Participatory and multiobjective development of watercourse regulation—creation of regulation alternatives from stakeholders' preferences

Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods have been recently applied in many environmental problems. Major aims have been to structure and to analyse multifaceted and complex problems, to compare incommensurable impacts and to clarify the preference order of alternatives. Most MCDA tools concentrate on aiding the process of choice among alternatives. The choice usually occurs at the end of the decision‐making process, but MCDA tools can also assist earlier in the process. In this article, we present a new MCDA‐based method in order to create watercourse regulation alternatives, which meet the objectives of stakeholders. The method is comprised of three elements: (1) framework for the planning and learning process partly based on the Image Theory, (2) analysis and evaluation of ecological, social and economic impacts of regulation, and (3) visual interactive Excel implementation of value‐tree analysis (REGAIM‐model). We show how the method was applied in a complex watercourse regulation development project in Finland. Altogether 36 face‐to‐face computer‐aided interviews were undertaken with the REGAIM model with representatives of different stakeholder groups. We present the main results of the interviews and discuss how these interviews supported generation of new watercourse regulation alternatives. We also describe the advantages of the new approach in the participatory watercourse management, and discuss the applicability of Image Theory in the watercourse regulation context. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

孟子王道理想的心性向度

王道理想是孟子政治哲学的核心,作为一套超乎现实却又对现实具有普遍导向意义的治国理念,其践行的基石被孟子归结在人的心性之上。立足于“心”孟子提出王道缘起于“仁”,基于“性”孟子断言王道的落实在于“义”;由“心”“性”的统一确立了仁义一体的构想,据此认为,“居仁由义”是王道理想得以向现实转化的基本思路。     

道德敏感性的研究现状与展望

道德敏感性是对情境的道德含意的领悟和解释能力,是道德行为产生过程中逻辑上的初始心理成分。道德敏感性与个体对情境的自动化加工及其伴随着的直觉情绪有着密切的关系。情境的背景与特征,个体的角色卷入、道德图式以及人格特点等因素都可能影响个体的道德敏感性。道德敏感性研究已在儿童早期发展、职业伦理以及测验方法等领域取得一定成果,但其理论构建仍需进一步完善、深化,与教育干预密切相关的发展研究有待加强,研究方法也需拓展和改进     

Development of historical understanding among 9- to 14-year old children

The study attempted an understanding of the cognitive process involved in appreciation of history and the developmental pattern of the same. A test of Historical Understanding (HU) was constructed consisting of items which were similar to historical situations, but real historical episodes were not included in order to avoid any effect of prior knowledge and memory of historical facts. The test items were pilot tested and refined. A random sample of 15 children, 9–14 years of age (Grades 4, 6 and 8), was administered the test with clinical probing followed by an interview to assess children’s idea of past and history. The findings revealed that appreciation of the difference between past and history, chronology, and historical imagination emerged early by 9 years of age developing further with age/Grade. Development of some dimensions such as empathy and critical analysis appeared late by 13–14 years.     

卷入影响广告理性诉求信息加工效果的眼动研究

使用眼动技术,考察了卷入的两方面（个人卷入与产品卷入）共同对广告理性诉求信息加工效果的影响。研究发现：（1）随着个人卷入或产品卷入度的提高,被试获得的广告信息显著增加。（2）仅在产品卷入度高时,强说服证据理性诉求广告的品牌信息所获得的加工深度才明显优于弱说服证据者;同时,只有当个人卷入度高时,产品卷入度高的商品信息所获得的加工才明显比产品卷入度低者更为精细。这说明,广告理性诉求方式可能主要适宜于宣传产品卷入度高的商品,且只有当个人卷入度高时才可能更为有效     

Nature, Interthing Intersubjectivity, and the Environment: A Comparative Analysis of Kant and Daoism

The Kantian philosophy, for many, largely represents the Modern West’s anthropocentric dominance of nature in its instrumental-rationalist orientation. Recently, some scholars have argued that Kant’s aesthetics offers significant resources for environmental ethics, while others believe that Kant’s flawed dualistic views in the second Critique severely undermine any environmental promise that aesthetic judgments may hold in Kant’s third Critique. This article first examines the meanings of nature in Kant’s three Critiques. It concludes that Kant’s aesthetic view toward sensible nature is indeed inconsistent. The article, however, also suggests that the “I” as “transcendental apperception” discussed in the paralogisms of the first Critique holds some promise of “interthing intersubjective” thinking. The second half of the article demonstrates that Daoism with a dialectic concern similar to Kant’s has something insightful to offer in its idea of interthingness based on a phenomenal account of nature. The article investigates important Daoist ideas of interthing analogical experience, qi, spiritual exercise, and wuwei in its dialect relation to zizan. By bringing Daoism and Kant into dialogue, the author hopes to bring forth a synthetic approach that is better suited to today’s environmental concerns.     

Self-Assembly, Self-Organization: Nanotechnology and Vitalism

Over the past decades, self-assembly has attracted a lot of research attention and transformed the relations between chemistry, materials science and biology. The paper explores the impact of the current interest in self-assembly techniques on the traditional debate over the nature of life. The first section describes three different research programs of self-assembly in nanotechnology in order to characterize their metaphysical implications: (1) Hybridization (using the building blocks of living systems for making devices and machines) ; (2) Biomimetics (making artifacts mimicking nature); (3) Integration (a composite of the two previous strategies). The second section focused on the elusive boundary between self-assembly and self-organization tries to map out the various positions adopted by the promoters of self-assembly on the issue of vitalism.

幽默广告诉求及其传播效

幽默是广告中最常见的诉求方式之一。通过综合分析现有相关研究,发现：(1)幽默诉求在吸引受众注意、增强对广告及其品牌的偏好度上存在优势,但对广告品牌信息的加工是否存在促进或妨碍作用则尚未获得较为统一的结论;(2)该诉求的传播效果明显受到产品类型和卷入度、受众的幽默和认知需求、性别、文化差异、已有的品牌态度以及幽默的类型和相关性等诸多因素的影响。同时,目前尚存在对广告环境因素、传播的整体过程研究不足及理论总结不力等问题     

Systemic Wisdom,The ‘Selving’ of Nature,and Knowledge Transformation: Education for the ‘Greater Whole’

Considerations arising in the context of burgeoning concerns about the environment can provoke an exploration of issues that have significance both for environmental education in particular and education more generally. Notions of the ‘greater whole’ and ‘systemic wisdom’ that feature in some strands of environmental discourse are a case in point. It is argued that interpretations of these notions arising in currently influential scientific and systems thinking understandings of nature that attempt to overcome a corrosive separation of humankind and nature through a dilution or dismissal of the distinction between the human and non-human, self and other, require critical evaluation if they are not to bring their own dangers. Merleau-Pontian understandings of object constitution in a subjectively informed life-world and ideas of the ‘selving’ of natural things are drawn upon in developing a non-discursively grounded interpretation of systemic wisdom. The latter is taken to raise questions that have considerable transformative potential for conventional views of knowledge and its curriculum organisation.     

The Unnatural Nature of Nature and Nurture: Questioning the Romantic Heritage

From a cultural-historical perspective, nature and nurture (and thus education) are contested concepts. The paper focuses on the nature/nurture debate in the work of William Shakespeare (influenced by Montaigne) and in the Romantic tradition (evidenced by Rousseau and Wordsworth), and argues that while our Romantic inheritance (still highly influential in education) problematises nurture, it tends to mystify nature. Given that conceptions of nature are culturally driven, there is an urgent educational challenge to problematise nature as well as nurture.