In this paper I conduct a media analysis based on the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouddes. I analyze op-ed articles about the planning of a mine in Rönnbäck, Västerbotten, published in the national Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and the local Västerbotten newspaper Västerbottens-kuriren. The aim is to examine the discourses that appear around the mine, especially connected to development and perceptions of nature. I found three main discourses: the socio-economic discourse, the environmental discourse and the discourse on ideology and rights. The dominant perception of development was about the economy and the need for work-opportunities. There was a conflict, between the company Nickel Mountain Group AB and the opponents to the mine, concerning the best way to reach this development goal. The mine’s opponents also presented a view of development in which a pristine environment was a central aspect of quality of life. Connected to this view was concern about losing that which exists today. The environment was seen partly from an economic perspective but there was also a view of nature as something with intrinsic value. In the discussion I highlight some of the points of conflict I found: socio-economic benefits, democratic process and rights. I suggest that an open and broader debate concerning the meaning of these terms is important. I also point out the importance of including the prior assumptions and difference in powerposition of the different actors, given that their opportunities and view of reality are affected by this.

Social sustainability provides a meaningful approach for industry practitioners wishing to establish a platform to engage communities within enterprise development. It can be said that sustainability requires much more than environmental and fiscal achievements and, with an increased awareness of issues such as equity and power sharing, more corporates are incorporating their strategies in line with social responsibility values. This study therefore takes a closer look at how the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company, integrates this important concept of social sustainability in its business practices. The tourism industry has in fact grown to such an extent that global economists estimate the progress of international growth at between three and six percent annually. However, this growth can only be measured when businesses take social responsibility factors into consideration. According to the UNWTO (2011, p 1) UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, opened the Fourth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries stating that the majority of: “…least developed countries (LDCs) are rich in resources. All have young and vibrant populations. These men and women need decent jobs, education, training, so they can make the most of their country’s assets - minerals and other commodities, farmland, rich stores of biodiversity and tourism potential”. This study therefore focuses on current and future issues pertaining to socially sustainable tourism at the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition, it presents solutions for reducing the negative impacts of tourism, whilst at the same time embracing the benefits of tourism for the area and its local communities. The outcome of the study found that the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company added little value to social responsibility objectives. The company has made a significant effort in marketing their product through the mass media. However, there is an overall corporate responsibility barrier. Much still needs to be done to ensure accountability for social responsibility issues, not just within this particular company, but also throughout the tourism industry. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Science)

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Les systèmes d’élevages laitiers herbagers montagnards sont d’autant plus sensibles aux changements de contraintes de production (types de fourrages et niveaux d’aliments concentrés autorisés dans les cahiers des charges AOP par exemple) et aux aléas climatiques que le milieu est contraignant et que le système fourrager repose sur l’utilisation exclusive de prairies permanentes. Une meilleure adéquation entre les dynamiques de besoins des animaux et d’offre herbagère permettrait à ces systèmes d’atteindre un meilleur degré d’autonomie fourragère et alimentaire, et d’être ainsi plus robustes face aux changements. Pour explorer des stratégies contrastées de conduite et comprendre les compromis qu’il est possible d’atteindre entre niveau de production, autonomie fourragère et utilisation durable des prairies, un modèle de simulation déterministe à l’échelle de l’exploitation a été construit, nommé Dynamilk. Ce modèle simule les interrelations entre le troupeau laitier, les ressources alimentaires et herbagères et la conduite du système. Dynamilk est composé de deux sous-modèles biotechniques avec, d’une part, le parcellaire comportant un module de croissance de l’herbe prenant en compte la diversité botanique des prairies, et d’autre part, le troupeau laitier. Un modèle de structure démographique du troupeau simule les différentes catégories d’animaux selon leur âge et leur stade physiologique, et, un modèle dynamique simule l’ingestion et la production pour chaque catégorie d’animaux. La production laitière résulte des besoins énergétiques, de l’énergie offerte par la ration et de la capacité des animaux à mobiliser ou reconstituer leurs réserves corporelles. Le modèle de conduite est composé des éléments stratégiques définissant les objectifs de production et les règles de pilotage des principales pratiques (constitution et gestion des fourrages, alimentation et pâturage du troupeau). Le modèle animal et le modèle global ont été validés sur des données expérimentales ou de référentiels de fonctionnement d’exploitations. Ces deux modèles présentent des résultats et un fonctionnement cohérent. Dynamilk a permis de tester deux systèmes contrastés selon leur dynamique annuelle de production (période des vêlages « groupés de septembre à février » (GA) vs « groupés de mars à mai » (GP)) à chargement (0,94 UGB/ha) et apports de concentrés (1 200 kg/VL/an) identiques. Dans un plan d’expérience virtuel, chaque système a été simulé sur deux séries climatiques, une sans aléa climatique (1993-1999) et l’autre avec (2005-2011), avec une augmentation du chargement et une diminution des apports de concentrés. Les résultats de simulation montrent qu’à faible chargement les deux systèmes sont autonomes pour les fourrages et sous-utilisent les ressources herbagères au pâturage. L’augmentation du chargement améliore l’utilisation de l’herbe pâturée sans pénaliser les performances laitières, mais réduit l’autonomie en fourrages récoltés. Diminuer les apports de concentrés améliore également l’utilisation de l’herbe, mais réduit la production laitière. La production laitière du système GA est plus sensible que celle du système GP à la qualité des fourrages récoltés qui varie selon les années climatiques. Ainsi le système GP, grâce à plus d’utilisation de l’herbe pâturée, serait moins sensible aux aléas. Dynamilk permet d’analyser la réponse de systèmes laitiers herbagers sur des séries climatiques longues et de tester pas à pas des modifications de structure et de pilotage du système dans une démarche de conception de systèmes ex ante. / Dairy systems based on grasslands are sensitive towards environmental variations (climatic events) and production constraints changes. A better match between dynamic of dairy cattle needs and herbage supply could enable the farming system to lean towards a better forage self-sufficiency at farm-scale and to be more resilient to changes. Modeling approach is used to study, over many years, several scenarios with contrasted strategies of biotechnical subsystems management in order to test different calving distributions, cattle and grasslands characteristics, or practices on pastures and meadows. Such a dynamic model, called Dynamilk, has been created and implemented. Dynamilk is focused on relationships among dairy cattle, management and resources. This model is based on a bio-technical approach focused on grassland use by animals. Grassland sub model which consists in biodiversity characteristics and grass growth components has been developed by Jouven (2006). Dairy cattle sub model consists in 2 units: demographic structure unit and intake, milk production and body reserve use unit. This model considers calving period and distribution, dairy cattle characteristics (ability of animals to produce milk and use its body reserve) in order to test the match between animal needs and feed supply. Milk production according to herbage and feed supply is the main output of Dynamilk. Decisional sub-system describe the main practices to rule the production system which are forage system management with mowing practices, forage stores, winter diet, concentrate distribution and grazing management. Validation of dairy cattle sub model and whole model has been carried out by comparison against experimental data and case-study data of real farms. Two systems has been simulated with Dynamilk, the first one based on calving distribution from august to february, called GA, and the second one from march to june, called GP (stocking rate 0.94 LU.ha-1 and concentrate amount 1200 kg.cow-1.year-1). Simulation results have pointed out that both system achieved forage self-sufficiency and grass offer is underused. Several simulations has been accomplished to evaluate impacts of stocking rate increase and concentrate decrease on animal production, herbage utilisation and forage self-suficiency rate. The simulation have indicated that matching animal needs with feed and herbage supply to better cope with climatic events and constraints changes.

Pinus mugo Turra (sensu lato) is a prostrate shrub growing above the alpine timberline in the mountain ranges of Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. It is well adapted to the harsh alpine environment creating different mechanisms for survival. The research was carried out in Krkonoše Mountains on base of Pinus mugo individuals compared with Picea abies trees. Samples from shrubs were gathered using serial sectioning from four sites in different elevations located on Sněžka Mountain and Smogornia Ridge. Further analysis of the sampled material was made with the help of different detrending methods to see which method will return the best growth response to climate parameters. RCS detrending and detrending via simple averaging reflected the best climate signal contained in dwarf pine chronologies. The advantage of these methods is based on their ability to reflect growth conditions of the particular site. Upper sites showed significant correlations with temperatures of the growing season, while on lower sites the signal was quite unclear. The amount of precipitation plays the significant role on shrub growth during the vegetation period (especially July month) and early spring when water is very important for growth initiation. Upper Pinus mugo sites showed high sensitivity to droughts, especially...

This diploma thesis describes searching for long forgotten routes between ancient settlements in the mountainous environment of Central Bulgaria. It focuses on Stara Planina Mountains, where the highest peaks over two thousand metres are. Geographical features of this area were analysed using three-dimensional tools in GIS environment. I experimented with various route-designing tools and tested their capabilities against well-known ancient paths. The most accurate tools were then selected to predict routes on maps of ancient settlements from various historical periods. The data used to construct these maps had been collected from two different sources. The first source was a multidisciplinary project called TRAP, initiated by Mgr. Adéla Sobotková, the consultant of my thesis. This project's data was collected during spring and autumn surface survey campaigns in the Kazanluk region of Tundzha River valley. The second source was specialized monographs and journal articles about settlement and path connections in ancient Thracia in the period between 6th century BC and 4th century AD.

L’œuvre de Michel Butor se caractérise par la diversité formelle de ses textes. A y regarder de plus près, les thèmes abordés se recoupent malgré la prolixité de l’œuvre. Depuis Portrait de l’artiste en jeune-singe (1969) les références à la tradition alchimique foisonnent. Elles sont ici exhibées à la manière du nouveau-roman tout en participant du roman d’apprentissage. Déjà, dans le texte critique "L'Alchimie et son langage" (1960) l’alchimie est référencée comme un langage, un genre. Il nous a donc fallu tenter de répondre à la question de savoir ce qu’est l’alchimie et quelles images elle met en œuvre, depuis ses origines supposées jusqu’à sa redécouverte par les scientifiques de la Renaissance, les Romantiques et les Surréalistes. Cela nous a permis de clarifier certains liens de l’œuvre avec son intertexte. L’iconologie alchimique est par la suite mise en scène dans La Rose des Vents (1970), texte à la frontière du roman d’apprentissage, de la poésie et de la critique. Cette œuvre y met en scène la véritable essence de l’alchimie, à savoir la philosophie hermétique, dont nous retrouvons les images dans de nombreux textes poétiques depuis 1960 jusqu’en 2009.Relativement au nombre d’œuvres publiées par l’auteur, le corpus de cette étude a été défini par une étude succincte des titres. Auteur thotien, Butor dispose des signes pour présenter une géocritique a fragmentation analogique des notions. Notre démarche historique a donc porté principalement sur une étude d’ordre sémiotique. / Michel Butor’s work is marked by the formal diversity of his texts. From a closer point of view, the different themes. Looking from a closer point of view, all the different themes all find an echo in each other. Since Portrait de l’artiste en jeune singe (1969) (Novel-capriccio), the alchemical references are abundant. They are presented in the same way as the nouveau roman and are also a kind of roman d’apprentissage.The writing-morphing process is the main topic of this novel and constitutes an analogy with the transmutation of his writing substance. This tradition appears firstly in "L'Alchimie et son langage" as a language. We also needed to draw up a brief study of alchemy from its origins to the numerous rediscoveries made by the renaissance scientists, romantic and surrealist writers. The aim of this approach was to make clear the hints between the works of Michel Butor and his intertextuality. Alchemy pictures can be found in La Rose des vents, which clearly illustrates the hermetical philosophy. These alchemical pictures can also be found in many texts of poetry written between 1960 and 2009. In order to constitute our corpus, we picked up the different books because of their titles.To Conclude, we can say that Butor is a concerned author, a thotian writer, and that geocriticism applies to the human space. In his works the form creates the sense and the sense helps the form. Our historical approach focuses mainly on a semiotic study. The alchemical impulse of the Butor’s verve rests on the exhibition of the links and the analogical fragmentation.

Denna uppsats ämnar till att skapa insikt och kunskap kring turistiska diskurser rörande natur, genom att undersöka vilka bilder och representationer kring natur i de svenska nationalparkerna som framhävs i turistbroschyrer, hur människa-natur-relationer framställs men även vilka implikationer det kan framkalla. Med ett avgränsat fokus på nio nationalparker som uppfyller kriterierna av fjällkaraktär eller inbegriper renskötande samebyar. Genom en visuell diskursanalys som metod har turistbroschyrernas bilder, texter och kartor analyserats med applicering av Foucaults diskursperspektiv där makt, kunskap och sanning är centrala begrepp. Resultatet denna studie påvisar är att de diskursiva formationerna består av tre huvuddrag gällande naturen. Den framställs som något exotisk, externt, sublimt, orörd och förhistorisk, men även som en tillgänglig och romantiserad plats för just turisten ifråga samtidigt som naturen porträtteras som något speciellt för Sverige vilket då också symboliserar dess identitet. Turisten porträtteras även som tillfällig besökare, vars relation till naturen särskiljs från samers, vilka istället framställs som ”naturliga” sevärdheter för turisten. Allt som allt resulterar denna studie i ett igenfyllande av en kunskapslucka gällande olika praktikers framställande av representationer kring svenska nationalparker, samtidigt som den påvisar liknande representationer som tidigare studier resulterat i. / This essay aims to create insight and knowledge about tourist discourses regarding nature, by examining which images and representations about nature in the Swedish national parks that are highlighted in tourist brochures, how human-nature relations are produced, but also what implications it can induce. With a delimited focus on nine national parks that meet the criteria of mountain nature or include reindeer herding Sami villages. Through a visual discourse analysis as a method, the pictures, texts, and maps of the tourist brochures have been analyzed with the application of Foucault's discourse perspective where power, knowledge, and truth are central concepts. The result of this study is that the discursive formations consist of three main features of nature. It is presented as something exotic, externally, sublime, untouched, and prehistoric, but also as an accessible and romanticized place for the tourist, and at the same time as something special for Sweden, which symbolizes its identity. The tourist is portrayed as a temporary visitor, whose relation to nature is distinguished from Sami people, who instead are presented as "natural" attractions for the tourist. All in all, this study results in a refilling of a knowledge gap regarding the presentation of representations by various practitioners about Swedish national parks, while at the same time demonstrating similar representations that previous studies have resulted in.

Malgré des accidents réguliers, la moyenne montagne n’occupe qu’une place mineure dans l’étude des avalanches. Cette thèse vise donc, par une approche interdisciplinaire, à analyser la réalité du risque d’avalanche dans le Massif vosgien. Considérant le risque comme un construit social, on se propose d’appréhender les cultures du risque d’avalanche, puis d’étudier sa réalité matérielle (approche diachronique, spatialisation, conditions d’occurrence et d’émergence du risque).Pour déterminer s’il existe reconnaissance et appropriation du risque d’avalanche par les acteurs participant au processus de construction du risque, on a procédé à une analyse de discours des différents acteurs intervenant dans sa gestion et à des enquêtes, l’une inductive par entretiens, l’autre par questionnaire. In fine, d’une manière générale, connaissances et mémoire collective font défaut et, quelle que soit l’échelle, le risque d’avalanche n’est pas identifié en tant que problème. Il est au mieux désigné comme un danger ponctuel et localisé auquel on se sent peu vulnérable. Parallèlement, à travers une démarche géohistorique, on a étudié l’inscription spatiale et temporelle des avalanches sur les deux derniers siècles et cherché à identifier les facteurs naturels et sociaux interagissant dans le système de production du risque. Il apparait que, si la connaissance des avalanches est dépendante des sources, leur dynamique est fortement conditionnée par les activités anthropiques passées et actuelles. Malgré la fréquence des avalanches, ce risque n’apparait pas comme un élément fondamental des cultures montagne dans le Massif vosgien et nécessite un travail d’information et de sensibilisation. / In spite of regular accidents, the medium-high mountain doesn’t seem to play a major role in the study of avalanche. Therefore, the main goal of this thesis is to emphasize the reality of the avalanche risk in the Vosges Mountains by an interdisciplinary approach. Considering risk itself as a social construction, we suggest to study at first the cultures of avalanche risk and then pursue with its material reality (diachronic approach, spatialization, risk occurrence and conditions of emergence). So as to establish if the different protagonists involved in the process of risk construction recognize and appropriate the avalanche risk, we have analyzed the statements of the persons in charge of those events and conducted two different surveys (inductive interviews and a questionnaire). In the end, there is a lack of knowledge and collective memory, and the risk of avalanche seems not to be considered and identified as a real problem. At the very best, it is pointed out as an occasional and localized danger, to which people do not really feel vulnerable.At the same time, through a geo-historical approach, we studied the spatial and temporal distribution of avalanches over the last two centuries and tried to identify the natural and social factors interacting in the risk production system. It appears that, if knowledge concerning avalanches is based on historical sources, their dynamic is strongly conditioned by past and current human activities. Despite the frequency of avalanches, this risk does not appear as a fundamental element of the mountain cultures in the Vosges range and requires measures to draw the attention of people and inform them about it.

Depuis les années 1960, la Tunisie, a développé une politique de tourisme balnéaire demasse basée principalement sur les atouts climatiques du pays et la proximité avec l’Europe. Afin dedévelopper cette politique, l’Etat a joué un rôle central en créant les institutions nécessaires et enencourageant les investissements privés et le pays a ainsi trouvé sa place en tant que destinationtouristique de référence dans le bassin méditerranéen. Cependant, avec la multiplication des offres parles pays concurrents (Maroc, Croatie, Turquie, Egypte, Grèce…), le produit balnéaire tunisiens’essouffle. Il est donc important de diversifier cette offre afin de garder et de développer la clientèle.Dans cette optique, l’Etat avait créé dans les années 1980 le pôle touristique de Tabarka-Ain Drahamavec pour objectif de dynamiser le Nord-Ouest et notamment la Kroumirie, notre zone d’étude.Aujourd’hui, ce massif de moyenne montagne reste toutefois toujours isolé et marginalisé, malgrél’existence à proximité du pôle touristique balnéaire à Tabarka, qui n’a pas pu s’imposer réellementsur la carte touristique du pays à l’instar de la côte orientale (Djerba, Sousse, Hammamet). Le tourismerural n’en demeure pas moins une vraie piste d’action pour un développement durable de la région, vules potentialités locales, à travers notamment la richesse du patrimoine culturel, naturel et historique. / Tunisian balneal tourism, as it was planned, has loosen its motivity since few years and itshows its limitation since tourists are more and more unsatisfied with the environmental quality. Inaddition, Tunisian tourism can restrict to this unique product (balneal tourism) due to the highconcurrence (Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece…). Moreover, the unstable international situation (attacks,wars…) let a part of customers to define orientations that they see it more secure; like Italy or Greece.Thus, Tunisia starts to diversify its touristic product in order to guarantee an important position for theecotourism. The appearance of this new touristic orientation allows evaluating the natural, socioculturaland popular resources of some regions. It guarantees employment and incomes to the localpopulation, money to the government without threatening natural resources. A well planned andcontrolled ecotourism allow to a region and all its local actors to develop. The ecotourism guaranteethe protection of the environment and the green and archeological spaces and at some time let theplace for tourism. With regard to the diversity of its natural landscape its remarkable fauna and flora,the Kroumirie region – located in Northwestern Tunisia – start to attract the “new tourist” who likenature. Since many years, this region has become the first interest of national and internationalassociations and organizations in order to make it an incontrovertible eco-touristic pole. In fact, theregion dispose of a multitude of natural potential as that mountains, seas, reserves, its natural park…We will introduce the region focusing its eco-touristic potentials.