The state and the stray dogs in late Ottoman Istanbul: from unruly subjects to servile friends

The present article situates the systemic efforts to annihilate stray dogs within the wider picture of Ottoman modernizing reforms in the nineteenth century. The period under investigation witnessed an increasing desire on the part of the modern Ottoman state to control and reform disenfranchised human and animal groups, which were believed to jeopardize public order, security and hygiene. These groups – beggars, orphans and the unemployed – were identified as actors irreconcilable with the modern image that the reforming bureaucracy and modernizing elites sought to project. In the face of increasing challenges from European powers, they were the epitome of underdevelopment and backwardness. Ottoman elites and official authorities therefore proposed and implemented institutional measures in the form of forced labor, reformatories or deportation to reform the conditions of these groups, segregate them from the greater public and discipline them. In the modern period, along with the proposals that called for the removal of dogs, modernizing intellectuals and professionals proposed alternative plans to render non-human animals beneficial to human needs and the modern state's expectations.     

The Design of Environmental Regimes: Social Construction, Contextuality, and Improvisation

While much of the literature on environmental regimes has focused on effectiveness, this article takes a new look at a lesser-studied topic, the evolution of regime design. Understanding how regimes differ in design, and how various factors and processes shape such design, is important if we are to more carefully craft these regimes. We should also pay close attention to the formative role of social construction and context. Focusing on transboundary marine programs, we see that their designs basically follow a common template, namely that of the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) Regional Seas Programme. However, the action of context (i.e., local actors and political processes) can modify these designs away from the common template. The extent to which these programs begin to differentiate from each other may be an important sign of program maturity and responsiveness to context. In this article, we examine a set of transboundary marine programs to uncover what the important dimensions of differentiation are. Then, we focus on one specific program, the SSME (Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion) and closely trace how its specific form and organization came about. The analysis is informed by a model of institutional coherence that portrays institutions as the product of multiple generative mechanisms (e.g., social construction, ecological fit, and others). While it is premature to make definite judgments about the relative merits of competing regime designs, the work provides us with a new mode of analysis that can provide helpful directions for institutional assessment.     

“寄居蟹的艺术”:体制内社会组织的环境适应策略——对天津市两个省级组织的个案研究

我国社会组织面临着合法性和经济资源的双重困境,并缺乏自主性,似乎是一个不争的事实。不过,对天津市两个省级体制内社会组织的个案调查,却在一定程度上发现了与之相反(而并不矛盾)的特殊事实。为了重构这两个组织获得合法性和经济资源及其一定的自主性的特殊逻辑,本文首先对组织社会学的资源依赖理论和新制度主义进行了综合分析,并建立了体制内社会组织对国家-社会的合法性与经济资源的双重依赖的分析框架;然后,重构了两个个案对国家与社会的双重依赖格局,特别是揭示了其平衡这一依赖的相关策略。缺乏社会基础的体制内社会组织凭借和利用国家的特殊合法性支持而进入到社会领域中以汲取资源的相关策略,被称为"寄居蟹的艺术"。本文作为一项个案研究,其分析有利于提出研究假设,而其结论不能直接普遍化。     

“一带一路”视域下的中国环境外交

近年来,随着环境问题的日益突出,环境外交的重要性逐渐提升。当前在“一带一路”背景下,中国顶层设计有道、沿线国家与中国开展环境合作的愿望强烈、技术和项目等方面现实需求的存在及拥有多层次的合作机制,中国环境外交被赋予了大量契机。不过,在“一带一路”背景下推进环境外交仍存在一些困境,表现在政策的多元化、脆弱不均的环境现状及地缘政治的挑战。为此,中国可以从完善环境政策体系、深化环境合作机制、加强与沿线国家的战略对接及发挥传媒优势四个维度加以应对。     

实例解读美国环境设计预防犯罪

环境设计预防犯罪（CPTED）的目标是减少犯罪机会,构建一个更安全和更宜居的环境,最终达到环境让生活更美好的目的。环境设计预防犯罪的主要内容是,通过它的五个核心策略——自然监督、入口控制、领域强化、开展活动和地方保养来实现预防犯罪的目标。     

科学发展观视野下的环境法律制度分析

科学发展观强调以人为本,全面、协调、可持续的发展。从法制的角度来看,与科学发展观关系最为直接的是环境法律体系。科学发展观也为环境法体系的创新和完善提供了基本理念。结合这一理念和法学、哲学等理论,从法理到宪法以及环境法律制度的不同层面,实践和完善环境保护的“代际公平”、“预防优先”、“公共委托”等环境法律制度,是我国应对环境危机的重要策略。     

后代环境权益作为国际环境法保护对象的探讨

人类是当代人和后代人的融合。保护后代环境权益是我们义不容辞的责任。环境公平和环境效率原则也要求我们保护后代环境权益。从国际法角度来看应该明确后代环境权益的保护范围,把保护后代环境权益写入环境保护国际公约中。     

Big Stick,Little Stick: Strategies for Controlling and Combating Environmental Crime

Environmental offences often have rather obscure victims. At the same time, we know that those crimes commonly regarded as the most serious have clearly visible victims. It is difficult for people to relate to environmental offences in the same way as many traditional crimes, and this makes it easier to commit breaches of the environmental regulations. One element in a control strategy ought therefore to be continuous attempts to discover really serious environmental crimes that are easily communicated to the public. Regulations are followed if we believe that others also do so. If we have a sense that cheating is widespread then group solidarity is weakened, and with it the inclination to abide by the rules. How then do individuals and businessmen develop the perception that control measures are working? This happens primarily by means of a perception that observance of the regulations is being monitored. Broadly based control measures and contacts are therefore of considerable importance. By means of risk assessment procedures, interventions can then be concentrated where they are judged to be most necessary. A broad arsenal of measures is needed to persuade companies to observe the regulations; an arsenal from big stick to little stick, from self-regulation and service to administrative sanction charges and criminal offences.     

Assessing DNA recovery and profile determination from bloody snow

Successful DNA typing of forensically relevant evidence is reliant on both the quality and quantity of biological material recovered from a crime scene. In geographical areas of the world exposed to cold climates, it is not uncommon for biological evidence to encounter a diversity of challenging surfaces and environments, including snowy surfaces. Currently, there is no standard protocol for recovery of bloodstain evidence in snow and very few publications exploring adequate methods of recovering biological evidence from snowy surfaces. In this study, three common substrates (e.g., cotton swabs, FTA paper, and untreated filter paper) utilized by investigators for evidence recovery were evaluated for their ability to recover human blood (DNA) evidence from snow that would be viable for traditional forensic DNA typing. Each biological sample was extracted and quantified to evaluate the quality and quantity of DNA recovered. All samples yielded sufficient non-degraded DNA to proceed with DNA profiling, where complete DNA profiles were generated from each collection substrate. The experimental findings presented herein demonstrate that the ability to recover viable DNA from human blood collected on surface snow is possible using all three collection methods tested.     

Collective Action and Citizen Responses to Global Warming

This paper expands the relevance of the collective interest model of mass political action to explain collective-action behavior in the context of global warming and climate change. The analysis is an attempt to answer Ostrom’s call for a behavioral model of collective action that can be generalized beyond political protest to other collective-action problems. We elaborate, specify, and empirically test a collective interest model approach to citizen policy support, environmental political participation, and environmental behavior related to the issue of global warming. Key elements of the collective interest model—perceived risk, personal efficacy, and environmental values—are found to be directly, and positively, related to support of government policies and personal behaviors that affect global warming. We also discuss the links between the collective interest model and other important approaches to political behavior.