Strains in Sustainability Debates: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science through the Lens of Extension Agents in a Pastoral Region

Those involved in sustainability debates on developmental pathways concur in the synergistic potential of integrating traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and Western scientific approaches. Transhumant pastoralism is a livelihood strategy adapted to spatiotemporal environmental variability in many mountainous and arid regions worldwide. This form of livelihood is based on a mobile logic that is increasingly threatened by novel lifestyles promoted from a Western mind-set and by climate change. The aim of this article is to identify and characterize the different perspectives of environmental and social issues in a pastoral region and their association with labor collaboration among extension agents, framed in an institutional action. We tackled the inquiry about viewpoints with Q methodology and related it to regional problems, alternative solutions, and future development pathways for transhumant pastoralism and landscape management in northwest Patagonia. We identified six perspectives and characterized them with their topological position in the social network. Mediating positions registered the highest network centrality of labor collaborations among agents, whereas more dominant perspectives emphasizing TEK or scientific knowledge registered intermediate centrality. There was consensus on the need for sustainable developmental options, but the emphasis on combining knowledge still needs convergent solutions.     

The role of woodpeckers (family: Picidae) as ecosystem engineers in urban parks: a case study in the city of Madrid (Spain)

Urban Ecosystems - Many species of the family Picidae, such as the woodpeckers, excavate the tree-cavities where they nest. Frequently the cavities are used during a single breeding season and...     

Optimal classification scores based on multivariate marker transformations

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - Modern science frequently involves the study of complex relationships among effects and factors. Flexible statistical tools are commonly used to visualize...     

Using geotagged tweets to track population movements to and from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

Population and Environment - After a disaster, there is an urgent need for information on population mobility. Our analysis examines the suitability of Twitter data for measuring post-disaster...     

Knowledge extraction from a large on-line survey: a case study for a higher education corporate marketing

For a higher education public institution, young in relative terms, featuring local competition with another private and both long-established and reputed one, it is of great importance to become a reference university institution to be better known and felt with identification in the society it belongs to and ultimately to reach a good position within the European Higher Education Area. These considerations have made the university governors setting up the objective of achieving an adequate management of the university institutional brand focused on its logo and on image promotion, leading to the establishment of a university shop as it is considered a highly adequate instrument for such promotion. In this context, an on-line survey is launched on three different kinds of members of the institution, resulting in a large data sample. Different kinds of variables are analysed through appropriate exploratory multivariate techniques (symmetrical methods) and regression-related techniques (non-symmetrical methods). An advocacy for such combination is given as a conclusion. The application of statistical techniques of data and text mining provides us with empirical insights about the institution members’ perceptions and helps us to extract some facts valuable to establish policies that would improve the corporate identity and the success of the corporate shop.     

Female executives and the glass ceiling in Spain

This paper examines the findings of a survey of the personal, educational and professional profiles of a sample of male and female senior executives of companies operating in Spain. The women were found to be younger; they had fewer children, resorted to more domestic help, and earned less than the men, although they often had higher qualifications. Yet cultural patterns and institutional barriers still prevent them from making full use of their capabilities. In spite of recent legislative efforts to promote gender equity at work, more than nine out of ten senior executives are still men.     

Characterizing best–worst voting systems in the scoring context

An increasing body of theoretical and empirical work on discrete choice considers a choice design in which a person is asked to select both the best and the worst alternative in an available set of alternatives, in contrast to more traditional tasks, such as where the person is asked to: select the best alternative; select the worst alternative; rank the alternatives. Here we consider voting systems motivated by such “best–worst” choice; characterize a class of “best–worst” voting systems in terms of a set of axioms in the context of scoring rules; and discuss briefly possible extensions to approval–disapproval systems.