scholarly journals To Know Them is to Love Them

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 146-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Hunn
Keyword(s):  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Emotional Engagement ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Cultural Appreciation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Past Half

I connect the theoretical emphasis that motivated the cognitive ethnobiology of the 1960s and early 1970s with the contemporary emphasis on promoting ethnobiology as contributing to biodiversity conservation. I use the words of a popular song to highlight the necessary, if problematic, links between knowing nature – the focus of cognitive ethnobiology, loving nature, and acting to conserve nature. I argue that a highly elaborated knowledge of the living things in one's local environment is characteristic of Indigenous and other deeply rooted communities, which are dependent on sustainable harvests of local natural resources. Furthermore, this extensive knowledge goes hand in hand with a deep emotional engagement with those species (“love”), which is in turn powerful motivation to treat those species with respect, absent dominance of profit motives. I suggest in conclusion that ethnobiology may best contribute to biodiversity conservation by documenting the detailed knowledge of and cultural appreciation for biodiversity evident in such rooted communities – an effort that has defined the ethnobiological project for over the past half century. The wider community of activists dedicated to biodiversity conservation may thus better know and thus appreciate – respect, if not “love” – those who live with and depend for their livelihood on this biodiversity.

scholarly journals Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Angrist ◽  
Jörn-Steffen Pischke
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Back Seat ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Classical Regression

The past half-century has seen economic research become increasingly empirical, while the nature of empirical economic research has also changed. In the 1960s and 1970s, an empirical economist's typical mission was to “explain” economic variables like wages or GDP growth. Applied econometrics has since evolved to prioritize the estimation of specific causal effects and empirical policy analysis over general models of outcome determination. Yet econometric instruction remains mostly abstract, focusing on the search for “true models” and technical concerns associated with classical regression assumptions. Questions of research design and causality still take a back seat in the classroom, in spite of having risen to the top of the modern empirical agenda. This essay traces the divergent development of econometric teaching and empirical practice, arguing for a pedagogical paradigm shift.

Kids Today

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Duckworth ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Past Half

Compared to 50 years ago, are children today better or worse at delaying gratification? If you answered “worse,” then you have company. Roughly 3 out of 4 parents believe that self-control has decreased over the past half-century. Likewise, when given a brief description of the famous marshmallow test, the same proportion of parents guess that preschoolers today are less able to delay gratification than their counterparts in the 1960s. Here's how one older gentleman described the decline of self-controlled behavior among kids of his generation. The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

1968: Towards a General Secularism

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Simon During
Keyword(s):  
Capitalist Society ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Capitalism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Radical Movement ◽  
Movement Politics

The numerous interpretations and evaluations of 1968 that have been developed over the past half-century can arguably be divided into two. On one side, there are those accounts that regard 1968 as the threshold across which an older form of modernity passed to become what student revolutionaries of the period began to call late capitalism; and although late capitalism itself quickly became a fissured thing, this view has become orthodox. On the other side, there are those who insist that ’68 was a Badiousian event, an outbreak of liberatory possibilities to which we not only have a responsibility to remain faithful, but which provided a template for later more or less insurrectionary movements; undoubtedly the strongest argument for ’68’s enduring radical meaning and potential has been made by Kristin Ross in her 2002 book, May ’68 and its Afterlives. This article is partly committed to arguing for a middle way between these two views. I accept that the processes leading to and following the events of 1968 triggered the development of a new kind of capitalist society as well as formed the template for the radicalisms we now have. This mediation might seem to involve a contradiction, but in the end it is more accurate not to see these two views as they see themselves, namely as enemies, but rather as dialectically and functionally united. Without the kind of capitalism that the 1960s triggered, no radical movement politics; without radical, post-communist movement politics, no such late capitalism. To see that, we need to think about ’68 in larger contexts and terms than is usual. I will call the context I wish to bring to bear general secularization.

scholarly journals Climate warming has led to the degradation of permafrost stability in the past half century over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youhua Ran ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Guodong Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Climate Warming ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Tibet Plateau ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Past Half

Abstract. Temperature increases cause a unique type of damage to permafrost. This damage is often expressed as the degradation of permafrost thermal stability, which is very important for engineering design, resource development, and environmental protection in cold regions. This study evaluates the degradation of permafrost stability over the QTP from the 1960s to the 2000s using estimated decadal mean annual air temperatures (MAATs) by integrating remote sensing-based estimates of mean annual land surface temperatures (MASTs), leaf area index (LAI) and fractional snow cover values, and decadal mean MAATs taken at 152 weather stations using geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results reflect a continuous rise of approximately 0.04 °C/a in the decadal mean MAAT values over the past half century. Climate warming has led to a reduction in permafrost stability in the past half century. The total degraded area of stability is approximately 153.76 x 104 km2, which corresponds to 87.98 % of the permafrost area in the 1960s. The stability of 75.24 % of the extremely stable permafrost, 89.56 % of the stable permafrost, 90.3 % of the sub-stable permafrost, 92.31 % of the transitional permafrost, and 32.8 % of the unstable permafrost has been reduced to lower levels of stability. Approximately 49.4 % of the unstable permafrost and 95.95 % of the extremely unstable permafrost has degraded to seasonally frozen ground. The sensitivity of the permafrost to climate is dependent on its stability level. The mean elevations of the extremely stable, stable, sub-stable, transitional, unstable, and extremely unstable permafrost areas increased by 88 m, 97 m, 155 m, 185 m, 161 m and 250 m, respectively. The degradation mainly occurred from the 1960s to the 1970s and from the 1990s to the 2000s. This degradation has led to increases in risks to infrastructure, increased flood risks, reductions in ecosystem resilience, and positive climate feedback effects. It therefore affects the well-being of millions of people and sustainable development at the Third Pole.

scholarly journals Climate warming over the past half century has led to thermal degradation of permafrost on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 595-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youhua Ran ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Guodong Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Degradation ◽  
Thermal Condition ◽  
Tibet Plateau ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Warm Permafrost ◽  
Thawing Permafrost ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Past Half

Abstract. Air temperature increases thermally degrade permafrost, which has widespread impacts on engineering design, resource development, and environmental protection in cold regions. This study evaluates the potential thermal degradation of permafrost over the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) from the 1960s to the 2000s using estimated decadal mean annual air temperatures (MAATs) by integrating remote-sensing-based estimates of mean annual land surface temperatures (MASTs), leaf area index (LAI) and fractional snow cover values, and decadal mean MAAT date from 152 weather stations with a geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results reflect a continuous rise of approximately 0.04 ∘C a−1 in the decadal mean MAAT values over the past half century. A thermal-condition classification matrix is used to convert modelled MAATs to permafrost thermal type. Results show that the climate warming has led to a thermal degradation of permafrost in the past half century. The total area of thermally degraded permafrost is approximately 153.76×104 km2, which corresponds to 88 % of the permafrost area in the 1960s. The thermal condition of 75.2 % of the very cold permafrost, 89.6 % of the cold permafrost, 90.3 % of the cool permafrost, 92.3 % of the warm permafrost, and 32.8 % of the very warm permafrost has been degraded to lower levels of thermal condition. Approximately 49.4 % of the very warm permafrost and 96 % of the likely thawing permafrost has degraded to seasonally frozen ground. The mean elevations of the very cold, cold, cool, warm, very warm, and likely thawing permafrost areas increased by 88, 97, 155, 185, 161, and 250 m, respectively. The degradation mainly occurred from the 1960s to the 1970s and from the 1990s to the 2000s. This degradation may lead to increased risks to infrastructure, reductions in ecosystem resilience, increased flood risks, and positive climate feedback effects. It therefore affects the well-being of millions of people and sustainable development at the Third Pole.

The Civics of Urban Planning

2012 ◽  
pp. 668-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Sirianni ◽  
Jennifer Girourd
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Robust Systems ◽  
Past Half

This article examines the major changes in public participation in urban planning in the United States at various points over the past half-century to track, analyses some of the core tools and practices, and highlights the persistent challenges in developing appropriately robust systems for engaging active publics in urban planning. The analysis reveals that while civic engagement in urban planning has generally been extended and enriched in the decades since the 1960s, cities vary considerably in how they incorporate civic engagement into planning processes.

Fifty Years of Migration, Fifty Years of Waiting: Turkey, Germany and the European Union

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Mandel
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Large Population ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Motivating Factor ◽  
Past Half

This article describes and analyzes the complex relationship between Turkey, Germany, and the European Union over the past half-century. It asks why numerous other countries have jumped the queue and managed to gain entry, whereas Turkey has been left knocking at the door, presented with increasing obstacles through which it must pass. The role of Islam is examined as a motivating factor in the exclusion of Turkey. Also, the historical memory of the Ottoman Empire's relationship with Europe is discussed. The mixed reception and perceived problems of integration of the large population of people from Turkey and their descendants who arrived in the 1960s as "guestworkers" is put forth as a key obstacle to Turkey's admission to the European Union. Contradictions in policies and perceptions are highlighted as further impediments to accession.

scholarly journals Seeking Sydney From the Ground Up: Foundations and Horizons in Sydney’s Historiography

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-203
Author(s):  
Grace Karskens
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Demographic Profiles ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Ethnographic History ◽  
Housing Estates ◽  
Past Half

It was an essay by geographers Robyn Dowling and Kathy Mee on Western Sydney public housing estates in the 1950s and 1960s which prompted me to write that we need histories ‘from the ground up’. Dowling and Mee compared longstanding stereotypes of Western Sydney and public housing estates with real demographic profiles and the lived experiences of suburban people, stories that ‘highlight the social promise and ordinariness embedded in the building of estates’. Here was recognizable, human Sydney, full of ‘people doing things’, recovered from the condescension of almost everybody. In this article I want to first explore what ‘from the ground up’ has meant in my own work, and look at its implications for urban history more generally. Then I will trace some key movements and breakthroughs in Sydney’s urban historiography over the past half century, noting particularly what happens when close-grained research is fused with larger conceptual and theoretical approaches and models. My own approach to urban history ‘from the ground up’ is urban ethnographic history. The aim is Annales-inspired histoire total, for I seek to ‘see things whole, to integrate the economic, the social, the political and the cultural into a “total” history’. The Annales emphasis on space, and the perception, co-existence and interaction of different historical timescales, have of course been germane to the emergence of urban history since the 1960s, while cross-disciplinary exchange and thinking (something in which we bowerbird historians excel!) also lies at the heart of urban studies.

De erfenis van Wickham - Naar een nieuwe fase in het secularisatieonderzoek

2014 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Paul
Keyword(s):  
Master Narrative ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Radical Transformation ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Three Phases

How has historical research on secularization evolved over the past half century? Focusing on British contributions, this article distinguishes three phases: (1) approval of ‘secularization’ as a useful analytical concept, (2) criticism of the secularization paradigm on empirical and methodological grounds, and (3) historicization of secularization as a mid-twentieth-century master narrative. Because all three phases focus on the production of secularization narratives, this article advocates a fourth research phase, focused on the consumption or circulation of secularization narratives, especially outside the academic realm. With reference to the Sheffield Industrial Mission in the 1950s and 1960s, the article argues that secularization narratives not only have a referential dimension, but also a performative aspect. They not only explain the changing roles and functions of religion in modern societies, but also contribute to such changes, if only by providing frameworks through which people interpret their world. Accordingly, if historians want to explain why in the 1950s the Sheffield Industrial Mission called for radical transformation of ecclesiastical structures, or why in the 1960s staff members of the Mission disagreed on the course of action appropriate for communicating the gospel in a ‘secular’ environment, it is the use and impact of secularization narratives that has to be taken into account.

EDITORIAL: Migration and competitiveness: Japan and the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Variable Cost ◽  
Fixed Cost ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
Past Half

Japan and the United States, the world’s largest economies for most of the past half century, have very different immigration policies. Japan is the G7 economy most closed to immigrants, while the United States is the large economy most open to immigrants. Both Japan and the United States are debating how immigrants are and can con-tribute to the competitiveness of their economies in the 21st centuries. The papers in this special issue review the employment of and impacts of immigrants in some of the key sectors of the Japanese and US economies, including agriculture, health care, science and engineering, and construction and manufacturing. For example, in Japanese agriculture migrant trainees are a fixed cost to farmers during the three years they are in Japan, while US farmers who hire mostly unauthorized migrants hire and lay off workers as needed, making labour a variable cost.

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