A Household Perspective for Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract: Many researchers have implicated human population density in species endangerment, but these correlative studies do not demonstrate causality. We propose that hypotheses implicating human population density in wildlife endangerment at global and national scales owe their public and academic currency as thoroughly to inductive reasoning and repetition as to scientific experimentation. It follows that alternative research hypotheses generated from the same facts should provide equally tenable results. Household density provides such an alternative hypothesis and is growing faster than human population density. We used linear multiple regression models to demonstrate that household density provides a viable alternative statistical hypothesis to human population density for explaining species endangerment (household model, r² = 0.85; population model, r² = 0.84). We then suggest adopting a household perspective for biodiversity conservation because 1) social norms and practices render a household approach to conservation more pragmatic than a human population perspective and 2) shifting the focus toward households could facilitate movement from a human-versus-nature ethic to a humans-situated-within-nature ethic (e.g., a land ethic). Wildlife managers and researchers concerned about the negative influence humans have on biodiversity should consider grounding research, theory, and policy decisions in the dynamics of human households as an alternative to human population.     

Close encounters during a pandemic: Social habits and inter-generational links in the first two waves of COVID-19

Social habits are ingrained in a community and affect human behaviour. Have they played any role in the spread of the pandemic? We use high-frequency data for 220 regions in 15 European countries from March to December 2020 to compare the association between social contacts outside the family and within inter-generational families, on the one hand, and cases and excess mortality on the other. We find that a standard deviation increase in the percentage of people having daily face-to-face contacts outside the household is associated with 5 new daily cases and 2.6 additional weekly deaths, while the incidence of inter-generational households exhibits a less robust association with both COVID-19 transmission and mortality. We compare results across the first and the second wave of pandemic and show that differences are related to the average age of the most affected groups. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of a number of controls, fixed effects, the chosen sample of countries, and the estimation method. We argue that type and frequency of social interactions are interweaved with a region culture and habits and are informative on the potential transmission of contagion and on its lethality.     

An Analysis of Sustainable Consumption by the Waste Input-Output Model

The extension of the waste input-output (WIO) model to analyze households' sustainable consumption patterns is presented in this article. We estimate direct and indirect emission loads induced by household consumption by the WIO model. The WIO model is much more suitable for the analysis of sustainable consumption than the conventional input-output model because it can deal with the disposal stage of consumed goods as well as the purchase and use stages. A simple method for evaluating income rebound effects is also introduced. As indicators of environmental loads, we estimate carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and landfill consumption induced by household consumption. The model is applied to some typical sustainable consumption scenarios: shifting transportation modes from a private car to public transportation, the longer use of household electric appliances, and eating at restaurants instead of cooking at home. We found that the income rebound effects should be considered to evaluate environmental loads induced by different consumption patterns.     

Garden Money Buys Grain: Food Procurement Patterns in a Malian Village

This study of a rural Malian community in West Africa investigates food procurement patterns that combine subsistence grain production with a variety of income generating activities. It finds dependence on food purchases widespread and revenue from the own-account activities of nonhousehold heads essential to food security. Gender and the wealth of households are found to influence some, but not all, income generating activities and expenditures. Three household food procurement profiles are identified: investment in cattle, market gardens and bush extraction, and remittances. The case study village has agroecological characteristics and market proximity, which set it and other urban hinterland villages apart from the more cotton- and cattle-based zones of southern Mali. Own-account income generating activities may be able to increase revenue for women and junior men through a reallocation of household resources without entirely undermining the basis for a larger subsistence-oriented household.     

Control of transmission with two types of infection

The effectiveness of a vaccination strategy to control transmission of an infectious disease depends on the way vaccine doses are distributed to individuals in a community of households. Here we show that this dependence is more complicated when acquisition and severity of illness are determined by the size of the infecting dose, as is thought to be the case for measles and varicella. Two alternative formulations for the way vaccination changes an individual's susceptibility and infectivity show that vaccination coverage, the nature of the vaccine response and the distribution of household size also have a big impact on which strategy is more effective. These judgements are made by comparing the post-vaccination reproduction numbers corresponding to different vaccination strategies.     

农户收入差异对生活用能及生态环境的影响--以江汉平原为例

以江汉平原为例,通过入户调查方式获取基础数据,利用层次分析法考察农村居民收入差异对生活用能选择的影响,并采用生态足迹模型测算不同收入农户生活能源消费的生态环境效应。研究发现:(1)能源属性对不同收入农户的选择行为影响较大,高收入农户对舒适性、卫生性较强的电力能源消费较多;中、低收入农户则消耗了较多的薪柴、秸秆等非商品能源,比较关注能源的经济性;(2)能源消费数量及生态环境效应因农户收入不同而存在显著差异,高收入农户每年人均消费数量较多,为533.89千克标准煤,分别比低收入和中收入农户高出25.24千克标准煤、7.32千克标准煤;高收入农户每年人均用能足迹最多,为2.1569hm²,分别是低收入和中收入农户的5.87倍、2.58倍;(3)随着收入水平的不断提高,农户生活用能数量增多和消费结构的"商品化"、"高碳化"倾向十分明显,总足迹的增长主要来源于商品能源的消费增长。研究成果有助于理解和解决当前日趋严峻的能源供需矛盾和温室气体减排问题,为制订合理的节能减排策略、优化农村用能结构提供参考依据。     

Place,scale and the racial claims made for multiracial children in the 1990 US Census

Multiracial children embody ambiguities inherent in racial categorization and expose fictions of discrete races. Nevertheless, parents of multiracial children were asked for the 1990 US Census to report a single race for their offspring. Using confidential 1990 Census micro-data, we investigate the choices parents made for the three most common racially mixed household types (Asian-white, black-white and Latino-white) in twelve large metropolitan areas. We find that context affects the reporting of children's racial identity. We examine these effects with models that incorporate three spatial scales: households, neighbourhoods and metropolitan areas. Model estimates reveal that racial claims made by parents of Latino- and Asian-white (but not black-white) children varied significantly across metropolitan area. A neighbourhood's proportion white increased the probability that parents reported their children as white, while a neighbourhood's racial diversity increased the probability that black-white parents claimed a non-white race (black or ‘other’) for their children.     

Empirical approaches to household organization

This issue of Human Ecologyis devoted to studies of household organization, originally presented at an invited session of the American Anthropological Association annual meetings in New Orleans in 1990. These papers share an empirical orientation and an interest in demographic processes and economic change, particularly in rural and non-Western societies, including !Kung foragers and Herero agro-pastoralists of Botswana, Ariaal and Rendille pastoralists of Kenya, Gainj horticulturalists of highland New Guinea, and a Euro-Caribbean populaiton of St. Barthélemy, West Indies. These papers demonstrate both the vitality of household studies and the utility of empirical approaches in understanding household formation, continuity, and adaptation to social, economic, and political change.     

气候变化对渔区感知指数、生计策略和生态效应的影响

气候变化已对全球海洋生态环境产生了直接影响,并对渔业资源、渔业生产与渔户生计造成巨大的负面影响,而渔户也通过生计适应影响海洋生态环境。迄今为止,关于渔户对气候变化的感知、生计适应及其生态效应的研究成果较少,基于家庭调查的实证研究更鲜见于报道。选取中国东南沿海的一个典型渔区——福建省霞浦县牙城镇,采用参与式农村评估法(Participatory Rural Appraisal,PRA),基于158份渔户家庭的有效数据,构建气候变化影响感知指数,揭示气候变化影响感知指数与生计资本的内在关联,并进一步探究渔户的生计适应策略及其产生的生态效应。结果表明:(1)渔户对气候变化及其影响的感知较为强烈;(2)渔户的气候变化影响感知指数与生计资本呈现一定的相关性;(3)渔户主要调整了生计生产方式和多样化收入经营两方面策略;(4)渔户生计适应策略的调整会对海洋生态环境产生正面和负面的影响。在此基础上,提出保护渔户生计安全、防范气候变化风险、保护海洋生态环境的政策建议,为当地及其他典型渔区更好地应对气候变化提供有益参考。