scholarly journals Eco-Warriors: The Environmental Movement and the Growth of Ecological Wisdom, 1960s–1970s

Author(s):  
Jeremy L. Caradonna

One of the marks that distinguishes sustainability from classic environmentalism is the former’s cheery optimism. Indeed, reading side by side the 2005 guidebook Green Living—a fairly typical how-to for sustainable living—with, say, Paul Ehrlich’s doleful Population Bomb (1968) offers a case study in contrast. Green Living is constructive and buoyant whereas Population Bomb is frenzied and cynical. Yet it’s striking how much Green Living takes its inspiration not only from Ehrlich but from other titans of mid-century environmentalism—albeit with a noticeable shift in tone. Paul and Anne Ehrlich are cited approvingly in the opening pages of the book. The epigraph comes from the still-very-active David Suzuki. There are also references to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, which, of course, is named after the esteemed Aldo Leopold. But gone is the gloomy tone, replaced instead by a heartening “You can do it!” attitude. This brief observation illustrates how much the modern sustainability movement owes to the critics, intellectuals, and protestors of the 1960s and 1970s who raised awareness about environmental problems, advocated for social justice, and defended the rights of the oppressed. While the three Es of sustainability were rarely paired in the 1960s and 1970s, many of the basic concepts that shaped sustainability were clearly articulated before the 1980s. This chapter should not be taken as a comprehensive look at the environmental movement, about which there is reams more to say. Instead, it will examine in general terms some of the disparate sources that contributed to the holism of sustainability. Particular emphasis will be laid on the key ideas, associations, and scholars who developed the environmental movement and the success that environmentalists had in getting politicians, economists, and the public at large to think in ecological terms—a singular achievement that continues to inform the world of sustainability. It is important to note that the reason that this book jumps from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s is not because the era of the two world wars has nothing to do with the history of sustainability.

2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1065-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Rowland

Archaeocyaths are calcareous, conical, Cambrian fossils with a long history of phylogenetic uncertainty and changing interpretations. The history of phylogenetic interpretation of archaeocyaths reveals five distinct schools of thought: the coelenterate school, the sponge school, the algae school, the Phylum Archaeocyatha school, and the Kingdom Archaeata school. Late nineteenth century and early twentieth century paleontologists worked within a paradigm of inexorably increasing diversity through time, and they did not believe in the concept of extinct phyla. Consequently, prior to about 1950, archaeocyaths were bounced around from coelenterates to sponges, to algae. By the 1930s, after considerable study, all workers agreed that archaeocyaths were sponges of one type or another. In the mid-twentieth century a significant paradigm shift occurred in paleontology, allowing the viability of the concept of a phylum with no extant species. Correspondingly, two new schools of thought emerged regarding archaeocyathan taxonomy. The Phylum Archaeocyatha school placed them in their own phylum, which was inferred to be closely related to Phylum Porifera within Subkingdom Parazoa. A second new school removed archaeocyaths and some other Paleozoic problematica from the animal kingdom and placed them in Kingdom Archaeata (later Kingdom Inferibionta). The Phylum Archaeocyatha school was the mainstream interpretation from the 1950s through the 1980s. However, the widespread use of SCUBA beginning in the 1960s ultimately led to the rejection of the interpretation that archaeocyaths belong in a separate phylum. SCUBA allowed biologists to study deep fore-reef and submarine cave environments, leading to the discovery of living calcareous sponges, including one aspiculate species that is morphologically similar to archaeocyaths. These discoveries in the 1960s and 1970s stimulated a re-examination of sponge phylogeny generally, and comparisons between archaeocyaths and sponges in particular. The result was the abandonment of the Phylum Archaeocyatha school in the 1990s. Present consensus is that archaeocyaths represent both a clade and a grade—Class Archaeocyatha and the archaeocyathan morphological grade—within Phylum Porifera.


Author(s):  
Jeremy L. Caradonna

We might not live in a sustainable age, but we’re living in the age of sustainability. The movement has gained a level of prominence in recent years that is difficult to dispute. The scholarly fields associated with sustainability have expanded dramatically; new tools and methods have appeared that help define, measure, and assess sustainability; and a broad range of organizations and communities have embraced the principles of sustainable living. Sustainability, in fact, has gone from marginal ecological idea to mainstream movement in a surprisingly short amount of time. We now see sustainability publicized at the supermarket, on university campuses, at the aquarium, in corporate headquarters, in government ministries, and in countless other places. A growing number of universities, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and corporations in the Western world possess an “office of sustainability”— replete with sustainability plans and guidebooks—but none have an “office of green radicalism” or an “office of the status quo.” In a sense, this environmental discourse has won out over rival conceptions of humanity’s relationship to the natural world. This chapter is an attempt to sketch out the different ways in which sustainability has gained a foothold in contemporary society. It is not meant to suggest that our world is sustainable. On the contrary, many barriers and entrenched interests have kept our world rather unsustainable, and Mathis Wackernagel has even argued that, since the 1990s, we have exceeded the Earth’s capacity to sustain us; we are now living in a state of global overshoot. The goal here, rather, is to show the ways in which our society has constructively responded to our ecological crisis—to demonstrate the growth and elaboration of the sustainability movement and describe some of the successes it has achieved in counteracting our bad habits. As the philosophy of sustainability has developed, so too has it expanded its scope. If we recall from earlier chapters, the concept of sustainability began in the eighteenth century as a method of managing forests, and by the 1960s and 1970s it had become a reaction to industrialism and the trend toward ecological overshoot.


Author(s):  
Olli Seuri

Kekkonen and Power. The Image of Urho Kekkonen in Helsingin Sanomat’s References to the 1960s This article explores the history of President Urho Kekkonen as it appeared in the pages of daily newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat (HS). His history is produced in different sections and historical references in every-day work of a newspaper. Separate pieces of representations produced by writers, editors and interviewees construct the image which is as much about representing and remembering as it is about forgetting and omitting. This article’s material is limited to references to the 1960s in the HS’s volumes of 2008 and 2013. The sample is limited in order to analyse the idea of “different types of Kekkonen” in Finnish history culture. This study shows that the image of Kekkonen constructed in these references to 1960s is that of a powerful president. For example, young Kekkonen, Prime Minister Kekkonen, and the frail President after 25 years reign, are all omitted. Representations and meanings in these newspaper references are limited to Kekkonen, his legacy, and influence in public and private life in the 1960s and 1970s. In this study’s material Kekkonen is a progressive force in the modernization period of the 1960s Finland. Also, the legacy of Kekkonen and his foreign policy are strong in HS’s references. The debate concerning Cold War shows the dynamism of the image of the past of President Urho Kekkonen and his lasting relevance to Finnish history culture. His legacy and history can be used for various lines of argument. Different emphasis leads to different, even opposing, views and visions. The public debate over Cold War and Kekkonen represents a broader aspect, noticed earlier by historian Henrik Meinander (2010): The debate concerning the legacy of President Urho Kekkonen is a debate of Cold War Finland and Finland’s position between the East and the West.Kekkonen vallankäyttäjänä ja vallankäytön välineenä. Urho Kekkosen historiakuva Helsingin Sanomien 1960-lukuviittauksissa  Artikkelissa selvitetään, millainen historiakuva presidentti Urho Kekkosesta muodostuu Helsingin Sanomien (HS) 1960-lukuviittauksista vuosien 2008 ja 2013 lehdissä. Sanomalehden tuottama historiakuva syntyy päivä päivältä lehden eri osastoissa historiaa koskevissa jutuissa ja historiaviittauksissa. Kekkosen historiakuva on yksittäisistä paloista rakentuva, valikoitu esitys siitä, mikä Kekkosessa on vielä 2000-luvulla merkityksellistä. Se kertoo sekä HS:n valinnoista että suomalaisesta historiakulttuurista.HS:ssa 1960-lukuviittauksista muodostuu kuva Urho Kekkosesta presidenttinä ja vallankäyttäjänä. Otoksen rajaus nostaa esiin erityisesti Torstin (2012) määrittelemän ” 1960-luvun ja kuulentojen sukupolven” Kekkosen. Viittauksissa painottuvat modernisoituva 1960-luvun Suomi sekä 1960–1970-lukujen lännen ja idän välillä tasapainotellut kylmän sodan Suomi. Historiakuvan rakentuminen perustuu aina valintoihin ja historian käyttöön eli muistamisen ohella rajaamiseen ja unohtamiseen. HS:n 1960-lukuviittauksissa ei ole nuorta Kekkosta, ei pääministeri Kekkosta eikä sairauden vuoksi valtaoikeuksistaan luopuvaa Kekkosta. Jäljelle jää vahva vaikuttaja, jonka elämäntyötä arvioidaan niin henkilökohtaisen kuin julkisenkin kautta. Kekkosen merkitys HS:ssa ja suomalaisessa historiakulttuurissa näkyy hänen presidenttiajan perinnössään mutta myös siinä, kuinka hänen perintöään arvioidaan yhä uudelleen. Kekkosen historiakuvaan liittyvä poliittinen ulottuvuus paljastuu etenkin niissä tapauksissa, joissa Kekkosta tai häneen liitettyjä merkityksiä käytetään erilaisten argumenttien tukena. Erilaisilla painotuksilla Kekkonen taipuu HS:ssa erilaisiin asentoihin. Kuten Meinander (2010) on huomioinut, on keskustelu Kekkosesta myös keskustelua kylmän sodan Suomesta ja Suomen paikasta idän ja lännen välissä.


Author(s):  
Jaime Kucinskas

This chapter introduces the historical cultural antecedents to the contemplative movement, showing that mindfulness builds upon the rhetoric and logics of prior religious liberal and spiritual thought in the United States. Americans were exposed to Buddhism, and its emphasis on cultivating inner spiritual life through solitude and reflection, in the mid-nineteenth century from the Transcendentalist literature of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the late nineteenth century, the Theosophists and the World’s Parliament of Religions meetings brought additional attention to Buddhism, aligning it with science. Interest in Zen and solitary, reflective Buddhist practices surged in the mid-twentieth century based on the influence of D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and the politicized literature of the Beats. These romanticized portrayals of Buddhism were then more widely popularized with the countercultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The contemplatives built upon the work of these prior streams of Buddhist-inspired American spirituality.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Connah ◽  
S.G.H. Daniels

New archaeological research in Borno by the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has included the analysis of pottery excavated from several sites during the 1990s. This important investigation made us search through our old files for a statistical analysis of pottery from the same region, which although completed in 1981 was never published. The material came from approximately one hundred surface collections and seven excavated sites, spread over a wide area, and resulted from fieldwork in the 1960s and 1970s. Although old, the analysis remains relevant because it provides a broad geographical context for the more recent work, as well as a large body of independent data with which the new findings can be compared. It also indicates variations in both time and space that have implications for the human history of the area, hinting at the ongoing potential of broadscale pottery analysis in this part of West Africa and having wider implications of relevance to the study of archaeological pottery elsewhere.


Daedalus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100
Author(s):  
Linda K. Kerber

The old law of domestic relations and the system known as coverture have shaped marriage practices in the United States and have limited women's membership in the constitutional community. This system of law predates the Revolution, but it lingers in U.S. legal tradition even today. After describing coverture and the old law of domestic relations, this essay considers how the received narrative of women's place in U.S. history often obscures the story of women's and men's efforts to overthrow this oppressive regime, and also the story of the continuing efforts of men and some women to stabilize and protect it. The essay also questions the paradoxes built into American law: for example, how do we reconcile the strictures of coverture with the founders' care in defining rights-holders as “persons” rather than “men”? Citing a number of court cases from the early days of the republic to the present, the essay describes the 1960s and 1970s shift in legal interpretation of women's rights and obligations. However, recent developments – in abortion laws, for example – invite inquiry as to how full the change is that we have accomplished. The history of coverture and the way it affects legal, political, and cultural practice today is another American narrative that needs to be better understood.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil T Lunt ◽  
Ian G Trotman

Since the 1960s there has been a growing interest in evaluation shown by most Western countries. Alongside discussion of practical and theoretical issues of evaluation, such as methodological developments, best practice, and cross-cultural practice, there has also been increased interest in mapping the history of evaluation activity. Historical discussions are significant for three reasons; first, in providing a record for future generations of evaluators. Second, they provide a consideration of the domestic and international context that has shaped evaluation development, giving each country its distinct institutional make-up and brand of evaluation activity. Third, they assist a country's evaluation capacity development by building on its strengths and compensating for the weaknesses of its history. This article traces the emergence of evaluation within New Zealand using the metaphor of dramaturgy to introduce the settings and actors that we consider to have been constituent of what was played out in the New Zealand situation. Our remit is a broad one of attempting to describe and explain the range of evaluation activities, including program evaluation, organisational review, performance management, and process and policy evaluation. Within this article a broad overview only is possible. As an example of a more in-depth study, a comprehensive article could be prepared on the history of performance management in the public service. Our comments cover developments in the public sector, tertiary sector, and private and professional organisations. It is a companion paper to one on the history of evaluation in Australia, prepared by Colin A Sharp in a recent issue of this journal (Sharpe 2003).


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 857
Author(s):  
Simona Čupić

Jacqueline Kennedy’s style is one of the mainstays of the history of fashion and popular culture, as well as contemporary politics. John Kennedy’s way of dressing garnered much less attention. Even though, at first glance, not as interesting as the first lady’s “fashion sense”, the president’s style was no less thought-out. If, however, we view the changes in clothing as social changes and a determinant of various kinds of social differentiation: marital status, sex, occupation, religious and political affiliation, the way in which the Kennedys were presented to the public becomes more interesting – from the (carefully planned) photos and appearances to art and culture. Having in mind that the 1960s were a time when the appropriation of popular and fictional came back into modern art, and that general changes inherent in the new lifestyle, as well as a layered image of American internal politics, and the cold war map of the world, the carefully thought-out image of the presidential couple can be viewed as a specific kind of metaphor for a complicated time.


2006 ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Ewa Sławkowa

The article presents a lexical and semantic study of the discourse, one of the most widespread terms of modern human sciences. We begin with etymology, and then demonstrate various stages of the development of the meaning of the term in the history of Polish. The lexem “discourse”, well established in the linguistic tradition of Polish, has undergone a characteristic evolution: first, a borrowing from Latin (discurere – “go in diverse directions”), it then became popular in the 16th through 18th centuries as a rhetorically marked Polish (particularly with the view of political speeches and sermons) to signal a kind of discussion and logical exposition of argumentation. Recent contemporary Polish gives this term a slightly archaic and bookish sense. At the same time, however, “discourse” has become a strictly scientific, scholarly term which carved for itself a special discipline of research (discourse studies). In the 1960s and 1970s the work of such linguists as Emile Benveniste or Roman Jakobsen helped to shape the meaning of discourse as a process of speaking, an interactive and dialogic communicative behaviour which sees language as conditioned by diverse social practices and/or ideologies (e.g. historical, scholarly, or feminist discourse).


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70
Author(s):  
Steffi Marung

AbstractIn this article the Soviet-African Modern is presented through an intellectual history of exchanges in a triangular geography, outspreading from Moscow to Paris to Port of Spain and Accra. In this geography, postcolonial conditions in Eastern Europe and Africa became interconnected. This shared postcolonial space extended from the Soviet South to Africa. The glue for the transregional imagination was an engagement with the topos of backwardness. For many of the participants in the debate, the Soviet past was the African present. Focusing on the 1960s and 1970s, three connected perspectives on the relationship between Soviet and African paths to modernity are presented: First, Soviet and Russian scholars interpreting the domestic (post)colonial condition; second, African academics revisiting the Soviet Union as a model for development; and finally, transatlantic intellectuals connecting postcolonial narratives with socialist ones. Drawing on Russian archives, the article furthermore demonstrates that Soviet repositories hold complementary records for African histories.


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