Disciplined to diversity: learning the language of multiculturalism

This study shows that contemporary multiculturalism is a cultural referent used in the construction of modern and socially-acceptable selves. By analysing the practices of diversity training, I consider one of the ways in which multiculturalism moves from abstract philosophical idea and fodder for policy formation to adoption as a cultural and moral framework that individuals use in establishing their identities, discerning meaning and engaging others. Demonstrating that people must acquire competence in the use of a particular multicultural vocabulary and rules of interaction, I challenge the perspective that both bigotry and acceptance are organic to individuals. Properly multicultural selves are not merely the natural extension of interior individual qualities. Instead, people produce modern identities vis-à-vis diversity through the use of language and the negotiation of its meaning.     

Immigration,Christian faith communities,and the practice of multiculturalism in the U.S. South

Recent scholarship has declared multiculturalism to be in retreat, yet multiculturalist discourses and practices remain salient in many realms of social reproduction. This paper explores multiculturalism in predominantly white churches in the U.S. South, a region that has seen significant demographic transformations due to immigration. Church outreach to immigrants draws on theologies that reject racial prejudice and that call for the accommodation and celebration of cultural differences. Drawing on qualitative research with pastors and congregants, this article explores how multiculturalist practice is both re-working and reinforcing existing social relationships in Christian faith communities. Multiculturalist practices, we show, disrupt racialized hierarchies long embedded in white churches. But they simultaneously leave racialized distinctions and inequalities intact, in part by maintaining separation between immigrants and non-immigrants. This case illustrates the everyday politics of multiculturalism and the ways in which the boundaries of social membership take shape in ordinary, seemingly non-political spaces.     

我国生态治理体制构建、政策演进逻辑与治理现代化

纵观我国生态治理与环境保护实践历程,在探索、重构、深化中建立了具有中国特色的生态治理政策体系。在生态与经济发展新旧动能转换的关键时期,理清生态治理体制构建策略与政策演进逻辑,推进生态治理现代化建设,实现长效地人与自然和谐共生,具有重要的理论与现实意义。通过Citespace可视化图谱对1973-2022年间710份国家重要决策及政策法规文件深入梳理发现:(1)生态治理体制构建策略从初期的“一对一”污染问题治理导向、简单垂直的线性关系联动机制,到逐步形成生态理念导向、交叉互动的网络关系协同机制,总体上由单一部门主导决策的“上重下轻”转变为以顶层生态行政单位为核心,多领域部门参与执行的“上下联动”均衡态势;(2)生态治理政策先后经历“观念启蒙探索时期:环境污染末端管控(1973-1991年)”-“可持续发展时期:生态协同综合治理(1992-2011年)”-“生态文明时期:发展理念体系建设(2012-2022年)”的逻辑演化;(3)从机制完善、利益重构、多元统筹三个维度阐述并讨论生态治理现代化体系与改进路径,以期为相关领域的深入研究提供借鉴与参考。     

Left-wing politics,civil society and immigration in Italy: The case of Bologna

Immigration and multiculturalism are important and much debated questions in contemporary Europe. Whereas considerable scholarship has examined how political institutions and Right-wing organizations have responded to these questions, little research has focused on the Left. This article examines the multicultural politics of the latter by considering ethnographically the experience of Bologna, the showcase city of the Italian Left, in the second half of the 1990s. The Left is here examined in terms of ideology, party, public policy and civil society in the context of everyday governance and with special reference to the discourses and practices concerning a group of Rom refugees from the former Yugoslavia. This article argues that the mainstream Italian Left (in its civil societal as well as party and administrative components) is characterized by a politics that fails to “integrate” ethno-cultural recognition with material justice and that, partly because of such failure, contributes little to the “integration” of immigrants.     

Multiculturalism as nation-building in Australia: Inclusive national identity and the embrace of diversity

This article discusses the relationship between multiculturalism and national identity, focusing on the Australian context. It argues that inclusive national identity can accommodate and support multiculturalism, and serve as an important source of cohesion and unity in ethnically and culturally diverse societies. However, a combative approach to national identity, as prevailed under the Howard government, threatens multicultural values. The article nevertheless concludes that it is necessary for supporters of multiculturalism to engage in ongoing debates about their respective national identities, rather than to vacate the field of national identity to others.     

基于承灾脆弱性与生态系统服务供需匹配的城市空间治理分区

城市空间普遍面临抵御灾害能力不足的问题。构建承灾脆弱性视角下的城市生态系统服务供需分析框架对提升国土空间抵御灾害的能力具有重要意义。以珠海市为例,选择与提升区域抵御自然灾害能力高度相关的生态系统服务类型,运用InVEST模型及遥感信息模型评估生态系统服务供给,构建承灾脆弱性评价模型评估需求,利用供需匹配分析识别亟需治理的风险区。研究结果表明：（1）珠海市生态系统服务有高供给高需求、高供给低需求、低供给高需求和低供给低需求4种供需匹配类型,各项服务供需失衡程度为土壤保持服务>水源涵养服务>台风灾害防护服务;（2）基于供需匹配类型和主导风险类型划分了四大类风险区,高危、中危、低危风险区和安全区面积占比为29.23%、21.70%、33.06%、16.01%,风险区等级与建设用地面积占比之间存在较好的对应关系;（3）根据风险区类别提出了多项风险综合治理区、双项风险复合治理区、主导风险专项治理区3种治理策略分区。生态系统服务供需匹配分析通过识别承灾脆弱性与承灾能力不匹配的热点区域,为区域/城市国土空间治理和增强国土空间抵御灾害的能力提供参考。     

Beyond Chinese groupism: Chinese Australians between assimilation,multiculturalism and diaspora

This essay argues that the tension between ‘ethnic’ and ‘national’ identity is not contingent, but structurally embedded in the workings of the contemporary nation state. Through an analysis of ‘the Chinese’ in ‘Australia’ it aims to demonstrate that seemingly unambiguous concepts such as assimilation (the ethnic is absorbed by the national), multiculturalism (the ethnic coexists with the national) and diaspora (the ethnic transcends the national) cannot capture the diverse difficulties, ambivalences and failures of identification, belonging and political agency experienced by Chinese Australians. A more satisfactory analysis requires a questioning of the groupness of ‘the Chinese’ (as well as ‘the Australians’) and overcoming conceptual groupism (Brubaker): the tendency to take discrete, sharply differentiated, internally homogeneous and externally bounded groups as basic constituents of social life. Instead a more processual and flexible understanding is proposed, where the relationship between ‘ethnic’ and ‘national’ identity is one of constant evolution and mutual entanglement.     

Global mass violence: examining racial and gendered violence in the twilight of multiculturalism

This article examines three instances of mass violence for what they tell us about the inadequacies of post-racial and colourblind discourses in the US and Europe. I apply an intersectional analysis of the manifestoes that Anders Behring Breivik, Elliot Rodger and Dylann Roof leave in the wake of their horrific acts. These manifestoes, in their appropriation of rights discourses and desire for a white racial order, expose the ambivalent commitments to persons of colour evident in the current retreat of many Western states from multiculturalist ideals in favour of post-racial integration. These states now advocate policies of integration over previous emphases on multiculturalism and diversity, a move that reflects the growing popular promotion of national identity and nativist culture. I argue that such incidents of mass violence should be understood in relation to the political, social and cultural contexts that perpetuate and often legitimate xenophobia and gendered racism.     

Racism,disadvantage and multiculturalism: towards effective anti-racist praxis

Measuring ethnicity in any society is a challenge. Given world immigration patterns, many countries face a growing dilemma in determining the cultural antecedents of their populations. A further complication is the reality that such determination occurs within the political and nationalistic settings where ethnic‐cultural groups may be potent forces in their own right. As societies mature and evolve, there is an increasing tendency for populations, especially those with many generations of residence in the country, to see themselves as ‘indigenous’ to the society in which they live. Canada is not alone in having to deal with the fluidity of the concept, ‘Canadian’, ‘American’, ‘Australian’, ‘Yugoslav’, and ‘Soviet’ are parallel concepts in other countries of multiple ethnic composition. Using 1991 National Census Test results, the article explores some of the parameters of the indigenous category ‘Canadian’. In particular, the location in Canada and mother tongue of respondents reporting ‘Canadian’ as the ethnic origin of their parents and grandparents or as their own ethnic identity are important indicators for this emerging ethnic category.     

城市菌根真菌多样性、变化机制及功能应用

菌根真菌能够与大多数陆生植物的根系形成菌根共生体,具有改善宿主植物矿质营养、增强抗逆性、改良土壤结构等重要生态功能。城市化过程中气候、土壤、植被、土地利用等因素的改变,对菌根真菌的多样性产生了直接或间接的影响。目前城市菌根真菌的研究多侧重对其空间分布及群落组成的简单描述,缺乏针对城市典型生态现象及生态问题系统性的探讨。分别从城市菌根真菌的多样性变化、影响机制及功能应用等3方面进行了综述,全面揭示城市菌根真菌的研究现状及研究的复杂性,发现当前研究存在多样性评估简单化、研究层次单一化、内在机制现象化及功能应用停滞化等问题,认为今后应建立更为系统、综合、标准的研究体系以深刻而准确地认识与理解城市化对菌根真菌多样性的影响,为城市微生物资源的保存及绿地系统维持提供理论依据。     

Sustainability indicator systems within urban governance: Usability analysis of sustainability indicator systems as boundary objects

While sustainability indicator systems (SIs) have proven to be valuable rational tools for improving the availability of information related to the relationship of cities and communities to natural limits, the indicators movement has achieved limited instrumental uptake in policy. This paper begins from a recognition that instrumental use of sustainability indicator systems is rare. Greater potential impact exists for SIs designed to be much more attentive to their conceptual and political values within their particular social and political context. In other words, greater attention to what has been called the governance of indicator systems, or the ways in which SIs fit as policy tools within a multilevel and multiactor governance context, is key to increasing their utility. This is particularly true given the need for decisive policy change, or even the introduction of a new development path, which is asserted within the sustainability agenda.Understanding the real and potential utility of indicator systems within multiactor governance processes, in which their roles are primarily rhetorical, conceptual and political, is facilitated by thinking about indicator systems as boundary objects, tools which open up dialogue, information sharing, learning and consensus-building across different policy boundaries: between experts and nonexperts, formal government and different nongovernment actors, higher-order governments and lower-order governments. This paper offers a comparative analysis of three sustainability indicator systems in the North American context – Vancouver's Vital Signs (Vancouver Foundation), Seattle's Happiness Initiative, and LEED-ND (US Green Building Council) – all of which have shown some success in operationalizing a new policy boundary as a means of making conceptual and political contributions to governance practices. The specific boundaries operationalized, the different approach taken by each project, and the usability demonstrated by each project at that boundary in terms of salience, legitimacy and credibility, are assessed comparatively. In general, the trajectory in design and use of ecological and sustainability indicators demonstrates an increase in appetite, aptitude and numbers of channels for use in processes of governance; however, these factors vary with the local social–political opportunity structure. This analysis presents the advances made as well as the tradeoffs evident in these cases across the gamut of different forms of usability of nongovernmental indicator systems designed for use as boundary objects, and suggests a path forward for indicator work which aims to change policy, from a governance perspective.     

The marketization of multiculturalism: neoliberal restructuring and cultural difference in Australia

This article assesses the relationship between multiculturalism and neoliberalism, focusing on the Australian context. It analyses recent reforms concerning immigrant integration and cultural diversity, and argues that since the mid-1990s Australian multiculturalism has embodied three central components of state restructuring: heightened demands for sociocultural discipline and conformity; fiscal conservatism and the retrenchment of safety nets; and the promotion of economic competitiveness, flexibility and efficiency in global markets. In retracing the trajectory of Australian policy this analysis contributes to emerging literatures on multiculturalism, and the shifting nature of citizenship and government rationalities in the present neoliberal context. In addition to illuminating recent changes in Australia, its findings display significant import for countries facing similar dynamics.     

长三角城市群碳排放与城市用地增长及形态的关系

城市是一种重要的碳源,城市扩张过程中的用地面积增长和空间特征变化均会影响城市碳排放。分析1995—2015年长三角城市群碳排放重心转移,查明碳排放和城市用地增长的脱钩状态时空变化,并通过构建面板数据模型探究城市形态对碳排放的影响,得出以下结论:(1) 1995—2015年长三角城市群碳排放重心经历了西南向-西北向-东南向-西北向的转移过程,这种转移过程与其相应时期内部分城市的工业发展与产业结构调整有关;(2) 1995—2015年,长三角城市群碳排放与城市用地增长的脱钩状态存在着显著的时空异质性。研究区由以扩张负脱钩为主变化为以弱脱钩为主,2005年以后,区域之间的脱钩差异开始缩小,总体来看研究区脱钩状态趋向于同质。至2015年,近70%的城市已达到了脱钩,其中上海等城市实现了强脱钩;(3)连续完整的地块在区域内的主导程度会对城市碳排放产生负向的影响,而城市用地斑块的破碎化程度和聚集程度对碳排放有着正向的影响,且相对而言,聚集程度的正向影响更为显著。     

从城市生态系统整体性、复杂性和多样性的视角透视城市内涝

城市内涝作为我国当前主要的城市生态风险与灾害之一受到公众、学界与政府部门的广泛重视。从城市生态系统的整体性、复杂性与多样性视角,反思当前我国城市内涝现状、成因与应对措施,认为应该将城市纳入区域(流域)系统综合考虑城市的防洪排涝体系建设,城市内涝成因及危害类型是复杂多样的,采用因地制宜、综合协同的生态智慧作指引,以工程措施为先导,充分发挥城市"海绵体"与绿色生态基础设施的作用,是缓解与应对城市内涝风险的有效途径。     

Functional diversity of urban bird communities: effects of landscape composition,green space area and vegetation cover

In this study, we aim to gain a better insight on how habitat filtering due to urbanization shapes bird communities of Vienna city parks. This may help to derive implications for urban planning in order to promote and maintain high diversity and ecosystem function in an increasing urbanized environment. The structure of wintering bird communities of 36 Vienna city parks – surveyed once a month in January 2009, December 2009, December 2012, and January 2013 – was described by species richness and the functional diversity measurements FRic (functional richness), FEve (functional evenness), and FDiv (functional divergence). Environmental filtering was quantified by park size, canopy heterogeneity within the park, and the proportion of sealed area surrounding each park. Species richness, FRic, and FDiv increased with increasing park size. Sealed area had a strong negative effect on species richness and FDiv. Canopy heterogeneity played a minor role in explaining variance in FDiv data. FEve did not respond to any of these park parameters. Our results suggest a loss of species richness and functional diversity, hence most likely indicate a decline in ecosystem function, with decreasing park size and increasing sealed area of the surrounding urban landscape matrix.     

Navigating Amazonia under uncertainty: past, present and future environmental governance

One of the major environmental challenges of the twenty-first century is the continued rapid deforestation of Amazonia. The 2005 dieback crisis emphasizes the unprecedented challenges facing Brazil. The examination of past and present institutions for ecosystem management, in Amazonia, shows structural barriers across public, private and community arrangements. The adaptive governance concept helps to understand why these institutions are failing to deliver sustainable futures. In looking forward, it is encouraging to see that important networks of knowledge and a number of novel initiatives are emerging in Brazil. These new arrangements are novel in the way that they seem to be adaptive and navigate structures in the hope of overcoming insurmountable drivers of deforestation.     

Woody plant composition and diversity of urban green spaces in Istanbul,Turkey

Abstract

The high urbanization rate of Istanbul in response to rapid population decreased the size and amount of green spaces. Thereby, every green space types are of vital importance in terms of conservation of urban biodiversity. In this study, it was aimed to compare woody species composition of main green space types consist of artificial and natural sites. Botanical gardens had the highest diversity followed by gardens. Residential areas showed to be important in terms of shrub (52%) and evergreen species (58%), which are mostly exotics (71%). The ratio of the invasive plants in the composition was higher in parks, which contain highway greenings and public gardens. Since the most tree species used in public green areas of Istanbul were mostly same with the species used in European cities, all of the green space categories having varied composition must be considered as interconnected habitat patches in urban planning.     

Why music matters in urban school districts: The perspectives of students and parents of the Celia Cruz High School of Music,Bronx, New York

Despite their long history and importance in the American curriculum, music programs must constantly justify their place in the twenty-first century. Urban areas that are economically depressed sometimes may not be able to offer music instruction due to the emphasis on raising test scores as well as unfavorable economic conditions that may limit their options. Despite these challenges, community leaders and educators successfully established a school of music in the Bronx, New York. Celia Cruz High School, the focus of this case study, was created to offer a musically centered curriculum in the borough of the Bronx as well as address the epidemic of large failing schools. Celia Cruz in its design and current state serves the population of the Bronx and reflects that demographic. Interviews with parents and students were carried out as a means of establishing the perspective of a musically focused education within this context. Based on interviews, parents and students of Celia Cruz value music as its own form of knowledge and view it as a vital part of the academic lives of the students of Celia Cruz High School. The purpose of this study was to share the stories, perspectives, and experiences of the Celia Cruz community and the impact that a musically focused education could have on the lives of students in the Bronx, New York.     

Streitkultur and the governance of genetic testing and insurance in Germany

Rapid developments in genetic testing have given rise to fundamental ethical, legal, and social questions that need to be dealt with in society. Results of genetic tests may be of interest to third parties such as private insurance companies, leading to fears of genetic discrimination. In Germany, the Government adopted the Genetic Diagnosis Act (Gendiagnostikgesetz, GenDG) in 2009 to protect people from, inter alia, genetic discrimination in obtaining life or health insurance. Given the sensitivity of the topic, this legislation was continually revised between 2001 and 2009. In this article, we reconstruct the process of formulating the GenDG with regard to genetics and insurance. The article begins with the parliamentary Enquete Commission in 2000 to develop a strategy and recommendations for the governance of genetic diagnostics, and analyzes how these recommendations were applied during the legislative process. We demonstrate that the legislative process of GenDG was largely determined by conventional methods of governance, rather than Streitkultur called for by the Enquete Commission in 2002. We conclude that though Streitkultur was defined as a mechanism to develop a robust approach to the governance of genetic diagnostics, it failed to influence a crucial element in genetic testing and insurance; namely, to fully protect insurees from genetic discrimination.     

Challenging urban species diversity: contrasting phylogenetic patterns across plant functional groups in Germany

Cities are hotspots of plant species richness, harboring more species than their rural surroundings, at least over large enough scales. However, species richness does not necessarily cover all aspects of biodiversity such as phylogenetic relationships. Ignoring these relationships, our understanding of how species assemblages develop and change in a changing environment remains incomplete. Given the high vascular plant species richness of urbanized areas in Germany, we asked whether these also have a higher phylogenetic diversity than rural areas, and whether phylogenetic diversity patterns differ systematically between species groups characterized by specific functional traits. Calculating the average phylogenetic distinctness of the total German flora and accounting for spatial autocorrelation, we show that phylogenetic diversity of urban areas does not reflect their high species richness. Hence, high urban species richness is mainly due to more closely related species that are functionally similar and able to deal with urbanization. This diminished phylogenetic information might decrease the flora's capacity to respond to environmental changes.