scholarly journals Never Ask for a Lighter Rain but a Stronger Umbrella

2022 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saket Pande ◽  
Melissa Haeffner ◽  
Günter Blöschl ◽  
Mohammad Faiz Alam ◽  
Cyndi Castro ◽  
...  

In a recent editorial in the journal Nature Sustainability, the editors raised the concern that journal submissions on water studies appear too similar. The gist of the editorial: “too many publications and not enough ideas.” In this response, we contest this notion, and point to the numerous new ideas that result from taking a broader view of the water science field. Drawing inspiration from a recently hosted conference geared at transcending traditional disciplinary silos and forging new paradigms for water research, we are, in fact, enthusiastic and optimistic about the ways scientists are investigating political, economic, historical, and cultural intersections toward more just and sustainable human-water relations and ways of knowing.

Author(s):  
Janet Judy McIntyre-Mills

This article is a thinking exercise to re-imagine some of the principles of a transformational vocational education and training (VET) approach underpinned by participatory democracy and governance, and is drawn from a longer work on an ABC of the principles that could be considered when discussing ways to transform VET for South African learners and teachers. The purpose of this article is to scope out the social, cultural, political, economic and environmental context of VET and to suggest some of the possible ingredients to inspire co-created design. Thus the article is just a set of ideas for possible consideration and as such it makes policy suggestions based on many ways of knowing rooted in a respect for self, others (including sentient beings) and the environment on which we depend. The notion of African Renaissance characterises the mission of a VET approach in South Africa that is accountable to this generation of living systems and the next.


Author(s):  
Andrea Harris

This chapter takes a biographical approach to Lincoln Kirstein’s creation of a modernist theory of ballet to situate its development in the 1930s cultural wing of the Popular Front and explore its evolution through and after World War II. Fueled by the cultural front’s belief in the role of the arts in social revolution, Kirstein seized the opportunity to decouple ballet from existing biases about its elitism and triviality, and formulate new ideas about its social relevance in the Depression period. After exploring the development of Kirstein’s social modernism in the cultural front, chapter 2 then turns to the challenges posed to the 1930s belief that art could be productively combined with politics through two major turning points in Kirstein’s life. These are his experiences in World War II, and the erosion of his own artistic role in the ballet company after the formation of the New York City Ballet and the ascendance of George Balanchine’s dance-for-dance-sake aesthetic in the late 1940s. The chapter illustrates Kirstein’s attempts to negotiate the social modernist aesthetic he crafted under the wing of the cultural front within the volatile political, economic, and artistic circumstances of World War II, anticommunism, and the Cold War.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Hans Nibshan Seesaghur

Since the 1990s, scholars around the world have focused on the complexities of governance reforms. The vicissitudes of the 21st century witnessed global waves for public administration reforms. China, a fast developing socialist country, has been building a strong, robust and modern public governance system. The Socialist Governance of China with Chinese characteristics brought considerable changes in the political, economic and social spheres, transforming the lives of people for betterment. By bringing about economic development through state intervention, introducing rule of law upholding the significance of its people, fostering new ideas, and ushering the ideology of nationalism through “China Dream”, President Xi Jinping and his socialist governance policies have created an excellent example in the world, particularly the capitalist society, demonstrating how society can be developed through socialist ways. Yet, the dynamics of Chinese governance has always been part science and part mystery to other governments that have earned legitimacy through elections, while China’s leaders earned its legitimacy through selection of the most able and their performance in delivering sustained improvements in the quality of life of the Chinese citizens and China's international standing. This paper deals with assessing the relevance of China’s Socialist governance evolution into a science of managing public affairs and the pursuit to optimizing its impact on the state’s economic, political and social spheres.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Walter DeKeseredy

Since Canada’s colonial beginnings, it has become increasingly riddled with classism, racism, sexism, and other damaging outcomes of structured social inequality. In 2006, however, many types of social injustice were turbo-charged under the federal leadership of the Harper government. For example, a recent southern Ontario study shows that less than half of working people between the ages of 25 and 65 have full-time jobs with benefits. The main objective of this paper is to critique the dominant Canadian political economic order and the pain and suffering it has caused for millions of people. Informed by left realism and other progressive ways of knowing, I also suggest some ways of turning the tide.


Author(s):  
David Potter

Disruption is about radical change—why it happens and how. Drawing on case studies ranging from the fourth century AD through the twentieth century, we look at how long-established systems of government and thought are challenged, how new institutions are created, and new ideas become powerful. While paying attention to the underlying political, intellectual, economic, and environmental sources of social disruption, we will see that no matter what similarities there might be between forces that shake different societies, these underlying factors do not dictate specific outcomes. The human actors are ultimately the most important; their decisions drive the conclusions that we see over time. Through our case studies, we can explore successful and unsuccessful decision making, and the emergence of the ideas that conditioned human actions. We’ll explore the development of Islam and of Christian doctrine, of constitutional thought, of socialism, and social Darwinism. We’ll look at how these ideas, all of them emerging on the fringes of society, became central. We’ll also have our eyes set on whether the sorts of disruptive forces we’ve seen in the past are present at this time. We’ll look at the issues confronting the liberal democracies that have been the dominant political/economic forces on our planet in the last half century and see how they have come under stress in the last few decades. And we will look at the possibility that we’re facing a new period of disruption and at what we can learn from the past about how change can be constructive rather than destructive.


2013 ◽  
Vol 357-360 ◽  
pp. 219-223
Author(s):  
Xin Ke Zhang

On the one hand, the opening up of the trading ports in the late 19th century has blocked the way of independent development of national capitalism, but on the other hand, it also exploited a vast market for the development of national capitalism, and promoted its own development. Zhejiang silk traders took this opportunity to go abroad for accepting foreign cultures and new ideas which were also reflected on the architectures. Their residences have broken the styles of the Chinese traditional architectures which are made of wood, stone, pantile, etc. and blended the western architectural culture elements in the roof form and facade material of the buildings. With Chinese style outside and western style inside, with elegance outside and dominance inside, the residences mainly make a perfect combination of Chinese pattern and western pattern. Based on the political, economic and social climate of the time, this article seeks the design features and aesthetic taste of Chinese and Western architectures.


Author(s):  
Rob White

In charting out the ‘four ways’ of eco-global criminology, this paper discusses the importance of recognising and acting in regards to the differences evident in (1) ways of being (ontology), (2) ways of knowing (epistemology), (3) ways of doing (methodology) and (4) ways of valuing (axiology). The paper assumes and asserts that global study of environmental crime is essential to the green criminology project, and particularly an eco-global criminology approach. Specific instances of criminal and harmful activity therefore need to be analysed in the context of broad international social, political, economic and ecological processes. The article outlines the key ideas of eco-global criminology, a perspective that argues that global study must always be inclusive of voices from the periphery and margins of the world’s metropolitan centres, and critical of the social relations that sustain the epistemological as well as material realities and legacies of colonialism and imperialism. Yet, in doing so, there arise many paradoxes and conundrums that likewise warrant close attention.


Author(s):  
John L. Campbell ◽  
Ove K. Pedersen

This chapter examines the political-economic problems that France faced in the aftermath of the Golden Age. These political-economic problems persisted and precipitated what some people described as a crisis of ideas within the state—the realization that the statist knowledge regime was too insulated and therefore suffered a lack of fresh thinking. In turn, policymakers began to encourage the development of new semi-public policy research organizations outside the state as well as new ones inside it in an effort to cultivate new ideas. This externalization strategy was very much a part of France's move away from dirigisme—central state-led economic development—and involved the gradual if partial separation of the knowledge regime from the policymaking regime, which earlier had been virtually indistinguishable from each other.


Author(s):  
Kathomi Gatwiri ◽  
Darlene Rotumah ◽  
Elizabeth Rix

Despite decades of evidence showing that institutional racism serve as significant barriers to accessible healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, attempts to address this systemic problem still fall short. The social determinants of health are particularly poignant given the socio-political-economic history of invasion, colonisation, and subsequent entrenchment of racialised practices in the Australian healthcare landscape. Embedded within Euro-centric, bio-medical discourses, Western dominated healthcare processes can erase significant cultural and historical contexts and unwittingly reproduce unsafe practices. Put simply, if Black lives matter in healthcare, why do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples die younger and experience ‘epidemic’ levels of chronic diseases as compared to white Australians? To answer this, we utilise critical race perspectives to theorise this gap and to de-center whiteness as the normalised position of ‘doing’ healthcare. We draw on our diverse knowledges through a decolonised approach to promote a theoretical discussion that we contend can inform alternative ways of knowing, being, and doing in healthcare practice in Australia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
Shiyun Cheng

Neologisms refer to the words created to express new things, new concepts and new ideas in written and oral communication. Since the 1980s, the world has entered into an information age. The world has witnessed great changes in political, economic, cultural field. At the same time, China has been carrying out a series of political and economic reforms, which have brought about amazing changes in all social aspects. As a result, a great deal of neologisms have appeared both in English and Chinese. There are three sources of neologisms both in English and Chinese: creating new words with native word elements, adding new meanings to existing words and borrowing new words from other languages. This paper focus on the first one of these three sources: word-formation, and analyzes the similarities and differences of three major ways of word-formation of neologisms in both English and Chinese: compounds, affixations, shortenings.


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