Suchergebnisse

My dissertation, Unveiling Open Secrets of Hometown, War, and Mass Culture in Twentieth Century Japanese Lyric Poetry, explores the potential of lyric poetry, when used in conjunction with strategies of translation and rewriting, to unveil politically charged open secrets. Translation theorist André Lefèvre has said that translation can function as a kind of "alibi" that allows the translator to evade or redirect the pressures of censorship, to publish subversive material that might excite a more repressive reaction were it under the author's name as original work. The poets treated in my dissertation all use various modes of translation, rewriting, or adaptation to create an alibi for themselves, a quietly resistant lyric voice forged from the fragments of other languages, other writers, and other media. Although modern lyric has often been portrayed as an elite art form removed from popular art forms, all the poets and artists discussed in my project adapt visual imagery and motifs from mass culture into lyric poetry in order to show the pervasiveness of these open secrets in a way that permeates the cultural environments of the elite and ordinary people alike.The first chapter explores Kitahara Hakushû's (1885-1942) defamiliarizing portrayal of the nostalgic ideal of the hometown in his 1912 poetry collection Memories and other works. Hakushû uses visual devices drawn from Meiji cinema to reveal the projected, artificial quality of the notion of hometown. The second chapter investigates Ueda Bin's (1874-1916) translations of Charles Baudelaire, which portray indirect ripples of the distant Russo-Japanese War in the latent violence of urban life in Tokyo. Chapter three discusses several 1930s lyric poets' use of formal motifs drawn from mass media in their works of propagandistic nationalism during the Pacific War, and argues that these writers endued their works of nationalistic poetry with oblique criticism of wartime militarism. The last chapter of the dissertation investigates the legacy of these prewar and wartime strategies of the open secret in 1960s poetry and film of the Minamata environmentalist activist movement.

Nigeria's Niger Delta has become a thorny issue in the multidisciplinary intellectual discourse in the sense that local inequalities have assumed global dimensions. Human rights have been violated by the Nigerian government and global multi-national oil companies in such a way that make the Niger delta an environmental disaster zone. This problem has spawned local insurrections in the Niger Delta as multinational oil companies have had to either quit the zone or re-organize their modus operandi, with a general impact on Nigeria's economy. From the time of the state-murdered Ogoni writer and environmentalist, Ken Saro Wiwa and Adaka Boro before him, these problems have been articulated through various forms of political and literary expressions. One of such literary expressions is Arnold Udoka's plays which form the bases for analysis of the issues in this paper. Using the Marxist paradigm which enables inter-disciplinarily, this study takes a deeper look at the many variations of inequalities that have led to the Niger Delta problem. One of such is the gender question in the Niger Delta which Arnold Udoka articulates in Akon, which investigates the place of women in the political liberation of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta region. There is also the Niger Delta question in Long Walk to a Dream which explores the struggle of the people of this region to live a meaningful life in the midst of their environmental challenges. Iyene on the other hand looks at the global dimension of multinational companies and the local elites in resolving the Niger Delta question, which has become a wasteland. This is particularly so because the Nigerian Land Use Act vests the ownership of land on the government which in turn has led to multiple violations of the peoples' rights. It is therefore the position of this paper that the armed struggle, militancy, kidnapping in the Niger Delta are different manifestations of the aspiration of the violated locals for human freedom. Meaningful development and improved political ecology in the region is achievable if democracy and equity subsist both at the level of practice and legislation within and outside the Niger Delta region.

Climate Change has been a persistent issue in Australia's political discourse for near 40 years. This paper provides an explanation of the factors which ensured the issues persistence throughout each government era starting in the early 70s. The method of investigation used were both qualitative and quantitative. Quite a reasonable amount of personal communications were involved however due to the sensitivity, history, and range of the issue most were excluded from evidence. Given this most of the explanation provided is backed by investigation into autobiographies, community and conference declaration/statements/documents, economic data, and papers/books from political scientists. The report found that major factors included scientific and economic uncertainty, economic concern, limited international action, perceived shifting public opinions/interests, political disinterest, concerns about industrial relations, limited or opposing political will and finally fragile political positions. Many of these were consistently present whilst some were simply major factors for a single era. In conclusion the report argues that the main reason for the issue's persistence is the result of seemingly non- compromisable interests between the economy and the environment which has typically been personified by industries vs environmentalist. As a government both these groups must be represented and considered to some extent. The issue continued rise seems to reflect each governments unique take on reaching a balance between the two interest groups. Given the information the report argues that the issue is unlikely to be settled until either one policy can remained forced for an extended enough period to be accepted or until the means of achieving each groups interests become more align able. Given in more recent times new technologies and scientific evidences is showing the economic benefit of shifting from fossil fuel and addressing greenhouse emissions this should hopefully occur soon. Finally, this paper does not attempt to provide an in-depth explanation of the history of climate change nor why certain events such as Copenhagen failed. It simply explains why such events were a factor or relies upon them as evidence. This is a limitation of the report's size.

In the early 1980s many social theorists claimed that the 'New Social Move­ments' (NSMs) were the authentic social movements of our time. This claim is discussed in relation to two traditions in the analysis of social movements. The 'American' tradition focuses on the single-issue movement of a protest and mobilizing character. The 'European' tradition focuses on the relation between major societal changes and processes of class formation, the labour movement being the classic case. In the article the women's movement is discussed as a major cultural revolutionary movement, the different campaigns dealing with the new urban forms of socialized reproduction, housing, planning, etc., as movements for the defence of the 'real consumption'; the green and environmentalist movements taking up the conflicting relation nature-society. Is the relation between the NSMs and the new and growing social strata of students, and employees within the welfare state, which make up their audience and activist core, to be understood as a parallel to the part played by the 'old' social movements in the making of the working class, the farmer class, etc? It is argued that there is no 'necessary' relationship between the societal changes and the NSMs, as there was between industrialization and the labour movement. The societal relations and changes around which the NSMs organize themselves - gender contradictions, socialization of reproduction, con­tradictions in the forms of modern urban living, nature society - do not single out a new social force as their 'natural' counterpart. They are both more encompassing in their reach and more non-partisan in character. The most likely centre for a possible coalescence of a multitude of NSMs into a major social movement, if not in the class formative sense, is the societally basic relationship, nature-society. The themes and issues raised by the NSMs can in the political process become articulated with existing political and social forces. The capacity of these forces and institutions to absorb the issues raised by the NSMs deter­mines the possibility for the NSMs to emerge as a new major social force.

This thesis focuses on fisheries managers' efforts to restore native cutthroats to northern Nevada's Pyramid Lake for recreation, and the Paiutes' battle to preserve them as a means of livelihood. Their efforts to reconstruct the fishery revealed the implausibility of environmental restoration, but more importantly underlined the motivations necessary to attempt it. Chapter 2 describes how the Pyramid Lake Lahontan cutthroat— historically an important subsistence resource for Northern Paiutes— were initially exploited for profit in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and gradually destroyed as agricultural interests diverted the Truckee River's water and industrial pollution contaminated the trout's aquatic habitat. Fisheries managers in Nevada turned to artificial propagation to meet the demands of fishermen and replace the native fish industrialization destroyed. The Nevada Fish and Game Commission experimented with non-native introductions and like most of the West became proponents of rainbow trout and their recreational potential. Chapter 3 narrates a history of the Nevada Fish and Game Commission's project to restore trout to Pyramid Lake in the 1950s and 1960s after its native cutthroat became extinct in the early 1940s. For the Commission, restoring Pyramid Lake meant establishing trout and salmon populations— native or not— to feed the growing outdoor tourism industry. While the Commission made plans to restore natural spawning runs, these were unsuccessful, and the Commission relied on stocking the lake to maintain the fishery. However, these experiments failed and eventually cutthroats from other lakes in Nevada proved better occupants of the lake. Chapter 4 describes the native cutthroat's role in the water debate carried out in government agencies and in the courts in the 1970s and 1980s to decide whether or not water diverted from the Truckee for agriculture should be returned to the Paiutes to support their shrinking lake and dwindling fishery. Environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club joined the Paiutes in their effort to gain water that would allow for the native fishery's restoration. Their vision clashed with that of agriculturists who feared losing water they depended on for their crops. However, after a lengthy struggle, the Paiutes won an important victory toward preserving their lake.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how one can prevent the flaws or dark sides of the globalisation process from leading to ever‐greater decay of responsibility. By decay of responsibility, is meant the threat that globalisation poses to what is referred to by philosophers such as David Harvey, John McMurtry and Paul Ricoeur, as the longing for being and solidarity with the other(s).Design/methodology/approachTo put a stop to the decay of responsibility, the urgency of a broader ethical dimension in globalisation is more apparent than ever before. The threat the globalisation process poses to the longing for being and solidarity with the other(s), increasingly necessitates an appropriate responsible global institution.FindingsOf central importance are the principles of merit and need as possible basis of a responsible institution. The intrinsic logic of the merit principle incorporated in the growth process of globalisation, induces a series of impermissible side effects. Therefore, the traditional correction of democracy giving priority to the principle of need instead of merit, no longer appears to counteract the market economy to be able to provide guarantees for a responsible globalisation process.Research limitations/implicationsPolitics needs to assure the survival of the social community, all the more so if its future is under considerable threat. The acceptance of responsibility implies also the care for the most fragile.Practical implicationsThe paper explains the need of an ethics of responsibility that transcends the excessive ego‐centric globalised society. Therefore, participatory or responsible justice is considered to be of the utmost importance. Participation should be broadly interpreted and include policy makers, environmentalists, scientists, economists, lawyers, ethicists, consumers, farmers and other representatives of civil society.Originality/valueThe present worldwide economic, social and ecological crises have created fertile ground for claiming the need for an internationally recognized charter setting out human responsibilities. The concept of a Charter of Human Responsibilities can be an original elaboration of the concern with institutionalising responsibility.

The concept of a Singularity as described in Ray Kurzweil's book cannot happen for a number of reasons. One reason is that all natural growth processes that follow exponential patterns eventually reveal themselves to be following S-curves thus excluding runaway situations. The remaining growth potential from Kurzweil's ''knee'', which could be approximated as the moment when an S-curve pattern begins deviating from the corresponding exponential, is a factor of only one order of magnitude greater than the growth already achieved. A second reason is that there is already evidence of a slowdown in some important trends. The growth pattern of the U.S. GDP is no longer exponential. Had Kurzweil been more rigorous in his fitting procedures, he would have recognized it. Moore's law and the Microsoft Windows operating systems are both approaching end-of-life limits. The Internet rush has also ended—for the time being—as the number of users stopped growing; in the western world because of saturation and in the underdeveloped countries because infrastructures, education, and the standard of living there are not yet up to speed. A third reason is that society is capable of auto-regulating runaway trends as was the case with deadly car accidents, the AIDS threat, and rampant overpopulation. This control goes beyond government decisions and conscious intervention. Environmentalists who fought nuclear energy in the 1980s, may have been reacting only to nuclear energy's excessive rate of growth, not nuclear energy per se, which is making a comeback now. What may happen instead of a Singularity is that the rate of change soon begins slowing down. The exponential pattern of change witnessed up to now dictates more milestone events during year 2025 than witnessed throughout the entire 20th century! But such events are already overdue today. If, on the other hand, the change growth pattern has indeed been following an S-curve, then the rate of change is about to enter a declining trajectory; the baby boom generation will have ...

"While nonviolent techniques have been widely used by single-interest groups such as trade unions and anti-nuclear, indigenous or environmentalist movements, this chapter refers primarily to nation-wide campaigns by identity or national groups who are challenging internal oppression or external aggression and occupation, and are seeking either self-determination or civil rights in a truly democratic and multicultural state. The chapter is structured as follows: section 2 defines the concept of nonviolent resistance, its aims and methods, and compares its main characteristics with those of other approaches to conflict transformation. It also provides a brief overview of a range of terms usually associated with nonviolence, and their implications for theory and practice. In this chapter, the term 'nonviolent resistance' (henceforth also NVR) refers both to the process of social change through active nonviolence and to a specific set of methods of action for effecting change. Section 3 addresses the conceptual and empirical developments in the field of nonviolent resistance. It draws a distinction between two types of arguments, the so-called 'principled' and 'pragmatic' trends, which are often handled as polar opposites in the literature, but are treated here as complementary. When combined, they present nonviolent action as both an ethical and efficient strategy to effect socio-political change. The most significant nonviolent campaigns since WWII are also briefly listed, as well as recent developments in NVR training and uses of nonviolent techniques for third-party conflict intervention. The remaining two sections of the chapter offer a closer analysis of two processes of constructive conflict transformation through NVR, arguing that nonviolent struggles might support the goals of peacemaking and peacebuilding by transforming unbalanced power relations in preparation for conflict negotiations (section 4), and by using self-limiting conflict strategies that reduce inter-party polarization and encourage democratic practices (section 5). Empirical illustrations of these dynamics are provided through a case study of the first Palestinian intifada against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (1987-1993)" (excerpt)

This article attempts to relate two important issues of regulating building height limit and sustainability of the natural environment. It is part of publications that document findings resulted from the so called fundamental research study, that was consecutively funded by the Indonesian Department of Education in 2008 and 2009. This study used hermeneutical research approach, which was observed through selective case studies. Within the last two decades, sustainability of our nature and life on earth have attracted a serious attention, not only from environmentalists, but also from economists, politicians, academics, as well as those who concern about socio-cultural development as a whole. In line with the intense environmental destruction\'s taking place in a speed which has never been anticipated, this aforementioned condition continues to require intensive actions. Architecture and regional planning, two disciplines that dedicate their focus of interests on building design and the management of spatial development, cannot turn their eyes away from such a world-widely spread phenomenon. Both disciplines utilize space – nature –, which consequently bring about impacts on the surrounding environment. In relation to local development, planning discipline especially, orients its activities toward developing various mechanisms in guiding and controlling development, as well as sanctioning violations of planning laws. Ideally, these attributes aim at balancing spatial need of numerous interests, mitigating potential negative impacts on the environments, and offering solutions in overcoming problems and conflicts. Contextualizing its discussions within the above circumstances, this article investigates three prominent topics of discussion. First, it examines the idea of development and sustainability. Second, it studies the implementation of sustainability to the context of spatial development. Third, it bridges the first and second sections with the issue of building height limit regulation at a global level. Before embarking on discussion over these three elements, this article draws an emphasis on the inextricable correlations between sustainable development, spatial development, and building height. Overall, this article critically summaries considerations and efforts in sustaining our life on earth by appropriately addressing considerations of either limiting or relaxing building height limit in a particular planned area.

Resumen Por muchos años la llamada exitosa conservación en Costa Rica ha sido impulsada prevalentemente por grupos académico-científicos y se ha basado en modelos públicos verticales, de ONG ambientalista tradicional o de libre mercado. Estos enfoques no han sido insuficientes tratándose del modelo de conservación llamado Zona Protectora (ZP), el cual, sobre todo en áreas urbanas y semi-urbanas, ha sido un fracaso. Sin embargo, abarca el 15% del territorio en protección en el país. Al igual que en otros lugares en América Latina, se observa hoy en Costa Rica una tendencia a la aparición de los que la ecología política llamaría "ambientalismo de los pobres." Este trabajo explora la utilidad de los conceptos de esta tendencia ambientalista para la solución de los problemas de las ZP. Específicamente se enfoca en el caso de La Carpintera y reflexiona sobre la posibilidad de usar conceptos como la valoración económico-ecológica alternativa y la deuda ecológica producto de la experiencia del autor con su propia investigación y cursos de campo. Abstract For many years the so-called successful conservation in Costa Rica has been led mostly by academic and scientific groups and has followed public vertical, traditional environmentalist NGO or market driven models. These perspectives have been insufficient for the conservation model known as the Protective Zone (ZP), which, especially in urban and semi-urban areas has been a failure. Nevertheless, it comprises 15% of the overall land under protection in the country. As in other places in Latin America, Costa Rica is showing today traces of what political ecologists know as "environmentalism of the poor." This paper explores the usefulness of the concepts of this environmentalism trend to solve the problems of ZP. Specifically, it focuses on the case study of La Carpintera and reflects on the possibility of using concepts such as ecological economic alternative valuation and ecological debt based on the author's experience with his own research and field courses.

Resumen Por muchos años la llamada exitosa conservación en Costa Rica ha sido impulsada prevalentemente por grupos académico-científicos y se ha basado en modelos públicos verticales, de ONG ambientalista tradicional o de libre mercado. Estos enfoques no han sido insuficientes tratándose del modelo de conservación llamado Zona Protectora (ZP), el cual, sobre todo en áreas urbanas y semi-urbanas, ha sido un fracaso. Sin embargo, abarca el 15% del territorio en protección en el país. Al igual que en otros lugares en América Latina, se observa hoy en Costa Rica una tendencia a la aparición de los que la ecología política llamaría "ambientalismo de los pobres." Este trabajo explora la utilidad de los conceptos de esta tendencia ambientalista para la solución de los problemas de las ZP. Específicamente se enfoca en el caso de La Carpintera y reflexiona sobre la posibilidad de usar conceptos como la valoración económico-ecológica alternativa y la deuda ecológica producto de la experiencia del autor con su propia investigación y cursos de campo. Abstract For many years the so-called successful conservation in Costa Rica has been led mostly by academic and scientific groups and has followed public vertical, traditional environmentalist NGO or market driven models. These perspectives have been insufficient for the conservation model known as the Protective Zone (ZP), which, especially in urban and semi-urban areas has been a failure. Nevertheless, it comprises 15% of the overall land under protection in the country. As in other places in Latin America, Costa Rica is showing today traces of what political ecologists know as "environmentalism of the poor." This paper explores the usefulness of the concepts of this environmentalism trend to solve the problems of ZP. Specifically, it focuses on the case study of La Carpintera and reflects on the possibility of using concepts such as ecological economic alternative valuation and ecological debt based on the author's experience with his own research and field courses.

Titre du numéro 24 de Purushartha: Littérature et poétiques pluriculturellles en Asie du Sud ; Most of the Essays of Nirmal Verma, of which a selection is presented in a French translation (A. Montaut), have been published during the last twenty years of the 20th century and constitute an exploration of the ambivalence of the Indian consciousness today. Although some are historically dated, and allude to a state of affairs previous to the end of the cold war, where globalization was only a vague hypothesis, remains acutely relevant for the 21st century India, by its complex elaboration on the individual and social consciousness altered first by colonisation then by modernization in India. Such analyses found a deep echo in the work of environmentalists (Vandana Shiva, Anupam Mishra), economists (Amartya Sen), or political scientists (Nandakishor Acharya) as well as among artists (Arundhati Roy). Except for "Truth in Art" and "Indian Fiction and Colonial Reality", translated from English, they are translated from Hindi. They summarize the thought of the author on history and myth, on art and the consciousness of time, and they locate Indian literature within this perspective. ; Les essais de Nirmal Verma dont sont présentés des extraits traduits ont été publiés entre 1986 et 1995, et représentent une réflexion sur l'ambivalence de la conscience indienne aujourd'hui. " Crépuscule d'une époque ", de 1986, bien qu'historiquement " daté ", faisant entre autres allusion à un état de choses antérieur à la fin de la guerre froide et ne tenant compte que sur le mode de l'hypothèse de la libéralisation en Inde, reste très actuel par les réflexions sur l'altération de la conscience sociale et individuelle qu'inspire à l'auteur la situation des années quatre-vingts. Ces réflexions ont du reste été relayés entre temps par des environnementalistes (Vandana Shiva, Anupam Mishra) comme par des économistes (Amartya Sen), des politologues (Nandakishor Acharya) et des artistes (Arundhati Roy). A l'exception de " La Vérité en art ", et " La fiction indienne et la réalité coloniale ", traduits de l'anglais, ils sont traduits du hindi. Ils synthétisent les réflexions de l'auteur sur l'histoire et le mythe, sur l'art et la conscience du temps, et ils situent la littérature indienne dans cette perspective

The three hegemonies of the modern world-system have been the Dutch in the seventeenth century, the British in the nineteenth century and the hegemony of the United States in the twentieth century. Sociologists and political scientists have carefully studied the process of hegemonic rise and decline.Recent research by Rennstich (2001) retools Arrighi's (1994) formulation of the organizational evolutions that have accompanied the emergence of larger and larger hegemons over the last six centuries. Modelski and Thompson (1996) argued that the British successfully managed to enjoy two "power cycles," one in the eighteenth and another in the nineteenth centuries. With this precedent in mind Rennstich considers the possibility that the US might succeed itself in the twenty-first century. Rennstich's analysis of the organizational, cultural and political requisites of the contemporary new lead industries – information technology and biotechnology – imply that the United States has a large comparative advantage that will most probably lead to another round of U.S. pre-eminence in the world-system. But important resistance to genetically engineered products has arisen as consumers and environmentalists worry about the unintended consequences of introducing radically new organisms into the biosphere. This paper will examine the agricultural biotechnology industry as a new lead industry and will consider its possible future impact on the distribution of power in the world-system. This will entail an examination of the loci and timing of private and publicly funded research and development, biotechnology firms that are developing and selling products, and the emergence of national and global policies that are intended to regulate and test genetically engineered products. The recent history of environmental impacts of genetically engineered products will be reviewed, as well as the contentious literature about the supposed risks of agricultural biotechnology. Several scenarios regarding the timing of the onset of biotech profitability and their potential impact on US economic centrality will be developed, and data on both the business history and the emergence of resistance will be employed to examine the likelihood of these possible scenarios.

In the last three years Sydney has been transformed to an unprecedented extent by public art projects, most of which have been developed by government instrumentalities, agencies or partnerships. The central city council has initiated a Sculpture Walk through the streets and around the rocky foreshores of the inner city; the Sydney Olympic site at Homebush Bay is home to a number of public art works; the government's water utility company has sponsored an annual, temporary art installation walk along a spectacularly rugged ocean escarpment linking several medium-density suburbs; another instrumentality recently established to oversee the reuse of abandoned heavy industrial sites in the harbour, has established the 'Promenart' program along fifteen kilometres of harbour foreshores; and a government-appointed statutory authority responsible for the redevelopment of an extensive and highly polluted former industrial site between the CDB and the airport, has worked closely with designers and artists to develop comprehensive briefs addressing environmental rehabilitation and social interaction. This impressive list is by no means exhaustive. The surge in bureaucratic and artistic creative energy demands critical evaluation. In this paper I will contrast two sets of projects. This first concerns actual projects, in or near the spectacular Sydney Harbour setting, which are premised on placemaking principles and on the whole elicit actual or imagined histories for the delight and reverie of the promenader. Despite the popular and aesthetic success of these projects, one of them, the ambitious Sculpture Walk, is currently being re-evaluated. The second set, in more mundane suburban environments and centred on toxic waterways, concerns projects that at this stage are either being implemented or nearing commencement by interdisciplinary groups of artists, designers, engineers, environmentalists, community representatives, and other specialists. Their measure of success will include delight and surprise but must also include environmental and cultural sustainability I will argue that the more environmentally challenging the brief, the richer the likely aesthetic outcome. This will be done by evaluating selected works against their relevant policies. These policies, in turn, will be evaluated against current 'best practice' policies in Australia and elsewhere.

As of 1998, the debate on "Trade and Environment" has been going on for almost ten years. After the successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round in 1993 and in view of the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994 many observers thought that the WTO would now approach the existing problems in this field without further delay. These expectations were reinforced by the Ministerial Decision on Trade and Environment on occasion of the signature of the Final Act in Marrakesh on 14 April 1994 and the creation of a Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) in early 1995. The reality, however, proved to be different. After some initial enthusiasm, the impetus seems to have slowed down considerably and the work presented by the CTE at the first Meeting of the Contracting Parties of the WTO in December 1996 in Singapore was not up to the high expectations by environmentalists and international lawyers. While the current problems seem to be identified , the solutions suggested by legal writers, NGOs and other actors seem far from any form that could reach consensus. On the whole, there are only a few concrete proposals for a reform of the WTO and especially the GATT system. They generally ask for the introduction of substantive or procedural provisions into the existing treaties in order to take account of today's regional and global ecological problems. The European Community due to its commercial strength is undoubtedly one of the main actors within the WTO besides the United States. It is therefore interesting to observe that, in particular, the European Parliament has closely followed the trade and environment de-bate since the early 1990s and actively participated in the debate on the ecological reform of the world trading system and, in particular, the WTO and thereby constantly pushed the Commission to take action (admittedly with variable success). The following article there-fore tries to analyse the development of the European Parliament's various proposals over time in view of the current debate and to ...