scholarly journals The Discourses of the Sinking Villages in Demak: The Social Relation between Humans and Nature

2020 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 07050
Author(s):  
Suwarno Peter ◽  
Nurhayati Nurhayati

Stories of climate change and its impacts on human life that have been reported in various media supports arguments that it is largely man-made. In many Indonesian communities, however, this disaster that alters cultural, social, and economic environment is often viewed as a natural phenomenon. This paper analyzes expressions of the experiences of local Indonesian inhabitants and media reporters using discourse analysis. The selected texts in the reports mostly focus on expressions concerning how the inhabitants dealt with the ever-increasing tidal flood that engulfed their dwellings and communities. The analysis reveal that stories on their experiences contain words and themes representing their views of natural phenomenon that created memories of the past and uncertain plans for the futures. Different types and class of words they express not only represent grieving for loss of livelihood, but also, more importantly, embody efforts to make the best of what is left, including changing the inundated district into a tourism site.

Climate change is poised to threaten, disrupt, and transform human life, and the social, economic, and political institutions that structure it. In light of this, understanding climate change, and discussing how to address it, should be at the very center of our public conversation. Philosophy can make an enormous contribution to that conversation, but only if both philosophers and non-philosophers understand what it can contribute. The sixteen original articles collected in this volume both illustrate the diverse ways that philosophy can contribute to this conversation, and ways in which thinking about climate change can help to illuminate a range of topics of independent interest to philosophers.


Author(s):  
Karamagioli Evika

Over the past few years the concepts of government and governance have been dramatically transformed. Not only is this due to increasing pressures and expectations that the way we are governed should reflect modern methods of efficiency and effectiveness, but also that government should be more open to democratic accountability. The following chapter will introduce the social impact dimension of e-democracy while proposing concrete directions and incentives that should be provided for engagement through electronic means. The intention is to highlight the fact that technology is the result of a combination of tools, social practices, social organizations, and cultural meanings. It not only represents social arrangements, but also has the potential to facilitate and / or limit different types of interaction.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiban Mani Poudel

Satellite images, repeated photography, temperature and precipitation data, and other proxy scientific evidences support the claim that climate is changing rapidly in Nepal, including in the Trans-Himalayan regions of the country. Climate change in the Trans-Himalayan region of Nepal is altering the existing relations of functional socio-ecological system for generations. This ethnographic assessment of Nhāson village looks at the disturbance posed by climate change to the social and ecological relationship in reference to livestock management practices. It focuses on two thematic areas of communities’ verbalisation of issues and challenges faced by the mountain herders in the climate change context. This paper is the product of ethnographic study between the years 2012 and 2014 in Nhāson. The locals’ attachment to environment and witnesses of change is capable of telling the story on the disturbance of climate change in the social and ecological systems, contextually. The stories gathered during walking, herding, travelling, watching and observing of the places are “real stories” with insights into the past climate variability and fluctuation which is critically valuable to understand the environmental phenomena at times when scientific evidences are not sufficient. Ethnographic study can contribute in documenting the place and cultural specific stories as a powerful evidence to climate change and its impact on grounded social and ecological systems.


Author(s):  
Gunilla Holm

This chapter discusses the development of photography as a research method in the social sciences. It describes the different types of photographs used, such as archival photographs and photographs taken by the researcher, and it focuses especially on photographs taken by participants. The uses of different approaches to obtain photographs and issues of interest concerning each approach are presented. The most common approaches to analyze photographs, such as content analysis, discourse analysis, and ethnographic analysis, are described. Interesting and challenging questions about the interpretation and presentation of photographs are raised, such as the impact of the researcher’s and participants’ habitus on the interpretation of photographs. Finally, ethical issues in research using photographs are considered, especially the meaning of informed consent, and confidentiality in photographic research is emphasized.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Minna Sa

The Daur people are a minority living in Northeast China. They have adhered to a form of shamanism since ancient times. They believe that all things are spiritual. The Daur call an intermediary or messenger between the human world and the spirit worlds jad’ən (shaman). In addition, there are also different types of priests and healers, such as baɡʧi (healer and priest), barʃ (bone-setter), ʊtʊʃi (healer of child) and baræʧen (midwife), but only the jad’ən is a real shaman. The Daur’s system of deities is huge, complex, and diverse, mainly including təŋɡər (God of Heaven), xʊʤʊr barkən (ancestral spirit), njaŋnjaŋ barkən (Niang Niang Goddess), aʊləi barkən (spirit of mountain), nuʤir barkən (spirit of snake), ɡali barkən (God of Fire), etc. Among them, ancestral spirit is the most noble and important deity of the Daur, called xʊʤʊr barkən (spirit of ancestors). In the past, the social structure of the Daurs was based on the equal clan xal and its branches mokun. Xʊʤʊr barkən is the ancestral spirit of the mokun family. The shaman with xʊʤʊr barkən as the main patron is called xʊʤʊr jad’ən, that is, mokun shaman. The inheritance of the Daur shaman is very complicated. The xʊʤʊr jad’ən is strictly inherited along the patrilineal line, while the ordinary jad’ən can also inherit according to the maternal lineage. The inheritance rites of other types of shamans are also based mainly on the patrilineal lineage and occasionally the maternal lineage. The complexity of the Daur shaman inheritance is first and foremost related to the variety of the gods and spirits, secondly to their belief of polytheism, and finally to the constant split of the traditional clans and families, namely, the xal-mokun social structure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 7038
Author(s):  
Kirtika Deo ◽  
Abhnil Amtesh Prasad

Climate change has become one of the most debated topics in recent times. The social media platforms have given the general public the power and propensity to share and express concerns about climate change. However, climate change awareness created on social media depends on user engagement with the contents modulated by emotions. Much has been researched in this area using Twitter, but Facebook fan-based pages have not been extensively explored in the past. In this study, we investigate the engagement behaviour of users on a Facebook fan-based page titled “Global Climate Change Awareness” by analysing user insights data for two years starting from April 2018 to April 2020. Results show that the frequency of posts made to the page did not significantly promote engagement but improved visibility of the contents to the users. Overall, fan growth was attributed more to increased post visibility that enhanced post engagement. Hashtags associated with climate change had a significant reach amongst users, but those associated with disasters where the page expressed sadness and informed users about taking precautions had the highest engagement rate. Likewise, users from developing countries, especially from the small islands, were more engaged with climate change awareness. This study did not assess negative responses from users (possible deniers of climate change) and other Facebook fan-based pages due to data privacy and stringent Facebook policy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 24-41
Author(s):  
Jorma Kalela

History is not just a genre of knowledge but also a basic feature of human life. Accounting for the past, or creating histories, to quote David Thelen, is ‘as natural a part of life as eating or breathing’. Casual references to what has taken place make up the vast majority of these accounts. But there are also a great number of deliberately created expositions of the past. They are produced in every field of society and by a wide variety of actors, from private persons to, for example, politicians and various media. The totality of them can be called everyday history. These accounts of the past serve present purposes – histories have innumerable functions and are of countless types. Divergent accounts also influence each other, and my suggestion is that their interaction be called the never-ending social process of history-making. History making, in other words, is not the preserve of academically-trained historians. They are experts but not outside observers. Scholarly historians are inescapably involved in the social process of history making. Their work goes beyond prevailing histories: they seek interpretations that make better sense of the past than the existing ones. Embedded in this effort is another constructivist function: they demonstrate ways to think about the past and how to use it. When demonstrating ‘that’s not how it was’, historians at the same display ‘how the presentation should have been constructed’. Even if they don’t think of themselves as consultants on history making they act in this capacity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mu-Fa Chen

AbstractThe main topic of this talk is the speed estimation of stability/instability. The word “various” comes with no surprising since there are a lot of different types of stability/instability and each of them has its own natural distance to measure. However, the adjective “unified” is very much unexpected. The talk surveys our recent progress on the topic, made in the past five years or so.


Miniature and fragmentary objects are both remarkably fascinating and easily dismissed. Tiny scale entices users with visions of Lilliputian worlds. The ambiguity of fragments intrigues us, offering vivid reminders of the transitory nature of reality. Yet, the standard scholarly approach to such objects has been to see them as secondary, incomplete things, designed primarily to refer to a complete and often life-sized whole. This volume offers a series of fresh perspectives on the familiar concepts of the tiny and the fragmented, in chapters ranging in focus from Neolithic Europe to Pre-Columbian Honduras to the Classical Mediterranean and Ancient Near East. Diverse in scope, the volume is united in considering the little and broken things of the past as objects in their own right. When a life-sized or whole thing is made in a scaled-down or partial form, deliberately broken as part of its use, or considered successful by ancient users only if it shows some signs of wear, it challenges our expectations of representation and wholeness. Overall, this volume demands a reconsideration of the social and contextual nature of miniaturization, fragmentation, and incompleteness. These were more than just ancient strategies for saving space, time, and resources. Rather, they offered new possibilities of representation, use, and engagement—possibilities unavailable with things that were life size or more conventionally “complete.” It was because of, rather than in spite of, their small or partial state that these objects were valued parts of the personal and social worlds they inhabited.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Nutting

Legionella is a bacterium found naturally in moist environments. Persons can become infected when they inhale airborne droplets of water containing such bacteria. Legionellosis cases associated with the use of respiratory devices such as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) units, jet nebulizers, portable room humidifiers, and respiratory ventilation equipment have been identified in context of a Legionellosis outbreak. However, a systematic search for the presence of Legionella bacteria in respiratory devices outside of a Legionellosis outbreak has not been reported. The goal of this study was to carry out such a survey on different types of respiratory devices in long term care facilities. Twenty-four respiratory devices including 9 CPAP, 4 BIPAPs, 5 oxygen humidifiers, and 6 ventilators were included in this study. A total of 72 sampling swabs were obtained for the testing of Legionella bacteria inside the respiratory devices. Culture and PCR tests for Legionella pneumophelia were made in tandem. No legionella pneumophelia bacteria were found in any of the respiratory devices sampled. Although there have been reports in the past of potential legionellosis cases associated with the use of respiratory devices, our data suggest that there are probably no legionella bacteria present inside respiratory devices separate of a Legionellosis outbreak.


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