Through practices of assessment and consultation, information gathering and analysis, social workers, in the field of child protection, build understandings about children and families. Social workers actively construct knowledge as they engage in assessments of children referred to them as potentially 'at risk'. Their work is always informed by explicit or implicit theories about risk and protection. The active engagement with risk by social workers is the central focus for this inquiry. This thesis presents an exploratory inquiry into the work of child protection in Aotearoa/New Zealand as experienced by social workers employed at the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS). The primary focus is on their understanding of risk and their active construction of risk discourses. I am interested in how children are identified as potentially at risk, and how risk is identified, worked with, managed and woven into the assessments of social workers as they engage in child protection work. This inquiry took, as its starting point, narratives of 70 social workers about specific child protection cases. They were asked to describe both straightforward and more complex assessments, and, as a result, provided a rich and detailed range of narratives about how risk is defined, assessed and managed by social workers. This qualitative study employed a critical incident technique as a data collection method, and applied a grounded approach to the analysis of these practice stories. The focus for the interviews was on the day-to-day work as experienced by social workers, that is, the practices of assessment in child protection. Probes were used to solicit further information when risk was discussed by the workers. This research also involved spending time in different branches of CYFS around the country and informal conversation with social workers. Field notes made during these periods of immersion in different practice settings were also analysed to provide understandings of the contexts in which social workers engage in individual and collective knowledge production about children and risk. This is the first detailed investigation of how New Zealand statutory social workers of different ethnicities engage with, and draw on, risk discourses in their assessment work. For the social workers in this study, risk discourses were actively and strategically used in the legitimation of their practice interventions. The practices of socially constructing knowledge about 'risk' are a continuing focus of this thesis, and the wider implications for social work practices of 'risk' assessment are discussed.

Counterinsurgency (COIN) has made a comeback during the early 21-century since the majority of western countries have been involved in peace enforcement in the middle-east. Since its comeback the concept of COIN have been wildly debated but also undergone some chances since its early days, today the majority of COIN theories claims that the local population is the key to winning a COIN campaign. If you gain their trust the insurgency will lose their support and recruiting base, this is the reason why collateral damage resulting in in civilian deaths are contra-productive, it creates more insurgents. This is the incitement to further examine how civilian deaths occur and can be avoided during COIN campaigns. This essay studies the American COIN campaign in Iraq between 2004 and 2009 and aims to investigate whether there is a trilemma-like relationship between the key goals of COIN: protecting civilians, protecting one’s own forces and neutralizing the enemy. Each different goal has been operationalized to something measurable – death statistics. The yearly death toll for coalition troops, Iraqi civilians and insurgents provide the empirical material necessary to answer the question if the main goals can be achieved at the same time or if it’s impossible. The essay is broken down into two parts, the first examines whether an actual people-centric COIN strategy saves civilian lives or if it’s all just in theory. The second part examines the relationship between the key goals. The result in this essay shows that a people-centric COIN strategy, as the one employed by General Petraeus in Iraq during operation Iraqi freedom, actually saves civilian lives. But it also establishes that the key goals can’t be achieved at the same time and that each strategy will come with a consequence.

How can we successfully complete our missions while we are stuck in bunkers? A question representative of a hot topic of discussion regarding the restrictions of force protection measures that are placed on US troops conducting military operations abroad. The discussion, which peaked during the late 1990s early 2000s, was heavily weighted in one direction, namely claiming that force protection has a negative impact on military effectiveness. As the claim generalises force protection, a concept that has numerous definitions and even more interpretations, it therefore seems unlikely that such a generalisation can be made. This study analyses the claim using an idea analysis method, questioning its sustainability and presenting a way of understanding its limitations. In studying the circumstances of the reports that triggered this discussion, the analysis allows us to see the limited relevance of the claim with regard to the broader concept of force protection, while acknowledging its possible relevance regarding the specific aspects that are more commonly associated with the concept.

There is considerable variation in public opinion data on the environment.  While very general items suggest concern is strong, measures focusing on steps that might be taken to promote environment protection suggest weaker public commitment to green issues. Moreover, in open-ended most important problem polls - i.e. items that measure the relative important of different issues in the public mind - concern for the environment has barely registered at all over recent years.  Different poll and survey items also provide varying impressions regarding <i>trends</i> in environmental concern. Whereas some suggest this is one the increase, others indicate that it has fluctuated and still others that it is in decline.  This thesis seeks to develop an understanding of these paradoxical findings. While in the first instance it considers ways in which the survey instrument itself promotes variation, the central focus is on the nature and origins of environmental opinions. Contrary to dominant approaches to conceptualising environmentalism, including Inglehart’s Postmaterialist thesis, it is argued that concern for the environment is not a product of individual volition but rather is externally constructed by ‘environmental meaning producing institutions’, particularly interest group and the media. Only by seeing concern in this way, it is suggested, can we begin to understand the variation summarised above. The remainder of the study explores the significance of arguments presented for wider paradigmatic debates in political science. It suggests that the constructionist perspective advanced undermines key assumptions of rational choice theory - the pre-eminent theoretical perspective in the discipline. The thesis concludes by considering implications of arguments presented for the future of environmentalism. It also considers implications for the study of public opinion and for the related field of democratic theory. On the latter point, the key argument advanced is that the conception of the individual developed in the thesis raises doubts about current calls for more public involvement in political decision making and, in particular, the new and widespread interest in deliberative democracy.

No description available.

First Nation involvement in source water protection (SWP) planning has been limited in Manitoba and elsewhere. The purpose of this research was to consider how First Nation communities could be further engaged in SWP planning. Qualitative data was obtained from key participant interviews and a case study examined the collaboration between the East Interlake Conservation District (CD) and Peguis and Fisher River First Nations. The data revealed that eight of the 18 CDs in Manitoba had some involvement of First Nations in watershed planning, however, that involvement was limited in scope. This study identified four main barriers to First Nation involvement: 1) the Conservation Districts Act; 2) limited funding; 3) insufficient training for First Nation watershed planners; and 4) lack of public awareness/support for watershed protection. Amending the Conservation Districts Act, allocating federal funds, improving partnerships, and expanding water education could enhance the potential of First Nation collaboration in watershed planning.

No description available.

Der Oberboden im Erzgebirge ist teilweise mit Arsen, Cadmium und Blei belastet. Inwieweit diese Belastung direkt auf den Menschen einwirkt, kann von der jeweiligen Resorptionsverfügbarkeit (RV) abgeleitet werden. Zur Abschätzung der RV wurden etwa 600 Datensätzen ausgewertet und dabei die Gesamtgehalte und ihre RV auf regionalspezifische Unterschiede analysiert. Erstmals konnten entsprechende Gleichungen für eine Abschätzung der RV im Vollzug abgeleitet werden. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich beispielsweise, dass die RV für Arsen in der Region Freiberg regelmäßig über der in der Region Annaberg liegt. Für Blei dagegen liegt die RV in der Region Annaberg über der RV der Region Freiberg.

The effect of economic growth on environmental quality is much under dispute. A number of empirical studies have made the claim that there exists in some income ranges a positive relation between per capita income and some measure of environmental quality. According to this inverted U-shaped pattern of different pollutants relative to per capita incomes in different countries which is also called the "Environmental Kuznets Curve" (EKC), environmental pressure increases up to a point as income goes up; after the turning point environmental quality improves as income keeps rising. Possible explanations for this pattern are seen in the progression of economic development, from clean agrarian economies to polluting industrial economies to clean service economies. This trend is enhanced through the transfer of cleaner technology from high-income countries to low-income countries and the tendency of people with higher income having a higher preference for environmental quality. Since this relationship is so fundamental to questions of economic development and sustainability it has provoked a vast load of research over the last seven years supporting but also heavily criticizing the results and conclusions. This paper gives an overview of the literature published on this topic to date and the conceptual, methodological and fundamental critique put forward. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers Series "Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness"

Individual Sewers in Nordmalings Municipality – Evaluation of Factors when Prioritizing Inventory Areas and Demands of Individual Sewers The purpose of this study was to examine what to consider when prioritising inventory areas for individual sewers, as well as how an inventory should be initiated in Nordmalings municipality. The information was gathered by studying legislation, documents by government agencies, maps and by conducting a questionnaire survey. The study showed that the demands on individual sewers must be separately determined in every individual case. Sewer system shall have further wastewater treatment than only septic tanks, for example an infiltration plant. The demands should be determined by the protection level of the Environmental Protection Agency's guidelines (NFS 2006:7) for small sewage systems for domestic wastewater. The areas demanding a high level of protection are sensitive to emissions from individual sewers. Such areas can for example be Natura 2000, bathing places and water that is sensitive to eutrophication. The questionnaire was sent to 85 property owners and 64 of them responded. The majority of the ones with permanent housing had septic tanks (90.5 %) and an infiltration plant (60.0 %). The questionnaire indicated that the majority of the individual sewers were acceptable but that a significant part may have serious flaws. Prioritisation of inventory areas can be based on the areas that need high level of protection. Based on these results, coastal areas in Nordmalings municipality should be prioritised for an inventory of individual sewers.