scholarly journals Contemporary Megaprojects

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Schindler ◽  
Simin Fadaee ◽  
Dan Brockington
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
The Novel

There is renewed interest in megaprojects worldwide. In contrast to high-modernist megaprojects that were discrete projects undertaken by centralized authorities, contemporary megaprojects are often decentralized and pursued by a range of stakeholders from governments as well as the private sector. They leverage cutting-edge technology to ‘see’ complex systems as legible and singular phenomena. As a result, they are more ambitious, more pervasive and they have the potential to reconfigure longstanding relationships that have animated social and ecological systems. The articles in this issue explore the novel features of contemporary megaprojects, they show how the proponents of contemporary megaprojects aspire to technologically enabled omnipresence, and they document the resistance that megaprojects have provoked.

scholarly journals Inequities in the emergence, manifestations and consequences of COVID19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Méndez Paz
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Vicious Circle ◽  
Social Inequity ◽  
Universal Vaccine ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
The Relationship

The Inequality Virus is the name given to SARS-COV2 by an OXFAM publication, highlighting that during the pandemic, the ten richest men on the planet have earned 540 billion dollars, a figure that would serve to finance a universal vaccine for COVID19. This fact is an exemplary demonstration of the inequities of the pandemic, analyzed below in three different dimensions: 1) The origins of the pandemic, in the context of inequitable socio-ecological systems where the relationship amongst humans and between humans and nature has been broken; 2) Its manifestations, in conditions of social inequity, with its patterns of occurrence and a painful trace of disease and death; and 3) The consequences, in a vicious circle with the complex systems that gave rise to it, causing a profound situation of inequity, in other words, the pandemic as a source of more unjust differences.

PREDADORES: quando a literatura narra as relações de poder em Angola

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
SILVIO DE ALMEIDA CARVALHO FILHO
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Criticism ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Political Stance ◽  
Relations Of Power

Este artigo esquadrinha as relações de poder, em Angola, emergentes em Predadores, romance escrito por Pepetela, um dos mais instigantes intelectuais angolanos da atualidade. Ao delinear como o autor narra o ”outro”, em especial, a apropriação do público pelo privado, assim como o oportunismo polá­tico, detectamos os contornos de seu posicionamento polá­tico. As principais temáticas sobre as relações de poder, recortadas nessa obra, comprovam que a sua literatura estrutura uma crá­tica sócio-polá­tica, extremamente perspicaz, da sociedade e dos Estados angolanos contemporá¢neos. Palavras-chave: Angola. Pepetela. Relações de Poder.  PREDADORES: when literature recounts the relations of power in Angola Abstract: This article discusses the power relations in emergent Angola inPredadores, a novel written by Pepetela, one of the most intriguing Angolan scholars nowadays. By analyzing how the author narrates the ”other”, in particular, the appropriation of the public by the private sector, we can identify the contours of his political stance. The main themes on the power relations focused on the novel evidence that his literature structures extremely clever socio-political criticism of both Angolan contemporary society and State. Keywords: Angola. Pepetela. Power relations.  PREDADORES: cuando la literatura narra las relaciones de poder en AngolaResumen: Este artá­culo explora las relaciones de poder en Angola emergentes en Predadores, novela escrita por Pepetela, uno de los más importantes intelectuales angoleños hoy. Para esbozarcómo el autor dice el "otro", en particular la apropiación de público para el oportunismo privado, asá­ como polá­tica, detectamos su posicionamiento polá­tico. Las principales temáticas sobre lasrelaciones de poder recortadas en este trabajo vienen comprobar que la literatura estructura una crá­tica sociopolá­tica bastante perspicaz de la sociedad y de los Estados angoleños contemporáneos. Palabras clave: Angola. Pepetela. Relaciones de poder.  

scholarly journals Ecological Systems as Complex Systems: Challenges for an Emerging Science

Diversity ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhur Anand ◽  
Andrew Gonzalez ◽  
Frédéric Guichard ◽  
Jurek Kolasa ◽  
Lael Parrott
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems

scholarly journals New forms of structure in ecosystems revealed with the Kuramoto model

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Vandermeer ◽  
Zachary Hajian-Forooshani ◽  
Nicholas Medina ◽  
Ivette Perfecto
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Coupled Oscillators ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Kuramoto Model ◽  
Chaotic Orbits ◽  
The Kuramoto Model ◽  
Convection Rolls ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Insight Into

Ecological systems, as is often noted, are complex. Equally notable is the generalization that complex systems tend to be oscillatory, whether Huygens' simple patterns of pendulum entrainment or the twisted chaotic orbits of Lorenz’ convection rolls. The analytics of oscillators may thus provide insight into the structure of ecological systems. One of the most popular analytical tools for such study is the Kuramoto model of coupled oscillators. We apply this model as a stylized vision of the dynamics of a well-studied system of pests and their enemies, to ask whether its actual natural history is reflected in the dynamics of the qualitatively instantiated Kuramoto model. Emerging from the model is a series of synchrony groups generally corresponding to subnetworks of the natural system, with an overlying chimeric structure, depending on the strength of the inter-oscillator coupling. We conclude that the Kuramoto model presents a novel window through which interesting questions about the structure of ecological systems may emerge.

scholarly journals Static Ecological System Analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huseyin Coskun
Keyword(s):  
System Analysis ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Compartmental Systems

In this article, a new mathematical method for static analysis of compartmental systems is developed in the context of ecology. The method is based on the novel system and subsystem partitioning methodologies through which compartmental systems are decomposed to the utmost level. That is, the distribution of environmental inputs and intercompartmental system flows, as well as the organization of the associated storages generated by these flows within the system is determined individually and separately. Moreover, the transient and the static direct, indirect, acyclic, cycling, and transfer (diact) flows and associated storages transmitted along a given flow path or from one compartment, directly or indirectly, to any other are analytically characterized, systematically classified, and mathematically formulated. A quantitative technique for the categorization of interspecific interactions and the determination of their strength within food webs is also developed based on the diact transactions. The proposed methodology allows for both input- and output-oriented analyses of static ecological networks. The input- and output-oriented analyses are introduced within the proposed mathematical framework and their duality is demonstrated. Major flow- and stock-related concepts and quantities of the current static network analyses are also integrated with the proposed measures and indices within this unifying framework. This comprehensive methodology enables a holistic view and analysis of ecological systems.

Reconstructions: Faulkner and Du Bois on the Civil War

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Austin Graham ◽  
Jay Watson
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Novel Approaches

The Unvanquished was Faulkner’s most sustained fictional account of the Civil War, as well as an occasion for him to model various methods of studying the conflict. The novel approaches the war from several historiographically distinct viewpoints, sometimes presenting it as a demonstration of abstract, universal principles, and other times as a fight over slavery. In making the former case, The Unvanquished resembles some of the most cutting-edge, “revisionist” Civil War histories of the 1920s and 30s. But in making the latter it echoes W.E.B. Du Bois’ then-unfashionable, now-accepted insistence that the war was fundamentally concerned with black subjugation and liberation.

scholarly journals The Paranoia of Colonialism in Coetzee's Waiting for Barbarians

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
Jihad Jaafar Waham ◽  
Wan Mazlini Othoman
Keyword(s):  
State Building ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Points Of Interest ◽  
The Boondocks ◽  
Waiting For The Barbarians

In Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), J. M. Coetzee cross examines the points of interest of grand states by significance the distinctions from the savages that the strange Empire keeps up. The Empire characterizes itself and strengthens its personality by developing a separation from the brutes on numerous grounds. It keeps up state foundations and keeps records, since itself as a cutting edge express, an advanced story of "crude" brutes. Coetzee's tale uncovered the Empire's tricky endeavors at setting up the other and its confounded ideas of state building. In spite of the fact that the basic elucidations of the novel spotlight on mistreat and the body, this article breaks down the novel's inclusion with royal state building and patriotism. Torment and the body are significant to the extent that they uncover the Empire's endeavors to distinguish it and construct a country. The Empire's disappointment in the greater part of these compliments―as suggested by the end with the Empire down its hang on the boondocks settlement and the settlement's kin sitting tight for the landing of the barbarians―makes us question the bogus presumptions on which numerous magnificent ventures are based. The Empire's inability to safeguard its outskirts, its disadvantage to its heartland, and its breakdown to protect cultivated conduct in its treatment of its subjects and savage detainees are appearances of a confused, beginning organization as opposed to a recognizable and acculturated royal country. In hair-raising the temperamental refinements capturing countries use to pardon their continuance, Coetzee's work affirms an elective ethic of commitment with the other established on the possibility of basic humankind and tolerant acknowledgment of contrast.

scholarly journals Real, compared to what? Insertability of constrained realemes in Dave Eggers’ What is the What

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-254
Author(s):  
Muhammad Uzair Khan ◽  
Saleem Akhtar Khan
Keyword(s):  
Cutting Edge ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Collaborative Working ◽  
Dave Eggers ◽  
Lost Boys

The paper examines Eggers’ What is the What (2006) that has problematically been called an autobiographical novel and memoire, narrating Valentino’s chequered past as one of Sudanese Lost Boys. The text yields potential perspectives that demand scrutiny for understanding of the fascinating reciprocity between fictionality and historicity. The article engages theorizations of the complex coalescence offered by Zohar (1980) and McHale (1987) to benchmark the thematic dimensions of the selected text against the cutting-edge postulates. In addition, Valentino’s preface to the “novel”, engaging with the purpose of his collaborative working with Eggers, and Eggers’ essay “It was just boys walking” (2004), negotiating the genesis of the project, have also been used as a methodological touchstone. The analysis vindicates the correspondence between the fictional and the historical versions, albeit the author has fictionalized gaps of Valentino’s historicized life. Thus, Eggers’ text consummates blurring by encompassing both the thematic dimensions, fusing fiction and fact, and the structural schemas, mixing the techniques of different genre traditions, inasmuch as his work exhibits a hermeneutic playfulness found at the heart of the aesthetics of postmodern and 9/11 fiction.

Using the concept of hydrological connectivity to integrate physical and social systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Bracken ◽  
Jacky Croke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Hydrological Connectivity ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Functional Relationships

<p>The concept of connectivity has found great traction in understanding the movement of fluxes across the surface of the earth through disciplinary perspectives including hydrology, geomorphology and ecology (Bracken and Croke, 2007; Bracken et al 2013;2015). Connectivity-based approaches have also generated new understanding of structural-functional relationships that characterise complex systems, for instance in computational neuroscience, social network science and systems biology (Turnbull et al., 2018). Whilst the concept of hydrological connectivity has been used widely, at all scales and with respect to fluxes of both water and sediment, critique and development of the concept is less frequent in the literature. In this paper we revisit the existing body of work around hydrological connectivity to examine whether the concept has been used to it’s full potential and explore further ways in which the concept of hydrological connectivity could be expanded to continue to drive geomorphological research. One potential avenue for research is to learn from complex systems and use the concept of connectivity to embrace human dynamics (through managing the landscape and guiding policy and regulation) on one hand and climate change (which drives system inputs) on the other.  This opportunity is explored here using the water sector as a case study where planning, and managing for, water security under growing population pressures and future climate change are explored through this broader interpretation of connectivity. We see this wider coupling between humans and system inputs playing a significant role in shaping earth surface processes and sediment dynamics and a widening of definition may enable hydrologists and geomorphologists to better integrate socio-ecological systems into our research.</p>

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