A new temperament construct based on recent brain physiology literature has been investigated using the Fisher Temperament Inventory (FTI). Four collections of behaviors emerged, each associated with a specific neural system: the dopamine, serotonin, testosterone, and estrogen/oxytocin system. These four temperament suites have been designated: (1) Curious/Energetic, (2) Cautious/Social Norm Compliant, (3) Analytical/Tough-minded, and (4) Prosocial/Empathetic temperament dimensions. Two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have suggested that the FTI can measure the influence of these neural systems. In this paper, (...) to further the behavioral validation and characterization of the four proposed temperament dimensions, we measured correlations with five variables: (1) gender; (2) level of education; (3) religious preference; (4) political orientation; (5) the degree to which an individual regards sex as essential to a successful relationship. Subjects were 39,913 anonymous members of a US Internet dating site and 70,000+ members in six other countries. Correlations with the five variables characterize the FTI and are consistent with mechanisms using the proposed neuromodulators. We also report on an analysis between the FTI and the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, using a college sample ( n = 215), which showed convergent validity. The results provide novel correlates not available in other questionnaires: religiosity, political orientation, and attitudes about sex in a relationship. Also, an Eigen analysis replicated the four clusters of co-varying items. The FTI, with its broad systems and non-pathologic factors complements existing personality questionnaires. It provides an index of some brain systems that contribute to temperament, and may be useful in psychotherapy, business, medicine, and the legal community. (shrink)

BackgroundIn clinical research, obtaining informed consent from participants is an ethical and legal requirement. Conveying the information concerning the study can be done using multiple methods yet this step commonly relies exclusively on the informed consent form alone. While this is legal, it does not ensure the participant’s true comprehension. New effective methods of conveying consent information should be tested. In this study we compared the effect of different methods on the knowledge of caregivers of participants of a clinical trial (...) on Pemba Island, Tanzania.MethodsA total of 254 caregivers were assigned to receive (i) a pamphlet (n = 63), (ii) an oral information session (n = 62) or (iii) a pamphlet and an oral information session (n = 64) about the clinical trial procedures, their rights, benefits and potential risks. Their post-intervention knowledge was assessed using a questionnaire. One group of caregivers had not received any information when they were interviewed (n = 65).ResultsIn contrast to the pamphlet, attending an information session significantly increased caregivers’ knowledge for some of the questions. Most of these questions were either related to the parasite (hookworm) or to the trial design (study procedures).ConclusionsIn conclusion, within our trial on Pemba Island, a pamphlet was found to not be a good form of conveying clinical trial information while an oral information session improved knowledge. Not all caregivers attending an information session responded correctly to all questions; therefore, better forms of communicating information need to be found to achieve a truly informed consent. (shrink)

Anthropogenic climate change is an existential threat to the people of sinking island states. When their territories inevitably disappear, what, if anything, do the world's remaining territorial st...

Buryats are a community that is a tribe of Mongols and lives in the Altay geography, has encountered various religions throughout history. Although Lake Baikal is located within the borders of the Irkutsk Autonomous Region, it has a very important place for the Buryat community. For the Buryat community, which adheres to their traditional beliefs, Olkhon Island, located in Lake Baikal, is seen as a legacy and sacred place left by their ancestors. According to the belief, Olkhon Island (...) is considered one of the most important global poles of shamanic energy for the Buryat community, thought to provide a connection with the metaphysical realm through the special areas it contains. Olkhon Island, including various mythological elements and legends, has been home to Altay communities. Some of beliefs about Olkhon Island are considered valuable in terms of showing the common elements of the Mongolian and Turkish communities that have lived together throughout history and being able to reveal their interaction with each other. In this article, the relationship of Olkhon Island with the sacred and its importance in terms of world cultural heritage is evaluated by using descriptive and comparative methods. Olkhon Island will provide valuable data on the basis of the beliefs of the mentioned communities when evaluated in the context of their interaction and connection with the outside world being quite limited, the preservation and maintenance of the traditional beliefs of the Turkish and Mongolian communities. (shrink)

Everyday our vision travels across time and space. We see images in the media about atrocities, disruptions, crises, famine, and wars. And in each case our sense of injustice is awakened. We feel outrage and indignation based upon our ideals and value systems which were formed through our traditions and religions. But in this age where the power of media and information is so powerful, what we see is often manufactured to appeal to our values. While these values circulate among (...) the images we see in cyberspace, these manipulations are rooted in certain realities: geography, natural resources, and power relationships. Our values are managed to serve the control of resources and territory. They serve the deeper reality of geography and geopolitics. How then are these ideals and values created, manipulated, and opposed across various pivots or boundaries, between East and West, between the individual and the collective? Through English geographer Sir Halford Mackinder’s concepts of “pivot” and “heartland”; German philosopher Carl Schmitt’s importance of “nomos”; and French writer Victor Segalen’s reflections on the loss of cultural diversity, we outline this priority of geography. By examining these writers, we can begin to ask if our ideals and values have any real moral or theological significance, or if they are merely effects of the competition between powers. Can ideals and values lead to real change and development, or are they merely leashes to guide us based on the aims of power? (shrink)

Global climate change is likely to become a major cause of future migration. Small Island States are particularly vulnerable since territorial destruction caused by sea level rise poses a threat to their entire existence. This raises important issues concerning state sovereignty and self-determination. Is it possible for a state to remain self-determining even if it lacks a stable population residing on a specific territory? It has been suggested that migrants from disappearing Small Island States could continue to exercise (...) sovereign control over their abandoned territory. Such an arrangement would allow them to retain a measure of self-determination. The question posed in this paper is whether this?deterritorialized state proposal? is conceptually plausible and normatively acceptable. It is argued that the proposal is conceptually plausible if we adopt a gradual understanding of?self-determination?, but that its normative acceptability is weak even if it is supplemented with compensatory measures. (shrink)

Unprecedented runaway climate change and ecological degradation is argued to be caused by the dominant capitalist mode of production’s reliance on endless economic growth and capital accumulation. Businesses and organisations are expected to act in an ecologically and socially ethical way to help avert the crisis. Yet, there has arguably been little progress in this direction. The conventional ethical frameworks are generally subsumed under capitalism’s reliance on growth that effectively delegate business ethics to a peripheral and, often, contradictory pursuit, insufficient (...) to influence ecologically and socially sustainable business conduct. We therefore explore an alternative approach by operationalising business ethics through organisational values from a post-growth perspective. By analysing the case of a social cooperative, we highlight how post-growth organisational values emerge through the organisation’s history, the members’ experience, and active contrasting to the dominant capitalist value systems. We contribute to business ethics scholarship by highlighting the potential of post-growth organisational ethics and values in creating contrasts to the dominant capitalist values. Our research further contributes to sustainability scholarship, particularly post-growth perspectives, by highlighting that organising through post-growth values in contrast to the dominant economic system is not only possible, but essential to achieve sustainability. Ultimately, our research illustrates the need for political engagement in upholding organisational ethics, in the face of the ecological crisis. (shrink)

Agriculture has long struggled to reconcile production with biodiversity conservation. Industrial farming practices that erode structural complexity within crop fields and across entire landscapes, as well as widespread pesticide use, have resulted in declining insect abundance and diversity globally. Recognition of socio-environmental consequences have spurred alternative pest management paradigms such as integrated pest management (IPM) and conservation biological control (CBC), which emphasize ecology as the scientific foundation for a sustainable agriculture. However, adoption of these approaches at scales large enough to (...) impact biodiversity has been slow, particularly in industrialized countries. Landscape-scale management is an integral component of ecological agriculture, making pest control and biodiversity conservation collective problems that require coordination among multiple stakeholders. The extent to which farmers recognize and act upon this perspective is not well studied. Through literature synthesis and a case study of Southern Wisconsin, I analyze factors shaping farmer adoption of insect and landscape management practices through the lens of constrained choice. I argue that multiple overlapping institutions (social networks, market forces, science and technology, and political-legal systems) co-produce farmer behaviors and landscape structure, largely to the detriment of ecological pest control and biodiversity. Wisconsin farmers' entomological concerns largely overlook beneficial insect species and eschew landscape thinking. Ultimately, slowing agricultural drivers of insect biodiversity declines will likely require large-scale coordination and political-economic change. (shrink)

섬은 뭍에 비해 이동하는 데 장애가 되는 바다로 둘러싸여 있다. 섬의 이러한 공간적 특징은 변방의 변방, 소외된 공간이라는 디스토피아적 섬 인식을 강화한다. 그러면서 천연의 자연경관과 내력을 가진 특별한 공간이라는 유토피아적 섬 인식을 강화하기도 한다. 섬이라는 하나의 공간이 이렇게 차별과 배제의 디스토피아, 그리고 평등과 자유의 유토피아로 양극화된다는 현실적 모순은 헤테로토피아(Heterotopia)라는 개념으로 섬을 호명하게끔 한다. 헤테로토피아는 유토피아가 ‘부재(不在)의 공간’이라는 사실을 폭로하는 개념이기 때문이다. 이 연구에서는 그동안 차별과 배제의 디스토피아나 현실 부재의 유토피아로 존재함으로써 장소성을 빼앗기고 있었던 섬이 역설적으로 치유자원으로 소비되는 오늘날의 ‘현실 인식과 (...) 태도’를 서양 공간론의 흐름을 통해서 비판적으로 검토했다. “공간에서 장소”로, “장소에서 다시 공간”으로 옮겨오고 있는 서양 공간론 가운데서도 푸코의 ‘헤테로피아’를 통해 ‘부재하는 공간’에 대한 인식의 전환을, 르페브르의 ‘재현의 공간’을 통해서 저항적 실천의 가능성과 필요를 확인할 수 있기 때문이다. 이에 따르면 오늘날 ‘힐링의 섬’으로 주목받고 있는 제주 섬이 현실 부재의 공간이 아닌 실재 공간으로서 장소성을 확보하려면, ‘재현의 공간’이라는 측면에서 재인식되어야 하고, 이를 바탕으로 한 저항적 실천이 이루어져야 한다. (shrink)

_Ways of Being in the World_ is an anthology of the Indigenous philosophical thought of communities across Turtle Island, offering readings on a variety of topics spanning many times and geographic locations. It was created especially to meet the needs of instructors who want to add Indigenous philosophy to their courses but are unsure where to begin—as well as for students, Indigenous or otherwise, who wish to broaden their horizons with materials not found in the typical philosophy course. This (...) collection is an invitation to embark on a relationship with Indigenous peoples through the introduction of their unique philosophies. (shrink)

Purpose This study aims to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can ethically and effectively support climate resilience in small island developing states (SIDS). It presents a context-sensitive analysis that integrates ethical AI governance principles into regional adaptation strategies, addressing key structural and systemic barriers such as limited data infrastructure and inequitable access to climate finance. Design/methodology/approach The study applies a qualitative thematic analysis, guided by Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework, on a curated corpus of ten diverse documents, including (...) peer-reviewed papers, UN policy reports, AI system overviews and technical evaluations of resilience platforms. To validate thematic patterns, natural language processing (NLP) tools such as keyword frequency and bigram analysis were applied. Findings Four dominant themes emerged: (1) the necessity of open-access data platforms for regional resilience collaboration; (2) the integration of ethical AI governance frameworks; (3) the critical importance of community-centered adaptation approaches; and (4) persistent barriers in accessing climate finance. The convergence between manual thematic coding and NLP-supported validation reinforced the credibility of the findings. Research limitations/implications The study is based solely on document analysis and does not include field-based engagement with SIDS communities. Future research could incorporate participatory methods (e.g. interviews and codesign workshops) or evaluate specific AI-driven initiatives to strengthen contextual validation. Practical implications The paper offers actionable guidance for policymakers, including the establishment of regional data-sharing ecosystems, the adoption of ethical AI frameworks, investment in local technical capacity and reforms in international climate finance mechanisms to enhance equity for SIDS. Originality/value By integrating ethical governance into AI climate resilience strategies tailored to small island contexts, this study addresses a significant gap in current scholarship and provides a scalable framework that balances technological innovation with environmental justice and regional equity. (shrink)

Sometimes it feels like you need a Ph.D. to follow the show. But you don't. You just need this book in which twenty-one philosophers explore the deep questions we all face as survivors on this planet: Does "everything happen for a reason"? Is torture ever justified? Who are the Others? How do we know we're not patients in Hurley's psych ward? What if the Dharma Intitiative is experimenting on us? Desmond may not be able to save Charlie, but this book (...) could save you. A provocative study of the hit television show, _Lost_, currently in its third season and set to reach its climax in 2010 Highlights the sense in which _Lost_ is a genuinely philosophical show Helps fans understand and navigate some of _Lost’s_ deeper meanings Connects episodes and events in the show to core philosophical issues such as truth, identity, and morality Shows that it’s no accident that there are _Lost _characters names Locke, Rousseau, and Hume. (shrink)

Contingent Valuation has been promoted as a catch-all approach to environmental valuation. While there have been numerous attempts in recent years to place monetary values on environmental amenities, studies have often reported a high frequency of protest, zero or inordinately large dollar-value responses. This paper reports on the results of a survey designed to obtain information on how people actually interpret questions of paying to avoid changes in their views of Rangitoto Island. Evidence suggests that the meaning respondents attach (...) to the actual dollar values they offer or bid are inconsistent with the conventional logic that underlies Contingent Valuation. Instead, respondents might be seen to be expressing views about how things ought to be in society, and that it is simply not right to develop Rangitoto Island. (shrink)

Scholars were greatly indebted to Max Charlesworth for publishing in 1965 the Latin text of Anselm’s Proslogion, together with his own translation and commentary. The intense discussion this argument has received since then has, however, clarified a number of points about the logic of this argument. Its first premise is not a definition of God, and that identification is one of the conclusions of a three-stage argument. Also, the much-discussed issue of the relation of Chap. 3 to Chap. 2 has (...) now been clarified: that the premise with which Anselm begins Chap. 3 is entailed by the conclusion of Chap. 2. For that reason, substituting a description of anything other than God for Anselm’s formula, such as Gaunilo’s Lost Island, entails that that thing both can and could not be thought not to exist. So, no such substitution is legitimate. (shrink)

The paper outlines and immediately discusses the so-called ‘soft’ impossibility, i.e., non-logical impossibility generated by modal realism. It will be shown that although in a particular case genuine modal realism, straightforwardly applied, deems impossible a proposition that other philosophers have claimed to be (intuitively) possible, there is a variety of methodologically acceptable moves available in order to avoid the problem. The impossibility at issue is the existence of island universes. Given the Lewisian analysis there are three points at which (...) we might try to square genuine modal realism with such a controversial and problematic claim of (im)possibility, namely: a) the contraction of our pre-theoretical opinions about possibility, b) the revision of some Lewisian definitions and/or c) the extension of our ontological commitments. I shall look at each of these approaches applied to the problematic case. (shrink)

This paper details the evolution of activism against genetically modified organisms on the Big Island of Hawai’i. It offers an explanation for the ability of rural residents on the Big Island to pass anti-GMO legislation while other states and communities have tried and failed. I argue that the Big Island’s recent anti-GMO legislative success is due to the articulation of interests and actions between settlers to Hawai’i and Native Hawaiian community members seeking to protect Native Hawaiian rights. (...) Tracing the history of the anti-GMO movement on Big Island highlights the unique circumstances that facilitated the passage of this bill, and is also significant for making sense of the potential future trajectories of anti-GMO-related food sovereignty movements elsewhere. (shrink)

This article examines the changing status of tropical biology by considering the origins and early development of the Barro Colorado Island Biological Laboratory. Today the laboratory is part of a large diversified tropical research center operated by the Smithsonian Institution. However, for most of its history the laboratory led a tenuous existence. Both the early problems and eventual success of the institution can only be explained by considering the interaction of various intellectual, institutional, and broader social factors.

The 1979 partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island was simultaneously hyper-visible and hidden from public view. It was the subject of non-stop media attention, but its causes and consequences required expert explanation. No fire or explosion marked the moment when insensible radionuclides escaped the facility. Yet, residents recalled a variety of troubling sights, sounds, odors, tastes, and sensations. Public distrust percolated in the interstices between government assertions that little radiation had escaped the facility and residents’ sense memories (...) of the incident. This article traces intertwined networks of activists from Japan and Pennsylvania as they mobilized legally, politically, and scientifically to develop evidence about the offsite effects of Three Mile Island. Exploring the distinct cosmology of evidence that activists marshaled, the article shows how they placed the messy, contingent, dynamic living world at the center of inquiries about the meltdown’s consequences. Activists developed new practices of biological witness that reconfigured the interplay between scientific, legal, and moral authority, while concurrently reformulating sufferers’ subjectivities and notions of scientific objectivity. In the process, they suggested that environmental justice entailed epistemic justice. Their cosmology of evidence served as an argument and a material proof that the beloved but suffering living world, and the sciences used to understand it, could and should frame the governance of industrial society’s invisible harms. (shrink)

Many business graduates regard management consultancy firms as a desirable, even utopian, career destination. Hythloday's description of the island of Utopia identifies several characteristics that resonate with aspects of the management consulting industry. They include its separation from the rest of humanity, the Utopians' attitude to acquiring knowledge, their commitment to their way of life, their attitude to work, the governance structure of their state, and their attitude to wealth. These characteristics may be compared and contrasted with management consultancy (...) firms' elite identities, their knowledge intensity, their use of standardized methods, their cultural commitment to intensive work, the autonomy that they allow their members in their practice, and their commitment to achieving ambitious financial targets. This article uses Thomas More's _Utopia_ (1516) as an analytical framework for understanding the utopian visions of management consulting that some business graduates form, and for exploring how alternative, perhaps better, visions might be imagined. (shrink)

This study attempts to scrutinize Herbert George Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau according to Francesca Ferrando’s Posthumanism Theory (2009). It approaches vital issues and questions via the posthumanist criticism of the main character Dr. Moreau in the novel depending on the application issues of Ferrando’s theory. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) presents a realistic reading of the modern debate of Posthumanism according to the moral and social world of human identity. Furthermore, this study exposes the (...) importance of Posthumanism as an essential concept in highlighting techno-science in current studies and futuristic ones. Thus, Wells’ novel deals with the effect of biotechnology and medicine on human identity, reflected in the theory of evolution and the posthuman theory. Embodied by Ferrando’s work, the study significantly aims to stimulate a new dimension of understanding, sympathy, interconnectedness, like-mindedness, and honor all species. Such a standpoint exposes the historical and scientific technology context of the novel. On the other hand, it shows the conceptual foundations of posthumanity embedded in the delusion of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859). The novel mirrors the impossible ethics of evolution theory in addition to the common problematic sympathy for all species whether human or nonhuman. (shrink)

This multispecies ethnography investigates how free-roaming ponies and humans participate in the production of “pony wildness” on Assateague Island, a barrier island located off the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast. The bordering practices of ponies intersect with the bordering practices of people to generate a relational conception of pony wildness that incorporates in people-pony relations a desire for intimacy with respect for autonomy, in a multifunctional landscape managed both as wilderness and as a beach tourism destination. This notion of pony (...) wildness includes nonhuman charisma, fluidity, and managing human visitors. We conclude by discussing how the fluidity of pony wildness can help us think more imaginatively about other contexts in which communities of free-roaming nonhuman animals share space with human communities. (shrink)

Le film américain Fire Island (2022), réalisé par Andrew Ahn et scénarisé par Joel Kim Booster (qui y joue également l’un des rôles principaux), a été décrit de manière quelque peu trompeuse par la critique comme une modernisation et une transposition directe d’Orgueil et préjugés de Jane Austen (1813). Ces interprétations du film négligent son caractère intertextuel marqué : on y trouve de nombreuses autres références, non seulement au film Clueless d’Amy Heckerling (1995), qui est lui-même une adaptation du (...) roman Emma d’Austen (1815), mais aussi au recueil de nouvelles Runaway d’Alice Munro, paru en 2004. Fire Island noue un dialogue complexe avec Austen, Heckerling et Munro, alors que Booster s’interroge sur le déclin de la culture lettrée dans le contexte socio-historique qui est le sien. S’opposant à Austen et Munro et se ralliant à Heckerling, Booster conclut que l’entrelacement progressif de la culture savante et de la culture populaire à notre époque mérite d’être célébré plutôt que dénigré. (shrink)

This research determines specific sustainability related challenges for hotels on small island destinations and how obstacles can be overcome or avoided through innovative and integrative management techniques. It should aid hotel practitioners in the establishment of an efficient long-term stable business approach supported by academic and field research. According to a review of pertinent literature, there is no published paper offering a comprehensive approach to sustainable hospitality management (SHM) specific to small island destinations. Therefore, this topic is of (...) major significance to identify practical solutions in key categories. Primary research for this paper was conducted via semi-structured interviews with hoteliers and various field experts in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Information from which is integrated into core research as well as presented at the end via a case study on the current state of SHM in the BVI. Determined factors that make SHM difficult on small island destinations (SIDs) are: Isolation from economies of scale, natural scarcity of resources, dependence on imports, increasing demand, and fragile ecosystems. Key areas of focus for SHM on small islands have been identified as: Energy, waste, water, food and beverage, and wildlife conservation. Globally, there exist many examples of NGO, governmental, business, and local initiatives in this field. This paper demonstrates that the maintenance of a long-term successful tourism industry on small islands requires hotels to play a large role in the development and implementation of sustainable solutions. (shrink)

This paper aims to explore the so-called Alternativendebatte (Kurt Seelman) – and in particular the problem of alternatives to law (Castanheira Neves) – by developing a deliberate exercise in law in literature. As this problem concerns the institutionalization of plausible social orders in which law (as an autonomous, civilizationally specific order of validity) remains absent, two major novels by Aldous Huxley (the first published in 1931 and the second more than thirty years later!) are revisited: the aim is in fact (...) to confront the (very well-known) overlap between a totalitarian order of necessity and a rational order of possibility (if not social engineering) which characterizes the global society (the “world State”) represented in Brave New World (1931) with the (less wellknown) experience of continuum between ethics, morality, science, philosophy, mysticism and shared narratives which distinguishes the utopian experience of (eastern) Pala fictionalized in Island (1962). The intention is not, however, to pursue a purely intellectual exercise (more or less arbitrarily conceived) — far less to reconstitute in detail the historical-cultural contexts which inspired both novels — but instead to examine whether the counterpoint deliberately constructed by Huxley in these two masterworks offers a specific contribution to the contemporary discussion on law (and law’s cultural project), namely when considering the emergence of an alternative of pure ethics and the challenge of inter-civilizational debates (if not, in global terms, the need to distinguish between alternatives to law in the Western-European canon and alternatives to law beyond this canon). (shrink)

This study is an Asian ecofeminist reading of two Great Mother Goddesses, Seolmundae (the Creator of Jeju Island in Korea) and Nüwa (the Protector Goddess of Chinese mythology). Nüwa (yin) cannot be reduced to just a counter part of Fuxi (yang) while Seolmundae cannot be shadowed as one of many other creation myths. Rather, they are the Great Mother, the Divine Feminine as the fecundity of Life, the healing Spirit, and the caring Heart which we have to discover and (...) rescue from our forgotten histories to transform violent culture into caring and healing culture. The purpose of this study is to say yes to salim (enlivening, healing, caring-Life with a capital L) and to say no to disruptions of Life (war, violence, destroying nature) as we witness the physical and spiritual sufferings and degradation caused by oppression of those that rendered subaltern. Discovering the Goddess is our ethical imperative for expanding healing culture and loving nature and recognizing the agencies/subjectivities of the subaltern, including Asian women and nature. (shrink)

This chapter tracks Amitav Ghosh’s shifting representations of endangered cetaceans in The Hungry Tide (2004) and its loose sequel, Gun Island (2019). We begin by outlining how Ghosh’s dolphins are figured as postcolonial animals whose representation registers the planetary inequalities of extinction while also decolonizing dominant dolphin aesthetics. Then, we suggest that Ghosh’s writing of dolphins exemplifies his project’s self-conscious stylistic movement from a mimetic realism towards a more self-consciously animist form. What’s at stake in The Hungry Tide’s and (...) Gun Island’s plotting of human–dolphin relations, then, is a desire to reanimate the novel as a cultural form for making sense of climate crisis. This opens up novel ways of writing ecological relations. Yet it also risks reproducing the longstanding historical tendency to find resolution and salvation in the redemptive figure of the dolphin. (shrink)

Though it is most often imagined as an island continent, Australia is an archipelago set within a complex of archipelagoes. It is a relationship that must be seen as a dynamic historical process implying that the archipelagic chains of connection between Australia and the Indo-Australian Archipelago are processual, performative and complexly intertwined. Archipelagic thinking shifts the ‘geography of reason’ from one that is essentialist and co-produced with a Eurocentric, geolocational, property-based understanding of territorialisation and governance, to one that is (...) heterotopic, multi-scalar, multi-ontological, dynamic and emergent. Its multi-spatiality not only embraces Indigenous perspectives and the geopolitical processes through which Island Southeast Asia came to be occupied, it also creates a knowledge space for the development of postcolonial justice. Archipelagic thinking is inherently cosmopolitical, given its emphasis on multiplicity and real difference. Establishing a regenerative cultural and environmental commons is the best way forward. (shrink)

Batik is a cultural heritage of Indonesia that contains various philosophical values embedded in each motif or ornament on every piece of fabric. The growth and development of batik continue to increase across different regions in Indonesia, as evidenced by the rising number of new motifs, each reflecting local cultural meanings. There are two types of coloring processes in batik fabric: natural dyes and synthetic dyes. Over time, the use of natural dyes in batik has gained more attention as an (...) eco-friendly alternative to synthetic dyes. This study aims to compare the natural color results produced from Mahogany bark using water from two different sources: Karimunjawa Island and Jepara. The research method used is a quantitative approach involving material exploration, observation, and color analysis. The exploration process includes extracting color from Mahogany bark using water from the two sources, aiming to assess the sharpness of color produced by each water type. The resulting extract is then used to dye batik fabric through mordanting and dyeing processes. The research findings show that water characteristics, such as pH, mineral content, and ion concentration, significantly influence the intensity and stability of the resulting color. Color measurement was conducted using a spectrophotometer to obtain quantitative data, along with visual evaluation for qualitative observation. Data analysis revealed clear differences in dyeing results between the water sources, where water from Jepara produced more intense and vibrant colors. This is attributed to its higher mineral content and optimal pH level for tannin extraction. This study provides new insights into the influence of water quality on natural dyeing outcomes and offers a more environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative in batik production. It is expected that the results can support the preservation of traditional dyeing techniques, contribute to higher education’s Tri Dharma values, and encourage the development of a more eco-conscious batik industry. (shrink)

In the process of rapid urbanization, urban heat island effect has been showing more and more significant impacts on human well-being. Therefore, a more detailed understanding of the impact of three-dimensional building morphology on UHI effect across a continuum of spatial scales will be necessary to guide and improve the human settlement.This study selected 31 provincial capital cities of mainland China to analyze the impacts of the 3D building morphology, including the number, area, height, volume, and the surface area (...) of the buildings, on the land surface temperature. By exploring how the influence of 3D building morphology on LST changes with the increase of spatial scale, this study finally recognized which 3D building morphology index is the most significant index affecting LST in different cities, and which spatial scale these 3D building morphology indexes have the most significant impact on LST. The results showed that the building area is the most important 3D building morphology parameter affecting the LST, while the building height has the slightest influence on the LST. These effects are more significant in the spatial scale of 150 m–540 m, and the spatial scale increases with the increase of building areas in developed cities. These results highlight the necessity of considering fine-grained management in the governance and alleviating of the urban thermal environment through urban planning and urban renewal strategies. (shrink)

The paper analyses aspects of multilingual and multimodal narratives employed during the COVID-19 lockdown, attempting to identify how they were used in professional and public environments. More specifically, the paper looks at editing choices, photography, design, drawing, colour, and writing to get a better understanding of multimodal communication, semiotics, image analysis, and their correlation with the written text and the way it has been perceived and interpreted, be it in online or print-based contexts. Methodologically, this is a contrastively inspired research (...) project, looking specifically at Portuguese-speaking contexts of the Island of Madeira and English-speaking contexts of the United Kingdom, taking into account instructions about the COVID-19 pandemic. These are mainly bilingual English–Portuguese and multilingual texts, multimodal manifestations, and communicative and semiotic effectiveness. (shrink)

By the time George Wilton Field concluded his work at the marine laboratory his initial scientific concerns had forced him directly into local politics. He pleaded with little success with the community of South Kingstown, and with no success with the town of Narragansett, to create and maintain a permanent breach:Is it not possible for the acute business sense and the broad philanthropy of the community to sweep aside petty, local, and personal jealousies which are now blocking practical progress for (...) the establishment of a permanent breach at Point Judith Pond? It is truly criminal neglect which permits fifteen hundred acres of valuable water-farming area to lie practically idle and rapidly deteriorate with each passing year.... In the opinion of the writer the Point Judith Pond and those of similar type could be made the seat of oyster, clam, crab, herring, white perch, and striped bass fisheries.30In the summer of 1899 Field was invited to teach a summer course on echinoderms at the MBL in Woods Hole, and to conduct summer research in a laboratory of the U.S. Fish Commission, also located at Woods Hole. When the summer was over, he remained there. Whether he had intentions of returning to resume his position in Rhode Island is unclear. At this point all correspondence with the Agricultural Experiment Station ceases, and Field's last report is a brief statement in the annual report of the experiment station for 1900 wherein he laments the variety of experiments he has not been able to carry to conclusion, such as a study of the artificial fertilization of water analogous to the method of chemically fertilizing the land for crops.The correspondence reveals that the enthusiasm Field brought to Point Judith Pond in 1896 was gradually sapped by his own fragile health, by three years' exposure to the local politics surrounding the southern Rhode Island fishing industry, and by a college administration determined to remove the stench of his invertebrates. He sought a refuge in the sheltered world of pure research at the U.S. Fish Commission Laboratory, where he set out to investigate the “Origin of Sex” using, as his animal models, squid and toadfish.On November 14, 1899, the Board of Managers of the college ordered the director of the experiment station to dispose of the marine laboratory at Point Judith Pond.31 How long the laboratory at Buttonwood Point survived in the institutional memory of the University of Rhode Island is open to question. The current Graduate School of Oceanography, in the event, traces its history back to 1937, not 1896.Nevertheless, Field and his one-room marine station established a precedent of land-grant marine research that other state colleges would follow, including Rhode Island itself, which reestablished its marine station, this time permanently, at South Ferry in 1937. In his brief research career in Rhode Island, George Wilton Field had discovered the same coastal attributes that would lead later to the creation of one of the world's major marine research centers at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography.And, in a measure of triumph for his work, little more than a year after Field left for Woods Hole and his laboratory was dismantled, the town of South Kingstown voted the funds necessary to begin the construction of a permanent breachway.32 Whether Field's scientific reasoning and the conclusions of his marine research played any part in finally deciding the thirty-year-old debate in the affirmative will probably never be known. What is evident is that Field had no patience for those who could not see the results of his research as clearly as he could himself. (shrink)

This article examines questions of trust in cinema through the lens of Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010). With its self-referential allusion to the mechanical “eye” of a camera, a stage-managed fantasy embedded within its plot and image of a dark lighthouse, Shutter Island explores its spectators' and its own cinematic sense of suspicion. The plot revolves around a protagonist who has locked himself out of certain memories and into a fantasy world. The article links pathological and therapeutic aspects (...) of trust with interpersonal and institutional trust issues in ways that blur distinctions between trusting others and trusting oneself, and shows how reliant each is on the other. Construing trust as a type of participant attitude and highlighting techniques used to render it cinematically, the article tracks its emergence and erosion, both in terms of the diegesis and its bearing on film spectatorship. As a post-classical commentary on film-making, Shutter Island is viewed as intricately exemplifying what Robert Sinnerbrink (2016) describes as an action-driven film with “a highly reflective consciousness of cinematic spectatorship” (p. 70), as well as what Thomas Elsaesser (2009) describes as a “mind-game film”. To make sense of its ending, which may strike viewers as baffling and unnerving, and show how the protagonist's seemingly irrational decision is part of its film-philosophical point, traumatic disturbances in subjectivity and “monstrosities” depicted in the film are linked to Jean Epstein's notion of “something monstrous” in cinematic imagery. The protagonist's deliberately chosen fate is interpreted as a reparative gesture, expressing a desire for psychological healing and a way of helping him to marshal and recover a semblance of moral order and integrity under demoralizing circumstances. (shrink)

A conceptual framework influenced bythe concept of moral ecology is developed andused to analyze the transition fromtechnological (green revolution) to ecological(organic) rice farming by resource poor farmersfrom the Philippine island of Bohol. This MoralEcology Framework (MEF) focuses on theepistemology of the two farming systems and howthis influences management principles andpractice. The orienting concepts of systemic understanding, exchange betweensociety and the environment, local versusextra-local exchange and scope areintegral to this analysis. The case studydemonstrates how the ostracism of nature underthe green (...) revolution coupled with itsinflexible production options affected thesustainability of some local rice farmingsystems. Whereas the transition to organicfarming and the concomitant incorporation ofecological processes and more flexibleproduction options has allowed local farmers toenhance the sustainability of their farmingsystems by altering the exchange processeswithin the socio-ecological system. (shrink)

Unlike adjunct wh’s-in-situ, argument wh’s-in-situ do not seem to be subject to island constraints in Chinese and other East Asian languages. This difference in island sensitivity between argument and adjunct wh’s-in-situ is known as argument–adjunct asymmetry in the theoretical literature. Recently, this long-established asymmetry is challenged by a formal judgment study. It was claimed in the study that this asymmetry is an illusion and both argument and adjunct wh’s-in-situ are subject to island constraints. The present study demonstrates (...) that such a claim is not convincing because it is based on problematic experimental design. We designed two experiments to test the island effects on Chinese wh’s-in-situ. The results reaffirm that the argument–adjunct asymmetry in Chinese wh’s-in-situ is indeed present, contrary to the findings of previous formal judgment study, and they also corroborate our assumption that when object wh’s-in-situ like shénme ‘what’ are located inside a relative clause, they are subject to a pragmatic constraint, suggesting that the VP in the relative clause tends to describe the prominent/salient feature of the relativized nominal head. (shrink)

It has become commonplace to interpret 'Easter Island' in terms of an environmental allegory, a Malthusian morality tale of the consequences of over-exploitation of limited natural resources. There are, however, ethical dangers in treating places and peoples allegorically, as moralized means (lessons) to satisfy others' edificatory ends. Allegory reductively appropriates the past, presenting a specific interpretation as 'given' (fixed) and exemplary, wrongly suggesting that meanings and morals, like islands, are there to be 'discovered' ready-formed. Gadamer's hermeneutics suggests an alternative (...) understanding which expresses something of the ethical ambiguities involved in giving meaning to the environmental history of Easter Island. (shrink)

This article examines women who have been antinuclear activists at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for two decades. Qualitative interviews focus on their perceived transformations over time that are based on gender and everyday experiences. They perceive gender as both a barrier and a facilitator to activism, even after 20 years. Women describe their technological education as one strategy to overcome the barrier of gender. On the other hand, they consider the gendered role of motherhood as a (...) primary catalyst for action. In addition, they discuss individual everyday experiences focused on the health concerns for family members that influenced their political activity. Over time, women linked personal transformations with increased political understanding and involvement. (shrink)