Search results

100 years ago California was still an unexplored part of the American continent. Only a few settlers had found their way into the promising agricultural regions of Northern California. The Spanish settlers indeed had been on the Coast line for several centuries, Russians too saw the shores of the American West Coast. But the real discovery of California took place with the discovery of Gold by Marshall. It was on a Monday, January 24th, 1848 when Marshall found the first evidence of the precious metal in the tail race of General Sutter's Saw Mill. California's history has been linked with gold since then for ever. It is called the golden State, not without reason. The most beautiful single human engineering work spans the Golden Gate, the Golden Gate Bridge. To‐day this gate opens to a continuous stream of goods and passengers from all over the world. The actual metal has lost its importance, but to‐day California is rich with another gold. It has developed to an industrial and trading center of the United States and its population amounts to more than 9.4 million people. It is a proud state, and it is a very self‐confident state. The people know that they live in the most dynamic state of the Union and they have begun to feel their increasing responsibility and importance in the political and economic picture of the United States of America. Governor Warren, an initiative and able administrator has at several occasions been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for 1948. Although this may not become true, the trend is nevertheless significant.

In Bouwen (2001), René Bouwen discusses the case of an R&D department in a metal refinery developing a new refining process, only to have it at first rejected by the Operations department as too difficult and time-consuming to implement notes. Yet later, when it was reintroduced at an opportune moment in a discussion — occurring within the context of a task force established by the Business Unit manager to study new innovations — the too revolutionary new process was accepted for implementation. About this event René Bouwen remarks: “The implementation of innovation really means a ‘crossing of the boundaries’ between the departments […]. The innovative breakthrough can be attributed to a frame-breaking interaction […]. Frame-breaking thinking does not occur in isolation but as a consequence of close interaction with significant others who provide the necessary challenge and safety to pose a new framework […]. The crossing of the communities of practice allows for the new technological innovation to emerge […]. Only ‘interruptions’ in one's modus operandi create opportunities for new exploration of meaning among oneself and significant others” (p. 362). He then goes on to discuss another case, a second example from the domain of rural development in the Southern Andes in Latin America. Here, a whole multiplicity of different “communities of practice” (Wenger, 1998) is involved: a local NGO supported by representatives from the local Indian population, an international NGO, officers of the Ministry of Agriculture, local university geology researchers, the local water management authority, and social scientists from a neighboring university. Starting from the principles of “multiparty collaboration,” this last group organized a platform for all those involved to come together.

Although there are theoretical costs and benefits to corporate diversification, there is ample empirical evidence that the stock market views the costs to outweigh the benefits (Lang and Stulz (1994), Berger and Ofek (1995), Servaes (1996), etc.) These studies are cross‐sectional studies which compare diversified firms to specialized firms and examine valuation multiples. The studies find that diversified firms have lower valuation multiples than specialized firms. This is called the diversification discount. In this paper, a sample of U.S. firms which are specialized and then become diversified are examined. We do not find evidence of a long‐term reduction in firm value associated with diversification.

How are our cities confronting the challenges posed by a warming climate, the loss of biodiversity, and the increasing urban heat island effect? ― This chapter discusses the opportunities and benefits of applying the concepts of renaturalization and rewilding of cities. It introduces nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban planning that are integrated with the aim to enhance urban resilience and to slow down the biodiversity decline, which can be applied in two areas: through the conception of new green neighborhoods and through the regeneration and regreening of existing but neglected parts of the city, such as postindustrial brownfields or economically weak districts.

Contact to nature is essential for human existence, urban well-being, and a good quality of life. Green spaces in cities – big or small – all contribute to health and well-being. However, many cities do not offer residents easy access to green space within the city. Improving better access and extending gardens and parks will deliver a large number of benefits, such as ecosystem services, better water management for enhanced urban flood control, and slowing down the biodiversity loss, with the potential to restore damaged ecosystems. Furthermore, additional green space and NBS help to keep cities cool during heat waves and improve the urban microclimate.

In this context, NBS and regreening can generate significant benefits for citizens, improve urban health and well-being, and offer an opportunity to effectively deploy nature to resolve major societal challenges ― such as social inclusion, food security, and disaster risk reduction. However, it is essential that the design of NBS is fully integrated with other complementary planning interventions and seeks synergies across all sectors.

This article focuses on self‐reported child neglect and abuse in residential drug treatment drawing on data from clients in Scotland collected 1996‐1999. The authors' findings suggest that the prevalence of childhood abuse histories are higher in female drug users than male drug users but argues that diversity of abuse experiences in drug users negate broad treatment plans for those traumatised by such experiences.

School networks are of increasing importance in Germany. Despite not being formally anchored in the structure of the school system, school networks are promoted via a wide variety of programmes. These initiatives have varying aims such as the systemic promotion of school development and the identification of key factors for success. Some programmes even provide for accompanying research into the impact of networks on their success. Following the classification of the German school system according to the cohesion/regulation matrix by Chapman, and suggesting an emphasis on ‘egalitarian culture’, this chapter then focuses on the topic of school-to-school collaboration. Doing so, we shall define our understanding of school networks, present a typology of commonly found networks in Germany and provide systemic examples of some of the larger school networks. The review of the national state of research in this field including experience from two of our research and development projects shows desiderata especially concerning processes of school-to-school collaboration. The role of school leadership, which will be expanded upon further, has proven to be a driver of success in school networks.

In order to understand the phenomenon of marriage it is necessary to view it as a developing social relationship between two human beings which is subject to forces from without (societal) and forces from within (psychological). We can examine these forces later; but, for the time being, it is fundamental to any study of this kind to be clear as to what the basic conceptual approaches are.