Search results

This is a personal reflection on and celebration of Lyman Tower Sargent by the president of the Society for Utopian Studies.

ABSTRACT
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel of 1915, Herland, three men seek to find and conquer a fabled "womanland" somewhere in the mysterious interior of an unnamed but not "civilized" area of the world. Herland is "discovered," and the three men—and readers of the novel—learn about its utopian social structures, most of which are intimately tied to the parthenogenetic reproduction that sustains and shapes this women-only country. This essay addresses Herland's tropes of consumption, particularly cannibalism, which place it squarely in the tradition of narratives of discovery and exploration in the Americas. Figures of cannibalism and incorporation underlie Gilman's vision of transformation from a male-dominated psychology and society to one that is dominated by what she presents as either female or simply "People." Gilman uses tropes from the literature of discovery and exploration to power her narrative of discovery and co-optation in which the usual story of male discovery, penetration, and domination becomes one in which the "discovered" become the colonizing force.

For all the hype about electronic payment systems, cash remains by far the world's most popular mechanism. However, over the past year we have seen an intensification of the discussion about the role of cash in society. Cash has great advantages: it is familiar, simple to use and ubiquitously accepted. However, cash also has downsides. Because cash transactions leave no record, cash plays a critical role in money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing. This debate generates strong feelings, to the extent that it is sometimes depicted as a "war on cash". Some decry moves to curtail cash usage as an unwarranted encroachment on individual liberty and a manifestation of an over-reaching state. Others see physical cash as a costly remnant of a pre-digital age that we should get rid of as soon as is feasible. Yet it is also possible to hold a position between these extremes: acknowledging the continued value of cash in modern society, whilst seeking ways to curb its misuse. In 2016 we witnessed a number of policy initiatives aimed at curbing the illicit use of cash. For example, the ECB decided to stop issuing the €500 note due to concerns about its role in illicit finance. India implemented a radical "demonetisation" strategy, abolishing the 500 and 1000 rupee notes in an effort to tackle the scourge of "black money". Various governments promoted innovative digital payments systems to replace cash, accelerate financial inclusion and reduce benefit fraud.

Process-based models open the way to useful predictions of the future growth rate of forests and provide a means of assessing the probable effects of variations in climate and management on forest productivity. As such they have the potential to overcome the limitations of conventional forest growth and yield models, which are based on mensuration data and assume that climate and atmospheric CO2 concentrations will be the same in the future as they are now. This book discusses the basic physiological processes that determine the growth of plants, the way they are affected by environmental factors and how we can improve processes that are well-understood such as growth from leaf to stand level and productivity. A theme that runs through the book is integration to show a clear relationship between photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrient requirements, transpiration, water relations and other factors affecting plant growth that are often looked at separately. This integrated approach will provide the most comprehensive source for process-based modelling, which is valuable to ecologists, plant physiologists, forest planners and environmental scientists. * Includes explanations of inherently mathematical models are aided by the use of graphs and diagrams illustrating causal interactions, and by examples implemented as Excel spread sheets * Uses process-based model as a framework for explaining the mechanisms underlying plant growth * Integrated approach provides a clear and relatively simple treatment * Includes access to electronic and printed spreadsheet examples of the variations of the ecophsyiological model

Rhetoric about media technology tends to fall into two extreme categories: unequivocal celebration or blanket condemnation. This is particularly true in debate over the clash of values when first world media infiltrate third world audiences. Bringing together the best new work on contemporary media practices, technologies, and policies, the essayists in Global Currents argue that neither of these extreme views accurately represents the role of media technology t