| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Hallberg-Sramek, Isabella, et al.
(author)
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Applying machine learning to media analysis improves our understanding of forest conflicts
- 2024
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In: Land use policy. - : Elsevier. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 144
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Conflicts over the management and governance of forests seem to be increasing. Previous media studies in this area have largely focused on analysing the portrayal of specific conflicts. This study aims to review how a broad range of forest conflicts are portrayed in the Swedish media, analysing their temporal, spatial, and relational dimensions. We applied topic modelling, a machine learning approach, to analyse 53,600 articles published in the Swedish daily press between 2012 and 2022. We identified 916 topics, of which 94 were of interest for this study. Our results showed ten areas of forest conflicts: hunting and fishing (35 % of total coverage), energy (24 %), recreation and tourism (11 %), nature conservation (8 %), forest damages (6 %), international issues (5 %), forestry (5 %), reindeer husbandry (4 %), media and politics (2 %), and mining (1 %). The overall coverage of forest conflicts increased significantly over the study period, potentially reflecting an actual increase in forest conflicts. Some of the conflicts were continuously reported upon over time, while the coverage of others exhibited seasonal or event-related patterns. Four conflicts received most of their coverage in specific regions, while others were covered across the whole of Sweden. A relational analysis of the conflicts revealed three clusters of forest conflicts focused respectively on industrial, cultural, and conservation conflicts. Our results emphasise the value of using topic modelling to understand the overall patterns and trends of the media coverage of current land use conflicts, while also highlighting potential areas of emerging conflicts that may be of special interest for planners and policy-makers to monitor and manage.
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| 3. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(author)
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Times Have Changed: Using a Pictorial Smartphone App to Collect Time–Use Data in Rural Zambia
- 2019
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In: Field Methods. - 1525-822X .- 1552-3969. ; 31:1, s. 3-22
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- One challenge of collecting socioeconomic data, such as data on time-use, is recall biases. While time-use researchers have continuously developed new methods to make data collection more accurate and easy, these methods are difficult to use in developing countries, where study participants may have low literacy levels and no clock-based concepts of time. To contribute to the closing of this research gap, we developed a picture-based smartphone app called Time-Tracker that allows data recording in real time to avoid recall biases. We pilot tested the app in rural Zambia, collecting 2,790 data days. In this article, we compare the data recorded with the app to data collected with 24-hours recall questions. The results confirm the literature on recall biases, suggesting that using the app leads to valid results. We conclude that smartphone apps using visual tools provide new opportunities for researchers collecting socioeconomic data in developing countries.
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| 4. |
- A. Bateki, Christian, et al.
(author)
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Of milk and mobiles: Assessing the potential of cellphone applications to reduce cattle milk yield gaps in Africa using a case study
- 2021
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In: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1699. ; 191
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There are growing expectations that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications could help improve on-farm yields amongst smallholder farmers in developing countries, and consequently, food and nutrition security. However, few studies have quantified the actual contribution of ICT applications on farmers’ yields, and these studies predominantly focused on crop production. We assessed the potential of ICT applications to close milk yield gaps among small- and medium scale dairy cattle farmers in Africa. First, we developed a theoretical framework summarizing biophysical and socio-economic constraints that foster milk yield gaps and discussed which constraints can be addressed using ICT applications. Second, using a case study of a feeding advice application for dairy cattle pre-tested with farmers in rural Kenya, we analyzed how much stand-alone the application could contribute to close dairy cattle milk yield gaps. Our findings suggest that ICT applications could help address some existing biophysical and socio-economic constraints fostering milk yield gaps, including data collection for breeding programs, feeding management advice, and facilitating access to markets and capital. Our stand-alone ICT application closed yield gaps by 2 % to 6 % on representative farms. Several factors may explain the limited actual contribution of selected ICT applications to reduce existing milk yield gaps, including the quality of the input data and models used in ICT applications, and more structural constraints that cannot be addressed by digital tools. Therefore, although ICT applications could help address constraints to achieving higher milk yields on dairy farms, a significant contribution to improve yields may only be achieved when conditions surrounding their use are adequate.
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| 5. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(author)
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Using smartphone app collected data to explore the link between mechanization and intra-household allocation of time in Zambia
- 2021
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In: Agriculture and Human Values. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0889-048X .- 1572-8366. ; 38, s. 411-429
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Digital tools may help to study socioeconomic aspects of agricultural development that are difficult to measure such as the effects of new policies and technologies on the intra-household allocation of time. As farm technologies target different crops and tasks, they can affect the time-use of men, women, boys, and girls differently. Development strategies that overlook such effects can have negative consequences for vulnerable household members. In this paper, the time-use patterns associated with different levels of agricultural mechanization during land preparation in smallholder farming households in Zambia were investigated. A novel data collection method was used: a pictorial smartphone application that allows real-time recording of time-use, which eliminates recall bias. Existing studies analyzing the intra-household allocation of resources often focus on adult males and females. This study paid particular attention to boys and girls as well as adults. The study addressed seasonal variations. Compositional data analysis was used to account for the co-dependence and sum constraint of time-use data. The study suggests a strong gender differentiation for land preparation activities among mechanized households; for households using manual labor, such differentiation was not found. There is some evidence that the surplus time associated with mechanization is used for off-farm and domestic work. The study cannot confirm concerns about negative second-round effects: mechanized land preparation is not associated with a higher workload for women and children during weeding and harvesting/processing. The study provides a proof-of-concept that smartphone applications can be used to collect socioeconomic data that are difficult to measure but of high relevance.
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| 6. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(author)
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Smartphone apps as a new method to collect data on smallholder farming systems in the digital age: A case study from Zambia
- 2018
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In: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1699. ; 153, s. 144-150
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Across the developing world, the spread of mobile- and smartphones has led to a surge in mobile services for rural populations. While the potentials of mobile services to provide development opportunities for smallholder farmers are widely acknowledged, the potentials to use smartphone applications to collect data on smallholder farming systems are little explored. Yet, researchers studying farming systems need good quality data. So far, data on smallholder farming systems is typically collected using household surveys. Survey questions are prone to recall biases, however, which can be substantial. This paper assesses whether smartphone can be used to collect data in real time and thus increase the accuracy of socioeconomic and agronomic data collection. In this paper, we present a smartphone application that was developed for this purpose. We use the application to analyze the effects of agricultural mechanization on intra-household time-use and nutrition in rural Zambia. While the early, descriptive results shed interesting light on the effects of mechanization, the contribution of this study is primarily methodological. The study highlights the potentials of using smartphone applications to collect socioeconomic and agronomic data on smallholder-farming systems, potentially in real time. It also suggests ways to combine data recorded by respondents with built-in sensors of smartphones and external sensors and thus shows fascinating new pathways for researchers in the digital age.
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| 7. |
- Daum, Thomas, 1990, et al.
(author)
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Uber for tractors? Opportunities and challenges of digital tools for tractor hire in India and Nigeria
- 2021
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In: World Development. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-750X .- 1873-5991. ; 144
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Digital tools hold great promise to promote agricultural transformation and benefit smallholder farmers in the developing world. One such tool is Uber for tractors, which aims to enable farmers to access tractor hire services in a way that is deemed similar to the Uber service for ride-hailing. While widely praised, Uber for tractors has not yet been rigorously analyzed. How does it work in practice? And what is its potential to reduce the transaction costs of tractor service provision, both for tractor owners and for smallholders who use tractor services? To answer these questions, we present case studies of two companies that apply digital tools in support of tractor hire: Hello Tractor in Nigeria and EM3 Agri-Services in India. A transaction costs economics framework was developed to identify how Uber for tractor tools can, in theory, influence the attributes of service hire transactions and, thus, reduce transaction costs. For the empirical analysis, a mixed-methods approach was applied involving approximately 400 respondents and comprising net-maps (a participatory mapping tool), focus group discussions, interviews with tractor owners and other stakeholders, and a survey among farmers. Our results show that the Uber for tractor models have indeed the potential to reduce transaction costs for service providers, in particular the owners of several tractors, by enabling the monitoring of tractors and operators through GPS devices. Farmers who access services have, so far, only indirectly benefitted from the new digital tools, because they still relied on “analog” solutions - booking agents and phone calls - rather than a smartphone app to request services. Overall, the paper shows that Uber for tractors is a pioneering concept, but investment in enabling conditions, such as digital literacy and network coverage, is required to harness the full potential of such digital innovations for smallholder farmers in the developing world.
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| 8. |
- Kotze, Shelley, 1986
(author)
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The place of community values within community-based conservation: The case of Driftsands Nature Reserve, Cape Town
- 2018
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In: Bulletin of Geography. - : Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika/Nicolaus Copernicus University. - 1732-4254 .- 2083-8298. ; 40:40, s. 101-112
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Contemporary approaches to biodiversity conservation within South Africa depart from community-based initiatives which seek to combine biodiversity conservation with socio-economic development. This paper employs a grounded theory approach to discuss the values of local communities and the management body (CapeNature), with regards to Driftsands Nature Reserve, Cape Town, by way of exploring the ways in which community-based conservation is being achieved within this case study. The findings conclude that the support and environmental education provided by CapeNature is going some way to addressing the needs of community-based conservation. Although the geographical location and demographics of the area produce a number of challenges for this approach, this research outlines the pathways for these challenges to be turned into benefits through even greater involvement with community-based conservation.
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| 9. |
- Caselunghe, Elvira, et al.
(author)
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Forskningsperspektiv på naturvägledning
- 2012
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Literature study shows a lack of Swedish nature interpretation research. The Swedish Centre for Nature Interpretation (SCNI) was established in 2007 by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences. One task of SCNI is to initiate research on nature interpretation. This research overview is intended to provide a jumping-off point. The main purpose was to investigate Swedish research that contributes to development of theory and practice in nature interpretation. In addition, research from other Nordic countries as well as international research was reviewed. A literature search for Swedish scientific publications on nature interpretation, explicitly, revealed a scarcity of such research in Sweden. Of course identifying such studies depends, in part, on how “nature interpretation” and “research” are defined. There are actually a number of Swedish researchers who work with topics that are relevant to nature interpretation, and to some extent this research is also published in scientific media. However, there is a larger quantity of educational literature. Overall, the main finding of this literature search is that nature interpretation research has not been conducted in Sweden, to date. However, relevant studies were found in such areas as outdoor recreation, nature tourism, education for sustainable development, outdoor education, environmental history, museology and environmental psychology. Various key words have been used in the selected databases, since “nature interpretation” generates no scientific hits. Definitions and pedagogical principles for nature interpretation are described in the first part of the report. Then international nature interpretation research and some different occurring theories are presented. Emphasis is then put on Swedish and Nordic research that is relevant for developing nature interpretation. The main findings below include conclusions from both the international and the Swedish/Nordic research and indicate some possible directions for development of nature interpretation research, in Sweden and elsewhere. NATURE INTERPRETATION CAN BE BOTH A MEANS OR AN END IN ITSELF There is a need for scientific development of nature interpretation evaluation principles. In Sweden, but also elsewhere, a common goal for publicly financed nature interpretation is to influence people in the direction of sustainable development. Research on interpretation evaluation is needed in order to know whether various activities correspond to our expectations. Also, there is a need to question whether this goal of influencing people is transparent and democratic enough. Internationally, there are both researchers who claim that interpretation can have a positive effect on environmental attitudes and behavior, and those who claim that effective evaluation methodologies for exploring such relationships need further development. Worldwide, interpretive evaluation research has focused heavily on knowledge gain and impacts on attitudes and behaviour, but it has seldom partitioned out the role of the emotional aspects of nature experience, although interpretation instructions stress revelation and provocation for instance. The notion of “participants gaining knowledge” could be widened and include mutual and experiential learning processes. Unlike environmental education, interpretation usually is a rather time limited activity. That could also be a reason to why long term interpretation effects are difficult to evaluate. If any effects appear, it would still be difficult to distinguish what has generated them. Nature interpretation is sometimes seen as a means for fulfilling a greater objective, but in other cases it is seen as an end in itself. For instance, within outdoor recreation, nature interpretation activities could be considered an end in themselves. Whereas nature interpretation efforts within state run nature conservation could be a means for legitimating and promoting poli-tical nature conservation decisions. NATURE INTERPRETATION AS A COMMUNICATIVE ACT The literature review indicated that the number of Swedish or international publications focusing on the communicative act of nature interpretation from an interactional micro perspective seems to be limited. What is happening within and between the persons during a nature interpretation session? How does the interpretation process really occur? Is the interpreter or the participant the one who makes the interpretation for instance? What kind of learning is taking place? CRITICAL RESEARCH ON NATURE INTERPRETATION COULD DEVELOP THEORY AND PRACTICE When discussing what Swedish nature interpretation research could concentrate on, there is not only a need to discuss the topics, but also different scientific approaches that could facilitate a greater understanding. Much of the Nordic research referred in this report is carried out within a positivistic research tradition doing quantitative studies. When approaching social science there are also some publications within hermeneutic research tradition. Critical research tradition, however, is rare among the studies reviewed. Since nature interpretation is not a natural science phenomenon, but a social one, nature interpretation research based on social constructivism has an obvious importance in further development of Swedish nature interpretation research. The role of nature interpretation in society could be better understood by analyzing what discourses characterize Swedish nature interpretation practice today. What ideas of man and nature are taken for granted which could affect the content and format of nature interpretation? Nature interpretation contributes to constructing our nature experiences, something that is seldom analysed. What values and rationalities holds the Swedish nature interpretation discourses? These questions require a critical dimension of nature interpretation research. Another division to make is research that looks for improving nature interpretation practice (how to do good interpretation), versus research that looks for understanding the phenomenon of nature interpretation (research about interpretation). Both kinds are needed. EXAMPLES ON CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF NATURE INTERPRETATION Some discussions in museology are highly relevant to nature interpretation as well. A quote by Ella Johansson (2001) about open air museums illustrates several of the inherent paradoxes in interpretation that could be interesting to further investigate. “… some contrary – or maybe complementary – aspects are lasting and necessary features in a museum: authenticity versus scene, critical distance versus deep empathy, creating knowledge versus ideology, education versus Sunday pleasure.” The content and format of nature interpretation is always a mental and social product, where the involved individuals decide what phenomena and objects are paid attention to and what questions and explanations are suggested. Søren Kruse (2002) argues that “the interpreter designs the participants’ nature visits and determines thereby frames for their nature experiences”. He further writes that: “Nature interpretation is in the centre of the normative minefield of pedagogics, where one could ask oneself: With what right can the nature interpreters claim that their design of nature visits is better than the nature contact designed by the participants themselves? My point of departure is that nature interpretation is not an interpretation of nature, but a production and reproduction of socially constructed descriptions of nature and our relations with it.” THE NEED OF ADVANCING NATURE INTERPRETATION RESEARCH IN SWEDEN Advancement of Swedish research on nature interpretation is needed for several reasons. There are national prerequisites that are unique, such as the Swedish right of public access to nature. Swedish nature interpretation is not yet systematically evaluated from a scientific point of view. There are also a number of educational programmes in Swedish universities within nature guidance and nature interpretation, and connecting these educational efforts to research would strengthen their quality. However, nature interpretation is not a research discipline, but rather a topic that requires research from various perspectives. That interdisciplinary context could be treated by different branches – from public health science, to cultural studies, to forest sciences, if it is combined with communication science, pedagogics or similar fields. Environmental psychology, marketing and media sciences could also provide knowledge about behavioural impacts that nature interpretation often aims for in a general context.
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| 10. |
- Edström, Maria, 1960
(author)
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"Huka er gubbar- här kommer Willy Maria!"- konsumentjournalisten som gick sin egen väg
- 2011
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In: Presshistorisk årsbok 2011. - Vällingby, Stockholm : Svensk presshistorisk Förening. ; , s. 201-216
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Artikeln handlar om konsumentjournalisten Willy Maria Lundberg (1909-2004) som på 1960-talet ansågs tillhöra en av de absoluta makthavarna i Sverige. På äldre dar skapade hon Träslottet på en hälsingegård utanför Arbrå.
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