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Issue 9.2 Abstracts

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Household Demography and Land Use Allocation among Small Farms in the Brazilian Amazon

by Stephen G. Perz

This paper presents models of land allocation among primary forest, crops, pasture and secondary forest on small farms in the Brazilian Amazon. The discussion begins with a review of theoretical arguments as to why demographic variables should influence environmental outcomes at the household level, to complement population-level arguments more commonly alleged. The paper then focuses on the case of Uruará, a frontier colony along the Transamazon highway in the Brazilian state of Pará, for an empirical analysis of land use in the Amazon frontier. Use of seemingly unrelated regression models allows efficient estimation of the effects of the explanatory variables, while accounting for the effects of correlated error terms among forest, crops, pasture and regrowth. The findings highlight the importance of household- level demographic processes for environmental change, and bear implications for future resource use and policy proposals in the Amazon as well as for research on human-environment interactions.

Keywords: household, demography, land use, Amazon, Brazil

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Naturally Not! Childhood, the Urban and Romanticism

by Owain Jones

The aim of this paper is to explore the idea that in the UK 'the urban' can be constructed as an intrinsically unsuitable space for childhood. My suggestion is that romantic constructions of 'nature', 'childhood', the 'rural' and the 'urban' remain active symbolic legacies within contemporary culture and these can make the presence of the 'natural child' in the 'unnatural urban' problematic. The rural and the urban are markedly differentiated spaces both materially and symbolically, and account must be taken of that, but these spaces are also constructed as single symbolic spaces in broad but nonetheless powerful ways. This does have implications for childhood in both urban and rural areas, particularly through the ways adults see, judge and direct children. Childhood also has to be seen as a differentiated category, but again there are deeply imbedded assumptions about 'what a child is' that will have effects across that differentiation. Dimensions of class, gender and ethnicity are considered because these appear to bring differing trajectories to the central narrative attempted here. I end with some thoughts on reconfiguring childhood-urban symbolic relations into a more positive form.

Keywords: childhood, urban, nature, romanticism

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Community Ecology: A New Theory and an Illustrative Test

by Frank W. Young and Keiko Minai

This "structural" theory of human ecology interprets communities as problem-solving organizations that are concerned with improving the welfare of the residents. It then makes a distinction between their general (structural differentiation, pluralism and solidarity) and specific (hospitals, public health agencies, public safety, etc.) problem-solving capacity and postulates a multiplicative interaction, in the sense of mutual reinforcement, between them. The combined strength of these two types of social problem-solving enables communities to overcome the impact of most environmental threats so that population health, which is the criterion of success, is improved. Although the theory draws on the (transposed) social evolutionary model of innovative institutions, environmental selection and population increase, it diverges from the natural selection model in using "population health" as the criterion of success and, especially, by postulating the causal primacy of the three general dimensions of "problem-solving capacity." The theory is compared to other frameworks in social and cultural ecology and illustrated with findings from the 47 Japanese prefectures.

Keywords: community ecology, population health, structure, organizations, environment

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Winter Visitors to Yellowstone National Park: Their Value Orientations and Support for Management Actions

by William T. Borrie, Wayne A. Freimund, and Mae A. Davenport

The idea of a National Park contains a diversity of values and missions. This paper takes a multi-dimensional, context- specific approach to measuring the perceived values of Yellowstone National Park. It is an initial step in recording how perceptions of National Parks are changing over time. Responses of 1064 winter visitors to 24 park value items were factor and cluster analyzed to produce four groups. Examination of the relationship between cluster membership and support / opposition to a variety of management actions showed significant differences for all 19 proposed actions. Groups of visitors with different value orientations showed correspondingly different levels of support for management actions. The National Park Service (and other natural resource agencies) can, therefore, expect to encounter and manage for a diversity of perceived values and conflicting attitudes towards park management and planning.

Keywords: parks, value orientations, attitudes, park management

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The 'Ethical' Space of the Abattoir: On the (In)human(e) Slaughter of Other Animals

by Mick Smith

Modernity's predominantly carnivorous culture ensures the unquestioning reproduction of its values and practices through transformations of social space and its associated habitus. Klaus Eder argues that these transformations include the development of an industrial food culture and a gastronomic culture both of which represent modernity's attempt to distance humanity from animality. Today, industry and gastronomy combine to make farm animals little more than a standing reserve of meat products ready for consumption. The abattoir epitomises these modern transformations in its organisation, practices and routines. But, because it is here that the key transformation from living animal to dead meat takes place, the slaughterhouse also remains a site of potential moral danger and conflict for contemporary cultural logic. In the abattoir we risk coming face to face with the animals themselves as self-expressive entities and sometimes, in their final moments, their voices can awaken us from our ethical apathy.

Keywords: ethics, space, expression, animal, slaughterhouse

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Animal Rights and the Antarctic Treaty System

by Helena Ellinor Widolf

This paper outlines an investigation into the rights of individual animals that live in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, home to many species of mammals, birds, finfish, crustaceans and cephalopods. I address the identification of prominent animal rights issues, an assessment of the relevance of those issues to Antarctic management and an examination of Antarctic legal provisions and management guidelines.

Keywords: Antarctica, animal rights, ethics, policy

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