Harvesting Urban Honey with Modern Technology

This article looks at the new beekeeping technology of the Flow frame and how it benefits Urban Beekeepers. In spite of negative preconceived notions about new technology, the article compares the time, space, and energy requirements of the new technology as compared to the old technology. What makes a successful honey harvest is also discussed, along with how more people nearby can make the harvest easier and harder to manage.

Inclusive or Exclusive: Body Positive Communication in Imagery and Clothing in Athens, Greece

It is expected that 40% of adults in Greece will be obese by 2030, and more and more individuals in the country are inactive. There are many reasons for obesity and inactivity; however, factors such as societal influences and appearance-focused communication are known to have an effect. Negative body communication—in other words, size-discrimination or shaming—may cause a person to consume unhealthy or large amounts of food and avoid exercise. Likewise, a system of social marking divides one group, the “ideal” group, from another group, the “lesser” group, thereby creating a perception of abnormality towards the “lesser” group and strengthening a social divide. Moreover, labelling theory states that individuals tend to behave based on the label assigned to them. In contrast, body positive communication seeks to challenge beauty standards and encourage a healthy mindset that in turn inspires healthy consumption and activity. This study analyzes communication towards females in Athens, Greece, through imagery, by examining front-of-store signage and mannequins, and clothing, by reviewing the size range available for purchase in stores. Major findings reveal that images do not show diversified sizing and the most common sizes are medium and small. This paper shows that negative communication could potentially exacerbate the overweight and obesity rate and that Athens, Greece has inadequate body positive communication practices.

Identify Reformation Through Vegan Communities

Through content analysis of three relevant research essays, this study examines how vegan communities contribute to the reformation of the cultural identity of vegan-identifying persons. Jessica Greenebaum’s (2012) research on identity and authenticity studies the different ways in which people classify themselves, and how they negotiate and reform their cultural identities. Elizabeth Cherry’s (2006) research on veganism as a cultural movement emphasizes the importance that a strong social network has on maintaining a vegan lifestyle. Finally, Mary Jane Collier’s (2015) article on identity and communication identifies norms, symbols, and meanings unique to the vegan culture and community. I hypothesize that ethical concerns are the main force behind adopting a vegan lifestyle. I want to further understand the role that community plays in forming a vegan identity, and, overall, to affirm that community is essential to maintaining, and thriving in, a vegan lifestyle. Vegan individuals, who are able to connect with other vegans, adhere more strictly to a plant-based diet. In comparison, vegans who do not partake in any social organizations or vegan networks are more likely to adapt the definition of veganism to fit their lifestyle. Community and networks play a considerable role in accountability, and they allow people not only to define themselves as vegan, but also permit others to identify as vegan, too.

Ecuador Extractive Imperative and the ITT Initiative

In Ecuador, following the late 2000’s commodity boom, a populist government invested increased oil revenues into social spending, reducing inequality, and gaining a rare period of political stability. The Yasuní National Park has been the focal point of this dynamic since 2006 when the government endorsed a ground-breaking plan to protect the park called the Yasuni ITT initiative. The initiative’s demise in 2013 raises the question: what explains the government’s initial support of, and then rejection of the ITT initiative? Upon combining the theories of extractive imperative and limited access order, this paper’s thesis is that, given Ecuador’s choice to fund public services through extractive industry rents, reducing extractive industry rents through constraining extractive industries is too painful politically. These theories help to structure a narrative, producing insights into the political dynamic impacting the ITT initiative and its eventual collapse. This thesis pursues its investigation through a case study of Yasuní National Park.

Inuit Co-Management Strategies in the Arctic

Inuit co-management of northern resources and environments is critical to the survival of these rapidly changing ecosystems. This paper explores co-management initiatives currently present in the Arctic, as well as the creation and implementation of these strategies. The relationship between Indigenous traditional knowledge and the success of co-management strategies is analyzed, noting that dismissive beliefs held by Eurocentric power figures affect the existence and enforcement of these strategies. The effects of climate change and faunal conservation are two of the pillars upon which co-management techniques are founded in Arctic communities, making them key players in the pursuit of a sustainable future.

If You Want to Get Away with Murder, Use Your Car

The persistently high rate of pedestrian and cyclist road deaths in Canada is a major public health concern and a serious impediment to encouraging active transport. Despite empirical evidence that cyclist- and pedestrian-targeted policies like helmet laws and jaywalking tickets do not decrease fatalities, popular discourse continues to put the onus on vulnerable road users, often blaming them for their deaths. The negative effect of victim-blaming on vulnerable communities has been well established in the critical and feminist traditions, while recent studies have begun to examine the effects of negative discourse on cycling uptake and safety. To examine how public discourse reflects and affects the perception of blame in vulnerable road user deaths, this paper critically analyses news articles of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in Edmonton in 2016. [results and analysis] Policy implications and avenues for future research are also discussed.

OMEGA: Playing for Change

Despite all the information we have regarding climate change and the potential perils of continuing on our path of consumption, people are slow to make the necessary changes. Our tendency to live habitually and the dampening effect continuous negative messaging has on people’s motivation are affecting society’s environmental practices. But one Edmonton based company is working to improve the way we interact with sustainability by making daily “green actions” fun and competitive.

Nutritional Communications across Climates: A comparative research study between Ecuador and the Netherlands

A study in May 2014 analyzed food labels in Quito, Ecuador, to better understand the culture’s nutritional communication. The study explored what is considered to be a healthy diet in Ecuadorian culture and how this is communicated, and also to what extent nutrients in packaged food are effectively communicated via labelling. Data was gathered using a mixed methods approach; first using quantitative methods with a survey administrated to students at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Following the completion of the survey, participants were then asked to volunteer for a questionnaire containing open-ended questions, administered in one-on-one interviews, in order to collect qualitative data to enhance survey responses. Finally, an analysis of nutritional labels in local grocery store completed the research. This same study was then conducted in May of 2016 at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, Netherlands, to explore the results from another country and act as a comparative study between the two cultures. Research from both cultures led to the identification of similar and different trends, themes, and outliers in the collected data. Both Ecuador and Dutch participants report receiving little to no formal education regarding diet and nutrition. This leads to participants building their model of a healthy diet from various inconsistent sources. Participants also express frustration and confusion with inconsistent labelling. Simple and measurable food labels in the Netherlands proved to have more importance and value to consumers than labels that are believed to hold false claims.

The Technological Abyss: Heideggerian Ontology and Climate Change

Whenever a decision is made in a social, political, or economic context, it is implicitly grounded in an ethical outlook. But where do these outlooks come from? To investigate this query, I examine the basis for ethical decisions regarding technology, focusing specifically on geoengineering responses to climate change. Subsequently, I argue that ethical considerations concerning climate change, and their corresponding practical decisions, cannot be reliably made without sufficient intelligibility regarding the objects and entities these decisions pertain to. To achieve this, I employ a Heideggerian phenomenological framework through which being affords intelligibility. Doing so elucidates fundamental inconsistencies in the way humans interact with technology. We are caught up in what Heidegger calls enframing, the representation of beings as energy reserves. This is the ground on which our ethical claims are based, but representation cannot afford actuality. When things are represented in this way, truth is set aside in favour of will, and intelligibility is lost. The goal, then—if we wish our ethical decisions to be legitimate—must be to gain intelligibility. We must therefore free ourselves from enframing and look toward being. We cannot, as Heidegger says, affect enframing’s removal, but we can prepare ourselves for such a change. Only once this change occurs, can our relationship to technology be intelligible.

Species Conservation in a Globalized World

In today’s globalized world, international cooperation and information sharing becomes increasingly important. This paper examines the criteria provided in the United State’s Endangered Species Act, the European Union’s Habitat Directive, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. The interplay between these lists creates barriers to conserving and protecting global biological diversity, resulting in a need for more international cooperation and collaboration