Suchergebnisse

An important goal in the intensive conservation management of New Zealand's critically endangered nocturnal parrot, kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), is to increase the frequency of breeding attempts. Kakapo breeding does not occur annually but rather correlates with 3–5-year cycles in 'mast' seeding/fruiting of kakapo food plants, most notably podocarps such as rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum). Here we advance a hypothetical mechanism for the linking of kakapo breeding with such 'mast' seeding/fruiting. The essence of the hypothesis is that exposure to low levels of dietary phytochemicals may, in combination with hepatic gene 'memory', sensitise egg yolk protein genes, expressed in female kakapo livers, to oestrogens derived from developing ovarian follicles. Only in those years when the egg yolk protein genes have been sufficiently 'pre-sensitised' by dietary chemicals do kakapo ovarian follicles develop to ovulation and egg-laying occurs. While speculative, this hypothesis is both physiologically and evolutionarily plausible and suggests both future research directions and relatively simple interventions that may afford conservation workers some influence over kakapo breeding frequency.

In conversation with Ferreras's proposal for economic bicameralism, the current article makes the case for a more direct confrontation between conceptions of economic democracy and the realities of racial capitalism. In particular, it considers how efforts to expand power and voice for workers must contend with the racial hierarchy that marks the socioeconomic division of labor and the related use of racial distinctions to thwart labor solidarity. Focusing on the American context, the argument draws inspiration from the work and vision of two key figures in the unfinished struggle for Black liberation, W. E. B. Du Bois and Fannie Lou Hamer. After recapping core elements of Ferreras's proposal, the article briefly examines the historical evolution of racial capitalism, starting with its roots in slavery and conquest. It then considers how movements agitating for greater worker power have intervened within this landscape. Against this backdrop, it draws lessons for how economic bicameralism might fit within a broader set of struggles that challenge racial capitalism as it exists today.

Relatedness has been largely acknowledged as a major driver of regional diversification: new industries grow out of technologically related industries by means of combinatorial knowledge dynamics and branching processes. However, by emphasizing the role of firms and entrepreneurs in new path creation, evolutionary scholars have not only underplayed the role of extra-regional actors, linkages and networks, but also the role of national state strategies and wider political economic relations. The research seeks to advance our knowledge and evidence about regional industrial diversification by tackling specific gaps in the literature in three distinct but interdependent contributions. The first paper proposes a systematization of the debate on related vs. unrelated diversification, with a focus on the latter and its implications for uneven regional development and sustainability transitions. The second paper analyses the role of two sets of drivers, namely technological relatedness and innovation policies, on the emergence of new Revealed Technological Advantages in the United States (1981-2010), providing evidence for both drivers by means of econometric estimations. The third paper deploys the concept of «related variety», as formulated by Boschma (2005) and Frenken, van Oort and Verburg (2007), to verify if well-diversified and interdependent creative industries determine more pronounced local creative employment growth in the Italian provinces (2008-2010), with corroborating findings.