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Do institutions and culture affect environmental values? In this article we analyze 1,041 environmental valuations of 223 wetlands in 38 developing countries, to examine the effect of institutions and culture on environmental values. We assess three dimensions of institutional quality: economic freedom, democracy, and good governance. We also consider the impact of cultural differences. Possibly surprisingly, wetland values are lower in more market based economies and they are lower in cultures that are more indulgent and authoritarian. In contrast, improved government effectiveness increases wetland valuations. Understanding these important and varying effects of institutions and culture on wetland valuations is important for policy development and environmental preservation.

The human sciences are defined as a group of cognitive activities related to the study of the human self through the language, the history, the social, political, cultural and economic interests. The humanities have never ceased to study experiences and activities related to human beings, who try to deepen human knowledge and develop human resources. This knowledge is closely related to human truth as a phenomenon capable of objective scientific study and the ability of these sciences to understand and explain the various human phenomena using multiple systems of research and experimental, psychological and philosophical methods . and it is also among the research methodologies related to these sciences. The study of history is not an end in itself, but rather a means to deepen awareness and provide it with historical experiences that help it to see the present and its historical components, and to look at history and its readability as a sustainable state of development. All this made the study of history today a complex, multi-faceted study, where the profound transformations brought about by the information and communication revolutions and globalization caused the restructuring of various aspects of economic, political, civilizational, social and cultural life and the crystallization of the human identity .That is why many believed that history holds the keys to understand the process of societal, cultural and ideological development and thus the most important forces that control the creation of the future, but today's reality requires intense awareness to prevent the disruption of human values, constants and inherited ties in a time of fear for the homeland, nation and identity.

The faculty of law of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education in corroboration with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stifttung embarked on a study on Politics, Socio-Economic Issues and Culture in Constitutional Adjudication. The aim of the project is twofold. The first aim is to analyse the influence of political, socio-economic and cultural considerations on the constitutional court's interpretation and application of the Bill of Rights. The second aim is to develop practical guidelines (based on the findings during the analysing process) for South African courts confronted with issues of a political, socio-economic and cultural nature. This article is concerned with initiating discussions of the decisions of the constitutional court with regard to cultural and religious rights. Before we can explore the role of political, socio-economic and cultural (and religious) rights in the decisions of the constitutional court it is important to discuss a few preliminary issues. In this article the meaning of culture and religion within the South African context receives some attention. Secondly, some preliminary comments regarding constitutional protection of culturally and religiously based rights will be made. We are well aware that this is a daunting task, not only in view of the seemingly abysmal gap between the applicable constitutional rights and values enshrined in the 1996 Constitution that, in some instances over centuries, brought about customs and practices within "traditional" communities which, seemingly, infringe on certain constitutional values and rights.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 The Discursive Practice of the New -- Key concepts -- The idea of the new -- Discourse: how and why we use the term 'new' -- Positioning 'new media' -- The status of the new -- The discursive practice of the new -- 2 The Issues of Interactivity -- Key concepts -- Locating interactive experience -- Interactive subjects -- So what is interactivity? -- New media and entropy -- Structures of interactivity: how interactivity as a concept is sold -- Becoming interactive -- Interactivity and ideology -- Interpellation and art -- Summary -- 3 Surveillance, Technology and Paranoia -- Key concepts -- A brief word on anxiety and paranoia -- Different technology? -- The Panopticon -- Some case studies of paranoia and technology -- 4 The Digitalization of the Body -- Key concepts -- Why the body and new media? -- Art, body and new media -- Mapping a connection between the body and technology -- Body and space: embodiment and materiality -- Vision and visuality -- The task of ethics -- Doubles and invoked bodies -- 5 Pleasure in and of New Media: The Pleasure of the Browsing Image -- Key concepts -- A note on the perspective of pleasure -- Scopophilia and browsing -- Roland Barthes: readerly and writerly pleasures -- The browserly -- 6 New Media: Habitus and Identity -- Key concepts -- Tracing new media: four key conceptual moments -- The habitus of new media -- Formations of identity and the fetishism of celebrity -- Beyond surveillance -- Disruptive purpose -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.