Connecting Modernities

Editors’ introductory chapter delineates common threads among the volume’s cross-disciplinary contributions and connects these to the history of research on modernity as well as the most compelling issues confronting us today. The introduction discusses how the pandemic carries on the possibility (threat?) of a tabula rasa condition, a civilizational detour based on a foundation of global awareness of nature and society. The authors support the need for global problem-solving strategies, new global ethics, and a global resource management paradigm solidly cognizant of the commons and redistribution. The introduction explores the main hiatuses in today’s modernity and provides an update to the necessary assertion of a global modernity in the midst of political, ecological, and health crises.

Aesthetics and Creativity. Identity Configurations

Reflecting on human attitude towards reality, together with deciphering the emotional code that accompanies it, has configured - in time – the aesthetic universe, open to human reflection, creation, and evaluation. Aesthetics appears through the way in which consciousness reacts and capitalises upon things in nature and society, or which belong to human subjectivity, including on artistic work, which have an effect on sensitiveness due to their harmony, balance and grandeur. As a fundamental attribute of the human being, creativity is the engine of cultural evolution, meaning the degree of novelty that man brings in his ideas, actions, and creations. Aesthetical values, together with the other types of values, contribute to what society represents and to what it can become, hence motivating human action and creation. Their role is to create a state of mind that encourages the cohesion, cooperation, and mutual understanding of the society. Integrating a chronological succession of the evolution of the concepts that objectify its structure, its aesthetics and creativity, this article stresses the synergetic nature of the two dimensions of human personality, paving the way to beauty, as a form of enchantment of the human spirit.

Understanding circularity in tourism

The spread of the idea of the circular economy has already appeared among service providers; therefore, a growing interest in tourism can be observed. Due to its seasonal nature and because tourism is primarily operated by for-profit actors, whose aspirations focus on economic benefits, tourism in in recent years has developed in the direction of mass tourism. By overriding the approach of sustainability, all this strengthens the damaging effects of tourism on nature and society. The aim of the study is to understand and interpret the circular economy model in the tourism industry; explore the relevant literature through a review analysis and based on the synthesis of principles found in the literature, show directions of how the circular economy can be interpreted in tourism. The main contribution of the study is that besides the contextual understanding of circular tourism, it aims to provide practical issues and examples about circular solutions. The study also highlights that in addition to physical parameters, some solutions could be achieved only by reorganizing processes and practices. Furthermore, based on industrial symbiosis, tourism can support sustainable development at the individual and the regional level.

Identity, Belonging, and Conflict

The concept of community is a controversial concept in terms of social sciences. However, today, when considered together with the concepts of identity and belonging, it can be said that the community has strong connotations. Where the community begins and ends is explained by the concept of boundary. The inside or outside of the border is a map of meaning. Because giving meaning to complex nature and society is one of the most important needs of human beings, the crisis of meaning created by modern times for humanity has led to the strengthening of grand narratives. The narratives, which propose various ways of life for the salvation of humanity, especially make use of symbols and symbolic forms. Because symbols are carriers of meaning, in this study, the identity factor, which constitutes the essence of the endless conflicts in the world, has been investigated with the symbolic constructs of the ideological view. For this, a connection has been established between identity, belonging and the community, which includes the meaning of collective action.

Seeing environmental injustices: the mechanics, devices and assumptions of environmental sustainability indices and indicators

At the heart of any colonization project, and therefore any move to de-colonize, are ways of seeing nature and society, that then allow particular ways of governing each. This is plainly visible in a number of tools that exist to measure progress towards (or regress from) environmental sustainability. The tools use indices and indicators constructed mostly by environmental scientists and ecologists. As such, they are not neutral scientific instruments: they reflect the worldviews of their creators. These worldviews depend on three dimensions: the values they prioritize, the explanatory theories they use and the futures they envision. Through these means different tools produce conflicting notions of the sustainability of our economies and societies. In this article, we shed light onto the theoretical and epistemological assumptions that lie behind key international sustainability indices and indicators: the Environmental Performance Index,Domestic Material Consumption, Material Intensity, the Material Footprint, the Carbon Footprint, the Ecological Footprint and CO2 emissions (territorial). The variables included in these indices, the way they are measured, aggregated and weighted all imply a particular way of understanding the relationships between economy, society and environment. This divergence is most clearly visible in the fact that some indices are negatively correlated with each other. Where one index might plot growing environmental sustainability, another shows its decline. Our results highlight that those devices and the theories informing them are particularly interesting for way how colonialism is materialized. Some of these measurements hide the material roots of prosperity and the ecological (and economic) distributional conflicts exported to the poorer countries by the global North, and others show how its production and consumption levels are reliant upon a socio-ecological 'subsidy' imposed on Southern countries. These subsidies represent injustices that present a primafacie case for decolonizing indices and indicators of environmental governance.

Management Culture Metaphysics: Chaos, Order, Harmony

Introduction. Modern science, based on the abstract-logical method of cognition, is not able to comprehend the deep meaning of management culture in the organization processes of nature and society. A manager who uses a purely scientific approach will see only a part of the management object and not all its integrity and completeness. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the article is a metaphysical analysis of chaos, order, and harmony as fundamental concepts of general management culture, which will create a reliable tool for penetrating the depths of things and give not secondary interpretations, but to understand the essence of management culture yesterday, today and in the future. The methodological basis of the study is the metaphysical and dialectical principles of cognition, systemic and culturological approaches to the study of organizational phenomena and processes, as well as the fundamental provisions of the theory and history of culture. Results. The main approaches to the representation of chaos, order, and harmony in the mythopoetic picture of the world are considered. The most significant features of understanding chaos, order, and harmony in the philosophy of culture of the East are determined. The specifics of chaos, order, and harmony reflection in the philosophy of Western culture are revealed. A metaphysical synthesis of philosophical and scientific approaches to understanding chaos, order, and harmony in the context of management culture is carried out, and its deep essence is revealed. Conclusions. For the first time, a metaphysical analysis of chaos, order, and harmony in the organizational and cultural aspect was conducted, which allowed to penetrate the environment of transcendent management culture and to comprehend its deep meaning. The significance of the study is manifested in the addition of science to new theoretical provisions on the management culture metaphysics, as well as the possibility of using them in the training process of organizations’ managers.

Traditional Institutions' Management of Sacred Forests in Tanzania: History, Narratives, and Evidence from Njombe Region, 1880s-2019

<p>Forest management entails interdependence between nature and society at different levels and systems. In Africa, one example of the interdependence of nature and society is ‘sacred forests,’ groves of trees with special religious importance to a people’s culture. In Tanzania, sacred forests are comparatively small in area, scattered over the entire country, and primarily managed by local village lineages, or kinship groups. In these communities, the close interaction in a small-scale society acts as a monitoring and sanctioning device. The patches of sacred forests have historically been managed as part of local tradition. Their management demonstrates Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), the linkages between biodiversity and cosmology, and the intersection between the social and the natural sciences. Scholars of traditional forestry in Tanzania have for decades compared sacred woodlands with the state- or private-owned forests. Comparing these different forest management systems cultivated a ‘relic stance’ in much of the scholarship regarding sacred groves. The predominant tone of sacred forest scholarship has been to describe sacred landscapes as static communal sites without exploring their associated constitutive dynamics. In such an interpretation, sacred forests have been regarded as remnants of the primordial past, a frozen view of these fragments of woodlands. Studying sacred groves without considering the institutions that uphold them is problematic, as it assumes traditional institutions have continued to be stagnant, interacting with sacred forests in the same way throughout time. This thesis studies traditional institutions’ management of sacred forests by the Bena people of Njombe, southwest Tanzania, 1880s–2019. The Bena are a largely unstudied group. The study uses a qualitative, mixed-method research approach, including interviews in Swahili and Bena, documentary evidence from the Tanzania National Archives, anthropological reports, participant observation, and online documentaries. In applying a mixed-method approach, the thesis bridges history, anthropology, ethnography, and ecology to study forest management as an ongoing process of interdependence between nature and society. Rather than exclusively looking at the sacred forests as geographic locations, this study underscores their socio-ecological aspect and asserts traditional institutions’ dynamics as a key in explaining their history in Njombe. Thus, the thesis not only foregrounds the existence of such patches of forests in Njombe but also unpacks the institutional, cultural politics to reveal the contestations and appropriations around the symbolic, cultural, economic, and ecological value of sacred sites among the Bena community. By using a knowledge-practice-belief complex systems lens, this thesis expands beyond simplistic narratives of inertness, to focus on historical, cultural, economic, and political dynamics that are internal and external to communities that have often helped sustain sacred groves’ traditions or contributed to their degradation. The thesis argues that the Bena sacred forests are embedded in a cultural matrix which is very different from the socio-cultural, economic, political, and ecological landscapes from which they evolved. While managing sacred forests was traditionally an integral part of cultural systems designed to sustain livelihoods and spiritual well-being of the community, the relationship between the land and culture has shifted dramatically within different historical periods, altering the steadiness of the sites. In pre-colonial Njombe, chiefs and elders controlled the use of natural resources, but the relationships of the inhabitants to the forests changed with shifting social and environmental conditions. During German and British colonial rule, differences in perception of the landscape defined the contest over sacred forests between the indigenous people and the foreigners. The materially driven world has increasingly necessitated redefinition of sacred landscapes in post-colonial Njombe. The meanings attributed to sacred forests, derived from traditional Bena cosmology and which drive current conservation policies, have changed, and adapted to new circumstances. The shift represents the flexibility and evolution of local institutions and ecological knowledge, which illustrates the power of fluid, dynamic local communities. The change also emphasises the divergent approach of current conservation programs, which view sacred forests as static and contained.</p>

Traditional Institutions' Management of Sacred Forests in Tanzania: History, Narratives, and Evidence from Njombe Region, 1880s-2019

<p>Forest management entails interdependence between nature and society at different levels and systems. In Africa, one example of the interdependence of nature and society is ‘sacred forests,’ groves of trees with special religious importance to a people’s culture. In Tanzania, sacred forests are comparatively small in area, scattered over the entire country, and primarily managed by local village lineages, or kinship groups. In these communities, the close interaction in a small-scale society acts as a monitoring and sanctioning device. The patches of sacred forests have historically been managed as part of local tradition. Their management demonstrates Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), the linkages between biodiversity and cosmology, and the intersection between the social and the natural sciences. Scholars of traditional forestry in Tanzania have for decades compared sacred woodlands with the state- or private-owned forests. Comparing these different forest management systems cultivated a ‘relic stance’ in much of the scholarship regarding sacred groves. The predominant tone of sacred forest scholarship has been to describe sacred landscapes as static communal sites without exploring their associated constitutive dynamics. In such an interpretation, sacred forests have been regarded as remnants of the primordial past, a frozen view of these fragments of woodlands. Studying sacred groves without considering the institutions that uphold them is problematic, as it assumes traditional institutions have continued to be stagnant, interacting with sacred forests in the same way throughout time. This thesis studies traditional institutions’ management of sacred forests by the Bena people of Njombe, southwest Tanzania, 1880s–2019. The Bena are a largely unstudied group. The study uses a qualitative, mixed-method research approach, including interviews in Swahili and Bena, documentary evidence from the Tanzania National Archives, anthropological reports, participant observation, and online documentaries. In applying a mixed-method approach, the thesis bridges history, anthropology, ethnography, and ecology to study forest management as an ongoing process of interdependence between nature and society. Rather than exclusively looking at the sacred forests as geographic locations, this study underscores their socio-ecological aspect and asserts traditional institutions’ dynamics as a key in explaining their history in Njombe. Thus, the thesis not only foregrounds the existence of such patches of forests in Njombe but also unpacks the institutional, cultural politics to reveal the contestations and appropriations around the symbolic, cultural, economic, and ecological value of sacred sites among the Bena community. By using a knowledge-practice-belief complex systems lens, this thesis expands beyond simplistic narratives of inertness, to focus on historical, cultural, economic, and political dynamics that are internal and external to communities that have often helped sustain sacred groves’ traditions or contributed to their degradation. The thesis argues that the Bena sacred forests are embedded in a cultural matrix which is very different from the socio-cultural, economic, political, and ecological landscapes from which they evolved. While managing sacred forests was traditionally an integral part of cultural systems designed to sustain livelihoods and spiritual well-being of the community, the relationship between the land and culture has shifted dramatically within different historical periods, altering the steadiness of the sites. In pre-colonial Njombe, chiefs and elders controlled the use of natural resources, but the relationships of the inhabitants to the forests changed with shifting social and environmental conditions. During German and British colonial rule, differences in perception of the landscape defined the contest over sacred forests between the indigenous people and the foreigners. The materially driven world has increasingly necessitated redefinition of sacred landscapes in post-colonial Njombe. The meanings attributed to sacred forests, derived from traditional Bena cosmology and which drive current conservation policies, have changed, and adapted to new circumstances. The shift represents the flexibility and evolution of local institutions and ecological knowledge, which illustrates the power of fluid, dynamic local communities. The change also emphasises the divergent approach of current conservation programs, which view sacred forests as static and contained.</p>

Coordination Conflicts between Urban Resilience and Urban Land Evolution in Chinese Hilly City of Mianyang

Urban resilience, the combinational characteristic of nature and society, that reflects the dynamic accumulation process that is multi-level and multi-dimensional. Particularly, the rational spatial distribution structure of land mixture and compactness is an effective way to improve urban resilience because the evolution of morphology and density of the urban land blocks in the process of land spatial conversion reflect the performance characteristics of complexity, diversity, stability, compactness, and connectivity. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship between urban resilience and land use and land cover (LULC) change, to find the keys to resilient urban development for urban land and space planning. In this study, taking the Chinese hilly city of Mianyang as an example, the results show: (1) the complexity of homogeneous patch shape and heterogeneous patch combination leads to the decrease of urban morphology resilience. (2) the development trend of LULC spatial layout and structure ratio were more rational with the increased of land mixing degree. (3) the speed and intensity of urban expansion were basically coordinated with the development of urban resilience. The research provides the new ideas, approaches, and toolkits for solving the intractable problems of urban spatial planning based on coordinating conflicts between urban resilience and urban land evolution.