Transitions Online_Society-Our Bodies, Our Wen-Do
With domestic violence rates in Belarus among the highest in Europe and few legal protections, some women are turning to self-defense classes.
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With domestic violence rates in Belarus among the highest in Europe and few legal protections, some women are turning to self-defense classes.
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Today’s regional roundup: help for the Kazakh economy; Ukrainians stranded in conflict zone; coronavirus in Romania; Eastern Partnership countries and the EC; and brainstorming in Bulgaria.
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Some Turkish women have been avoiding gynecological examinations because of bullying from their own doctors.
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The world is facing numerous challenges, the most prominent being the ever growing world population and the spread of urban areas. In the quest for more food and resources, entire ecosystems are poisoned by pesticides. Man-made disasters have added oil to the fire. Climate Change poses an additional challenge. The key question is which paradigm is responsible for the ecological crisis. A group of authors locate the root causes for the environmental crisis in ethics and argue that humanity’s attitude towards nature depends on its perception of nature. More precisely, the arguments gravitate around the role of religion and, in particular, Christianity. One group of authors holds a view that religion, by establishing a dualistic paradigm that prioritizes humans over nature, is responsible for the uncontrolled exploitation of nature. Another group argues that it is precisely the relativization and rejection of religious ethical and moral values that contributed to the abandoning of the idea of nature as something wonderful and special, which eliminates the sense of responsibility towards nature. This paved the way for mastering over nature. The aim of this paper is to analyze the arguments of two opposing views in order to determine whether religion has a generally positive or negative impact on the environment.
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The official version is that Ukraine is managing the virus, thanks to its health workers. Many of those health workers, however, tell a different story.
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This article synthesizes, compares and analyzes writings from several fields as of the 1980s and 1990s, namely from literature and lifestyle, travel and tourism, as well as sustainable business management. It is founded on a comprehensive analysis of recent literary history in the spirit of comparative literature. The four main investigated fields are these: a) Literary, cultural and philosophical expressions and related societal movements of “slowness” that began in the 1980s and 1990s and still reverberate in today’s literary and cultural landscape; b) Social, political and environmental writings that detail the notion of “sustainability” which arose during the same time period and has become ever stronger since; c) Entrepreneurial actualizations of the notion of the “triple bottom line” which equally and steadily has gained momentum in business and wider social circles; and finally, d) Slowness as practiced in the form of “slow travel and tourism” as of the 1980s and 1990s, linking political, economic, social and ecological concerns, and being shaped by the writings under a)-c).
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Between the western tripoint where Poland, Belarus and Ukraine meet and the eastern tripoint of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, are the forests and swamps of Polesia that extend along the lowlands of the Pripiat River. Since the tsarist era, experts have referred to this landscape as the “Herodotus Sea” (more Gerodota). Indeed, despite the deforestation carried out during the Breshnev-era, the area is still today flooded by meltwater every spring, creating an unparalleled spectacle of nature. Recently, the Belarusian media, disregarding the radioactive contamination caused by Chernobyl, has begun marketing this landscape in brochures and magazines as a “Belarusian Amazon” and the “green lung of Europe.” Although the river flows in an east-west direction near to the Ukrainian border, has its source in the northwestern tip of Ukraine and flows into the Dnieper River south of the Ukrainian town of Chomobyl’, around three quarters of the 725 kilometers course of the Pripiat is in Belarus.
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Bibliography and review of: Herak M., Magaš B., Sarić A., Habe F.: "KRŠ JUGOSLAVIJE - PRILOG BIBLIOGRAFIJI KRŠA JUGOSLAVIJE (1666-1974), JAZU, 1976.; HIDROLOGIJA I VODNO BOGATSTVO KRŠA, Zbornik Jugoslavensko-američkog simpozijuma, Dubrovnik, Zavod za hidrotehniku GF, Sarajevo, 1975.; LeGrand H. E.: "HIDROLOŠKI I EKOLOŠKI PROBLEMI KRŠKIH PODRUČJA"; Zavod za hidrotehniku GF u Sarajevu i Poslovna zajednica za izučavanje vodoprivredne problematike krša, Izdanja br. 13, Sarajevo, 1975. ; Herak M.; "KRŠKA HIDROLOGIJA U OSAM ZEMALJA NA OBODU SREDOZEMLJA"; Zavod za hidrotehniku GF u Sarajevu i Poslovna zajednica za izučavanje vodoprivredne problematike krša, Izdanja br. 14, Sarajevo, 1975. ;
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Bibliography and review of: Međuakademijski odbor za zaštitu prirode pri Jogosl. Akad. Znanosti i Umjetnosti: Smipozij: Ekološko valoriziranje primorskog krša, Split, 1976, Zbornik; Božičević S.: Čovjek u podzemlju, Izdanje Školska knjiga, 68 str., Zagreb, 1977. D. Aranđelović: Geofizika na karstu (Geophysics in the karst); Izdanje: Institut za geološka, hidrogeološka, geofizička i geotehnička ispitivanja, knj. br. 17, Beograd 1976.
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Environmental problems are dated back the start of the relations between human and nature. The structure of thought which gives direction to the relationship between human and nature is called environmental ethics. Anthropocentric environmental ethics, which assume that nature occuring as a tool for only serving for human usage, is the main reason that creates environmental problems. In the contrast of this view, there is ecocentric ethic approach that defends nature has an intrinsic value and ecosystem is a whole. Until today, many policies and strategies have been developed and many contracts have been signed about environmental problems. The aim of this study is to examine the reasons why environmental problems have gradually increased instead of being entirely solved although policies and strategies developed. The outcome of this study is that since the environmental policies produced in order to solve environmental problems and to protect the environment are mostly prepared within the framework of anthropocentric environmental ethics, real problems of environmental problems cannot be solved and these problems become more complicated every day.
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S obzirom na ekološke katastrofe na globalnoj razini, u suvremenoj filozofiji i umjetnosti odnos čovjeka i prirode čini najvažnije pitanje dvadeset prvog stoljeća. U svojoj utjecajnoj knjizi "Ekologija Drugog" (2011) francuski filozof Philippe Descola tvrdi da suvremeno društvo nikad nije postalo moderno, jer je priroda odvojena od sfere socijalnog i, sukladno tome, još uvijek postoji jaz između prirode i kulture. Nastavljajući svoju argumentaciju u ovom smjeru on tvrdi da konstituciju zapadne moderne obilježava upravo ova podjela i nepomirljiva suprotnost, i s obzirom na tehno-naučne promjene zemlje, ekologija i pitanje o globalnim uvjetima preživljavanja čovjeka postaju središnjim predmetom zanimanja filozofije, znanosti i umjetnosti. Ako se to ima u vidu, onda ekologija nije nauka, nego kompleks materijaliteta prirodnog okoliša koji je u permanentnoj krizi, kompleks što traži odgovore na pitanja kako doprijeti do unutrašnjosti svijeta, kakav treba da bude, odnosno kakvim će taj svijet postati?
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Nowadays, pollution caused by solid waste littering is a major threat both to the environmental and human health. Previous studiesshowed that not littering solid waste and keeping the environment clean are directly correlated to the perception, knowledge, awareness, attitude and behavior of public domain regarding solid waste pollution and management. While there are many internal and external factors affecting individuals' awareness and behavior towards the environment; environmental education is at the forefront of these factors. This study investigates whether or not the courses regarding Solid Waste Pollution and Management taught in the Department of Environmental Engineering, Cyprus International University has an impact on the environmental awareness and behavior of Faculty of Engineering students. The students were surveyed in two different groups; first group of students who completed at least one course regarding Solid Waste Pollution and Management and the second group of students who did not take any course. The findings of the study show that the students who completed at least one course have more conceptual knowledge about solid waste pollution and management than those students who did not complete any course. However, the environmental courses taken did not create a positive influence on the attitude and behavior of the students particularly on waste disposal activities.
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The aim and scope of this research was to discover the games appreciated by Turkish Sephardic, American Sephardic and Turkish Muslim female children in the 1950s, their environmental teachings, and transnationalism. Old people teach children games, which can also be transnational and narrated in other countries. Oral history interviews were conducted with these three groups of women, and they were asked about the metaphors in their childhood games. These informal chats also led to the discovery of some games played by female children. Similarities of these metaphors were used to suggest a peace building theory based on environmental humanities. Accordingly, the metaphorical concepts in female children’s games were analyzed through the conceptual metaphor theory developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) for deciphering their environmentalist teachings and their impacts on the formation of children. As the transnational nature of games makes one understand that children would play together regardless of their creed and ethnicity in the 1950s, such games are recommended to be taught to today’s children who rarely play games outside their houses with other children. As a result of this study, it was found that conceptual metaphors based on the protection of the environment were similar in certain games regardless of children’s cultural backgrounds. The conceptual metaphors of “NATURE IS A MOTHER,” “ANIMALS ARE LOVE,” and “NATURE IS A SHELTER” were commonly used in these children’s games, and these similarities should be taught children by encouraging them to recognize and adapt the concept of unity in diversity. Consequently, the crimes committed by children against animals should be prevented, and children should learn the ways to preserve the environment and nature easily without damaging any plants or animals. It is crucial to teach children similar games with similar elements are played in different parts of the world. In these games, similar environmental, educative, and metaphorical objects and word games may also be used.
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As encapsulated by eco-conscious author Margaret Atwood, climate change has an unprecedented effect on human life. Throughout history human beings have adapted to numerous climatic changes by complying with the available sources of food, housing, clothing, water or warmth. Today, however, climate change creates more devastating and instant consequences that populations and the ecosystem cannot cope with. The situation seems to have become too compelling to ignore so many authors feel an urge to warn people by transforming graphs and scientific data into emotion and experience in their narratives. At this point, “climate fiction” commonly known as “cli-fi” emerges as a new category engaging global and local effects of the global warming with literature. Despite the fact that cli-fi was not officially coined until the late 2000’s, many authors have been writing about climate change for years now. In this sense, “Venice Drowned” (1981) and “The Tamarisk Hunter” which was published 25 years later are the best examples to illustrate how deep-rooted and long-standing environmental issue climate change is. Kim Stanley Robinson and Paolo Bacigalupi have produced a great deal of works relating to not only the physical destruction of climate change to the Earth but also its long-term effects on our social and economic structures. Accordingly, the stories both set in urban space skillfully exemplify the social, political and economic effects of climate change. So far, a great amount of cli-fi texts have been produced and literary critics have also responded to this trend with an increased quantity of analyses in the context of eco-criticism. In this paper “Venice Drowned” by Kim Stanley Robinson and “The Tamarisk Hunter” by Paolo Bacigalupi will be studied through the theories of ecocriticism in order to demonstrate how cli-fi texts function in providing the reader with an objective perception by elucidating the explicit and belated challenges posed by the problem of climate change.
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In the 21st century, which is referred to as the century of cities, the fact that cities face a growth trend that is considerably higher than their capacity has made cities the center of many porblems environmental degradation, energy problem, food shortage, air and water pollution , as well as poverty, inequality and exclusion. In this process, urban sustainability has emerged as an approach which handles sustainability in urban scale and aims to make cities become more livable, fair and inclusive living spaces. Urban sustainability, which is the subject of the study, is seen as a very important effort in leaving future generations livable cities. In order to achieve urban sustainability with its economic, physical, managerial, environmental and social dimensions, decisive steps which take all these dimensions into account are needed. However, it is observed that the social dimension of urban sustainability remains relatively backward. For this reason, the aim of the study is to illuminate the social dimension which is thought to be relatively backward and to put forth how the social solidarity and integration level is perceived by fellow citizens in the case of İzmir. The field study was conducted exclusively for the city of İzmir in the stated context and the results coming out of the research.
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Forest ecosystems play a crucial role in mitigating the negative impacts of global climate change as an essential carbon sink. Land use and land cover change, mainly deforestation, degradation, and afforestation, have significantly affected carbon (C) stock. This study analyzed the effects of land use and land cover changes on forest C dynamics and its spatial distribution based on demographic, socio-economic, and landscape structure in the Akçaabat forest planning unit. Moreover, forest C dynamics in aboveground, belowground, deadwood, litter, and soil were calculated separately based on forest inventory data in 1984, 2008, and 2018. While the total C stock increased by about 38.04% between 1984 and 2008, it increased only by about 4.64% between 1984 to 2018 due mainly to not including of non-state-owned areas covered with forest trees (about 4369.40 ha) in the forest management plans developed based on land cadastre in 2018. The most considerable contribution to the C pool was from the soil by about 73.39%, 72.32% and 61.60% in 1984, 2008 and 2018, respectively. Deciduous cover types, young and full covered forests, had the highest average C density with 442.61 Mg ha-1 49.65 Mg ha-1 and 144.47 Mg ha-1, respectively. Over three decades, the conversion from degraded, forest opening, and non-forest areas to productive forests as well as increasing the quality of forest structure characterized by increasing mixed forest, young or mature development stages, and full covered forests has contributed positively to the C stock. This increase in the quality of the forest can be explained by conversion abandoned agriculture areas to forested areas with migration, reduction of social pressure on forested areas based on decreasing forest crime, and increasing forest crime, and increasing aware awareness and increasing awareness and sensitivity to the environment based on economic development.
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Natural dying is the process of dying realized by yielding dyestuffs from various herbs and insects in nature. From the view of herbal variety, Anatolia is one of the richest regions in the world. In this respect, natural dyestuffs have been produced and have been used in various areas in Anatolia for centuries. Such dyestuffs have been used in Anatolian Turkish weaving culture as well. Nevertheless, the use of natural dystuffs decreased at the end of 19th century with the development of synthetical dyestuffs. At the present time, natural dying has gained paramount importance again since it is realized that synthetical dyestuffs produce toxic and carcinogenic wastes and cause environmental pollution. In this work, dyestuffs used in Anatolian Turkish hand weaving arts have been investigated and some of their applications have been presented.
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The poor supply of electricity to different settlements in Nigeria, continuing over the years now, has forced building occupants to shift to dependence on generators. This study determines the outdoor and indoor carbon monoxide levels relating to the use of generators in both residential and commercial buildings and assesses their impact on the users and environment. The study was carried out in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria, which was divided into core, transition and suburban zones. Consequently, five (5) residential and commercial buildings were purposively selected in each of the zones of the study area. The HT-1000 digital LCD carbon monoxide meter was used to take measurements of the emissions of carbon monoxide with conformity to NESREA and OSHA standards. The outdoor emission levels of carbon monoxide before or during the use of generators were taken at 0, 2 and 4m, respectively, from the external walls of the buildings sampled and the corresponding indoor measurements were taken internally at 1.2-1.5m above floor area. The data collected were analysed with the use of statistical methods, such as t-test, trend analysis and Kolmogorov Smirnov test. The results show that the values of outdoor and indoor measurements of carbon monoxide emissions levels were the highest in buildings in the core zone either before or during the use of generating sets. Reduced carbon monoxide levels during the use of generators were obtained at distance limits beyond 2m from the external walls of buildings across the zones of the study area. In view of the measurements taken and the obtained results ranging above the limits set by statutory bodies, as well as the attendant effects on the environment and building occupants, it is recommended that users of the generators should be forced to position them in enclosures located away from external walls of buildings and that the government should license only sales of generating sets with emission control mechanisms.
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This article explores the subject matter of new political parties’ survival by analysing the recent trajectory of the Green party ORaH in Croatia. ORaH emerged in October 2013; it won 9.4 percent of the vote at the 2014 European Parliament election and subsequently rose to 18.5 percent of public support in October 2014, only to collapse to 1.7 percent of the vote at the parliamentary election held in November 2015. In order to explain ORaH’s initial meteoric rise and its later equally rapid demise, we will employ studies on new and niche parties while we further elaborate our analysis of ORaH’s programme by profiling ORaH’s voter base. We also address a recurrent weakness in political party research by analysing the role of the European level of competition in increasing the chances of a new party’s survival by developing a framework that better integrates domestic and international dynamics of political party development. Our main finding is that despite its success in the 2014 European Parliament elections, and even though its electorate shares important features of the European Green voter, ORaH failed to secure parliamentary representation because of the inability of the party’s leadership to steer the party away from its initial contender status and define OraH’s policy niche.
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Along with climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic represents a specific planetary event, with surprising effects that require a rethinking of the social. The paper starts from the thesis that the pandemic essentially undermines modernity and the institutions of sovereignty, geopolitics and political economy due to their essential separation from non-human things. In the second part of the paper four propositions for a better understanding of planetary events are offered, including removing the difference of parts/wholes, non-relational thinking, rejecting the difference between global and local, and understanding collectives as constantly made in a continuum of humans and non-humas. Finally, the importance of speculation as the basis of planetary thinking is considered. There is a need to revise scientific practice and enhance its sensitivity to recognizing heterogeneous attachments of humans and non-humans in planetary settings.
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