We have investigated manure management practices at three farm scales in Chinese pig and poultry production. The concept of ecological rationality was employed to explore empirically how environmental concerns drive adoption of environmental-friendly manure management technologies at different farm scales. The more developed Rudong County in Jiangsu Province and the less developed Zhongjiang County in Sichuan Province were chosen as cases for study of 258 animal breeders. On the contrary to our hypothesis, medium-scale farmers were not always found to be laggards in adoption of manure management technologies. Government ecological rationality played a key role to induce environmental-friendly technology adoption on its own, but also in cooperation with ecologically rational individual or network drivers. Authorities no longer applied their efforts in a conventional command-and-control way, but more in the form of incentives, stimulation, and information to farmers. Individual farmers in general showed low environmental responsibility in relation to manure handling.
Ecological reasoning has been a subject of discussion for some time now. The earliest references to it dates back to 1983 when John S. Dryzek wrote his article on 'ecological rationality'.3 In this article, Dryzek discussed the problem of collective decision making and argued that 'ecological rationality' is a more fundamental form of reason than all other forms of rationality - political, economic, technical, legal and social4 - and hence should take precedence over them when making collective decisions or public policies.5 Dryzek gave the utmost importance to 'ecological rationality' because he claimed that "the preservation of the life-support systems upon which human beings depend is a precondition to the continued existence of society."6 Although, he argued that ecological reasoning should set the standard of reasoning, he didn't make it clear what ecological reasoning entails. This paper aims to explore the incurrent patterns of 'ecological reasoning' through observations of instances of reasoning by self-claimed ecological reasoners in an ethnographic research. In our in depth interviews (48 owners and managers of greentech and consultancy firms in Portugal and Turkey) some of our interlocutors, self claimed ecological reasoners, said that they need to translate their ecological reasoning into economical reasoning in order to appeal to their customers. In other words, in order to make sense, they need to frame their ecological concerns in economic terms. However, contrary to the clarity of economic reasoning, ecological reasoning manifests in a foggy terrain. What are the characteristics of reasoning pattern that make it ecological? Economic reasoning manifests itself in profit maximization, interest seeking etc. However ecological reasoning is a camelon, the colours oscillates between attributing intrinsic value to nature on the one hand; and it gains the colour of means-end rationality on the other.
First paragraph: I write this review under lockdown amid a global pandemic. So far today (March 25th 2020), the Dow Jones is up 5 percent. Last week trading was suspended following a 13 percent fall. Financial markets across the globe are struggling to price the risk posed by an unprecedented phenomenon. Given this uncertainty, the equity premium puzzle might not look like such a puzzle after all. ; Output Type: Book Review
In the focus of the paper there are some basic insights and ideas of rational choice theory, that is the "core" of contemporary economic theory. Also, rational choice theory is the "center" of modern political science and is used in various other scientific disciplines, such as: sociology, philosophy, political science, psychology and the like. There are two main goals of this paper. One is to point out the limitations of rational choice theory as one of the theories of economic behavior (and decision making). The second goal is to analyze psychological programs of research of heuristics and bias in behavioral economics and to consider the importance of alternative concepts, models and theories from the point of view of improving the understanding of economic and social behavior.
Experimental economics and bounded rationality are very different from one another, but both claim to offer a more general and more empirical type of economic theory. Experimental economists, in addition, claim that their game-theoretic analyses provide rigorous, calculable, inferences from individual decisions to society as a whole. They claim to be describing the basis of social stability, although the argument depends on a unitary conception of "society" that ethnologists have now largely rejected. Both groups view rationality as inherently or originally individualistic and "utility maximizing" rather than inherently or originally social—albeit for entirely different reasons. Neither recognizes rationality as inherently bound up with organizations. These views have no basis in ethnography and are sharply in conflict with the stress on local knowledge in the most successful contemporary development policies. A crucial empirical issue is the nature and power of indigenous decision algorithms. The economists treat them as non-existent, insignificant, or erroneous. I show that they are organizationally situated and part of the organizational process, genuinely optimizing, and the basis of cultural ecological adaptation. Moreover, it is this external adaptation, not an internal game-like system of self-perpetuating rules, that is the ultimate basis of social stability, as well as dynamism.
In a small rural village in the mountains of Northeastern China, a transnational assemblage is building an internationally lauded eco-city. Examining the global dreams for a green "sustainable community" in Huangbaiyu Village opens up a window on to the science of global warming and the ecological rationality to which it gives rise. Taking the site of Huangbaiyu not as a bounded physical location, but a nodal point through which multiple logics, values, and persons converge, I ask: What type of self and society do the structures of the eco-city shape through its spaces of inhabitance and systems of survival? The construction of an eco-city is itself more than a built environment; it is a physical manifestation of a system of values and a record of power. In the name of a shared community of fate, new assemblages of authority and practices of governance are emerging. As scientific models ground political discourse, the name through which authority to act upon a population is invoked is no longer only the state, but also the planet, in which every person has a vested interest and for which every person is responsible. Under these terms, everyday practices of living become subject to judgment, transformation and discipline by persons never met in the name of protecting the planet. In China, the uncertainties of global climate change align with national anxieties over the "three rural problems": agriculture, farmers, and the countryside. In the name of sustainable development, the villagers of Huangbaiyu are again becoming the object of alien ends. This time it is market consolidation, not Communist collectivization that is re-ordering value in the countryside. In the name of protecting a "planet in peril," the villagers of Huangbaiyu would be dispossessed of their access to the natural resources of their valleys. In the name of improving their quality of life, they would be forced into either wage labor or abject poverty.What is at stake in Huangbaiyu is not only of consequence to the persons who have inhabited its spaces, but to all those who are encountering the ethical claims operationalized by ecological citizenship, or are thinking of making such claims on others. Unless attention is focused on what - and who - a new hierarchy of ecological value devalues, an ecological age may prove to be little different from the present industrial age.
Modern economic rationality is an instrumental rationality geared towards the idea of 'progress': the continuous need for wealth production (in quantitative terms). This rationality underscores our political and legal order (amongst others). Law and politics can be said to serve the interests of progress. However, we have become increasingly aware of the side effects this rationality brings about. These side effects can be conceptualised, following the German social theorist Ulrich Beck, in terms of 'modern risks'; they are manufactured uncertainties. Global warming can be considered a modern risk. It is becoming more and more plausible that modern economic rationality and ways of wealth production are contributing factors to global warming and, hence, climate change. It has an impact on water issues in the broadest sense. Climate change poses a threat to the natural environment and carries the potential of catastrophic social consequences. To deal with it implies managing its ecological and social side effects. The question is how. The side effects of economic rationality are countered by another rationality, which one could characterise as 'security' or 'safety' rationality. With this approach we are considered to be in a 'state of exception' - a situation out of the ordinary that demands attention with an aim to return to, or re-establish, the ordinary. The state of exception, as a theoretical concept, suggests an increase of power structures in times of crisis. What is new is that global warming and climate change can be considered as an ecological state of exception leading to a new normality that demands different ways as to how we want to live together in our social and natural environment. In this article I seek to explore the idea of an ecological state of exception as the 'normal' state of affairs, demanding a new rationality and, consequently, ask to what extent a reconsideration of self-evident assumptions that underscore modem contemporary life, economic, political and social is necessary and ...
Concerns about immigration are salient in the European Union and in Malta in particular. Previous research has demonstrated deep antipathy towards the Arab community in Malta, and social representations of Arabs are mired in a conflation of ethnic and religious categories with negative connotations. This paper presents evidence of the potency, within the public sphere, of negative arguments from cultural essentialism, concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe. The data was obtained abductively from a data corpus containing positive, mixed and negative arguments about Arabs and their integration. Results show evidence of the almost total exclusivity of cultural essentialism. All such arguments posited Arabic culture as an underlying essence that makes integration with Arabs difficult or impossible, yet different arguments were distinguishable by emphasis. Results pointed towards forms of culturally essentialist views that vary in their emphasis of different aspects of cultural essentialism. Reductionist, determinist, bounded and temporal aspects of cultural essentialism were all emphasised by respondents. The essentialist exceptions to negative arguments from cultural essentialism were extremely few in number and were posed tentatively by participants. Their paucity and manner of delivery give strength to the claim that it is strictly an Arabic cultural essence that is deemed to make integration impossible in the eyes of participants. Findings are discussed in light of the communicative functions that these dominant argumentative strategies fulfill.
The present paper considers the implications of the postulate that the activities of scientists constitute complex phenomena in the sense associated with the methodological writings of the Nobel Prize-winning Austrian economist, methodologist, and political philosopher, F.A. Hayek. Although Hayek wrote extensively on the methodology of sciences that investigate systems of complex phenomena, he never addressed the possibility that science itself is such a system. The application of Hayek's method ology of sciences of complex phenomena to science itself implies some minimal criteria for explanations of scientific rationality. If science is complex in Hayek's sense, then scientific belief may be rational in more than one way. It is argued that a failure to recognize the possibility of multiple kinds of scientific rationality contributes to an error theory of certain unsuccessful accounts of scientific belief in the history of philosophy of science. It is further argued that, where ecological rationality is operative, rational belief requires an element of methodological liberty. It is shown that acceptance of the possibility of ecologically-rational scientific outcomes–a view here dubbed methodological liberalism–is closely related to Hayek's denial of the possibility of a successful scientism, a denial crucial to his arguments against socialism and Keynesian macroeconomics.
We discuss the recent emergence of "deliberative ecological economics", a field that highlights the potential of deliberation for improving environmental governance. We locate the emergence of this literature in the long concern in ecological economics over the policy mplications of limited views of human action and its encounter with deliberative democracy scholarship and the model of communicative rationality as an alternative to utilitarianism. Considering criticisms over methods used and the focus of research in deliberative decision-making, we put orward a research agenda for deliberative ecological economics. Given the promising potential of deliberative processes for improving the effectiveness and legitimacy of environmental decision-making, work in this area could help advance both theory and practice in environmental governance.
We discuss the recent emergence of 'deliberative ecological economics', a field that highlights the potential of deliberation for improving environmental governance. We locate the emergence of this literature in the long concern in ecological economics over the policy implications of limited views of human action and its encounter with deliberative democracy scholarship and the model of communicative rationality as an alternative to utilitarianism. Considering criticisms over methods used and the focus of research in deliberative decision-making, we put forward a research agenda for deliberative ecological economics. Given the promising potential of deliberative processes for improving the effectiveness and legitimacy of environmental decision-making, work in this area could help advance both theory and practice in environmental governance.
Highly toxic pesticides bring negative externalities to water pollution, which increase the demand for green pesticides that are low-toxic and high-efficiency. With the implementation of the unique the Centralized Pesticide Distribution (CPD) policy aiming to reduce the use of chemical pesticides in Huangshan, we try to explore the factors that affect farmers' acceptance of CPD and thus change their pesticides selection. Based on the theory of farmers' ecological rationality, we build a decision-making ecosystem on accepting CPD and assuming that farmers' behavior is determined hierarchically by factors, then the Logistic-AISM model is used for empirical testing using data collected from 233 representative farmers. The results show that the proportion of agri-income and participation in cooperatives fundamentally affected choices for CPD acceptance through two middle-level indirect factor: government publicity and the availability of agri-information by changing farmers' cognition on pesticides and production status. Thus, CPD may be improved by selling a richer variety of insecticides and implementing more publicity. Lessons from China inspire other intensive farming countries to promote green pesticides by: expanding the sales channel of green agri-products, playing the auxiliary role of cooperatives, and inventing more eco-friendly pesticides.
The Bear River is driven by a highly variable, snow-driven montane ecosystem and flows through a drought-prone arid region of the western United States. It traverses three states, is diverted to store water in an ecologically unique natural lake, Bear Lake, and empties into the Great Salt Lake at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. People in the Bear River Basin have come to anticipate droughts, building a legal, institutional, and engineered infrastructure to adapt to the watershed's hydrologic realities and historical legacies. Their ways of understanding linked vulnerabilities has led to what might appear as paradoxical outcomes: farmers with the most legally secure water rights are the most vulnerable to severe drought; managers at the federal Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge engage in wetland farming and make unlikely political alliances; and, increased agricultural irrigation efficiency in the Basin actually threatens the water supply of some wetlands. The rationality of locality is the key to understanding how people in the Bear River Basin have increased their adaptive capacity to droughts by recognizing their interdependencies. As the effects of climate change unfold, understanding social-ecological system linkages will be important for guiding future adaptations and enhancing resilience in ways that appropriately integrate localized ecosystem capacity and human needs.
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform in the European Union introduced a new element: greening. The aim of greening is to support the environment and create non-productive value in agriculture. The main element of greening is the Ecological Focus Area (EFA) meaning that a portion of farmland area has to be designed for environmental purposes. This article consists of an evaluatation of greening and its elements in the first year CAP reform has come into force. Surveys were used as a tool to gather information about farm characteristics, ways to meet greening requirements as well as the opinions of farmers as to changes in direct subsidies and greening obligations. The research was conducted in 2015 directly interviewing 290 farmers from the whole of Poland. The farmers interviewed lived in different parts of the country and had different size farms. Data was prepared with the use of spreadsheets and were analysed using the R statistical program and the "gmodel" and "vcd" statistical packages were used during the calculations. Polish farmers are against greening. Greening does not significantly change the way farmers run their farms. They choose the cheapest options of EFA which are usually not the best for the environment. Furthermore, farmers have to bear the cost of introducing the new elements themselves. Despite a high number of environmental and agricultural advantages offered by new farming methods, crop rotation and after-crop sowing duty, CAP reform is assessed in a negative light. As a result of negative opinions held by farmers due to the lack of subsidies, farmers may not continue greening practices in the future.
ABSTRACT Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform in the European Union introduced a new element: greening. The aim of greening is to support the environment and create non-productive value in agriculture. The main element of greening is the Ecological Focus Area (EFA) meaning that a portion of farmland area has to be designed for environmental purposes. This article consists of an evaluatation of greening and its elements in the first year CAP reform has come into force. Surveys were used as a tool to gather information about farm characteristics, ways to meet greening requirements as well as the opinions of farmers as to changes in direct subsidies and greening obligations. The research was conducted in 2015 directly interviewing 290 farmers from the whole of Poland. The farmers interviewed lived in different parts of the country and had different size farms. Data was prepared with the use of spreadsheets and were analysed using the R statistical program and the "gmodel" and "vcd" statistical packages were used during the calculations. Polish farmers are against greening. Greening does not significantly change the way farmers run their farms. They choose the cheapest options of EFA which are usually not the best for the environment. Furthermore, farmers have to bear the cost of introducing the new elements themselves. Despite a high number of environmental and agricultural advantages offered by new farming methods, crop rotation and after-crop sowing duty, CAP reform is assessed in a negative light. As a result of negative opinions held by farmers due to the lack of subsidies, farmers may not continue greening practices in the future.