were between 100 and 6000 times the recommended limit of 0.001 mg r l ). Under the current geochemical conditions it is expected that Hg, S and Mg will likely pose the greatest threat to groundwater. The main concerns associated with mine tailings are that of mine drainage and dust blow off..In order to eradicate the latter problem, the tailings impoundment at Pering Mine was covered with a layer of rocks. Modelling the water balance of the impoundment using the computer model HYDRUS-2D showed that the rock cladding has potentially increased the volume of drainage water seeping from the impoundment. In light of the leaching experiments and field work, which proved that water passing through the tailings became enriched with various potentially toxic elements, it is expected that the problem of groundwater contamination around Pering Mine has been further exacerbated by the rock cladding. It was therefore concluded that there would be a strong likelihood of groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the mine

The Easterlin Illusion: Economic growth does go with greater happiness

__Abstract__ The 'Easterlin Paradox' holds that economic growth in nations does not buy greater happiness for the average citizen. This thesis was advanced in the 1970s on the basis of the then available data on happiness in nations. Later data have disproved most of the empirical claims behind the thesis, but Easterlin still maintains that there is no long-term correlation between economic growth and happiness. rn This last claim was tested using the time trend data available in the World Database of Happiness, which involve 1531 data points in 67 nations that yield 199 time-series ranging from 10 to more than 40 years. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between GDP growth and rise of in happiness in nations. Both GDP and happiness have gone up in most nations, and average happiness has risen more in nations where the economy has grown the most; r =+0.21 p<.05. On average a 1% growth in income per capita per year was followed by a rise in average happiness on scale 0-10 of 0.00335; thus a gain in happiness of a full point would take 60 years with an annual economic growth of 5%. Keywords: happiness, economic growth, trend analysis, cross-national, progress, quality of lif

Understanding values beyond carbon in the Woodland Carbon Code in Scotland

Acknowledgments Paola Ovando and James Koronka thank the financial support of the Macaulay Development Trust through the Fellowship on Natural Capital at the James Hutton Institute, and the project Finding Viable Pathways for Forest Carbon Offsetting in Europe: FOREWAY (Plan Estatal: PID2021-125340OA-I00). James Koronka began this research as a Masters student at the University of Aberdeen supervised by P. Ovando and J. Vergunst. We especially thank Phoebe Somerville for her support with carbon buyer data preparation. We are very grateful to all the people we interviewed for contributing to this research, Vicky West for providing a UK WCC projects database, Pat Snowdon and James Hepburne Scott for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper, and attendees of the Hutton Symposium 2020 for their valuable comments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The institutional dynamics of consensus and conflict : Consensus democracy, corporatism and socio-economic policy-making and performance in twenty developed democracies

De afgelopen jaren is Nederland geroemd voor het poldermodel en de miraculeuze banengroei. Overleg tussen sociale partners en de overheid zou hebben bijgedragen tot economisch herstel en hervorming van de sociale zekerheid. Structureel overleg en afspraken tussen vakbonden en werkgeversorganisaties over sociaal-economisch beleid komt voor in veel Westerse democratieën wordt ook wel aangeduid als corporatisme. Dit proefschrift toont aan dat de bijdrage van corporatisme en consensusdemocratie voor het economisch herstel beperkt is. De mate van corporatisme in Nederland is in vergelijking met andere landen niet zo groot. Nederlandse vakbonden zijn vrij zwak en kunnen over het algemeen slechts instemmen met het beleid van de regering die een zeer dominante rol heeft in het sociaal-economisch beleid. De invloed van de vakbeweging is afgenomen en in de loop van de jaren speelt de centrale overheid een steeds sterkere rol. Indien al aanwezig, heeft het 'poldermodel' er niet uit bestaan dat door middel van overleg tussen betrokken actoren een succesvol sociaal-economisch beleid is gevoerd. Het 'poldermodel' heeft er hooguit toe bijgedragen dat de legitimiteit van de centrale overheid niet ernstig is afgenomen. Consensusdemocratie heeft in Nederland in belangrijke mate bijgedragen aan de politieke stabiliteit, maar heeft verder een beperkte invloed op het sociaal-economisch beleid. Op basis van een vergelijking van twintig Westerse democratie?lijkt dat de instituties van consensusdemocratie en corporatisme van elkaar onderscheiden moeten worden en dat ze verschillende effecten hebben op macro-economisch beleid. De positieve effecten van consensusdemocratie en corporatisme worden over het algemeen overschat. In de jaren '70 en '80 hebben consensus democratie en corporatisme in zekere mate bijdragen tot minder werkloosheid en inflatie, maar dit positieve effect is grotendeels verdwenen in de jaren '90.Keman, J.E. [Promotor]Pennings, P.J.M. [Copromotor