Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach to Compassionate Conservation: The Case of Wild Horses in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Christine Reed
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Fertility Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Wild Horse ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Human-animal studies have taken a “wild turn” because of growing concern that the urgency to preserve or restore native species and ecosystems has led to overlooking the pain and suffering inflicted upon nonhuman animals targeted as threats to that cause. Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach is used to examine the case of wild horses in the American West. Federal law protecting them predates amendments requiring managers to regulate their numbers because of conservation. I conclude that the wild horse program meets Nussbaum’s definition of compassion in important respects, and that temporary fertility control, long-term pastures, and adoptions fulfill her criteria of justice, but with important qualifications. The capabilities approach relies on the possibility of rational discourse about the protection of wildlife individuals, but that consensus might apply only to certain species. In addition, “culture wars” plaguing the U.S. threaten the possibility of a consensus about compassion and justice for nonhuman animals.

scholarly journals The Reception of Peter Singer’s Theories in France

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Dardenne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Great Ape ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
The Status ◽  
Critical Responses ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractPeter Singer’s views on the status of nonhuman animals have attracted both attention and intense controversy in many Western countries, including the United States, Canada, and Germany. The reactions to his theories in France are less well known. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of critical responses to Singer by French academics and thinkers. How have they received Singer’s contention that we must bring nonhuman animals within the sphere of moral concern? Do French scholars agree with his utilitarian argument on marginal cases, his definition of the term “person,” his defense of the Great Ape Project? Finally, is he considered in France a brilliant and groundbreaking ethicist, a dangerous extremist, or somewhere in between?

The Long War on Drugs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne L. Foster
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
American Society ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Modern War

The beginning of modern war on drugs in the United States is commonly credited to President Richard Nixon, who evoked fears of crime, degenerate youth, and foreign drugs to garner support for his massive, by early 1970s standards, effort to combat drugs in the United States. Scholars now agree, however, that the essential characteristics of the “war on drugs” stretched back to the early 20th century. The first federal law to prohibit a narcotic in the United States passed in 1909 and banned the import of “smoking opium.” Although opium itself remained legal, opium prepared for smoking—a form believed to be consumed predominantly by ethnic Chinese and imported into the United States—was not. All future anti-narcotics policies drew on these foundational notions: narcotics were of foreign origin and invaded the United States. Thus, interdiction efforts at U.S. borders, and increasingly in producer countries, were an appropriate response. Narcotics consumers were presented as equally threatening, viewed as foreigners or at the margins of American society, and U.S. lawmakers therefore criminalized both drug use and drug trafficking. With drugs as well as drug users defined as foreign threats, militarization of the efforts to prohibit drugs followed. In U.S. drug policy, there is no distinction between foreign and domestic policy. They are intertwined at all levels, including the definition of the problem, the origin of many drugs, and the sites of enforcement.

scholarly journals Normative Tensions in the Popular Representation of Children with Disabilities and Animal-Assisted Therapy

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-38
Author(s):  
Eric Mykhalovskiy ◽  
Rita Kanarek ◽  
Colin Hastings ◽  
Jenna Doig ◽  
Melanie Rock
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Therapeutic Benefit ◽  
Nonhuman Animal ◽  
Animal Assisted Therapy ◽  
Therapy Animals ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
The Disabled

This article contributes to the critical disability and human-nonhuman animal studies literatures through a discourse analysis of newspaper stories about animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and children with disabilities published in the United States and Canada. The articles in our corpus form a recognizable genre that we call AAT human-nonhuman animal interest stories. We pose two central questions of the genre: (1) how is the therapeutic value of AAT constituted? and (2) what are the effects, in discourse, of associating nonhuman animals and children with disabilities in narratives of therapeutic benefit? We emphasize the normative tensions associated with the representation of children with disabilities and nonhuman animals in news stories about AAT. On one hand, news articles objectify children with disabilities, inscribe their need to be made “normal” and silence their own experiences of AAT. On the other hand, they are written in ways that extend and strengthen the disabled body and self through connections with nonhuman therapy animals. They disrupt sharp species distinctions and present narratives of how interspecies relationships formed through participation in AAT co-constitute the agency of nonhuman therapy animals and children with disabilities. We argue that the normative tensions in the popular representation of AAT present important possibilities for intervening in public discourse about disability and nonhuman animals.

The Politics of Prophecy: The US Culture Wars and the Battle Over Public Education in the Left Behind Series for Kids

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Ann Abate Michelle
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Church History ◽  
Good News ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
School Prayer ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Religious Books ◽  
The Us

This essay argues that in spite of their obvious Biblically-based subject matter, clear Christian content, and undeniable evangelical perspective, the Left Behind novels for kids are not simply religious books; they are also political ones. Co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins may claim that their narratives are interested in sharing the good news about Jesus for the sake of the future, but they are equally concerned with offering commentary on contentious US cultural issues in the present. Given the books’ adolescent readership, they are especially preoccupied with the ongoing conservative crusade concerning school prayer. As advocates for this issue, LaHaye and Jenkins make use of a potent blend of current socio-political arguments and of past events in evangelical church history: namely, the American Sunday School Movement (ASSM). These free, open-access Sabbath schools became the model for the public education system in the United States. In drawing on this history, the Left Behind series suggests that the ASSM provides an important precedent for the presence not simply of Christianity in the nation's public school system, but of evangelical faith in particular.

Music after the Fall

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Sound Art ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cold War

By the start of the 21st century many of the foundations of postwar culture had disappeared: Europe had been rebuilt and, as the EU, had become one of the world’s largest economies; the United States’ claim to global dominance was threatened; and the postwar social democratic consensus was being replaced by market-led neoliberalism. Most importantly of all, the Cold War was over, and the World Wide Web had been born. Music After The Fall considers contemporary musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing on theories from the other arts, in particular art and architecture, it expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall. Each chapter considers a wide range of composers, performers, works, and institutions are considered critically to build up a broad and rich picture of the new music ecosystem, from North American string quartets to Lebanese improvisers, from South American electroacoustic studios to pianos in the Australian outback. A new approach to the study of contemporary music is developed that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique, and more on the comparison of different responses to common themes, among them permission, fluidity, excess, and loss.

Der Wald im Lichte der neueren bundesgerichtlichen Rechtsprechung | Forest legislation in the recent jurisdiction of the Federal Supreme Court

2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (9) ◽  
pp. 263-274
Author(s):  
Alois Keel ◽  
Willi Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Large Scope ◽  
Forest Law ◽  
Federal Jurisdiction ◽  
Forest Legislation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Forest Status ◽  
Area Planning ◽  
Federal Supreme

With the entry into force of the new Swiss Federal Law on Forests on the 1st of January 1993, the basis of decision-making for the Federal Supreme Court concerning forestry issues has, at least formally, fundamentally changed. This article depicts the development of the Federal Supreme Court's jurisdiction during 2000–2008 concerning the legislation on forests. The analysis of about 100 decisions reveals that the federal jurisdiction has, with regard to contents, barely changed in comparison to that of the federal law on supervision of the forest police of 1902. The most frequent causes of dispute are assessments of forest status, authorizations for deforestation, and forest distance regulations. The Federal Supreme Court merely refined the jurisdiction; it did not, or did not need to disclose fundamentally new lines [benchmarks]. It rather adheres to the restrictive definition of forest and the strict conservation of forests, while the cantons do not dispose of a large scope for the deforestation jurisdiction or the definition of the term “forest”. The Federal Supreme Court grants the cantons more freedom to regulate and implement the forest distance. Obvious changes can be observed concerning the number of forest law cases that have been dealt with by the Federal Supreme Court. Compared to the 1980ies and early 1990ies, they have decreased by more than half. Among others, reasons for this decrease are the cantons' obligation to appoint courts only as last cantonal resort, the improvement of the formal and material coordination of the proceedings, and the introduction of the “static forest term” with respect to building zones in the sense of the federal law on area planning.

Evolution of Germany’s Stance Regarding the Three Seas Initiative

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Martin Dahl
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Global Game ◽  
New Instrument ◽  
Law And Justice ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Polish Foreign

When the political camp centred on the Law and Justice party (PiS) came to power in 2015, it led to a change in priorities in Polish foreign policy. The Three Seas Initiative (TSI), understood as closer cooperation between eastern states of the European Union in the area between the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black seas, has become a new instrument of foreign policy. The initiative demonstrates the growing importance of Central and Eastern Europe in the global game of great powers. The region has become a subject of rivalry, not only between the United States and Russia but also China. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to try to describe the importance of the region to Germany and how Germany’s stance on the TSI has evolved. The article consists of three parts, an introduction to the issues, the genesis of the TSI, and the definition of goals set by the states participating in this initiative, as well as analysis of the German stance towards the initiative since its development in 2015. The theories of geopolitics and neorealism are used as the theoretical basis for the analysis.

A STRATEGY FOR MONITORING THE IMPACTS OF COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS ON THE OHIO RIVER

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-175
Author(s):  
Alan H. Vicory ◽  
Peter A. Tennant
Keyword(s):  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ohio River ◽  
Combined Sewer Overflows ◽  
Treatment Technology ◽  
Design Storm ◽  
Combined Sewer ◽  
Sewer Overflows ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Control

With the attainment of secondary treatment by virtually all municipal discharges in the United States, control of water pollution from combined sewer overflows (CSOs) has assumed a high priority. Accordingly, a national strategy was issued in 1989 which, in 1993, was expanded into a national policy on CSO control. The national policy establishes as an objective the attainment of receiving water quality standards, rather than a design storm/treatment technology based approach. A significant percentage of the CSOs in the U.S. are located along the Ohio River. The states along the Ohio have decided to coordinate their CSO control efforts through the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO). With the Commission assigned the responsibility of developing a monitoring approach which would allow the definition of CSO impacts on the Ohio, research by the Commission found that very little information existed on the monitoring and assessment of large rivers for the determination of CSO impacts. It was therefore necessary to develop a strategy for coordinated efforts by the states, the CSO dischargers, and ORSANCO to identify and apply appropriate monitoring approaches. A workshop was held in June 1993 to receive input from a variety of experts. Taking into account this input, a strategy has been developed which sets forth certain approaches and concepts to be considered in assessing CSO impacts. In addition, the strategy calls for frequent sharing of findings in order that the data collection efforts by the several agencies can be mutually supportive and lead to technically sound answers regarding CSO impacts and control 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.

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