An Examination of the Motivation—Involvement Relationship

In this investigation, the relationship between motivation and enduring involvement was explored using a sample of campers drawn from three distinct campsites in a southeastern national forest, USA. The campsites varied along the ROS continuum from developed to wilderness. Using multidimensional conceptualizations of both constructs, a model was tested where the dimensions of motivation were modeled to positively influence the dimensions of enduring involvement. Although not all paths were statistically significant, the effect of motivation on enduring involvement was positive. No variation in the sign or strength of the path coefficients was observed across the three sites. These findings provide empirical support for the contention that motivation is an antecedent of enduring involvement.     

Self-efficacy mechanism at work: The context of environmental volunteer travel

Abstract

As public funding to support nature conservation continues to decline, building a commitment to ecological restoration through volunteer travel is key to addressing a range of environmental concerns. This study contributes the first utilization of Bandura’s self-efficacy (SE) mechanism in the context of environmental volunteer travel demonstrating how environmental stewardship, hedonic experience, and environmental SE relate to one another in this particular setting. The study results suggest that while environmental volunteer travelers appear to be driven by one’s beliefs that participation in ecological restoration is a worthwhile activity; motivations to participate in ecological restoration projects can be strengthened or weakened depending on the promise of hedonic experiences. These results shed light on the likely shift in what motivates young adults to engage in travel and volunteering in ecological restoration projects around the world. This is important because a better understanding of what can persuade young adults to travel and engage in ecological restoration enables for the tailoring of environmental volunteering programs to meet individuals’ expectations.     

Did capital infusions enhance bank recovery from the great recession?

This paper investigates the long-run recovery experience of US banks that received capital infusions under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP), a part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Based on a dynamic recovery model, our results show that recovering CPP banks tended to be in better financial condition than other CPP banks. Long-run event study analyses of common stock prices reveal that, in the quarter after repayment of TARP funds, CPP banks experienced economically large and significant buy-and-hold wealth gains of 14%, equivalent to approximately $329 billion. We conclude that TARP was successful in fostering bank financial and stock price recovery.     

Endogenous productivity of demand‐induced R&D: evidence from pharmaceuticals

We examine trends in the productivity of the pharmaceutical sector over the past three decades. Motivated by Ricardo's insight that productivity and rents are endogenous to demand when inputs are scarce, we examine the industry's aggregate Research and Development (R&D) production function. Using exogenous demand shocks to instrument investments, we find that demand growth can explain a large portion of R&D growth. Returns to scale have been stable, whereas total factor productivity has declined significantly. Predicted rents based on our estimates and Ricardo's theory closely match the trends we observe.     

Land‐use change trajectories up to 2050: insights from a global agro‐economic model comparison

Changes in agricultural land use have important implications for environmental services. Previous studies of agricultural land‐use futures have been published indicating large uncertainty due to different model assumptions and methodologies. In this article we present a first comprehensive comparison of global agro‐economic models that have harmonized drivers of population, GDP, and biophysical yields. The comparison allows us to ask two research questions: (1) How much cropland will be used under different socioeconomic and climate change scenarios? (2) How can differences in model results be explained? The comparison includes four partial and six general equilibrium models that differ in how they model land supply and amount of potentially available land. We analyze results of two different socioeconomic scenarios and three climate scenarios (one with constant climate). Most models (7 out of 10) project an increase of cropland of 10–25% by 2050 compared to 2005 (under constant climate), but one model projects a decrease. Pasture land expands in some models, which increase the treat on natural vegetation further. Across all models most of the cropland expansion takes place in South America and sub‐Saharan Africa. In general, the strongest differences in model results are related to differences in the costs of land expansion, the endogenous productivity responses, and the assumptions about potential cropland.     

Impacts of increased bioenergy demand on global food markets: an AgMIP economic model intercomparison

Integrated Assessment studies have shown that meeting ambitious greenhouse gas mitigation targets will require substantial amounts of bioenergy as part of the future energy mix. In the course of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), five global agro‐economic models were used to analyze a future scenario with global demand for ligno‐cellulosic bioenergy rising to about 100 ExaJoule in 2050. From this exercise a tentative conclusion can be drawn that ambitious climate change mitigation need not drive up global food prices much, if the extra land required for bioenergy production is accessible or if the feedstock, for example, from forests, does not directly compete for agricultural land. Agricultural price effects across models by the year 2050 from high bioenergy demand in an ambitious mitigation scenario appear to be much smaller (+5% average across models) than from direct climate impacts on crop yields in a high‐emission scenario (+25% average across models). However, potential future scarcities of water and nutrients, policy‐induced restrictions on agricultural land expansion, as well as potential welfare losses have not been specifically looked at in this exercise.     

THE CITIES WE CALL HOME: Indigeneity,Race and Settler-Colonial Urbanisms

The connection between Indigeneity and urban spaces remains on the margins of urban studies and Indigenous studies, even as the majority of Indigenous people in the United States live in cities. Scholars have recently begun to think about the connection between settler colonialism and racial capitalism and the urban. In this essay I examine how the dispossession of Indigenous peoples has shaped modern urban development and, importantly, how Indigenous peoples and culture have contributed to reclaiming and challenging urban dispossession through their engagement with Black people and culture. In this essay I use a few examples of Indigenous expressive culture in Detroit, Michigan, during the Emergency Management Era and urban Indigenous youth activism, to urge for us to move beyond simply demonstrating that Indigenous peoples live in urban contexts. Instead, I call for an urban Indigenous studies that explores the connections between dispossession and the possibilities of a radical Indigenous resurgence in cities, and describe how this can be done through solidarity with African Americans in a predominantly Black city.     

PLANETARY URBANIZATION AND IMPERIALISM: A View from Guåhan/Guam

Through this article I contribute to debates about planetary urbanization by specifying how imperialism, defined as states restricting the self-determination of other states or peoples, intersects with urbanization. While recent urban theory has explored how urbanization unfolds at scales beyond the city and in relation to global capital accumulation, it has not fully extended these insights to incorporate the central role of states and imperialism. First, I argue that doing so develops a more expansive account of extended urbanization by revealing how networks of military bases are themselves enmeshed in the production of urban networks via state policies, and that militarized sites safeguard the global capitalist economy that sustains urbanization. Secondly, I argue that imperialism changes concentrated urbanization by restricting self-determination, fomenting spatial formations that prioritize militarism, and shifting urban politics to a larger scale. I show these dynamics through a historical analysis of the US military's strategic interest in the island of Guåhan/Guam at the end of the second world war, and then generalize from this case to consider variegated outcomes at the intersections of urbanization and imperialism. In the article I aim to more adequately explain the heterogenous ways urbanization unfolds across the contemporary world.     

INDIGENOUS URBANISMS

Indigenous urbanism is an analytic and vital experience that captures everyday life and extreme moments of conflict in settler colonies. While highly localized, Indigenous urbanism/s are comparable across time and space. Delivered from different parts of the world, the essays in this collection highlight that Indigenous urbanism is politically, socially and culturally significant not only for Indigenous peoples in cities, but also for urban settlers and non-Indigenous people of color. While Indigenous urbanisms are foregrounded by settler-colonial structures and processes, they also underscore the unresolved nature of social relations in cities, and indeed, the unsettled character of the city itself. This introduction briefly sketches the themes and scope of each essay and draws them into conversation. Taken together, this collection illustrates the relational—rather than reactionary—character of Indigenous urbanisms as structure, in and of the (settler) city. Indigenous urbanisms shape cities by engaging with broader categories of human relations, intimate connections, conflict and resistance.