This book introduces the companion modelling approach by presenting the stance that underpins it, the methods and tools used with stakeholders and the specific role of models during the process. It addresses the means to deal with the different levels of decision-making and to take into account the various power relationships. It proposes a methodology to assess the impact of the approach on the stakeholders involved in the process. The book includes 27 case studies and 7 teaching tools that describe the successful use of the approach in a variety of settings or teaching contexts. It is intended for researchers working on rural development or renewable resources management, as well as students and teachers.
Modelling environmental dynamics is critical to understanding and predicting the evolution of the environment in response to the large number of influences including urbanisation, climate change and deforestation. Simulation and modelling provide support for decision making in environmental management. The first chapter introduces terminology and provides an overview of methodological modelling approaches which may be applied to environmental and complex dynamics. Based on this introduction this book illustrates various models applied to a large variety of themes: deforestation in tropical regions, fire risk, natural reforestation in European mountains, agriculture, biodiversity, urbanism, climate change and land management for decision support, etc. These case studies, provided by a large international spectrum of researchers and presented in a uniform structure, focus particularly on methods and model validation so that this book is not only aimed at researchers and graduates but also at professionals.
A trans-disciplinary book offering evaluation-based approaches for effective participatory interventions, for academic researchers, practitioners and policy-makers working in water management.
Previously published in French by Éditions Quae, this volume presents findings of a major research programme into landscape and sustainable development. While led by French scholars, the research team and geographical scope of the project was international, collaborative and comparative. Using case studies from across Europe, the interdisciplinary team of contributors discuss the relationship between landscape as defined by the European Landscape Convention and the concept of sustainable development. This English edition has a new introduction written by Yves Luginbühl and Peter Howard. The book is then divided into three sections: Biophysical Realities and Landscape Practice; Landscape Resources-Inheritance and Renewal; Governance and Participation. Some of the topics covered, such as wind-farm landscapes, will be familiar to English language readers, but others, such as footpath economics, non-woodland trees, inter-generational equity, and the insistence on the necessary developments in governance less so.
Agent-based modeling is a flexible and intuitive approach that is close to both data and theories, which gives it a special position in the majority of scientific communities. Agent models are as much tools of understanding, exploration and adaptation as they are media for interdisciplinary exchange. It is in this kind of framework that this book is situated, beginning with agent-based modeling of spatialized phenomena with a methodological and practical orientation. Through a governing example, taking inspiration from a real problem in epidemiology, this book proposes, with pedagogy and economy, a guide to good practices of agent modeling. The reader will thus be able to understand and put the modeling into practice and acquire a certain amount of autonomy. - Featuring the following well-known techniques and tools: Modeling, such as UML, Simulation, such as the NetLogo platform, Exploration methods, Adaptation using participative simulation
This title focuses on the evolution of the modeling process and on new research perspectives in theoretical and applied geography, as well as spatial planning. In the last 50 years, the achievements of spatial analysis models opened the way to a new understanding of the relationship between society and geographical space. In this book, these models are confronted by the real conditions of territorial prospect, regional dynamism, cultural policy, HMO, and spatial segregation. This confrontation takes into account the instability of social behavior and the permanence of partial determinist trajectories.
Coastal communities depend on the marine environment for their livelihoods, but the common property nature of marine resources poses major challenges for the governance of such resources. Through detailed cases and consideration of broader global trends, this volume examines how coastal communities are adapting to environmental change, and the attributes of governance that foster deliberate transformations and help to build resilience of social and ecological systems. Governance here reflects how communities, societies and organisations (e.g. fisher cooperatives, government agencies) choose to organise themselves to make decisions about important issues, such as the use and protection of coastal commons (e.g. fishery resources). The book shows how a governance approach generates insights into the specific forms and arrangements that enable coastal communities to steer away from unsustainable pathways. It also provides an analytical lens to consider important questions of power, knowledge and legitimacy in linked social-ecological systems. Chapters highlight examples in which communities are engaging in deliberative transformations to build resilience and enhance their well-being. These transformations and efforts to build resilience are emerging through multi-level collaboration, shared learning, innovative policies and institutional arrangements (such as new property rights regimes and co-management), methodologies that engage with indigenous cultural practices, and entrepreneurial activities, including income and livelihood diversification. Case studies are included from a range of countries including Canada, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, the South Pacific and Europe. The authors integrate theory with practical examples to improve coastal marine policy and governance, and draw upon emerging concepts from social-ecological resilience and transformations, adaptive governance and the scholarship on the commons.
Current companies and communities of practice are involved in intensive networking and collaborative systems by a great variety of electronic relations and collaborative interactions. This has resulted in entangled systems that need to be managed efficiently and in an autonomous way, thus facing many issues and challenges. The extensive research produced in this book will help virtual organizations to exploit latest and powerful technologies based on Grid and Wireless infrastructures as well as Cloud computing in order to alleviate complex issues and challenges arisen in networking and collaborative systems, in terms of collaborative applications, resource management, mobility, and security and system resilience. The ultimate aim of the book is to stimulate research that leads to the creation of responsive environments for networking and, at longer-term, the development of adaptive, secure, mobile, and intuitive intelligent systems for collaborative work and learning. Academic researchers, professionals and practitioners in the field will be inspired and put in practice the ideas and experiences proposed in the book in order to evaluate them for their specific research and work.
Present-day society asks more from agriculture than just the production of food. Agriculture is now required to be concerned with the quality of food, ecosystem services, inclusion of marginalized populations, revitalization of rural territories, energy production, etc. This opening up of the future of agriculture encourages rural actors to experiment with new farming systems, using imagination, creativity and determination to replace dominant models. At the same time, low-cost mass-production systems continue on their way, with promises of a future based on green technologies. In this discussion it is important to consider what kind of sustainable development societies really want. Which innovations will help in achieving these developments? What role can research and public policies play in supporting the emergence of these innovations? This book takes the debate beyond the purely technical options and considers social and institutional innovations as well. It demonstrates that innovation is the result of a confrontation between visions of actors who often have divergent interests. There is no single path towards sustainable development and we must find ways to encourage the emergence and co-existence of different types of agriculture and food systems. The success of transitions will not only depend on our capacity to rethink existing models, but especially on our willingness to embark on a creative learning process from which we will inevitably emerge transformed.
‘Business transfer’ refers to the transfer of ownership and leadership from one or more outgoing owner-manager(s) to one or more incoming owner-manager(s). Apart from all the company's material assets, it presupposes that information, relationships, know-how and social capital are also transmitted from one to the other. While much of the research on entrepreneurship has focused on new business ventures, few studies have considered business transfers as an alternative way of embarking on entrepreneurial activities. Business Transfers, Family Firms and Entrepreneurship provides the international community with a more comprehensive state-of-the-art of business transfer studies, which will enrich readers’ understanding. The business transfer is examined through different prisms: family businesses, internal business transfers to employees, external business transfers, and woman in business transfers. This book deals with business transfer as a whole, following a logic of continuity and sustainability for the transferred firm. It offers a refreshing point of view on business transfers, in terms of both the process and the actors, and from both the seller’s and the buyer’s sides. It presents the research on all types of business transfer including internal and external transfers and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, small business management, family business, and strategic management. It can also be instructive for practitioners and stakeholders involved in a business transfer.
