118 research outputs found
MARK WRATHALL: UN FILÓSOFO PLURALISTA
No full textMark Wrathall is professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. His work focuses on phenomenology, existentialism, the philosophy of popular culture, and the philosophy of art. He is considered a leading interpreter of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. And he is author of books like How to Read Heidegger (2005) and Heidegger and Unconcealment: Truth, Language, History (2010). Professor Wrathall is currently editing The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger’s Being and Time (forthcoming 2012), and finishing up a book manuscript on Heidegger’s later work
Labour migration amidst ecological change
No full textOne of the grand questions for research on the impacts of climate change is whether people can rely on migration to safeguard progress towards development even while experiencing severe environmental hardship. This is the ‘migration as adaptation’ hypothesis. Labour migration theory proposes assumptions about the use of migration by people faced with economic uncertainty and limited access to capital to raise standards of development. This paper asks how environmental stress affects labour migration, and evaluates the labour migration arising from a spectrum of ecological stress, from increasingly variable precipitation to catastrophic flooding in Honduras and Malawi. Evidence suggests that environmental stress changes the nature of labour migration. New environmental forms of mobility do not take forms predicted by labour migration theory; migrations are not made with the purpose of exploiting economic opportunities; they do not take place on the basis of rational choice, particularly as displaced persons are frequently emotionally stressed; and among environmental migrants are those less likely to be able to absorb costs and extract benefits associated with migration (i.e. the unwell, the elderly or the unskilled). Nevertheless, social networks still remain the principal medium for conferring access to labour alternatives and resources to invest in migration. In the end, the remittances that environmental migrants send are less likely to be used for investment in development
Violence as an obstacle to livelihood resilience in the context of climate change
No full textCentral America continues to be a violent region and is prone to increasing climatic shocks and environmental degradation. This paper explores the non-linear feedback loop between violence and climate shocks on livelihood resilience in El Salvador and Honduras, two countries experiencing high rates of violence. The nature of this complex feedback loop is examined by analysing case studies on the community scale, which include challenges in reconstructing community social capital post-Hurricane Mitch (1998) in Honduras and the importance of social capital in community resilience to Hurricane Ida (2009) in El Salvador. We conclude that social capital is central in communities facing violence in order to enhance livelihood resilience to climate change impacts in Central America
Detecting climate adaptation with mobile network data in Bangladesh: anomalies in communication, mobility and consumption patterns during cyclone Mahasen
No full textLarge-scale data from digital infrastructure, like mobile phone networks, provides rich information on the behavior of millions of people in areas affected by climate stress. Using anonymized data on mobility and calling behavior from 5.1 million Grameenphone users in Barisal Division and Chittagong District, Bangladesh, we investigate the effect of Cyclone Mahasen, which struck Barisal and Chittagong in May 2013. We characterize spatiotemporal patterns and anomalies in calling frequency, mobile recharges, and population movements before, during and after the cyclone. While it was originally anticipated that the analysis might detect mass evacuations and displacement from coastal areas in the weeks following the storm, no evidence was found to suggest any permanent changes in population distributions. We detect anomalous patterns of mobility both around the time of early warning messages and the storm’s landfall, showing where and when mobility occurred as well as its characteristics. We find that anomalous patterns of mobility and calling frequency correlate with rainfall intensity (r = .75, p < 0.05) and use calling frequency to construct a spatiotemporal distribution of cyclone impact as the storm moves across the affected region. Likewise, from mobile recharge purchases we show the spatiotemporal patterns in people’s preparation for the storm in vulnerable areas. In addition to demonstrating how anomaly detection can be useful for modeling human adaptation to climate extremes, we also identify several promising avenues for future improvement of disaster planning and response activities
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Beyond Borders: Understanding the Interplay of Factors in Migration at the U.S.-Mexico Border
No full textThis thesis explores the intricate issues surrounding migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, offering diverse perspectives and insights into its drivers, consequences, and ethical dimensions. Through three comprehensive papers, this research offers a nuanced analysis of the complex dynamics influencing the migration crisis. The first examines the historical and theoretical factors driving migration, focusing on changing demographics over time. It challenges traditional notions of economic migration and highlights the shift towards permanent migration of unaccompanied minors and families. The second adopts an empirical approach, analyzing data on migrant mortality, climate variability, and border wall construction. It investigates the relationship between climate change, border policy, and the increasing number of deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border, emphasizing the need for adaptation strategies. The third explores the ethical implications of border policy and its impact on human and nonhuman actors. It challenges prevailing notions of agency. It advocates for a more compassionate and just approach to border policies. These papers contribute to the existing literature by providing multifaceted perspectives from historical, empirical, and ethical standpoints. By illuminating the interconnectedness of climate crises, border policy, and the experiences of migrants, this research aims to inform policy makers, academics, and the wider public, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding the rights and well-being of vulnerable populations and advocating for a more inclusive and humane society
Unveiling hidden migration and mobility patterns in climate stressed regions: A longitudinal study of six million anonymous mobile phone users in Bangladesh
No full textClimate change is likely to drive migration from environmentally stressed areas. However quantifying short and long-term movements across large areas is challenging due to difficulties in the collection of highly spatially and temporally resolved human mobility data. In this study we use two datasets of individual mobility trajectories from six million de-identified mobile phone users in Bangladesh over three months and two years respectively. Using data collected during Cyclone Mahasen, which struck Bangladesh in May 2013, we show first how analyses based on mobile network data can describe important short-term features (hours–weeks) of human mobility during and after extreme weather events, which are extremely hard to quantify using standard survey based research. We then demonstrate how mobile data for the first time allow us to study the relationship between fundamental parameters of migration patterns on a national scale. We concurrently quantify incidence, direction, duration and seasonality of migration episodes in Bangladesh. While we show that changes in the incidence of migration episodes are highly correlated with changes in the duration of migration episodes, the correlation between in- and out-migration between areas is unexpectedly weak. The methodological framework described here provides an important addition to current methods in studies of human migration and climate change
The Cultivation of Climate Resilience: Ethnographic Perspectives on Indigenous Agricultural Practices in Nepal
No full textAlthough the impacts of climate change are increasingly visible in rural Nepal, manifesting in erratic rainfall, seasonal shifts, and declining agricultural productivity, adaptation responses are often delivered through top-down programs that overlook the lived realities of Indigenous farmers. The objective of this study is to understand how climate change is reshaping Indigenous agricultural livelihoods in the highlands of Nepal, and how adaptation unfolds through everyday practices, informal institutions, and encounters with formal governance. This study uses a qualitative approach, including ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and analysis of government and development documents and publications. Although adaptation in the Thami and Jirel communities may appear to be driven by institutional programs, it is in fact sustained through situated practices rooted in kinship, land-based knowledge, and spiritual relationships with the environment. This study includes three specific aims across three interrelated domains of analysis. At the ecological level, it examines how farmers interpret and respond to environmental change through crop and seasonal calendar shifts, and land use transformations, revealing both the impacts of climate change and the strategies of adaptation. At the institutional level, it explores the layered relationships between formal adaptation practices and informal Indigenous systems, such as labor-sharing arrangements, ritual stewardship, and nature worship–practices often sidelined in policy frameworks. At the narrative level, this study centers the voices of farmers to understand how adaptation is experienced, narrated, and sometimes quietly resisted in response to interventions that fail to recognize Indigenous worldviews. Ultimately, this research shows that adaptation is not only a technical challenge but also a deeply social, cultural, and political negotiation over life, land, and the rural futures within a shifting climate regime.Geography and Environmental Studie
The Word Problem for Free Partially Commutative, Partially Associative Groupoids
No full textAbstractWe examine the idea of a free partially commutative, partially associative groupoid, and show that there is a linear-time algorithm for the word problem. Our work is an attempt to see how word problem results by Book, Liu, and Wrathall for monoids and groups might be extended to groupoids
Changing climates, moving people: framing migration, displacement and planned relocation
No full textDifferent policies are required for different types of human mobility related to climatic changes. Hence, it is necessary to distinguish between migration, displacement and planned relocation in climate policy and operations. The purpose of this Policy Brief is to help distinguish between human migration, displacement and planned relocation and present state-of-the-art thinking about some of the key issues related to addressing these in the context of climate policy
Indus Basin Floods of 2010: Souring of a Faustian Bargain?
No full textThe great flood of 2010 in Pakistan was not an accidental, unpredictable and random episode in the hydrologic development of the Indus basin, but rather a by-product of national decisions on water use, integrally linked, as well, to the design of the social landscape. In immediate and mid terms, acute impacts are expected to be concentrated among households with fragile and sensitive livelihoods. To attenuate an evolving low-level humanitarian, social and political crisis, and to prevent backsliding to Pakistan’s development progress, attention should focus on water drainage and rapid rehabilitation of farmland. Local government structures can be engaged in the distribution and implementation of recovery programs. In Pakistan, the hydrological priorities have always been irrigation and power generation, but in the interest of preventing a costly recurrence, Pakistani flood management and early alert systems require structural revision
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