scholarly journals Imagining decline or sustainability: Hope, fear, and ideological discourse in Hollywood speculative fiction

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clayton Dasilva
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Real World ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Speculative Fiction ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ideological Discourse ◽  
Societal Collapse

Over the past decade within Hollywood speculative fiction (SF), the natural environment has become more prominent as a cause of societal collapse. Interstellar, Elysium, Wall-E, Mad Max, and Tomorrowland, as a few examples, all include environmental change and deterioration as prominent plot points, rather than merely as settings. I analyze the political and ideological tenor of these films with a discourse framework to assess the influence of certain real-world discourses, as well as their optimism or pessimism in the context of real-world sustainability transformations. Within this genre, one continues to find a degree of ‘Prometheanism,’ or techno-optimism, but the distinctive discursive influence of the past decade and a half has been the rise of ‘Survivalism,’ a more dystopian or post-apocalyptic discourse. When the environment is prominent as a theme, that is, these films more often explore its destruction—often by humans—and the conditions of existence within such environments.

Identifying and Partnering Ecoallies through Perceived Natural Environment Futures in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-360
Author(s):  
Brandon D. Lundy ◽  
Lauren Weeks ◽  
Rachel Langkau ◽  
Kamran Sadiq ◽  
Sami Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Environmental Management ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
College And University ◽  
The Past ◽  
Guinea Bissau ◽  
The Future

Through an experiential, field-based investigative opportunity in the anthropology of climate change, this project introduced college and university students from the United States and Guinea-Bissau through active research encounters. This article examines one part of the larger project, perceptions of natural environment futures via 287 drawings collected by three United States-based undergraduate students from 145 college and university students and alumni (ages 18–53) in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Guinea-Bissau is a climate change hotspot. This study’s specific focus was on how participants represent natural environmental change over time. Participants were asked to produce two drawings, one depicting their natural environment hundreds of years in the past (pre-European contact) and one representing their natural environment twenty years in the future. Using content analysis, descriptive statistics, Chi-squared test, and McNemar’s test, the study finds that (1a) participants’ depictions of the future contain statistically significantly more pollution, scarcity, deforestation, desertification, and less biodiversity than those in the past, and (1b) these depictions of environmental change hazards highly correlate; (2) participants draw the natural environment statistically significantly more in the past than in the future; (3a) women are statistically significantly more likely than men to draw environmental management in the past and future, and (3b) men are statistically significantly more likely than women to draw commercialization in the past and future; and (4) environmental sciences and teaching professionals are statistically significantly more likely than business professionals to draw environmental management in the past and future. The study found no differences in perceptions of the natural environment based on age, place of birth, or religion. Results indicate that people perceive real differences between their past and future natural environments, especially related to future environmental change hazards. Furthermore, gender and professional differences in participant drawings of environmental management suggest that women and non-business professionals are likely ecoallies. This concept is important from an applied perspective because through this research project, United States- and Guinea-Bissau-based undergraduate students and alumni are able to recognize in each other their shared advocacy capacities, acknowledge the systematic nature of the climate change problem, and establish a common cause around sustainable environmental management.

scholarly journals The Art of Governance and the Political Grammar of Legitimacy: Tales of the State for a Unified Korea

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Byung-ok Kil
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Real World ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Past ◽  
State Of Affairs

This inquiry demonstrates that the political legitimacy of a certain society is historically determined, reflects specific institutional and contextual features, and employs a variety of meanings. These meanings can describe both a state of affairs and a process that ultimately involves justifications for legitimate agents and socio-political structures. This paper attepmpts to understand how the meanings of political legitimacy are conceptualized in society. As a case study, it questions: What are the conditions for the existence of political legitimacy and how have they been constructed? How is political legitimacy endorsed in South Korea today, and how does it differ from the past? This paper applies a deconstructive theory of political legitimacy that exploresa a distinctively modern style, or 'art of governance' that has an all-encompassing, as well as individualized effect upon its constituencies. By this approach, this paper argues that the concept of unification does not have a solid significance in the real world, but rather, it is an imaginary idea imposed by the dominant elite class, which is constantly imposed, reinterpreted and transformed in its political context.

Influence of Background Appearance on Visual Accommodation

1992 ◽  
Vol 36 (18) ◽  
pp. 1445-1449
Author(s):  
Russell A. Benel ◽  
Denise C. R. Benel
Keyword(s):  
Target Detection ◽  
Real World ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Target Stimulus ◽  
Accommodative Response ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lag Of Accommodation ◽  
Visual Accommodation

Many experimental and real-world viewing situations provide a context in which the target stimulus is displayed against a background set at a different but determinate distance. Conversely, other situations occur where the background distance is indeterminate, i.e., a textureless background. There has been evidence accumulating over the past two decades to suggest that the assumption of accurate visual accommodation will not be sustained under all these circumstances. Although earlier assumptions held that the centrally located stimulus would determine the level of accommodation, this experiment tests that assumption by varying the cues to background distance (well-textured, lighted, distant background and the same background unilluminated) and the distance to the target stimulus. Two groups of six participants observed targets (2 deg.) at six distances (0.9, 1.8, 3.7, 7.3, 14.6 and 29.3 m) and their visual accommodation was measured with a laser optometer. Results indicated that the group viewing the visible distant background evidenced a more distant accommodative response with the typical lag of accommodation. These results indicate that conditions of accommodation in the natural environment may have a profound effect on accommodative accuracy. In turn, this inaccuracy has been shown by others to correlate with inaccuracies in the perception of size and distance. Inaccurate accommodation has been found to delay target detection appreciably as well. Ameliorative approaches are discussed.

An historical analysis of species references in American English

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Google Books

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.

The Political Economy of Local Governance in Yemen

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-69
Author(s):  
Benoit Challand ◽  
Joshua Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Local Initiatives ◽  
Self Rule

This paper provides an historical exploration of local governance in Yemen across the past sixty years. It highlights the presence of a strong tradition of local self-rule, self-help, and participation “from below” as well as the presence of a rival, official, political culture upheld by central elites that celebrates centralization and the strong state. Shifts in the predominance of one or the other tendency have coincided with shifts in the political economy of the Yemeni state(s). When it favored the local, central rulers were compelled to give space to local initiatives and Yemen experienced moments of political participation and local development.

PRACTICAL BASE OF FORMULATING RETRAINING PROGRAMS ON ETHNIC MINORITY AFFAIRS KNOWLEDGE FOR CADRES, CIVIL SERVANTS UP TO 2030

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Dung ◽  
Giang Khac Binh
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Political System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
The Political ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past

As developing programs is the core in fostering knowledge on ethnic work for cadres and civil servants under Decision No. 402/QD-TTg dated 14/3/2016 of the Prime Minister, it is urgent to build training program on ethnic minority affairs for 04 target groups in the political system from central to local by 2020 with a vision to 2030. The article highlighted basic issues of practical basis to design training program of ethnic minority affairs in the past years; suggested solutions to build the training programs in integration and globalization period.

Современный образ войны и проблема ее трасформации

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
D. A. Abgadzhava ◽  
A. S. Vlaskina
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
The Past ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
Modern War

War is an essential part of the social reality inherent in all stages of human development: from the primitive communal system to the present, where advanced technologies and social progress prevail. However, these characteristics do not make our society more peaceful, on the contrary, according to recent research and reality, now the number of wars and armed conflicts have increased, and most of the conflicts have a pronounced local intra-state character. Thus, wars in the classical sense of them go back to the past, giving way to military and armed conflicts. Now the number of soldiers and the big army doesn’t show the opponents strength. What is more important is the fact that people can use technology, the ideological and informational base to win the war. According to the history, «weak» opponent can be more successful in conflict if he has greater cohesion and ideological unity. Modern wars have already transcended the political boundaries of states, under the pressure of certain trends, they are transformed into transnational wars, that based on privatization, commercialization and obtaining revenue. Thus, the present paper will show a difference in understanding of terms such as «war», «military conflict» and «armed conflict». And also the auteurs will tell about the image of modern war and forecasts for its future transformation.

USING HISTORICAL ANNUAL REPORTS IN TEACHING: LETTING THE PAST BENEFIT THE PRESENT

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Amernic ◽  
Ramy Elitzur
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Cash Flow ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
The Past ◽  
Response To Environmental Change

In this article, it is suggested that accounting education may be enhanced by the use of published historical accounting materials, such as annual reports. Comparing such materials with modern reports serves to reinforce the notion that accounting evolves in response to environmental change. Further, requiring students to analytically derive cash flow statements from historical published annual reports provides several direct pedagogical benefits.

Searching for Political Parties in the Past

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Common

Chapter 1 introduces the long and difficult process of the theoretical legitimation of the political party as such. The analysis of the meaning and acceptance of ‘parties’ as tools of expressing contrasting visions moves forward from ancient Greece and Rome where (democratic) politics had first become a matter of speculation and practice, and ends up with the first cautious acceptance of parties by eighteenth-century British thinkers. The chapter explores how parties or factions have been constantly considered tools of division of the ‘common wealth’ and the ‘good society’. The holist and monist vision of a harmonious and compounded society, stigmatized parties and factions as an ultimate danger for the political community. Only when a new way of thinking, that is liberalism, emerged, was room for the acceptance of parties set.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Jewish Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
State Of Israel

This chapter examines the lack of continuous tradition of the art of the theatre in the history of Jewish culture. Theatre as art and institution was forbidden for Jews during most of their history, and although there were plays written in different times and places during the past centuries, no tradition of theatre evolved in Jewish culture until the middle of the nineteenth century. In view of this absence, the author discusses the genesis of Jewish theatre in Eastern Europe and in Eretz-Yisrael (The Land of Israel) since the late nineteenth century, encouraged by the Jewish Enlightenment movement, the emergence of Jewish nationalism, and the rebirth of Hebrew as a language of everyday life. Finally, the chapter traces the development of parallel strands of theatre that preceded the Israeli theatre and shadowed the emergence of the political infrastructure of the future State of Israel.

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