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1	Magnifying the Rural : Moving through the past, present and future of a social space in Västergötland Andreasson, Jenny January 2013 (has links) In this project I have worked with strategies at regional level, as well as with alterations to an existing building, to strengthen and celebrate rural systems in a place called Naum, in Vara municipality in Västergötland. This I've donein order to challenge the dichotomy of urban and rural. I find that urbanity is very often celebrated in the architectural discipline, and in the public debate in general. There is a strong hierarchy of spaces in the national discourse of Sweden. By focusing on a rural space that I perceive have low status and connect it to networks that reach out to other spaces, cities, and regions, I treat the urban and rural as a continuous variation rather than a fixed binary. The binary is also challenged already by people constantly moving across this scale. Most of the residents of Naum, mapped out herecommute to Vara Town, or other adjacent towns or cities to work, to go school, to go the doctor, take part in cultural events etc. This project focus on the power of rural networks, on movement, and on rural systems of cooperation, and then I am making a number of alterations at a zoomed-in scale, to offer the inhabitants a more intimate relationship to this agricultural landscape. My project operate both at the intimate scale of an existing bygdegård, which is a specifically rural community space, in Naum, as well as on the larger scale of Vara municipality.To the bygdegård I propose three small scale alterations, a sauna called the 'Storytelling Sauna' (SECTION S S) an overnight stay shelter called the 'Please Stay',and an imaginative element of a 'Wisching-Well-Ditch”. In the larger scale I propose a strategic alteration to the treatment of roadsides, to increase biodiversity and human movement. I call this alteration the 'Thriving Passages'. The project also consist of this room-installation that we are all inside of, that aim to represent the different scales and allow us to move across them, and it consists of mappings of bygdegårds in Vara municipality and in Sweden and how they are connected by human movement, as well as mappings of historical and agricultural layers of this landscape. rural systems rural urban dichotomy alterations bygdegård room-installation full-scale model Architecture Arkitektur
2	COncepts and costs for the maintenance of productive capacity: a study of the measurement and reporting of soil quality O'Brien, Patricia Ann, patricia.o'brien@rmit.edu.au January 1999 (has links) This thesis studies the role accounting plays in the monitoring and reporting of soil quality in one sector of the agricultural industry, broadacre farming. A survey was conducted with broadacre farmers in the Loddon Catchment, Victoria, Australia. The primary aim was to determine the effectiveness accounting plays in providing information to decision makers relative to the productive capacity in soil quality and not just on profits. The capital asset in this study was defined as soil quality. Soils and soil quality in particular, are major elements in determining land value. The concern is decisions are being made by potential buyers and other decision makers, particularly policy makers, with regards to soil quality on the basis of incomplete and often misleading information. It is proposed that a major reason is due to the fact that different participants in the agricultural and accounting industries require and use different information. The accounting systems used by farmers are those that have been developed for the manufacturing sector which may not be appropriate for managing long-term, complex resources such as soil. The farmers themselves did not find formal accounting reports useful for decision making because these reports are based on uniform standards and market prices. The topic of soil quality and land degradation is viewed from two perspectives. In one perspective, the proprietary view; the accounting emphasis is on the ownership of assets and the change, both in income and capital, in these assets over time. In this case the accounting equation is seen as assets - liabilities = equities. The proprietor takes all the risk. A more recent perspective in accounting, the entity view, emphasises the assets whether financed from equity or debt and where the accounting equation is seen as assets = equities. The emphasis changes to the income flow from these assets and more interest is shown in current market prices as a reflection of the future value of these assets Profit is not necessarily a good indicator of what farmers are doing for their capital asset. There needs to be greater emphasis on costs undertaken for the conservation of soil. Those costs should be considered an investment and put into the balance sheet and not the profit and loss statement. The major finding of study demonstrates that decision making groups have different Activity-based costing Agricultural conservation Agricultural ecology Assets (Accounting) Capital assets Current liabilities Debt Environmental responsibility Family farms Farm business management Farm risks Farming and rural systems economics Farms Income forecasting Land degradation Liabilities Natural resources Nonrenewable natural resources Prices Productivity accounting Renewable natural resources Risk management Salinity Soils Soil conservation Soil degradation Soil economic aspects Soil ecology Soil fertility Soil productivity Soil profiles Soils Quality Soil structure Stocks Wealth Wives Women

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Magnifying the Rural : Moving through the past, present and future of a social space in Västergötland

COncepts and costs for the maintenance of productive capacity: a study of the measurement and reporting of soil quality