Climate change and a changing flood pattern create urgent issues for low-lying land suchas the Vietnamese Mekong delta. Harmful levels of flooding, drought and extreme weatherconditions are increasingly striking rural communities in the delta. Millions of peopleliving in the area are very poor and the vulnerability is high to a change in the floodingpattern. Political incentives, programs and policies have been introduced in order to adaptto the changes but the complex issues are hard to tackle.This study tries to understand the impact that flooding pattern has in the Mekong delta areaand what the communities do to adopt do their new situation, both on a top downperspective and local coping strategies within the communities. The SRL (SustainableRural Livelihood) approach has been used to analyze the conditions. It gives a holisticperspective on societies and highlights that there are several dimensions to a problem. Anumber of interviews with women and men working on different levels within the field ofclimate adaption, climate change, rural development, environment and migration werecompleted.The findings show that the Vietnamese Government has tried to solve the situation throughlaws and policies but this method has shown not to be enough. The communities haveorganized ways of dealing with their own problems but issues are severe and the regionalco-operations need to be dealt with seriously. When conditions worsen, what is being donetoday is not enough to save The Mekong delta or its people.

This study uses sense of place and adaptive co-management theories to present acomparative analysis of co-management arrangements at Macassar Dunes Nature Reserve, CapeTown, and to broadly investigate the role of ‘place’ in ‘co-management’. Methods involved in-depthinterviews with members of the main co-management body, the Macassar Dunes Co-managementAuthority, to determine their perceptions of ‘bridges’ and ‘barriers’ to co-management, and ‘placemeanings’. Open-coding of these perceptions was based on analytical frameworks taken from the‘faces’ of co-management (Berkes, 2009), and from sense of place theory, including place-making andpolitics of place. This comparative analyses show adaptive co-management relates more to comanagementof processes and sense of place theory inherently relates to co-management of- and inplace.I conclude adaptive co-management theory problematically incorporates ‘place’ into comanagementunderstandings, and thus greater incorporation of place meanings in theory andpractice could inform increased understanding of conflict in co-management arrangements, such asthose presented at Macassar Dunes.

Approaches to address climate change as part of a larger strategy where climate benefitsare only a part of a larger set of other benefits, like sustainable development benefits, arelimited to mitigation. The need for “[a] structured but flexible approach to adaptation”sought by developing countries requires a similar consideration in order to realize whatelements of adaptation could be ‘structured’ and what elements ‘flexible.’ Applyingprogram theory, this work explores ways in which adaptation to climate change mayemerge as a consequence of development policies. This is applied to the experience ofagriculture in Mozambique to model policy implementation in response to the 2007 foodcrisis using concepts from programme and strategy theory to examine how a chain ofactivities obtain results not initially targeted, exemplifying how adaptation to climatechange can emerge as a co-benefit of development polices. The case study indicates thatadaptation and development interact better when policies are designed to integratedifferent needs and are sustained not just by those directly implementing them, and thatgenerating adaptation co-benefits will be different according to the scales and level inwhich policies apply. The study concludes with suggestions for multilevel mechanismfor integrating adaptation through policy instruments containing policies that throughstrategic rearrangement can achieve different results. Future research should furtherconsider the implications of applying current international adaptation instruments towider portfolios to assess the possibilities of creating a mechanism for mainstreamingadaptation within the current political constrains.

The global urbanization process occurs at an ever-increasing rate, appropriating ecosystemservices (ESS) from areas often several hundred times larger than the actualurban areas themselves. Such notions further press the needs of attaining sustainableurban development. According to recent research, an important element of such a developmentis to incorporate knowledge on ESS and ecosystem function into urbanspatial planning. This study investigates 1) how different sustainability aspects areaddressed by Stockholm’s urban planning organizations and 2) organizational barriersand opportunities towards better including urban ESS in the planning. The focal pointwas set to three environmentally profiled districts in Stockholm – empirical data wascollected through interviews with individuals within urban planning organizations andenvironmental urban planning documents. These data were analyzed through organizationallearning theory and an ESS analysis framework. It showed that in the twobiggest projects, the economic sustainability aspect is perceived as the slow driver; inthe third project, this was not as apparent. Further, there were two time aspects involvedin the learning process – a long-term process of evaluating and revising, and ajuncture-associated timing-aspect. Many interviewees experienced lack of commonsustainability strategies, which is partly related to the ambivalence and complexity ofthe sustainability concept. Even if interviewees understand greater sustainability implications,there is a need to translate it into pragmatic solutions. Thus, there is knowledgeaccumulation on ESS but it is currently held in the individuals, risking deteriorationif/when key individuals leave the organizations. Single-loop and double-looplearning is simultaneously occurring with symbiotic functions, however a doublelearning-loop on the full significance of urban ESS is yet to be completed. In terms oftriple-loop learning, there is currently a paradox in the requirements for it to occurthat the contemporary governance framework of Stockholm does not seem able to resolve.

No description available.

This thesis studies symbolic power within Uruguay’s agricultural regime shiftbetween 2000 and 2010. This socio-ecological system (SES) has been changing froman agricultural-livestock farming system to one dominated by intensive cropagriculture. The aim is to understand the role of a natural resource managementprogram (NRMP) within the processes that are leading to a different state. The mainresearch method is a discursive analysis of actors’ position-taking regarding thechange in agriculture.The main results indicate that: 1) an interacting regime shift took place in Uruguaywhere a new type of agricultural producer was the main driver that generated multipledomain and scale effects; 2) soil erosion as technological and neutral problememerges as a consequence of the struggle between actors’ interpretations of theagricultural changes; 3) a reorganization cycle takes place in natural resourcemanagement program (NRMP); 4) NRMP promotes a further reorganization ofresources: development of new scientific research problems and 5) a regime shift isobservable in natural resource management: ecological knowledge is based on powerrelations rather than on historical experience.The study concludes that symbolic relations of power during a regime shift are ofgreat importance to understand how a society institutionalizes a management programand develops ecological knowledge. In turn, NRMP plays a fundamental role duringthat system reorganization phase, as it sustains certain exploitation of the naturalresources through the promotion of new ecological knowledge. The recommendation for RS theory is to situate natural resource management and ecological knowledge asparts of the dynamics of a social-ecological system.

The Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a forage fish species that is increasing inimportance for Southern Ocean fisheries and world aquaculture production. However, thisspecies also has a fundamental role in the Scotia Sea food-web and is the main conservationtarget for the region’s natural resource management organization - the Commission for theConservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The aim of this thesis istherefore to examine the inter-relationship between CCAMLR, krill fishery and the Scotia Seaecosystem in the Southern Ocean, as well as broader socio-economical and ecological settingssince 1970s and measure system resilience. The premise here is that the current krill-regime inthe Scotia Sea must be understood as a complex adaptive system (CAS) of social, ecologicaland economical attributes that operates over different temporal and spatial scales. Thus, byapplying the framework of a social-ecological system (SES), together with the adaptive cycleheuristic model, both quantitative and qualitative data is revised and integrated. Two alternatemanagement states are identified within the krill-regime; an early krill fishery state (1972 –1991), and an ecosystem based governance state (1991 - 2010). Resilience is however fadingin the Scotia Sea due to a combination of cross-scale attributes, in a range from low krilldensity (n/m¯²), increased competition for marine resources between predators and krillfishery, to elevated demand and global market prices of non-food commodities by theaquaculture sector in Asia, thus, moving the Scotia Sea towards an unknown fish-regime.Although such future regime is still retained by the region’s slow changing physical variablessuch as sea ice and seasonality, as well as the adaptive management capacity of CCAMLR,the sudden appearance of an undesirable regime in the Scotia Sea would probably havecomprehensive socio-ecological consequences if reached.

Två olika bullertypers effekt på visuell talavläsning undersöktes på 23 normalhörande (de bästa av 147 i ett förtest). Uppgiften var att visuellt avläsa vanliga svenska ord i tre ljudförhållanden: tystnad, brus och talbuller. Talbuller gav signifikant lägre avläseprestation än tystnad och brus. Resultatet tolkas som fonologisk informationsstörning, att talavläsningen kräver fonologisk bearbetning, vilket också talbullret tvingar till. Det fanns ett medelstarkt samband mellan uppskattad ansträngning och avläseprestation för tystnad, ju bättre deltagarna avläste desto mindre ansträngande tyckte de att det var. Samband mellan självskattningar och avläseprestation för brus och talbuller saknades.

Abstract. The prediction of growing global populations flocking to cities, increasingdemands for more food production, the call to maintain biodiversity and the interactionsof many different stakeholders elicits quite a mind-boggling medley of complexity. Theact of 'urban farming' may be a promising starting point in which to begin understandingthis complexity. This thesis strives to untangle the variables within this predictionthrough a narrative approach, weaving in relationships of power in order to understandthe complexity of this 'mess,' by tracing the actions of the last urban farmers inStockholm, Sweden. Employing Complexity Thinking, the narrative is temporallyorganized in order to highlight context, purpose and motive, aiming to promoteverisimilitude through systematically assembling interpretations while supporting themwith thick details as to what 'urban farming' interpretively is. Discrepancies, connectionsand contradictions from the case study are juxtaposed against one another to displayplurality of views across different scales of space and time. The case study highlightsurban farming's marginalization by illustrating historically distinct institutional shifts ingovernance; drawing attention to policies and regulations, past actions and artifacts,which, when self-organized to the present, are 'currently' reducing the farmers'possibilities for food production, promoting instead, an arguably beautiful, yet'unsustainable' biodiversity-and-urban-park emphasis, ignoring the appetites of the city'srapidly growing population and the accompanying external food dependencies that growwith it. Conclusions point to a deeper seeded issue in the founding assumption of thescientific prediction, calling attention to contextuality, unpredictability, the problemsassociated with a governing logic and/or a compressed-way-of-thinking and the generalneed or willingness to appreciate the complexity of things, actions and people –particularly people who grow or raise our food.

Pressure from an ever increasing population demands development and use of agriculturalpractices which increases productivity without undermining the biological foundation onwhich all humans depend. To support resilience, agriculture needs to manage the land forgeneration of multiple ecosystem services. Analyses show that practices that practices whichhave been introduced in Potshini, a smallholder community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africahave potential to increase crop yields, generate multiple ecosystem services and resilience ofthe area. However, these practices are adopted to a very low degree. Through informationgained with semi-structured interviews with farmers reasons for low adoption is found onseveral scales. Reasons directly causing abandonments are both physical constraints as lack ofresources and reasons on a mental /behavioral form resistance to change behavior and lack ofknowledge, factors appearing on the local scale. These factors are partly connected to arigidity to change caused by the South African social system in combination with poorconditions for smallholder commercialization. A low dependency on farming as livelihoodand few opportunities to use farming for income generation results in a low potential of usingproductivity increase as driver. Soft factors related to traditions and farmer values becomesincreasingly important as drivers why practices with implications on the traditional way offarming (like the introduced conservation agriculture) becomes harder than introduction ofpractices which does not interfere with farmer values and traditions. Additionally, landdegradation acting as a driver for implementation on a societal level is not perceived as anurgent issue among farmers and thus not acted upon. To achieve long term sustainability inthe system, a better understanding of the system drivers is needed to achieve a change fromwithin the smallholder system, to facilitate other ways of income generation than fromproductivity increase. To increase the awareness of environmental issues, mainstreaming mayprovide a way forward, and to compensate farmers for costs related to benefits which aregenerated for the larger system payment for ecosystem services may be used.