Forum 2: the migrant climate: resilience,adaptation and the ontopolitics of mobility in the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT

While modernist or ‘top-down’, ‘command-and-control’ approaches to climate and migration worked at the surface or ontic level of the redistribution of entities in time and space, resilience approaches call for a different approach to mobility. These discourses construct mobilities that are more transformative; in fact, ones that question traditional liberal modernist notions of time and space and of entities with fixed essences. These mobilities do not concern moving entities in space but rethinking mobility in relation to space. Mobility then becomes more a matter of changing the understandings and practices relating to spaces and entities than of moving things from one place to another. Becoming ‘mobile’ thus would apply to the development of capabilities or ‘response-abilities’ to sense, adapt, recompose, repurpose and reimagine problems and possibilities; taking responses to crises beyond the static and binary conceptions of mobility and space.     

Sociodicies of (im)mobility: moral evaluations of stasis,departure and return in an emigrant village (Shenzhen,China)

Inhabitants of Pine Mansion, a former emigrant village in a present-day Chinese megacity, hold an ambivalent and nuanced morally laden discourse about migration. This paper takes up several of the challenges issued by the ‘regimes of mobility’ approach, and focuses on people’s moral justifications of (im)mobility. I build upon Boltanski’s sociology of critique to analyze how these narratives constitute sociodicies, explanatory schemes that retrospectively justify and evaluate past ‘choices’ and compare the destinies of those who stayed in the village and those who migrated abroad. Paying attention to sociodicies of (im)mobility fosters an understanding of the dynamics of change in the representations of migration and of the interplay between local understandings and state nationalist discourses. They furthermore reverse the tendency to present stasis and departure as the respective expressions of a deprivation and a manifestation of agency.     

Exploring Perceived Discrimination Among LGBT Individuals in Turkey in Education,Employment, and Health Care: Results of an Online Survey

This article explores the discrimination practices encountered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in education, income, employment, and health care in Turkey. Limited quantitative data on LGBT individuals are available in Turkey. This study collected data from 2,875 LGBT individuals through a Web-based survey. The findings suggest that LGBT individuals report perceived direct and indirect discrimination in accessing education, employment, and health care. In a country where LGBT rights are not yet recognized and antidiscrimination legislation covering sexual orientation and gender identity is still nonexistent, findings demonstrate perceived discrimination of LGBTs rarely turns into a legal complaint. Even when they do, most LGBTs in our sample report that they did not feel that the justice system addressed their grievances.     

Seasonal change of nest survival and related aspects in an aggregation ofLasioglossum duplex (Dalla torre), a eusocial halictine bee (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)

Summary Nest survival in an aggregation of a eusocial halictine bee,Lasioglossum duplex, was censused through an annual cycle. Out of 2,500 nests marked at the beginning of solitary phase in the spring, only 25.5% attained eusocial phase. But 60.5% of 636 nests attaining eusocial phase successfully produced sexual offspring. This shows that solitary phase is the most vulnerable period in the annual cycle. A very low productivity in eusocial phase in the census year was clarified from examination of 99 nests in the autumn. The number of prospective foundresses surviving to the next year was estimated upon the number of brood cells in examined nests and of old females surviving these nests. Deviation between this estimate and the number of nests made in the next spring was 8.8%, confirming a drop of population size to less than one third in the next year. Some nests solitarily made in the summer by dispersed females were examined. Productivity in such nests was extremely low, hence these nests should contribute virtually nothing to the next generation. Possible factors affecting the low productivity in eusocial phase were enumerated though none of these were supported by concrete evidence. Some considerations were given on the relation between obtained results and colony life cycle in eusocial insects, particularly in halictine bees. Bionomics of the eusocial halictine bee,Lasioglossum duplex. VI.     

中国乡城人口流动与城镇出生人口性别比——基于“五普”数据的分析

本文利用中国第五次人口普查1‰抽样数据,以城镇区域人口为重点,定量分析了农村人口流动对城镇地区人口出生性别比,以及农村流入城镇人口子女性别的影响。研究发现,中国农村未流动人口、农村流入城镇人口和城镇非农村流入人口的出生性别比均偏离了出生性别比的正常水平,农村人口流动影响了城镇地区生育性别,农村流入城镇人口相对较强的男孩偏好观念加剧了城镇地区出生性别比偏高。     

The Level and Age Pattern of Mortality in Bandafassi (Eastern Senegal): Results From a Small-Scale and Intensive Multi-Round Survey

The data collected in the Bandafassi demographic study in Eastern Senegal, a small-scale intensive and experimental follow-up survey of a population of about 7,000 in 1983, were analysed to derive an estimated life table. The use of multi-round surveys, combined with anthropological methods to estimate ages and collect genealogies, has resulted in unusually reliable data. Taking into account the uncertainty of the estimates due to the small size of the population, mortality was high, with life-expectancy at birth close to 31 years; a pattern of infant and child mortality close to that observed in other rural areas of Senegal, with a very high level or mortality between ages six months and three years; a seasonal pattern in child mortality with two high-risk periods, the rainy season and the end of the dry season; an adult mortality pattern similar to that described in model life tables for developed countries; no significant difference by sex or ethnic group. The Bandafassi population study and a few similar studies suggest that one possible way to improve demographic estimates in countries where vital registration systems are defective would be to set up a sample of population laboratories where intensive methods of data collection would continue for extended periods.     

Women's Experiences of Work in the Iranian Broadcast Media (IRIB): Motivations,challenges, and achievements

This paper examines Muslim women's work experiences in the Iranian broadcast media (IRIB) through a study of their motivations, challenges, and achievements. These women have resisted family and social constraints that prevent them from working in broadcast media; (re)constructed a new identity for themselves as Muslim women active in modern media; reformed some restrictions and pushed back conservative norms and regulations in the organization; and improved the representation of women in the broadcast media. Before the 1979 revolution, many religious communities and families were deeply skeptical about film and broadcast industries. It was deemed that such media were instruments of decadence and “Westernization.” For many practicing Muslim women, working in the broadcast media at that time was not an option. Since the 1979 revolution, and the assumption that the media has become “Islamic,” many religious women have begun working in broadcast media. Using data from thirty semi-structured interviews with these women, it can be seen that Iranian Muslim women have negotiated a better space in IRIB, although they are still far from equal with men. These women have constructed new, complex identities that go beyond simplistic dichotomies such as traditional/modern, submissive/liberated, and religious/secular.     

Selection and reproductive success in males of the dragonfly,Orthetrum japonicum (Odonata: Libellulidae)

Reproductive success, copulation success, and mating success were measured for a population of male dragonflies,Orthetrum japonicum. Copulation success explained the greatest variation in reproductive success. The proportion of copulations followed by oviposition was positively correlated with the number of oviposited eggs per mating. Directional selection on four morphological characters was estimated. The effect of selection on correlated traits was comparable to that of direct selection. Directional selection varied between traits and between episodes in a single trait. The probability that the observed directional selection on the four morphological traits was expected under the condition of the selective neutrality of traits was not smaller than 5%.     

Host plant conspicuousness and the distribution of eggs and larvae in the butterfly,Anthocharis scolymus (Lepidoptera: Pieridae)

Summary We investigated how the distribution pattern of eggs and larval on the host plant,Turritus glabra, was influenced by the oviposition behavior of the pierid butterflyAnthocharis scolymus. Females searched for the host plants visually and they frequently approached taller host plants with sparse surrounding vegetation. After encountering host plants, oviposition behavior of females was independent of host plant characteristics such as height, density, and type of surrounding vegetation. A female laid eggs singly on a host plants. Most females appeared to lay their eggs regardless of the presense of eggs on the host plant. Consequently egg and larva tended to be abundant on conspicuous host plants as measured by height or relative isolation from other plants. However, overcrowding of eggs on an individual host decreased the survival rate of larvae.     

Spatio-temporal variation of natural and sexual selection in breeding populations of the coreid bug,Colpula lativentris (Heteroptera: Coreidae)

Spatio-temporal variations of lifetime reproductive succes (LRS) of both male and female individuals of a coreid bugColpula lativentris were measured and analyzed using the multiple regression method of Arnold and Wade (1984a, b). The standardized variance of LRS was larger in males than that in females as males often to secure mates for a long period whereas females could easily find mates and oviposit simply dependent on ovarial maturation. LRS was partitioned into 4 consecutive fitness components: (1) reproductive lifespan, (2) copulating efficiency, (3) guarding efficiency (for males) or oviposition efficiency (for females), and (4) number of eggs per clutch. In males copulating efficiency was the largest determining factor of LRS, whereas in females reproductive lifespan was the most important factor. Such tendencies were stable on both a yearly and local basis. Patterns of relative contribution of natural selection (reproductive lifespan and number of eggs per clutch) and sexual selection (copulating efficiency and guarding or oviposition efficiency) to LRS were clearly different between males and females. This sexual difference is, at least to some extent, thought to be brought about by sexual selection among males for mating opportunity, though no physical fight was observed among males. Directional selection on body length was found only in relation to the clutch size of females because large females tended to lay larger clutches. No significant directional selection was found in other fitness components.     

Genetic changes of life history and behavioral traits during mass-rearing in the melon Fly,Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Quantitative genetic studies for life history and behavioral traits are important in quality control for insect mass-rearing programs. Firstly, a brief history of quality control in mass-reared insects is described. Next, the differentiation of many traits of wild and mass-reared melon flies,Bactrocera cucurbitae, in Okinawa is reviewed, and the factors which have caused variation in these traits are considered. As artificial selection pressures are thought to be more important than inbreeding depression and genetic drift in the mass-reared strain of the Okinawan melon fly, two artificial selection experiments were conducted to evaluate genetic variations and genetic correlations among life history and behavioral traits. These are divergent selections for age at reproduction and for developmental period. The genetic relationship among 5 traits, i.e. longevity, age at reproduction, developmental period, circadian period, and time of mating was clarified and discussed in relation to genetic changes of traits during the mass-rearing. The results suggest that the genetic trade-off relationships between traits should be taken into account in mass-rearing programs.     

我国出生性别比失衡区域的识别、特点及成因——基于县(市)级层面的分析

本文采用地理信息系统(GIS)的空间分析技术,利用地理信息系统分析软件(ARCView GIS)、探索性空间分析技术软件(GeoDA)、社会科学统计软件包(SPSS)等软件,对1982年、1990年和2000年三次全国人口普查的县域截面数据进行了分析。通过空间分析,识别出我国高出生性别比聚集的热点区域,并进一步对其分布、演变特点和成因进行了较深入研究,试图找到热点区域分布及变化的规律性特点。在此基础上,提出了热点区治理和跨区域治理相结合的政策思路。     

Receptivity of female remating and sperm number in the sperm storage organ in the bean bug,Riptortus clavatus (Heteroptera: Alydidae)

This study examines the relationship between the number of sperm in the seminal receptacle (spermatheca) and the receptivity of female remating in the bean bugRiptortus clavatus Thunberg. On the 21 st day after the first mating when receptivity to remating was > 70%, females receptive to remating had significantly fewer sperm ( < 40 on average) in the spermathecae than females reluctant to do (about 150 on average). However, averages of the number of eggs laid by receptive and reluctant females within 21 days were almost same. The proportion of fertilized eggs for receptive females at 15–21 days after copulation was significantly lower than that for reluctant females. Spermatozoa transferred from a male to a female’s spermatheca were detected 5 min after copulation and then increased continuously to about 500 with the first hour. When copulation durations were manipulated artificially, the shorter the copulation period (=females had less sperm in their spermathecae), the higher the remating rate became. Females may perceive the number of sperm in their seminal receptacles and then determine whether they copulate or not. These results support the hypothesis that females mate multiply in order to replenish inadequate sperm supplies to fertilize all eggs produced.     

The effects of wild cruciferous host plants on morphology, reproductive performance and flight activity in the diamondback moth,Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae)

The wild crucifers,Rorippa indica andLepidium virginicum, are known to serve as host plants for the diamondback moth (DBM),Plutella xylostella, but they are less suitable than the preferred cultivated cruciferous plant, cabbage, in terms of adult body size and fecundity. The life history traits and flight activity of DBM adults grown on various host plants were investigated. The adults thus reared on each host plant were divided into three size groups (small, medium and large). In general, female adults grown on the wild crucifers were less fecund and lived longer than those reared on cabbage. Flight activity was higher in adults grown on wild crucifers than in those reared on cabbage. Male adults flew longer than females. Fecundity, longevity, flight activity and morphometrical characters of adults were positively correlated with pupal weight in individuals reared on the same host plant. A negative relationship was found between fecundity and flight activity in females of the same size group, but a positive one was observed in females reared on the same host plant.     

Genetic correlation of wing polymorphism between females and males in the oriental chinch bug,Cavelerius saccharivorus Okajima (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae)

Summary Genetic correlations of the wing form and the relative wing length between females and males were estimated in the oriental chinch bug,Cavelerius saccharivorus, by calculating the correlation between the sexes of the proportion macropterous or the mean relative wing length in full-sib families obtained from different wing forms of parents emerged in a high density population. There was a significantly positive genetic correlation between the sexes in both the proportion macropterous and the mean relative wing length. However, the appearance rate of macropters tended to be much lower in males than in females under the rearing conditions which promote the appearance of macropters. This was evident especially in the offspring of brachypterous parents. These indicated that inC. saccharivorus the wing polymorphism of males is not a simple result of the genetic correlation of wing morphology between the two sexes. It was considered that both of the female and male fitness advantages to wing reduction, as well as the genetic correlation between the sexes, would influence the evolution of wing polymorphism in this species.     

Social structure and the defensive role of soldiers in a eusocial bamboo aphid,Pseudoregma bambucicola (Homoptera: Aphididae): A test of the defence-optimization hypothesis

A complete understanding of the evolution of sociality in aphids requires a detailed knowledge of the patterns of soldier investment in their ecology. The eusocial bamboo aphidPseudoregma bambucicola has a morphologically specialized first-instar soldier caste. The proportion of soldiers was positively correlated with colony size. Within a colony, soldiers were evenly distributed among subcolonies; within each subcolony, however, their distribution was biased toward peripheries which were exposed to many predators. Field experiments introducing natural enemies such asEupeodes confrater (Diptera: Syrphidae) andSynonycha grandis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) revealed that the survival rate of these predators was negatively correlated with the density of soldiers, suggesting that soldiers can more or less defend their colonies by killing or removing a range of natural enemies. Observations suggest that large mature colonies attract more predators than newly established small colonies and that, within a colony, the predators attack each subcolony regardless of its position on bamboo shoots. This implies the presence of a positive correlation between colony size and predation risk. Thus, the investment in soldiers seems to reflect the attacking pattern of predators within a colony. These results agree with the defence-optimization hypothesis in soldier investment ofP. bambucicola colonies.     

Life table analysis of the green rice leafhopper,Nephotettix virescens (distant) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), and efficient vector of rice tungro disease in asynchronous rice fields in Indonesia

Summary Population dynamics ofNephotettix virescens was studied in 17 paddy fields transplanted at intervals of about 1 month in 1988–1990. The adult density was highest either in the immigrant or the 1st generation and sharply decreased to the 2nd generation. The survival rate of the 1st generation was lowest in the transition season when areal population density increased. Key factor analysis revealed that the nymphal and adult mortality of the 1st generation (kn) was the principal source of population fluctuations. No significant correaltion was found between kn and natural enemy density, natural enemy density/healthy egg density, or the precipitation during the nymphal period. On these bases adult emigration was suspected to be the key factor. Areal population build-up ofN. virescens in the transition season was considered to occur as a result of increasing immigration to young stages of rice. Contribution from Indonesia-Japan Joint Program on Food Crop Protection (ATA 162), which was implemented by the Directorate of Food Crop Protection, Ministry of Agriculture, Indonesia and Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan.     

The Best and Worst Times of Life: Narratives and Assessments of Subjective Well-Being by Anamnestic Comparative Self Assessment (ACSA) in the Eastern Cape,South Africa

The Anamnestic Comparative Self Assessment (ACSA) measure of subjective well-being (SWB) aims to reduce the problems of cultural bias and relativity to external standards by allowing people to define the endpoints or ‘anchors’ of the measurement scale. In medical terminology anamnestic denotes ‘based on memory’. The ACSA uses subjects’ memories of the best and worst periods in their lives to define the anchors of the scale. They then assess their current quality of life relative to these personal anchors. The South African pilot study tested the match between self-assessment of SWB with ACSA and the conventional single-item measures of life satisfaction and happiness used in the South African Quality of Life Trends Study and analysed the narratives of the best and worst times of life. The quota sample of 46 consisted of 26 residents of Makana district in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and 20 patients undergoing treatment in the local TB hospital. Mean SWB ratings with all three measures of life satisfaction, happiness and ACSA were between 5 and 6 on a 0–10-point scale. Ratings on all three scales were positively correlated. However, on ACSA the TB patients rated their current SWB 1.84 points lower than the community respondents, suggesting a greater sensitivity of this measure. It was observed that the starting points of the life stories produced by respondents to define the anchor periods for ACSA were related to their current assessment of SWB. A typology was developed that combined the starting point of the life stories with current SWB. The majority of community respondents matched the ‘Achiever’ type who scored positively on ACSA (i.e., above the mid-point of the scale) and whose life stories started with the worst period of their lives and proceeded to the best period. The TB patients were the only respondents to represent the ‘Survivor’ type whose morale had recovered after misfortune in life. ‘Survivors’ started their narratives with the best period in their lives, then moved to the worst (often health-related) one, and gave positive ACSA ratings. Based on the qualitative analysis of narratives, it is concluded that ACSA is a sensitive measurement instrument and therefore particularly useful for monitoring the effects of treatments and social interventions in longitudinal studies. However, further research is required to verify its cross-cultural validity.

Effects of interspecific competition on development and reproduction in two giant water bugs,Diplonychus japonicus vuillefroy andDiplonychus major esaki (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae)

Summary We studied the interpecific competition between 2 species of predatory aquatic bugs,Diplonychus japonicus andD. major by conducting a field experiment. We set up 3 types of experimental plots in the paddy fields whereD. major predominated. The two plots contained single species of eitherD. japonicus orD. major, respectively, and one plot had both species in equal number. We compared the development and the reproductive performance between plots in each species. InD. japonicus, the number of eggs and early instar nymphs were significantly smaller in the plots containing both species than in the monospecific plots. However, the numbers of late instar nymphs and newly emerged adults were not significantly different between plots. The proportions of starved nymphs in both plots were larger than those in theD. japonicus's natural habitats. The final densities of adults in both plots were lower than those in the natural habitats. These results suggest that lower density ofD. japonicus in these paddy fields is due to the lack of available food for nymphs rather than the effects of interspecific competition withD. major. InD. major, significant differences were not found in the number of eggs, each instar nymphs and adults. These results suggest that the effects of interspecific competition did not affect the reproductive performance ofD. major.     

Spatial relationships between mate acquisition probability and aggregation size in a gregarious coreid bug, (Colpula lativentris): A case of the ideal free distribution under perceptual constraints

Summary Spatial relationships of mate acquisition probability for individuals of both sexes of a gregariously-mating coreid bug,Colpula lativentris, were studied in relation to aggregation size. Operational sex ratio was always strongly male biased. Mate acquisition probability of females was rather constant and independent of aggregation size, as predicted by an ideal free distribution. Moreover laboratory experiments showed that both multiple mating and rearing density little affected female fecundity, suggesting ideal free distribution of females in terms of reproductive success. On the other hand, mate acquisition probability of males was higher in larger aggregations, where more receptive females were available. This male discrepancy from an ideal free distribution was similar to the patterns predicted by an ideal free distribution under perceptual constraints (Abrahams, 1986), but not by that under unequal competitive ability.