Time Of Fieldwork Research Articles

Rapid diagnosis of the geospatial distribution of intertidal macroalgae using large-scale UAVs

Macroalgae have been used as indicators of the health of coastal ecosystems, they function as sinks of CO2 and are essential contributors to primary production. With the increase in anthropogenic activities, it is crucial to assess the impact of such activities on these ecosystems. As traditional surveying techniques, although accurate, are time-consuming and their area coverage is limited, novel techniques are required to monitor the coverage and diversity of intertidal macroalgae. We propose a methodology using the free-source Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin from QGIS to use UAV and multispectral cameras for the spatiotemporal monitoring of intertidal macroalgae. We also compared the performance of six classifiers: Minimum Distance (MD), Maximum Likelihood (ML), Spectral Angle Mapping (SAM), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM), for three types of macroalgae classification: general, taxonomical groups and species. As proof of concept, an intertidal rocky shore in a marine protected area (NW Spain) was studied for four months. RF and SVM achieved similar results, with both being recommended for the general (OASVM = 97.4±1.7 and OARF = 98.3±1.7) and taxonomical groups (OASVM = 91.6±1.9 and OARF = 89.2±4.5). SVM and ML were found to be more suitable for species classification (OASVM = 77.4±11.4 and OAML = 74.2±9.7). SAM and MLP provided the least performant species classifiers because of the overlap in the macroalgae spectral signatures. The plugin showed limitations when tuning the input parameters of the MLP classifier and did not let to add a validation dataset. Additionally, we present an open-access GIS web application, Alganat 2000 GIS web, to facilitate the monitoring and management of coastal areas. We conclude that the proposed methodology using the SVM or ML classifiers is an effective tool for assessing intertidal macroalgal assemblages. Its easy and rapid implementation is beneficial for researchers who are not very familiar with coding and machine learning frameworks and reduces the time and cost of fieldwork. As future work, we propose the combination of the multispectral bands with topographic and spectral indices and to research the application of deep learning models to the classification of intertidal macroalgae.

ПАВУКИ (ARACHNIDA, ARANEI) ПСАМОФІТНИХ ОСЕЛИЩ УРОЧИЩА ЗМІЇНІ ОСТРОВИ КАНІВСЬКОГО ПРИРОДНОГО ЗАПОВІДНИКА

B a c k g r o u n d . A herpetobius spiders of psammophilic vegetation areas of the sandy coast of the Kaniv Reservoir on the territory of the Zmiyini ostrovy tract, which is part of the Kaniv Nature Reserve, were studied. The variety of natural conditions of the reserve contributed to the formation of a high species diversity of flora and the corresponding complexes of living organisms, inextricably linked to these conditions of existence. All this gives reason to expect that the potential species richness of the local spider fauna of the Kaniv Nature Reserve may be one of the highest among other nature conservation areas of Ukraine. M e t h o d s . As the main collection method pitfall soil traps were used, installed in two periods: 06.06–07.01.2011 and 03–07.07.2017. The experimental plot was located near the sandy coast of the Kaniv Reservoir. The site is sand dunes overgrown with psamophyllous herbaceous vegetation near a pine-oak forest. Geographic coordinates of the experimental hospital: 49°50'28"N; 31°32'26"E. About 160 trap-days were worked, and 25 species of spiders, which are part of 10 families, were discovered. R e s u l t s . The vast majority of species are typical xerophiles that prefer thermophytic, arid or dry, open habitats with high levels of insolation. An annotated list of species is provided, which includes faunal material, geographical distribution, ecological features, and places of finds in the left-bank part of the Forest-Steppe Zone of Ukraine and for the Kaniv Nature Reserve. Among adult specimens, males predominate, their share is 63.5 %, the share of females is 36.5 %. The share of juvenile individuals among the total number of specimens is 38.3 %. A significant percentage of juvenile individuals is determined by the time of field work (during June), when the of spring-summer phenological group species gradually reduces its quantitative and qualitative presence in groups after the reproduction period. C o n c l u s i o n s . Taking into account the results of our research and data from literary sources, the list of spiders of the Snake Islands tract includes at least 63 species from 20 families. For the first time, 15 species of spiders from 8 families are indicated for the fauna of the Kaniv Reserve: Atypus muralis (Atypidae), Berlandina cinerea, Callilepis nocturna, Drassyllus praeficus, Haplodrassus kulczynskii, Zelotes electus, Zelotes longipes, Zelotes petrensis (Gnaphosidae), Alopecosa aculeata, Mustellicosa dimidiata (Lycosidae), Pholcus opilionoides (Pholcidae), Phlegra fasciata (Salticidae), Euryopis quinqueguttata (Theridiidae), Psammitis ninnii (Thomisidae) and Titanoeca spominima (Titanoecidae). For the territory of the Zmiyini ostrovy tract, 5 species of spiders belonging to 3 families were found to be new: Pardosa lugubris, Pirata piraticus, Xerolycosa miniata (Lycosidae), Thanatus formicinus (Philodromidae) and Steatoda albomaculata (Theridiidae). The value of the Shannon index for the grouping of Herpetobium spiders in areas of psammophilous vegetation is given – 3.219 bits. This index for the spider communities of the oak forest litter (fresh silverwood) is 3.738 bits. The value of the Jacquard index for species complexes of spiders of the compared biotopes is only 0.063. The low level of fauna relatedness is explained by the significant difference in the structure of the plant composition and the corresponding microclimatic conditions. Common to herpetobium spiders of both biotopes are 4 species of spiders: Arctosa lutetiana, Crustulina guttata, Drassodes lapidosus and Titanoeca schineri.

Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Soil Salinity Analysis: A Comprehensive Review

Soil salinity is a pressing global issue with far-reaching implications for agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The expansion of cultivated lands and the need for food production have intensified the challenges associated with soil salinization. This paper reviews the significance of monitoring and assessing soil salinity, especially in regions where traditional irrigation practices and inadequate drainage systems exacerbate the problem. The paper highlights the importance of satellite-based technologies for spatial and temporal mapping of soil salinity, providing cost-effective, rapid, and efficient sources of qualitative and quantitative spatial information. Multispectral remote sensing data have significantly improved the monitoring of soil salinity. The spectral characteristics of salt-affected soil, visible and near-infrared bands, enable the detection of salinity in both barren and vegetated areas. Various salinity and vegetation indices have been developed, with their effectiveness depending on the context and the extent of vegetation cover. Proper timing of fieldwork and measurement is essential for accurate results. The paper presents a comprehensive review of the remote sensing and GIS based methods of soil salinity estimation including salinity indices, vegetation indices, regression methos, neural network methods plus, sensing approaches, and satellite data utilized in soil salinity mapping. The majority of recent studies favour remote sensing technology over traditional methods due to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency. The choice of mapping approach is context-dependent, and there is no universally superior method. This review underscores the critical role of remote sensing in addressing the challenges posed by soil salinity, offering a promising avenue for monitoring and managing this imperative global concern.

“Ghosts of Missionaries”

Abstract From the late 1980s, foreign—primarily American—missionaries started to travel to Ukraine in large numbers. This article is concerned with the impact of American Baptist missionaries and how their influence was perceived locally in 2016, the time of my fieldwork. When I set out to conduct my fieldwork research among Baptist believers in Lviv, I was surprised that local believers denied the impact of foreign missionaries on their communities and worship style. Moreover, many local Baptist churchgoers I met claimed they had never encountered an American missionary and insisted that foreign missionaries had not played any significant role in the development and transformation of Ukrainian Baptism. In this article, I present the data from the fieldwork and analyze the Ukrainian Baptists’ reasons for minimizing the influence through the perspective of religioscapes, and glocalization as the dialectic process between homogeneity and heterogeneity.

Living a diasporic space online: semiotic landscape and landscaping of Chinese students in the UK under COVID pandemic

ABSTRACT Recent linguistic landscape studies have increasingly underscored an online-offline agenda to understand the entanglement of people’s digital and physical lifeworlds. In this light, this study concerns itself with the diasporic space lived online by Chinese overseas students residing in the UK during COVID, taking it as a nexus of their experienced semiotic landscape and practiced landscaping. Drawing on research diaries and interviews collected during a stretched time of fieldwork and observations, this research delineates shared semiotic landscapes shaped by homogeneous attention structure and health beliefs in the digital lifeworlds of Chinese overseas students during the pandemic. The shared semiotic landscapes reterritorialize the idea of local space in digital infrastructures, and constitute an online community space where cultural identities are articulated and practiced. By advocating the analytical strength of linguistic landscape in digital settings, this study articulates and makes sense of the social-semiotic dynamics of a discrete diasporic group specifically conditioned by COVID on a broader spatial level.

Automatic tree detection and attribute characterization using portable terrestrial lidar

Key messageThis study details a methodology to automatically detect the positions of and dasometric information about individual Eucalyptus trees from a point cloud acquired with a portable LiDAR system.Currently, the implementation of portable laser scanners (PLS) in forest inventories is being studied, since they allow for significantly reduced field-work time and costs when compared to the traditional inventory methods and other LiDAR systems. However, it has been shown that their operability and efficiency are dependent upon the species assessed, and therefore, there is a need for more research assessing different types of stands and species. Additionally, a few studies have been conducted in Eucalyptus stands, one of the tree genus that is most commonly planted around the world. In this study, a PLS system was tested in a Eucalyptus globulus stand to obtain different metrics of individual trees. An automatic methodology to obtain inventory data (individual tree positions, DBH, diameter at different heights, and height of individual trees) was developed using public domain software. The results were compared to results obtained with a static terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). The methodology was able to identify 100% of the trees present in the stand in both the PLS and TLS point clouds. For the PLS point cloud, the RMSE of the DBH obtained was 0.0716, and for the TLS point cloud, it was 0.176. The RMSE for height for the PLS point cloud was 3.415 m, while for the PLS point cloud, it was 10.712 m. This study demonstrates the applicability of PLS systems for the estimation of the metrics of individual trees in adult Eucalyptus globulus stands.

Breathing Room: Working Principles of Independent Art Spaces in African Cities

Breathing Room: Working Principles of Independent Art Spaces in African Cities

Cadastral Surveys Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning - Accuracy and Economy

Due to the wide range of possible applications, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has long since found its way into monument protection and construction. The advantage of this technology is the resulting 3D image of the surroundings including all visible objects as a 3D point cloud. At the office, all necessary information can be derived from the data set using specialized software. In order to test the suitability of TLS to create partition plans according to the Ordinance on Cadastral Surveying (VermV), a case study was conducted using both, a total station and a TLS. Both recordings were evaluated and compared for accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and legality. The accuracy of a TLS mainly depends on the care taken in the evaluation. Deviations occur if geometries are misinterpreted, however, such mistakes can be corrected in the office. From an economic point of view, the TLS requires 14% less total working time. The workload is shifted from the field to the office, with a 68% reduction in field work time. This leads to a reduction in costs and less disruption in the surveyed area. The use of a TLS is legally covered by the VermV. A major advantage of the technology is the recording of the entire environment suited for documentation, preservation of evidence, and added value for planners. However, the decision on the use of a TLS needs to be done case-based.

СОСТОЯНИЕ РЕСУРСНОГО ПОТЕНЦИАЛА В ТИПИЧНОМ ПОДСОБНОМ ХОЗЯЙСТВЕ КОЛОНИИ-ПОСЕЛЕНИИ В СИСТЕМЕ ФСИН

The issues of perspective development of the resource potential of subsidiary farming in one of the colonies of an agricultural settlement are considered. Perspective branches of the development of crop production of a typical colony of a settlement of the penitentiary system are identified: potato growing, grain growing, vegetable growing and fodder production. The technologies for growing and harvesting potatoes and winter wheat are described in detail. Conclusions are drawn on the full provision of subsidiary farming with the necessary equipment to perform technological operations for the cultivation of these crops, but obsolete equipment is mainly used, which increases the labor intensity and timing of field work and reduces productivity. Three-year monitoring of data on sown areas showed a positive trend in the increase in sown area only for winter wheat, for 3 years the sown area of which almost doubled. The categories of lands for the analyzed three years of use, which are under the jurisdiction of the considered typical territorial body of the penitentiary system, necessary for the cultivation of consumable crops, are determined and allocated. An assessment of the economic efficiency of the use of sown areas is given by calculating the yield and output of gross output per unit to the land area. The conclusion is made about the insufficient harvest of the colony of the settlement, in comparison with civilian agricultural enterprises. Based on the purpose of subsidiary farms of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, it follows that the main task of their functioning today is the maximum self-sufficiency in food products of their own production, which is confirmed by the main directions discussed in this article.

Tomographic images of tree trunks generated using ultrasound and post-processed images: Influence of the number of measurement points

Tomography is a technique increasingly used in tree inspections. This technique can be performed in two stages: field testing and postimage processing. To feed the tomographic image construction software, it is necessary to adopt a measurement grid composed of points positioned on the perimeter of the stem. The images are generated through spatial interpolation algorithms. From a theoretical point of view, more measurement points taken in the perimeter of the stem result in better interpolation results. However, an increase in the number of mesh points causes a substantial increase in field work and image processing time. The general objective of this study was to verify the influence of the number of measurement points of the diffraction mesh on the ultrasound tomography results. For this purpose, ten simulated discs were used, all 500 mm in diameter and with different defects in terms of size, position, and geometry. In each of the discs, diffraction grids were simulated with 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 measurement points in the contour. The results showed that a favorable combination of accuracy and a minimization of effort can be achieved with diffraction mesh with number of measurement points calculated as five times the perimeter of the trunk in meters.

Routine Crisis: An Ethnography of Disillusion by Sarah Muir

Reviewed by: Routine Crisis: An Ethnography of Disillusion by Sarah Muir Yazan Doughan Sarah Muir. Routine Crisis: An Ethnography of Disillusion. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2021. 200 pp. This is an ethnography of Argentina that weaves together two concerns of contemporary social theory: late- or post- neoliberal temporality and the status of critique in academic and broader intellectual practice. The book's proximal focus is a particular structure of feeling that informs the historical and practical sensibilities of middle-class Argentinians in Buenos Aires in the period immediately succeeding the economic crisis of 2001–2002. Among this milieu, Muir notes, the "dashed promises of twentieth century progress" have given way to a "widespread sense of foreclosed futures," whereby people felt they were now living "an after-ward in which no new beginnings were in sight" (8). This historical sensibility has become "the grounds on which people grappled with all manner of practical issues, both public and intimate" (8). Following the 2001–2002 financial crisis, middle-class Argentinians in Buenos Aires, Muir shows, have come to understand their biographical and national history as a series of repeating crises that continue to unfold in the present. This understanding informed how they lived their everyday life and how they interpreted their own and other people's behaviors—in friendship, marriage, public behaviour, electoral politics, and the politics of solidarity. In all these spheres and others, moments when one's expectations or aspirations are not met tend to elicit discourses of excruciating self-criticism, narratives of lament about the status of the middle class, and a sense of disillusionment about the world and with the promises of one's national and class membership. Key to the argument here is the central place accorded to the Argentinian middle class, particularly in the capital Buenos Aires, in [End Page 895] narratives of national progress and international development, whereby it stands as a synecdoche for the whole nation. The book's five substantive chapters illustrate the historical sensibility of routine crisis in Argentina, its emergence, and how it operates at different scales. The first chapter discusses public discourses on the middle class prior to, during, and after the 2001–2002 financial crisis. It traces the emergence of what Muir calls "the middle-class consensus," a structure of feeling and habitual interpretive practices that came to define middle-class subjectivity. If the crisis as a historical event was experienced in vivo as chaos and disorder, later discursive practices on that event served to render this disorder meaningful. In this later representation, crisis became the "real" reality of Argentina that would rear its head every now and then. Moreover, the ability to see crises as the "really real" and any semblance of order simply as a veneer came to be constitutive of middle-class subjectivity. In this way, Muir argues, members of the middle-class could assure themselves of their class membership through their practice of critique, or the ability to penetrate through orderly appearances to reveal the ugly reality that lurks behind them. The rest of the chapters develop and elaborate on this core argument. Further, Chapter 2 situates the sensibility of the Argentinian middle class in the context of a longue durée history of the country's political economy and public culture, particularly in relation to two salient genres of critical interpretation, psychoanalysis, and conspiracy theory, both of which produce a suspicious form of critique that questions its own efficacy. Chapter 3 situates their sensibility in the context of the devaluation of the national currency during the crisis. The last two chapters look at how the suspicious sensibility of the middle class informed their interpretations of their daily lives at the time of Muir's fieldwork (2003–2007). Chapter 4 focuses on corruption as a folk concept by which the middle class apprehends the apparent loss of virtue, even the ability to know what virtue is, in Argentina. Middle-class Argentinians, Muir argues, see themselves as compulsive participants in their own national and personal undoing by simultaneously condemning corruption and taking a certain pleasure in it—a situation that she calls "historical exhaustion." The final chapter shows how even social initiatives that seek to...

Does human resource investment in internal controls and information technology improve audit efficiency?

This study examines the effect of client human resource investment in internal controls (ICs) and information technology (IT) on audit efficiency. Accordingly, we propose a novel approach to modify the measurement of audit efficiency by directly measuring the length of time from the fiscal year end to the last day of fieldwork of an audit firm—fieldwork lags (FWLs)—rather than audit report lags (ARLs). We investigate the relationship between FWLs and the number of IC personnel and their average work experience at the department level: accounting and finance, IT and others. We find that FWLs are negatively related to the number of IC personnel in the accounting and finance departments and other related areas. Furthermore, FWLs decrease when IC personnel in the IT department have more average work experience. This finding indicates that experienced IC personnel in the IT department are critical to reducing the fieldwork time taken by auditors. Overall results suggest that a client's investment in IC personnel in accounting/finance and IT departments enhances audit efficiency.

Non-destructive estimation of individual tree biomass: Allometric models, terrestrial and UAV laser scanning

Calibration and validation of aboveground biomass (AGB) (AGB) products retrieved from satellite-borne sensors require accurate AGB estimates across hectare scales (1 to 100ha). Recent studies recommend making use of non-destructive terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) based techniques for individual tree AGB estimation that provide unbiased AGB predictors. However, applying these techniques across large sites and landscapes remains logistically challenging. Unoccupied aerial vehicle laser scanning (UAV-LS) has the potential to address this through the collection of high density point clouds across many hectares, but estimation of individual tree AGB based on these data has been challenging so far, especially in dense tropical canopies. In this study, we investigated how TLS and UAV-LS can be used for this purpose by testing different modelling strategies with data availability and modelling framework requirements. The study included data from four forested sites across three biomes: temperate, wet tropical, and tropical savanna. At each site, coincident TLS and UAV-LS campaigns were conducted. Diameter at breast height (DBH) and tree height were estimated from TLS point clouds. Individual tree AGB was estimated for ≥170 trees per site based on TLS tree point clouds and quantitative structure modelling (QSM), and treated as the best available, non-destructive estimate of AGB in the absence of direct, destructive measurements. Individual trees were automatically segmented from the UAV-LS point clouds using a shortest-path algorithm on the full 3D point cloud. Predictions were evaluated in terms of individual tree root mean square error (RMSE) and population bias, the latter being the absolute difference between total tree sample population TLS QSM estimated AGB and predicted AGB. The application of global allometric scaling models (ASM) at local scale and across data modalities, i.e., field-inventory and light detection and ranging LiDAR metrics, resulted in individual tree prediction errors in the range of reported studies, but relatively high population bias. The use of adjustment factors should be considered to translate between data modalities. When calibrating local models, DBH was confirmed as a strong predictor of AGB, and useful when scaling AGB estimates with field inventories. The combination of UAV-LS derived tree metrics with non-parametric modelling generally produced high individual tree RMSE, but very low population bias of ≤5% across sites starting from 55 training samples. UAV-LS has the potential to scale AGB estimates across hectares with reduced fieldwork time. Overall, this study contributes to the exploitation of TLS and UAV-LS for hectare scale, non-destructive AGB estimation relevant for the calibration and validation of space-borne missions targeting AGB estimation.

An Insufficient Canon: The Popol Wuj, Book of Mormon, and Other Scriptures

An Insufficient Canon: The Popol Wuj, Book of Mormon, and Other Scriptures

The impact of the arrangement of arable land on efficiency of agricultural machinery

The territory organization of agricultural enterprises has an impact on the productivity of agricultural machinery. The article considers the spatial factors that must be taken into account when determining the efficiency of agricultural machinery within the assessment of intrafarm land management projects. The author presents the calculating method of unscheduled losses of working time, and the time of field work taking into account the crops compactness and production losses from violation of such a compactness.

Lichens from Monte Pascoal, Bahia, Brazil, with some new pyrenocarpous species and a key to the Pyrenula species from Brazil

The following seven new species of pyrenocarpous lichens are described from Monte Pascoal in Bahia (Brazil): Astrothelium citrisporum Aptroot, Oliveira-Junior & M.Cáceres, with thallus ochraceous, UV-negative, ascomata fused in hemispherical, concolorous pseudostromata, hamathecium not inspersed, and ascospores submuriform, 5 × 1–2-septate, 35–40 × 18–20 µm, citriform, both ends pointed; A. eustominspersum Aptroot & Oliveira-Junior, with thallus pale greyish olivaceous, UV-negative, ascomata fused, ostiole UV+ yellow, hamathecium inspersed, and ascospores 3-septate, 25–27 × 7–7.5 µm; A. flavogigasporum Aptroot, with thallus olivaceous, UV-negative, ascomata single, ostioles apical, hamathecium yellowish (K-negative) inspersed, and ascospores 4/ascus, hyaline, densely muriform, 240–260 × 33–38 µm, long-ellipsoid, without thickened central septum; A. medioincrassatum Aptroot & M.Cáceres, with thallus olivaceous, UV-negative, ascomata fused in inconspicuous groups, ostioles lateral, hamathecium not inspersed, and ascospores 9–11-septate, 98–115 × 23–27 µm, long-ellipsoid, with thickened central septum; Pseudopyrenula gelatinosa Aptroot, with thallus UV-negative, ascomata solitary, ostioles apical, hamathecium not inspersed, and ascospores 3-septate, 34–37 × 9–10.5 µm, wall 1 µm thick, surrounded by a 9–10.5 µm thick gelatinous sheath; Pyrenula salmonea Aptroot, with thallus salmon pink, ascomata solitary, ostioles apical, hamathecium densely hyaline inspersed, and ascospores 3-septate, uniseriate, 24–27 × 13–16 µm, ellipsoid, lumina oval to somewhat angular, broader than long, without endospore between the outer lumina and the ascospore wall; and P. sanguineoastroidea Aptroot with thallus olivaceous, UV-negative, ascomata fused, deeply immersed in the bark, ostioles lateral, hamathecium not inspersed, and ascospores 3-septate, 24–27 × 10–12 µm, long-ellipsoid, lumina rhomboid, with thick endospore layer between the outer lumina and the ascospore wall. A further 353 species are reported, of which 12 are first records for Brazil and 192 are first records for the state of Bahia, despite it being one of the states of Brazil that is best investigated lichenologically. A graph is presented with the cumulative number of species collected after a certain time of fieldwork. It does not significantly level off, suggesting that many more species occur in the area. A key to the Pyrenula species known from Brazil is presented.

Comprehensive data validation of a combined weekly time use and travel survey

A well-known problem in Household Travel Surveys (HTS) is item-nonresponse, which occurs when complete trips are not reported or only partial information for trips is given. This article presents a comprehensive data validation effort (data completion and correction through immediate call-backs of the survey participants) on travel and non-travel information as part of a one-week Mobility-Activity-Expenditure Diary Survey. Validation recovered 2.5 percent reporting days of mobile persons with complete information on trips and increased the number of trips of pre-existing mobile reporting days by 3.5 percent. The characteristics of these trips confirm and extend the findings from item-nonresponse studies without validation: The majority of the new trips begin in the afternoon; they are mainly short and irregular; the most important trip purposes are home, work, shopping, and leisure. 37 percent of the new trips generated completely new tours; females seem to under-report less than men do. The analysis of the information on the time use (activities) between trips showed that the data was recorded with high accuracy and completeness even before validation. This study confirms typical item-nonresponse patterns and provides a solution for their mitigation through direct follow-up validation. The validation effort increased the time and cost of fieldwork by 12 percent.

Перспективы расширения производства масличных культур в Уральском регионе

Abstract. As a result of the market transformations of the 90s, agricultural enterprises in the Ural Federal District experienced a skew in the structure of acreage in the form of an unjustified increase in the share of grain crops, which unbalanced the existing system of crop rotations and the organizational and economic stability of agricultural production. One of the ways of sustainable development of crop production is to increase the structure of crops of highly profitable oilseeds, which allows you to increase the income of agricultural enterprises, rationally distribute the time of field work and the workload of equipment. The aim of the work is to study the possibility of increasing the economic sustainability of crop production in the regions of the Ural Federal District by expanding the area of oilseeds. The methods of monographic, mathematical, and statistical analysis of data from published official statistical sources and annual reports of agricultural enterprises were used. The novelty of the research is to analyze the effectiveness of oilseed cultivation in the regions of the Ural Federal District, taking into account the new economic and agrotechnical conditions of the last years. The results of the study showed that an increase in the share of oilseeds in the structure of crops makes it possible to better use the agro-climatic potential of various regions of the Ural Federal District, especially dry zones, as well as to stabilize the production economy, taking into account the increase in the price level for vegetable oil and oilseeds in 2019–2020. The surplus of oilseeds allows us to expand the volume of exports. However, in order to generate added value and create new jobs, it is necessary to increase the export of vegetable oil processed in the region, rather than raw materials. The practical value of the work lies in the cost-based recommendations for agricultural producers of the Urals Federal district in the zonal extension of the acreage of oilseeds: sunflower in Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions of rape, in the Sverdlovsk and Tyumen, as well as in the Northern parts of the Kurgan, and Chelyabinsk, flax – in Kurgan and Chelyabinsk regions.

‘All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace’1? Information technology, in-person relationships and normative regulation in an ‘integral cooperative’

AbstractOn his study of the counterculture of the ‘60's and ’70's, Fred Turner argues that the application of systems-thinking and cybernetics to community-led initiatives (CLIs) makes them particularly vulnerable to internal factionalism and conflict, resulting from social and material pressures leading to the reproduction of mainstream norms and practices. Through the case study analysis of Cooperativa Integral Catalana (CIC) an “integral cooperative” for regional-level community development, this article explores how a governance strategy, combining online platforms for whole-system regulation and local nodes based on in-person relationships, promotes forms of normative regulation that contain factionalism and centrifugal tendencies in community-led initiatives (CLIs). Fieldwork evidence indicates that the use of online platforms and alternative currencies for overall network regulation does not prevent the accumulation of power by a core group of “professionalized activists”. The lack of processes of socialization aimed at building a common “habitus” among members of the cooperative with distinct identities, backgrounds and motivations creates difficulties to the development of relationships based on trust, as well as obstacles to the overall management of the cooperative. However, the in-person relationships of proximity build in regional-level nodes created “micro-public spheres” of praxis-based, co-constructed normative regulation that prevented the escalation of internal conflicts to reach a point of rupture. Such relationships provided a “cushion” of resilience that allowed CIC to begin, at the time of fieldwork, a process of decentralization and simplification of its structure.

Critical junctures, agrarian change, and the (re)production of vulnerability in a marginalised Indigenous society

• Many societies globally and throughout Papua New Guinea have experienced significant capitalist-driven agrarian change. • The Bedamuni have remained marginal to the extractive industry-led development seen throughout the country. • The Bedamuni have experienced (non-capitalist) agrarian change, which has increased their socioecological vulnerability. • I explore key historical and contemporary critical junctures and show how vulnerability has been (re)produced over time. • I problematise essentialist, universal narratives about the drivers of vulnerability in marginalised Indigenous societies. Marginalised agrarian societies are suggested to be the most vulnerable to environmental hazards and other perturbations. There are competing explanations for this phenomenon, which include: a lack of development, global environmental change, and the development process itself, or capitalism more specifically. All three causal arguments are compelling, but typically offer only partial explanations. With most societies experiencing significant capitalist-driven agrarian change over the last few centuries (e.g., depeasantisation, dispossession, proletarianisation), the critical agrarian change literature is biased towards these studies. Here I explore one of the most marginalised societies in Papua New Guinea, the Bedamuni People of Western Province. After 60 years of Western contact, at the time of fieldwork (2018), they remained shifting horticulturalist who had not been disposed of their land, had no commodity production and very limited opportunities for paid work. By exploring agrarian change within Bedamuni society since first Western contact (1962) and the arrival of missionaries (1968), and employing the concept of critical junctures, I critically unpack some of the root causes of heightened socioecological vulnerability. In the Bedamuni case study, and likely in many other societies, it is not just lack of development, environmental change, or the development process itself, it is all these things, and more, concomitantly. With the resource and commodity frontier almost upon them, and many Bedamuni desiring it to come, it is critical to understand the root causes of growing hunger. I argue that the development approach being driven by powerful actors will not meaningfully address this crisis and, in fact, may exacerbate the processes and factors that have produced heightened socioecological vulnerability. This paper problematises essentialist, universal narratives about the drivers of vulnerability in marginalised Indigenous societies in the global South. Whilst universal explanations can be insightful, we must not forget the centrality and specificity of space and place in development research.