Search results for "ecological system"

External Developmental Assets and Positive Identity Among Emerging Adults in Norway, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey

2021

The present study adopts The Developmental Assets and Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspectives which (in contrast to the deficit-based approaches which highlight risks and deficit in youth development) claim that young people have potencies to achieve optimal development if supported by their social environment. Extant research indicates that developmental assets are linked with a variety of thriving indicators. The present research aimed to contribute to the PYD research by examining the external developmental assets (support, empowerment, and boundaries and expectations) emerging adults (N= 2055; age range = 18–28) perceived in their social environment and the level of their positive…

PUBLIC POLICY PLANNING TO ENHANCE THE RESILIENCE OF SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS TO CLIMATE CHANGE: OPERATIONALIZING RESILIENCE CONCEPTS FROM A DYNAMIC P…

This study outlines a system dynamic based approach to the planning for resilience in food systems to climate change. The processes described and the insights gained are novel in the literature since they focus on describing operational aspects of resilience that can be generalized to multiple contexts and problems. On the one hand, the process described offers an aid for researchers and practitioners operationalizing resilience in public sector settings. Simultaneously, the insights gained from multiple stakeholder discussions and modelling work open new questions regarding the general mechanisms driving resilience in food systems. Climate change is threatening the extent to which social, …

Conservation of traditional rural biotopes in Finland : a social-ecological approach

2018

This research focuses on conservation of traditional rural biotopes, which are biodiverse meadows and wood-pastures that are dependent on management through grazing or mowing. These low-intensity management actions have become rare as a result of agricultural modernisation. I have utilised a social-ecological approach in order to seek for the most critical factors hindering conservation of traditional rural biotopes in Finland. I also explore practical solutions that have the potential to improve their conservation status. The coverage of traditional rural biotopes has faced severe habitat loss during the last 150 years. This has led to endangerment of several habitat types and species that…

Current agri-environmental policies dismiss varied perceptions and discourses on management of traditional rural biotopes

2017

Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are threatened habitats that host significant biodiversity and several ecosystem services, and depend on active management such as low-intensity grazing. The current study explores private landowners’ decision-making on TRB management and abandonment within a social-ecological system framework. We provide insight into supporting resilience of TRB systems in the face of agricultural modernization. Using a mixed methods approach with content analysis and Q analysis, we demonstrate that TRB management fosters cultural, biological, aesthetic, and utilitarian values. These are reflected in different ways through conservationist's, profit-oriented farmer's, lands…

Transitions through the dynamics of adaptive cycles : Evolution of the Finnish agrifood system

2023

CONTEXT The escalating sustainability problems of the current agrifood regime call for a radical, systemic transformation. Such a transformation implies a move into a new stability domain, defined by a new set of systemic attractors. These transformations can be conceptualised as regime shifts. OBJECTIVE In this study, we explored the history of the Finnish agrifood system in order to learn from the past transformations of the system and to inform the current attempts to steer its development in a more sustainable direction. METHODS We conducted a qualitative analysis on literature discussing the history of the Finnish agrifood system by utilising the concept of the adaptive cycle, which ca…

Domini collettivi, forme di autogoverno per la gestione degli ecosistemi e lo sviluppo locale

2020

One of the most ancient forms of self-government of environmental systems is that relating to the management of civic uses and collective lands, in which a specific local community controls and manages sustainable resources (fields, pastures, woods, etc.) sustainably and efficiently. The paper aims to briefly retrace the salient stages of the history of collective domains, and to explore their value as “goods that are produced by long co-evolutionary processes between human settlement and environment” (Magnaghi 2015, 139) highlighting the appearance of complex socio-ecological systems (SES). Finally, using the theory developed by Elinor Ostrom to analyze the sustainability of SES (Ostrom 20…

Semi-natural habitats in boreal Europe: a rise of a social-ecological research agenda

2021

The European continent contains substantial areas of semi-natural habitats, mostly grasslands, which are among the most endangered habitats in Europe. Their continued existence depends on some form of human activity, for either production or conservation purposes, or both. We examined the share of semi-natural grasslands within the general grassland areas in boreal Europe. We reviewed research literature across the region to compile evidence on semi-natural grasslands and other semi-natural habitats, such as wooded pastures, in respect to a range of topics such as ecology, land-use change, socioeconomics, and production. We also explored drivers of the research agenda and outlined future re…