Explicating Ecoculture

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Melissa M. Parks

Ecoculture is an emerging focal concept reflecting the inextricability of nature and culture. It is applicable to and employed in many disciplines, yet it is rarely defined, cited, or interrogated, causing potential inconsistencies in scholarly operationalization. In the present analysis, I use Steven H. Chaffee’s method of explication to develop an analytical review of ecoculture. I explore the primitive terms—ecology and culture—before assessing the scholarly use of the derived, compound term. I trace ecoculture across multiple disciplines, synthesizing operationalizations into one transdisciplinary theoretical framework. I find that ecoculture connotes interconnectedness and place relations, and has been critically operationalized in ways that problematize dominant human-centered ideologies, making it a productive scholarly frame that emphasizes the relationships between humans, their cultures, and their ecologies.

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-333
Author(s):  
Massimo Leone ◽  

The essay proposes a concise map of some of the current research trends in the semiotics of religion. Within the theoretical framework of Peirce’s philosophy of semiosis as interpreted and developed by Umberto Eco, the essay situates the semiotic study of religion at the crossroad of nature and culture and singles out as its main task studying both the abstract level of religious ideologies of signification and the empirical level of religious systems of expression and communication.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6438
Author(s):  
Domenico Branca ◽  
Andreas Haller

Mountain cities specializing in tourism increasingly aim at valorizing cultural and natural heritage to compete for global attention. In this context, the postmodern urbanization of mountains plays a decisive role: driven by touristification processes, it alters the sociospatial and economic configuration of mountain cities and their hinterlands, which are becoming vertically arranged “operational landscapes”, and profoundly changes city–mountain interactions. To foster sustainable development in urbanizing mountain destinations, it is crucial to understand these settlements’ embeddedness in both (1) nature and culture and (2) space and time. The Andean city of Huaraz is a case in point: an intermediate center in highland Peru, it is characterized by a strategic location in the Callejón de Huaylas (Santa Valley), influenced by Hispanic and Quechua culture and dominated by the glaciers of the Cordillera Blanca. Combining (1) a theoretical framework that considers planetary urbanization, touristification and vertical complementarity and (2) a case study technique inspired by urban environmental profiles, we trace the development of the city–mountain relation in Huaraz, focusing on the way in which the material and non-material dimensions of the surrounding mountains influence urban development. We conclude with a call for overcoming a set of three persisting dichotomies that continue to impair sustainable development.


2015 ◽  
pp. 76-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rikke Schubart

‘This world’s divided into two kinds of people: The hunter and the hunted,’ big-game hunter Rainsford says in The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and self-assuredly continues, ‘Luckily, I’m a hunter. Nothing can ever change that.’ Well, he will discover that in the manhunt movie even the hunter can become prey. The manhunt movie is a subgenre of the Hollywood thriller which joins two elements: big-game sport hunting and hunting humans. Sport hunting stirs up themes of nature and culture, morals and ethics, masculinity, and, finally, civilisation. Here, we will ask what happens when the subgenre is used in the Nordic thriller. The chapter has three aims. First, it establishes the central generic traits of the manhunt movie. Second, it sets up a theoretical framework of sociobiological and ecological theories with hunting as a reference point. And, third, it examines the Nordic version of the manhunt movie focusing on the themes of hunting, nature, social standing and civilisation. I look at the Danish drama The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg, 2012), the Norwegian thriller-heist-comedy Headhunters (Morten Tyldum, 2011) and the Swedish thrillers The Hunters (Jägarna, 1996) and False Trail (Jägarna 2, 2011) by Kjell Sundvall.


2009 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Lenoci

Il saggio esamina il rapporto tra i concetti di vita e di potere, tenendo presenti posizioni fondamentali nella storia della filosofia, con particolare attenzione ad alcuni scritti di Kelsen e Schmitt. Lo scopo è quello di mettere in luce come la forza della vita e il potere sulla vita esigano di essere integrati e completati in strutture concettuali e teoriche più ampie e più organiche, per evitare unilateralità e aporie. Risulta che una posizione meramente vitalista rischia di negare se stessa e invoca una norma, che, a sua volta, sia in grado di richiamare un ordine costitutivo, non frutto esclusivo di arbitrio, ma dotato di intrinseca intelligibilità, in modo da attuare un raccordo e una connessione tra la dimensione naturale e l’orizzonte personale, in cui la vita si eleva alla consapevolezza e alla libertà responsabile. Il richiamo all’ethos vuole, allora, comporre i livelli della vita, del potere su di essa e delle norme per regolarlo in una prospettiva complessiva, nella quale il momento soggettivo e quello oggettivo si implichino reciprocamente, in modo da evitare sia forme di imposizione estranea, percepite come eteronome, sia l’esaltazione dell’opzione arbitraria, assunta come unica regola. L’ultimo passo porta ad allargare il discorso dall’ambito umano a quello dell’intera realtà, per sottolineare come natura e persona possano essere connesse, se a fondamento ultimo sta un Logos creatore e ordinatore, un’Intelligenza creatrice, capace di rendere possibile una verità delle cose a un livello primariamente ontologico. Il percorso concettuale sviluppato cerca di delineare, in tal modo, un processo, insieme teorico e reale, in cui le possibilità della tecnica in relazione alla vita e alla vita umana non siano affidate alla mera casualità di scelte arbitrarie e di opzioni prometeiche, ma vengano collocate in un più ampio orizzonte ontologico, dotato di intrinseca intelligibilità e finalità, e quindi capace di raccordare, a un livello più alto e più profondo, natura e cultura, ordine oggettivo e progettualità personale, libertà e responsabilità. ---------- This paper analyses the relation between life and power, inquiring into some of the most important theories in history of philosophy, and in particular some works by Kelsen and Schmitt. Our purpose is to cast light on how the power of life and the power on life need to be encompassed and integrated in a more comprehensive conceptual and theoretical framework, in order to avoid paradoxes and unilateral positions. In fact, a simply vitalist position risks falling into a internal contradiction, denying itself. Vitalism requires rules deriving from a constitutive order that cannot be the exclusive result of will; on the contrary, it must be characterized by intrinsic intelligibility. On this perspective, natural and personal dimensions can be related to each other, and life can rise to self-consciousness and responsible freedom. The notion of ethos could reconcile the different levels of life, power on life, and the norms aimed at regulating it into a complex perspective, in which the subjective and objective dimensions depend on each other. This account can thereby avoid the risk of embracing extreme positions, characterized by external forms of imposition, perceived as heteronomous, or by the absolute exaltation of will, considered as the only rule. The last conceptual step leads to extend this viewpoint from the human sphere to the whole reality. On this view, nature and person can be related to each other on the grounds of Logos, or Intelligence, conceived as their ultimate foundation and regarded as the principle that creates and ordinates reality, showing its underlying truth at a primarily ontological level. The purpose of this conceptual system is to trace a theoretical process grounded on reality, in which the technological possibilities of intervening on life and human life are not left to arbitrary choices or promethean decisions. On the contrary, such possibilities should be considered within a broader ontological perspective defined by an intrinsic intelligibility and goal. This perspective can join together at a higher and deeper level nature and culture, objective order and personal aims, freedom and responsibility.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 20200881
Author(s):  
Alistair W. R. Seddon

Ecological resilience has become a focal concept in ecosystem management. Palaeoecological records (i.e. the sub-fossil remains preserved in sediments) are useful archives to address ecological resilience since they can be used to reconstruct long-term temporal variations in ecosystem properties. The special feature presented here includes nine new papers from members and associates of the PAGES EcoRe3 community. The papers build on previous work in palaeoecology to investigate, identify and compare components of ecosystem resilience on centennial to millennial timescales. There are four key messages that can be summarized from the findings of papers within the special feature: (i) multi-proxy studies reveal insights into the presence and mechanisms of alternative states; (ii) transitions between alternative states may not necessarily be abrupt; (iii) components of ecological resilience can be identified in long-term ecological data and (iv) the palaeoecological record can also provide insights into factors influencing the resilience of ecosystem functioning. Overall, these papers demonstrate the importance of using long-term ecological records for addressing questions related to the theoretical framework provided by ecological resilience.


2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 460-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janel Smith

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the theoretical foundations of the solidarity network concept and its perceived utility as an enabling force for social organizations to influence change. The theoretical framework presented is intended to stimulate dialogue, interest and investigation on the subject of solidarity networks.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a discourse analysis‐type approach to developing a theoretical framework for conceptualizing solidarity networks through an analytical review of existing literature on solidarity and solidarity networks. It is through consideration of this literature that the “threads” of a theoretical model for solidarity networks are “woven” together.FindingsBased on the findings of the analysis the paper asserts that the following characteristics are among the defining elements of solidarity networks and help to form the basis of a theoretical framework that strives to create a more cohesive understanding and an applied exploration for future analytical investigations. These characteristics are: support for “broad” values, anti‐oppression and vision‐based solidarity for the future; the flexibility and adaptability of the network's organizational structure and issue‐area(s) of focus; that network members are motivated by a sense of mutuality, or mutual self‐interest; that network members are motivated by “high‐order” values associated with the “public good”; and that there is a demonstrated ethic of social responsibility and social justice.Originality/valueThe paper represents a theoretically‐based approach to conceptualizing solidarity networks. It adds new dimensions to one's thinking about social networks as a form of social relationship and social network analysis (SNA) as a “tool” for describing social relationships.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myrthe Faber

Abstract Gilead et al. state that abstraction supports mental travel, and that mental travel critically relies on abstraction. I propose an important addition to this theoretical framework, namely that mental travel might also support abstraction. Specifically, I argue that spontaneous mental travel (mind wandering), much like data augmentation in machine learning, provides variability in mental content and context necessary for abstraction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 224 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten M. Klingner ◽  
Stefan Brodoehl ◽  
Gerd F. Volk ◽  
Orlando Guntinas-Lichius ◽  
Otto W. Witte

Abstract. This paper reviews adaptive and maladaptive mechanisms of cortical plasticity in patients suffering from peripheral facial palsy. As the peripheral facial nerve is a pure motor nerve, a facial nerve lesion is causing an exclusive deefferentation without deafferentation. We focus on the question of how the investigation of pure deefferentation adds to our current understanding of brain plasticity which derives from studies on learning and studies on brain lesions. The importance of efference and afference as drivers for cortical plasticity is discussed in addition to the crossmodal influence of different competitive sensory inputs. We make the attempt to integrate the experimental findings of the effects of pure deefferentation within the theoretical framework of cortical responses and predictive coding. We show that the available experimental data can be explained within this theoretical framework which also clarifies the necessity for maladaptive plasticity. Finally, we propose rehabilitation approaches for directing cortical reorganization in the appropriate direction and highlight some challenging questions that are yet unexplored in the field.


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