Environmental Concerns in Contemporary Brazil: An Insight into Some Theoretical and Societal Backgrounds (1970s–1990s)

This article intends to unveil some of the main theoretical backgrounds and current tendencies of environmental sociology in Brazil. But we are mainly interested in providing a historical reconstruction of the societal internalization of environmental concerns in Brazil, on both state and civic levels, with an emphasis on the transformations that took place over the 1970–1990s period. We argue that environmental civil associations do not find either a legal idiom or public forums by means of which they could turn their demands and moral concerns into a binding juridical code. This is so because, on the one hand, their moral concerns, even when based on de-traditionalized and abstract principles, are not paralleled with an autonomous legal framework, strong enough to set limits to the functioning of both the political-administrative apparatus as well as to economic actors. As we contend, this helps to explain why the environmental legislation in Brazil is rhetorically manipulated on a regular basis—and, hence, set aside whenever it contradicts other priorities. On the other hand, environmental concerns have always met with difficulties to become a priority in the Brazilian polity. Ultimately, our main goal is to carry out a critical consideration of the theoretical links that are widely set in the field of sociological theory between environmental concerns and modernity.     

A MODEL FOR TELEPHONE MEDIATION

A unique mediation service using the telephone to help parents resolve conflicts over visitation ("access") is described. The program presented special advantages of low cost and high responsiveness to parents and their children and was designed to particularly benefit families that lacked the mobility or financial resources to participate in traditional face-to-face mediation. Because the service featured highly educated and experienced mediators and a child-focused, principle-based mediation approach, family members received reframing, refocusing, informative, and empathic assistance in understanding and dealing with their parenting disputes. Some 700 families and nearly 900 mediation cases were handled during the service's 19 months of operation, and some features of the families and the cases are described. Recommendations and directions for future research are included.     

The New Research on Civil Wars: Does It Help Us Understand the Colombian Conflict?

The article synthesizes contributions from the recent comparative research on civil war and the case‐specific literature on Colombia to argue that too often, commentators on this conflict overlook some of its key dimensions. A comprehensive analysis shows that no fewer than six factors are fueling violent conflict in Colombia: economic forces, state weakness, landscape, U.S. policies, long‐duration and spin‐off violence, and malicious opportunism by non‐combatants. The first three are the ones that matter most. The case made here is that when analysts disregard the range and interrelat‐edness of the factors involved, the result is a distortion of reality and a tendency to support policies that will not enhance the prospects for peace.     

Perceptions of global inequality: a call for research

In light of media attention to and growing public awareness of the globalizing economy, a case for the expanded empirical investigation of public perceptions of international income distribution and inequality is presented. Theoretical issues to be illuminated by such studies are considered; exploratory qualitative data are provided to illustrate the rich potential of such research; and a variety of issues that must be addressed when conducting future research in this area are reviewed.     

WOMEN'S AND MEN'S VIEWS OF MEDIATION IN VOLUNTARY AND MANDATORY MEDIATION SETTINGS

This article reports findings regarding women in mediation from a combined group of 184 persons who received mediation services from the Alameda County Superior Court Family Court Services or the Northern California Mediation Center. This empirical study refutes many of the criticisms of mediation by some feminist critics of the process.     

State Spaceport Initiatives: Economic and Political Innovation in an Intergovernmental Context

State spaceports are an interesting example of intergovernmentalrelations because activities conducted at such facilities spanthe state, federal, and international realms. Five states—Alaska,California, Florida, New Mexico, and Virginia—are themost visible participants in the process. In this study, thesupporting rationales for such endeavors are discussed withinthe context of the broader contours of intergovernmental relations.The field is a product of the post-Cold War period during whichopportunities for state space activities arose due to changesin the national security environment. Three distinct but interrelatedexplanations are suggested for why the field has developed slowly,although during the past two years, progress in achieving goalshas begun to occur.     

Crime Trends in the EU

The paper’s aim is to show to EU policy makers, academics, journalists and the general public what the available information tells us about crime levels, trends in crime and public opinion about crime among Member States. The paper centres on an analysis of current trends on crime levels and trends based on the data available both from victimisation surveys and police statistics. The victimisation survey source is the published data collected in the International Crime Victimisation Survey. A separate analysis based on the Eurobarometer was also carried out. Data on police statistics present two separate sources i.e. the Council of Europe Sourcebook and the crime data published annually by the UK Home Office. These two sources both add considerable value to the raw police statistics by their choice of data, their commentary and their technical explanations and definitions. The paper compares data on three crime types (robbery, domestic burglary and theft of a motor vehicle) across the 15 Member States of the European Union (as in 2003). These three types were selected in line with the priorities of the EU Commission and as types of crime that are a major concern for EU-citizens. The paper has been modified from a report produced by the European Crime prevention network for the EU Directorate of Justice and Home Affairs with the permission of the EU. The members of the network are listed in the appendix.