Tesi sul tema "Institutionnel Landscape"

L'empire achéménide, dominant une grande partie du Proche-Orient entre 559 et 330 avant notre ère, s'appuyait sur l'exploitation économique des territoires qu'il contrôlait, organisée à travers un réseau administratif élaboré. La Transeuphratène, satrapie à l'ouest de l'empire, jouait un rôle stratégique dans ce système. En Idumée, une région du Levant Sud, un corpus de près de 2 250 ostraca en araméen impérial a été découvert. Bien qu'ils manquent souvent de contexte archéologique précis, étant apparus sur le marché des antiquités dans les années 1970, leur comparaison avec des ostraca provenant de sites comme Maresha, Arad et Beersheba montre qu'ils appartiennent à la même période et au même système administratif. Depuis les années 1990, ces ostraca ont été majoritairement étudiés sous un angle philologique. Toutefois, cette recherche propose une approche innovante en utilisant une base de données relationnelle pour effectuer des analyses quantitatives et comparatives approfondies. Ces documents, principalement économiques, donnent selon nous un aperçu de l'administration locale. L'objectif est de replacer ces textes dans leur contexte historique afin de révéler les mécanismes de gestion locale de la satrapie. La méthodologie comparative, confrontant le corpus d'Idumée à des découvertes similaires ailleurs dans l'empire, permet d'établir des parallèles entre les pratiques administratives des différentes régions. Dans ce cas, un des corpus clés sont les Archives des Fortifications de Persépolis découvertes dans les années 1930 qui ont transformé la compréhension de l'administration achéménide, en fournissant des sources économiques brutes. Ce modèle, où chaque satrapie conservait ses propres archives, soulève la question de l'existence d'un système similaire en Transeuphratène, et en particulier en Idumée. Les ostraca étudiés semblent constituer des traces de ce réseau administratif local à un autre échelon. Ces documents révèlent ainsi un ensemble de transactions économiques et la gestion des ressources locales. Bien que les inscriptions soient parfois lacunaires ou elliptiques, elles permettent de dégager les grandes lignes des pratiques administratives locales. En se basant sur le concept de « paysage institutionnel » de Henkelman, cette étude propose une analyse à deux niveaux : une perspective microscopique qui se concentre sur les détails locaux et une vision macroscopique qui replace ces informations dans le cadre plus large de l'empire. L'un des objectifs majeurs de cette étude est de dégager les thématiques principales présentes dans les ostraca d'Idumée et d'identifier les acteurs clés du système administratif, tels que les administrateurs, les scribes et les collecteurs d'impôts. Cette approche permet de mieux comprendre comment le pouvoir central perse interagissait avec ses provinces périphériques, en adaptant ses pratiques aux spécificités locales. En analysant les ostraca d'Idumée et en les comparant à d'autres sources contemporaines, cette étude cherche à reconstituer une vue d'ensemble du fonctionnement administratif régional. Le corpus d'ostraca d'Idumée offre une opportunité unique d'explorer la gestion des territoires périphériques de l'empire. Par l'étude des termes administratifs récurrents et des transactions documentées, il est possible de mieux comprendre la structure administrative impériale et les pratiques administratives dans cette région
The Achaemenid Empire, which dominated much of the Near East between 559 and 330 BCE, relied on the economic exploitation of the territories it controlled, organized through a sophisticated administrative network. The satrapy of Transeuphratia, located in the western part of the empire, played a important role within this system. In Idumea, a region in the southern Levant, a corpus of nearly 2,250 ostraca written in Imperial Aramaic was discovered. Although many lack precise archaeological context, having emerged on the antiquities market in the 1970s, comparisons with ostraca from sites such as Maresha, Arad, and Beersheba indicate that they belong to the same period and administrative system. Since the 1990s, these ostraca have been predominantly studied from a philological perspective. However, this research offers an innovative approach by utilizing a relational database to conduct in-depth quantitative and comparative analyses. These documents, primarily economic in nature, provide insight into the local administration, and the aim is to situate them within their historical context to reveal the mechanisms of local governance within the satrapy. The comparative methodology, which juxtaposes the Idumean corpus with similar discoveries from other regions of the empire, helps establish parallels between the administrative practices across different regions. One key corpus for comparison is the Persepolis Fortification Archives, discovered in the 1930s, which transformed the understanding of Achaemenid administration by providing raw economic sources. This model, in which each satrapy maintained its own archives, raises the question of whether a similar system existed in Transeuphratene, and particularly in Idumea. The ostraca under study appear to represent traces of this local administrative network on a smaller scale. These documents reveal a series of economic transactions and the management of local resources. Although the inscriptions are sometimes incomplete or elliptical, they allow for an understanding of the key features of local administrative practices. Using Henkelman's concept of the "institutional landscape," this study proposes a twofold analysis: a microscopic perspective that focuses on local details, and a macroscopic view that situates these details within the broader framework of the empire. One of the primary objectives of this study is to identify the main themes present in the Idumean ostraca and to pinpoint the key actors in the administrative system, such as administrators, scribes, and tax collectors. This approach enables a better understanding of how the central Persian authority interacted with its peripheral provinces, adapting its practices to local specificities. By analyzing the Idumean ostraca and comparing them with other contemporary sources, this study seeks to reconstruct an overview of the regional administrative system. The Idumean ostraca corpus provides a unique opportunity to explore the management of the empire's peripheral territories. Through the study of recurring administrative terms and documented transactions, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the imperial administrative structure and the administrative practices in this region

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.
Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-153).
The decentralized architecture of the Internet, which has been key to its development and worldwide deployment, is making it challenging to secure Internet user experience. Many organizations claim to be playing a role in improving Internet security. If anything, the space of security-related institutions seems on first inspection to be over-populated, yet poor security persists. This work proposes a framework to understand the role different institutions play in cyber security. The analysis gives insights into the broad institutional ecosystem of public, private and international actors, and the varied nature of these institutions, their interests, incentives, and contributions to cyber security from hardware, software, protocols, standards and regulation. Based on natural language clustering algorithms, this framework classifies institutions along five dimensions: the aspect of cyber security the institution covers (e.g. network security, cybercrime), the industry and activity sector of the institution (e.g. telecommunications, software and service providers), whether it is part of a specific jurisdiction (e.g. US, Europe), specific institution's characteristics such as its working mode (e.g. forum, information sharing) or primary focus (e.g. economic development, consumer trust), and the governance type (for-profit, not-for-profit, government or international organization). We developed a dataset of approximately 120 institutions that claim a role with respect to cyber security, and using the framework, we identify areas of competing and overlapping institutional interest, relevant areas out of scope of current institutions and dysfunctionalities that hinder overall security improvement.
by Cecilia Andrea Testart Pacheco.
S.M.
S.M. in Technology and Policy

This thesis draws together a series of publications that were based on research studies conducted between 1981 and 2011, covering care homes and alternative forms of housing with care. The majority of the studies were funded by the Department of Health or its predecessors, and were aimed at responding to policy issues, particularly for local authority grant funding. However, the funding provided the opportunity to collect information for broader purposes, and a central feature linking the studies was the collection, as far as possible, of consistent information about the characteristics of residents over time. The thesis includes 12 pieces of work, based on information collected in ten studies, and illustrates the changes in care home provision from 1981 onwards, and the potential role of alternative forms of housing with care. The aim of the thesis is to explore the following themes: the changing role of care homes and the development of the independent sector, particularly the private sector; factors associated with care home costs; changes in the relative role of residential and nursing homes, including changes in the characteristics of residents over time; changes in the quality of provision; the impact of care home closures; provision for self-funders and the expectations of residents; and the development of alternative forms of housing with care, and the degree to which specialised housing can provide an alternative to residential care. Care homes in the UK provide around 470,000 places and account for over half the expenditure on social care for older people in England. However, information about care facilities and residents is very limited. The papers presented here aimed to fill some of the gaps in understanding residential care and possible alternatives by making use of data collected in a unique series of related research studies conducted over a period of 30 years.

Uganda has been considered one of Africa's few "success stories" over the past decade, an example of how a country can be transformed through a committed state bureaucracy. The thesis questions this view by looking at the experiences of development and change in a subparish in eastern Uganda. From this more local-level perspective, the thesis discusses the weakness of the state in the countryside, and incorporates the importance of religious and customary institutions. In place of a narrow view of politics, focused on reforms and policies coming from above, which rarely reach rural areas in a consistent or predictable way, the thesis describes political developments within a rural community. The thesis rests on two premises. First, that the state in rural Uganda has been too weak to support an effective bureaucratic presence in the countryside. Second, that politics at the local-level is an "open-ended" business, better understood through investigating a range of institutional spaces and activities, rather than a particular set of actions, or a single bureaucracy. Oledai sub-parish, which provides the empirical material for the thesis, was far removed from the idea of state-sponsored success described in the literature. Villagers had to contend with a history of violence, with recent impoverishment, and with the reality that the rural economy was unimportant in maintaining the structures of the government system. The thesis shows that the marginalisation of the countryside came at a time when central and local government structures had become increasingly reliant on funding from abroad. Aside from the analysing the weakness of the state bureaucracy, the thesis goes on to discuss broader changes in the life of the sub-parish, including the impact of a violent insurgency in the late 1980s. The thesis also looks at the role of churches and burial societies, institutions which have been largely ignored by the literature on political developments in Uganda. Religious and customary institutions, as well as the village court, provided spaces where political goals, such as settling disputes, building a career, or acquiring wealth, could be pursued.

Forest and pasture Commons are a shared trait of Alpine rural areas, with a total coverage of 1,668,851 hectares, i.e. almost 10% of the total agricultural area of the country (Istat, 2012). Particularly in the Italian Eastern Alps, forest Common Properties have a long-lasting tradition. Mostly called `Regole´ (singular: `Regola´), these were relevant institutions in the past, superintending to all aspects of community life and acting as essential regulator of natural resources use. Since 19th century the Italian common lands have come under relevant attack by central State authorities, that considered them an anachronistic remaining of a feudal past, and unable to promote technological and economic development in the agriculture and forest sectors. Only since mid of 20th century, various national legislative initiatives have progressively returned power to Common Properties. Taking cue from this new climate of supporting legislation, the Veneto Region (north-eastern Italy – i.e. the selected case study area for this thesis research) was first in line in the policy process of recognition of the collective role in managing the regional forest landscapes and in fostering the rural development of mountainous territories. Indeed, Common Properties have a long-standing tradition in the Veneto Region and were tenacious opponents of the fascist attempts to dismantle them. In 2012, Veneto counted 53 Common Properties, almost all of them located in the mountainous province of Belluno. Moreover, 17 Common Properties have been re-constituted since 1996 (Gatto et al., 2012), i.e. since the enactment of a regional law in support of common property regime reconstitution. Where reconstitution processes were successful – or where they are likely to be completed in the near future – a radical change is on the way in the ownership structure of forest landscapes, with large forest and pasture assets shifting from public property regimes to common property regimes, with `close´ membership. Most of the existing bibliographic resources dealing with the Italian common domain limit their analyses to the historical vicissitudes that common lands passed through, or analyse legal issues in technical terms, or debate about some internal Common Property governance and policy issues (e.g. gender balance, intergenerational renovation, need for statute renovation, etc.). Contrarily, very few published works assessed whether and how the internal Common Property dynamics also relate to and influence both the socio-economic and the institutional environments of the whole local mountain communities of residents, administratively identifiable with Municipalities, that Regole belong to. Meaningfully, Municipalities still exert an overarching administrative control and planning functions over the lands comprised within their boundaries, common lands included. The ratio for such a prescription emerges out of the fact that Municipalities represent the entire resident population of communities, as the local residents include both members and non-members of local Common Properties. Then, municipal policy decisions should be informed by broad territorial vision that goes beyond sectorial interests, e.g. forest management, in order to ensure a territorial development as most comprehensive as possible. Nevertheless, it seems that the recent, fast-paced process of re-constitution of Common Properties has the potential to create or increase institutional tensions at the local level, especially due to the new need to coordinate management rights and responsibilities between Common Properties and Municipalities. Florian (2004) reported that in some cases heavy legal disputes and institutional contrasts with local Municipalities were absorbing many available economic and administrative energies of the newly-reconstituted Common Properties. Carestiato (2008) pointed out a similar situation. Hampel (2012) implicitly suggested that nowadays a sort of `feeling of power and individual property´ over common resources by some right-holders might have negative consequences on the social environment that Regole are embedded within. Still nowadays, there are hints of disparate administrative and legal issues still pending among these institutions, insomuch to hinder remarkably the implementation or the achievement of integrated territorial development strategies. For the reasons above, the Veneto Region represents an interesting case to assess the capacity for polycentric governance of forest resources between Municipalities and Common Properties. In the light of the new challenges and opportunities that Regole are called to face and cope with, among which the ongoing institutional reforms (Gatto et al., 2012) and deep societal and demographic changes (Steinicke et al., 2014), two main research objectives have been identified. Firstly, the thesis aims to describe and assess the institutional patterns which the institutional relationships between Common Properties and Municipalities are based on, trying to evaluate their mutual degree of cooperation in their own and interdependent statutory competences. The second objective corresponds to the evaluation of whether, and to what extent, the regional Common Properties give concrete answers to the aims and prescriptions that the Regional law entrusted them with, i.e. forest landscape management and protection and socio-economic development of rural mountain areas. Research activities have been modulated in three different phases. A prevailing qualitative methodological approach has been knowingly selected. After a broad literature review, in the first step of the field data collection, face-to-face interviews have been carried out among the institutional representatives (e.g. Majors, Aldermen, Councillors, etc.) of those Municipalities including Regole within their administrative boundaries. It has been made use of a simple but effective data collection procedure and instrument, i.e. a structured survey questionnaire containing both closed and open-ended responses, allowing for analysis across respondents from organizations of the same category at similar administrative levels. Respondents have been asked to provide information on the institutional communication patterns characterising their relationship with local Common Properties. They were also inquired so to reveal their own perception about the Common Property capability to effectively stimulate the socio-economic development of mountain areas and proactively pursue a sound forest management. In the second phase, taking advantage of a secondary data analysis and through descriptive statistics techniques, the common and municipal attitude towards the active provision of environmental services have been compared. Particularly, a set of environmental services others than wood has been selected, i.e. biodiversity protection, carbon storage, soil protection and water quality regulation, tourism promotion and support to recreational activities. It has been assessed whether Common Properties and Municipalities explicitly considered such environmental services among their current multi-functional forest management practices. The assigned priority to the supply of the environmental services was also tested, analysing whether they consider such provision as a primary or secondary forest management objective. Finally, respondents declaring no or secondary commitment to the supply of one or more environmental services were asked to indicate under which conditions they would be potentially interested in strengthening such proactive provision. In the third research step, a new set of interviews has been carried out to check and compare municipal representatives’ opinions with common representatives’ ones. So, face-to-face interviews have been carried out among common representatives of those Common Properties located in the same areas where the parallel survey had been conducted among Municipalities. Again, the collaborative mechanisms and the institutional linkages horizontally linking Common Properties with Municipalities have been explored, along with their self-evaluation on their own management options and outputs. An informed viewpoint is therefore discussed, disclosing whether cooperative institutional relationships among Common Properties and Municipalities prevail and their mutual institutional tensions can be considered sporadic, or deeper and chronic issues affect them. Prerequisites and conditions best facilitating the establishment of fruitful relationships between these two entities are also described. Moreover, it is discussed whether the ongoing regional attempts at reconciliation between public policies and collective strategies is likely to result in higher levels of synergies also through a socio-economic lens. Results suggest that Municipalities remain the primary institutional reference point for mountain territories, and they continue to play a central role in regulation of local-level socio-economic dynamics. Usually, institutional tensions occur when the presumption that Common Properties have nothing to do with Municipalities prevail (and vice versa), although both these institutions play a role in managing overlapping territories. From a social perspective, it seems also recommendable that right-holders conceive Common Properties more as essential tools to ensure the involvement of right-holders in the local policy processes, rather than as a mere legal acknowledgement of ancient property rights. Nowadays, an excessive closure could even threaten the same survival of some Common Properties, shifted from struggling against the so-called past `enclosure of Commons´ to the opposite situation, i.e. the risk to downgrade to `common enclosures´. Informal relationships among municipal and common representatives have been found to play a relevant role in maintaining the institutional contacts between these bodies vital and properly working. Nonetheless, mechanisms to enforce stable, robust and enduring cooperation (e.g. joint declarations of interest, procedural and/or economic memoranda and agreements, etc.) are worthwhile. In this way, it would be possible also to overcome and prevent personal contrasts that negatively and heavily affect the institutional relationships. Finally, it is comprehensively argued whether or not the outcomes of the re-assignment of former municipal forests to Common Properties can be considered positive in terms of improved forest management practices and environmental services supply. A general consensus has been found, that forest management has improved since Common Properties newly gained control over local forest resources, probably because it represents their statutory and vocational core business. Particularly, the re-establishment of `new´ Common Properties may reinforce the main provisioning services. However, the dichotomy `Common Properties focussed on market-based activities (i.e. wood harvesting) vs. Municipalities focussed on provision of environmental services´ does not seem appropriate.
Gli assetti fondiari collettivi forestali e agricoli rappresentano un aspetto tipico e diffuso delle aree rurali, in particolar modo alpine, per una estensione complessiva di 1.668.851 ha, pari quasi al 10% della complessiva superficie agraria italiana (Istat, 2012). In particolare nelle Alpi dell’Italia orientale, le Proprietà Collettive vantano una lunga tradizione: principalmente chiamate `Regole´, esse in passato si configuravano come rilevanti istituzioni territoriali, sovrintendendo e agendo da essenziali regolatori dell’uso delle risorse naturali. A partire dal XIX secolo, gli assetti fondiari collettivi italiani hanno subito l’attacco delle autorità centrali statali, che li consideravano anacronistiche rimanenze di un passato feudale ed incapaci di promuovere lo sviluppo tecnologico ed economico del settore forestale. Solo dalla metà del XX secolo varie iniziative legislative hanno progressivamente restituito titolarità istituzionale alle Proprietà Collettive. Nel solco di questo nuovo clima legislativo favorevole, la Regione del Veneto fu in prima linea nel processo politico di rinnovato riconoscimento del ruolo collettivo nella protezione ambientale e di gestione dei paesaggi forestali. Inoltre, la Regione del Veneto (Italia nord-orientale) – ossia l’area di studio selezionata ai fini del presente lavoro di ricerca – si pose in prima linea nel processo politico di nuovo riconoscimento di tale ruolo collettivo nel gestire i paesaggi forestali regionali e nel dare impulso e sostegno allo sviluppo rurale dei territori montani. Le Proprietà Collettive `chiuse´ vantano una lunga tradizione nella Regione del Veneto, e furono tenaci oppositrici del tentativo legislativo fascista mirato alla loro soppressione. Nel 2012, il Veneto contava 53 Proprietà Collettive, quasi tutte situate nella provincia montana di Belluno. Inoltre, 17 Regole erano state ricostituite dal 1996 e fino al 2012, cioè a partire dal varo di una legge regionale a supporto della loro ricostituzione. Laddove i processi di ricostituzione hanno avuto successo – così come dove è probabile che essi giungano a compimento nel breve periodo – si è verificato un cambio radicale nella struttura della proprietà terriera, con ampie superfici boschive e pascolive passate dal controllo e dalla proprietà pubblica a quella collettiva, caratterizzata da criteri di accesso e membership spesso più restrittivi. La maggior parte delle risorse bibliografiche esistenti in tema di assetti fondiari collettivi limita le proprie analisi alle vicissitudini storiche attraversate dalle Proprietà Collettive, oppure analizzano questioni legali in termini tecnicistici, o approfondiscono alcune dinamiche di governance e di policy interne alle Proprietà Collettive (ad esempio, la parità di genere, il ricambio intergenerazionale, la necessità di revisione degli Statuti, ecc.). Al contrario, davvero poche pubblicazioni hanno analizzato se, e come, le dinamiche interne alle Proprietà Collettive siano in grado di influenzare l’ambiente socio-economico ed istituzionale delle intere comunità locali, amministrativamente identificabili nei Comuni, a cui le Regole appartengono. Significativamente, i Comuni esercitano ancora un controllo sovraordinato e complessivo dei territori ricompresi all’interno dei loro confini amministrativi, inclusi gli assetti fondiari collettivi. La ratio di una simile prescrizione scaturisce dal fatto che i Comuni rappresentano l’intera popolazione, residente e non, dal momento che sia regolieri (titolari di diritti collettivi) sia non-regolieri costituiscono la cittadinanza locale. Inoltre, le politiche municipali dovrebbe conformarsi ed essere ispirate da visioni ampie che superano largamente interessi specifici e di settore, quale ad esempio la sola gestione forestale, in modo da assicurare uno sviluppo del territorio quanto più comprensivo ed inclusivo possibile. Tuttavia, sembra che il recente e repentino processo di ricostituzione delle Proprietà Collettive abbia il potenziale per creare o aumentare alcune tensioni istituzionali a livello locale, specialmente in ragione della nuova esigenza che Comuni e Proprietà Collettive coordinino i propri diritti e le proprie responsabilità in termini di gestione del patrimonio. Nel 2004, Florian osservò come, in alcuni casi, pesanti dispute legali e contrasti istituzionali con le municipalità locali stessero assorbendo molte delle energie economiche ed amministrative disponibili delle neo-ricostituite Proprietà Collettive. Carestiato (2008) osservò una situazione simile. Hampel (2012) suggerì implicitamente che, oggigiorno, una sorta di `sentimento di potere e di proprietà individuale´ applicato agli assetti fondiari collettivi da parte dei regolieri potrebbe avere conseguenze negative sull’ambiente sociale in cui le Regole sono inserite. Ancora oggi, vi sono indizi di disparati problemi e contenziosi legali e amministrativi ancora pendenti, tanto da ostacolare la realizzazione o il raggiungimento di strategie di sviluppo territoriale integrato. Per le ragioni in premessa, la Regione del Veneto rappresenta un caso interessante per esplorare la capacità di governance delle risorse forestali `policentrica´ tra Comuni e Proprietà Collettive. Alla luce dunque delle nuove sfide e opportunità con cui oggigiorno le Regole sono chiamate a confrontarsi, tra cui le attuali riforme istituzionali (Gatto et al., 2012) e profondi cambiamenti sociali e demografici (Steinicke et al., 2014), sono stati identificati due obiettivi di ricerca principali. Innanzitutto, il presente lavoro di tesi mira a descrivere e valutare i pattern istituzionali che caratterizzano e su cui si basano le relazioni istituzionali tra Comuni e Proprietà Collettive, provando sostanzialmente a valutare il grado di mutua e reciproca cooperazione in riferimento alle competenze statutarie, proprie ed interdipendenti, di queste istituzioni. Il secondo obiettivo corrisponde ad una valutazione di come, e se, le Proprietà Collettive regionali diano risposta concreta agli obiettivi e alle prescrizioni assegnategli dalla legge, ossia la gestione e la protezione dei paesaggi forestali e lo sviluppo socio-economico delle aree montane. Le attività di ricerca sono state modulate in tre fasi differenti. È stato scientemente adottato un approccio metodologico piuttosto qualitativo. Nella prima fase, sono state condotte interviste tra i rappresentanti istituzionali (es. Sindaci, Assessori, Consiglieri, etc.) di quelle municipalità all’interno dei cui confini amministrativi insistono Regole. È stato fatto uso di procedure e strumenti di raccolta dati semplici ma efficaci, cioè un questionario strutturato che prevedeva risposte sia chiuse sia aperte, permettendo un’analisi di confronto tra diversi rispondenti, afferenti a diverse organizzazioni poste a pari livello amministrativo. Agli intervistati è stato chiesto di fornire informazioni ed evidenza dei pattern istituzionali che caratterizzano e su cui si basano le relazioni istituzionali tra il Comune e le Proprietà Collettive. Ad essi è stato anche chiesto quale sia la loro specifica percezione in merito alla capacità delle Proprietà Collettive di stimolare effettivamente lo sviluppo socio-economico delle aree montane, così come di perseguire una gestione forestale equilibrata e responsabile. Nella seconda fase di ricerca, traendo vantaggio dall’analisi di dati già disponibili (analisi secondaria per mezzo di usuali tecniche di statistica descrittiva), è stata comparata l’attitudine municipale e collettiva nell’erogazione proattiva di servizi ambientali. In particolare, è stato preso in considerazione il seguente panel di servizi ambientali, diversi dalla provvigione legnosa: protezione della biodiversità, accumulo di carbonio, protezione del suolo e regolazione della qualità delle acque, promozione turistica e supporto alle attività ricreative. È stato valutato se le Proprietà Collettive e i Comuni includessero esplicitamente tali servizi ambientali all’interno delle loro attuali pratiche di gestione integrata e multi-funzionale delle foreste. È stata anche testata la priorità assegnata a tali funzioni, analizzando se la loro erogazione fosse considerata di primaria o secondaria importanza. Infine, ai rispondenti con scarso o nullo interesse nell’erogazione proattiva di questi servizi ambientali è stato chiesto di indicare a quali condizioni sarebbero stati potenzialmente interessati a rafforzare il loro impegno in tal senso. Nella terza fase di ricerca, è stata lanciata una nuova campagna di interviste per verificare e comparare le opinioni dei rappresentanti collettivi con quelle analoghe dei rappresentanti istituzionali municipali. Pertanto, le interviste faccia-a-faccia sono state condotte tra i rappresentanti di quelle Proprietà Collettive situate nelle stesse aree dove era stata condotta la prima fase d’indagine. Nuovamente, sono stati esplorati i meccanismi di collaborazione e le connessioni istituzionali che intercorrono `orizzontalmente´ tra Proprietà Collettive e Comuni, insieme all’autovalutazione dei rappresentanti regolieri circa le proprie opzioni e risultati di gestione forestale. Vengono quindi presentate alcune considerazioni circa la prevalenza di relazioni istituzionali improntate alla cooperazione, e se le mutue tensioni e contrasti possano considerarsi sporadici, o se sussistano problemi più profondi e cronici. Vengono anche discussi i prerequisiti e le condizioni che meglio facilitano lo stabilirsi di relazioni proficue tra questi due Enti. Inoltre, viene discusso se è plausibile che gli attuali tentativi regionali di riconciliazione tra le politiche pubbliche e le strategie collettive possano risultare in più alti livelli di sinergia anche in un’ottica socio-economica più ampia rispetto al solo settore forestale. I risultati suggeriscono che i Comuni siano ancora punti di riferimento istituzionali di prima importanza per i territori montani, e che continuino a giocare un ruolo centrale nella regolazione delle dinamiche socio-economiche a livello locale. Usualmente, si verificano contrasti e tensioni istituzionali quando prevale la presunzione che le Proprietà Collettive non abbiano nulla a che spartire con i Comuni (e viceversa), sebbene entrambe queste istituzioni concorrano alla gestione dei medesimi territori. Adottando una prospettiva di natura sociale, sembra anche raccomandabile che i regolieri concepiscano le Proprietà Collettive più come strumenti fondamentali che assicurino il loro coinvolgimento nei processi decisionali e di politica locale, piuttosto che come mero riconoscimento di antichi diritti di proprietà. Oggigiorno, un’eccessiva chiusura delle comunità regoliere potrebbe finanche minacciare la sopravvivenza stessa delle Proprietà Collettive, passate in breve dall’opposizione alla riduzione degli assetti fondiari collettivi (`Enclosure of Commons´) ad una situazione opposta, ossia il rischio di regredire ad `enclavi collettive´ (`Common enclosures´). È anche emerso come le relazioni di carattere informale tra i rappresentanti comunali e collettivi giochino un ruolo rilevante nel mantenimento di contatti istituzionali vitali e funzionanti tra questi enti. Nondimeno, meritano d’essere instaurati meccanismi stabili, duraturi e robusti di collaborazione (ad esempio, mediane dichiarazioni congiunte d’interesse, memorandum, accordi, ecc.). In questo modo, sarebbe anche possibile superare e prevenire i contrasti di natura personale, che tanto influenzano negativamente i rapporti istituzionali tra Comuni e Regole. Infine, viene ampiamente dibattuto se i risultati della riassegnazione alle Proprietà Collettive di foreste precedentemente a gestione comunale possa considerarsi positiva in termini di miglioramento delle pratiche gestionali e di fornitura di servizi ambientali. È stato rinvenuto un ampio consenso circa il fatto che la gestione forestale sia migliorata da quando le Proprietà Collettive hanno ottenuto un rinnovato controllo delle risorse forestali locali, probabilmente perché la gestione forestale costituisce una loro finalità principe, ed un loro cardine statutario. In particolare, la ricostituzione di `nuove´ Proprietà Collettive può rinforzare l’erogazione dei principali servizi di utilità generale. Per queste ragioni la dicotomia tra Proprietà Collettive focalizzate su attività di mercato (produzione legnosa) e Comuni concentrati sull’erogazione di servizi ambientali non sembra essere appropriata.

Sweden has had laws protecting nature for about a hundred years. In this paper the views of nature and the values that serve as a rationale for protective measures are analyzed as results of a social process characterized by the dialectic relationship between institutions and discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to study this relationship and the discursive practices used by institutions, which reproduce or reshape views of nature that define the relationship between society and nature. Institutional design contributes to shaping discourse in the field of nature protection, while being originally shaped by discourse. In Sweden, the national park is an institution that reproduces a view of nature as the wild and untamed opposite of society, and the natural reserves reproduce a view of nature as holder of a multi-faceted set of values intertwined with society. However, the most recently formed national park, the marine national park of the Koster sea includes resource values that threaten the hegemony of arcadian discourse within the institution and indicates social change.

Avoiding the negative effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity is especially challenging when also the management institutions are spatially and administratively distributed. This doctoral thesis introduces five case studies that investigate ecological, social and social-ecological relations in fragmented landscapes. I present new approaches in which research and governance can detect and manage mismatches between landscape ecology and planning. The case studies include urban and forested landscapes where an intense land-use is limiting the connectivity, i.e., the potential for many species to disperse between the remaining patches of habitat. Graph-theoretic (network) models are applied to map connectivity patterns and to estimate the outcome for dispersing species at the patch level and for the whole study system. In particular, the network models are applied to evaluate the spatial complexity and the potential mismatches between ecological connectivity and geographically distributed management institutions like protected areas and municipalities. Interviews with municipal ecologists complement the spatial analysis; revealing some problems and ways forward regarding the communication and integration of ecological knowledge within local spatial-planning agencies. The results also show that network models are useful to identify and communicate critical ecological and social-ecological patterns that call for management attention. I suggest some developments of network models as to include interactions between species and across governance levels. Finally, I conclude that more effort is needed for network models to materialize into ecological learning and transformation in management processes.

At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript.

Les entreprises industrielles, de par la nature de leurs activités et l’emprise foncière de leurs sites de production, impactent négativement la biodiversité. Certaines commencent à intégrer la conservation de la biodiversité dans leur stratégie comme réponse institutionnelle aux pressions sociétales qu’elles subissent. Cette thèse a pour but de répondre à la question suivante : comment une entreprise industrielle peut-elle prendre en compte la conservation de la biodiversité dans son activité ? Pour ce faire, nous avons mobilisé deux disciplines, les sciences de gestion et les sciences de la conservation dans trois axes complémentaires. Notre terrain d’étude était l’entreprise de stockage de gaz naturel Storengy. Pour comprendre comment la conservation de la biodiversité était traitée dans l’entreprise, nous avons réalisé une enquête ethnographique de sa stratégie biodiversité, établie en 2010. Ainsi, nous avons montré qu’elle était associée à une logique institutionnelle hybride combinant les objectifs de conservation avec ses objectifs stratégiques. Le responsable biodiversité, les écologues, l’entreprise d’entretien des espaces verts et des employés ont participé à légitimer, à cadrer et à développer la stratégie. Les expériences de nature se sont révélés être des facteurs importants dans l’engagement des employés. Enfin, nous exposons les tensions liées à la stratégie biodiversité et sa portée restreinte dans l’entreprise liée à l’inertie du système. Pour accompagner l’entreprise dans l’amélioration de la biodiversité sur ses sites, nous avons proposé des indicateurs de biodiversité. Ils permettent d’évaluer les enjeux de biodiversité à l’échelle du territoire et de la parcelle et, en fonction de cela, de guider l’entreprise dans la gestion de son domaine foncier. Enfin, pour comprendre comment les installations industrielles pouvaient être mobilisées pour améliorer la biodiversité à l’échelle locale, nous avons étudié plusieurs groupes taxonomiques (flore, papillons et oiseaux) présents sur des équipements particuliers de l’entreprise étudiée : les plateformes de puits. Nous avons montré que, dans des paysages agricoles relativement intensifs, les aménagements de ces plateformes pouvaient favoriser des communautés sensibles aux perturbations anthropiques. Cette thèse permet d’améliorer la connaissance sur la prise en compte de la biodiversité dans les entreprises, les outils qu’elles peuvent mobiliser pour évaluer et gérer la biodiversité sur leur domaine foncier et ainsi contribuer à sa conservation
Industrial companies, due to the nature of their activities and the land ownership of their production sites, negatively impact biodiversity. Some are beginning to integrate biodiversity conservation into their strategy as a response to societal pressures. This thesis aims to answer the following question: how can an industrial company take biodiversity conservation into account in its activities? To answer this question, we have mobilized two disciplines, management sciences and conservation sciences, in three complementary axes. Our study field was the natural gas storage company, Storengy. To understand how biodiversity conservation was addressed in the company, we conducted an ethnographic survey of its biodiversity strategy, which was established in 2010. We showed that it was associated with a hybrid institutional logic combining conservation objectives with the strategic objectives. The biodiversity manager, ecologists, the green space company and employees participated in legitimizing, framing and developing the strategy. Experiences of nature proved to be important factors in employee engagement. Finally, we outline the tensions related to the biodiversity strategy and its limited scope in the company because of the inertia of the system. To help the company in improving biodiversity on its sites, we have proposed biodiversity indicators. They make it possible to assess biodiversity issues at the territory and plot scale and, based on this, to guide the company in the management of its land estate. Finally, to understand how industrial facilities could be mobilized to improve biodiversity on a local scale, we studied several taxonomic groups (flora, butterflies and birds) present on a particular piece of equipment: gas well platforms. We showed that, in relatively intensive agricultural landscapes, gas well platforms landscaping could favor communities that are sensitive to human disturbance. This thesis improves our knowledge of how companies take biodiversity into account and the tools they can use to assess and manage biodiversity on their land and thus contribute to its conservation

Intensified agriculture has led to a dramatic decline of farmland biodiversity in Europe during the 20th century, making farmland policies of utmost importance within the European Union [EU]. The Greening, which is a part of the Common Agricultural Policy [CAP] was created to combat the negative effects of intensified agriculture. However, the policy did not achieve the goal of safeguarding farmland biodiversity and will be replaced in the upcoming CAP-reform. This study researches if a landscape perspective and nature-inclusive farming can increase the efficiency of the Greening in Scanian farmlands. Through semi-structured interviews with professionals on a regional level, we investigated: What are the obstacles that hinder regional solutions to farmland biodiversity issues in Scania, Sweden? Through the lens of governance, the results emphasized a need for new arrangements between all stakeholders in order to solve the issue of declining farmland biodiversity in Scania. The main obstacles for incorporating a landscape perspective and nature-inclusive farming are the lack of regional influence in the Greening, short program periods, and low profitability for farmers. We argue that these obstacles stem from the complex, multilevel governing system of the EU, and the projectification of the CAP. We suggest adopting a Common Pool Resource [CPR] framework for farmland biodiversity in Scania as an efficient way of surpassing the obstacles. However, further research is needed to create a cohesive view of the use value of farmland biodiversity. We concluded that although the results might be applicable to other regions within the EU, it is important to further research other regions in terms of local landscape conditions and local governance for effective results.
Intensifierat jordbruk har inneburit en dramatisk minskning av den biologiska mångfalden i jordbrukslandskap i Europa under 1900-talet, vilket gör jordbrukspolitiken central inom Europeiska unionen [EU]. Förgröningsstödet, som är en del av EU:s gemensamma jordbrukspolitik, skapades för att motverka de negativa effekterna av intensifierat jordbruk. Förgröningsstödet uppnådde emellertid inte målet att skydda den biologiska mångfalden i jordbrukslandskap, och kommer att ersättas i nästkommande reform. Den här studien undersökte om ett landskapsperspektiv, samt naturinkluderande jordbruk kunde öka ändamålsenligheten av Förgröningsstödet i det skånska jordbrukslandskapet. Genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med tjänstemän på en regional nivå, undersöktes: Vilka är hindren som motarbetar regionala lösningar på problem som berör biologisk mångfald inom det skånska jordbruket? Utifrån ett governance-perspektiv, betonade resultaten ett behov av nya arrangemang mellan samtliga aktörer för att lösa problemet med minskad biologisk mångfald inom skånskt jordbruk. De främsta hindren för att inkludera ett landskapsperspektiv samt naturinkluderande jordbruk var bristen på regionalt inflytande, de korta programperioderna, samt låg lönsamhet för jordbrukare. Vi hävdar att hindren härrör från den komplexa flernivåstyrningen inom den gemensamma jordbrukspolitiken, samt projektifiering av den. Vi föreslår att anta ett Common Pool Resource [CPR] ramverk för biologisk mångfald inom skånskt jordbruk som ett effektivt sätt att övervinna hindren. Ytterligare forskning behövs dock för att skapa en enhetlig bild av användningsvärdet av biologisk mångfald i jordbrukslandskap. Avslutningsvis menar vi att även om resultaten kan gå att applicera på andra regioner inom EU, ligger det stor vikt vid att undersöka lokala förhållanden inom landskap och styrning för att nå effektiva resultat

Questo studio analizza i meccanismi di diffusione di iniziative di Inclusive Business secondo i principi della Teoria Base della Piramide (BOP). La ragione è quella di approfondire l’ipotesi che tali iniziative possano rappresentare un modello di policies a favore dello Sviluppo Sostenibile e Umano, a livello globale. Due variabili sono state analizzate: la replicabilità geografica dei modelli di inclusive Business e la presenza di un contesto istituzionale di supporto. Lo studio ha verificato l’ipotesi attraverso un’analisi qualitativa di due aziende (per la variabile geografica), quindici laboratori appartenenti al BOP Learning Lab Network (per la variabile istituzionale) e novantasei casi-studio del database UNDP Growing Inclusive Markets (per entrambe le variabili). I risultati indicano la presenza di barriere culturali, politiche, normative ed economiche che impediscono la replicabilità/diffusione di iniziative BOP. Dal punto di vista istituzionale, appare una scarsa integrazione dei rappresentanti delle comunità BOP all’interno delle istituzioni a loro supporto. Tuttavia, sono emersi due driver per la diffusione di iniziative BOP: reti migratorie e organizzazioni settoriali. Questi sono stati analizzati evidenziandone le potenzialità relativamente alla domanda di ricerca. Infine, sono state presentate questioni aperte derivanti dalla diffusione di meccanismi di Inclusive Business a livello globale, contestualizzandole in rapporto alla Teoria BOP.
This study wants to investigate the process of diffusion of Inclusive Businesses according to the principles of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) theory. The rationale is to investigate whether the Inclusive Business approach may lead to a new policy framework addressing Sustainability needs and Human Development, at a global level. Two diffusion-related variables were tested: the geographical replication of Inclusive Business models and the presence of a supporting institutional landscape. The study verified the hypothesis through a qualitative analysis of two firms (geographical replication variable), sixteen labs from the BOP Learning Lab Network (supporting institutional landscape variable) and ninety-six case-studies of the UNDP Growing Inclusive Markets database (both variables). Results showed cultural, policy, regulatory and economic barriers hampering the geographical replication of BOP ventures. From the institutional point of view, results showed a poor integration of actors from the BOP within the supporting institutions. Yet, two drivers to diffuse the Inclusive Businesses emerged: migrant networks and sector-level organizations. Both were investigated highlighting their potentialities in relation to the research question. Finally, open issues on the diffusion of Inclusive Business models were presented, explaining their contribution in advancing the state of the art of the BOP theory.

Questo studio analizza i meccanismi di diffusione di iniziative di Inclusive Business secondo i principi della Teoria Base della Piramide (BOP). La ragione è quella di approfondire l’ipotesi che tali iniziative possano rappresentare un modello di policies a favore dello Sviluppo Sostenibile e Umano, a livello globale. Due variabili sono state analizzate: la replicabilità geografica dei modelli di inclusive Business e la presenza di un contesto istituzionale di supporto. Lo studio ha verificato l’ipotesi attraverso un’analisi qualitativa di due aziende (per la variabile geografica), quindici laboratori appartenenti al BOP Learning Lab Network (per la variabile istituzionale) e novantasei casi-studio del database UNDP Growing Inclusive Markets (per entrambe le variabili). I risultati indicano la presenza di barriere culturali, politiche, normative ed economiche che impediscono la replicabilità/diffusione di iniziative BOP. Dal punto di vista istituzionale, appare una scarsa integrazione dei rappresentanti delle comunità BOP all’interno delle istituzioni a loro supporto. Tuttavia, sono emersi due driver per la diffusione di iniziative BOP: reti migratorie e organizzazioni settoriali. Questi sono stati analizzati evidenziandone le potenzialità relativamente alla domanda di ricerca. Infine, sono state presentate questioni aperte derivanti dalla diffusione di meccanismi di Inclusive Business a livello globale, contestualizzandole in rapporto alla Teoria BOP.
This study wants to investigate the process of diffusion of Inclusive Businesses according to the principles of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) theory. The rationale is to investigate whether the Inclusive Business approach may lead to a new policy framework addressing Sustainability needs and Human Development, at a global level. Two diffusion-related variables were tested: the geographical replication of Inclusive Business models and the presence of a supporting institutional landscape. The study verified the hypothesis through a qualitative analysis of two firms (geographical replication variable), sixteen labs from the BOP Learning Lab Network (supporting institutional landscape variable) and ninety-six case-studies of the UNDP Growing Inclusive Markets database (both variables). Results showed cultural, policy, regulatory and economic barriers hampering the geographical replication of BOP ventures. From the institutional point of view, results showed a poor integration of actors from the BOP within the supporting institutions. Yet, two drivers to diffuse the Inclusive Businesses emerged: migrant networks and sector-level organizations. Both were investigated highlighting their potentialities in relation to the research question. Finally, open issues on the diffusion of Inclusive Business models were presented, explaining their contribution in advancing the state of the art of the BOP theory.

Les politiques de conservation de la biodiversité ne concernent plus seulement aujourd’hui des espaces protégés, mais également des réseaux où l’enjeu est de préserver et restaurer les continuités entre habitats afin de favoriser les circulations des populations animales et végétales. Ce nouveau regard élargit les territoires de la conservation aux espaces de nature ordinaire, tels que les espaces agricoles, où les processus écologiques et les activités humaines sont fortement imbriqués. Ce travail de thèse s’intéresse à la mise en œuvre, à travers une gestion du paysage en faveur du réseau écologique, d’une stratégie de conservation intégrée de la biodiversité dans les espaces agricoles. Pour cela, nous étudions les modes de gouvernance, les représentations et les pratiques de cette conservation à différentes échelles par des approches associant méthodes d’analyse qualitative et quantitative. A l’échelle nationale et régionale, nous interrogeons les évolutions des représentations sociales des relations entre agriculture et biodiversité au moyen d’une analyse de contenu de la presse quotidienne. A l’échelle régionale et territoriale, nous comparons la gouvernance et la mise en œuvre d’un outil contractuel de la politique Trame verte et bleue sur trois études de cas, à partir d’entretiens semi-directifs et d’observations participantes. A l’échelle de l’exploitation agricole, nous identifions par des entretiens semi-directifs, les modalités d’intégration de la biodiversité comme facteur de décision des pratiques des agriculteurs et leurs représentations de la biodiversité et des éléments semi-naturels arborés. Nos résultats mettent en évidence que le paysage est un outil propice à l’insertion de la biodiversité dans les espaces agricoles, et à celle des acteurs locaux dans la conservation, à condition qu’il soit considéré dans sa pluralité de conceptions et de représentations. Cependant, autour des réseaux écologiques, la notion de paysage qui fait référence reste largement celle de l’écologie et celle-ci peine à inclure la dimension agricole et les agriculteurs. Nous discutons des apports théoriques et méthodologiques de ces résultats et de leurs perspectives scientifiques et appliquées en géographie de la conservation
Biodiversity conservation no longer only concerns protected areas. It is also a matter of ecological network. Ecological corridors between habitats participate in the circulation of animal and plant populations. This new perspective extends the scope of conservation to ordinary nature and areas where ecological processes and human activities are strongly intertwined, such as agricultural areas. This study focuses on the implementation of integrated biodiversity conservation in agricultural areas through landscape management for ecological network. We study the modes of governance, representations and practices on several scales, mixing qualitative and quantitative analyses. At the national and regional scales, changes in social representations of the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity are examined with a content analysis of French media. At the regional and local scale, we compare, in three case studies, the modes of governance of a contractual tool of the French ecological network policy: the Green and Blue infrastructure ("Trame verte et bleue"). For this purpose, we use semi-structured interviews and participant observations. At farm scale, we identify with semi-structured interviews, the ways in which biodiversity can be included as a factor in decision–making practices, and we investigate the farmers’ representations of biodiversity and landscape elements. We show the importance of taking into account the diversity of conceptions and representations of landscape by farmers and all stakeholders for successful integrated biodiversity conservation. In the design and implementation of ecological network policies, the predominant conception of landscape is ecological and therefore has difficulty in including the agricultural issues and farmers’ views. Finally, we discuss the theoretical, methodological and practical implications of our results in conservation geography