Above and Below the Water: Social/Ecological Transformation in Northwest Newfoundland

Marine fisheries and fishing societies develop around the resources provided by a particular ecosystem. As they exploit these resources, fisheries transform the ecosystem, which pushes fishery and society to adapt in turn. This process is illustrated by fisheries, ecological and social data tracking dramatic changes on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula and its adjacent marine ecosystem, the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. There a longstanding fishery for cod and other groundfish collapsed in the 1990s, and was replaced by fisheries targeting invertebrates. The new invertebrate fisheries have different socioeconomic characteristics than the former groundfish fisheries. The shift in target species reflects deep ecological changes that were underway at least a decade before official recognition of the crisis. Our analysis of biological data reveals that the main ecological changes occurred during the glory years of the 1980s, when Newfoundland's domestic fisheries were at their peak. Overfishing and interactions with adverse climatic conditions drove the changes. As the ecosystem transformed, human population declined due to outmigration, and social indicators show signs of distress. Accounts by outport residents paint a generational picture of social change.     

A Quantitative Investigation of the Population-Land Inequality-Land Clearance Nexus

This paper provides a quantitative investigation of the population-land inequality-land clearance nexus. Drawing on the literature on farmer optimization behaviour, the study formalizes and empirically tests a model of population-induced agricultural land clearance. The model makes several assumptions about this process: (a) The rate at which agricultural land is brought into production due to rising population pressures accelerates with the level of inequality in access to land, (b) Egalitarian systems have a greater capacity to absorb rising numbers of people per unit of land area and, thus, will have lower rates of agricultural land clearance than higher ones and (c) Irrespective of its degree of egalitarianism, the capacity of any system to hold people in one place will eventually break down once a critical population threshold is reached. Due to their lower population absorptive capacity, this level will be reached sooner under unequal systems of land distribution. Thus, the model also hypothesizes that the stimulatory impact of population growth on the demand for new land will exhibit a non-linear threshold pattern. For the farmer, the decision to clear a new plot of land will reflect these population-inequality interactions: Earnings from farming in settled areas will tend to fall as population densities and inequality in access to land increase. Time series results confirm that rural population growth is a significant factor driving agricultural land clearance in many of the 59 developing countries of our sample. Results also suggest that this rate of clearance is largest in countries with highly inegalitarian patterns of distribution. In contrast, cross-sectional regression results do not suggest any direct role for land inequality in population-agricultural land use outcomes. Contrary to the models assumption that this relationship should follow a non-linear threshold pattern, cross-sectional results also find no evidence that the absorptive capacity of highly densely populated land systems has been reached on average. However, they do provide support for an indirect linear relationship: Population induced agricultural land clearance is significantly magnified as inequality in access to land increases. Drawing on the empirics of the growth-inequality literature, the study suggests that this magnifying role may be linked to inequalitys impact on the assets of the poor. That is, by undermining the capacity of the rural poor to make productive investments in the land base, inequality in land distribution mediates population pressures in a way that affects both the quality and quantity of assets available to the poor to raise incomes, invest in skills accumulation, and spur demand in the rural economy as a whole.     

Abstract Aggregations and Proximity Preservation: An Impossibility Result

An impossibility result for completely abstract social aggregation rules is presented. It is shown that non-imposition and a new no-veto property (two properties in the spirit of the Pareto principle and non-dictatorship respectively) are incompatible with an inter-profile consistency condition formulated in terms of proximity preservation.The result in this paper has been presented in the Staff Seminar at the University of Graz and at the 2001 Meeting of the Public Choice Society in San Antonio. We are grateful to all participants, especially Hannu Nurmi and Don Saari, and to an anonymous referee for helpful comments.     

The Popular Debate about Low Fertility: An Analysis of the German Press, 1993–2001

Despite increasing research on the causes, consequences, and measurement of low fertility, questions about the nature and the extent of popular concerns over low fertility have yielded more speculation than examination. We address this gap in the literature through an analysis of 328 German newspaper and news magazine articles mentioning low fertility from 1993 to 2001. Our analysis reveals a paradox: while fertility rates have remained well below replacement levels and governmental discussions of low fertility have increased, discussion of low fertility as a concern in and of itself has been small and unchanging over time. We find this to be true because the problem of low fertility is rarely invoked as a concern in its own right, but is most often used as a tool in the popular debate to discuss other problems – political, economic, and cultural.     

Wenn alle tatsächlich in einem Boot sitzen — Eine Studie zur Identifikation mit der Schule im Kontext einer erlebnispädagogischen Gruppenerfahrung

We report on the results of an experience-pedagogic project on the identification of pupils from a technical school with their classes and school. The analysis is done from a perspective of organisational psychology and group dynamics, which is influenced by the social Identity Approach. It is stipulated that the experiences of a communal out-of-school activity strengthens the organisational identification. Additionally, it is verified whether the attitudes of the pupils towards their classes, and the participation in lessons, changes by influence of the project. The study shows a positive effect of this experience on organisational identity, attitudes toward the school, and behavioural intentions.     

Zerbrochene Liebe: Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten in den Ursachenzuschreibungen der beiden Partner — Eine Interviewstudie —

This essay analyses the subjective attribution processes of six couples after the separation. The theoretical basis for this exploration of attributions is a classification scheme (Debler, W. 1984) with dimensions location, stability, globalisation and control. The result is the predominating manifestation of external attribution in the sense of making the partner responsible. The hypothesis that all cases of women desiring the separation show a stronger internal attribution cannot be confirmed. In a second evaluation, concrete attributions in connection with communication, personal characteristics of the partner, birth of the first child and sexuality are pointed out in the context of the overall stories. In connection with personal characteristics of the partners the phenomenon of “changing attribution” can be observed — a trait of the partner that initially rated positive is seen as a cause of separation at the end of the relationship.     

A Lusin theorem for a class of Choquet capacities

We extend the Lusin Theorem to supermodular Dempster capacities. Received: July 2000; revised version: May 2001     

Vernichtung durch Kommunikation — aufgezeigt am Phänomen „Mobbing“

Annihilation through communication — the case of mobbingThere is sufficient clarity about the forms, the processes and the consequences of mobbing. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of theoretical explanations of this phenomenon. Based on a newly developed understanding of community and its expression in interpersonal communication the author sees mobbing as a case of extremely incongruent communication over a longer period of time among more than two individuals, with the aim of excluding individuals from the process of communication. Mobbing is thus an abuse of communication for the purpose of excommunication. Drawing on these arguments the author finally discusses means of prevention and intervention.     

Ergebnisse der Mediengewaltforschung: Überblick und Probleme

Results of media violence research: Overview and problemsOn the basis of massive acts of violence of children and young people the question arises to what extent the media make a contribution to these incidents. The results of empirical media research about the effects of the consumption of violence representations in the media are collected. As the basis for the argumentation predominantly the existing metaanalysis in the international research literature were used; with these can be convincingly argued against those theses, put again and again into the public in order to weaken the importance of medium influence. The theses set up in the public discourse are arranged thereby in the sense of an ?encyclopaedia of popular mistakes“, which are analyzed critically and disproved.On the basis of a multifactor model about the emergence of acts of violence the ways of how medium representations can affect behaviour are delineated. The view presented actually in the empirical media research corresponds neither to the frequently postulated and roughly simplifying imitation thesis, still to the simple stimulus-reaction hypothesis. However, in the public discussion these and other simplifying assumptions are reiterated again and again in order to diminish the responsibility of the media. It is also to be considered that subjective evidences, after which such effects are denied, are even explanation-needy facts, which since a long time are well documented in the social-psychological research as ?Third person effect“. Additionally suggestions are made, which measures within the diverse social fields against the media flood and its effects are to be taken.     

Einführung von Coaching Ein Schulleiter kann es nicht immer allen recht machen

Coaching with a headmasterThe author describes a coaching process with a headmaster in difficulties, who always wants to please everybody. He lacks the necessary professional delimitation. Though refusing it initially, he recognizes the necessity and the advantage of a professional delimitation. By utilizing it in small steps, his contacts to the parents improve, he has more time for his administrative work, and he feels less oppressed by his tasks.