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The Irish Natural World 1581Poet and the -1819: An Anthology of Verse in English from the Tudors to the Romantics.
No full textTeaching Thoreau in China: Waldensian Reflections on Chinese Ecology and Agriculture
No full textIt may seem quixotic to teach Walden, the archetypal American ode to self-reliance and wildness, in Wuhan, one of China’s largest industrial cities. Nevertheless, I was excited when I found out I would have the opportunity to give a series of lectures on Thoreau at Wuhan University of Technology, the third largest university in China. This would give me the chance to discuss pressing ecological and cultural issues in the context of one of the most rapidly industrializing countries in the world. China’s environmental problems are widely reported, and if China can’t find a way to develop its vast economy more sustainably, then the entire world will suffer the consequences. Through this opportunity, Thoreau provided me with a helpful perspective from which to understand China’s ecological, agricultural, and political situation.
Thoreau attempts repeatedly to reconcile the train that ran next to Walden Pond with his pastoral life, but the industrial and pastoral remained stubbornly at odds. This opposition describes modern China pretty well also, and their railroad system is a profound example of their rapid industrialization. Yet at the same time that China is building high-speed rail, erecting new high-rises, and coping with smog, much of the country continues to be farmed by peasants using traditional methods.
For Thoreau, the countryside acts as a site for political resistance; he can move out to Walden Pond, establish a life apart from an oppressive, slaveholding government, and consider how to participate in a more just economy and culture. Such a tradition of protest and civil disobedience has been largely tamped down in China. As long as the government delivers basic services, most citizens are content to mind their own affairs; those who speak out just bring trouble on themselves and their families. One Chinese poet who was inspired by Thoreau, Hai Zi, wrote poetry protesting industrialization and the destruction of the countryside, but he eventually lost hope and committed suicide by lying down on the railroad tracks, a copy of Walden tucked into his bag.
Yet at the end of Walden, Thoreau has an experience which gives him renewed hope for the railroad and his culture, a hope that may also be imaginable in China. Thoreau sees the sun melting frozen sand on the bank of the railroad grade and creating new patterns; he sees nature at work in the midst of industry. I’m never quite sure how to read this conclusion. Is Thoreau right to realize that human culture is part of nature also, or is he naive in thinking that human development can’t ultimately destroy natural life? Is he right that our imagination is what most needs to change? Teaching Thoreau in Wuhan, to people living in one of the most rapidly industrializing civilizations in the history of the world, gave me new hope that Thoreau’s conclusion, with its focus on imaginative and perceptual change, is right. Perhaps the core problem is not industrialization or the train itself, but the warped human imaginations that use these tools to damage the earth. And literature might play a role in renewing our imaginations, in helping all of us desire and work toward lives of contentment and wild harmony. As Hai Zi writes, “I hope that in this dusty world you become content / I only hope to face the ocean, as spring warms and flowers open.
The role of multi-target policy instruments in agri-environmental policy mixes
Full text linkThe Tinbergen Rule has been used to criticise multi-target policy instruments for being inefficient. The aim of this paper is to clarify the role of multi-target policy instruments using the case of agri- environmental policy. Employing an analytical linear optimisation model, this paper demonstrates that there is no general contradiction between multi-target policy instruments and the Tinbergen Rule, if multi-target policy instruments are embedded in a policy-mix with a sufficient number of targeted in- struments. We show that the relation between cost-effectiveness of the instruments, related to all policy targets, is the key determinant for an economically sound choice of policy instruments. If economies of scope with respect to achieving policy targets are realised, a higher cost-effectiveness of multi-target policy instruments can be achieved. Using the example of organic farming support policy, we discuss several reasons why economies of scope could be realised by multi-target agri-environmental policy instruments
Until the End of the World? Biocentrism and Traces of Human Presence in the Paintings of Josh Keyes
Full text linkThis article considers the paintings of the contemporary American artist Josh Keyes from an ecocritical point of view and discusses the importance of biocentrism and the affinity between humans and nature in the artist’s work. It argues that although Keyes’ imagery almost never includes human beings, his paintings still relate a sense of human presence through the depiction of cultural artefacts and the use of an axonometric perspective. The latter creates connotations to scientific sampling and technical drawings and is thereby suggestive of the continued presence of human beings in the depicted post-apocalyptic future. The article proposes that Keyes’ projections of the future, where cultural landscapes and artefacts have been reclaimed by nature, constitute a critique of an anthropocentric ethics and its related practices. Further, the article demonstrates the importance given by both artist and his audience to the biocentric agenda of the artwork. This is evidenced by the mixed reception of some of Keyes’ more recent works which neither contain cultural artefacts, nor make use of an axonometric perspective. The article argues, however, that these paintings also inscribe themselves in the central theme of biocentrism and advocate the affinity between humans and animals. They do so by invoking empathy in the viewer towards animals through the use of anthropomorphism
Quebec and Alberta: the Clash of Perceptions (2003-2012)
No full textThis study examines the evolution of the perception of Quebec in Alberta through the analysis of four events: the 2003 Quebec provincial election of Jean Charest and the Liberal party, the Harper government’s 2006 motion recognizing Quebec as a nation, the 2008 parliamentary prorogation and coalition attempt and, lastly, the 2012 Quebec provincial election of Pauline Marois and the Parti québécois. In our qualitative analysis of 202 articles in Alberta’s two principal dailies (the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald), we demonstrate the evolution of the representations of Quebec political life in the Alberta media. We bring to light the ways in which depictions of Quebec became more critical after the 2003 Charest victory. Notably, we reveal that many commentators developed a “hostage thesis” of Quebec; in other words, they affirmed that Quebec behaves as an abductor, holding Canada captive and extorting money from the federal government (and thus from Alberta) to finance its generous social services. We equally demonstrate that the majority of articles concerning Quebec are simply informative or indifferent news stories and that some authors defend or praise Quebec
Presley’s Pauses: Unearthing Force in California’s Land and Water Regimes and Frank Norris’s The Octopus
Full text linkConsidered against the backdrop of California’s pastoral obsession to realize Eden, Frank Norris’s The Octopus: A Story of California (1901) reveals how his respective brand of American naturalism interprets the changes to California’s physical space during the 1880s. Through his preoccupation with the pervasive discourse of force-theory that dominated late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century thought and his penchant for drama and romance, The Octopus becomes much more than an epic tale of struggle between the railroad and the wheat ranchers. Rather it explains the various layers of conquest and imperialist discourse within the text which both promote and explain the drastic reengineering of California’s land and water resources during this period. By reading Norris’s deterministic program through an ecocritical lens, we see how the novel sheds light on California’s past, present, and future environmental transformations revealing a Golden State that is more of a tarnished ideal rather than the earthily paradise so many longed to find
Moving mountains and applying band-aids: The state of policy capacity in Canada
No full textThe literature on policy capacity in Canada suggests some governments have experienced an increase in policy capacity while other governments have experienced a decline. At the same time, the policy capacity of the voluntary sector in Canada is thought to be weak. Given the increased role that the voluntary sector is thought to play in the public policy process, this raises an important question: how do the differentiated policy capacities of government and the voluntary sector intersect? This paper provides an answer to this question through an examination of policy capacity at the programmatic – or micro - level. The paper identifies four case studies across Canada and assesses the impact of differentiated levels of policy capacity among voluntary organizations and the corresponding units/branches within government departments. The paper concludes that public policy process unfolds differently depending on the mix of policy capacity amongst actors
The Once-Forgotten Battlegrounds: Studying Provincial Elections in Canada
Full text linkThis special edition of Canadian Political Science Review tests many of the leading assumptions surrounding Canada’s ten provincial electoral battlegrounds. Based on data and research emerging from the Comparative Provincial Election Project, these studies reveal how many theories based on federal-level evidence require refinement when it comes to their applicability to the provincial realm
Gender and Sexual Diversity in Provincial Election Campaigns
Full text linkRecent elections have resulted in women holding over one quarter of provincial legislative seats, with women in urban and Western Canada seeing greater success. A much smaller proportion of seats are held by lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) politicians, although they are found in similar regions. This article identifies factors such as stronger parties of the left, less traditional social and economic structures, and a greater attention to diversity in more populous urban centers as attributing to these results for both female and LGB candidates