Community psychology and oral history in Eldorado Park: A case study in surveillance, confession and resistance

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 3 October 1994Psychologists have a reputation for individualising, decontextualising and depoliticising human suffering. Despite numerous exceptions to this rule - e.g. the attempts to theorize colonial and class oppression by Fanon (1978), Bulhan (1985), Manganyi (1991) and others - it remains true that many psychologists choose to confine their work (and their thinking) to the safe world of the consulting room and the laboratory. Even the two branches of the discipline supposedly most concerned with social issues - social psychology and community psychology - are notorious for their persistent individualising tendencies. In this paper we describe and critique a community psychology initiative, in which we are involved, which attempts to move beyond the individual as level of analysis and target for intervention. In particular we are concerned to show how the knowledge produced in and about communities through such initiatives constitutes an exercise of disciplinary power, and to question whether such power may be wielded in a beneficial manner

Assessment of Mesozoic-Kainozoic climate impact on oil-source rock potential (West Siberia)

Based on paleotemperature modeling, the evaluation of the effect of Neo-Pleistocene permafrost rock thickness on geothermal regime of the Bazhenov deposits has been performed. It has been stated that permafrost about 300 m in thickness must be considered for appropriate reconstruction of geothermal history of source rocks in the south-east areas of West Siberia. This condition is relevant to a consistent consideration of oil-generation phase history and can prevent underestimation (to 25%) of hydrocarbon-in-place resources

Change of climate conditions in the forest area of South Yakutia

A statistical analysis of meteorological parameters which influence the intensity of exogenous processes in the forest area of South Yakutia has been performed. The indicated increase in mean annual air and soil temperature rates occurred non-uniformly. Annual precipitation increase was due to precipitation rates in cold or transitional seasons; increase in snow cover depth and decrease in diurnal air temperature range was observed in cold season

Triggering of great earthquakes: calculation and analysis of combined tidal effect of the Moon and Sun

The largest part of solid minerals (with the exception of those which are at the earth's surface) is being extracted world-wide by surface and underground mining techniques, with adits, mines and other mine workings being used. A considerable amount of mineral deposits (including oil reservoirs) is located either close to a fault-line or immediately within the zone of high seismic activity. To prevent economic and environmental damage under the effect of an earthquake, thorough seismic monitoring of the area must be performed, as well as the study of all possible mechanisms of an earthquake occurrence. In analysing the trigger effect of moon- and sun-induced tidal forces on seismic activity, six great earthquakes which occurred close to equatorial latitude over the last 15 years have been considered. Based on the positions of the Sun and Moon during the day relative to the point mass, the maps of horizontal, vertical components and vector of gravitational forces per unit mass have been plotted. The developed technique can be applicable to a set of methods to study integration and stress unloading mechanisms at the boundaries of block structures

Theories of the deep: combining salience and network analyses to produce mental model visualizations of a coastal British Columbia food web

Arriving at shared mental models among multiple stakeholder groups can be crucial for successful management of contested social-ecological systems (SES). Academia can help by first eliciting stakeholders’ initial, often tacit, beliefs about a SES, and representing them in useful ways. We demonstrate a new recombination of techniques for this purpose, focusing specifically on tacit beliefs about food webs. Our approach combines freelisting and sorting techniques, salience analysis, and ultimately network analysis, to produce accessible visualizations of aggregate mental models that can then be used to facilitate discussion or generate further hypotheses about cognitive drivers of conflict. The case study we draw upon to demonstrate this technique is Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. There, an immanent upsurge in the sea otter (Enhydra lutris) population, which competes with humans for shellfish, has produced tension among government managers, and both First Nations and non-First Nations residents. Our approach helps explain this tension by visually highlighting which trophic relationships appear most cognitively salient among the lay public. We also include speculative representations of models held by managers, and pairs of contrasting demographic subgroups, to further demonstrate potential uses of the method

Detection of attenuation zones in a time section based on running window filtration

When developing oil reservoirs composed of carbonate rocks and those characterized by complex structure, the production well flow rate is largely determined by reservoir fracturing/ porosity rather than structure. These reservoir properties can often be reflected in a time section as significant attenuation of a seismic signal. The running time window spectral analysis has been proposed in the previous research to detect fractured zones. The calculations of seismic field diffraction due to a single pore and pore ensemble effects were made. The present research indicates that reservoir fracturing or porosity can cause qualitatively similar behavior of reflected signal amplitude spectra. Based on this finding, a rejection filter was constructed and applied to a real time section of the field in Tomsk Oblast, Prony and Fourier spectra being tested