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The article offers information on how land-use trajectories affect ecosystem services (ES) in mountain landscapes. Topics discussed include absence of provisioning, regulating, and cultural services relative to services in more natural (less developed) areas; importance of urban ES and urban biota, and biodiversity; and the reduction in predation pressures and increase in human subsidies.

As a result of the extraordinary work of Foucault, Shapin and Schaffer, Porter, and many others, we are familiar with many of the practices of governance which emerged during the 19th century at the intersection of the modern social sciences and the modern state, as 'naturalized' knowledge of an objectified social body formed the foundation of specific kinds of social and political order. But over the course of the 20th century, critiques of objectivity have become commonplace, and a post-positivist epistemological revolution has taken root in many quarters. How, then, have practices of governance-through-knowledge modified themselves in response to a century of such critiques? This article takes inspiration from the work of Jasanoff, Riles, Latour and others to identify a mode of 'governing as if: a pragmatic mode of governance which works not through the production of objective knowledge as the shared epistemic foundation for political settlements, but rather by generating knowledge claims that stabilize social orderings precisely through their self-conscious partiality, contingency, and context-dependence. This argument is developed using the illustration of global subsidies regulation in World Trade Organization law, focussing in particular on the knowledge practices by which particular conceptions of 'the market' are produced and deployed in the course of its operation. The article argues that the standard criticisms of naturalized economic conceptions of the 'free market', developed in various scholarly traditions throughout the 20th century, do not provide an adequate account of economic governance working in 'as if mode, either positively or normatively. It further argues, following Riles, that such regimes of governance derive their effectiveness fundamentally from their 'hollow core', and that it is in the constant and active work of 'hollowing out' that we are likely to find their characteristic modalities of power and underlying structural dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should works resulting from research that has been substantially subsidized by the United States federal government be protected by copyright, or immediately enter the public domain? The Public Access to Science Act (PASA) would place these works in the public domain in the same manner as works prepared by government employees. This paper evaluates the merits of the legislation by placing the question of the appropriate copyright treatment of federally subsidized works within a historical perspective, taking into account the underlying purposes of copyright policy as well as the changes that have taken place in the field of scholarly publishing since Congress last considered the issue in 1976. The regulatory environment and practices of the major federal funding agencies are reviewed, showing that agencies have fuiled to utilize their broad discretion over the treatment of funded works, resulting in over-protection of works as the default rule. This paper considers how the balancing of interests that has historically informed copyright policy should be applied to works that have been federally supported; it will review and assess the initial reactions to PASA from the point of view of various stakeholders, including commercial publishers, non-commercial publishers, universities, authors and researchers, and library associations; and it will consider whether PASA's purposes might be accomplished through other mechanisms. This paper reaches the conclusion that works resulting from extramural research that has been substantially subsidized by the federal government should enter the public domain in the same manner as works resulting from intramural government research undertaken by federal employees, and that PASA provides a straightforward mechanism for reaching this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1980s there has been a mounting debate over the future direction of the land use planning system. The government is also determined to tackle the extensive subsidies to the farming industry. This paper argues that the interaction of agricultural policy and land use policy is central to the way in which the planning system is likely to evolve over the next decade. The configuration of land politics will be shaped by these trends. The paper considers two possible scenarios for the 1990s. In the first, extensive deregulation of land use planning and a removal of agricultural subsidies is assumed and the changing balance of power between different groups with an interest in land is examined. In the second scenario, a more realistic picture is put forward, arguing that whatever government is in power in the 1990s it will be tempted to respond with a `pragmatic' approach to planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The life spans of demersal species of fishes occurring in deep-waters are much longer and their potential growth rates much lower than those of related shallow water species. As a result, deep-sea demersal fish species are more vulnerable to exploitation. This is because low growth rates relative to the available market discount rate for capital makes it desirable for fishing firms to mine, rather than sustainably exploit, these resources even in the absence of fisheries subsidies. However, it is common knowledge that governments around the world do provide subsidies to their fishing industries. The objective of this contribution is to estimate the global amount of subsidies paid to bottom trawl fleets operating in the high seas, i.e., outside of the Exclusive Economic Zones of maritime countries. Our study suggests that fisheries subsidies to these fleets stand at about US$152 million per year, which constitutes 25% of the total landed value of the fleet. Economic data for bottom trawlers suggest that the profit achieved by this vessel group is normally not more than 10% of landed value. The implication of this finding is that without subsidies, the bulk of the world''s bottom trawl fleet operating in the high seas will be operating at a loss, and unable to fish, thereby reducing the current threat to deep-sea and high seas fish stocks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article the author reflects on the resolution of the statewide tax imposition on soft drinks in New York. He mentions that the New York State Dental Association (NYSDA) board of governors has adopted the policy on June 2007. He notes that the resolution has called for revenues that subsidizes dental health care and education in the state. The author concludes that the new policy will promote children's health.