Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
Since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Chinese nationals have commonly entered the US via education programs or H1-B work visas. However, a quickly growing number is arriving via a new path: the southern border. Upon arrival, many claim political asylum, citing fears of President Xi Jinping's authoritarian rule and the experience of draconian zero-COVID policies. Many also express skepticism of the Chinese economy and fears of eventually being cast into poverty.For Chinese migrants, increasingly exclusionary immigration policies spurred by US COVID-era restrictions have cast doubt on historically reliable pathways such as education, work, or tourist visas. In 2021, Chinese B-visa applications saw a rejection rate of more than 79%. Though that number came down to 30% in 2022, the visa refusal rate to Chinese nationals has steadily increased from just 9% in 2014. Tourist visas have also become unfeasible for those eager to leave: the waiting time for an interview has risen to more than six months.In the first nine months of 2023, the US Border Patrol made 22,187 arrests of Chinese nationals entering the country from Mexico. This was 13 times the number from the same period in 2022. Most of the previous figure stems from people traveling from much further south than Mexico. Over 15,500 Chinese migrants were counted in Panama after traversing a dangerous stretch of jungle beginning in Colombia known as the Darién Gap. This figure is nearly eight times as many from the same period in 2022, and more than 40 times that of 2021.The US Border Patrol experienced record high numbers of migrant encounters at the US-Mexico border toward the end of 2023. Though the proportion of Chinese migrants is still relatively small when compared to other nationalities, they have become the fastest growing migrant demographic. To grasp the full picture of migration to the US today, policy makers must understand the migration drivers and routes, and asylum outcomes for those coming from non-traditional origin countries including China. An understanding of these factors will illuminate the role of social media, human rights violations, and underreported resettlement and integration patterns. Meaningful policy to address the rising numbers of Chinese asylum seekers will strengthen the US asylum system, impact the US' relations with China, and increase the US' global standing.Zero-COVID Policy and AuthoritarianismChina was one of the last countries to continue a zero-COVID policy. Geared toward acting "dynamically" when new cases surfaced, health authorities used tools such as mass PCR testing and digital health data tracking to justify supervised quarantines and even the shutdown of entire cities. In December 2021, the city of Xi'an, home to 13 million, was shut down, and residents were forbidden to exit their homes. In April 2022, an increase in cases of the milder Omicron variant triggered a lockdown of Shanghai and its population of more than 26 million. Residents waited in massive lines to stock up on goods with only several days' notice. During the lockdown, many faced food shortages, pets were beaten to death on the streets for fear of transmitting the virus, and authorities entered homes unannounced to forcefully sanitize. In November 2022, frustrations over zero-COVID policy boiled over as cities across the country saw protests that, in their open expressions of anger and defiance, were rare for China. Chants of: "Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!" were heard amongst crowds in Shanghai. "We don't want lifelong rulers. We don't want emperors!" was heard in Chengdu, a criticism of Xi Jinping's unprecedented third presidential term.Despite an end to zero-COVID in December 2022, a decision that was accelerated by these protests, the disillusionment felt by many persisted. Though repression by the government in Beijing is not a new phenomenon, the experience of constant surveillance and unexplained quarantines struck a more personal chord. Reporting along the US-Mexico border revealed this to be a major driver for Chinese migrants. "Zero-COVID policies severely harmed ordinary Chinese people…many people didn't care about politics before, but the pandemic awakened them. They realized there's really no freedom in China," immigration expert Zheng Cunzhu told Axios. Zheng has advised more than 100 such migrants.Economic DriversDespite the end to zero-COVID, China's economic recovery has been turbulent. In the second quarter of 2023, the GDP grew by just 0.8%. A contributing factor has been the centralization of economic policy, manifesting in regulatory crackdowns on fast-growing industries such as technology, financial services, and private education. The slowdown in the macroeconomy coincides with frustrations among the Chinese middle class about a depleted job market. In 2021, seven in ten unemployed urbanites held degrees, and the youth unemployment rate in June 2023 was 21.3%. With few professional opportunities available, university graduates have taken temporary jobs including as delivery drivers.Data from migrant detentions suggests that while some fleeing China to the US-Mexico border are working class, many come from middleclass backgrounds: Chinese migrants typically spend between $5,000 and $7,000 for self-guided trips, and up to $35,000 for the aid of smugglers, three times what Latin American migrants typically pay. Small business owners who were hit hard by pandemic restrictions, teachers and professors, and white-collar workers are among detainees.Through the Darién GapDuring the lockdown of Shanghai, a new term gained steam online. Runxue is a combination of the Romanized character 润 which sounds like "run" and the character for study, xue (学). The pun translates to "runology." As more and more people sought ways to practice runxue, the emergence of the Darién Gap as a way of escape flooded social media channels. Though this path was once virtually unknown beyond migrants from Latin America, posts on Weixin (WeChat), Douyin (TikTok), and Telegram taught Chinese viewers how to apply for passports, where to fly, how to pack, and how to navigate around cartels and border officials. In the more than two dozen Mandarin-language interviews conducted by Reuters at the US-Mexico border, every respondent credited social media and private internet groups for how they learned about this new route to the US.Flying to Ecuador where they are not required to present a visa, Chinese migrants gather with migrants from across Latin America at Colombia's northern border. Assessments from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimate that crossing to the Panamanian side can take up to ten days for the most vulnerable. Migrants are not only exposed to natural hazards, but also violence from bandits and from fellow migrants. Since 2014, the IOM has verified the deaths and disappearances of 379 migrants travelling through the Darién Gap. Because of the lack of official data, difficulty accessing the area, and little media coverage, most migrant deaths and disappearances in the jungle remain unverified. Recordings of deaths and disappearances are likely biased towards high-profile incidents and should be treated as underestimates of the true number of fatalities. From the verified records, the primary cause of death is drowning, although other causes include lack of shelter, hunger, dehydration, illness, and violence. While social media can help provide migrants with valuable information about the journey, it can also convey an inaccurate picture of the dangers they will face. Facebook pages of self-proclaimed travel agencies advertise the trek as an "exciting journey" and make bold promises of safe passage. In a TikTok post viewed more than 13 million times, vignettes of smiling and waving migrants, some jumping into pools of water to cool off, set optimistic expectations of the crossing.After registering with authorities in Panama, migrants continue their journey via car or bus to the US-Mexico border. Still getting advice from social media, they may contact smugglers who deliver them to drop-off points inside the US. They are then instructed how to surrender to border patrol officers, who have had to quickly adapt to the challenge of processing Chinese-speaking asylum seekers. Most are released with an immigration court date after several days of detention.Asylum and IntegrationAbout 70% of Chinese asylum applications decided in 2023 were adjudicated through the affirmative process, as opposed to 16.3% across all nationalities. This indicates that most Chinese migrants claim asylum as they arrive. Most Chinese cases are adjudicated in New York, where more than 17,000 are on backlog. Where do these asylum seekers go as they await their court dates? What resources and opportunities exist for them, and how are they received by their communities?New York City is a top destination for migrants from all nations, offering many city resources including over 200 shelters. However, Chinese migrants rarely opt for these; instead, they choose to go to neighborhoods with large Chinese populations. By living in these longstanding Chinese enclaves, newcomers can find housing, jobs, and immigration lawyers through community networks without needing to speak English. The self-sustaining character of urban Chinese American communities is true across the country. In Los Angeles, newcomers find housing in packed "family hotels," which host up to 10 people to a room with upwards of 30 sharing a bathroom.Where informal networks are insufficient, community centers and nonprofit organizations help fill the gap. In Chicago's Chinatown, the Pui Tak Center provides services such as reading and translating mail, scheduling medical appointments, and help filling out immigration forms. Pui Tak Center Executive Director David Wu explained that their popular English classes provide language training and introduce new arrivals to city resources. The center began new classes in January teaching over 600 students. 140 of these students were new, and over half of these were recent migrants. Students learn about a wide range of resources including housing, healthcare, and public transportation.Despite the self-reliant nature of new arrivals, the reception from the pre-existing Chinese community has been mixed. Wu pointed to linguistic differences and different immigration pathways among other factors that reduce sympathy. In the 1980s, 9 in 10 new immigrants to Chicago's Chinatown spoke Cantonese. However, most of the new arrivals from China today are Mandarin speakers. Legal status has also been a point of contention, as those who arrived years ago on work and education visas may complain about "border crossers" who come by "walking the jungle," phrases that have entered Chinese American lexicon.Despite this mixed reception, the outlook is largely positive for Chinese asylum seekers in terms of their actual cases. In December 2023, the approval rate for Chinese asylum applications was 73.7% (87.2% in New York City). This is a significantly higher rate than the 48.5% average of all applications across the US that were accepted in December. Even when an application is denied and all appeals are exhausted, it is highly unlikely that a Chinese migrant is deported. Of all people with deportation orders in the US, 1 out of 13 are Chinese. However, China is particularly uncooperative when taking back deportees as the US cannot leverage aid, as it has with other origin countries.Media NarrativesAs Chinese migrants continue to make the journey over multiple countries and across miles of jungle to arrive at the US border, rumors are spun about their motivations for arriving. Some news media and political figures have described the phenomenon as an influx of "military age men," stoking fear of these migrants having ties to China's military or allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. In a speech on January 31, 2024, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) discredited factors such as a repressive government, political and religious persecution, and economic fears, saying "these [Chinese migrants] are not huddled masses of families seeking refuge and asylum."This narrative is misleading for a variety of reasons. US Customs and Border Protection does not publish data on the gender or age of migrants encountered. Because China does not compel military service from its citizens, and "military age" means different things in different countries, such phrasing is both unsupported by data and too broad to be a meaningful classification. It is unsurprising that younger, single adult men would be the most likely to travel a route as physically demanding as the Darién Gap. Young people are also more likely to be well-versed in social media, the primary source of information for Chinese migrants travelling through Central America. Clayton Dube, senior fellow at the University of Southern California US-China Institute, put it succinctly in an interview with PolitiFact: there is no proof that Chinese migrants arriving at the US are "motivated by anything other than individual desire to forge new lives in the US."Ways ForwardIronically, these narratives which target domestic fears of the Chinese geopolitical rival ignore opportunities to improve US standing in its competition with China. To take seriously the claims of political persecution would also reaffirm US standing as a global leader for human rights. China has long been considered recalcitrant in repatriating Chinese nationals with deportation orders from the US. This unwillingness to accept their nationals has been seen as a political tool, for example, something that can be leveraged against the US when it engages with Taiwan. Rather than alienating people in search of political, religious, and economic freedom—values that the US espouses on the world stage—the US should take advantage of the benefits that come with resettling refugees, defanging this threat.Access to Regular PathwaysHeightened barriers to obtaining work and education visas for Chinese students and professionals have increased the pressure to find alternative routes. Chinese nationals are the primary source of international students in the US, but the student visa refusal rate in 2022 was an unprecedented 35%. These refusals come after students are already accepted to an accredited university. According to the Cato Institute, these refusals from 2022 will amount to an estimated loss of $26.4 billion in tuition payments and living expenses for the US economy over four years. For Chinese nationals applying for employment-based visas, some backlogs stretch as far back as 2013.To address this, the US should expand access to F-1 student visas and H1-B visas across the board. The current statutory cap for H1-B employer-sponsored visas is 65,000 per year. This cap was exhausted in August 2022 for fiscal year 2023, and demand from US employers regularly outstrips supply. Expanding access would not only provide a safer and more regular pathway for Chinese migrants but also help fill employment gaps in many STEM industries.A groundbreaking study recently published by the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that refugees and asylees generated $123.8 billion in net fiscal benefit to the US economy and government budgets from 2005-2019. Reporting from the southern border suggests that integrating Chinese migrants into the US economy would prove additionally beneficial. According to data from the US Census Bureau, Chinese immigrants employed in the US civilian labor force are 17% more likely than US-born workers to be employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations. Though this figure does not account for undocumented immigrants, many of the Chinese migrants arriving to the US-Mexico border come from highly educated or business backgrounds that would qualify them for these same occupations if given access to regular pathways.Managing the Flow of MigrantsTo better manage the flow of migrants to the US southern border, federal agencies should establish a robust presence across social media. Social media has become a primary source of information for migrants and asylum seekers. The Department of State boasts official accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, but their messaging cannot keep pace with that of "influencers" and potential bad actors. Agencies such as the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security must establish a greater presence on a wide range of social media, including platforms that Chinese migrants commonly use such as WeChat and TikTok. Despite the ban of TikTok on government devices and efforts to ban the use of WeChat and TikTok, it is important for US agencies to find ways of providing accurate and accessible information about the risks and dangers of different migration pathways on the platforms most used by migrants.Providing the resources for Chinese language training for US Customs and Border Protection officers at the southern border is also urgent. With the influx of Chinese migrants arriving alongside more migrants from across Latin America, it is essential to minimize delays that the language barrier may pose to an already strained registration process.Improving IntegrationFollowing their arrival, three tiers of resources help integrate migrants: informal and personal networks, community centers and nonprofits, and city and state services. Because many newcomers hesitate to enroll in government services that they qualify for, it is important to strengthen partnerships with community centers that can bridge the gap. A model to replicate is the Illinois Welcoming Center (IWC), a consortium of community centers, which includes the previously mentioned Pui Tak Center, which supports immigrants across backgrounds. Sponsored by the Illinois Department of Human Services, the IWC connects newcomers to health care, job-training, nutrition, and cash assistance programs regardless of immigration status.
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
Since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Chinese nationals have commonly entered the US via education programs or H1-B work visas. However, a quickly growing number is arriving via a new path: the southern border. Upon arrival, many claim political asylum, citing fears of President Xi Jinping's authoritarian rule and the experience of draconian zero-COVID policies. Many also express skepticism of the Chinese economy and fears of eventually being cast into poverty.For Chinese migrants, increasingly exclusionary immigration policies spurred by US COVID-era restrictions have cast doubt on historically reliable pathways such as education, work, or tourist visas. In 2021, Chinese B-visa applications saw a rejection rate of more than 79%. Though that number came down to 30% in 2022, the visa refusal rate to Chinese nationals has steadily increased from just 9% in 2014. Tourist visas have also become unfeasible for those eager to leave: the waiting time for an interview has risen to more than six months.In the first nine months of 2023, the US Border Patrol made 22,187 arrests of Chinese nationals entering the country from Mexico. This was 13 times the number from the same period in 2022. Most of the previous figure stems from people traveling from much further south than Mexico. Over 15,500 Chinese migrants were counted in Panama after traversing a dangerous stretch of jungle beginning in Colombia known as the Darién Gap. This figure is nearly eight times as many from the same period in 2022, and more than 40 times that of 2021.The US Border Patrol experienced record high numbers of migrant encounters at the US-Mexico border toward the end of 2023. Though the proportion of Chinese migrants is still relatively small when compared to other nationalities, they have become the fastest growing migrant demographic. To grasp the full picture of migration to the US today, policy makers must understand the migration drivers and routes, and asylum outcomes for those coming from non-traditional origin countries including China. An understanding of these factors will illuminate the role of social media, human rights violations, and underreported resettlement and integration patterns. Meaningful policy to address the rising numbers of Chinese asylum seekers will strengthen the US asylum system, impact the US' relations with China, and increase the US' global standing.Zero-COVID Policy and AuthoritarianismChina was one of the last countries to continue a zero-COVID policy. Geared toward acting "dynamically" when new cases surfaced, health authorities used tools such as mass PCR testing and digital health data tracking to justify supervised quarantines and even the shutdown of entire cities. In December 2021, the city of Xi'an, home to 13 million, was shut down, and residents were forbidden to exit their homes. In April 2022, an increase in cases of the milder Omicron variant triggered a lockdown of Shanghai and its population of more than 26 million. Residents waited in massive lines to stock up on goods with only several days' notice. During the lockdown, many faced food shortages, pets were beaten to death on the streets for fear of transmitting the virus, and authorities entered homes unannounced to forcefully sanitize. In November 2022, frustrations over zero-COVID policy boiled over as cities across the country saw protests that, in their open expressions of anger and defiance, were rare for China. Chants of: "Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!" were heard amongst crowds in Shanghai. "We don't want lifelong rulers. We don't want emperors!" was heard in Chengdu, a criticism of Xi Jinping's unprecedented third presidential term.Despite an end to zero-COVID in December 2022, a decision that was accelerated by these protests, the disillusionment felt by many persisted. Though repression by the government in Beijing is not a new phenomenon, the experience of constant surveillance and unexplained quarantines struck a more personal chord. Reporting along the US-Mexico border revealed this to be a major driver for Chinese migrants. "Zero-COVID policies severely harmed ordinary Chinese people…many people didn't care about politics before, but the pandemic awakened them. They realized there's really no freedom in China," immigration expert Zheng Cunzhu told Axios. Zheng has advised more than 100 such migrants.Economic DriversDespite the end to zero-COVID, China's economic recovery has been turbulent. In the second quarter of 2023, the GDP grew by just 0.8%. A contributing factor has been the centralization of economic policy, manifesting in regulatory crackdowns on fast-growing industries such as technology, financial services, and private education. The slowdown in the macroeconomy coincides with frustrations among the Chinese middle class about a depleted job market. In 2021, seven in ten unemployed urbanites held degrees, and the youth unemployment rate in June 2023 was 21.3%. With few professional opportunities available, university graduates have taken temporary jobs including as delivery drivers.Data from migrant detentions suggests that while some fleeing China to the US-Mexico border are working class, many come from middleclass backgrounds: Chinese migrants typically spend between $5,000 and $7,000 for self-guided trips, and up to $35,000 for the aid of smugglers, three times what Latin American migrants typically pay. Small business owners who were hit hard by pandemic restrictions, teachers and professors, and white-collar workers are among detainees.Through the Darién GapDuring the lockdown of Shanghai, a new term gained steam online. Runxue is a combination of the Romanized character 润 which sounds like "run" and the character for study, xue (学). The pun translates to "runology." As more and more people sought ways to practice runxue, the emergence of the Darién Gap as a way of escape flooded social media channels. Though this path was once virtually unknown beyond migrants from Latin America, posts on Weixin (WeChat), Douyin (TikTok), and Telegram taught Chinese viewers how to apply for passports, where to fly, how to pack, and how to navigate around cartels and border officials. In the more than two dozen Mandarin-language interviews conducted by Reuters at the US-Mexico border, every respondent credited social media and private internet groups for how they learned about this new route to the US.Flying to Ecuador where they are not required to present a visa, Chinese migrants gather with migrants from across Latin America at Colombia's northern border. Assessments from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimate that crossing to the Panamanian side can take up to ten days for the most vulnerable. Migrants are not only exposed to natural hazards, but also violence from bandits and from fellow migrants. Since 2014, the IOM has verified the deaths and disappearances of 379 migrants travelling through the Darién Gap. Because of the lack of official data, difficulty accessing the area, and little media coverage, most migrant deaths and disappearances in the jungle remain unverified. Recordings of deaths and disappearances are likely biased towards high-profile incidents and should be treated as underestimates of the true number of fatalities. From the verified records, the primary cause of death is drowning, although other causes include lack of shelter, hunger, dehydration, illness, and violence. While social media can help provide migrants with valuable information about the journey, it can also convey an inaccurate picture of the dangers they will face. Facebook pages of self-proclaimed travel agencies advertise the trek as an "exciting journey" and make bold promises of safe passage. In a TikTok post viewed more than 13 million times, vignettes of smiling and waving migrants, some jumping into pools of water to cool off, set optimistic expectations of the crossing.After registering with authorities in Panama, migrants continue their journey via car or bus to the US-Mexico border. Still getting advice from social media, they may contact smugglers who deliver them to drop-off points inside the US. They are then instructed how to surrender to border patrol officers, who have had to quickly adapt to the challenge of processing Chinese-speaking asylum seekers. Most are released with an immigration court date after several days of detention.Asylum and IntegrationAbout 70% of Chinese asylum applications decided in 2023 were adjudicated through the affirmative process, as opposed to 16.3% across all nationalities. This indicates that most Chinese migrants claim asylum as they arrive. Most Chinese cases are adjudicated in New York, where more than 17,000 are on backlog. Where do these asylum seekers go as they await their court dates? What resources and opportunities exist for them, and how are they received by their communities?New York City is a top destination for migrants from all nations, offering many city resources including over 200 shelters. However, Chinese migrants rarely opt for these; instead, they choose to go to neighborhoods with large Chinese populations. By living in these longstanding Chinese enclaves, newcomers can find housing, jobs, and immigration lawyers through community networks without needing to speak English. The self-sustaining character of urban Chinese American communities is true across the country. In Los Angeles, newcomers find housing in packed "family hotels," which host up to 10 people to a room with upwards of 30 sharing a bathroom.Where informal networks are insufficient, community centers and nonprofit organizations help fill the gap. In Chicago's Chinatown, the Pui Tak Center provides services such as reading and translating mail, scheduling medical appointments, and help filling out immigration forms. Pui Tak Center Executive Director David Wu explained that their popular English classes provide language training and introduce new arrivals to city resources. The center began new classes in January teaching over 600 students. 140 of these students were new, and over half of these were recent migrants. Students learn about a wide range of resources including housing, healthcare, and public transportation.Despite the self-reliant nature of new arrivals, the reception from the pre-existing Chinese community has been mixed. Wu pointed to linguistic differences and different immigration pathways among other factors that reduce sympathy. In the 1980s, 9 in 10 new immigrants to Chicago's Chinatown spoke Cantonese. However, most of the new arrivals from China today are Mandarin speakers. Legal status has also been a point of contention, as those who arrived years ago on work and education visas may complain about "border crossers" who come by "walking the jungle," phrases that have entered Chinese American lexicon.Despite this mixed reception, the outlook is largely positive for Chinese asylum seekers in terms of their actual cases. In December 2023, the approval rate for Chinese asylum applications was 73.7% (87.2% in New York City). This is a significantly higher rate than the 48.5% average of all applications across the US that were accepted in December. Even when an application is denied and all appeals are exhausted, it is highly unlikely that a Chinese migrant is deported. Of all people with deportation orders in the US, 1 out of 13 are Chinese. However, China is particularly uncooperative when taking back deportees as the US cannot leverage aid, as it has with other origin countries.Media NarrativesAs Chinese migrants continue to make the journey over multiple countries and across miles of jungle to arrive at the US border, rumors are spun about their motivations for arriving. Some news media and political figures have described the phenomenon as an influx of "military age men," stoking fear of these migrants having ties to China's military or allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. In a speech on January 31, 2024, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) discredited factors such as a repressive government, political and religious persecution, and economic fears, saying "these [Chinese migrants] are not huddled masses of families seeking refuge and asylum."This narrative is misleading for a variety of reasons. US Customs and Border Protection does not publish data on the gender or age of migrants encountered. Because China does not compel military service from its citizens, and "military age" means different things in different countries, such phrasing is both unsupported by data and too broad to be a meaningful classification. It is unsurprising that younger, single adult men would be the most likely to travel a route as physically demanding as the Darién Gap. Young people are also more likely to be well-versed in social media, the primary source of information for Chinese migrants travelling through Central America. Clayton Dube, senior fellow at the University of Southern California US-China Institute, put it succinctly in an interview with PolitiFact: there is no proof that Chinese migrants arriving at the US are "motivated by anything other than individual desire to forge new lives in the US."Ways ForwardIronically, these narratives which target domestic fears of the Chinese geopolitical rival ignore opportunities to improve US standing in its competition with China. To take seriously the claims of political persecution would also reaffirm US standing as a global leader for human rights. China has long been considered recalcitrant in repatriating Chinese nationals with deportation orders from the US. This unwillingness to accept their nationals has been seen as a political tool, for example, something that can be leveraged against the US when it engages with Taiwan. Rather than alienating people in search of political, religious, and economic freedom—values that the US espouses on the world stage—the US should take advantage of the benefits that come with resettling refugees, defanging this threat.Access to Regular PathwaysHeightened barriers to obtaining work and education visas for Chinese students and professionals have increased the pressure to find alternative routes. Chinese nationals are the primary source of international students in the US, but the student visa refusal rate in 2022 was an unprecedented 35%. These refusals come after students are already accepted to an accredited university. According to the Cato Institute, these refusals from 2022 will amount to an estimated loss of $26.4 billion in tuition payments and living expenses for the US economy over four years. For Chinese nationals applying for employment-based visas, some backlogs stretch as far back as 2013.To address this, the US should expand access to F-1 student visas and H1-B visas across the board. The current statutory cap for H1-B employer-sponsored visas is 65,000 per year. This cap was exhausted in August 2022 for fiscal year 2023, and demand from US employers regularly outstrips supply. Expanding access would not only provide a safer and more regular pathway for Chinese migrants but also help fill employment gaps in many STEM industries.A groundbreaking study recently published by the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that refugees and asylees generated $123.8 billion in net fiscal benefit to the US economy and government budgets from 2005-2019. Reporting from the southern border suggests that integrating Chinese migrants into the US economy would prove additionally beneficial. According to data from the US Census Bureau, Chinese immigrants employed in the US civilian labor force are 17% more likely than US-born workers to be employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations. Though this figure does not account for undocumented immigrants, many of the Chinese migrants arriving to the US-Mexico border come from highly educated or business backgrounds that would qualify them for these same occupations if given access to regular pathways.Managing the Flow of MigrantsTo better manage the flow of migrants to the US southern border, federal agencies should establish a robust presence across social media. Social media has become a primary source of information for migrants and asylum seekers. The Department of State boasts official accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, but their messaging cannot keep pace with that of "influencers" and potential bad actors. Agencies such as the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security must establish a greater presence on a wide range of social media, including platforms that Chinese migrants commonly use such as WeChat and TikTok. Despite the ban of TikTok on government devices and efforts to ban the use of WeChat and TikTok, it is important for US agencies to find ways of providing accurate and accessible information about the risks and dangers of different migration pathways on the platforms most used by migrants.Providing the resources for Chinese language training for US Customs and Border Protection officers at the southern border is also urgent. With the influx of Chinese migrants arriving alongside more migrants from across Latin America, it is essential to minimize delays that the language barrier may pose to an already strained registration process.Improving IntegrationFollowing their arrival, three tiers of resources help integrate migrants: informal and personal networks, community centers and nonprofits, and city and state services. Because many newcomers hesitate to enroll in government services that they qualify for, it is important to strengthen partnerships with community centers that can bridge the gap. A model to replicate is the Illinois Welcoming Center (IWC), a consortium of community centers, which includes the previously mentioned Pui Tak Center, which supports immigrants across backgrounds. Sponsored by the Illinois Department of Human Services, the IWC connects newcomers to health care, job-training, nutrition, and cash assistance programs regardless of immigration status.
The field of 'trans' studies, which incorporates transsexual, transgender, and cross‐dressing among its experiences and theorizing, has undergone tremendous changes within the century or so in which it has been developing. Initially, the scope of transsexual studies spans for almost a century, across social institutions and within a rigid model of proving a person's 'true transsexuality'. On the other hand, the reach and depth of transgender studies, emergent only less than 20 years ago, moves across disciplines, incorporates first and third person accounts, and it is less invested in reifying 'true' transgender identity and expression (although there are emergent movements attempting to solidify transgender as a multiple gender response to the gender binary, often by elite or privileged citizens). In summary, the field of transgender and transsexual studies is in constant development and change, and there are significantly some tensions that could offer much newer theorizing (e.g. between the categories of transsexuality and transgender as an umbrella term).Sociology's continued influence within the transsexual and transgender studies/fields require our attention to interdisciplinarity, while at the same time a serious grounding on the sociological literatures concerning the topic. Sex, gender, and sexuality are analytical concepts of much importance in order to study 'trans' populations and issues, as are questions of social location based on ethno‐racial, class, and other positionalities. These recommended readings, films and exercises form a foundation to implement critical views on the topic of 'trans' studies, and its intersections with other topics such as gender identity, homosexuality, gender presentation, and some historical accounts of the formation and solidification of the transgender category.Author recommendsStryker, Susan, and Stephen Whittle (eds) 2006. The Transgender Studies Reader. New York, NY: Routledge.A compilation of a number of old articles, and recent contributions by emergent scholars from many areas (including sexology, psychiatry, queer theory, feminist scholars, and transgender men and women), this reader is a critical reference to those interested in trans studies. Susan Stryker, herself one of the originators of transgender studies, poses a critical look at the resistance to acknowledge transgender (and transsexual) embodiment and identity. Stephen Whittle, a European scholar, also bridges the field in his beginning remarks. The chapters are a varied contribution to the scholarship of transgender studies, broadly defined. Its first part is a compilation of previously published work on transsexuality, but the majority of the text uncovers a series of issues newly developed (such as intersectionality, embodiment, and identities and communities).Valentine, David 2007. Imagining Transgender: An ethnography of a Category. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.This book is empirically based on fieldwork among three groups of transgender populations in New York City. Ranging from the staff and volunteers of the Gender Identity Project at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, sex workers in the area of the 'meat packing district' (a district in the lower part of Manhattan) and at 'House Balls' (events of dance and competitions among queer youth of color), Valentine draws from all of these experiences to formulate the solidification of the 'transgender' category. A compilation of previously published articles and new material, this book is award winning within its field – anthropology. One of its main contributions is the use of 'transgender' as a term that evokes current debates and political struggles to solidify distinctions between gender and sexuality, and in many instances, the transgender category as relational to homosexuality.Bryant, Karl 2006. 'Making Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood: Historical Lessons for Contemporary Debates.'Sexuality Research and Social Policy 3 (3): 23–39.This article is a social history of the diagnostic category of 'gender identity disorder' and, in particular, how it was applied to children (mostly boys) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders from the American Psychiatric Association. The discourses surrounding the psychiatric diagnosis are traced from the beginning of related studies and the inception of the term (from the 1960s on) and into the present. Bryant gives a significant review of past debates in order to inform the contemporary ones taking place through his analysis of archival data, interviews with key mental health and psychiatry providers, and published reports on the development of this diagnosis. Among the aspects he looks at are the controversies as to whether atypical gender behaved boys will grow up to be homosexual, transsexual, or transvestite, and how current advocates for or against this diagnosis may be reproducing similar assumptions, or producing normative results, in their critiques of this diagnosis.Halberstam, Judith 2005. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York, NY: New York University Press.This book is a significant development from a humanities‐based cultural studies angle that takes a close look at artistic and media portrayals of transgender experience. Halberstam argues for a complex relationship (much closer than otherwise portrayed) between transgender and transsexual identities by looking at various individuals and their experiences – most notably Brandon Teena, who was killed in Nebraska by acquaintances, when it was 'discovered' that Brandon was a female‐bodied person who 'passed' as male. Halberstam's introduction to the book is a great challenge to the privileging of analysis of space in contemporary social theorizing (drawing on criticisms of works such as David Harvey's) and centering a newer analysis of queer uses of time as a challenge to normative assumptions about family and the nation. In a Queer Time and Place seriously engages the relationship between embodiment and representation, and the urban and rural contrasts in trans theorizing.Meyerowitz, Joanne 2002. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, MA, and London, UK: Harvard University Press. How Sex Changed is an elaborate historical examination of the ways sex, gender, and sexuality are tied together in early sexual science studies through the authority of medical and scientific 'experts'. Meyerowitz offers a broad historical and geographic discussion on transsexuality, ranging from the 19th century to the 1980s United States, and at times draws excellent comparisons between the US and European nations in their (often imprecise) dealings with transsexuality. A significant feature of Meyerowitz's work is the tracing of medical and scientific authority over access to technologies that would allow transsexuals to 'change sex'; transsexual narratives countered this authority with their accounts of self. The book illustrates the complex negotiation between what doctors considered to be the reasons and symptoms of transsexuality and the kinds of stories put forth by transsexuals seeking their help.Rubin, Henry 2003. Self‐Made Men: Identity and Embodiment among Transsexual Men. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. Self Made Men is a sociological study of the experiences of 22 transsexual men from various US cities. Rubin answers questions about the body and identity for his research subjects by weaving two discussions: of genealogy and phenomenology; the former a more discursive argument, the latter, a more grounded one. In this way, Rubin attempts to engage in structure versus agency theorizing in the narratives shared by the female‐to‐male transsexuals he interviewed. Rubin's book has a significant overlap to Meyerowitz, where he discusses the 1970s division between female‐bodied transsexual and lesbian identifications – worth taking a close look at as well. But Rubin's contributions also attest to the embodied experiences of the transmen he interviewed, by weaving experiences of betrayal and misrecognition, identities in progress, and some of the historical determinants for the development of a male transgender identity.Irvine, Janice 1990. Disorders of Desire: Sex and Gender in Modern American Sexology. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.This book gives a comprehensive look at the sexological field in the 20th century. As a sociologist, Irvine produces a compelling set of critiques of the ways in which a normative set of perspectives – about what takes place in one's sexual lives, about seeking help for sexual health, and about homosexuality and gender variant men and women – is dissected by the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and medicine. The text gives a comprehensive sense of the professionalization of sexology as a field – discussing Alfred Kinsey's work, the visibility and political mobilization of feminists and gay/lesbian groups, and later sexological scholarship on the physiological reactions to sex, erotic sensations, and pleasure. An award‐winning book, this is a great text to combine with readings on the social construction of sex, gender, and sexuality in contemporary USA.Kessler, Suzanne, and Wendy McKenna 2000. 'Who Put the "Trans" in Transgender? Gender Theory and Everyday life.'International Journal of Transgenderism, 4 (3): July–September. http://www.symposion.com/ijt/gilbert/kessler.htm.This very brief online essay offers a set of reflections on the uses and claims of 'trans' as a prefix that means different things to various populations (including academics and transgender people). The authors link their current reflections to their early work (Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach) in order to politicize the various possible social change results that can come out of radical uses of trans. Their discussion is a refreshing approach that combines sociological and feminist analyses of gender identity in transgender people. Moving through the meanings of trans, and the history of the study of transsexuality and transgender identity nowadays, they evoke a social constructionist perspective to how gender develops, but as well, to how the biological is also a social construction.Mason‐Schrock, Douglas 1996. 'Transsexuals' Narrative Construction of the True Self.'Social Psychology Quarterly, 59 (3): 176–92.This article shows the development of interactive strategies to solidify an identity construction among several identities and experiences expressed in a support group for transsexual, cross‐dresser, transvestites and other gender variant men and women. Through naming, 'modeling', guiding each other through their past histories, and ignoring certain 'facts' about each other's past, the participants in these support groups foregrounded a transsexual narrative, to the detriment of other expressions. The work Mason‐Schrock developed here is an exploration of identity negotiation at its core, and one that merits attention by scholars on gender and sexuality, as well as transgender studies. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Special Issue: 'Puerto Rican Queer Sexualities', Volume XIX, Number 1 (Spring 2007) (Guest Edited by Luis Aponte‐Parés, Jossianna Arroyo, Elizabeth Crespo‐Kebler, Lawrence La Fountain‐Stokes, and Frances Negrón Muntaner).This special issue of the Centro Journal has an introduction that frames the place of Puerto Rican sexualities in social scientific knowledge. I recommend this issue in particular due to several articles that illustrate the lives of an important Puerto Rican transgender woman (Sylvia Rivera, key figure in the Stonewall riots), as well as José Arria, another key Latino individual whose visibility in the gay/trans communities has often been overlooked. The special issue also reproduced the talk that Sylvia Rivera gave at the Latino Gay Men of New York (the largest Latino gay male group in New York City) in 2000, a few years before her death, as well as an interview with Antonio Pantojas – a long‐time female impersonator in Puerto Rico. For the reader interested in literature, the special issue also includes some discussion and analysis of Caribbean fiction that gave visibility to transgender people.Films and documentaries Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (Victor Silverman, Susan Stryker, writers, directors, producers, 2005). Info at: http://www.screamingqueensmovie.com/.This documentary illustrates a challenge to the notion that a queer revolution started in 1969 in New York City, but instead, was initiated in the Tederloin, a marginalized San Francisco neighborhood. The historical accounts of transwomen that experienced life in the neighborhood where the Compton's cafeteria was located at the time of the riot are presented through interviews and archival documentation. You Don't Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men (Bestor Cram, Candace Schermerhorn, producers, 1997. Info at: http://www.berkeleymedia.com/catalog/berkeleymedia/films/womens_studies_gender_studies/gay_lesbian_transgender_issues/you_dont_know_dickAlthough old, this documentary shows the stories of several female‐to‐male transsexual men whose lives, their sexual experiences, and their gender negotiations are made evident. A very heartfelt documentary to show students the range of histories of transsexuality in an often ignored group – transgender men.Online materials
Sexuality Research and Social Policy e‐journal. Many articles published in this electronic journal showing the range of trans experiences (see in particular special issues December 2007 and March 2008, co‐edited by Dean Spade and Paisley Currah). Trans‐academics.org. An excellent website with many resources for scholars.
Suggested syllabiInstead of providing a single (and perhaps, narrower) view of 'trans' studies and issues through a sample syllabus, I urge the reader to go to Trans‐academics.org. There are several syllabi addressing the various perspectives in teaching trans issues (and from various disciplines). The page can be accessed here: http://trans‐academics.org/trans_studies_syllabiProject ideas and suggested exercises1. This exercise explores various issues foundational to discussions of trans experiences by looking at self‐representations, or other representations, as well as potential sociological analyses.Take a look at recent films, documentaries, research articles and books, and first person testimonials from transgender people. Divide the classroom into groups of 4–5, and assign each of them a different cultural text/document to look at. After exploring general reactions in each of the groups, assign each of the groups a collective response to some or all of the following questions:
What are the representations of transsexuality or transgender identity or experience in your assigned text? What is the relationship between sex and gender as evidenced in the films/videos/documentaries/articles/research reviewed? What, if any, are the discussions of gender and sexuality in the text? How are first person narratives authorized? What are the underpinnings – the history, the encounters with regulating social institutions, and the community formation as expressed in these texts? How does your group see sociology and sociological analyses in these texts? (This is important to assess whether the source you are reflecting upon is sociological or not.)
2. This assignment may lead students to think critically about the separation of gender and sexuality as analytical constructs. The document utilized also makes students reflect on migratory experiences and whether (and to what extent) they influence one's own knowledge and perceptions about transgender and transsexual experiences.Look at the Sexilio document (a comic‐book style autobiography) in the AIDS Project Los Angeles website (apla.org). Sexilio (Sexile) is a life history of a male‐to‐female transsexual who was born and raised in Cuba, and migrated with the Marielitos, the massive 1980 migration from Cuba to Miami, Florida. It is but one example of a first person illustration of transgender issues that complicates the relationship between gender identity and sexual orientation, adding migration experiences as yet another layer of analysis. Specific links: http://apla.org/publications/sexile/Sexile_web.pdf (English) http://apla.org/espanol/sexilio/Sexilio_web.pdf (Español)3. This assignment is intended to make students aware of the differences between first person representations, and media representations, of trans experiences.Have students research blogs, newspaper articles, films/documentaries, made‐for‐TV movies, other media coverage, and interviews (when available) of trans people that have been recently on the public eye, such as Calpernia Adams, Gwen Araujo, Tyra Hunter, Fred Martinez, and Brandon Teena. Then, have students explore:
What are trans people saying about themselves? (In the cases in which they have said anything about themselves – there are cases where they became well known after death.) What are the various media outlets saying about trans people? Trans experience? (And here, pay special attention to the various media outlets and the regional, cultural, and religious differences, as well as other potential differences, in their reporting.) Are the messages about transsexual and transgender expression/identity clearly separated in these illustrations? Which (re)presentations link homosexuality to transsexuality? Which separate it? Under what arguments are these fusions and distinctions being made?
4. This is an exercise for smaller classrooms, where there can be significantly more discussion about one's own personal experience.Have students evaluate their own gender presentation and the ways in which others attribute their gender identity. For such a discussion, refer to the reflections on Lucal (1999). Then have the students discuss the different meanings of trans as discussed by Kessler and McKenna (2000), or the gender insignia as discussed by West and Zimmerman (1987).Kessler, Suzanne, and Wendy McKenna 2000. 'Who Put the "Trans" in transgender? Gender Theory and Everyday Life.'International Journal of Transgenderism 4 (3): July–September. http://www.symposion.com/ijt/gilbert/kessler.htm.Lucal, Betsy 1999. 'What It Means to Be Gendered Me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System.'Gender & Society 13 (6): 781–97.West, Candace; Don H. Zimmerman 1987. 'Doing Gender.'Gender & Society, 1 (2): 125–51.5. This assignment aims to break away from the transgender versus transsexual discussion, by incorporating cross‐dressing and drag performances.Discuss the meanings of 'trans' beyond the transgender and transsexual as explored in the article. Focus on cross‐dressing and drag queen/king discussions, by taking a comparative approach to cross‐dressing among some of the following scholars:Schacht, Steven P. (ed.) 2004. The Drag Queen Anthology: The Absolutely Fabulous but Customary World of Female Impersonators. New York, NY: Haworth Press.Schacht, Steven P. 2002. 'Four renditions of doing female drag: feminine appearing conceptual variations of a masculine theme.' Pp. 157–80 in Gendered Sexualities (Advances in Gender Research, Volume 6), edited by Patricia Gagne and Richard Tewksbury. New York, NY: Elsevier Science Press.Shapiro, Eve. 2007. 'Research Report: Drag Kinging and the Transformation of Gender Identities.'Gender & Society 21 (2): 250–71.Taylor, Verta, and Leila J. Rupp. 2006. 'Learning from Drag Queens.'Contexts, 5 (3): 12–17.Taylor, Verta, and Leila J. Rupp. 2003. Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Discuss: What are some of the assumptions about gender that those 'doing drag' engage in? Likewise, what are some of the ways in which the researchers apply those assumptions themselves? Is there a difference between cross‐dressing and drag? Have the students exhaust the potential differences, and name what they perceive to be the similarities between the two.If possible, further the conversation by incorporating drag and cross dressing as part of the transgender umbrella term. What are some of the historical implications of drag and cross‐dressing? Where do they see cross‐dressing in relation to sex, gender, and sexuality? And doing drag? Do they see a distinction between doing drag for female‐bodied and male‐bodied individuals? If yes, how so? If no, why not?6. This assignment is intended for a theory or sociology of gender class where theoretical discussions are expected – ideally, an upper‐level sociology course.Discuss the ways in which ethnomethodology, phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, cultural studies, queer theory, and discourse analysis all frame transgender and transsexual experience. Use any of the sociology references in the 'Transgender and Transsexual Studies' article.
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Warnung zur Verfügbarkeit
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
If you had any questions about why the mainstream media is dying and it steadily is losing influence politically in Louisiana and elsewhere, look no further than the rumpus over a column by Republican Sen. John Kennedy the largest newspaper chain in the state recently accepted and then rejected.
Last month, Kennedy, whose opinion pieces the media frequently have published spanning more than a decade, initially had one published in the Shreveport Times and farmed out to the several other Gannett newspapers in the state. The piece exhorted Congress to prohibit natal males from competing as and against natal females in female-only competitions, citing sustained evidence about the physiological advantages those born male would have regardless of attempts, if any, to change physical sex.
After a few days, without making any announcement or informing Kennedy, the piece was removed from the sites that had published it. Later still, an explanation to the broken web link was infused, saying the content had been removed because it didn't "meet our editorial standards."
Further inquiry revealed that Times editor Misty Castile claimed "process flaws" were involved in her outlet's decision to publish the piece which ended up triggering involvement by "people above my head" initially questioning about evidential citation, even though the web version had well over a dozen solid citations linked. Gannett's executive in charge of opinion pieces and standards went on to clarify the failure to "meet editorial standards" ironically came as a result of "inflammatory" language featuring the "loaded language" of "biological male" and "biological female," and said Kennedy could have resubmitted using different terminology. This leaned on the Associated Press stylebook, which argues that "female" is emphasizing biology and reproductive capacity over "gender identity" and alleges such terms "are sometimes used by opponents of transgender rights to portray sex as more simplistic than scientists assert."
Pot, meet kettle. The language constraints cited are "loaded language" itself that privileges a particular ideological viewpoint not backed by science. And, it's this substitution of moralizing in place of reporting just the news that hasn't gone unnoticed by a public increasingly dubious of news organizations, especially newspapers.
Last year's most recent polling showed the most people ever didn't trust the mass media to report the news fully, fairly, and accurately, according to Gallup. Almost no Republicans do, and among partisans only older Democrats saw the media more trustworthy than not.
This drives the continuing deterioration in American newspaper consumption, with circulation in 2022 around 42 million, down a third from 1987, even as the population increased by a third. But half of this is digital subscriptions to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, portraying a far more stunning loss for state-level outlets. This has reflected in newsroom employment at newspapers, which fell 57 percent from 2008 to 2020 to 31,000 total. Such trends have made a number of newspapers into "zombies" that publish little local news and much of what does make it into print being sourced from other locations and outside the area, which has become the norm of Louisiana's Gannett papers (Gannett currently is part of a United Arab Emirates state-owned entity).
The Shreveport Times now has in its newsroom Castile – who came from out of the area in 2021 under Gannett's previous owner with little traditional newsroom experience – two reporters (one for sports) and a photographer to cover a region of around 350,000 people without same-day home print delivery. On good days it might run two locally-sourced stories, with the rest of its very few news hole column-inches taken up by other providers (reduced to running content even from the far-left Louisiana Illuminator website.)
(Contrast this to some three decades ago, when I remember going to a party thrown by a former student of mine, sadly no longer with us, who had latched onto employment at the Times. There at it were no fewer than four Times reporters who had interviewed me in the previous couple of years.)
The Monroe News Star is even worse off. Serving a region of roughly 200,000 people, all it has is an editor, a reporter who appears to have a narrow beat, and two sports reporters. It may report on City Hall once a month. The curious can find more comprehensive local coverage in the independent, locally-owned Ouachita Citizen.
The saga behind Kennedy's spiked column explains the grim results for Gannett outlets in Louisiana. Not just in choices what stories to print but also in the bowdlerized language that accompanies these is just too much for people who can see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears. But don't cry over their vastly smaller reach and therefore influence, because it's something they've done to themselves by placing an agenda ahead of acting as a trusted information source.
Die Inhalte der verlinkten Blogs und Blog Beiträge unterliegen in vielen Fällen keiner redaktionellen Kontrolle.
Warnung zur Verfügbarkeit
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
"Helping parents and educators with non‐traditional education options." This is the phrase that greets you when you visit the Microschool Florida website. And that's exactly what Candace Lehenbauer set out to do when she founded the organization. Candace says her degree in graphic design has helped her think creatively and solve problems. This came in handy when she and her husband decided to homeschool their oldest daughter as she was entering kindergarten. After around 10 years—and six kids—Candace started having some homeschool burnout. She wanted a little more structure, and her kids wanted to be able to see their friends on a regular basis. While doing some research, she learned about microschools and decided to create her own: Tapestry Academy. Like many microschools, Tapestry Academy isn't an official school. Rather, it's a homeschool resource center that blends in‐person and at‐home learning. They meet Monday through Thursday for academics, projects, farm days, field trips, and more. Tapestry uses Prenda for curriculum, which allows students to go at their own pace and focus on mastery. The microschool has been serving grades K‑8, but a new high school program is launching this year.
As Candace shared what they were doing over social media, people began reaching out to her to learn more and asked to tour her microschool. She sometimes heard from people who lived an hour away, and she realized that wasn't going to work for them long‐term. She started keeping a list of programs she knew of in the area. "At first, I actually put the list on my own website. But I quickly took it down," she recalls. "Why would anybody tell you where their competition is located? So I decided to start a new website and call it Microschool Florida. It was an Excel spreadsheet that literally just listed the ones I knew, their websites, and how to find them. I started sharing it, and pretty soon it grew to around 100 listings." Candace included microschools, homeschool co‐ops, unique learning programs like Surf Skate Science, and all the other activities that her kids had participated in or that she knew about. "I thought, there are tons of opportunities out here. I'd hear on Facebook 'Oh, I can't ever find anything,' and I thought, are you kidding me? They're everywhere. So, by just kind of writing them down and telling people about them, it felt like I was sharing this big gift with everybody," she says. After receiving a VELA grant earlier this year, Candace began focusing more heavily on the directory. She's had booths at several homeschool conferences and has hosted or co‐hosted networking and outreach events. Candace especially enjoys introducing microschooling to people who weren't familiar with it. "I think that's kind of my main goal in doing these things," she says. "I'll do YouTube videos where I'll interview different microschool owners. Some will be panels with three of them at the same time, and then we pick a topic that we all have in common. One of them was field trips; that was one of my favorite episodes. We all talked about our different favorite field trips that we went on in Florida, and we became friends. I thought any new homeschooler or a parent wanting a different type of education could watch this conversation between new friends who all had similar education mindsets and think 'That's really cool. I didn't know you could do that. Maybe we should give this whole idea of jumping off the conveyor belt a try.' So that's kind of why I started doing those." The Microschool Florida directory is growing so quickly that Candace doesn't even know how many are currently listed. It seems like every time she posts about a microschool, some of her followers will comment with ones she didn't know about yet. "Anybody who holds any classes can join the free directory," says Candace. "It doesn't have to be a microschool. It can be a homeschool, a tutor, or pretty much anything. I just want to give parents lots of choices. And then it's $99 if they want to get their logo and be in the featured directory." When she first started Tapestry Academy, Candace felt invisible. By founding Microschool Florida, she's able to connect education innovators so they don't need to feel that way. She also gets to support and encourage people who are new to the space. "You're never going to be fully prepared," she explains. "There's just no way, and that's actually part of the process. You have to start to make mistakes. And then by making the mistakes, you learn how to become better."
One of the primary purposes of The John Marshall Journal of Computer Information Law is to focus on recent developments, on an international basis, in computer and information technology law. The themes that are developed in each issue of Volume Sixteen, present problems in computer and information technology law, and hopefully help answer questions in this dynamic field of law. The first issue of Volume Sixteen is a perspective issue on cyberspace governance, standards, and control. The lead articles of this issue discusses the challenge to develop international trademark law with regard to the Internet, Internet regulatory zoning of obscene content, Internet service providers' obligations under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, electronic commerce in Taiwan, and a commentary on NBA v. Motorola and STATS, Inc. The second issue of Volume Sixteen is a symposium issue on The Uniform Commercial Code ("U.C.C.") Proposed Article 2B. U.C.C. Proposed Article 2B is a legal framework for the licensing and transfer of rights in the intellectual property of computer technology. This issue is a detailed discussion of the problems facing the computer industry and the Proposed Article 2B drafting committee. The lead articles of this issue discusses generally, the law of the information age and the path of commercial law to cyberspace. Specifically, this issue discusses the treatment of consumers, express warranties and published information content, implied warranty of merchantability, and development contacts under the Proposed Article 2B. The third issue of Volume Sixteen is a perspective issue on privacy, information technology, and the Internet. The lead articles of this issue discusses issues of encryption and liberty on an international basis, legislation and decisions as to the control of the use of social security numbers as personal identifiers, and the mapping of legal metaphors in cyberspace. Additionally, this issue featured the bench memorandum, petitioner brief, and respondent brief on First Amendment and Freedom of Information Act issues associated with Internet blocking software in a public forum from the 1997 John Marshall National Moot Court Competition in Information Technology and Privacy Law. This issue, the fourth issue of Volume Sixteen, is a general issue that presents an array of topics. First, G. Peter Albert, Jr., an intellectual property practitioner and author of a treatise on intellectual property and information technology discusses the domain name registration system. Mr. Albert examines the dispute resolution policies of the leading proposals for the registration of domain names and proposes an alternative solution to "cybersquatting" and other trademark-related domain name issues. Keith Kupferschmid, an instrumental practitioner in Washington D.C. on intellectual property issues and the Internet discusses the fist-sale exception in view of copyrighted works on the Internet. Mr. Kupferschmid argues that the first-sale exception is not applicable to network transmissions and recommends that Congress take steps to limit the applicability of the first-sale exception, and that in order to receive the correct balance between the public's fair use of the work and a copyright owner's right to exploit is the grant of a rental right to the copyright owner is in order. Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, an intellectual property practitioner, discusses the dynamics associated with web site designers and the ownership of a web site under the guise of the work for hire doctrine and joint authorship doctrine. Caroline Uyttendaele, an associate research fellow at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven reviews and analyzes from a European point of view, the need for new free speech legislation regarding the Internet. Ms. Uyttendaele addresses the need for additional legislation protecting free speech and the relevance of the present restrictions on free speech. The student Comments in this issue discuss various important topics with regard to intellectual property and information technology issues. First, Laura McFarland-Taylor proposes adopting an internationally recognized standard of due diligence in reporting lost or stolen artworks utilizing the Internet. Second, Timothy Hofmeyer analyzes and examines the legal issues surrounding the patentability of cloned organisms, yet remains silent regarding the moral issues involved with the "hot topic" of cloning. Last, Steven Hanley on an international topic of Internet regulation, proposes that every country utilizing the Internet has a right when regulating the Internet to uphold its national values, and Internet Service Providers' shall work with each country's government to provide an Internet service that is in conjunction with each country's personal values and ideals. The Global Information Infrastructure is a dynamic medium that requires legal guidance and assistance in all stages of development. As information technology advances, the law must change with these advances. It is the hope of The John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law that the legal insights provided by our authors in this issue and all past and future issues help to mold the legal doctrine of computer and information technology law affecting the dynamics of the Global Information Infrastructure.
One of the primary purposes of The John Marshall Journal of Computer Information Law is to focus on recent developments, on an international basis, in computer and information technology law. The themes that are developed in each issue of Volume Sixteen, present problems in computer and information technology law, and hopefully help answer questions in this dynamic field of law. The first issue of Volume Sixteen is a perspective issue on cyberspace governance, standards, and control. The lead articles of this issue discusses the challenge to develop international trademark law with regard to the Internet, Internet regulatory zoning of obscene content, Internet service providers' obligations under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, electronic commerce in Taiwan, and a commentary on NBA v. Motorola and STATS, Inc. The second issue of Volume Sixteen is a symposium issue on The Uniform Commercial Code ("U.C.C.") Proposed Article 2B. U.C.C. Proposed Article 2B is a legal framework for the licensing and transfer of rights in the intellectual property of computer technology. This issue is a detailed discussion of the problems facing the computer industry and the Proposed Article 2B drafting committee. The lead articles of this issue discusses generally, the law of the information age and the path of commercial law to cyberspace. Specifically, this issue discusses the treatment of consumers, express warranties and published information content, implied warranty of merchantability, and development contacts under the Proposed Article 2B. The third issue of Volume Sixteen is a perspective issue on privacy, information technology, and the Internet. The lead articles of this issue discusses issues of encryption and liberty on an international basis, legislation and decisions as to the control of the use of social security numbers as personal identifiers, and the mapping of legal metaphors in cyberspace. Additionally, this issue featured the bench memorandum, petitioner brief, and respondent brief on First Amendment and Freedom of Information Act issues associated with Internet blocking software in a public forum from the 1997 John Marshall National Moot Court Competition in Information Technology and Privacy Law. This issue, the fourth issue of Volume Sixteen, is a general issue that presents an array of topics. First, G. Peter Albert, Jr., an intellectual property practitioner and author of a treatise on intellectual property and information technology discusses the domain name registration system. Mr. Albert examines the dispute resolution policies of the leading proposals for the registration of domain names and proposes an alternative solution to "cybersquatting" and other trademark-related domain name issues. Keith Kupferschmid, an instrumental practitioner in Washington D.C. on intellectual property issues and the Internet discusses the fist-sale exception in view of copyrighted works on the Internet. Mr. Kupferschmid argues that the first-sale exception is not applicable to network transmissions and recommends that Congress take steps to limit the applicability of the first-sale exception, and that in order to receive the correct balance between the public's fair use of the work and a copyright owner's right to exploit is the grant of a rental right to the copyright owner is in order. Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, an intellectual property practitioner, discusses the dynamics associated with web site designers and the ownership of a web site under the guise of the work for hire doctrine and joint authorship doctrine. Caroline Uyttendaele, an associate research fellow at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven reviews and analyzes from a European point of view, the need for new free speech legislation regarding the Internet. Ms. Uyttendaele addresses the need for additional legislation protecting free speech and the relevance of the present restrictions on free speech. The student Comments in this issue discuss various important topics with regard to intellectual property and information technology issues. First, Laura McFarland-Taylor proposes adopting an internationally recognized standard of due diligence in reporting lost or stolen artworks utilizing the Internet. Second, Timothy Hofmeyer analyzes and examines the legal issues surrounding the patentability of cloned organisms, yet remains silent regarding the moral issues involved with the "hot topic" of cloning. Last, Steven Hanley on an international topic of Internet regulation, proposes that every country utilizing the Internet has a right when regulating the Internet to uphold its national values, and Internet Service Providers' shall work with each country's government to provide an Internet service that is in conjunction with each country's personal values and ideals. The Global Information Infrastructure is a dynamic medium that requires legal guidance and assistance in all stages of development. As information technology advances, the law must change with these advances. It is the hope of The John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law that the legal insights provided by our authors in this issue and all past and future issues help to mold the legal doctrine of computer and information technology law affecting the dynamics of the Global Information Infrastructure.
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These days, tech companies are publicly warming up to the defense sector. Department of Defense spending is increasingly going to large tech companies including Microsoft, Google parent company Alphabet, Oracle, and IBM. Open AI recently brought on former U.S. Army general and National Security Agency Director Paul M. Nakasone to its Board of Directors. And a growing clan of Silicon Valley-based "techno-patriots," including the likes of Anduril's Palmer Luckey and Andreessen-Horowitz's Marc Andreessen, seem eager to prove that the technology industry can alleviate the United States' geostrategic and economic weaknesses — if awarded the military contracts to do so. But the increasingly public relationship Silicon Valley enjoys with the Pentagon is no sudden development. Rather, Silicon Valley was made by — and in the service of — a U.S. government and military eager to establish dominance over its adversaries in the Cold War and beyond. Namely, extensive and consistent post-war era government funds, and especially military contracting, overhauled the American technology industry, transforming the once-quiet region surrounding Mountain View, California into the bustling tech metropolis it is today.A (military) history of Silicon ValleyTech industry enthusiasts are eager to attribute Silicon Valley's success to free market entrepreneurship, where great ideas born in suburban California garages took off through hard work and grit. In reality, regional post-war era entrepreneurs and researchers had help from a U.S. government eager to spend on research and development: in a sustained Cold War with the Soviet Union, competition in the technology, space, and arms sectors was stiff.In time, Cold War era government R&D spending, which came primarily from DOD and NASA, crystallized what historian Margaret O'Mara describes as a "blueprint" for Silicon Valley success, where companies like Fairchild Semiconductor worked to procure outside investments, especially through government and military contracts, that nurtured and sustained growth. Through this "blueprint," O'Mara posits that Silicon Valley-based tech companies, which had secured stability via government funding, rocked existing markets while driving the formation of new ones, thus achieving unprecedented success.Money flows ultimately attracted universities, with nearby Stanford University encouraging graduate students and professors to launch their research and training into the entrepreneurial realm — for defense contracts. Varian Associates, which was started by Stanford-affiliated scientists and became the first Silicon Valley public offering in 1956, made microwave tubes for military purposes. Likewise, Stanford University spinoff SRI International procured military contracts to build key military applied technologies including ground- and foliage-penetrating radar systems and critical military command and control systems. Altogether, U.S. government, and especially military, tech spending has manifested myriad landmark inventions. The internet, for example, began as an Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now known as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA) research project called ARPANET, the first network of computers. Decades later, graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page received funding from DARPA, the National Science Foundation, and U.S. intelligence community-launched development program Massive Digital Data Systems to create what would become Google. Other prominent DARPA-funded inventions include transit satellites, a precursor to GPS, and the iPhone Siri app, which, instead of being picked up by the military, was ultimately adapted to consumer ends by Apple. Today, the military's economic imprint on the Silicon Valley region and beyond remains undeniable. Lockheed's Missile and Space Company was once Sunnyvale, California's, largest employer. The Silicon Valley region's nine largest military contractors procured over $11 billion in defense contracts in 1990. And although defense spending in the state has declined, California remains amongst the top recipients of military dollars nationwide.An uneasy relationship?Despite longstanding ties, the tech industry's relationship with the military is often depicted as uneasy or inconsistent. The relationship has indeed had low points: Silicon Valley's incentives to pursue military contracts declined with the 1990s-era consolidation of the major "Big Five" defense companies. And tech industry workers have increasingly challenged tech-military collaborations, with, for example, Google staff successfully pressuring their employer to end its involvement with military AI program Project Maven in 2018. Other ongoings suggest a more stable bond. After the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, defense contracts sustained the tech industry through a difficult period until 9/11 and its political aftermath precipitated the doubling of U.S. military spending (and number of military contractors) over the following decade, even as many Silicon Valley players, fearing an association with Iraq and Afghanistan's "endless wars," kept the military at arm's length. Fast forward, 2020 reporting from ex-Google employee turned journalist Jack Poulson elucidates that the alleged divide between Silicon Valley and the military has been chronically exaggerated. Rather than work together openly, Poulson's reporting uncovered that the U.S. military discreetly, yet frequently, collaborated with prominent tech companies through thousands of subcontractors through much of the 2010s, obfuscating the extent of the two sectors' partnership from tech employees and the public alike. Meanwhile, the Defense Innovation Unit, a Silicon Valley-based DOD outpost established in 2015 to boost collaboration with tech industry companies and especially start ups, ultimately received positive reception despite tech rank and file military malaise, and is now expanding its reach nationwide with new hubs and more funding. Increased Pentagon demand for Silicon Valley-grown technologies, as showcased by the Defense Innovation Unit and reinforced by kinetic conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and beyond, has only intensified the tech sector's military fixation. It's become less tolerant of dissent in the process: when Google and Amazon employees challenged the companies' involvement in Project Nimbus, a joint project to supply the Israeli government with tech services, Google terminated over 50 employees for participating in the protests. Influential players in the tech space, meanwhile, are telling workers to take sides. "We want [employees] who want to be on the side of the West. You may not agree with that and, bless you, don't work here," Palantir CEO Alex Karp said at the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "We need to collaborate and cooperate with our government" under growing geopolitical tensions, Silicon Valley-based Menlo Ventures' Venky Ganesan likewise told Fortune. "And you can't be neutral on this."Detangling the military-tech webSilicon Valley's increasingly public relationship with the Pentagon is no spontaneous feat. Rather, the long-term, deep-rooted relationship between the institutions, spurred by massive Cold War defense and research spending and bound ever tighter by the sectors' revolving door, ensures that advances in the commercial tech sector benefit the defense industry's bottom line.Tech's positioning at the military's beck and call is especially manifest in the goals of the Pentagon's new Replicator weapons systems procurement initiative, which Quincy Institute Non-Resident Fellow Michael Brenes and Senior Research Fellow William Hartung describe as "produc[ing] cheaper military equipment that is also equipped with the latest in commercial innovation."All things considered, a true reckoning with the excesses of the military industrial complex must also force one within the tech industry. Until then, as the Biden administration's whopping $850 billion military budget proposal for 2025 suggests, runaway military contracts, especially to tech companies and startups, will continue unabated.
This essay continues with a discussion concerning the intersection between indigenous technological adoption/adaptation and the range of perspectives with respect to local communities' use of technology in general. Analytical instruments will be presented at the end of this article. First, however, the reader will have the opportunity to examine the 'views' of outsiders with respect to the debate surrounding sustainability, environmental management and territorial ordering. Responses to an on-line survey concerning the above issues together with my own comments, will add to the discussion. ; Gestión ambiental; Ordenamiento Territorial; Sostenibilidad; TIC; Usos ; 1 TECHNOLOGY IN NORTHWEST AMAZONIA (NWA) VIEWS OF VIEWS: SUSTAINABILITY, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND TERRITORIAL ORDERING A contribution to a Political Ecology for Northwest Amazonia1 This essay continues with a discussion concerning the intersection between indigenous technological adoption/adaptation and the range of perspectives with respect to local communities' use of technology in general2. Analytical instruments will be presented at the end of this article. First, however, the reader will have the opportunity to examine the 'views' of outsiders with respect to the debate surrounding sustainability, environmental management and territorial ordering. Responses to an on-line survey concerning the above issues together with my own comments, will add to the discussion. Aims Initially there were two aims behind the construction of a website. One of was to overcome impediments to my personal mobility and direct access3. ICT facilitated communications with other interested people and helped solicit their views on indigenous management of the forest and their opinions with respect to the process of territorial ordering in Amazonia. The other aim was to serve the process of opening up political opportunities for NWA's inhabitants. Grassroots organisations all around the globe were (and are) establishing links through ICT. The indigenous peoples of Amazonia may attempt the same and this experience could, in the future, be an instrument of education for NWA. The introduction of such technology among indigenous peoples, if possible, will have impacts, which will to be judged as positive or negative, depending of the political interests of the observer and the moment of observation. It is argued here, that despite there being no indisputable positive or negative effects of technological transfer, it would be contrary to indigenous people's rights to self-determination to prevent the promotion of ICT among them. We wish to question conservative forces: if governments, corporations, NGOs and even international drug dealers and terrorist groups are using ICT to fortify their political positions, why should indigenous peoples be denied access to it? The access (or lack of it) of grassroots organisations to ICT facilitates (or impedes) the 1 The author wishes to thank: Jim Connor and Mark Bennett of Imperial College, the former for his advice on the use of Arcview-GIS and the latter for helping to write the cgi-script form for the website. Thanks are also due to: Stuart Peters from the University of Surrey for training in Web- Page design; Adriana Rico from Páginas.Net for valuable advice during the design process and Alvaro Ocampo for a detailed critique of Kumoro.com before it went live. I also wish to thank the Board of Puerto Rastrojo Foundation, which gave me permission to use their vegetation map as a base for the Yaigojé vegetation map that appears on the web-site. Finally thanks to all the people that took the time to fill out the on-line survey. Their contributions made this chapter possible. 2 This discussion was introduced in "Technology in Northwest Amazonia: Sketches from Inside" (Forero 2002b). 3 A restriction of one of the scholarships the author was granted as well as guerrilla incursions at the time, prevented the author from going back to NWA. 2 development of their rights to be informed (and educated) in accordance with the actual historical context of a globalising corporate economy and cultural hybridisation. For indigenous peoples, as well as for other ethnic minorities, financial resources to set up ICT are extremely limited compared to those of corporations, governments and even NGOs. The establishment of an ICT network for indigenous peoples' organisations in NWA remains a Utopia. But without a Utopian vision there is no aim for social mobilisation; this is something that was underlined by responses to the on-line survey. Fieldwork in NWA involved the author in the territorial ordering process, helping with the formation of indigenous people's organisations, and getting involved in communities' economic and educational projects. My work in NWA can thus be characterised as participatory action research (PAR) and one way of continuing to engage in PAR without going back to the field was to set up a website, wait for an opportunity to share my experience with the people of NWA and promote projects that would allow them to take over the website and use it for their own projects4. Deconstruction of an Internet generated discourse Elsewhere the author has dealt with descriptions and deconstructions of discourses of indigenous and institutional organisations, be they NGOs, churches, governmental or international. This process of deconstruction has included the author's own work among indigenous organisations and NGOs, which was one of the aims of "Indigenous knowledge and the scientific mind: activism or colonialism?" (Forero 2002a). I wish to explain the inclusion of governmental and non-governmental organisations within the category 'institutional'. There are great differences as well as important coincidences in governmental actions and the work of NGOs in developing countries due to the limited nature and poor quality of State-driven action in such nations. E.g. in Colombia, COAMA, the largest NGO network in NWA, has been involved in the political administrative reforms, and served as a consultant in matters of education, health and sustainable production. Furthermore, COAMA staff accompanied indigenous peoples in all these processes and without their intervention it is doubtful that many of the indigenous political organisations of Amazonia would ever have succeeded in their quest for legal recognition5. NGOs and governmental institutions may pursue similar political aims and share administrative structures. Inasmuch as small organisations are successful, (and usually this success is a result of strong personal commitment to a cause and personal knowledge of all members of the organisation), they tend to obtain more funds, which in turn forces them to become increasingly bureaucratic. As 4 At the time of writing (May 2002) the author was preparing to visit NWA at the invitation of indigenous leaders, including the Co-ordinator of an education committee who wanted to discuss the roll of ICT in education. 5 See Forero, Laborde et al. 1998 and the interview with the director of COAMA Martín von Hildebrand, in The Ecologist 2002 (Vol. 32 No.1-February). 3 organisations grow, individual members have fewer opportunities to get to know each other personally and maintain an accordance of principles, aims and political means. This is not to say that NGOs are condemned to be inefficient bureaucratic institutions, (which is not uncommon among developing countries' governmental institutions). But it is important to draw attention to the risk that when resources are pumping in and recruitment is growing there is more chance of becoming detached from grassroots sensibilities with respect to issues and less chance of correctly interpreting local developmental idioms. Views of Indigenous Environmental Management The design, production and publishing of a website on the development of a political ecology for NWA, taking the Yaigojé Resguardo as a study case, may seem a very simple task with little impact. But it proved to be a very delicate matter that involved exhausting work. The production of a map of the Yaigojé Resguardo, (which was to be included on the website) has been explained elsewhere, although it is worth mentioning something about the methodology involved. The author accompanied shamans (who were selected by indigenous leaders from the Apaporis) on several trips in which all the recognised sacred places of the Apaporis River and some of its tributaries where identified. The shamans learn the names of the places during their training. These names are recited in myths, chants and spells. The shamans carry, as they say, the map within themselves. It is impressive to see these men point to a place and give its name without hesitation. It is like this even when they have never been in that place before. It is impressive that this orally transmitted geography corresponds so precisely to the physical aspects that start to become relevant for people who, like the author, have different epistemological instruments for their interpretations of the world. While visiting the sacred places shamans spoke of trips they had made previously. In the case of shamanistic trips, visits did not actually involve physical journeys, but what were referred to as trips en pensamiento, en espíritu (in thought, in spirit). While accompanying them I recorded the geographical co-ordinates using a satellite guided geographical positioning system (GPS). The geographical co-ordinates thus generated were converted to plane co-ordinates and a map was generated using AUTOCAD software. Translations, drawings and reflections about this map-making process are included in a MSc thesis of the University of Warwick (Forero 1999). The work I will describe now, although partially derived from my work with the shamans is distinct in character and intention from that reported in Forero (1999). The use of technological gadgetry allowed me partially to reflect the Tukano world in a way that non-indigenous people could understand. And although this was a significant and, I believe, useful undertaking the real knowledge of the territory lies within the shamans with whom I worked. The fact that the 'indigenous territorial' aspects of the website are illustrated with maps is a by-product of the technology. A more significant value of the work (and the reason behind the shamans' wish to become involved in mapping) is that the maps were going to provide evidence for the legal process through which the ACIYA 4 indigenous organisation would claim rights over lands outside the recognised Resguardo Indigenous Reserve (Forero, Laborde et al. 1998). This work was successful and an extension to the Resguardo was indeed granted. Work on the website began by making a provisional outline of the desired end product. The original plan included six pages: Introduction (Home), vegetation map, traditional territorial map, discussion (an introduction to the political ecology of the Yaigojé Resguardo), bibliography (for those looking for references to NWA and the Yaigojé in particular), and a questionnaire that would generate the information from which this chapter has been developed6. The contrasting discourses obtained from the questionnaires Although I shall refer to percentages in this section, there is no intention of making any predictions based on statistical analyses. Neither is it suggested that the analysis of questionnaires can provide an objective account of outsiders' opinions with respect to the politics of the environment and people of NWA. The following notes are not representative in that sense and such was never the intention of the exercise. What is intended is that the reader gets an insight into the perceptions of survey respondents. What is important in a qualitative data analysis, like this, is to present differential tendencies. If discourses are constituents of reality then the confusing scenario of political confrontation in NWA should be linked to the visions and perspectives of all of us, including the views of people that have never been in Amazonia but nonetheless hold an opinion. And, if there is a marked difference between indigenous and exogenous perspectives with respect to sustainability and environmental management in Amazonia, which relates to whether people have visited NWA or not, this should be reflected in the answers to the surveys. The information generated from the on-line survey was collected between May and December of 2001. Eight hundred invitations were sent through e-mail. They were sent mainly to academics and organisations working on indigenous issues, conservation or sustainable development in NWA. One of these invitations reached COLNODO7 and the ICT network asked if we wished to submit the website in a weekly contest for the best new website, which we did and subsequently won! This meant that COLNODO subscribers were notified and invited to visit the site. But we have no idea how many hits were derived from COLNODO invitation. What we know is that during these 8 months we received 51 completed survey forms. This is a 6.4% response rate to the original 800 invitations8. 6 The survey form is in Appendix 1and, a summary of the technical work involved in the construction of the web-site is in Appendix 2. 7 "COLNODO is a Colombian communications network serving organizations dedicated to community development. It is operated by the non-profit organization called Colombian Association of Non-Governmental Organizations for Email Communication" (http://www.colnodo.org.co/summary_english.html). For a critical review of COLNODO work the interested reader could consult Gómez, R. 1998. 8 This response rate is rather low relative to postal questionnaire surveys, but we are unable to assess it relative other on-line surveys. 5 For the purposes of the analysis respondents (R) were divided into two groups: those claiming to have visited NWA (VA – 29% of R) and those claiming not to have visited the region (NVA – 71% of R). With respect to occupation, 68% of R come from the academic sector, including five anthropologists (almost 10% of R) all of whom had visited NWA. In contrast, although there were the same number of environmental managers as anthropologists answering the questionnaire, none had visited NWA. With respect to gender, the percentage of male (53%) and female (47%) respondents is similar across both VA and NVA groups. In terms of age, there were four groups: 1) 18 to 24, 2) 25 to 34, 3) 35 to 50, and 4) over 50. For R the percentages were: 8%, 47%, 35% and 10% respectively. The majority of respondents belong to the second group, between 25 to 34 years of age. However with respect to age groups the composition of VA and NVA groups differs: 56% of the NVA group belong to this second age cohort (25-34), while the majority of the VA group (47%) is between 35 and 50. Additionally, 13% of the VA group are over 50. 61% of the NVA group are between 18 and 34 years of age, while 60% of those that have visited Amazonia are over 35. A comparison of age among the survey respondents thus shows that those that have visited Amazonia (VA) tend to be older than those that have not (NVA). To distinguish among the views held by survey respondents we have to present the responses to each of the questions of the survey. We have made some associations of responses with the intention of outlining the different tendencies that we identify, but the reader might identify others. Before we do so a word about the view of respondents with respect to the website itself should be said. Website evaluation An evaluation of the web-site made by users was included in the questionnaire. Respondents were asked to rate the site between four categories: poor, fair, good and excellent. These categories were chosen as follows: 0, 2, 32 and 15 respectively. Two of the respondents did not offer a rating for the site. Additionally, respondents had the opportunity to suggest improvements. Some respondents suggested changes in design: modification of fonts and colours (some changes had already taken place). There were those who asked for more pictures, a photo album, more links and the construction of a chat room. With respect to the content, some wanted more ethnographic data, another more on political ecology, others asked for better visibility of the maps, while others called for additional links to related sites, and/or more information in general. One suggestion was to make the website less personalised, while another expressed interest in knowing more about the author's research project. Others asked for an enhanced bibliography. Some changes had already taken place by the time these comments were analysed but further changes are still being undertaken at the time of writing. With respect to the questionnaire, two people suggested larger windows to facilitate vision and to be able to comment largely, in contrast, another suggested encouraging more 'yes/no' responses. An important suggestion was: "Perhaps it is now appropriate to include some questions on communication 6 and information flows" (S52). Although not sought explicitly, information was gathered with respect to the use of ICT in the territorial ordering process of Amazonia. One of the respondents suggested that in future the website should be used by indigenous peoples of the Yaigojé. This has been the intention of the author, which has made a visit to Yaigojé (summer 2002) with intention to advance in that direction. Access to ICT for the indigenous peoples of the Yaigojé Resguardo is very limited but present. Future modification of the site will respond to indigenous peoples' feedback. During the visit few indigenous people gave their opinions on the website but several discussions on the roll of ICT in developmental processes took place9. Q1 - Are development and sustainability compatible? A clear response to Question 1 was that this depends on the definition of both terms: "It is impossible to answer this question as it is, as both terms are open to interpretation… " (S26). The question could have been and was read as: Is sustainable development attainable? Respondent S26 continued: "I think sustainable development is possible but hard to achieve in an environment of often conflicting interests and values (economic vs. environmental vs. cultural.)… " One respondent (S22) did not answer this particular question, and two others seemed to be confused (S38 and S41). Forty respondents (78% of R) answered that they were or could be compatible, although there are differences in the way they perceived this compatibility. Development first There were few respondents that failed to question the meaning of 'development' as concept or practice: the developmental project. These responses somehow postulated that certain environmental concerns should be acknowledged and dealt with in order for the development processes to continue: "Yes… . Development as the integration of western technologies or increase of income per capita, can be carefully done by implementing appropriate technologies into the productive activities of the communities. Sustainability defined as a continuous productivity level over the long term." (S2); "Yes. It is only a question of integration of environmental considerations in all we do and adjustment of behaviours accordingly." (S12); "Yes, because there can never be sustainability without development. People have, first to develop for them to have a sense of sustainability." (S13); "Yes, I do. The point is how you can reach a determinate "state" of development without undermining financial, ecological and human capacities in a determinate site (or taking into account their characteristics)." (S40) SD: human - environmental security There were others that perceived the compatibility or the possibility of sustainable development as the chance to diminish human/environmental security risks: "Yes of course in the long run - otherwise life is not possible." (S18); 9 The author is currently preparing a report that will summarise some of these discussions. 7 "Yes. Both are necessary for the survival of the area." (S21); "Si. Solo las acciones en el hoy nos pueden garantizar acciones en el mañana. (Yes. Only by taking action now we can guarantee we could act tomorrow)." (S23); "Yes, development should always be sustainable otherwise there are costs that are not taken into account. i.e. cost of pollution" (S39); "We don't have any choice. We have to make development and sustainability compatible as it's the only way we can survive and at the same time preserve the earth for future generations." (S42) Pessimism, in the sense that without SD life will no longer be possible, was to be repeated in the responses to all of the survey questions. Sustainability is an aim The majority of the respondents that believed development and sustainability to be compatible or capable of becoming compatible, were also of the opinion that the goal of sustainable development had not yet been achieved. Some of them discussed requisite conditions for achieving sustainability. They either underlined the importance of accepting sustainability as a guiding principle for development policy and interventions or/(and) exemplified ways in which sustainable practices might be instituted: "They have to be. I think they are because they have to be. I am optimistic that eventually it will be seen as natural to have sustainable development, but the problem is when this attitude kicks in." (S3) "Depends on how you define the two terms. If you mean that human quality of life can improve while maintaining the natural resource base, I think this is possible but very difficult to achieve." (S5) "Yes, but development in qualitative and not in quantitative terms." (S8) "Yes… there can be sustainable development in an ecological sense of the word - which means installing 'best ecological practice' in planning development." (S24) "No solo lo creo sino que estoy seguro que ambos pueden ser compatibles. Un desarrollo sin considerar ciertos indicadores de sustentabilidad/ sotenibilidad no es posible o viceversa. Uno y otro deberan de ir al parejo tratando de limar los conflictos que a menudo surgen cuando se pretende no un desarrollo pero un crecimiento economico sin considerar la parte social/cultural o ecologica. (Not only I believe that the two can be compatible, I am certain. Development without considering certain indicators of sustainability is impossible or vice versa. Both should go hand in hand, trying to solve the social, cultural and ecological problems that often arise when economic growth rather than sustainable development is the goal)." (S 25) "Sim, no alto rio Negro onde trabalho a ideia e essa: implementar um programa regional de desenvolvimento indedgena sustentado. (Yes, in the Upper Black River, where I work, the idea is precisely to implement a regional programme for sustainable indigenous development)" (S29) "Yes they are. The problem is with the material and energy growth and its compatibility with some environmental standards, like critical thresholds and so on." (S35) "Yes. The only way is by avoiding rapid over-development and having good planning."(S37) ".El concepto de desarrollo sostenible lo veo mucho mas como algo a lo que se quiere llegar, es una nocion implementada por parte de las politicas gubernamentales y ong's donde lo que se 8 procura con estos es el aprovechamiento al maximo de los recursos con un minimo impacto ambiental y social. (I see the concept of sustainable development as goal towards which we heading. It is an idea implemented through governmental and non-governmental policies which aim at maximum exploitation of resources with a minimum of environmental and social impacts)." (S48) "Yes, because they represent the best option to keep for human life." (S51) The need for local definitions Among the respondents that considered sustainability and development compatible if certain conditions were met, there is group of responses that emphasised the need for local definitions of 'sustainability' and 'development', or 'sustainable development': "They can be compatible providing that development is targeted at the right level i.e. small scale and in-keeping with the natural resources and environment." (S5) "Depende de las condiciones y del desarrollo para quién? Por lo tanto el desarrollo es sostenible si es buscado y logrado por la misma comunidad local (It depends on the conditions and on the question 'Development for whom'? Development can only be sustainable if it is sought and implemented by the local community itself)" (S20) "Yes but mainly if made through indigenous methodologies in their territories in Amazonia" (S27) "Yes. There is work done in northern Scandinavia where the "sammi" (lapps) have been given economical support and encouraged to create their own parliament. They have programs protecting their way of life, language and customs. The Norwegian broadcasting company NRK sends news in the language and coastal dialects. All this, at least for Norwegian sammi (lapps) has been key factors in late developments where communities have developed economically achieving great sustainability, contributing, not only to their well being, but to the sustainability of the inhospitable sub-artic regions." (S31) "Yes - but only if there is an 'appropriate' deployment of tools, techniques and processes of development in line with local community needs." (S52) Semantics and the economic imperative Interestingly, one respondent was very pessimistic about the possibilities for sustainable development even when it was sought and pursued at the local level. This respondent brought into the equation the idea that people are driven by monetary benefits to deplete their environment, even though they know that such practices are unsustainable: "To a certain degree, yes. I think that monetary considerations will always outweigh humanitarian concerns and it is very hard to convince people who are seeking a living from sometimes-meagre resources that it is in their own good to give consideration to long-term sustainable use of their resources. It is usually easier and cheaper to move on to the next area when one area has been depleted." (S17) This last argument derives from a rationality that considers poor people to be collaborators in their own misery. In this particular response there was no questioning of the developmental project or the social structures within which people are stimulated to act regardless of the future; but it did address 'monetary considerations' as the driving force. 9 Those responses that argued that the concepts are incompatible claimed an intrinsic contradiction in "sustainable development": "Development of any kind cannot sustain anything." (S4). Instead of blaming the people (needy or not), the proponents of incompatibility pointed their fingers at 'the system'; contemporary capitalist structures, the current developmental project and the prevailing economic model are seen as unavoidably contrary to sustainable practices: "No because development is premised upon economic gain, and capitalism is inherently unsustainable" (S10); "The problem with sustainability is that the economic model is not compatible with social, economic and ecological aspects at the same time and proportion. The neo-liberal model promotes the economic aspect leaving as secondary the social and ecological." (S19); "No, because development does not imply a recognition of limits or the necessity to preserve the natural and human resources used to achieve it. It is an economic concept, which has bases in the apparently unlimited uses of resources… " (S47); "… Si lo entemos [desarrollo] como crecimiento economico, por supuesto que no son compatibles. Ya que el crecimiento economico, tal y como lo plantean los economistas, excluye de raiz criterios sociales, culturales y ambientales requeridos para la sustentabilidad." (If we understand development as economic growth, of course they [sustainability and development] are not compatible. This is because economic growth, as economist have brought it up, excludes from its bases the environmental, cultural and social requirements of sustainability)" (S34) S.D. inconsistent with the present There are less radical rejections of the compatibility, which do not portray sustainable development as a contradiction itself but rather as inconsistent with current economic and ecological trends. The point such respondents make is that the necessary conditions for sustainable development are currently, rather than inherently unattainable: "… The current model of industrial development, where 'development' means material economic growth, is unlikely to be sustainable on a long term basis for the majority of the world population." (S1) "Present development of our world is clearly not sustainable" (S33) "Yes, they are compatible. But in a different social and economic order, not in the one the world is living now… " (S36) "Yes, if we change the way development is understood, for instance, development is associated to living styles resembling to those Europe and USA have, which are a lot related to consumption. But we could live in a healthier and more compatible way with our environment if we change our pattern of consumption and the generalised idea of development nowadays, it would be turning it into "only use what I need and get from nature, exclusively this, not until I just can't get anymore from it", 'cause I over pressed the place, to obtain more benefits. So, at last, this could be possible but in the long term, I hope not when there's nothing left to do." (S45) 10 Greening politics Some responses expressed doubts about the compatibility of sustainability and development. These doubts arise from the apparent use of "sustainability" as a green rhetoric, the aim of which is the continuation of projects that degrade the environment or human rights: ". usually development translates into cutting down natural habitats without regard to "sustaining" cultures" (S32); "In theory 'yes' but much depends on the definition of the terms and societies' acceptance of equal human rights and obligations to others." (S7) "Los conceptos de desarrollo y de sostenibilidad resultan ser bastantes amplios y ambiguos. En la mayoria de los casos cuando se plantean proyectos de desarrollo se trata de relacionarlos directamente con proyectos que resulten ser favorables para el medio ambiente. Como si un concepto llevara implicito otro, sin embargo creo que lo que se esta haciendo desde hace algunos años es precisamente disfrazar los proyectos de desarrollo para que sean aprobados bajo el nombre de mantenimiento del medio ambiente." (The concepts of sustainability and development are very ambiguous. In the majority of cases, there is an attempt to portray development projects as environmentally friendly[, a]s if one concept implied the other. However, I believe that what has been happening for the last few years is a camouflaging of development projects, in order to get them approved under the heading of environmental management) (S48). Reflections on responses to Q110: If "all development is not 'absolute' but will have a beginning and an end" (S24) then, "[d]evelopment of any kind cannot sustain anything." (S4). The impossibility of re-establishing high quality energy after it has been transform into low quality energy (or entropy) is a characteristic feature of closed systems, this would leave us with a world in decline where there is no possibility of sustaining anything. It could be argued that this is the case, as we cannot even guarantee perpetual solar energy flow. But this is perhaps taking the concept of sustainability too far, leaving us with no possibility for discussion. The central political discussion arising from the different responses revolves around the contradiction between those arguments of compatibility that leave the development project unquestioned and those that reject any possibility of compatibility because of a profound questioning of development. Between the two, the picture is blurred, undefined, open and elusive. There does not appear to be any significant correspondence between the two opposite groups of respondents in relation to whether they have been in Amazonia or not. Three out of five of the respondents claiming that there is absolutely no compatibility between development and sustainability have been in Amazonia; but so have two out of four of the respondents that left the development project unquestioned. However, it may be of some significance that none of those that accepted 'sustainable development' are related to social sciences. Those respondents with academic backgrounds in the social sciences all fit into groups 10 A schematic summary can be found in Table 1, Appendix 3. 11 that see sustainable development as a principle, something to be defined locally or as a reformist greening of politics. None of them were found in the group arguing for absolute incompatibility. The middle ground, where the picture is most blurred, came from the majority of respondents by whom it was argued that sustainable development may be possible but that they were unsure about how it might be achieved. Although these responses varied from those expressing suspiciousness (those pointing out the rhetoric of sustainability) to hope: "They have to be. I think they are because they have to be". This acceptance of a possibility of sustainable development, despite the semantic contradiction and current political rhetorical manipulation of the term, reflects a process of thinking and acting that is deeply rooted in Utopian beliefs. This 'sustainability' will happen in the future, in another time, when local communities take control of their lives and their resources, when environmental protection is taken seriously, when today's actions reflect our responsibility toward the future, etc. According to one of the respondents even continuous increases in productivity will be possible, when the proper technology has been developed. Q2 - Is there a relationship between indigenous reserves (IR) and protected areas (PA)? In Colombia IR are called "Resguardos Indígenas" or "Resguardos de Tierras". The term resguardo, literally means protection. Its meaning is not too different from that given to natural conservation areas of different grades: áreas protegidas, protected areas (PA). Both, IR and PA, emphasise the need for an area to be specially protected. Some of the respondents of this question pointed out an implicit relationship between IR and PA perhaps departing of this meaning: "… In a general sense, indigenous reserves are protected areas; they are protected from outside influence for the benefit of the indigenous people… " (S1); "Yes there are relationships. Both have natural systems and environmental quality that requires some level of conservation and protection" (S9); "Yes , for obvious reason. Because the protected reserves are a birth child of indigenous reserves and because we do not want to lose the nature environment the relationship should be maintained." (S13); "Yes, indigenous reserves are protected areas" (S28) As in the case of Q1 (Do you think that development and sustainability are compatible?) some respondents pointed out that it would depend on what we understand by the two terms: "Depends on the sort of protected area or what we mean with protected area… " (S25). "There could be" (S38); "It could be, but I am not sure" (S46); "… this has to be context specific" (S1). Five respondents simply said "yes" (S37, S18, S22, S43, S50) and one simply said "no" (S15). However many of the respondents did go on to qualify the relationship in some way. 12 Harmony or the need for it Some of the affirmative responses portrayed indigenous peoples as the guardians of the environment while others offered concrete examples of this viewpoint: "Si. Las culturas indigenas han demostrado que sus culturas han vivido armonicamente con su entorno durante miles de años" (Yes. Indigenous peoples have demonstrated that their cultures have lived in harmony with their environment during millennia). (S23); "Empirical evidence through statistical analysis has shown (particularly in Colombia in the north west region of the Sierra Nevada) that there is a direct relation between conservation and indigenous reserves. So, the answer is "yes, I do think so". (S40) There were those that referred to the need for a harmonic relationship because: 1) the environment should be protected for the benefit of indigenous peoples: "… indigenous reserves are related with spaces or areas that the government leaves for indigenous people and protected areas are where the local authorities or government provide the ($) resources in order to protect them" (S19); "Existe una relación, historica y cultural, respecto a su territorio, esto debe ser respetado y protegido para las mismas comunidades indigenas" (There is an historic and cultural relationship with respect to their territories. This should be respected and protected by indigenous communities for their own sake (S20). 2) the protection is fundamental for biodiversity conservation: "… Podria ser que se proteja un area porque existe cierta flora o fauna que esta en peligro de extincion. Por ejemplo, muchos animales que viven en la selva solo se aparean una vez al año en cierta temporada y si estos son interrumpidos por presencia humana su decendencia podria verse aun mas en peligro de extincion… " (It may be that an area is protected because there are endangered flora or fauna. For example, there are many rainforest animals that mate once a year or seasonally; if they are interrupted by human activities their progeny could be further endangered) (S25); "… development there should be restricted for the sake of conservation" (S33) 3) sustainable practices could be developed based on indigenous peoples' experiences: "Yes. By protecting areas where almost all indigenous people are more and more confined, there will be a way to preserve indigenous experiences in order for these experiences to contribute to a sustainable development." (S11). Utopia There were also those sorts of answers that reflected a feeling of hope or a sense of Utopia, in which a harmonic, positive relationship was acknowledged as desirable but not yet achieved: "I imagine IR to equate with PA in some way. Perhaps naively. IR is implicitly protected from external development forces, but not necessarily internal." (S3); "There can be. If people are continuing a way of life that has been sustainable in the past and are able to develop sustainably (… ) there is no reason why both should not coexist." (S6); "Most indigenous reserves must be also protected areas. How to effectively do it? I don't know." (S36); "In countries with mindless and irresponsible politicians and business people, it should be mandatory that 'indigenous reserves' must be synonymous with 'protected areas'. (S42) 13 Contamination and cultural imposition Some respondents signalled the risk of contamination, this is of indigenous peoples being influenced by a mestizo culture and therefore driven to break the presumed harmonic relationship with the natural environment. This may be seen as a lost opportunity, that of the rest of humanity to learn from indigenous experiences or, that of given indigenous people to assert managerial control: "Yes, as indigenous populations tend to live in harmony with nature these areas tend to require protection from the outside world. (S12); "… I also think it is difficult to put it into practice since indigenous people want to be part of the economic system and therefore there is a risk of depletion. Anyway who is better to protect certain areas than the people who have lived there for hundred of years!!!" (S39); "Yes, in fact, so far as I know, many of our indigenous people live in these protected areas, where most of them have been able to live in a sustainable way, I say most of them, because others are affected by the mestizo men that live nearby or want to get something from that place due to its economic importance, affecting these natural areas." (S45) It was pointed out that both types of jurisdiction, IR and PA, derived from a cultural-historical process, in which self-determination was not accounted for: "Yes, a very imperialistic one - especially in the Americas (including Canada). It is an old regressive link between the two, in the 60s and 70s this paternalistic viewpoint saw indigenous culture as static --which is wrong!" (S24); "Yes, they both seem to be defined by the ruling 'white' government." (S26) A respondent that had visited Amazonia (VA) added that there is resistance to this imposition, at least as far as indigenous peoples of Colombia are concerned: "yes-especially when indigenous management systems are practised in spite of the models of dominant society in Colombia" (S27). Similarly, another VA respondent suggested that in Colombia there are no friendly relationships between IR and PA: "It depends from country to country, but in Colombia no" (S10)! Analytical responses The analysis provided by some of the respondents tended to localise the relationship: to put it into the historical process. The analysis underlined the main problem for a "non-confrontational" relationship between IR and PA regimes. As they are designations that came about without public participation and from a rationality that is especially alien to indigenous peoples, when IRs and PAs overlap, competition for management arises. These type of answers either acknowledged that the relationship happens through overlap, or mentioned the difficulties of hitting indigenous rights and conservation target simultaneously: "Freedom of choice for all people, in terms of lifestyle, cultural heritage can translate into giving management control to indigenous people in protected areas. However the balance between sustainable economic development for indigenous people and at the same time protecting the environment is a difficult topic to discuss at a macro level. Individual environmental and socio-cultural circumstances need to be fully accounted for and explicitly articulated." (S7) "Yo creo que existe una relacion estrecha entre reservas indigenas y areas protegidas alrededor del mundo. Ya que estas dos figuras juridicas en muchos casos (p.e. Colombia) se encuentran translapadas." (I believe there is a close relationship between indigenous reserves and protected areas around the world. It derives from the fact that in many cases these two jurisdictions overlap) (S34). 14 "There is a relationship when they overlap, which I think happens often." (S44) "Los resguardos y las reservas indigenas han tenido la tendencia a considerarse y definirse como areas protegidas, sin embargo me parece importante tener en cuenta que al establecer los limites territoriales entre los resguardos quedan zonas intermedias que no pertenecen necesariamente a algun resguardo, y esto hace de un modo u otro que tambien se presenten roces con diferentes actores. Por la misma razon que al no estar circunscrito en un resguardo aparentemente se consideraría como un area no protegida… " (It has been the tendency to consider the resguardos and indigenous reserves as protected areas. However, I think it is worth considering that when the resguardo boundaries are established, there are zones in-between not ascribed to any resguardo. And this makes it somehow possible for different [political] actors to get confrontational. This happens as a consequence of the non-ascription of the in-between zone, which is not considered as protected area… ) (S48) However it came about and assuming that both jurisdictions are somehow competing, some respondents argued that IR should be more effective, as it gives responsibility to the people for their own lives: "Yes, although I think indigenous reserves serve to protect the environment/area better. This is because they are protected by local people who value the resources and use them in a traditional and more sustainable way. Protected areas can be designated/run by Governments and this can remove the responsibility from the indigenous peoples." (S5); "Yes. I think that indigenous reserves do offer more protection than protected areas because it gives local people more incentive to use sustainable practices. They can see it being in their own interests" (S17) In contrast, one respondent argued: "Maybe there is, but I don't believe in reserves" (S35). And a second respondent (VA) added that poverty have driven indigenous peoples to behave unsustainably: "I think it is possible. However, some indigenous areas are completely degraded because they are selling their natural resources to survive." (S53). This response (S53) is related to one of those made to Q1: "To a certain degree, yes. I think that monetary considerations will always outweigh humanitarian concerns and it is very hard to convince people who are seeking a living from sometimes meagre resources that it is in their own good to give consideration to long-term sustainable use of their resources. It is usually easier and cheaper to move on to the next area when one area has been depleted." (S17) Both answers (Q1-S17, Q2-S53) echo a neo-Malthusian argument. It implies that a 'tragedy of the commons' is happening in Amazonia and elsewhere as result of overpopulation. The politics involved "No. Indigenous reserves and protected areas (for nature conservation) are two different political land use strategies. If the government is assigning an Indian reserve then they should respect the use the indigenous people are making of the terrain according to traditional use or to improved technologies. Areas for Nature conservation must be treated separately and with a different priority. We cannot make the indians responsible for the disappearing of the diversity. The government has to be responsible by applying appropriate conservation and management regimes" (S2) This response makes an argument for the need to differentiate between IR and PA as diverse political strategies that pursue different aims. The first would aim to 15 comply with Indigenous Peoples Rights, particularly that of self-determination. The second political strategy would aim at biodiversity conservation. The respondent acknowledges indigenous social change as indigenous management depends on both, tradition and technological improvement. Interestingly, the analysis provided does not try to conceal the confrontational nature of the relationship; nor does it neither place much hope in conciliation. On the contrary, it advocates for a distinction. If there is some hope or sense of utopia in the response it comes from solutions provided by technological improvement. Which is something this particular respondent had already stressed in Q1: "… . Development as the integration of western technologies or increase of income per capita, can be carefully done by implementing appropriate technologies into the productive activities of the communities. Sustainability defined as a continuous productivity level in the long term." (S2) Non-conclusive comment-Q211 Nowadays, the establishment or enlargement of IRs (Resguardos in Colombia) and PAs requires the interested proponents to follow long protocols, the fulfilment of precise administrative procedures and of legal conditions. One aim of the process is to allow different stakeholders to participate and to assure the fulfilment of fundamental rights to all citizens in equal conditions. In Colombia, like in many other parts of the developing world, when the "juridical figures" were established these procedures were not necessary, therefore, many IRs and PAs were established without participation of all interested parties. It is not surprising that some of the respondents refer to the confrontation or competition of regimes that began with their imposition. It could be of some significance that none of the respondents that claimed the need to harmonise IR and PA have been in Amazonia. In contrast, the two respondents that pointed out that these two regimes are conflicting in Colombia have been there. The analytical response that called for clear differentiation between the two also came from the group of people that had visited Amazonia (VA). From the set of answers given to Q2 it is clear that different and contrasting narratives ascribed to with respect to environmental management. For some of the respondents indigenous peoples are guardians of the environment, victims of colonialism or in risk of a cultural contamination that will force them to adopt maladaptive strategies that would threaten conservation strategies. For others, indigenous reserves are untrustworthy designations: the environment should be preserved against development and human intervention, be it indigenous or otherwise. Therefore indigenous peoples should not be in charge of environmental management. Yet, another political perspective is derived from hopes of compatibility between the two regimes, which although pursuing different aims are seen as relevant for environmental and human security at the same time. Thus, the third perspective could be characterised as dialectic or iterative. From this (last) perspective indigenous experience could help the development of conservation strategies; and, 11 Schematic summary: Table 2, Appendix 3. 16 at the same time, the revision of environmental and conservation management strategies could be vital for the survival of indigenous peoples. Hope or Utopian visions also have a place here: the development of technology is seen as a key component for adequate environmental management. Technological improvement would allow both compliance with indigenous peoples' rights and biodiversity conservation. We are sketching a continuum from our comment on Q1, suggesting that the narrative of conciliation 'reflects a process of thinking and acting that is deeply rooted in utopia'. Q3 - Do you think that the concepts of protected areas (PA), indigenous reserves (IR) and sustainable development (SD) are useful for environmental management today? Two respondents say that the concepts should be context specific: "Yes, but which of them is useful depends on context… " (S1). "As I said before, all these terms have to be defined properly in the first place before they can be applied." (S2). There were two respondents that simply said 'yes' (S14, S22), while one answered: "yes, if it works" (S4). S4's response suggests that concepts are instruments, and not surprisingly many answers referred to the "applicability" of these three concepts. Environmental indians and contamination risk Some respondents reiterated the idea, already expressed in Q1 and Q2, that indigenous peoples are practitioners of SD or conservation managers: "… Indigenous reserves are important because they allow the preservation of a way of living in sympathy with the environment long gone in most areas… " (S12); "Claro que si. Las culturas indigenas son un ejemplo de convivencia y explotacion sostenible del entorno en que viven" (Yes of course. Indigenous cultures are an example of coexistence with the environment they live in and of sustainable exploitation.) (S23); "Yes because indigenous people are the 'shepherds' of the landscape and they have a first-hand understanding and experience (handed down from previous generations) of ecosystem processes. Sometimes indigenous customs and habits reflect an understanding of nature's processes that can be exemplary in the planning of management plans… "(S41) One response re-enforced an idea presented in Q2, that indigenous sustainable practices are in risk as the younger generations begin to adopt western lifestyles: "… , but this knowledge is also in danger [endangered],… , shamanism is related in many cases to the management of the natural resources, but I have listened to the indigenous people from the community that I'm working in, that they're not interested in receiving this knowledge from their parents, and day by they they're a lot like us in their agricultural practices." (S45) Principles as instruments Various responses made reference to certain conditions that would have to be fulfilled in order for the concepts to be useful. This perspective, where the concepts are understood as political instruments, could be useful if a 'real' or 'truth-value' definition of them were accomplished. This truth-value would come from using the political instrumentality of a concept only if it were to reflect a set of principles such as intergenerational equity, empowerment, and participation. 17 And, in the case of participation, special emphasis were given to the incorporation of indigenous people, their knowledge and ways of dealing with the environment: "The concept of protected areas will only be successful if indigenous peoples are involved, therefore this would seem to indicate that indigenous reserves would be the best way forward of the two" (S5) "… indigenous reserves need to be redefined according to the wishes of the people who will be living in them,… (S6); "… If sustainable development means development with the means which exist and with the participation of the people concerned… " (S11); Yes. Exercising indigenous knowledge should not be limited to reserves but integrated into the management plans along with scientific knowledge more widely. (S26); "Yes… Any protected area, etc. must actively incorporate the participation of indigenous people" (S41) The idea of intergenerational equity is attached to that of resource reserve for the developmental process: "Yes… The sustainable development concept relating to the obligation of the present generation to leave enough natural assets and capital for future generations to enjoy at least the same quality of life we enjoy today must be at the heart of environmental management activities." (S12) "Yes, because the natural environment that we believe is endangered should be protected as a reference in future years to come and because of this a sense of environmental management is very important as the same environment becomes a resource for development" (S13) "Yes. We need to protect the area and its people and provide for sustainable development. (S21) "… pero estoy cierto que las areas protegidas independentemente del interes en prervarlas desempeñan un papel importante en el manejo de ambientes naturales para la captura de CO2, conservación de recursos biogenéticos/biodiversidad/ y como elementos de estudio para futuras generaciones… " (… but I am certain that, independently of the interest in preserving them, protected areas play a roll in the management of natural environment for CO2 sequestration, conservation of biodiversity/genetic resources and as study subjects for future generations (S25) "yes, otherwise development will go against our own endurance. I think we have to consider the possibility that we are not the most powerful force in this world." (S38) Risk and Protection Following this idea is that of concepts (as political instruments) being useful if they could provide and enforce protection (S13, S21 above). In this case either the environment is seen at risk (endangered species or ecosystems) or both indigenous peoples and their environments: "Yes. Protected areas are important as pools of natural resources not affected by human activity. Indigenous reserves are important because they allow the preservation of a way of living in sympathy [tune] with the environment long gone in most areas." (S12); "I think they are vital. Until everyone has a responsible attitude to environmental control certain protections have to be enforced." (S17) Some of the responses expressing a need for environmental protection have a sense of impending catastrophe: "Yes, but they are loaded concepts so we have to be careful in using them… sustainable development is the only way we will survive, but is usually glibly applied." (S6); "in a limited sense perhaps.but what we need to accomplish is protection of all that there is left, without cutting and taking land around the so called protected area. stop the modernisation process wherever it has not already reached into" (S32); "Yes, because they are the only source to preserve life on earth." (S51) 18 Protection but of cultural diversity: "… They may contribute to 'capturing' and saving fragile cultures and 'unknown' languages." (S31) Although acknowledging the need for protection, some respondents made it explicit that IRs were not effective, as the policies derived from such concepts (regimes) would increase risk instead of attenuating it: "… in terms of indigenous groups if they become circumscribed to a specific protected area then this will prevent persistence of nomadic lifestyles etc. and as a result the protected area may become 'unsustainable' as people are becoming circumscribed to a specific reserve. I guess this also answers the question on indigenous reserves, however, the indigenous reserves of N. America should be used as an example of the problems of tying people to such reserves,… " (S10) "… 'indigenous reserves' are not so useful - most of indigenous social problems have been caused by the colonisers, and are being reproduced through generations. Keeping indigenous people enclosed in such areas, and introducing paternalistic rules and laws is not healthy for any society. It instils racism in a society, and will not ensure that indigenous practices of environmental management will be maintained - that depends on the indigenous group and how they choose to manage their environment… " (S24) The need for integration and its impediments Some emphasis was put on the idea that there is or should be a link between the concepts (political instruments): "Yes all concepts are useful as they each permit different aspects of the economic/ecology debate to enter into the wider public arena. Ultimately for there to be sustainable solutions to environmental problems there needs to be a holistic approach adopted… " (S7) "… environmental development will not be meaningful without taking into account the interrelation between 'indigenous reserves' and 'sustainable development'" (S11) "Yes, because all areas are linked with each other very closely" (S18). "Yes. Exercising indigenous knowledge should not be limited to reserves but integrated into the management plans along with scientific knowledge more widely." (S26) "… Lo que creo es que tanto las reservas indigenas, como las areas protegidas deberian orientarse hacia un desarrollo sostenible. Bien sea que estas dos figuras se translapen o no. Si entendemos el desarrollo sostenible como un proceso que involucra criterios sociales, culturales, economicos, y ambientales." (… What I do believe is that indigenous reserves as well as protected areas should direct their attention towards sustainable development, whether or not the entities [juridical regimes] overlap. If we understand sustainable development as a process that involves social, cultural, economic and environmental criteria.) (S34) However, quiet a few responses pointed out the problems that prevent this integration from taking place: 1) Incompatibility of interests between IR and PA: "… Protected areas are useful, but they raise the debate as to whether one should protect an area and exclude people from it so that a certain species/ archaeological site/community can survive or whether people should have access… " (S10); "It is quite difficult to harmonies those concepts, specifically among indigenous people. They are convinced that 'sustainable development' is an imperialist concept, and the first idea they have -as far as they hear the concept- is that they are going to be exploited by others… " (S40) 2) The prevalence of economic efficiency and profit at the expense of anything else: 19 "… El desarrollo sustentable que ha sido cada vez mas un objetivo importante en varios paises del mundo. Pero encontrar los balances correctos ha sido y es dificil, particulrmente cuando las sociedades y gobiernos estan sometidos a un proceso de globalizacion y de efeicientizacion economica. He ahi los conflictos permanentes de lograr un desarrollo verdaderamente sustentable que considere no solo los aspectos economicos, pero politicos, cultrales, sociales y ecologicos o ambientales. (Sustainable development has become an increasingly important objective in several countries around the world. But to find the correct balances has been and continues to be difficult; in particular as a result of societies and governments being subjected to economic efficiency within the globalisation process. There are permanent conflicts in the way of obtaining a real sustainable development that involve not only the economic aspects, but also the social, cultural, ecological and environmental criteria " (S25). "… too many people think of 'sustainable' as meaning economic sustainability and not environmental sustainability." (S30). "… While protected areas and indigenous reserves serve to maintain environmental quality, the concept of sustainable development is often disregarded for the sake of profits and globalisation." (S33) 3) Political manipulation: "I think there have been problems with these concepts for two reasons: First, they mean different thing for different people, second, they have been used and to serve particular interests. There are several and opposite definitions of 'sustainable development' and it's a difficult concept. 'Indigenous reserve', used as a general concept does not describe usefully the complex realities and 'protected areas' have been used to serve particular interests over time so I think it is seen suspiciously by a lot of people." (S44) "I think so, but these concepts are used a lot by politicians, and then the meaning can be manipulated". (S46) "… The big problem is not related to the concepts alone, it is related to the way in which these are applied according with particular interests and purposes. Many times the terms are used by different groups or organisations in order to pretend to be environmental friendly or responsible, when the real purposes reveal an opposite target or interest." (S47) "… Muy seguaramente estos términos se manejan como deben ser en el plano académico teórico, mas no ocurre lo mismo en el ambito práctico donde lo que prevalece son los interese de los diferentes actores que trabajan en este campo, lo que lleva inevitablemente a que se presenten situaciones de tension entre estos y se deje de lado el objetivo primordial en cuanto a la conservación y le manejo ambiental" (For sure, theoretically and within the academic circles these concepts are managed as they should be. Although, in the practical scenario privilege is given to the particular interests of those different [political] actors who work in this field. Thus, it is unavoidable that tensions will arise between these [political actors], which leave aside the fundamental aim of environmental management and conservation) (S48) 4) Semantics, the concepts mean too many things to too many different political actors (S44 above): "… 'Sustainable development' is not so useful for environmental management, as the concept is too contested - it means too many different things to different people." (S24); "As I said, the problem is that there are many definitions of those terms and it makes it difficult to determine if they are useful in one place compared to other places" (S50) Dynamism The perspective of 'dynamism' reflects a perception of mutating meanings as an advantage. Under this perspective 'contested' means 'in change', which is seen as part of a learning process, which is in tune with the idea of local definition of concepts (emphasised above): "Ultimately for there to be sustainable solutions to environmental problems there needs to be a holistic approach adopted, where people can better appreciate that their lifestyle has much in 20 common with others - even if they are in an OECD country and cannot appreciate the day to day lifestyle of someone in a less developed country. … . Therefore the concepts listed can provide an opportunity to raise the awareness of the majority of the world's people." "Yes, there is plenty that can be learned from these three concepts and also applied" (S37) "A lot, I believe there are a lot of things we can learn from them, specially in this field of study,." (S45) "If these concepts are [understood or interpreted] under a dynamic and changing world (attached to contexts), which mean that there is not a unique definition or way to apply them, I think they are still useful for environmental management." [original: understanding or interpreting… ] (S47) The need for new concepts-Q3 Contradicting narratives can be appreciated through the reading of these responses. There is a group of respondents that are uncritical of the concepts or the policies derived from them (like S37, S45 above and): "Yes, they are important to efficient environmental management" (S28); "Yes. An understanding of the mechanism of these terminologies is essential for effective environmental management … " (S9). Another group could be made out of those responses that reflect suspicion or are definitely critical of the concepts (S10, S24, S25, S30, S33, S40, S44, S46, S47, S48, S50 above). And, besides the group of respondents that express conditionality or hope (see above), there is a group of responses that, while critical of the concepts, acknowledge that at present they are all we have: "… which of them is useful depends on context… If an ethnic group is to be allowed to determine the course of events within its own territory, then the territory must be reserved for them until such time as they develop complete autonomy or decide to integrate more closely with wider society. Sustainable development may seem a rather broad, unspecific term, but it does at least draw attention to the unsustainability of conventional development… " (S1) "… The concept of sustainable development is gradually getting better developed and, even if it is not strictly attainable, gives decision-makers something to work towards… (S5) "I don't agree with the concept of SD as it is a contradiction in terms, but at present there are few better alternatives… " (S10) One respondent actually moved forward in the critique, pointing out that the concepts were built on preconceptions and identifying the need to generate new concepts that would integrate the useless categorical divide of nature and society: "I think they are old fashioned, and generated by the Anglo-Saxon culture. We should move towards an increased compatibility between human activities and nature, making it therefore not necessary to talk about reserves, or natural areas." (S35) Non-conclusive comment-Q312: The majority if not the totality of respondents took 'concepts' as 'politics'. They discussed the history of these politics, their adequacy and sufficiency. It is very interesting that while the conduct through which political ideas become policies is supposed to be complex, it is obvious for the respondents that there is more than theoretical debate going on in the process of policy making. There is a prevailing, sometimes automatic or non-reflexive awareness that narratives pursue the aims that drive the policies and politics that are transforming the environment. 12 Schematic summary: table 3, Appendix 3. 21 In continuity with the results of Q2, only 1 out of five respondents of those who argued for the need to integrate the concepts had been in Amazon; while the two respondents that argued the case of 'incompatibility of interests' had been there. Of those which suggested that these concepts –political strategies- are useful for environmental protection or that this is the last chance –catastrophism- for life, none had visited Amazonia. It may be of some significance that none of the five respondents that suggested that IR might be a better strategy than PA have been in Amazonia, while one person of the two that argued that IRs are ineffective had been there. The responses correspond to several narratives that can be identified. One of them is that of 'confidence in science and trust in political instrumentality' derived from the (traditional definitions of) concepts outlined. Another narrative is that of 'natives as heroes and outsiders as villains', which is reflected in the suspiciousness of concepts based in untested assumptions and in mistrust of the governmental policies derived from them. In summary there is a status-quo narrative and a counter narrative. Yet a third type of narrative could be identified, that of 'critical understanding'. Q4 – Should environmental managers (EM) get involved in the territorial ordering process (TOP) of the Amazon? One of the respondents simply answered yes (S4). One was unsure (S52), perhaps suspicious? One considered the question was tricky (S32), and three of them put the question into question. Two of these responses asked for the term 'environmental manager' to be defined: "Difficult to answer. Define the roles, mandate and empowerment of the environmental manager… " (S31); "What do you mean by environmental managers?." (S6). The third one was more critical: "this sentence is colonialist as if indigenous peoples of Amazonia were not in fact environmental managers" (S27). With a similar intent, one respondent argued that indigenous people were better-qualified environmental mangers: "Las comunidades indigenas han sido las mejores administradoras del territorio ancestral, eso debe ser respetado y replicado en zonas donde la intervención humana 'civilizada' ha afectado las condiciones ambientales. (Indigenous communities have been the best managers of ancestral territories, this should be respected and should be replicated in areas where 'civilised' human intervention has affected environmental conditions) (S20)" The response of Indigenous peoples as better managers had been expressed in Q1, Q2 and Q3. Another three responses reinforced the ideas of catastrophism, the need for urgent environmental protection and to stop development (S32, S33, S42). Perspectives EMs are the ones: "Definitely" (S12); " … They have in many cases a better view for the long-run." (S18); 22 Yes. Who else is better suited to do so?" (S21); "Environmental Managers should get involved. They are best able to ensure protection of ecosystem" (S28); "Por supuesto que si. Ya que el ordenamiento territorial de un territorio (en este caso de la Amazonia) debe tener como objetivos el desarrollo sostenible." (Definitely. Territorial ordering (of the Amazon in this case) should have sustainable development as an objective) (S34); "Because they are the ones that can understand the balance that must exist between economic development, traditional culture and environment." (S36); " They should, how can they do whithout?" (S46) "Yes, because they can contribute to better territorial ordering in the region" (S53) EMs and scientists figure out the solutions and take the decisions: "Deben estar involucradas todas las personas del planeta, pero con mas razon los 'decision makers', que a fin de cuentas, toman las acciones concretas sobre nuestro futuro medioambiental. (All people from the planet should get involved, but the 'decision makers' have more reason to be there, after all they are the ones that take the concrete actions in respect to our environmental future) (S23); "Yes, but along with some other scientists, not only because of the importance of the Amazon from a global point of view, but specially for the importance for the people living there." (S35); "Yes, always considering multiple disciplines result in a better understanding and so better solutions." (S38) But taking into account the other opinions: "Yes, although indigenous peoples will also play a major part and without them any agreements between Governments and environmental managers will not work… " (S5); "Not always, because it is necessary to take into consideration lay people's opinions too." (53) Indigenous peoples direct EMs: "If they are asked to do so by indigenous peoples, I see no problem with this." (S1); "Territorial ordering should be primarily decided upon by the indigenous groups that inhabit them, … ultimately decisions need to come from the bottom upwards" (S10); "… The indigenous people should be in charge of the program at the ultimate level" (S14). " They should but they should make sure they respect the opinion of indigenous people and they should be very discreet in their approach and aim for cooperation." (S41) EMs have equal rights to participate as other stakeholders: " Of course. All actors should be involved in the process… It doesn't mean that they have to take decisions but they can evaluate the circumstances under different and also important perspectives." (S2); "What do you mean by environmental managers? But yes, I think they also have a stake in the fate of the Amazon, and have a right to make their voices heard. (S6); " Involvement - yes but only in collaboration and co-operation with the Amazonian people and those in the higher levels of bureaucracy and policy making … Environmental managers can make significant contributions in this area, given their depth of understanding of the issues (relative to the general public)" (S7); "Deveriam estar envolvidos no processo de re-ordenamento territorial, junto com edndios, ribeirinhos etc" (they should be involved in the territorial ordering process together with indigenous peoples, riverine inhabitants, etc." (S29); " I think they should be involved as advisors and technical support but I support the idea of a non-technical management, where decisions are taken by the different stakeholders based on the technical advice and the social, cultural and economic factors." (S44) 23 But this intervention should be avoided within indigenous territories: "Not in indigenous reserves or territories which historically have been managed by indigenous communities. In other areas, should be taking part in dialogue of knowledge between cultures, people, communities, scientists and decision makers from private and government sectors, to order process on the amazon area." [Original text:… historically has been management by… ](S47) The apolitical EM: "Yes, but not for political reasons. It should be for the cause of sustainable use of our natural environment which is our heritage." (S9); " … Generally though I think that environmentalists like missionaries before them should not get involved in political processes as this can have a very negative reaction within the local community." (S17) "Yes, their knowledge will hopefully be of use in the ordering process" (S37) The political participation of EMs: "Yes, to counteract the interference of other external actors but hopefully to work with the indigenous people respecting their values and practices, not independently." (S26) EMs as facilitators of the dialog between IK and WS: "… without them [indigenous peoples] any agreements between Governments and environmental managers will not work. Environmental Managers should facilitate discussion… " (S5); "Territorial ordering should be primarily decided upon by the indigenous groups that inhabit them, environmental managers roles here should be as referees to help in the co-ordination of the process, but ultimately decisions need to come from the bottom upwards." (S10); "It's necessary for people involved in this field of study, that had already gained a conscience, and that are able to understand that we have to work with indigenous, not from our usual management vision, but theirs, trying to see the world like they do. In this way could be easier, perhaps to understand and give convincing and why not scientific arguments to the authorities (or people in charge of handling these affairs) about the different way they have already distributed their territory, which [in] most of the case (if not all) doesn't have our political distribution. (I.E, those groups that live between Colombia and Brazil boundaries) they don't have the same division of territories, because of this, they must be managed in a way more in concordance to their political organisation." (S45) Capacity, ability and quality of EMs: "Depends who the environmental managers are - if they are from the area and have a passion for the area, then why not. If they are drafted in from outside, and seen as the 'outside experts' then probably not - it usually causes friction within the area."(S24) "Define the roles, mandate and empowerment of the environmental manager. They may fall into different categories, of which I may name at least 4: 1. The conflictive manager. Created by a lobbying body. A good example is the body (forget the name) that is in charge of the Everglades in Florida. Their work is tainted by conflict of interest: the provision of water to cities and sugar cane farmers, at the same time maintaining the 'wet lands' as an ecosystem and controlling flooding! 2. The romantic. Exemplified by rich Europeans or North-Americans. Wanting to keep habitats, they may buy some land and resort to eco-tourism in order to keep their sustainability. I believe there are some German managed 'eco' destinations in Ecuador. Driven by an alternative way of life, they may not 'manage' the environment as they should. 3. The bureaucrat. A member of a government agency or NGO that may not be aware of local needs, responding always to policies made from a distance. Current legislation may be a hinder. "Los paisas", developed and colonised what is today Risaralda, Quindio, Caldas and 24 parts of Choco in Colombia, by using legislation that enabled them to cut and clear big forest areas to be claimed afterwards, creating the concept of the "colono". A colonisation process I witnessed in Caquetá some years ago. 4. The "grass roots" manager. Perhaps, the type who knows best the ecosystem and the power relationships that develop around it by the people involved with it. Usually their voice is not heard, mainly because of the threat they represent to some landowners or 'colonos'. If the law regarding claiming land that has been cleared is still existing, managing the environment is going to be a great task. One shall not forget that the 'colono' phenomenon represents one of the many socio-economical problems a nation like Colombia faces. … Management work usually develops around a policy. Trust among all participants is primordial. There ought to be some kind of legal-economical framework that will ease management work. If this is in place and all conflicts of interest reduced, then the territorial ordering process of Amazonia may become real." (S 31) Political risks, EMs tough job: "Yes, however the pressures on the person might be extreme. It would be preferable to have both on-site environmental managers and use some respected external managers as reference." (S15); "Yes, but bearing in mind that you should work with politicians and many kinds of 'parasitic' people which are thinking every day in the short term. It means that environmental managers are not enough for sustainable management and use of natural resource: their analytical models as well as their technical capacity is necessary, but they cannot work isolated, they require to work with others, despite the fact that 'the others' could (and should) think in a different way." (S40) Summarising-Q413 Like in the responses to Q1, Q2 and Q3, we can identify different and often contradictory perspectives. There were those that argued that environmental managers14 are the best qualified for the task and appeared somewhat perplexed by the question. Within that group there were those responses that assumed that decisions were taken by environmental managers or should be taken by them, although two expressed that others' opinion should be considered to a lesser extent. In the other direction were the responses that questioned intervention by EMs and considered it useful only when the decision-making process was led by indigenous peoples themselves. Yet, a third group was of the opinion that EMs should get involve in the same conditions that other stakeholders, such as indigenous peoples but, one respondent suggested they should not intervene in the management of indigenous peoples' territories at all. 13 See also Table 4, Appendix 3. 14 Called EMs in the survey to differentiate them from other experts and indigenous peoples. As it has been explained elsewhere (See "The march of the Manikins: Agroforestry practices and Spiritual dancing in Northwest Amazonia) indigenous peoples management of the environment departs from a different rationality and uses different instruments. What indigenous people from Northwest Amazonia call "management of the world" is not only a set of shamanistic practices but a way of living that combines social aims, aesthetic values, religious believes, and economic practices in a distinctive manner. Although acknowledging indigenous peoples from Northwest Amazonia are in fact environmental managers, the author has stressed that their "management of the world" incorporates many things, some of them of tremendous importance for environmental management more generally. 25 The other contrasting perspectives concerned the character of the intervention. While one group of responses were of the opinion that EMs should not get involved in politics, but have a technical approach, others thought that they should get involved to contrast and balance the political interests of other groups. A third group emerged, which advocated the intervention of environmental managers as conciliators and facilitators. Related to this roll of managers as advisers there was a group of responses showing concern with the capacity, ability and quality of environmental managers and, the possible risks that they have to face. Non-conclusive comment-Q4: As in responses to questions one, two and three, we can trace arguments and contra-arguments. One set of respondents portrays EMs as heroes. In this scenario they face a tough job, they are well trained, better able and indispensable for the process of territorial ordering; their politically risky job in which they have to make the decisions would be fundamental for diminishing environmental risk and even saving life on earth. (As in Q2 and Q3 none of those arguing conservation/catastrophism had been in Amazonia). A counter narrative is that provided by respondents arguing that EMs' participation should be directed by indigenous peoples (IP) or that the projects should be led mainly by natives, and that EMs should not intervene in the management of indigenous territories: in this case the heroes are indigenous peoples. A second counter narrative seems to be reflected by some of the respondents. In this scenario, EMs like IP should have equal rights to participate as different stakeholders, in this case decisions would come from a rational process in which dialog between cultures would take place. The participation of EMs would not be limited by their status/power but by their capacity, ability and their roll as facilitators or conciliators. Discussion European colonisation of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australasia from the late fifteenth century onwards, gave a tremendous boost to the volume of global transactions involving natural resources. Over the long run, trade in these resources, and in an increasingly diverse array of environmental services, has been expanding ever since. However, much of what is called globalisation in the twenty first century has more to do with developments in information technology since the late 1900s. The increasing speed of communications media and information transfer have proved fundamental in economic restructuring and the transformation of the world into a largely urban space (Castells 1996). In the globalised, twenty first century, local political decisions have little chance of being autarchic; international policy advisors inform local stakeholders about what is considered adequate or legal in accordance with international treaties, foreign protocols and political compromises. The local politics of environmental management is the concern of everybody: corporations, governments, international, regional and national NGOs, all of which compete for access to information and expansion of their scope of power in the political arena (Ambrose-Oji, Allmark et al. 2002). During the 1990s, and especially after the Río Earth Summit in 1992, one of the main topics of discussion was management of the global environment (Sachs 26 1993). Global targets for sustainable development were established at Río and similar processes were set in train at regional, national and local scales all over the world, following the guidelines set out in one of the policy documents agreed at Río: "Agenda 21". The official discourse that emerged from the Río process was replicated and many of the assumptions that informed the original discourse have been accorded a quasi-factual status by many people all over the globe (Sevilla_Guzmán and Woodgate 1997). The official discourse on globalisation emphasised the need for environmental management at supranational levels. At the same time, counter-discourse or anti-globalisation narratives have emerged. These emphasise the rights of indigenous people and local political actors to manage natural resources independently, in ways that allow them to make their own livelihood decisions and establish resource-use regimes that can provide the environmental goods and services that people need15. The management of the environment has always motivated debate and often led to confrontation. One of the main arguments of conservative conservationists concerns the 'vulnerability' of rainforest environments, and thus the need for their protection. Since the 1980s the problem of deforestation of tropical rainforests has been a global issue with special emphasis in South East Asia, the Congo basin and Amazonia (Adger, Benjaminsen et al. 2001). In a 1998 analysis of 'rainforest' web-sites, Stott revealed four metawords within the conservation rhetoric: orientalism (the exotic other), climax (harmony), old age (ancient, undisturbed) and vulnerability (Stott 1999). Metawords such as these become key rhetorical devices so that even research and development project proposals tend to employ them, thus replicating assumptions that are no longer questioned. How is this metalanguage produced? What are the bases of its principal cannons? And why is it that semantic analysis tends to remain the preserve of scientists – or is it something that is also dealt with at a local level? Narratives can be traced back in time. Equilibrium disturbance (climax rupture) and environmental fragility (vulnerability) both played parts in Hardin's 1968 'tragedy of the commons' (Hardin 1998). The neo-Malthusian discourse of environmental catastrophe as a result of an increasing population (of 'poor people') lies at the heart of Hardin's tragedy. The conservative conservationist perspective on the management of the rainforest is based on mistrust of systems of environmental management in which property rights (over life and resources) are not yet marketable. From a conservative political perspective responsible environmental action can only be achieved through the clarification of property rights to allow the unfettered action of free markets for the negotiation of such rights. It is assumed that the tragedy of the commons is happening or will happen in rainforest contexts where private property rights are not yet the rule and where societies still practise communal environmental management regimes based on indigenous knowledge rationalities in which nature and society form an ontological continuum. For conservatives only free markets for environmental rights, good and services can guarantee sustainable development. Neo-Malthusian 15 The discourses that emphasise on the need of eco-efficiency, economic transnationalization and planetary ecological management, were named by Sachs as contest and astronauts' perspectives. And the counter-discourse arising from the desempowered communities of the South as the home perspective (Sachs 1977). 27 and neo-liberal assumptions are fundamental to this perspective on sustainable development. With the aim of promoting Agenda 21 at local, national and regional levels, a complex and sophisticated process of institutionalisation was embarked upon. Amazonia did not escape this process; governmental officials or conservationist NGOs replicated the dominant conservationist discourse at the local level in NWA16. This official discourse of deforestation with its main initiative of protection of the environment from people has been labelled 'hegemonic' (Stott and Dullivan 2000) or 'neo-Malthusian' and 'managerial' (Adger, Benjaminsen et al. 2001). It should come as no surprise then that counter narratives have developed in Amazonia (and elsewhere), for many of which the principal intention is to contradict the conservative policies derived from this hegemonic discourse. The rights of indigenous people to define the course of their lives: their rights to manage natural resources and the environmental services used or supplied by the Amazonian environment have been key issues in these significant counter-claims against the official Amazonian territorial ordering politics and policies, which have involved environmental management that has been designed elsewhere. This counter-narrative pursues the principle and right of self-determination against the interests of political initiatives for global environmental management. The counter-narrative was not just a reaction to neo-liberal, neo-Malthisian conservative politics and conservation policies during the 1980s and '90s, however. In Latin America, all indigenous peoples' rebellions against the European empires were motivated by a call to reconstruct pre-colonial socio-cultural orders returning to territorial orders where the management of 'agroforestry' was undifferentiated from the sacred (Varese 1996:124-25). In modern, post-colonial states, indigenous peoples continued to struggle for the recognition of their territories. In today's NWA this struggle is related to governmental and conservationists policies of environmental management and the presence of armed groups opposed to political resolution of territorial ordering. Many of the Protected Areas (PAs) of NWA were created at a time when no legal procedure was established for public intervention in the designation of such areas. The official titles of the PA or IR (Resguardos in Colombia) have not prevented non-native invasion of lands or the expansion of illegal crop production inside either PAs or IRs. Conservationists and indigenous peoples alike have vacillated between alliances with, and the rejection of, the armed groups in charge of illegal crop production, depending on the political gains to be made and the risks involved in rejecting the proposals or achieving an alliance. The armed groups, on their part, have sought political alliances when such co-operation could benefit their military capacity or improve the managerial efficiency of their enterprises.17 16 With respect to the territorial ordering process, the Colombian Amazon controversy is discussed in Forero 1999, 2000; Forero, Laborde et al. 1998. 17 See Forero 2000, "Territoriality and Governance in the Colombian Amazon". 28 As far as local inhabitants were concerned, rainforest conservation policies arrived in NWA from another space and time. The legal establishment of protected areas took no account of the opinions or desires of the peoples already inhabiting NWA. Indigenous agro-ecosystems and the livelihood strategies of more recent colonisers were both ignored. The ideology expressed through legal frameworks was that of protection of the environment from people. The villains were local inhabitants and the regulations to be enforced were those of expelling people from the 'conservation' areas and maintaining their exclusion. The dominant discourse made no distinction between complex indigenous agro-ecosystems and the less sophisticated livelihood strategies being developed by recent immigrants. All of them were labelled as "slash and burn" agriculture (Myers 1980). Yet it has become increasingly apparent over the last thirty years that slash and burn is just an aspect of indigenous environmental management in Amazonia, which combines agricultural production, fish and game management, ritual prescriptions, and aesthetic developments18. It has even been suggested that movement towards "short cropping/long-fallow" cultivation patterns within indigenous Amazonian agro-ecosystems was an strategic response to alien invasion of territories and the introduction of metal axes (Denevan 2001: 115-31). Today, most ethnoscientists find it self-evident that the concepts of "chagras" (gardens) and "rastrojos" (abandoned gardens) are far too simplified to reflect the structure of cultivations over the short-, medium- and long-terms, in accordance with local knowledge of agro-ecological variation. It is obvious that indigenous environmental management has transformed Amazonian ecosystems for millennia; this was already evident to many of the nineteenth century European explorers19. Even the most knowledgeable people in the industrialised world have no precise idea of how 'vulnerable' rainforest is and few have accurate knowledge about the political conditions facing indigenous peoples or other human inhabitants of the Amazonian rainforest. With respect to NWA, even the most determined researcher would have problems accessing this information. It is often said that the rainforests of Amazonia are the 'lungs of the planet' (S.33), a metaphor used to emphasise the region's role in the carbon cycle, especially the absorption of CO2. This is somewhat ironic given that our own lungs actually consume oxygen and release CO2 during respiration. Indigenous people have been portrayed as villains or victims depending on the observer and the moment of observation. When portrayed as victims the picture is something like this: the wise guardians of the rainforest are obliged by violence to sell their natural resources or abandon their noble environmental practices. The role of violence in the functioning of extractive economies has been well documented. Violent coercion has been the dominant system in NWA for more than a century. Although indigenous people are no longer sold, 'debt-peonage' systems still dominate and exploit poor indigenous and immigrant inhabitants of 18 See Forero 2001, " The march of the Manikins: Agroforestry Practices and Spiritual Dancing in Northwest Amazonia". 19 See Forero 2002a, " Indigenous Knowledge and the Scientific Mind: Activism or Colonialism". 29 NWA. These people are employed for the harvesting, transport and commercialisation of coca base, cocaine and, the functioning of 'extractive economies' in general (Gómez, A. 1999). But there has been an indigenous response. This has sometimes taken the form of open rebellion and sometimes that of making strategic and tactical alliances in an attempt to obtain or preserve political power, to secure the acquisition of merchandise or simply to survive20. The counter-hegemonic narratives that we mentioned above have been labelled 'populist discourse': making it explicit that the victims are the indians and the villains the international organisations, sometimes allied to transnational corporations (like oil drilling companies) and the dependent and often corrupted governments that collaborate with these international organisations (Adger, Benjaminsen et al. 2001: 687). For NWA there are reports that seem to corroborate these arguments; e.g. indigenous peoples and environmental campaigners have protested jointly in Ecuador and Brazil against the construction of massive pipelines planned to cross through both IRs and PAs in both countries. The pipeline construction projects in both countries have arisen following collaboration between national governments and international oil exploration companies and have provoked public feelings of outrage (Weinberg 2001)21 . " [In NWA] Governments, multilateral lenders, multinational corporations, private banks and other institutions may not be counting on the convenient disappearance of indigenous peoples who get in the way of their ambitious development plans, but they often act as if they are." (Rabben 1998:122) "We who live in indigenous communities are surviving in the midst of a war imposed upon us by different factions and by the very same Colombian state that historically abandoned the countryside and permitted our lands to be invaded by waves of colonizers. Today we are caught in the crossfire, menaced by killings and displacement, while the State manifests its presence in the air with planes that slowly kill our plants and animals, our subsistence crops, and our people." (Organizacion Zonal Indigena del Putumayo_ OZIP 2002) However, is it possible to claim that there is a policy of 'ethnic cleansing' for NWA? From one side the whole issue of national sovereignty has been put into question; the expansion of Plan Andino (formerly Plan Colombia), the USA's anti-drug strategy for Latin America, exemplifies the delicate situation in which some of the Latin American countries have entered the twenty first century. The military component Plan Andino is aimed to support economic measures, the famous and indeed infamous structural adjustment plans that have provoked strikes and rebellions22. Additionally, even if there were an official policy of ethnic cleansing, South American States, given their size and power, would find it difficult to implement 20 See "Indigenous Knowledge and the Scientific Mind: Activism or Colonialism" (Forero 2002a), and "Technology in Northwest Amazonia: Sketches from Inside" (Forero 2002b). 21 For recent (March 2002) press releases on this issue see www.amazonwatch.org and www.americas.org 22 See Forero and Woodgate 2002, "The semantics of 'Human Security' in Northwest Amazonia: between indigenous peoples''Management of the World' and the USA's State Security Policy for Latin America". 30 it. The poor, be they indigenous peoples or colonisers are in the middle of a territorial war linked to international networks of criminality; they have been displaced, kidnapped or killed regardless of their claims of neutrality. In the case of Colombia, although some military authorities have been linked to some of the worst of the paramilitaries' atrocities, it has not been proved that the State itself has a policy of ethnic cleansing. In the case of Brazil, in 1996 the national executive proclaimed Decree 1775, instructing a right to contravene which, contrary to 169 WTO international agreement on Indigenous Peoples' rights, gave other stakeholders the opportunity to challenge Indigenous property rights. Paramilitary groups associated with illegal evictions of indigenous peoples in Brazilian Amazonia have long sought such a 'charter'. At the same time, the decree left the definition of indigenous land rights to the will of the executive power itself (Ministry of Justice). But, as in the case of Colombia, it cannot be proved that there is a policy of ethnic cleansing. It has been suggested in the non-conclusive comments on the survey results, that many people's responses echoed hegemonic and populist narratives. Indigenous peoples were portrayed as heroes or victims, as well as scientists and environmental managers. However, quiet a few of responses cannot be associated with either populist or hegemonic narratives. There is a group of responses that reflect critical thinking and are willing to challenge such simplistic dichotomies. Thus, the concept of sustainable development has been questioned, suspiciousness of western, scientific and technological solutions was expressed, and there was little willingness to give environmental managers carte blanche to prescribe whatever measures they might see fit. Interestingly, this last group, while acknowledging the need for: new concepts and adequate guidelines for environmental management, and the difficulty of achieving conservation targets while complying with indigenous peoples rights, still consider the concepts of SD, PA and IR as useful or the politics derived from them as desirable. What is interesting is that the responses to this survey, which were made by outsiders (respondents were not inhabitants of Amazonia), reflect a tendency to picture the conflict over territory in ways that do not correspond to either of the two main narratives. We can say that inasmuch as outsiders see possibilities for political action outside hegemonic or populist approaches, so Amazonian insiders are organising and negotiating regardless of whether their political discourse echoes either conservative or counter-hegemonic politics of territorial ordering. As no significant statistical analysis could be derived from the survey it would be difficult to speak of tendencies. At first sight it seems that adherence to hegemonic, counter-hegemonic, utopic or conciliatory narratives reflects each respondent's intellectual background more than his or her witnessing of the situation of peoples and forests in Amazonia. However, certain coincidences among the responses to each question might be representative: - For Q1-SD, two out of four of the respondents that accepted the imperative of SD without question have been in Amazon, none of them is a social scientist (SS) though and the other two were environmental managers. None of the SSs 31 that had visited the region argued for complete incompatibility between sustainability and development. Instead, SSs were part of a third group acknowledging that the concept of SD might be of some use, given certain conditions. - For Q2 – the relationship between IRs and PAs, not one of those who argued for the need to harmonise the two concepts (5), or those that emphasised SD as a desirable aim that has not yet been reached (4), or those or that argued that IRs are better than PAs (2) had been to the Amazon (in total 21 % of respondents). Respondents that had visited Amazonia (VA) were among those that acknowledged a relationship between IRs and PAs and that the relationship can be both complementary and competitive. Two respondents from the VA group argued that a complementary relationship was not possible in Colombia and one of them pointed out that being political strategies with different aims they should be kept differentiated in order to avoid conflict. This result might indicate that people that have been in Amazonia are more aware of the problems of territorial ordering caused by the imposition of regimes based in alien concepts. - For Q3 – on the usefulness of the concepts, none the five respondents arguing that IRs might be better that PAs had been in Amazonia, while one of the two that argued that IRs are ineffective had visited. Only one out of five respondents that argued for the need to integrate the concepts had been in Amazonia, while both those that argued for an incompatibility of interests have. This result seems to confirm that people who have visited the area are more conscious of the problems caused when policies formulated elsewhere are imported to Amazonia. Conclusions All technological adoption/adaptation has diverse effects in the life and development of society. People living within the society that is adopting them, and the outsiders that are analysing cultural change perceive these effects in different ways. The assessments of 'usefulness' or 'risk' a society makes when adapting/adopting technologies are linked to the conscious and subconscious present and future scenarios into which the society places itself alongside other societies. If the rest of the world wishes to respect Amazonian indigenous peoples' rights of self-determination, they should not intervene in ordering processes of indigenous territories. The problem is that indigenous ways of dealing with the world might not be compatible with the ideas that foreigners have with respect to Amazonia, its peoples and its future. And, for good or bad, fairly or unfairly, each group has a way of intervening and exercising a certain amount of power to modify the global political agenda for the governance of Amazonia in function of their own particular interests. Replication of narratives is a common strategy used by all groups aiming to make alliances and enhance their power. However, the responses analysed here seem to indicate that a large group of people (at least from the academic sector) is 32 unhappy with the assumptions behind either populists or hegemonic discourses with respect to rainforest management, and seeking new ways of environmental policy making. This group of people acknowledged that political conflict has derived from policy formulated elsewhere, and derived from an epistemology alien to local inhabitants. There are varied political groups competing for the governance of Amazonia. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilitates analysis and political action. It is expected that better-informed indigenous peoples would be in a better position to make decisions with respect to the governance of Amazonia. At the present time, the indigenous peoples of Amazonia have very limited and precarious access to ICT. Thus, their perspectives on territorial ordering are less likely to be represented than those such as conservation agencies, multinational developers, insurgent and mafiosi groups, all of which have far superior access to ICT. 33 Appendix 1 PRIVACY POLICY: Email addresses will be used only to send out materials related to this survey. Aggregate survey results may be distributed, but all personal data will be kept strictly confidential. No information about individual users will be disclosed to third parties. 34 Appendix 2 Summary of Web-site technical work The most demanding work was designing the pages that would contain indigenous territorial maps. CAD versions of the map would have to be transformed into image files suitable for Web use. In order to do this ArcView- GIS (Geographical Information Systems) software was needed. A picture of the map could be easily generated in ArcView-GIS and to certain extent, editing and colouring could enhance some features. But such a map or, more precisely, such a picture of the bi-dimensional representation of the Tukano territory remained inadequate for publication in WebPages. "The pics were to heavy" (I would learn the ICT design jargon), meaning that the memory used to storage, loading and unloading of these pictures was vast. Besides dividing the map and generating pictures of several areas, these pictures needed transforming to make them 'lighter'. This meant that the pictures had to be edited and the storage format had to be changed in terms of the colour pallet and resolution (a maximum of 72 dpi). Most importantly, the pictures should look better! An early version of PhotoImpactTM was used to change the colours and other features as well as to design the icons that would be used to identify the hypertext links between pages. However, the software was not appropriate for the task and the 'pics' were still too heavy. The design was poor, too rigid, with inappropriate colours and, worst of all the 'weight' of the maps would not allow for easy loading of the images by potential users. To change the maps (pics) again, PhotoshopTM was used, while major design transformations were achieved using FireworksTM software. For the actual montage and edition of the whole web-site Dreamweaver3TM was used. A similar process was followed to generate the vegetation map, which was adapted from one of the Amazonian Vegetation maps generated by Puerto Rastrojo. The introduction to a political ecology taking as a case study the Yaigojé Resguardo, was originally a single text (like in the preliminary version) but following the advice of critical reviewers, this page was divided into six parts. 35 Appendix 3 Table 1 Q1- Do you think that 'development' and 'sustainability' are compatible? RESPONSE - ARGUMENT SURVEY No. NVA VA Profession Unquestioning the developmental project 2 1 PhD Student Biology 12 1 Environmental Engineer 13 1 Environmental Engineer 40 1 Project Co-ordinator (SD) Yes, to diminish environmental risk 18 1 Student 21 1 Taxation 23 1 Designer 39 1 Postgraduate Student 42 1 Biologist Sustainable Development is an aim to be 3 1 Epidemiologist reached 5 1 Civil Servant 8 1 Accountant 24 1 Student 25 1 PhD St. Agriculture & Development 29 1 Anthropologist 35 1 Lecturer 37 1 Postgraduate Student 48 1 Anthropologist 51 1 Postgraduate Student Compatible if defined locally 5 1 Civil Servant 20 1 Lecturer: Ecotourism 27 1 Anthropologist 31 1 Postgraduate Student 52 1 Lecturer: IT & Development Possible but risk of economic imperative 17 1 Unemployed Incompatible a) Contradiction in terms 24 1 Student 4 1 PhD St. Environmental genetics b) Financial economic imperative 10 1 Student 19 1 PhD St. Agriculture & Development 34 1 PhD Student: Environmental Manager 47 1 PhD Student SD inconsistent at present time 1 1 Lecturer: Env. Sociology 33 1 PhD Student 36 1 Research Engineer 45 1 EM SD is green rhetoric 7 1 Student 32 1 Teacher 48 1 Anthropologist 36 Table 2 Q2 - Do you think there is any relation between 'indigenous reserves' (IR) and 'protected areas' (PA)? RESPONSE - ARGUMENT SURVEY No. NVA VA Profession Yes 37 1 Postgraduate Student 18 1 Student 22 1 Anthropologist 43 1 Anthropologist 50 1 PhD Student No 15 1 Consultant: Health & Safety Need to harmonise IR and PA to protect a) For (IP) Indigenous Peoples' benefit 19 1 PhD St. Agriculture & Development 20 1 Lecturer: Ecoturism b) Protection of Biodiversity 25 1 PhD St. Agriculture & Development 33 1 PhD Student c) SD based on IP experiences 11 1 Consultant: Rural Development. SD as Utopia 3 1 Epidemiologist 6 1 Lecturer Ecology Env. Management 36 1 Research Engineer 42 1 Biologist IR and PA are different political strategies 2 1 PhD Student - Biologist IR and PA are colonisation strategies 10 1 Student 24 1 Student 26 1 Student Indigenous resistance to IR/PA strategies 48 1 Anthropologist IR and PA overlapped 7 1 Student 34 1 PhD St. Environmental Management 44 1 Postgraduate Student Environmental Indian 23 1 Designer 40 1 Project Co-ordinator (SD) Environmental Indians contaminated 12 1 Environmental Engineer by mestizo culture 39 1 Postgraduate Student 45 1 Environmental Manager IR are Inefficient 35 1 Lecturer 53 1 Journalist IR more effective that PA 5 1 Civil Servant 17 1 Unemployed 37 Table 3 Q3 - Do you think that the concepts of 'protected areas' (PA), 'indigenous reserves' (IR) and SD are useful for environmental management today? RESPONSE - ARGUMENT SURVEY No. NVA VA Profession Depends on the context 1 1 Lecturer: Env. Sociology 2 1 PhD St. Biologist Yes 4 1 PhD St. Env. Genetics 14 1 Economist 22 1 Anthropologist Indigenous Environmental 12 1 Environmental Engineer 23 1 Designer 41 1 PhD Student Indigenous Environmental in contamination risk 45 1 EM Concepts: Principles and instruments a) Participation: IR better than PA 5 1 Civil Servant 6 1 Lecturer Ecology EM 11 1 Consultant: Rural Development RD 26 1 Student 41 1 PhD Student b) Intergenerational Equity: resource reserve 12 1 Environmental Engineer for Development 13 1 Agriculturist 21 1 Taxation 25 1 PhD St. Agriculture & Dvnt. 38 1 Gardener (MSc) Risk and Protection a)Environmental Protection (EP) 12 1 Environmental Engineer 17 1 Unemployed EP and catastrophism 6 1 Lecturer Ecology EM 32 1 Teacher 51 1 Postgraduate Student b) Of cultural diversity 31 1 Postgraduate Student IR as ineffective 10 1 Student 24 1 Student Integration of concepts or the need for it 7 1 Student 11 1 Consultant RD 18 1 Student 26 1 Student 34 1 PhD Student Env. Mgment. Difficulties for integration a) Incompatibility of interests 10 1 Student 40 1 Project co-ordinator (SD) b) Financial economic effectiveness' imperative 25 1 PhD St. Agriculture Devent. 30 1 Postgraduate Student 33 1 PhD Student c) Political manipulation 44 1 Post. St. Environment 46 1 Lecturer 38 47 1 PhD Student 48 1 Anthropologist d) Semiotic blur 24 1 Student 50 1 PhD Student Education: Dynamism of the concepts 37 1 Postgraduate Student 45 1 Environmental Manager 47 1 PhD Student 39 Table 4 Q4 - Should or should not environmental managers (EM) get involved in territorial ordering process in Amazon? RESPONSE - ARGUMENT SURVEY No. NVA VA Profession Yes 4 1 PhD St. Evolutionary Genetics In fact they are 22 1 Anthropologist Unsure 52 1 Lecturer: IT & Development 32 1 Teacher Question into Question 6 1 Lecturer Ecology EM 31 1 Postgraduate St Indigenous Peoples as EM 27 1 Anthropologist Yes, for Env. protection (catastrophism) 32 1 Teacher 33 1 PhD Student 42 1 Biologist Yes, EM are the ones (better able that IP) 12 1 Environmental Engineer 18 1 Student 21 1 Taxation 28 1 Lecturer 34 1 PhD student 36 1 Research Engineer 46 1 Lecturer 53 1 Journalist EM provide solutions/ take decisions 23 1 Designer 35 1 Lecturer 38 1 Gardener Yes but listening to others 5 1 Civil Servant 53 1 Journalist If Indigenous Peoples direct EM or projects 1 1 Lecturer: Env. Sociology 10 1 Student 14 1 Economist 41 1 PhD Student EM have equal rights to other stakeholders 2 1 PhD St. Biology 6 1 Lecturer Ecology EM 7 1 Student 29 1 Anthropologist 44 1 Post. Student Not inside IP territories 47 1 PhD Student Yes, if apolitical EM 9 1 Environmental Manager 17 1 Unemployed 37 1 Postgraduate Student Yes for political counteract 26 1 Student EM as facilitators 5 1 Civil Servant 10 1 Student 45 1 Environmental Manager Depends of capacity, ability & quality of EM 24 1 Student 31 1 Postgraduate Student EM tough job: political risk 15 1 Consultant: Health 40 1 Project Co-ordinator (SD) 40 References Adger, W. N., T. A. Benjaminsen, et al. (2001). "Advancing a Political Ecology of Global Environmental Discourses". Development and Change 32: 681-715. Ambrose-Oji, B., T. Allmark, et al. (2002). "The Environmental State and the Forest; of Lookouts, Leopards, and Losers". In The environmental state under pressurence. A. P. J. Mol and F. H. Buttel. Oxford, Elsevier. 10: 149-69. Castells, M. (1996). "The rise of the network society". Cambridge, MA, Blackwell Publishers. Denevan, W. M. (2001). "Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes". Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press. Ecologist (2002). Making it happen. Interview to Martin von Hildebrand. The Ecologist. 32: 44-7. Forero, O. A. (1999). From pure sciences to ethnosciences. A broad perspective on ecosystems analysis and governance. Examining the environmental management problems of the Yaigojé Resguardo Indigenous Reserve in the Colombian Amazon. Ecology and Epidemiology Group. Biological Sciences. Coventry, UK, University of Warwick: 233. --- (2000). "Territoriality and Governance in the Colombian Amazon". Conference: SLAS annual conference- 2000, Hull, (Unpublished). --- (2001). "The March of the Manikins. Agroforestry practices and spiritual dancing in Northwest Amazonia". Conference: Conservation and Sustainable Development -Comparative Perspectives, CCR-University of Yale. New Haven, Connecticut, Unpublished. --- (2002a). "Indigenous knowledge and the scientific mind: Activism or Colonialism?" Conference: Activism as History, History as Activism. History Department, Columbia University, New York. --- (2002b). "Technology in Northwest Amazonia: Sketches form Inside. A contribution to the Political Ecology of Northwest Amazonia." Unpublished. Forero, O. A., R. E. Laborde, et al. (1998). "Colombia: Yaigojé Indigenous Resguardo Natural Reserve". In Indigenous Peoples and Diversity Conservation in Latin America. IWGIA. Copenhagen, IWGIA. Doc. 87. Forero, O. A. and G. Woodgate (2002). "The semantics of 'Human Security' in Northwest Amazonia: between indigenous peoples' 'Management of the World' and the USA's State Security Policy for Latin America". In Human Security and the Environment. M. Redclift. Cheltenham UK and Northampton MA, Edward Elgar. Gómez, A. (1999). "Estructuración socioespacial de la Amazonia Colombina, siglos XIX-XX". In Domínguez, C. F. Cubides. Bogotá, CES, Universidad Nacional de Colombia: 21-40. Gómez, R. (1998). "The Nostalgia of Virtual Community. A Study of computer-mediated communications use in Colombian non-governmental organizations". Information Technology and People 11(3): 217-34. Hardin, G. J. (1998). "The Tragedy of the Commons". In Debating the Earth. The Environmental Politics Reader. S. Dryzek and D. Scholosberg. N.Y., Oxford University Press: 23-34. Myers, N. (1980). Conversion of Tropical Moist Forest: A Report prepared for the Committee on Research Priorities in Tropical Biology of the National Research Council. Washington D.C., National Academy of Sciences. OZIP (2002). SOS from Indigenous Peoples of Putumayo, Znet:http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=9&ItemID=2122. 2002. Rabben, L. (1998). "Unnatural Selection. The Yanomami, the Kayapó and the Onslaught of Civilisation". London, Pluto Press. Sachs, W. (1977). "'Sustainable Development'". In The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology. M. Redclift and G. Woodgate. Cheltenham, UK Northampton, MA, USA, Edward Elgar: 71-82. ---, Ed. (1993). "Global Ecology. A new arena of political conflict". London, Zed Books. Sevilla_Guzmán, E. and G. Woodgate (1997). "'Sustainable rural development': from industrial agriculture to agroecology". In The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology. M. Redclift and G. Woodgate. Cheltenham, UK Northampton, MA, USA, Edward Elgar: 83-100. Stott, P. (1999). Tropical rain forest: a political ecology of hegemonic mythmaking. IEA Studies on the Environment, No 15. London. 41 Stott, P. and S. Dullivan, Eds. (2000). "Political Ecology: Science, Myth and Power". London and N.Y., Arnold. Varese, S. (1996). "The new Environmentalist Movement of Latin American Indigenous Movement pp." In Valuing Local Knowledge. S. Brush and D. Stabinsky. Washington D.C.: 122-144. Weinberg, B. (2001). "Amazonia: Planning the Final Destruction. Mega-Development Threatens Devastation of Indian Ecologies". Native Americas: Hemisphere Journal of Indigenous Issues 450: Fall/Winter.
Background: As an answer to a discourse on a Swedish school in crisis a large edu-political apparatus has been implemented. Arguments on e.g. decreasing results, segregation, and equal opportunities has reinforced a number of actors to enter the educational field – actors here called "edu-preneurs" (Rönnberg, 2017). The actors offer a multitude of products and services and essential parts of everyday schooling thus become outsourced on external actors using education as an arena to reach the core of the society – the children. This process, nurtured by political reforms such as the possibility to profit on public funds (Jober, submitted) has "re-calibrated" the Swedish school – from a government-dominated and unified educational system to an unruly free market (Ball, 2009; Hamilton, 2011). This market and its edu-preneurs will be investigated in the project 'Education Inc.', funded by the Swedish Research Council (Ideland, Axelsson, Jobér & Serder, 2016). The project aims to study how private actors and logics change the conditions for what counts as good education. Three forms of commodification of education, outlined by Molnar (2006), will be studied: (1) actors selling to schools; (2) actors selling in schools; and (3) actors buying for schools. In order to create a baseline for the Education Inc. project this paper describes one the first sub studies. This sub study aims to scrutinise foremost actors selling toschool when presenting themselves and engage with the school community at a school fair. Research Questions: The overarching aims of the Education Inc. project is to study under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences 'edu-preneurial' actors engage in Swedish schools. This particular sub study focus on with what objectives do edu-preneurial companies, NGOs and their employees engage in Swedish school. Objectives: The aim of this sub study is to conceptualise and analyse processes on how good intentions and altruistic objectives are used as arguments to justify actors' place in education. An earlier pre-study (Jobér, submitted) showed that tutoring companies, actors in the educational market, used arguments regarding children with special needs to justify their presence and actions. This pre-study raised a number of questions: Will the companies, whatever good intentions, overlook profit? Are arguments regarding children with special needs used as a lever for businesses to survive and profit rather than to help? Similar has been showed elsewhere (Dovemark & Erixon Arreman, 2017), therefore we claim there is a risk that actors in the educational market will not consider all children as profitable enough. There is therefore a need to scrutinize if money spent (through public funds) will increase profits and exclusion rather than to support inclusion, and in addition, if students with low exchange value fit into a neoliberal market. Theoretical framework: We argue that processes in Sweden, which is a traditionally strong and well-trusted welfare state, have become entangled with neoliberal rationalities (see e.g. Dahlstedt, 2009) and that ways of imagine and practice schooling today are shaped by neoliberal logics (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). The neoliberal state has opened up for a commodification of education (Steiner-Khamsi, 2016) and educational reforms become a way to make up a specific kind of subjectivity (Ong, 2007). The marketization of education is thus not only about earning money, but also about making up meanings and practices of schooling and a certain kind of ideal citizen (Olmedo, Bailey & Ball 2013). This is what Ong (2007) conceptualizes as a neoliberalism which concerns how possible and desirable subjectivities are produced. The questions are what kind of objectives the actors put forward and how this correspond with what kind of desirable subjects that are produced in this neoliberal logic. Method: The sub study presented here will take a closer look at the actors selling to school when they attend a large school fair, SETT, which will take place in Sweden in April. In a pre-study to the larger 'Education Inc.' project this kind of educational 'trade fairs' has been identified as one of the spaces where policy becomes translated and turned into business ideas (Ideland et al, 2006). Observations will take place at this fair by four researchers. The observations will be written down using an observation scheme. The observations will also include photographs of the showcases and the messages that can be found there. In addition the research team will gather advertisement such as flyers and follow ongoing twitter flows. These data will be reflected on within the research group and finally analysed employing an analytical framework developed from the work by Callon (1986, used by, e.g., Hamilton 2011). The aim with this analysis is to more carefully explore how a problem is articulated through the actors and their relationships i.e. the problematisation moment in Callons work (1986). Callon proposes that translation of actions and actors analytically can be studied as four different moments: Problematization, Interessement, Enrolment, and Mobilization. It is the first step, the problematization moment and how a problem is articulated through the actors and their relationship that is in focus here. The problematization is the moment when actors (such as those the selling to schools at the school fair) or clusters of actors articulate a problem. It often involves a focus on a particular goal or a problem to be solved where the actors locate themselves as gatekeepers and problem solvers. Within the problematisation moment, the analysis can show what problems actors enhance (for example, in schools or in society), how do they want to solve these problems, and the argument that makes them indispensable to the problem and action. With this framework we can thus scrutinise with what kind of intentions and objectives these actors engage in Swedish school. Expected Outcomes: The hypothesis is that the observations conducted at this school fair and its following analyses will give insights in with what objectives and intention edu-preneurial companies, NGOs and their employees engage in Swedish school. Building on a pre-study (Jobér, submitted) and earlier research (e.g. Dovemark & Erixon Arreman) the hypothesis is also that the actors will bring forward a number of altruistic arguments. These might regard supporting the society to decrease widening socioeconomic gaps, including children with special needs, opening possibilities to equal opportunities for all, and reaching out to students living in rural areas of Sweden. However, as shown in above earlier studies, these are complicated arguments, given for example that a number of initiatives in the educational market, such as private tutoring, is not used at all by those with low incomes (Björkman, 2014, 21 November). There are reasons to believe that the expected outcomes from this pre-study not only will show what kind of altruistic objectives the actors use to justify their presence but also bring forward initial data that in forthcoming studies can be used to identify if the actors in educational market desire profits rather than inclusion and equal opportunities for all. References: Ball, S. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: network governance and the 'competition state', Journal of Education policy, 24(1), 83-99. Callon, M. (1986). Elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. In J. Law (Ed.), Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? London: Routledge, pp 196-233. Clarke, J. (2002). A new kind of symmetry: Actor-network theories and the new literacy studies. Studies in the Education of Adults, 34(2), 107-122. Dahlstedt, M. (2009). Governing by partnerships: dilemmas in Swedish education policy at the turn of the millennium, Journal of Education Policy, 24(6), 787–801. Dovemark, M. & Erixon Arreman, I. (2017). The implications of school marketisation for students enrolled on introductory programmes in Swedish upper secondary education. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 12(1), 1–14. Hamilton, M. (2011). Unruly Practices: What a sociology of translations can offer to educational policy analysis. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(1), 55–75. Ideland, M., Axelsson, T., Jobér, A. & Serder, M. (2016) Helping hands? Exploring school's external actor-networks. Paper accepted for ECER, Dublin, August 2016. Jobér, A. (submitted). How to become Indispensable: Tutoring Businesses in the Education Landscape. Submitted to Special Issue of Discourse titled Politics by Other Means: STS and Research in Education. Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Molnar, A. (2006). The Commercial Transformation of Public Education, Journal of Education Policy, 21(5), 621-640. Olmedo, A., Bailey, P. L., and Ball, S. J. (2013). To Infinity and Beyond…: heterarchical governance, the Teach For All network in Europe and the making of profits and minds. European Educational Research Journal, 12(4), 492–512. Ong, A. (2007). Neoliberalism as a mobile technology. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 32(1), 3-8. Rizvi, F. & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. London: Routledge. Rönnberg, L. (2017). From national policy-making to global edu-business: Swedish edupreneurs on the move. Journal of Education Policy, 32(2), 234–249. Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2016). Standards are good (for) business: standardised comparison and the private sector in education. Globalisation, Societies and Education 14(2).
This research will focus on the teaching of Italian in primary schools. Italian was among the languages offered as E. L.C.O (language teaching and culture of origin). It is also proposed as a foreign language in primary education, but is in competition with English. The position, objectives and conditions of this teaching / learning have resulted in developments in the official instructions.Chronologically, several schemes have succeeded: the teaching of languages and cultures of origin - ELCO - (originally intended for the children of migrants and still governed by interstate agreements), language awareness projects (supported by the policy of the European Union to develop representations and positive attitudes towards languages), the introduction of foreign language teaching-learning in primary schools (depending on the academic decision in-line with the language map). In 2016, it appears that the state education system is unable to implement a policy that does not systematically lead to the teaching of English.The aim of our research is to describe the setting up of Italian language teaching by highlighting the experience of each of the players involved; two parallel investigation procedures will be examined during this work: the researcher's point of view and his culture (ethical approach) and the thought concepts specific to the social actors studied (emic approach).The first part of the research will focus on the request and implementation of foreign language teaching / learning in the primary education setting. We then describe the variety of situations of this teaching and summarize the phases of its introduction in the French education system.In the second part, we will trace the history of Italian teaching in primary schools in the Rhône department.We will devote the third part to the presentation of our school observation survey encompassing all the players involved in this teaching: students learning in programs seemingly incompatible with each other, willingness of families, the teachers and school heads' reticent attitudes, the language policy of the school Inspectorate, foreign teachers' working conditions .To complete our research, we relied on teachers' discourse and a specific case analysis. This research does not claim to generalize its findings. However, when significant changes took / take place in primary education, it may be useful for all players to have access to qualitative study. This analysis can clarify the particular situation of Italian teaching / learning for children when it is provided by foreign teachers and more especially as no earlier research on this unknown reality has come to light. ; Cette recherche est centrée sur l'enseignement de l'italien au primaire. Cette langue était parmi les langues proposées comme E. L.C.O (Enseignement de langue et culture d'origine). Elle est aussi proposée comme langue vivante dans le primaire, mais elle subit la concurrence de l'anglais. La place, les objectifs et les conditions de cet enseignement/apprentissage ont subi une évolution dans les instructions officielles. Chronologiquement, plusieurs dispositifs se sont succédés : l'enseignement des langues et cultures d'origine – E.L.C.O - (initialement prévu pour les enfants des migrants et encore régi par des accords inter Etats), les projets d'éveil aux langues (soutenus par la politique de l'Union Européenne afin de développer des représentations et des attitudes positives envers les langues), l'introduction de l'enseignement –apprentissage d'une langue vivante au cours de l'école primaire (dépendant du pilotage académique à travers la carte des langues). En 2016, il semblerait que l'Education nationale peine à mettre en place une politique qui ne débouche pas systématiquement sur l'enseignement de l'anglais.L'objectif de notre travail de recherche est de décrire l'installation de l'enseignement d'une langue, l'italien, en mettant en évidence le vécu de chaque protagoniste ; deux procédures d'investigation parallèles seront présentes au cours de ce travail : le point de vue propre au chercheur et à sa culture (étique) et les concepts de pensée propres aux acteurs sociaux étudiés (émique). La première partie de la thèse définit la demande et la mise en place d'un enseignement /apprentissage d'une langue vivante étrangère dans l'enseignement primaire. Nous analysons ensuite la variété des situations de cet enseignement tout en résumant les étapes de son introduction progressive dans le système éducatif français. Dans la deuxième partie, nous retracerons l'histoire de l'enseignement de l'italien au primaire dans le département du Rhône. Nous consacrerons la troisième partie à la présentation de notre travail sur le terrain auprès de tous les protagonistes de cet enseignement : les élèves ballottés entre des programmes a priori incompatibles, la volonté des familles, l'attitude pour le moins réticente des professeurs et des directeurs des écoles, la politique linguistique de l'Inspection Académique, les conditions de travail des intervenants extérieurs.Pour mener à terme notre recherche, nous nous sommes appuyés pour une grande partie sur le discours d'enseignants et sur l'analyse d'un cas précis. Cette recherche ne prétend pas de généraliser ses conclusions ; toutefois au moment où des grands changements ont pris/prennent place dans l'enseignement primaire, il peut être utile pour tous les acteurs concernés de disposer d'étude qualitative. Cette analyse peut éclairer la situation particulière de l'enseignement /apprentissage de l'italien pour les enfants quand celui –ci est assuré par un intervenant extérieur d'autant plus que nous n'avons pas trouvé de traces de recherche antérieure de cette réalité peu/ mal /mé/ connue.
This research will focus on the teaching of Italian in primary schools. Italian was among the languages offered as E. L.C.O (language teaching and culture of origin). It is also proposed as a foreign language in primary education, but is in competition with English. The position, objectives and conditions of this teaching / learning have resulted in developments in the official instructions.Chronologically, several schemes have succeeded: the teaching of languages and cultures of origin - ELCO - (originally intended for the children of migrants and still governed by interstate agreements), language awareness projects (supported by the policy of the European Union to develop representations and positive attitudes towards languages), the introduction of foreign language teaching-learning in primary schools (depending on the academic decision in-line with the language map). In 2016, it appears that the state education system is unable to implement a policy that does not systematically lead to the teaching of English.The aim of our research is to describe the setting up of Italian language teaching by highlighting the experience of each of the players involved; two parallel investigation procedures will be examined during this work: the researcher's point of view and his culture (ethical approach) and the thought concepts specific to the social actors studied (emic approach).The first part of the research will focus on the request and implementation of foreign language teaching / learning in the primary education setting. We then describe the variety of situations of this teaching and summarize the phases of its introduction in the French education system.In the second part, we will trace the history of Italian teaching in primary schools in the Rhône department.We will devote the third part to the presentation of our school observation survey encompassing all the players involved in this teaching: students learning in programs seemingly incompatible with each other, willingness of families, the teachers and school heads' reticent attitudes, the language policy of the school Inspectorate, foreign teachers' working conditions .To complete our research, we relied on teachers' discourse and a specific case analysis. This research does not claim to generalize its findings. However, when significant changes took / take place in primary education, it may be useful for all players to have access to qualitative study. This analysis can clarify the particular situation of Italian teaching / learning for children when it is provided by foreign teachers and more especially as no earlier research on this unknown reality has come to light. ; Cette recherche est centrée sur l'enseignement de l'italien au primaire. Cette langue était parmi les langues proposées comme E. L.C.O (Enseignement de langue et culture d'origine). Elle est aussi proposée comme langue vivante dans le primaire, mais elle subit la concurrence de l'anglais. La place, les objectifs et les conditions de cet enseignement/apprentissage ont subi une évolution dans les instructions officielles. Chronologiquement, plusieurs dispositifs se sont succédés : l'enseignement des langues et cultures d'origine – E.L.C.O - (initialement prévu pour les enfants des migrants et encore régi par des accords inter Etats), les projets d'éveil aux langues (soutenus par la politique de l'Union Européenne afin de développer des représentations et des attitudes positives envers les langues), l'introduction de l'enseignement –apprentissage d'une langue vivante au cours de l'école primaire (dépendant du pilotage académique à travers la carte des langues). En 2016, il semblerait que l'Education nationale peine à mettre en place une politique qui ne débouche pas systématiquement sur l'enseignement de l'anglais.L'objectif de notre travail de recherche est de décrire l'installation de l'enseignement d'une langue, l'italien, en mettant en évidence le vécu de chaque protagoniste ; deux procédures d'investigation parallèles seront présentes au cours de ce travail : le point de vue propre au chercheur et à sa culture (étique) et les concepts de pensée propres aux acteurs sociaux étudiés (émique). La première partie de la thèse définit la demande et la mise en place d'un enseignement /apprentissage d'une langue vivante étrangère dans l'enseignement primaire. Nous analysons ensuite la variété des situations de cet enseignement tout en résumant les étapes de son introduction progressive dans le système éducatif français. Dans la deuxième partie, nous retracerons l'histoire de l'enseignement de l'italien au primaire dans le département du Rhône. Nous consacrerons la troisième partie à la présentation de notre travail sur le terrain auprès de tous les protagonistes de cet enseignement : les élèves ballottés entre des programmes a priori incompatibles, la volonté des familles, l'attitude pour le moins réticente des professeurs et des directeurs des écoles, la politique linguistique de l'Inspection Académique, les conditions de travail des intervenants extérieurs.Pour mener à terme notre recherche, nous nous sommes appuyés pour une grande partie sur le discours d'enseignants et sur l'analyse d'un cas précis. Cette recherche ne prétend pas de généraliser ses conclusions ; toutefois au moment où des grands changements ont pris/prennent place dans l'enseignement primaire, il peut être utile pour tous les acteurs concernés de disposer d'étude qualitative. Cette analyse peut éclairer la situation particulière de l'enseignement /apprentissage de l'italien pour les enfants quand celui –ci est assuré par un intervenant extérieur d'autant plus que nous n'avons pas trouvé de traces de recherche antérieure de cette réalité peu/ mal /mé/ connue.
The nature of Dutch democracy, once considered a highly stable product of cooperation, compromise and consensus-seeking practices across socioeconomic and sociocultural lines, has changed. Whereas the accessibility and levels (not forms) of participation have changed little, autocratically led protest parties have won ground and in the polls draw support from a stable 15% – 17% of the electorate. Corruption prevention in politics, especially regarding party finances, appears to fall under the bar of international standards. Political rhetoric has grown increasingly polarized (or politicized) as the political middle is waning and extreme positions on either side are on the rise. The Dutch media landscape remains highly pluralistic, although there are some concerns about the growing concentration of media ownership, a situation aggravated by the present financial economic crisis, rapid commercialization, and international ownership of national media outlets. In legal arrangements, citizens" right to privacy is subject to pressures from the information revolution and the massive use of information technology (IT) in all kinds of policy fields, primarily relating to internal and external security. In addition, some conspicuous miscarriages of justice have spawned a public debate on the quality of the justice system, including the need for a special court charged with handling mistrials. Anti-terrorism and integration policies have put considerable pressure on the exercise of basic political liberties, such as the freedoms of speech, religion and press as well as protection against unreasonable search and seizure actions. Tough immigration laws have come under international legal scrutiny, in particular where the rights of children and family reunion are concerned. In short, although the quality of Dutch democracy remains satisfactory, it has suffered several blows in several areas. Policy-specific performance during the Balkenende IV government – the coalition cabinet formed by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Labor (PvdA) and Christian Union (CU) parties – was in general incremental, save for the proposal to phase-in an extension of the pension age to 67 that was adopted by the cabinet in 2009. Policy performance in matters relating to internal and external safety remained adequate, although at rising public cost. The Health Care Insurance Act (Zvw) of 2006 was continued, although its impact on cost control issues and enhancing market-like competition between health care providers remains unclear. Stagnation continues to characterize environmental, research and development, and innovation policies alike. No changes have been made to education Netherlands report SGI 2011 | 4 policy, although it is now generally judged to be in crisis. Serious concerns have been raised about the lack of good teachers, literacy and numeracy skills among elementary students, and high attrition rates at all levels of education. As is the case in most other European countries, the financial and banking crisis (followed by the euro crisis) has proven detrimental to economic policy performance, which negatively affects prospects in almost all other policy areas. Strategic Outlook The long-term viability of the D utch polity depends on the acumen with which the three following challenges are treated: the state"s weakened fiscal position; facilitating technology innovation in order to develop an ecologically modernized and sustainable economy; and societal integration and coherence. (1) Improving the state"s weakened fiscal position. The state"s financial problems can in large part be attributed to recent bailouts of Dutch banks and financial businesses, as well as individual euro zone countries and the euro itself. An effective long-term solution to these fiscal problems therefore requires (domestic as well as European-level) reforms involving stricter regulation and oversight in order to improve risk-management. The Dutch government must also undertake substantive reforms in the banking and financial sector. (2) Improve technology innovation in order to ensure an ecologically modernized and sustainable economy. The Dutch government must invest more wisely in efforts targeting the transition to renewable and alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar energy. The government will also need to pursue a structural reform of the education system, which is in a state of crisis. (3) Facilitate societal integration and coherence while implementing flexicurity policies. The Dutch welfare state urgently needs reforms that ensure continued investment in human capital while protecting workers and families from the brunt of structural adjustments. Opportunities for combining work and family life ought to be expanded and improved. The pension system and the moribund state of its financial underpinning must also undergo reforms. Social coherence will not be advanced through tighter immigration and citizenship policies. Instead, policies focused on urban and residential area renewal should be sustained through adequate funding. Netherlands report SGI 2011 | 5 A sound, functional democracy requires clearly structured forms of issue-specific, interactive policy-making in which citizens" voices are represented. In tripartite governance structures like that of the Netherlands, the primacy of politics vis-à-vis markets and civil society ought to be reconfirmed. Where possible, politics should respect the self-regulation of citizen life and markets. But as the only institution capable of regulating tripartite relations, the state must also live up to its responsibilities in maintaining the framework in which democratic decision-making takes place.
Reality shows cast relatively diverse groups with the intention of seeing whether conflict or harmony will result. Success in reality competitions is often achieved through the development of alliances and strategic relationships and the process by which these unions form can be sociologically fascinating to watch. Yet, sociology, in method and theory, has rarely been applied to the analysis of reality television. This is not to say that reality television has not been examined academically. In fact, there is a growing body of research, primarily conducted by communication studies scholars, that takes this type of television seriously. Thus, there is a foundation for teaching the sociology of reality television and excellent resources for doing so.Author recommendsAndrejevic, Mark 2004. Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.This book was one of the first monographs on reality television. Andrejevic looks at the significance of the 'digital era' and the idea of how genres like reality television encourage interactivity. He was able to interview cast members of reality programs and analyze their experiences, a body of data not available elsewhere. Also, Andrejevic discusses multiple shows including Survivor, The Real World, and Big Brother.Brenton, Sam and Reuben Cohen 2003. Shooting People: Adventures in Reality TV. London, UK: Verso.Although not a piece of scholarly research, this book would be useful in a course on reality television or new media as it raises questions regarding ethics in the genre and it is also very readable and engaging. Brenton and Cohen discuss underpublicized controversial episodes in reality television production and ask at what cost to society and participants are these shows made. They ponder the future of reality television and where and when lines will be drawn as to what is too invasive or private or inhumane to be broadcast.Dubrofsky, Rachel 2006. 'The Bachelor: Whiteness in the Harem.'Critical Studies in Media Communication 23: 39–56.Dubrofsky looks at depictions of race and gender on the reality dating show The Bachelor. She notes how shows like this privilege whiteness through casting and editing. The Bachelor occasionally makes use of racial and ethnic minorities as exotic others when it serves the show to contrast such contestants. This is a good example of how racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes can be reinforced by media.Hill, Annette 2005. Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. London, UK: Routledge.Hill is one of few researchers who has conducted detailed audience analysis. Using survey research and ethnographic methods, Hill looks at the ways viewers watch and interpret reality shows. She discusses motivations for watching, what appealed to viewers and what did not, and the degree to which viewers take what they see as real.Jones, Janet Megan 2003. 'Show Your Real Face: A Fan Study of the UK Big Brother Transmission (2000, 2001, 2002). Investigating the Boundaries between Notions of Consumers and Producers of Factual Television.'New Media & Society 5: 400–21.Janet Megan Jones conducted a three‐wave survey of 8,000 viewers of Big Brother UK in order to determine what audiences respond to on the program, particularly which characters and characteristics are most appealing. She argues that viewers enter into a 'personalized reality contract' with the show and the contestants in which they suspend their disbelief regarding the constructed nature of the show. Fans search for the truth or reality within the unreal environment; even though they know the show and its premise are contrived. This is one of the most comprehensive pieces of audience research and its interesting findings should generate class discussion.Misra, Joya 2000. 'Integrating The Real World into Introduction to Sociology: Making Sociological Concepts Real.'Teaching Sociology 28: 346–363.A guide to using clips from the reality program, The Real World, to teach sociology. The principles suggested in this article may be useful in stimulating use of clips from reality programs generally and specifically.Escoffrey, David S. 2006. How Real Is Reality TV? Essays on Representation and Truth. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Holmes, Su and Deborah Jermyn (eds) 2004. Understanding Reality Television. London, UK: Routledge.Murray, Susan and Laurie Ouellette (eds) 2004. Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture. New York, NY: New York University Press.These three edited volumes are excellent collections of articles about reality television. All deal with production, content, and consumption. Any would be suitable as a text for class as they all contain interesting chapters that cover themes like defining the genre, the reality television industry, political culture, and representations of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.Online materialsTo my knowledge, there are no online resources specifically dealing with academic analysis of reality television. However, there are some Web sites that would be useful for exploration and incorporation in a course and in course projects. http://www.nielsen.com/ The Nielsen media group, who conduct the Nielsen ratings of television viewing, provides a limited amount of free information regarding viewing patterns on its Web site. There is some material regarding ratings and some reports that can be accessed here. Information about grants and internships and other resources for students are also available on this site. http://www.realitytvworld.com This Web site contains comprehensive listings and information about reality shows, past and present. If you are unfamiliar with a particular reality show or students are unfamiliar, this Web site could be consulted for background information. Links to news articles about reality shows and contestants are also listed here. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com Television Without Pity provides very detailed recaps and discussion forums for selected television programs, including many reality shows (including America's Next Top Model, Survivor, Big Brother, The Biggest Loser, Project Runway, and Top Chef). If you are studying a show in depth or analyzing a particular show and miss an episode or want detailed summaries to use in class, this site is quite useful.Sample syllabus Course Outline and Selected Reading Assignments 1. Studying television from a sociological perspective Ang, Ien 1985. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. New York, NY: Routledge.Gamson, Joshua 1998. Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Grindstaff, Laura and Joseph Turow 2006. 'Video Cultures: Television Sociology in the "New TV" Age.'Annual Review of Sociology 32:103–25. 2. Foundations of reality television Baker, Sean 2003. 'From Dragnet to Survivor: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Reality Television.' Pp. 57–72 in Survivor Lessons: Essays on Communication and Reality Television, edited by Matthew J. Smith and Andrew F. Wood. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Biressi, Anita and Heather Nunn 2005. Reality TV: Realism and Revelation. London, UK: Wallflower Press.Cavender, Gray and Mark Fishman 1998. 'Television Reality Crime Programs: Context and History.' Pp. 1–18 in Entertaining Crime: Television Reality Programs, edited by Mark Fishman and Gray Cavender. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.Clissold, Bradley D. 2004. 'Candid Camera and the Origins of Reality TV: Contextualising a Historical Precedent.' Pp. 33–53 in Understanding Reality Television, edited by Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn. London, UK: Routledge.Corner, John 2002. 'Performing the Real: Documentary Diversions.'Television & New Media 3: 255–269.Gillan, Jennifer 2004. 'From Ozzie Nelson to Ozzy Osbourne: the Genesis and Development of the Reality (Star) Sitcom.' Pp. 54–70 in Understanding Reality Television, edited by Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn. London, UK: Routledge.McCarthy, Anna 2004. '"Stanley Milgram, Allen Funt, and Me": Postwar Social Science and the "First Wave" of Reality Television.' Pp. 19–39 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, UK: New York University Press. 3. Defining a genre Biressi, Anita and Heather Nunn 2005. Reality TV: Realism and Revelation. London, UK: Wallflower Press.Bignell, Jonathan 2005. Big Brother: Reality TV in the Twenty‐First Century. New York, NY: Palgrave.Fetveit, Arild 1999. 'Reality TV in the Digital Era: A Paradox in Visual Culture?'Media, Culture & Society 21: 787–804.Holmes, Su and Deborah Jermyn 2004b. 'Introduction: Understanding Reality TV.' Pp. 1–32 in Understanding Reality Television, edited by Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn. London, UK: Routledge.Kilborn, Richard 1994. '"How Real Can You Get?" Recent Developments in "Reality" Television.'European Journal of Communication 9: 421–39.Murray, Susan 2004. '"I Think We Need a New Name For It": The Meeting of Documentary and Reality TV.' Pp. 40–56 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, NY: New York University Press. 4. Production of reality Andrejevic, Mark 2004. Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Brenton, Sam and Reuben Cohen 2003. Shooting People: Adventures in Reality TV. London, UK: Verso.Couldry, Nick 2004. 'Teaching Us to Fake It: The Ritualized Norms of Television's Reality Games.' Pp. 57–74 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette, 57–74. New York, NY: New York University Press. 5. Images, stereotypes, and issues of content a. Representation and stereotypes Andrejevic, Mark and Dean Colby 2006. Racism and Reality TV: The Case of MTV's Road Rules. Pp. 195–211 in How Real is Reality TV? Essays on Representation and Truth, edited by David S. Escoffrey. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Callais, Todd M. and Melissa Szozda 2006. 'Female Police Officers and Reality Television: Analyzing the Presentation of Police Work in Popular Culture.' Pp. 133–48 in How Real Is Reality TV? Essays on Representation and Truth, edited by David S. Escoffrey. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Dubrofsky, Rachel 2006. 'The Bachelor: Whiteness in the Harem.'Critical Studies in Media Communication 23: 39–56.Heinricy, Shana 2006. 'The Cutting Room: Gendered American Dreams on Plastic Surgery TV.' Pp. 149–64 in How Real is Reality TV? Essays on Representation and Truth, edited by David S. Escoffrey. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Johnston, Elizabeth 2006. 'How Women Really Are: Disturbing Parallels between Reality Television and 18th Century Fiction.' Pp. 115–32 in How Real Is Reality TV? Essays on Representation and Truth, edited by David S. Escoffrey. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Kraszewski, Jon 2004. 'Country Hicks and Urban Cliques: Mediating Race, Reality, and Liberalism on MTV's The Real World.' Pp. 179–196 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, NY: New York University Press.LeBesco, Kathleen 2004. 'Got to be Real: Mediating Gayness on Survivor.' Pp. 271–87 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, NY: New York University Press.Rapping, Elaine 2004. 'Aliens, Nomads, Mad Dogs, and Road Warriors: The Changing Face of Criminal Violence on TV.' Pp. 214–230 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, NY: New York University Press.Stephens, Rebecca L. 2004. 'Socially Soothing Stories? Gender, Race and Class in TLC's a Wedding Story and a Baby Story.' Pp. 191–210 in Understanding Reality Television, edited by Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn. London, NY: Routledge. b. Other analyses of content Cavender, Gray 2004. 'In Search of Community on Reality TV: America's Most Wanted and Survivor.' Pp. 154–72 in Understanding Reality Television, edited by Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn. London, UK: Routledge.Propp, Kathleen M. 2003. 'Metaphors of Survival: A Textual Analysis of the Decision‐Making Strategies of the Survivor Contestants.' Pp. 111–31 in Survivor Lessons: Essays on Communication and Reality Television, edited by Matthew J. Smith and Andrew F. Wood. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Wingenbach, Ed 2003. 'Survivor, Social Choice, and the Impediments to Political Rationality: Reality TV as Social Science Experiment.' Pp. 132–152 in Survivor Lessons: Essays on Communication and Reality Television, edited by. Matthew J. Smith and Andrew F. Wood. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 6. Audience response and analysis Crew, Richard E. 2006. 'Viewer Interpretations of Reality Television: How Real Is Survivor for Its Viewers?' Pp. 61–77 in How Real Is Reality TV? Essays on Representation and Truth, edited by David S. Escoffrey. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.Hill, Annette 2005. Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. London, UK: Routledge.Jones, Janet Megan 2003. 'Show Your Real Face: A Fan Study of the UK Big Brother Transmission (2000, 2001, 2002). Investigating the Boundaries between Notions of Consumers and Producers of Factual Television.'New Media & Society 5: 400–21.Ticknell, Estella and Parvati Raghuram 2004. 'Big Brother: Reconfiguring the "Active" Audience of cultural studies?' Pp. 252–69 in Understanding Reality Television, edited by Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn. London, UK: Routledge.Wilson, Pamela 2004. 'Jamming Big Brother: Webcasting, Audience Intervention, and Narrative Activism.' Pp. 323–43 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, NY: New York University Press.Zurbriggen, Eileen L. and Elizabeth M. Morgan 2006. 'Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? Reality Dating Television Programs, Attitudes Toward Sex, and Sexual Behaviors.'Sex Roles 54: 1–17. 7. The business of reality television Brenton, Sam and Reuben Cohen 2003. Shooting People: Adventures in Reality TV. London, UK: Verso.Madger, Ted. 2004. 'The End of TV 101: Reality Programs, Formats, and the New Business of Television.' Pp. 119–36 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, NY: New York University Press.Raphael, Chad 2004. 'The Political Origins of Reali‐TV.' Pp. 119–36 in Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette. New York, NY: New York University Press.Films and videosSurvivorOne of the earlier and more influential (in the USA) reality television series; some seasons are available in their entirety on DVD. Survivor is a show where 16 people live in a remote area with no modern conveniences. Every 3 days, participants compete in challenges and the outcome of these challenges determines which contestants are subject to being voted out of the game. At the end of the approximate 40 days, ousted players vote for who they believe should be the winner of the game. There are many in class analyses that can be done in conjunction with readings. Most reality shows would work in this manner (Big Brother, The Bachelor, The Amazing Race, Top Chef, etc.). Stereotyping, group dynamics, ethics, representations of reality are all themes that can be explored using episodes of Survivor. 1900 House (or any other PBS reality show). http://www.pbs.org/wnet/1900house/In this show, a family volunteered to live in a house that was set up to replicate the conditions of 1900. It is a good contrast to reality programs that air on network television, in terms of production values, editing, casting, etc. A professor might show clips from 1900 House and clips from Survivor and compare and contrast in a discussion of audience, entertainment, the reality of reality television, etc. The Reality of Reality TV (produced by Bravo, September 2003). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381797/This six episode miniseries featured an analysis of reality television production. It is likely to be difficult to find; however, if one is able to access it, it would be useful in to show in class. I mention it because there are no other comparable programs that I am aware of.Project ideasRepresentations of race, class, gender, and/or sexuality This assignment is intended to have students measure representations of race, gender, sexuality, and social class on reality shows. Students should watch a particular series throughout the semester or for several weeks. They should be given coding sheets (which can be designed in class) where they take note of representations of things like race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. For example, if they were assigned or chose to focus on representations of gender and sexuality, they might note the way men and women are dressed, emphasis on different body parts and body images, the amount of attention directed to appearance both by the contestants/participants and the editors, terms used to refer to women and men, activities that men and women are shown participating in, skills or tactics women and men are shown using to make alliances and/or win challenges. Students should write a paper where they describe these representations of gender and discuss whether or not they feel this is reflective of actual reality, with supporting evidence from academic articles on gender and sexuality. They should also discuss the implications of these images and whether or not such representations matter.Fan discussion of reality television This assignment is intended to expose fans to the ways in which viewers make meaning of and interact with reality shows. Direct students to a Web site for fans of reality television that allows nonmembers to browse or 'lurk' in forums (e.g. http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/cgi‐bin/dcboard.cgi; http://forum.realityfanforum.com/)Have the students review topics on message boards and several pages (10–12) of message board dialogue in order to determine the ways in which fans use message boards, the subjects they discuss, whether or not they accept the dominant reading offered by the shows, their awareness of editing and production, popular and unpopular contestants, etc.Students should write a paper in which they discuss the ways in which viewers make meaning of and interact with reality shows, noting specifically how technology can change the relationship between viewers and producers and television programs.
In: Decision analysis: a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, INFORMS, Band 9, Heft 1, S. 76-79
ISSN: 1545-8504
Enrico Diecidue (" Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability ") is an associate professor of decision sciences at INSEAD (France) and holds a Ph.D. from the CentER (Center for Economic Research), Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Since 2001 he has been a resident faculty member at INSEAD, except for 2008-2009 when he was a visiting professor at Wharton and 2010-2011 when he was on sabbatical at the Erasmus School of Economics (the Netherlands). His main research interests are in individual decision making under uncertainty, health decisions, and experimental economics. He is interested in the role of regret, aspiration levels, and time in individual decisions. His current research is also addressing the role of groups in complex and ambiguous decisions. Enrico's research has appeared in leading journals in economics and management. He is an associate editor of Decision Analysis and on the editorial board of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. He teaches MBA, executive MBA, and executive participants on topics such as uncertainty, data and judgment; decision making under uncertainty, and management decision making. He has won teaching awards at INSEAD and Wharton. Address: INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77305 Fontainebleau Cedex, France; email: enrico.diecidue@insead.edu . Seth Guikema (" Robust Adversarial Risk Analysis: A Level-k Approach ") is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, a professor II (adjunct) in the Department of Industrial Economics, Risk Management, and Planning at the University of Stavanger (Norway), and a senior analyst with Innovative Decisions Inc. He received his Ph.D. in risk and decision analysis from Stanford University and a B.S., M.S., and M.E. in civil and environmental engineering. Address: Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, 205 Ames Hall, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218; email: sguikema@jhu.edu . L. Robin Keller (" From the Editor: Decisions over Time (Exploding Offers or Purchase Regret), in Game Settings (Embedded Nash Bargaining or Adversarial Games), and in Influence Diagrams ") is a professor of operations and decision technologies in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. in management science and her B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has served as a program director for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Her research is on decision analysis and risk analysis for business and policy decisions and has been funded by NSF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her research interests cover multiple attribute decision making, riskiness, fairness, probability judgments, ambiguity of probabilities or outcomes, risk analysis (for terrorism, environmental, health, and safety risks), time preferences, problem structuring, cross-cultural decisions, and medical decision making. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Decision Analysis, published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She is a Fellow of INFORMS and has held numerous roles in INFORMS, including board member and chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. She is a recipient of the George F. Kimball Medal from INFORMS. She has served as the decision analyst on three National Academy of Sciences committees. Address: Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3125; email: lrkeller@uci.edu . Yijing Li (" A Framework for Solving Hybrid Influence Diagrams Containing Deterministic Conditional Distributions ") is a doctoral student in decision sciences/supply chain management in the School of Business at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Her research interests include inference in Bayesian networks and influence diagrams, and topics in supply chain management. She has taught courses such as introduction to supply chain management. She received her B.A. in economics and B.S. in mathematics from Wuhan University in China in 2005, and she completed her M.A. in economics from the University of Kansas in 2007. Address: School of Business, Summerfield Hall, University of Kansas, 1300 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-7601; email: yjl@ku.edu . Steven A. Lippman (" Exploding Offers "; " Embedded Nash Bargaining: Risk Aversion and Impatience ") is Distinguished Professor and George Robbins Professor of Management at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his B.A. in economics and statistics from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University. Professor Lippman has published more than 80 papers, some of which have appeared in Management Science, Operations Research, American Economic Review, the Bell Journal of Economics, and Econometrica. His research interests have included inventory theory, dynamic programming, queueing optimization, game theory, decision analysis, and microeconomics. He is best known for his work on the economics of search with John J. McCall as well as for his papers "On Dynamic Programming with Unbounded Rewards," "Uncertain Imitability: An Analysis of Interfirm Differences in Efficiency Under Competition" with Richard Rumelt, and "The Competitive Newsboy" with Kevin McCardle. He has taught negotiations analysis to M.B.A. students for the last 17 years. Address: Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481; email: slippman@anderson.ucla.edu . John W. Mamer (" Exploding Offers ") is a professor at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received a B.S. degree in mathematics and a B.A. degree in economics from the University of California, Davis, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Haas School at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include decision making under uncertainty, applied probability, game theory, and optimization. His work has appeared in Management Science, Journal of Economic Theory, Mathematics of Operations Research, Naval Research Logistics, and INFORMS Journal on Computing. His teaching responsibilities include probability and statistics, which he has taught to M.B.A. students for the past 12 years. Address: Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481; email: jmamer@anderson.ucla.edu . Kevin F. McCardle (" Embedded Nash Bargaining: Risk Aversion and Impatience ") is a professor of decisions, operations and technology management at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interest is in mathematical models of decision making. He and Steven Lippman have had a long and productive collaboration: their first jointly authored paper was published in 1987. Professor McCardle served on the faculty at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University from 1985 until 1999, when he joined the faculty at Anderson. His primary teaching responsibility has been to make the required course in probability and statistics palatable to M.B.A. students. For that effort he has won teaching awards at both Fuqua and Anderson. From 2007 to 2010 he was senior associate dean and director of the M.B.A. program at Anderson. He has been an associate editor at Operations Research, Management Science, and Decision Analysis, and he is currently area editor at Operations Research for decision analysis and on the editorial board of Decision Analysis. He serves as chair of the board of St. Joseph Center, a charitable social-service agency in west Los Angeles. Address: Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481; email: kevin.mccardle@anderson.ucla.edu . Laura McLay (" Robust Adversarial Risk Analysis: A Level-k Approach ") is an assistant professor of statistical sciences and operations research at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Her research interests are in the field of operations research, with a particular focus on discrete optimization and algorithm design with application to homeland security and emergency response problems. Dr. McLay's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Army. She has authored or coauthored more than 30 publications in archival journals and refereed proceedings. Dr. McLay is the recipient of the Outstanding IIE Publication Award and has received one best paper award for coauthored proceedings papers to the IIE Annual Conference and Expo. She has been named a fellow in the NSF-sponsored program Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards and Disaster Researchers. Address: Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, 4111 Harris Hall, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1015 Floyd Avenue, P.O. Box 843083, Richmond, VA 23284; email: lamclay@vcu.edu . Casey Rothschild (" Robust Adversarial Risk Analysis: A Level-k Approach ") is an economic theorist who studies applications of game theory, risk and insurance, and public economics. His research interests include the government's role in regulating private insurance markets, the optimal design of income tax systems, the evolution of cooperation and conflict, and terrorism risk. His articles have appeared in a variety of outlets, including the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Economic Theory, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, and the Journal of Theoretical Biology. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006, and has since taught at Middlebury College, MIT, Columbia, and Wellesley College. Address: Department of Economics, PNE 414, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481; email: crothsch@wellesley.edu . Nils Rudi (" Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability ") is an associate professor of technology and operations management at INSEAD. His research is in operations management with overlap to information systems, marketing, psychology, and finance. He has been focusing on supply chain management and how one can use different strategies (e.g., variety postponement, real options, flexibility, financial hedging, and incentive structures) to better handle demand uncertainty. After high school, Nils worked for three years as a computer programmer of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems at Movex. He then formed Minard, specializing in decision support systems for forecasting and inventory management. Minard did an initial public offering and went public on the Oslo Stock Exchange (Norway) in 1996. Before joining INSEAD, Nils worked at the University of Rochester for six years. He holds a Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Pennsylvania. Address: INSEAD, 1 Ayer Rajah Avenue, 138676 Singapore; email: nils.rudi@insead.edu . Prakash P. Shenoy (" A Framework for Solving Hybrid Influence Diagrams Containing Deterministic Conditional Distributions ") is the Ronald G. Harper Distinguished Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Business, University of Kansas at Lawrence. His research interests are in the areas of uncertain reasoning and decision analysis. He is the inventor of "valuation-based systems," an abstract framework for knowledge representation and inference that includes Bayesian probabilities, Dempster–Shafer belief functions, Spohn's kappa calculus, Zadeh's possibility theory, propositional logic, optimization using dynamic programming, Bayesian decision making, solving systems of equations, database retrieval, and other domains. He is also a coauthor (with Glenn Shafer) of the "Shenoy–Shafer architecture" for computing marginals of joint distributions using local computation. He received a B.Tech. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, in 1973, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in operations research from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in 1975 and 1977, respectively. Address: School of Business, Summerfield Hall, University of Kansas, 1300 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045-7601; email: pshenoy@ku.edu . Wenjie Tang (" Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability ") is assistant professor of quantitative methods at IE Business School and holds a Ph.D. from INSEAD. Her main research interests are individual decision making and supply chain management, both theoretically and experimentally. Professor Tang joined IE Business School in 2011, and has been teaching quantitative methods for the International M.B.A. program. Address: IE Business School, Calle de Maria de Molina, 13, 28002 Madrid, Spain; email: wenjie.tang@ie.edu .
