Clear Beneficiary Research Articles

‘The Politicisation Game’: Strategic Interactions in the Contention Over TTIP in Germany

ABSTRACT As the third-largest exporting country in the world, Germany is a clear beneficiary and proponent of free trade. Few, therefore, expected the magnitude of contention that emerged within Germany during the negotiations between the EU and the United States for a transatlantic trade deal (TTIP). This paper explores the politicisation process of TTIP within the context of the broader transformations of German politics including not only the entry of new issues and new players in the electoral and protest arenas but also the increased hybridisation of forms of protest. Theoretically, we draw on the ‘Players and Arenas’ framework to put forward a sequential, strategic interactionist approach to the unfolding process of politicisation, in which various types of players face dilemmas when interacting with each other over time. Applying this analytical framework to the politicisation of TTIP in Germany, we reveal previously overlooked players, interactions and dilemmas, while opening up multiple opportunities for empirical analysis of cases beyond this area. We show how the politicisation of TTIP brought about an important intensification of relations between Germany’s protest and electoral arenas, and confronted all players involved with choices with long-lasting consequences for both mobilisation and coalition building dynamics.

Leaving a Choice for Others: Children's Evaluations of Considerate, Socially-Mindful Actions.

People value those who act with others in mind even as they pursue their own goals. Across three studies (N=566; 4- to 6-year-olds), we investigated children's developing understanding of such considerate, socially-mindful actions. By age 6, both U.S. and Chinese children positively evaluate a character who takes a snack for herself in a way that leaves a snack choice for others over a character who leaves no choice (Study 1), but only when the actors had alternative possible actions (Study 2) and when a clear beneficiary was present (Study 3). These results suggest an emerging ability to infer underlying social intentions from self-oriented actions, providing insights into the role of social-cognitive capacities versus culture-specific norms in children's moral evaluations.

Climate impacts on hydropower and consequences for global electricity supply investment needs

Abstract Climate change is projected to increase hydropower generation in some parts of the world and decrease it in others. Here we explore the possible consequences of these impacts for the electricity supply sector at the global scale. Regional hydropower projections are developed by forcing a coupled global hydrological and dam model with downscaled, bias-corrected climate realizations. Consequent impacts on power sector composition and associated emissions and investment costs are explored using the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). We find that climate-driven changes in hydropower generation may shift power demands onto and away from carbon intensive technologies. This causes significantly altered power sector CO2 emissions in several hydro-dependent regions, although the net global impact is modest. For drying regions, we estimate a global, cumulative investment need of approximately one trillion dollars (±$500 billion) this century to make up for deteriorated hydropower generation caused by climate change. Total investments avoided are of a similar magnitude across regions projected to experience increased precipitation. Investment risks and opportunities are concentrated in hydro-dependent countries for which significant climate change is expected. Various countries throughout the Balkans, Latin America and Southern Africa are most vulnerable, whilst Norway, Canada, and Bhutan emerge as clear beneficiaries.

Opportunities for improved promotion of ecosystem services in agriculture under the Water-Energy-Food Nexus

In this study, we focus on water quality as a vehicle to illustrate the role that the water, energy, and food (WEF) Nexus perspective may have in promoting ecosystem services in agriculture. The mediation of water quality by terrestrial systems is a key ecosystem service for a range of actors (municipalities, fishers, industries, and energy providers) and is reshaped radically by agricultural activity. To address these impacts, many programs exist to promote improved land-use practices in agriculture; however, where these practices incur a cost or other burden to the farmer, adoption can be low unless some form of incentive is provided (as in a payment for ecosystem services (PES) program). Provision of such incentives can be a challenge to sustain in the long term, if there is not a clear beneficiary or other actor willing to provide them. Successfully closing the loop between impacts and incentives often requires identifying a measurable and valuable service with a clear central beneficiary that is impacted by the summative effects of the diffuse agricultural practices across the landscape. Drawing on cases from our own research, we demonstrate how the WEF Nexus perspective—by integrating non-point-source agricultural problems under well-defined energy issues—can highlight central beneficiaries of improved agricultural practice, where none may have existed otherwise.

Exit Velocity: The Media Election

The previous campaign of 2010 produced electoral firsts in media terms (the televised leaders' debates), drama and unpredictability (‘Cleggmania’) and memorable moments (Gordon Brown's ‘bigoted woman’ comments) all of which disrupted the parties' planned scripts. Arguably, the 2015 election seems to have been its very antithesis. The plodding six-week campaign has been widely been portrayed as dull, stage-managed, narrowly focused and lacking in surprise moments, but with a dramatic ending on election night, as the broadcasters announced the shock exit poll. The disbelieving former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown declared ‘he would eat his hat’ if his party suffered the losses predicted by the forecast; in fact the result was even worse. Ashdown like so many of his fellow commentators, whether of the traditional offline or online media varieties, was stunned by the apparent failure of the opinion polls to foresee the Conservative victory. What followed was the political equivalent of ‘exit velocity’ in the aftermath of a plodding election, with frenetic, intensive debate over the future of the UK sparking the kind of passion lacking in the preceding campaign. The 2015 campaign as reported in the media was predicated on the assumption that the outcome would be another hung Parliament and, possibly, coalition government. This was constantly reinforced by a stream of experts and opinion-formers fixated on what might happen after the election rather what had just happened in the previous Parliament. This augmented the potential power-broking role of emerging ‘challengers’ such as UKIP, the SNP and Greens at the marked expense of the Liberal Democrats, clear beneficiaries of the added exposure they had received in 2010. Yet if the campaign differed in terms of its focus on these growing political parties it was also reminiscent of the previous one with its similar emphasis on polls and other aspects …

Tourism-Related Pay for Environmental Services: An Important Tool for Environmental Management

Ecosystem accounts a lot to human survival and development. Ecological / environmental services has become an important part of the whole economic system functioning. Thus, from the perspective of environmental fairness and environmental controversies, pay for environmental services has become an important tool of acknowledging ecological capital and solving environmental problems. With the development of tourism, tourism-related pay for environmental services also entered the perspective of researchers and practitioners. Tourism-related pay for environmental services becomes the priority areas for the implementation of pay for environmental services because of its relatively clear property rights, clear beneficiaries, and strong capacity of payment. At the same time, Tourism-related pay for environmental services becomes the focus of enhancing the efficiency of pay for environmental services because tourism has become an important way to ecological construction and solve problems of livelihoods of local communities. This paper first proposed definition of tourism-related pay for environmental services, and then examines the standards of pay for environmental services that remains the key issue of pay for environmental services. The purpose of the paper is to provide intellectual support for the implementation of important environmental management tools.

Habitat coupling in a large lake system: delivery of an energy subsidy by an offshore planktivore to the nearshore zone of Lake Superior

Summary We hypothesised that the autumn spawning migration of Lake Superior cisco (Coregonus artedi) provides a resource subsidy, in the form of energy‐rich cisco eggs, from the offshore pelagic to the nearshore benthic community over winter, when alternate prey production is likely to be low. We tested this hypothesis using fish and macroinvertebrate surveys, fish population demographics, diet and stable isotope analyses, and bioenergetics modelling. The benthic, congeneric lake whitefish (C. clupeaformis) was a clear beneficiary of cisco spawning. Cisco eggs represented 16% of lake whitefish annual consumption in terms of biomass, but 34% of energy (because of their high energy density: >10 kJ g wet mass−1). Stable isotope analyses were consistent with these results and suggest that other nearshore fish species may also rely on cisco eggs. The lipid content of lake whitefish liver almost doubled from 26 to 49% between November and March, while that of muscle increased from 14 to 26% over the same period, suggesting lake whitefish were building, rather than depleting, lipid reserves during winter. In the other Laurentian Great Lakes, where cisco populations remain very low and rehabilitation efforts are underway, the offshore‐to‐nearshore ecological link apparent in Lake Superior has been replaced by non‐native planktivorous species. These non‐native species spawn in spring have smaller eggs and shorter incubation periods. The rehabilitation of cisco in these systems should reinstate the onshore subsidy as it has in Lake Superior.

Intentioned Recession: An Ideologically Driven Re-Structuring

Viewing broad middle class economic losses from the Great Recession as an accident leads many to imagine that a return to pre-recession policies and practices will restore this group's economic prosperity. Another perspective views these losses as part of a larger pattern of economic and political disenfranchisement directed toward the American middle class. To the extent that those who benefit from an event might be recognized as having a hand in its creation, insight into the values and beliefs held by this recession's beneficiaries may prove useful in designing policy changes needed to stem or reverse the continued enactment of these wider goals. This paper offers that insight: using responses to an original survey administered to faculty at major research universities across the United States in 2008–2009, certain values and beliefs held by academics across many departments and disciplines may be observed. Three interdependent elements pertaining to citizen democracy including population well-being, tolerance of contest and dissent, and citizen controlled majority rule are explored. The flip side of each—support and justification for hierarchy and inequality, intolerance of dissent, and valuing business dominance and power over citizen democracy—are often found in business operations today. Academics in business schools show stronger support for these latter values than do faculty in other fields; as business has emerged as a clear beneficiary from the Great Recession, this ideology may usefully serve as a reverse guide to policy change if greater equality in population well-being, and increased citizen-controlled democracy, are desired.

Adapting to Cuba's Shifting Food Landscapes: Women's Strategies of Resistance

La escasez y el aumento de precios de productos alimenticios, productos de las secuelas destructivas de los huracanes Gustav, Ike y Paloma en el otoño de 2008 ejemplificaron una vez más las interrupciones frecuentes en el sistema alimenticio con que los cubanos, y especialmente las mujeres cubanas, han tenido que luchar desde el comienzo del Período Especial en la década de los 90. Empleando un enfoque de género para analizar la adquisición y preparación de alimentos, se examina las consecuencias de las periódicas escaseces de alimentos sobre el uso de tiempo y las estrategias informales de resistencia que las mujeres cubanas han adoptado para alimentarse a si mismas y a sus familias.

Long-term climate change impacts on agricultural productivity in eastern China

Increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are expected to induce significant climate change over the next century and beyond, but the impacts on society remain highly uncertain. This work examines potential climate change impacts on the productivity of five major crops in eastern China: canola, corn, potato, rice, and winter wheat. In addition to determining domain-wide trends, the objective is to identify vulnerable and emergent regions under future climate conditions, defined as having a greater than 10% decrease and increase in productivity, respectively. Data from the ICTP RegCM3 regional climate model for baseline (1961–1990) and future (2071–2100) periods under A2 scenario conditions are used as input for the EPIC agro-ecosystem simulation model in the domain [30°N, 108°E] to [42°N, 123°E]. Simulations are performed with and without the enhanced CO 2-fertilization effect. Results indicate that aggregate potential productivity (i.e. if the crop is grown everywhere) increases 6.5% for rice, 8.3% for canola, 18.6% for corn, 22.9% for potato, and 24.9% for winter wheat, although with significant spatial variability for each crop. However, without the enhanced CO 2-fertilization effect, potential productivity declines in all cases ranging from 2.5 to 12%. Interannual yield variability remains constant or declines in all cases except rice. Climate variables are found to be more significant drivers of simulated yield changes than changes in soil properties, except in the case of potato production in the northwest where the effects of wind erosion are more significant. Overall, in the future period corn and winter wheat benefit significantly in the North China Plain, rice remains dominant in the southeast and emerges in the northeast, potato and corn yields become viable in the northwest, and potato yields suffer in the southwest with no other crop emerging as a clear beneficiary from among those simulated in this study.

Shareholder value mining: Wealth effects of takeovers in German coal mining, 1896–1913

We investigate the wealth effects of takeovers in the mining industry of the German Ruhr district between 1896 and 1913. We employ event study methodology and use a new data set that covers stock prices of joint-stock mining companies and information on share prices of Gewerkschaften, an organisational form that was exclusively designed for German mining companies. Our empirical results show that takeovers enhanced shareholder value. The clear beneficiaries were the owners of the acquired companies, those of the acquirers hardly gained significantly. Collusion in the mining industry benefited the shareholders of small, poorly performing takeover targets.

Thoughts on Relevance of IS Research

Thoughts on Relevance of IS Research

Toward Theory-Based Research in Political Communication

can do quite well in seeking policy benefits. In the case of the Contract With America, conservative business interests joined forces with Republican legislators and communications consultants to promote a legislative program with clear beneficiaries. Those who are organized and have big financial interests can gain disproportionate government benefits. All of this suggests that Schattschneider's (1960) fears about the interest group chorus singing with an upper-class bias are coming true.