scholarly journals Decolonizing political ecology: ontology, technology and 'critical' enchantment

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karsten A Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Critical Distance ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Decolonial Theory ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Border Thinking ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Current debates about the Anthropocene have sparked renewed interest in the relationship between ecology, technology, and coloniality. How do humans relate to one another, to the living environment, and to their material or technological artifacts; and how are these relations structured by coloniality, defined not only as a material process of appropriation and subjugation, but also as an exclusionary hierarchy of knowing and being that still pervades contemporary life? While these questions have of course received attention in decolonial theory, they have also captured the interest of scholars who self-identify with the field of political ecology. However, it can be argued that political ecology still primarily adheres to research practices and paradigms that have been developed in the West, regardless of its diversity and dynamism as a field of research. It is therefore suggested that a rapprochement between decolonial theory and political ecology can open up new perspectives on current debates that are emerging around the concept of the Anthropocene. In particular, the article takes the recent interest in the ontological implications of the Anthropocene as a point of departure to bring the decolonial notion of 'border thinking' into a conversation with the so-called 'new materialism' in political ecology. While both approaches are not necessarily opposed to values grounded in rationality, they can be seen as attempts to rethink ontological divisions such as human/nature or subject/object based on 'enchanted' ways of knowing and being-in-the-world. Yet, although enchantment has the potential to counter inherently colonial practices of appropriation, commodification and objectification, it is argued that keeping a moderately critical distance to enchanted narratives is still recommended, not because of the alleged naïveté of such narratives, but rather because enchantments may also function as and through technologies of power. Key words: Anthropocene; political ecology; decoloniality; new materialism; border thinking; ontology; enchantment

scholarly journals Combining Political Ecology and ‘Mésologie’ for a New Geography of Rivers?

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flore Lafaye de Micheaux ◽  
Christian Kull
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Geography

How do we rethink the integrated management of river basins? This article is mainly a theoretical contribution that aims to reflect on ways of knowing rivers in the context of the Anthropocene. The authors suggest a new framework based on post-positivist geographies for a deeper understanding of environmental, political, and social conflicts related to rivers. They highlight the potential of combining political ecology and its hydrosocial cycle framework with the mésologie of Augustin Berque. This approach, inspired by non-modern ontologies, helps to account for the full texture of the relationship between society and rivers. It emphasizes human–environment relations and the concept of “milieu”. It particularly captures the role of lived experience in river–human relationships, by accounting for the emotions and interpretations that link people to rivers both collectively and individually. This is particularly appropriate in the Indian context where rivers are ritually revered.

THE IMPACT OF THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT ON RESIDENTS’ SELF-RATED HEALTH: A CASE STUDY IN PENANG, MALAYSIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Massoomeh Hedayati ◽  
Aldrin Abdullah ◽  
Mohammad Javad Maghsoodi Tilaki
Keyword(s):  
Physical Environment ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Housing Quality ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Environment And Health ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

There is continuous debate on the impact of house quality on residents’ health and well-being. Good living environment improves health, and fear of crime is recognised as a mediator in the relationship between physical environment and health. Since minimal studies have investigated the relationship, this study aims to examine the impact of the house quality on fear of crime and health. A total of 230 households from a residential neighbourhood in Malaysia participated in the study. Using structural equation modelling, the findings indicate that housing quality and fear of crime can account for a proportion of the variance in residents’ self-rated health. However, there is no significant relationship between housing quality and fear of crime. Results also show that fear of crime does not mediate the relationship between housing quality and health. This study suggests that the environment-fear relationship should be re-examined theoretically.  

scholarly journals Individual differences in working memory capacity are unrelated to the magnitudes of retrocue benefits

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoxiong Ye ◽  
Qianru Xu ◽  
Xinyang Liu ◽  
Piia Astikainen ◽  
Yongjie Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Significant Positive Correlation ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Capacity Measurement ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Feature Dimension ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Internal Attention

AbstractPrevious studies have associated visual working memory (VWM) capacity with the use of internal attention. Retrocues, which direct internal attention to a particular object or feature dimension, can improve VWM performance (i.e., retrocue benefit, RCB). However, so far, no study has investigated the relationship between VWM capacity and the magnitudes of RCBs obtained from object-based and dimension-based retrocues. The present study explored individual differences in the magnitudes of object- and dimension-based RCBs and their relationships with VWM capacity. Participants completed a VWM capacity measurement, an object-based cue task, and a dimension-based cue task. We confirmed that both object- and dimension-based retrocues could improve VWM performance. We also found a significant positive correlation between the magnitudes of object- and dimension-based RCB indexes, suggesting a partly overlapping mechanism between the use of object- and dimension-based retrocues. However, our results provided no evidence for a correlation between VWM capacity and the magnitudes of the object- or dimension-based RCBs. Although inadequate attention control is usually assumed to be associated with VWM capacity, the results suggest that the internal attention mechanism for using retrocues in VWM retention is independent of VWM capacity.

scholarly journals More than a method: trusting relationships, productive tensions, and two-way learning as mechanisms of authentic co-production

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Knowles ◽  
Dawn Allen ◽  
Ailsa Donnelly ◽  
Jackie Flynn ◽  
Kay Gallacher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Patient Involvement ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Knowledge Mobilisation ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Willingness To Change ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Hybrid Knowledge ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background Knowledge mobilisation requires the effective elicitation and blending of different types of knowledge or ways of knowing, to produce hybrid knowledge outputs that are valuable to both knowledge producers (researchers) and knowledge users (health care stakeholders). Patients and service users are a neglected user group, and there is a need for transparent reporting and critical review of methods used to co-produce knowledge with patients. This study aimed to explore the potential of participatory codesign methods as a mechanism of supporting knowledge sharing, and to evaluate this from the perspective of both researchers and patients. Methods A knowledge mobilisation research project using participatory codesign workshops to explore patient involvement in using health data to improve services. To evaluate involvement in the project, multiple qualitative data sources were collected throughout, including a survey informed by the Generic Learning Outcomes framework, an evaluation focus group, and field notes. Analysis was a collective dialogic reflection on project processes and impacts, including comparing and contrasting the key issues from the researcher and contributor perspectives. Results Authentic involvement was seen as the result of “space to talk” and “space to change”. "Space to talk" refers to creating space for shared dialogue, including space for tension and disagreement, and recognising contributor and researcher expertise as equally valuable to the discussion. ‘Space to change’ refers to space to adapt in response to contributor feedback. These were partly facilitated by the use of codesign methods which emphasise visual and iterative working, but contributors emphasised that relational openness was more crucial, and that this needed to apply to the study overall (specifically, how contributors were reimbursed as a demonstration of how their input was valued) to build trust, not just to processes within the workshops. Conclusions Specific methods used within involvement are only one component of effective involvement practice. The relationship between researcher and contributors, and particularly researcher willingness to change their approach in response to feedback, were considered most important by contributors. Productive tension was emphasised as a key mechanism in leading to genuinely hybrid outputs that combined contributor insight and experience with academic knowledge and understanding.

Tense and Tender Ties: The Politics of Comparison in (Post) Colonial Studies

Itinerario ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 263-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Laura Stoler
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Colonial Encounter ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Research Domain

This essay takes as its subject how intimate domains - sex, sentiment, domestic arrangement and child rearing - figure in the making of racial categories and in the management of imperial rule. For some two decades my work on Indonesia's Dutch colonial history has addressed patterns of governance that were particular to that time and place but resonant with practices in a wider global field. My perspective thus is that of an outsider to, but an acquisitive consumer of comparative historical studies, one long struck with the disparate and congruent imperial projects in Asia, Africa and the Americas. This essay invites reflection on those domains of overlap and difference. My interest is more specifically in what Albert Hurtado refers to as ‘the intimate frontiers’ of empire, a social and cultural space where racial classifications were defined and defied, where relations between coloniser and colonised could powerfully confound or confirm the strictures of governance and the categories of rule. Some two decades ago, Sylvia van Kirk urged a focus on such ‘tender ties’ as a way to explore the ‘human dimension’ of the colonial encounter.’ As she showed so well, what Michel Foucault has called these ‘dense transfer point[s]’ of power that generate such ties were sites of production of colonial inequities and, therefore, of tense ties as well. Among students of colonialisms in the last decade, the intimacies of empire have been a rich and well-articulated research domain. A more sustained focus on the relationship between what Foucault refers to as ‘the regimes of truth’ of imperial systems (the ways of knowing and establishing truth claims about race and difference on which macro polities rely) and those micro sites of governance may reveal how these colonial empires compare and converge.

scholarly journals Objective measurement of physical activity in Macaca fascicularis

1982 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-243
Author(s):  
Wayne T. Corbett ◽  
Harry M. Schey ◽  
A. W. Green
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Macaca Fascicularis ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Activity Measurements ◽  
Active Intermediate ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Relationship

The mean and standard deviation over 24 h for 3 groups of animals - active, intermediate and inactive - in physical activity units were 10948 ± 3360, 2611 ± 1973 and 484 ± 316 respectively. The differences were significant ( P = 0·004), demonstrating the ability of the method to distinguish between groups that can be visibly differentiated. The small within-animal physical activity standard deviation (18·85 PAU) obtained in another group, suggests that it also yields reliable physical activity measurements for non-human primates. The monitoring device used can discriminate between individual nonhuman primate physical activity levels in a free-living environment and does not alter daily behaviour. This makes possible the study of the relationship between physical activity and atherosclerosis in nonhuman primates.

scholarly journals Normal Island: COVID-19, Border Control, and Viral Nationalism in UK Public Health Discourse

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110494
Author(s):  
Des Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Border Control ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Public Health Discourse ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Health Discourse ◽  
The Relationship

In this contribution, I present emergent analysis of a preoccupation with managing COVID-19 through border control, among non-Governmental public health actors and commentators. Through a reading of statements, tweets, and interviews from the ‘Independent Sage’ group – individually and collectively – I show how the language of border control, and of maintaining immunity within the national boundaries of the UK, has been a notable theme in the group’s analysis. To theorize this emphasis, I draw comparison with the phenomenon of ‘green nationalism’, in which the urgency of climate action has been turned to overtly nationalistic ends; I sketch the outlines of what I call ‘viral nationalism,’ a political ecology that understands the pandemic as an event occurring differentially between nation states, and thus sees pandemic management as, inter alia, a work of involuntary detention at securitized borders. I conclude with some general remarks on the relationship between public health, immunity, and national feeling in the UK.

scholarly journals LIFESTYLE, ARCHITECTURE AND QUALITY OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-168
Author(s):  
Viktor P. GENERALOV ◽  
Elena M. GENERALOVA
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Compact City ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Typological Structure ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

The study reveals the aspects that defi ne the concept of “lifestyle”, including the main categories: standard of living, lifestyle, quality of life and lifestyle. Insuffi cient knowledge of the mutual infl uence of people’s “lifestyle” on the typological structure of apartments and residential buildings, on the quality of the urban environment is emphasized. The infl uence of the level of urbanization of the city territory on the characteristics of the “urban lifestyle” is considered. Problematic issues are raised related to the debate on the relationship between building density and comfort and the quality index of the living environment. The main directions of fundamental research in the fi eld of architecture, aimed at the development of new types of buildings, are touched upon. The emphasis is made on the methods of using high-rise buildings for the humanization of the urban environment and the formation of a modern “compact city”.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document