This study explores the kinds of wildlife messages and underlying values individuals receive by asking them to recall a memorable wildlife message. The study analyzed 108 memorable messages from individuals between the ages of 18-35. The study employs a content analysis to examine message content and values. The study employed sensitizing concepts, such as Stern's Value-Belief-Norm theory to examine the messages’ underlying values, such as altruism and progressivism. Results indicate messages revolve around themes of preservation, stewardship, sanctity, domestication, and complexity of conservation. Of the 108 messages, 66 messages conveyed altruistic and progressive values as defined by Stern while other messages conveyed appreciation, awareness, and dominative values. Additionally, wildlife messages were received mostly through mediated sources. Implications for parents, the media, and wildlife are explored.
feedback control models of social-ecological systems (SESs), to inform policy and the
design of institutions guiding resilient resource use. Cote and Nightingale (2012) note that
the main assumptions of resilience research downplay culture and social power. Addressing
the epistemic gap between positivism and interpretation (Rosenberg 2016), this dissertation
argues that power and culture indeed are of primary interest in SES research.
Human use of symbols is seen as an evolved semiotic capacity. First, representation is
argued to arise as matter achieves semiotic closure (Pattee 1969; Rocha 2001) at the onset
of natural selection. Guided by models by Kauffman (1993), the evolution of a symbolic
code in genes is examined, and thereon the origin of representations other than genetic
in evolutionary transitions (Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1995; Beach 2003). Human
symbolic interaction is proposed as one that can support its own evolutionary dynamics.
The model offered for wider dynamics in society are “flywheels,” mutually reinforcing
networks of relations. They arise as interactions in a domain of social activity intensify, e.g.
due to interplay of infrastructures, mediating built, social, and ecological affordances (An-
deries et al. 2016). Flywheels manifest as entities facilitated by the simplified interactions
(e.g. organizations) and as cycles maintaining the infrastructures (e.g. supply chains). They
manifest internal specialization as well as distributed intention, and so can favor certain
groups’ interests, and reinforce cultural blind spots to social exclusion (Mills 2007).
The perspective is applied to research of resilience in SESs, considering flywheels a
semiotic extension of feedback control. Closer attention to representations of potentially
excluded groups is justified on epistemic in addition to ethical grounds, as patterns in cul-
tural text and social relations reflect the functioning of wider social processes. Participatory
methods are suggested to aid in building capacity for institutional learning.
Federal management of water is undergoing a change that involves a drastic reduction in the number of new water projects and an increase in emphasis on the quality of water management. This book summarizes and analyzes environmental research conducted in the lower Colorado River below the Glen Canyon Dam under the leadership of the Bureau of Reclamation. It reviews alternative dam operations to mitigate impacts in the lower Colorado riverine environment and the strengths and weaknesses of large federal agencies dealing with broad environmental issues and hydropower production. While many problems remain to be solved, the Bureau of Reclamation through the Glen Canyon area. The lessons of GCES are transferable to other locations and could be the basis for a new era in the management of western waters.
This book contains 11 papers that review the extant information about the Colorado River from an ecosystem perspective and serve as the basis for discussion of the use of ecosystem/earth science information for river management and dam operations. It also contains a synopsis of the committee's findings and recommendations to the Bureau of Reclamation as the agency seeks to change its direction to the management of natural resources.