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.

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

Theoretical Ecology

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Theoretical Ecology ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Interacting Populations ◽  
Novel Material ◽  
Ecological Science

Robert May's seminal book has played a central role in the development of ecological science. Originally published in 1976, this influential text has overseen the transition of ecology from an observational and descriptive subject to one with a solid conceptual core. Indeed, it is a testament to its influence that a great deal of the novel material presented in the earlier editions has now been incorporated into standard undergraduate textbooks. It is now a quarter of a century since the publication of the second edition, and a thorough revision is timely. Theoretical Ecology provides a succinct, up-to-date overview of the field set in the context of applications, thereby bridging the traditional division of theory and practice. It describes the recent advances in our understanding of how interacting populations of plants and animals change over time and space, in response to natural or human-created disturbance. In an integrated way, initial chapters give an account of the basic principles governing the structure, function, and temporal and spatial dynamics of populations and communities of plants and animals. Later chapters outline applications of these ideas to practical issues including fisheries, infectious diseases, tomorrow's food supplies, climate change, and conservation biology. Throughout the book, emphasis is placed on questions which as yet remain unanswered. The editors have invited the top scientists in the field to collaborate with the next generation of theoretical ecologists. The result is an accessible, advanced textbook suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students as well as researchers in the fields of ecology, mathematical biology, environmental and resources management. It will also be of interest to the general reader seeking a better understanding of a range of global environmental problems.

The Oxford History of the Novel in English

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
English Language ◽  
Book History ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
History Of The Novel ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Volume Nine of this series traces the development of the ‘world novel’, that is, English-language novels written throughout the world, beyond Britain, Ireland, and the United States. Focusing on the period up to 1950, the volume contains survey chapters and chapters on major writers, as well as chapters on book history, publishing, and the critical contexts of the work discussed. The text covers periods from renaissance literary imaginings of exotic parts of the world like Oceania, through fiction embodying the ideology and conventions of empire, to the emergence of settler nationalist and Indigenous movements and, finally, the assimilations of modernism at the beginnings of the post-imperial world order. The book, then, contains chapters on the development of the non-metropolitan novel throughout the British world from the eighteenth to the mid twentieth centuries. This is the period of empire and resistance to empire, of settler confidence giving way to doubt, and of the rise of indigenous and post-colonial nationalisms that would shape the world after World War II.

scholarly journals An outline of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and the complement cascade of immune system

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Padmalochan Hembram
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Main Body ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
The World ◽  
Therapeutic Molecules ◽  
Rapid Transmission ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Near Future

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 19 is a viral infection caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. It was first notified in Wuhan, China, is now spread into numerous part of the world. Thus, the world needs urgent support and encouragement to develop a vaccine or antiviral treatments to combat the atrocious outbreak. Main body of the abstract The origin of this virus is yet unknown; however, rapid transmission from human-to-human “Anthroponosis” has widely confirmed. The world is witnessing a continuous hike in SARS-CoV-2 infection. In light of the outbreak of coronavirus disease 19, we have aimed to highlight the basic and vital information about the novel coronavirus. We provide an overview of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, timeline and its pathophysiological properties which would be an aid for the development of therapeutic molecules and antiviral drugs. Immune system plays a crucial role in virus infection in order to control but may have dark side when becomes uncontrollable. The host and SARS-CoV-2 interaction describe how the virus exploits host machinery and how overactive host immune response can cause disease severity also addressed in this review. Short conclusion Safe and effective vaccines may be the game-changing tools, but in the near future wearing mask, washing hands at regular intervals, avoiding crowed, maintaining physical distancing and hygienic surrounding, must be good practices to reduce and break the transmission chain. Still, research is ongoing not only on how vaccines protect against disease, but also against infection and transmission.

The Dictatorship of Appearance or Simulation in Present-Day "Democracies" against the Background of the Market Ecocide of the Foundations of Human Life on Earth

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-93
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Subetto
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
Environmental Destruction ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Point Of No Return ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Near Future

It is proved that the current era is characterized by many governments around the world as dictatorship of "appearance" or "simulation" of the most activities transforming politics, even the tragic events like local ecological catastrophes, local wars, "colour revolutions", the elections in a "theatre", "acting", on the background of market ecocide – really accelerating processes of the first phase of a Global Environmental Disaster, which, at the transition "point of no return" in the near future, may turn into a process of irreversible environmental destruction of all mankind. This dictatorship of "appearance" or simulation as a "curtain" market democracy, hiding the capitalism-led, process of dehumanization of man, is an indicator of the inadequacy of states and political "elites" imperative of survival of mankind, as the imperative out of the ecological impasse of history in market-capitalist format. There comes a reckoning for this departure into the " market-capitalist illusion of apparent prosperity. The societies of the world, including Rossiya, have faced a dilemma:either environmental destruction, or the Noosphere Breakthrough, which, in its essence, is a change in the social organization of social life and its reproduction – the transition from the dominance of capitalism and the market to the Noosphere Ecological Spiritual Socialism on the basis of scientific and educational society and the management of socionatural evolution.

On Fat Clothes: Unraveling Plus-Size Design Discourse

Design Issues ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Lauren Downing Peters
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Disability Theory ◽  
The World ◽  
Fashion Theory ◽  
History Of

Abstract This article considers the possibilities and limitations of plus-size clothing— a subcategory of ready-to-wear that is deeply embedded in the history of dieting, exercise, standardized sizing, and the industrialization of clothing manufacturing in the United States. In doing so, it draws on fashion theory and disability theory in exposing how plus-size clothing functions as a normalizing mechanism, thereby inhibiting innovation in this sector. The article concludes with a counterexploration of the possibilities of “fat clothes” and the novel w ays of seeing and existing in the world that they might enable.

Frank Herbert’s Dune and the Dune Series

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Riggs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
High School ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
United States Navy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Original Novel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Writing Class ◽  
The University ◽  
The Universe

Frank Herbert was born on 8 October 1920 in Tacoma, Washington, to Frank Patrick Herbert Sr. and Eileen (McCarthy) Herbert. In 1938 he graduated from high school and moved to Southern California, where he lied about his age to work for the Glendale Star, the first of many newspaper jobs. He married Flora Parkinson in 1940 and they had one daughter, Penny, but they divorced in 1945. He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1941, joining the Seabees, but was given a medical discharge six months later. In 1946 he entered the University of Washington. He met Beverly Ann Stuart in a creative writing class, and they married in June that year. They had two sons, Brian Patrick (1947) and Bruce Calvin (1951). Brian would himself become a writer, continuing his father’s Dune series with sequels and prequels, as well as a 2003 biography, Dreamer of Dune. Bruce would become a photographer and LGBT activist, and died of AIDS in 1993. Herbert published his first story, “Survival of the Cunning,” which was not science fiction, in Esquire in 1945; his first science fiction story, “Looking for Something,” appeared in 1952 in Startling Stories. He published his first science fiction novel in 1956: based on a story titled “Under Pressure,” the 1956 novel was titled The Dragon of the Sea, and was reprinted with the title 21st-Century Sub. Many of the themes from this work would appear in the later Dune novels. During these years, Herbert wrote for various newspapers, but took time off to work on his fiction; his wife Beverly worked as an advertising copywriter. A newspaper assignment to cover the USDA’s effort to reclaim dune lands inspired much background research—over 200 books, according to Brian Herbert’s biography—and resulted in the novel Dune, which was initially published in editor John W. Campbell’s magazine Analog in 1963 and 1964; after twenty rejections, Chilton Books, an auto-repair manual publisher, offered to publish it, which it did in 1965. Dune won the Hugo Award that year, and tied for the Nebula Award in 1966. It became an underground cult classic and ultimately the greatest-selling science fiction novel of all time. Herbert wrote the novel with his wife Beverly’s constant response and comments, and he modeled the Lady Jessica on her. Herbert wrote five sequels, generally regarded as being of lesser quality than Dune itself. However, much of the scholarship analyzes the original novel in the “universe” established within the series of sequels, so Dune appears in relation to the novels from Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune in particular.

scholarly journals The European Union’s existential crisis: current challenges from populism to Donald Trump

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Rita De Sousa Costa ◽  
Tiago Sérgio Cabral
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Existential Crisis ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The World ◽  
Near Future ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Eu

2016 was marked by the rise of populism and isolationism around the world. The European Union is losing a Member State for the first time, after the British voted to leave in their “Brexit” referendum. Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, causing concern amongst European leaders. In the remaining Member States, populist and Eurosceptic political forces are becoming more relevant, further endangering the integrity of the European Union. In this paper, we analyse the motives behind the European Union’s “existential crisis”, which is arguably, one of the most significant challenges the EU will face in its near future. We conclude that the European Union must reform in order to regain their citizens’ trust and reinforce democracy.

scholarly journals International Travel is Not a Significant Risk of Exposure for Patients at a Midwestern United States Travel Clinic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Patel ◽  
Hans House
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Retrospective Chart Review ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Travel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Western Pacific ◽  
Travel Clinic

Abstract The Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was introduced into the United States via travel from Asia and Europe, although the extent of the spread of the disease was limited in the early days of the pandemic. Consequently, international travel may have played a role in the transmission of the disease into Iowa. This study seeks to determine how preferences for international travel changed as novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) spread throughout the world and if any of these returning travelers developed COVID-19 as a result of their trips. This is a retrospective chart review of patients presenting to a travel clinic in Bettendorf, Iowa for pre-travel advice and vaccinations. From October 2019 to March 2020, four hundred twelve (n=412) patients presented to the clinic. Intended travel to the Western Pacific region (China, Japan, Korea, etc.) decreased dramatically during the study period. All 412 patients were followed in the electronic medical record for the period after their planned travel and only three (3) presented for COVID-19 testing. Two (2) tested positive, and both of these infections were linked to workplace exposures and not due to travel. News of the growing pandemic and travel warnings likely altered patients’ travel plans and decreased travel to the most affected regions of the world in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our study, travel was not a significant source of COVID-19 exposure for patients seen at this clinic.

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