UnderCurrents: Journal of Critical Environmental Studies (E-Journal - York University)
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The Intertwining Wildness Of Flesh-Child Becoming
Get PDFLet us explore two central facts of the child's experience: first, that it has a body and second, that it exists on the earth. Let us do so with the help of a third term, called the flesh, which can mediate between these two experiences. Let us further explore the nature of the interaction between earth, body and flesh by way of the concept of intertwining calling attention to a constant interpresencing of elements, and also by way of the concept of wildness calling attention to an absence of artificially imposed boundaries
Approaches in Environmentalism and Feminism
Get PDFThere is a global crisis. It manifests itself in war, in poverty and social injustices, in rape, in violence against children, and in the assault on nature. There are those who interpret all these problems as unrelated and temporary, and there are those who consider these problems, not as separate, but as the result of one single crisis of worldview, or world/self-consciousness. Environmentalists and feminists are two groups which have emerged in reaction to the crises of our time. While their initial concerns may have been quite separate, today the two focuses are beginning to come together as the interconnection of global problems is revealed
The Nature of Story
Get PDFAs oral and written record reflects, throughout history humankind has vacillated between acknowledging its kinship with the natural world and denying it. A great deal of human culture has consisted of stories concerning animals, though modern literature has relegated animals, as a subject of imaginative writing, to children's fiction. One would be hard pressed to name many great works of the past two centuries which include animals as the focus of the narrative. The old animal stories, however, took place in a time and realm when humans and animals were able to communicate and thesenarratives constituted the mainstay of oral storytelling. This kind of story is an element of the "Golden Age" theme and refers to a time when the world was a harmonious place where people were happy, blessed and "without evil in their hearts." These stories of an ancient and oral character spoke of our place alongside the other animals
Introduction
Get PDFWelcome to the first issue of Undercurrents. This journal is the initiative of a group of graduate students at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. Our motivation to publish a journal comes from a realization of the need for a forum to present critical and innovative graduate student work in the area of environmental studies. This, however, is an area of great diversity and a glance at the table of contents may leave some readers re-examining their assumptions about their notion of "environment." Indeed, it is the philosophy of Undercurrents to pursue the widest possible understanding of environment
Re-reading Silent Spring & (untitled art)
No full textRachel Carson's historic book Silent Spring, published in 1962, may not have marked the beginning of what we might call modern environmentalism -- although she might have been the mother of such a movement -- but it did make a major contribution to the development of a widespread ecological consciousness and encouraged environmentally sound practices
Ecology, Witchcraft and the Enchanted World
Get PDFPagans, or more properly neo-pagans have been growing in numbers and influence over the past decade or so in the U.S. and Canada. This is evidenced in the feminist, peace, green (or ecology), and anarchist movements. Margot Adler, author of Drawing Down the Moon, an examination of contemporary neo-paganism, has estimated that there are about 100,000 people in the U.S. alone who describe themselves as pagan or neo-pagan. Over the past 5 or 6 years, I have developed a strong sympathy, more, an empathy with the neo-pagan sensibility and earth centredness. Apart from reading Dreaming the Dark by Starhawk, I had not studied paganism or ritual practice. This summer however, both at the North American Anarchist Survival Gathering and the North American Bioregional Congress the presence of pagans was very obvious to me. At the Bioregional Congress I had the chance to experience paganism directly, through earthbonding rituals which had a powerful effect on many participants
Water on Fire, Night Geese, & (untitled drawing)
No full textTwo poems. Drawing by Lissa Chipps-Sawyer, commissioned by the Native Canadian Relations Theme Area, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University