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Rethinking Wilderness and the Wild: Conflict, Conservation and Co-existence examines the complexities surrounding the concept of wilderness. Contemporary wilderness scholarship has tended to fall into two categories: the so-called ‘fortress conservation’ and ‘co-existence’ schools of thought. This book, contending that this polarisation has led to a silencing and concealment of alternative perspectives and lines of enquiry, extends beyond these confines and in particular steers away from the dilemmas of paradise or paradox in order to advance an intellectual and policy agenda of plurality and diversity rather than of prescription and definition. Drawing on case studies from Australia...
Environmental art or ‘ecoart’ is a burgeoning field and includes a wide variety of practices, some of which are exemplified in this collection: from sculptures or installations made from discarded rubbish to intimate ephemeral artworks placed in the natural environment, or from theatrical presentations incorporated into environmental education programs to socially critical paintings. In some cases, the artworks aim to create indignation in the viewer, sometimes to educate, sometimes to create a feeling of empathy for the natural environment, or sometimes they are built into community building projects. This timely book examines various roles of the arts in building ecological sustainability. A wide range of practitioners is represented, including visual and performing artists, scientists, social researchers, environmental educators and research students. They are all united in this text in their belief that the arts are vital in the building of sustainability – in the way that they are practiced, but also the connections they make to ecology, science and indigenous culture.
Militarism is the elephant in the room of global warming. Of all government sectors, 'Defence' has the highest carbon footprint and expenditure, yet has largely been exempt from international scrutiny and regulation. Marty Branagan uses Australian and international case studies to show that nonviolence is a viable alternative to militarism for national defence and regime change. 'Active resistance', initiated in Australian environmental blockades and now adopted globally, makes the song 'We Shall Not Be Moved' much more realistic, as activists erect tripod villages, bury, chain and cement themselves into the ground, and 'lock-on' to machinery and gates. Active resistance, 'artistic activism', and use of new information and communication technologies in movements such as the Arab Spring and 'Occupy' demonstrate that nonviolence is an effective, evolving praxis.
This book explores the extent to which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has influenced peace processes in Cȏte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda. It examines how the prosecution of those who bear the greatest responsibility for crimes committed in these countries may have negatively or positively influenced the process of making peace in their wake. It is concerned with how international accountability affects post-conflict countries and what the ICC brings to peace processes. The central question addressed by the book is whether justice spurs peace in post- conflict societies or whether justice complicates the peace process. If so, how? Relying on qualitative studies in these countries, t...
This book explores the challenges of transitional justice in West Africa, specifically how countries in the region have dealt with transitional justice problems in the last 30 years (1990–2020), and how they have managed the process. Using comparative, historical, and legal analyses it examines the politics of justice after violent conflicts in West Africa, the major transitional justice mechanisms established in the region, and how countries have used these institutions to address injustice and the pains of war in some West African countries. The book examines how transitional justice mechanisms have contributed to victims’ rights, reconciliation, and peace in transitional societies, an...
This book critically explores the political ecology of human marginalization, wildlife conservation and the role of the state in politicizing conservation frameworks, drawing on examples from forests in India. The book specifically demonstrates the nuances within human-environmental linkages, by showing how environmental concerns are not only ecological in content but also political. In India a large part of the forests and their surrounding areas were inhabited far before they were designated as protected areas and inviolate zones, with the local population reliant on forests for their survival and livelihoods. Thus, socioecological conflicts between the forest dependents and official state...
Accounts of solidarity typically defend it in teleological or loyalty terms, justifying it by invoking its goal of promoting justice or its expression of support for a shared community. Such solidarity seems to be a moral option rather than an obligation. In contrast, A Moral Theory of Solidarity develops a deontological theory grounded in equity. With extended reflection on the Spanish conquest of the Americas and the US Civil Rights movement, Kolers defines solidarity as political action on others' terms. Unlike mere alliances and coalitions, solidarity involves a disposition to defer to others' judgment about the best course of action. Such deference overrides individual conscience. Yet s...
From Poland 1980-89 to Algeria 2019 we can identify seven "waves" where massive civil society mobilization has successfully challenged the ruling regimes. These changes have mainly been done outside the accepted constitutional processes and civil society actors have been central driving forces. In this booklet we have taken a closer look at Benin and the changes in 1989-90. Our hope is to inspire students and colleagues to do more research on less studied unarmed regime changes. Only by studying and evaluating the experiences of the past can we better understand and help future generations in similar situations.
This book develops a model to examine the language of humour, which is multimodal and accounts for the possibility of transmutation of humour as it is performed through editorial cartoons. By transmutation is meant the transition in the language of humour when it crosses its own boundaries to provoke unprecedented reactions resulting in offensiveness, disappointment or hurt sentiment. The transmutability about the language of humour points to its inherently diabolical nature which manifests in the performance of controversial cartoons. The model is built by borrowing theoretical cues from Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The integrated model, then, is developed to examine the cartoons which were recommended for deletion by the Thorat Committee, following a cartoon controversy in India. Through the cartoon analysis, the model discerns the significance of context and temporality in determining the impact of humour. It also examines how the ethics of humour; the blurred lines of political correctness and incorrectness are dictated by the political atmosphere and the power dynamics.
Ecoarts practice is evolving quickly as a practice. While much of it is made by individual artists working alone, artists are increasingly combining into multi-artist collectives, and collaborating with scientists, sustainability professionals, industry or the community to develop artworks with quite far-reaching effects. This book describes an extraordinary range of artistic practices pitched to encourage people to adopt pro-environmental behaviours by provoking, persuading, providing information, creating empathy for nature or by being built into sustainability practices themselves. It brings together 28 contributors who examine different roles of the arts in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. There is a wide range of practitioners represented here, including visual and performing artists, sustainability professionals, social researchers, environmental educators, research students and academics. The contributors to this book are united in believing that the arts are vital in promoting pro-environmental behavior in the way that they are practiced, but also in the connections they make to ecology, science and Indigenous culture.