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Academic:
acquired by formal education, especially at a college or university. Yes,
natural resource management can be academic, but improves with life-long learning,
that is, with experience.
Academic: pertaining
to areas of study that are not vocational or technical, as humanities, ... Yes,
natural
resource management is academic, steeped in ethics, values, history and philosophy.
Academic: theoretical; not
practical or directly useful. No, management is not academic, although it may be
based on theoretical principles. It is distinguished by being practical and directly
useful!.
Academic: conforming
to set rules, standards, or traditions; conventional. Management of trivially simple
systems may fit this definition, but never can successful resource management conform to a
predetermined set of rules or procedures!
Academic: learned or scholarly but lacking
in worldliness, common sense, or practicality. NO!
Resource management in this context would be a dismal failure -- irresponsible,
incompetent, reprehensible.
Take your pick. In my opinion, any discipline has skills and principles which guide effective use of
these skills. When we begin enlarging the principles and honing the skills, we become
"professionals". When we begin teaching others while learning in the
process, we transform the process into academics. Knowledge and application cannot be
placed in mutually exclusive categories, as in the above definitions. |