scholarly journals Discourses of Resilience in the Climate Security Debate

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Social Resilience ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Ecosystem Integrity ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Security Discourse ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Contemporary Climate

The language of “resilience” features prominently in contemporary climate security debates. While a basic definition of resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb recurrent disturbances so as to retain its essential structures, processes, and feedbacks, I argue that resilience is currently articulated in four distinct ways in climate security discourse. These are strategic resilience, neoliberal resilience, social resilience, and ecological resilience. Most analyses of resilience-based security discourses have hitherto been informed by Foucauldian notions of governing populations at a distance to ensure compliance with neoliberal norms. However, in the climate security field, neoliberal resilience discourses have achieved relatively little salience, while Foucauldian accounts are largely overdetermined, thus obscuring the multiple ways in which resilience is currently articulated. In this article, I identify these disparate resilience discourses through an analysis of recent US and UK government, international organization, nongovernmental organization, and academic climate security literature. I then analyze these discourses in terms of their basic discursive structure and degree of institutionalization to clarify how dominant climate security narratives construct understandings of security and insecurity in contemporary global environmental politics. While strategic articulations are currently most conspicuous, I argue that only social and ecological resilience support long-term human flourishing and ecosystem integrity.

scholarly journals Long-Term Environmental Policy: Definition, Knowledge, Future Research

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Detlef F. Sprinz
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Time Inconsistency ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Decentralized Governance ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Policy Problems

Considering the long-term is not new, yet we seem to be overwhelmed by the long-term nature of many of our environmental policy problems. Following a definition of long-term policy problems, this editorial introduces the contributions to this special issue of Global Environmental Politics and outlines three major challenges for future research, including the time inconsistency problem, the effect of democratic and decentralized governance on problem-solving, as well as institutional designs to prevent or recover from unwanted long-term policy outcomes.

Energetics and ecosystem integrity: The defining principles of sustainable agriculture

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy E. Crews ◽  
Charles L. Mohler ◽  
Alison G. Power
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Ecosystem Integrity ◽  
Broad Array ◽  
Ecological Criteria ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Concise Definition

AbstractIn this paper, we criticize recent definitions of sustainable agriculture as being overly based on short-term economic criteria, rather than long-term ecological criteria. A concise definition of sustainable agriculture is put forth, premised on the assumption that the ecological parameters of energetics and ecosystem integrity ultimately determine the long-term viability of farming systems. We share with others the view that, in designing sustainable farming systems, a broad array of social and economic factors should be taken into consideration. We believe, however, that these factors are not intrinsic to a sustainable agriculture, but rather separate, desirable goals.

scholarly journals Building a Sustainable Society: The Necessity to Change the Term 'Consumer'

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Chakori
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Consumption Culture ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Important Relationship ◽  
Definition Of

The profit-seeking system leads to many negative environmental impacts. Within this economic system, consumption reflects an important relationship between humans and nature. However, despite the growing international attention to environmental sustainability, our society does not necessarily acknowledge consumerism as the cause of global environmental degradation. Deconstructing the consumption culture and redefining what determines well-being, this paper will attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing definition of people in the economic system. Many authors have defined our role in the economy; however, in terms of customer, citizen-consumer, and socially conscious consumer, most of the literature in this domain remains rooted in consumerism. Consumerism cannot be fixed with further consumerism; therefore this paper discusses the importance of reclaiming our identity and the need to define new terms for people in a new economic system. Any new terms should integrate interests and responsibilities that go beyond simple utility maximization. Moving beyond the term “consumer” will change our worldview. This cultural transformation may help facilitate long-term environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals The sheep look forward: Counterfactuals, dystopias, and ecological science fiction as a social science enterprise

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Resilience ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
Ecological Science ◽  
Near Future

John Brunner’s 1972 novel, The Sheep Look Up, is the story of the year leading up to a global ecological and political catastrophe. Set primarily in the United States in an unspecified near future, The Sheep Look Up tells the story of “death by a thousand cuts”: problem upon problem, malfeasance upon malfeasance, which accumulate, reinforce each other and are met only by a failing political and economic system that ultimately collapses under its own weight. This article reflects on themes and topics of the novel that resonate for social science theorists and teachers in the environmental social sciences, including global environmental politics. First, it provides a type of counterfactual analysis. It opens a window into how the world might have been had certain actions not been taken. Second, it provides a warning: how the world might be if we do not act. Third, it provides a model of how a disastrous transition might unfold as social resilience has been worn down. Looking back on the almost fifty years since the novel was written demonstrates how its scenario was averted through concerted government and societal actions, but the article also points out how Brunner’s work has strong resonance with our present – and at different times in the recent past.

Central Otago - Built on gold, growing on grass.

2014 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Barrie J. Wills
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Land Use ◽  
National Economy ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Economic Potential ◽  
District Council ◽  
Definition Of

A warm welcome to our "World of Difference" to all delegates attending this conference - we hope your stay is enjoyable and that you will leave Central Otago with an enhanced appreciation of the diversity of land use and the resilient and growing economic potential that this region has to offer. Without regional wellbeing the national economy will struggle to grow, something Central Government finally seems to be realising, and the Central Otago District Council Long Term Plan 2012-2022 (LTP) signals the importance of establishing a productive economy for the local community which will aid in the economic growth of the district and seeks to create a thriving economy that will be attractive to business and residents alike. Two key principles that underpin the LTP are sustainability and affordability, with the definition of sustainability being "… development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Populism and Liberal Democracy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takis S. Pappas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
The People ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Great Relevance ◽  
Definition Of

Based on an original definition of modern populism as “democratic illiberalism” and many years of meticulous research, Takis Pappas marshals extraordinary empirical evidence from Argentina, Greece, Peru, Italy, Venezuela, Ecuador, Hungary, the United States, Spain, and Brazil to develop a comprehensive theory about populism. He addresses all key issues in the debate about populism and answers significant questions of great relevance for today’s liberal democracy, including: • What is modern populism and how can it be differentiated from comparable phenomena like nativism and autocracy? • Where in Latin America has populism become most successful? Where in Europe did it emerge first? Why did its rise to power in the United States come so late? • Is Trump a populist and, if so, could he be compared best with Venezuela’s Chávez, France’s Le Pens, or Turkey’s Erdoğan? • Why has populism thrived in post-authoritarian Greece but not in Spain? And why in Argentina and not in Brazil? • Can populism ever succeed without a charismatic leader? If not, what does leadership tell us about how to challenge populism? • Who are “the people” who vote for populist parties, how are these “made” into a group, and what is in their minds? • Is there a “populist blueprint” that all populists use when in power? And what are the long-term consequences of populist rule? • What does the expansion, and possibly solidification, of populism mean for the very nature and future of contemporary democracy? Populism and Liberal Democracy will change the ways the reader understands populism and imagines the prospects of liberal democracy.

scholarly journals Long-term changes in the plant ecology of an African savanna landscape and the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation management

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Western ◽  
Victor N. Mose ◽  
David Maitumo ◽  
Caroline Mburu
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Plant Ecology ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Pasture Production ◽  
Ecosystem Theory ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Studies of the African savannas have used national parks to test ecological theories of natural ecosystems, including equilibrium, non-equilibrium, complex adaptive systems, and the role of top-down and bottom-up physical and biotic forces. Most such studies have excluded the impact of pastoralists in shaping grassland ecosystems and, over the last half century, the growing human impact on the world’s rangelands. The mounting human impact calls for selecting indicators and integrated monitoring methods able to track ecosystem changes and the role of natural and human agencies. Our study draws on five decades of monitoring the Amboseli landscape in southern Kenya to document the declining role of natural agencies in shaping plant ecology with rising human impact. Results We show that plant diversity and productivity have declined, biomass turnover has increased in response to a downsizing of mean plant size, and that ecological resilience has declined with the rising probability of extreme shortfalls in pasture production. The signature of rainfall and physical agencies in driving ecosystem properties has decreased sharply with growing human impact. We compare the Amboseli findings to the long-term studies of Kruger and Serengeti national parks to show that the human influence, whether by design or default, is increasingly shaping the ecology of savanna ecosystems. We look at the findings in the larger perspective of human impact on African grasslands and the world rangelands, in general, and discuss the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation policy and management. Conclusions The Amboseli study shows the value of using long-term integrated ecological monitoring to track the spatial and temporal changes in the species composition, structure, and function of rangeland ecosystems and the role of natural and human agencies in the process of change. The study echoes the widespread changes underway across African savannas and world’s rangelands, concluding that some level of ecosystem management is needed to prevent land degradation and the erosion of ecological function, services, and resilience. Despite the weak application of ecological theory to conservation management, a plant trait-based approach is shown to be useful in explaining the macroecological changes underway.

scholarly journals “I’ve Heard of It, Yes, but I Can’t Remember What Exactly It Was”—A Qualitative Study on Awareness, Knowledge, and Use of the UV Index

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1615
Author(s):  
Katharina Diehl ◽  
Tatiana Görig ◽  
Charlotte Jansen ◽  
Maike Carola Hruby ◽  
Annette B. Pfahlberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Sun Protection ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Protection Factor ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Uv Index ◽  
Correct Definition ◽  
Definition Of

Pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians play an important role in counselling customers regarding sunscreen use and sun protection measures. A potentially helpful tool that can be used during counselling is the ultraviolet index (UVI), which informs individuals when and what sun protection measures are needed at a specific place and time. Our aim in this qualitative study was to explore awareness, knowledge, and use of the UVI during counselling in pharmacies. We used semi-structured interviews with pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians (n = 20) to answer our research questions. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. During the interviews pharmacists and pharmaceutical technicians revealed a lot of uncertainty and lack of knowledge regarding the UVI. Eight professionals were able to give a correct definition of UVI. Amongst others, the UVI was confused with sun protection factor. Overall, the UVI was hardly used during the counselling of customers. The UVI was developed to provide guidance when which type of sun protection is required to avoid detrimental effects of ultraviolet radiation. For effective implementation, both the general population and health professionals (e.g., pharmacists) have to increase their knowledge about the UVI. This would strengthen its use during professional counselling in pharmacies and may help to reduce the incidence of skin cancer over the long term.

scholarly journals It Is Not Just Mortality: A Call From Chile for Comprehensive COVID-19 Policy Responses Among Older People

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Villalobos Dintrans ◽  
Jorge Browne ◽  
Ignacio Madero-Cabib
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
National Level ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Access To Health Services ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Objective Provide a synthesis of the COVID-19 policies targeting older people in Chile, stressing their short- and long-term challenges. Method Critical analysis of the current legal and policy measures, based on national-level data and international experiences. Results Although several policies have been enacted to protect older people from COVID-19, these measures could have important unintended negative consequences in this group’s mental and physical health, as well as financial aspects. Discussion A wider perspective is needed to include a broader definition of health—considering financial scarcity, access to health services, mental health issues, and long-term care—in the policy responses to COVID-19 targeted to older people in Chile.

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