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Differing perspectives of landscape change in Hebron's Eastern Slopes
Full text linkThis thesis aims to establish the linkage between group affiliation, political history, and interpretation of landscape change in the southern West Bank (Palestine). The environment of Palestine (encompassing modern-day Israel and the West Bank and Gaza) has been interpreted through sociopolitical lenses as first the Zionists and then Palestinian nationalists tried to establish their rights to the land. Impressions and interpretations of ecosystem and landscape are assumed to be relatively value-neutral, so that society accepts statements by scientists about environmental and landscape history as an accurate and acceptable picture of what has happened and what needs to be done. This research builds on sociological work on the social construction and interpretation of landscape and the environment (Grieder and Garkovich 1994; Freudenberg, Frickel and Gramling 1995).
I tested interpretations of the environment through guided face-to-face interviews with fellaheen (villagers), Bedouin, and refugees old enough to remember the landscape in 1948 and living in the southeastern West Bank (Hebron District). In this region, many landscape rehabilitation and environmental conservation projects have been proposed to thwart and reverse the process of desertification. I also interviewed Palestinian and Israeli scientists who were involved in these projects and read scientific works on the area. I hypothesized that the social formation involved in scientific training would lead to similar views regardless of the differences in political histories influencing Palestinian and Israeli scientists.
I further hypothesized that these perceptions of environmental change differ from those held by fellaheen, Bedouin, and refugees. I found, however, that group association played a significant role in the scientists' interpretation of data regarding environmental and landscape change. Furthermore, these perceptions differed among social groups (fellaheen, Bedouin, and refugees) but this difference was minimal within each group. These results indicate that sociopolitical differences cause a remarkable difference in perceptions about the value of landscape and landscape change among various social groups
Agriculture biotechnology: social implications and integration of landscape and lifescape
Full text linkVarious trends in social and economic conditions that affect the degree to which the products of agricultural biotechnology are accepted. No longer is there a close relationship between the producer of food and the end-user. Our food system is a complex array of interactions between many stakeholders. Factors influencing acceptance or rejection of new technologies by both producers and end-users are varied, both positive and negative
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Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
No full textFirst paragraph:Mark Winne’s book Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty comes as a welcome contrast to the volumes by intellectuals about their quests to eat locally as part of their mission to expose the industrial food system. While equally personal and situated in the structural, Mark Winne describes and analyzes his efforts to close the food gap through providing healthy food for the urban poor. As personal as the foodquest books by Kingsolver and by Pollan, Winne shares his attempts to reduce poverty by increasing access to healthy food by people who are food-insecure. He takes us through his first efforts at gardening and organizing community gardens, reminding us that the most important word in that phrase is “community.” He illustrates his premise that the best programs link members of the community to each other as well as to programs that increase access to good food. He introduces us to teenagers, parents, farmers, and organizers who are part of the food- and social-justice movement. And he demonstrates the many barriers to healthy eating in the food deserts of inner cities and the various attempts — few of which have been successful — to make healthy food available to the food-insecure people who live there...
Frans Schryer, Farming in a Global Economy: A Case Study of Immigrant Farmers in Canada
Full text linkReview of Farming in a Global Economy: A Case Study of Immigrant Farmers in Canada, by Frans Schrye
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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