Social dynamic

Many intertwined factors contribute to sustainability in the desert settlements of Birdsville and Bedourie. Taking one factor, the commitment to, and achievement of, full employment for all local residents, this paper draws data from a larger research project ...

major scientific progress in the application of biotechnology in agriculture, public attitudes towards biotechnology in general and genetically modified food (GM food) products in particular remain mixed in Africa. Examining responses on acceptance of GM food through a stakeholder survey in Ghana, it was established that half of the 100 people sample interviewed were not in favor of GM foods. To this group acceptance of GM foods would make farmers loose focus on the traditional ways of cultivation, putting the whole nation at the mercy of profit driven foreign companies who produce GM foods. In order to have clear and unbiased attitudes towards agricultural biotechnology in Africa, there is the need to substitute dominant ideologies in the way biotechnology research and dissemination are conducted in developed countries with tailor-made methodologies in developing countries. This paper emphasizes the social dynamic force of food focusing on the need for social shaping of biotechnolo...

Sustainability is the core element of government policies, university research projects, and extension organizations worldwide. Yet, the results of several decades of attempt to achieve sustainable agriculture have not been satisfactory. Despite some improvement still conventional agriculture is the dominant paradigm. Pollution of water, soil, and air, degradation of environmental resources, and loss of biodiversity are still the by-product of agricultural systems. In light of these crises and an attempt to find the way out this paper, based on review of current literature, it is argued that in promoting sustainable agriculture our perception should shift from a technocratic approach to a social negotiation process that reflects the social circumstances and the power conditions. Agriculture should be regarded as an activity of human; therefore, it is social as much as it is agronomic and ecological. Therefore, the aim of this review paper is to explore the contribution of sociology toward achieving agricultural sustainability. The review reveals that agricultural sustainability can no longer ignore the human dimension and social dynamics that are the core elements of agricultural development. Although the agricultural and ecological sciences are vital, social sciences must play their role to analyze the human dimension, which is central to understanding and achieving agricultural sustainability. The contributions of sociology of sustainable agriculture are in exploring the relationship between farmers’ attitudes and their sustainable farming practices, understanding the gender impact, offering different sustainability paradigms, providing different models of predicting adoption of sustainable practices, and finally informing decision makers regarding the social impacts of their sustainability decisions. Major findings are discussed and appropriate recommendations are provided.

This paper makes a contribution to the study of impoliteness. More particularly, it explores conventionalised impoliteness formulae and their basis. It taps into debates about whether impoliteness (or politeness, for that matter) can be inherent in expressions, and argues that there is a sense in which it can. An important foundation for this paper is 67 and 68 work on formulaic politeness expressions. However, it argues that Terkourafi's strong focus on the frequency of people's direct experience of linguistic expressions in specific contexts, whilst appropriate for politeness, does not entirely suit an account of conventionalised impoliteness formulae. Indirect experience of impoliteness, especially via metadiscourse, does much to shape what counts as impolite and thus what may be conventionalised as impolite. Such impoliteness metadiscourse is driven not only by the salience of impoliteness, but by the social dynamics of impoliteness itself. Finally, this paper proposes two methods for identifying conventionalised impoliteness formulae (one being akin to Terkourafi's method), and offers a preliminary list of such formulae in English.

This paper emerges from a growing sense of disquiet over the regularity and often loosely utilised appearance of the concept 'rural restructuring' in the literature. The paper examines rural restructuring from two perspectives: as an analytical approach that emphasizes the need for a holistic view of change processes; and, as a statement on the character of change in the countryside. The argument put forward is that restructuring ideas have much to commend them as an approach, even if theoretical improvement will require more diversity in 'starting' theoretical perspectives and a stronger willingness to engage with other theoretical stances when the weaknesses of a 'starting' perspective are revealed. This will entail approaching questions of rural restructuring from a broader range of perspectives than currently dominant visions, which are grounded in political economy. In exploring restructuring ideas as 'facts', the paper focuses on England, as this is a country in which rural restructuring is commonly reported to have occurred or be occurring. The paper argues that this vision of the English countryside is too poorly articulated and that support for this vision is far from convincing. It cautions that restructuring processes are less widespread than is often implied. Moreover, there are grounds for seeing restructuring processes are reifying the past, not heralding a new social dynamic.

Since November 1997 the Madagascar Fauna Group has released 13 captive-bred black and white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata variegata) into the Betampona Reserve in eastern Madagascar. The release programme has three major aims: (1) to assess the ability of captive-bred V. v. variegata to adapt to life in their natural habitat; (2) to investigate the contribution that such a release programme can make to reinforcing the existing small wild population of V. v. variegata in Betampona; and (3) to contribute to the long-term protection and conservation of the reserve. Criteria for the selection of release candidates, veterinary screening and pre-release experience in naturalistic environments are described and discussed. Methods for post-release monitoring of health and behaviour are covered in detail. The importance of considering the social dynamics of the species involved is emphasised. The survival of five of the releasees, plus successful reproduction and integration with the wild population have led to the conclusion that the release was a success.

Studies of the social dynamics in foraging groups have focused primarily on birds, rodents and nonhuman primates. We extended the study of animal social tactics to the domestic pig, Sus scrofa, by using an experimental analogue of natural foraging skills, the 'informed forager' paradigm. We investigated the behaviour of 16 pigs foraging in pairs in an arena in which food had been hidden in one of eight monopolizable buckets. Before each pair trial, one of the pigs, the 'informed' pig, was given privileged knowledge about the location of the food during a solitary search trial. The 'noninformed' pig was naïve about the location of the food during pair trials, but heavier than its informed partner and thus able to displace the latter from the baited bucket. By first focusing on the informed pigs' behaviour, we show that pigs are able to remember and relocate the food site. They found the food in relocation trials, using fewer bucket investigations than expected of a random searcher. Second, by focusing on the noninformed pigs, we show that pigs are able to exploit the knowledge of others by following them to a food source. They investigated more buckets immediately after their informed partners significantly more often than expected by chance and required fewer bucket investigations to find the food in pair trials than expected from a random searcher, but not in solitary search trials. We discuss these latter findings with reference to social foraging tactics. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Abstract: What makes computer-mediated groups tick and/or stick? To what degree are computermediated discussants really sustained “groups”? Does the grouping quality reflect anything beyond technical structure? Are technical structure and grouping related? How do threads define groups, or viceversa? Does any of this change between academic and commercial networks? We propose that one useful perspective for studying group CMC is interactivity. Interactivity is a theoretical construct that grapples with the origins of ...

This article suggests that the focus of the labour movement on jobs could be broadened to include environmental issues, and particularly the protection of natural resources which form the basis of local livelihoods. However, this requires an understanding of development that is not centred only on notions of economic growth and intensive resource use. This assertion is illustrated with reference to a case study based on research undertaken on the social dynamics involved in a proposed mining project on the Wild Coast of South Africa, named the Xolobeni Heavy Minerals Sands Project. The central argument of this article is that the affected communities’ focus is on protecting natural resources from the threat of mining, both potentially as a source of ‘green jobs’ and, most importantly, as an existing source of livelihoods. This, in turn, has implications for how poverty is understood. This understanding potentially holds significant relevance for the labour movement in developing societies, as it has implications for how they conceive of development and its relation to the environment.

This paper adapts Holt's typology of consumption practices to illuminate consumption practices within the context of British consumers and their household pets. The photo-elicitation technique, autodriving, is used to elicit stories from our participants concerning their cats and dogs. Holt's typology provides a strong foundation for illuminating the consumption practices described in these stories. However, in order to capture the cultural meanings and social dynamics that animate these consumption practices more fully, we propose extending Holt's framework so as to incorporate (1) the agency of the animal; (2) the incidence of literal play; and (3) the moral values underlying consuming as classification. This paper concludes with a discussion on the value of our proposed additions in relation to future cultural studies of human–animal relations and to future cultural studies of consumption in general.

What makes computer-mediated groups tick and/or stick? To what degree are computer- mediated discussants really sustained "groups"? Does the grouping quality reflect anything beyond tech- nical structure? Are technical structure and grouping related? How do threads define groups, or vice- versa? Does any of this change between academic and commercial networks? We propose that one useful perspective for studying group

Thema des Beitrags ist das 'growth miracle' (William Baumol) des modernen Kapitalismus. Die These ist, dass die historisch völlig einzigartige gesellschaftliche Dynamik des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts sich als 'wirtschaftliches Wachstum' allein nicht zureichend fassen lässt. Ihre Erklärung verlangt vielmehr nach einem genuin soziologischen Ansatz. Zunächst werden die vorliegenden modernisierungstheoretischen Erklärungsversuche kritisch resümiert und eine alternative soziologische Theorieperspektive aufgezeigt, die