Notion Of Ecology Research Articles

A Material Ecology of Toulouse’s Observatories in the 18th Century

Abstract Based on the concept of “material ecology”, which designates the structural properties of space and objects in the constitution of places of scientific practice, this article proposes a socio-historical analysis of the materiality of Toulouse observatories in the 18th century. Toulouse observatories reveal the importance of the material dimension in the organization of scientific work throughout the 18th century. First, the article demonstrates how the material infrastructure of the observatory of the short-lived Academy of Sciences of Toulouse contributed to creating and consolidating the local astronomical community. Secondly, it shows that the architectural characteristics of the observatories built by the most active astronomers in Toulouse served as a model to design later scholarly institutions. The patrimonialization of the old observatories at the beginning of the 19th century is finally discussed. By resorting to the notion of material ecology concerning the places of astronomical observation, the article brings to light the socio-epistemic dimension that underpins scientific practice.

“I Don’t Understand How These Two Things Go Together”: Toward a Theory of Risk Ecologies

ABSTRACT Rhetorical ecological approaches, which posit that messages exist not as isolated entities but instead in the relations of a dynamic network, offer a valuable lens for examining the discursive construction of health-related risk. Drawing from interview data (n = 50) exploring maternal vaccine refusal, this article expands upon these frameworks to trace how intertextual, synchronous messages – particularly those associated with prenatal and infant nutrition – influence mothers’ understanding about early childhood vaccine-related risk. Ultimately, I propose the notion of a risk ecology – a network of intertextual messages which shape and constrain sense-making about risk as it emerges within a particular moment and biosocial community.

Sustainable Memory Ecology, Entangled Environments, and Multimateriality in a Post-Digital Age: A Case Study of MemoryBytes

Abstract This article examines the interdisciplinary and epistemological possibilities in memory studies amidst the complex systems of sustainable memory ecology, entangled environments, and multimateriality prevalent in our post-digital age. This study situates the ontology and experience of memory through post-digital and posthumanist frameworks whereby the human/non-human and embedded/extended emerge as environmental entanglements that are part of everyday experiential and ecological realities which are often already augmented in quality. Likewise, we unpack the idea of materiality in the contemporary world and posit that a theory of multimateriality – asymmetric compounds of constructs, components, and affects – illustrates the modality of post-digital memory networks. Subsequently, the article attempts to offer a conceptual framework that draws on cognitive theory’s 4E model of cognition – embedded, embodied, extended, enactive – and a memory-ecology which is emergent as well as connective in quality. The key themes of this study are as follows: How can the concept of sustainable memory ecology correspond to interdisciplinary interpretative possibilities of preservation and reconstruction in a post-digital world? How can memory studies connect with cognitive theory to offer an original collaborative and epistemic apparatus using embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive engagements with environment and materiality in post-digital conditions? How do such collaborations anticipate the future of memory through a new order of post-digital memory ecology? Through its theoretical and conceptual convergences, and with a case study of the 2022 Augmented-Reality (ar) App and phygital exhibition MemoryBytes, our article offers an original framework for memory studies’ interdisciplinary engagements with the changing notions of ecology, sustainability, and materiality in today’s post-digital world.

Organizing mentoring and induction practices: understood through the eyes of newly qualified teachers

ABSTRACT Measures aimed at newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in Norway are characterized by ambitious policy expectations, though with leeway for practitioners. This article investigates how NQTs perceive practices enacted to include them in the teaching profession while identifying the actors of such practices. We use practice architectures theory and the notion of ecology of educational practices to analyze conditions associated with mentoring and induction practice. Findings show that NQTs in Norway perceive mentoring and follow-up arrangements as limited and poorly adapted to their needs. We emphasize the need to take seriously tensions linked to mentoring practices, which become evident when NQTs problematize issues such as long-term temporary employment and school leaders as mentors. We argue for prioritizing mentoring practices and the closer follow-up of new teachers; the study illustrates how this may happen through better coupling between mentoring practices and other educational practices.

Fascism, nature and communication: a Discursive-affective analysis of cuteness in ecofascist propaganda

ABSTRACT Ecofascism—the union of fascist ideas and ecological notions—is a rising global issue. Ecofascism in the online sphere often encompasses imaginaries of utopia, love and nostalgia in concert with militarism and violence. This article examines cuteness as a strategic tool used to arouse culturally deemed “positive” emotions like joy, love and pleasure. The study draws on findings from an affective-discursive analysis of visual propaganda in the form of ecofascist memes. The analysis shows that cuteness softens fascist ideology and remasculinises and humanises fascism. Cuteness as a rhetorical tool lessens the needs for ideological defence, since cute signifiers condense structures of meaning into binaries of good and evil. Hence, the article argues that cuteness is a powerful affective political communication strategy that serves to reproduce masculine dominance by mobilising gendered and racialised imaginaries of nature, protection, empathy and belonging.

Deliberative ecologies: a relational critique of deliberative systems

Abstract This paper advocates a move beyond the systemic approach in the field of Deliberative Democracy. It argues that the notion of deliberative ecology can deliver the necessary conceptual elements that deliberative democrats seek in deliberative systems without some of the problems they either overlook or embrace. To advocate the advantages of an ecological perspective to deliberation, the article focuses on six axes of comparison: (i) performances of actants (instead of functions of arenas and players); (ii) articulations and translations (instead of transmission); (iii) vulnerabilities (instead of pathologies and dysfunctions); (iv) practice (instead of institutionally-oriented design); (v) diverse temporalities (instead of linear temporality) and; (vi) hologram-based analysis (instead of systemic analysis). In a nutshell, the article claims that the ecological approach to deliberation has the advantage of conceptualizing an ever-changing web of relations of interdependency, which connects diverse entities that are either relevant to a public discussion or that hinder its enactment.

Ecologies of quantification in waste management: Landfilling, e-waste recycling, and car breaking

Quantification has become a privileged form of knowing and vehicle of governance. Anthropological critique has demonstrated that a view of numbers as independent carriers of meaning is untenable; instead, numbers should be conceptualized as being part of relations and temporalities, opening space for shifts in understanding. Proposing the perspective of ‘ecologies of quantification’, we acknowledge the wider notion of ecology that accommodates materiality, cognition, and experience, and acknowledges that the constituents of the relations are always in a process of becoming. We put waste management at the centre of our interest to explore the ways quantification attempts to conquer arguably one of the unruliest domains of contemporary social life. Based on our collaborative ethnographic research on the management of municipal solid waste, discarded electrical and electronic devices, and junked cars in Czechia, we point to problems emerging when numbers become stripped of their relations. Our research sheds light on experience in the process of quantification and demonstrates that there are multiple ways to know quantity.

Knowledge production and internationalization of Higher Education in the Global South

Drawing on the notion of ecology of knowledges and epistemologies of the South, the study discusses the production of knowledge and internationalization of higher education in Latin America through the analysis of papers published between 2011- 2020 by authors linked to institutions located in this region. Bibliometric techniques were used to compose a corpus of 117 papers from the Scopus database, analyzed in two dimensions. In the editorial dimension, annual production by country and most prevalent languages and journals were analyzed and in the epistemological dimension the most cited authors, word co-occurrence and collaborations were analyzed. Results of the study show that the growth in publications is unmatched by the impact of this production suggesting a lack of ecology of knowledges and epistemologies of the South in Latin America, thus reinforcing the status quo and reverberation of theories produced outside the ecosystem of the South.

Social Ecology and Environmental Diversity in Teacher Education

Abstract This paper offers reflections on the development and potential of a transformative teacher education project as one component of the Professional Development Programs (PDPs) at the Faculty of Education of a comprehensive Canadian university. The work of our teacher education program is set in Vancouver and utilizes the lenses of social ecology and environmental diversity (or SEEDs) to examine the roles of teachers in bringing an awareness of local/global sustainability issues to student learning experiences. Using auto-ethnographical methods our project reflects on a critical and place-based teacher education agenda highlighting democratic and participatory methods in its approach. We use our experiences combined with relevant literature to explore what inspirations might be drawn from our evolving approach. Drawing from Bookchin’s social ecology, our teacher education practices are based on the conviction that most of our present ecological problems originate with/in deep-seated social problems. It follows, from this view, that ecological problems cannot be understood, let alone solved, without a more careful understanding of our existing society and the irrationalities that often dominate it. In our most recent work, our teacher education candidates identified strongly with the related theoretical notions of Social Ecology and Diversity; hence, our identity (as seeds or seedlings) is in a state of flux as we continue to move and adapt to our current socio-political conditions.

“Back to the Jungle”: Investigating Rats, Grass, Scrub Typhus, and Plantations in Malaya, 1924 – 1974

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine epidemiological research into scrub typhus in British Malaya between 1924 and 1974. Interwar research, I show, explained the incidence of the disease through conjunctions of rats, mites, plantations, lalang grass, and “jungle.” In the process, interwar researchers bridged a novel scientific vocabulary centering on disease “reservoirs” with older suspicions of plantations enabling “pests,” as well as with a later, explicitly ecological understanding of infectious disease. In exploring this history I thereby help to re-historicize the emergence of ecological notions of disease reservoirs, whilst also pushing at the limit-points of influential notions of “tropicality.”

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation as a Cancer Therapeutic.

For decades, cancer research and treatment focused on the cellular level, viewing cancer as a genetic disease of cell transformation. In the era of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, studies from the second half of the 19th century suggesting an association between the microbiota and cancer were almost neglected. The main focus of the field was limited to identification of specific viruses and bacteria that may serve as direct carcinogens leading to the recognition of 7 viruses (i.e., human papillomavirus, hepatitis B virus, and Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus) and 1 bacterium (Helicobacter pylori) as human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (https://monographs.iarc.who.int/agents-classified-by-the-iarc/). Shortly after the publication of the first draft of the human genome project in February 2001, the Nobel laureate microbiologist Joshua Lederberg raised the question: "Is human identity all in the genes?" It took more than a decade later and the development of multiomic techniques to confirm that his answer "each one of us is a small ecological community" was correct (Lederberg J. Keynote Address: Beyond the Genome. Brooklyn Law Rev 67). This ecological notion became relevant to cancer prevention, prediction, and treatment following the immunotherapy revolution and the understanding of the metabolic and immunologic roles of the microbiota in health and disease. Recently, the microbiota was recognized as an emerging hallmark of cancer following a large body of research showing its role in tumorigenesis, treatment efficacy and toxicity, and initial data regarding the role of microbial modulation in cancer therapy (Cancer Discov 2022;12(1):31-46). In the current review, we will focus on the role of fecal microbiota transplantation, the first microbial modulation technique that is used mainly in low-complexity conditions such as recurrent Clostridium difficile infections (Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2017;46(5):479-493), as a possible cancer therapeutic. However, to better understand the suggested roles of fecal microbiota transplantation in medical oncology, we first need to understand cancer as an ecological niche and the role of the microbiota in tumorigenesis and cancer treatment, specifically immunotherapy.

Weaving the Interconnected Threads: Care for Creation, Nonviolence, and Racial Justice

Violence is often understood as a phenomenon characterized by direct physical harm customarily motivated by willful malice. In his 2017 World Day of Peace Message, Pope Francis challenges this narrow definition, noting that violence is not confined to physical harm but also includes environmental devastation, which, as he points out, disproportionately harms the most vulnerable members of the planet. Following this claim, this article probes the interrelationship between care for creation, nonviolence, and racial justice, highlighting the significance of this intersectionality within Catholic social teaching. It reflects on Francis’s reading of Gospel nonviolence and his notion of integral ecology, and concludes with a case study that demonstrates the practical application of Francis’s social teachings on creating a more just, nonviolent, and sustainable world.

ENSINOS DE CIÊNCIAS INSURGENTES: AMBIENTALIZANDO CIÊNCIAS E EDUCAÇÕES

ABSTRACT: The text corresponds to a critical review, whose first version substantiated analyzes and discussions related to field experiences produced in a qualitative research (SÁNCHEZ MOLANO, 2020) in school institutions in the periphery of a Latin American metropolis. Throughout the text, we will be accompanied by the Epistemologies of the South, whose main ideas give consistency to the argumentative thread, in relation to propositions about counter-hegemonic science, contemporary science, Latin American environmentalism and to the notion of ecology of knowledge, as well as to science teaching that can be anchored in those propositions. It advances in the understanding of the scientific practice from the postulates of epistemological pragmatism and methodological pluralism, which would be complementary to educational perspectives inspired by critical interculturality and insurgent environmental education. In the light of the foregoing, nomenclature revisions are proposed in the field of science teaching, more compatible with emancipatory perspectives projected from Latin America.

Introduction

Abstract Taking issue with Anthropocene, deep ecology, and technological determinism, the introduction lays out this work's framework composed of the Marxist ecological notions of metabolic rift, the romantic legacy, and the Frankfurt School's critical ecology. Under capitalism, the metabolic rift manifests in the alienation of nature and of labor. The system of accumulation and profit, bent on the domination of nature and labor, is the major source of ecological crises. The introduction addresses alternative modes of production where ecological bonds between humans and nature are maintained through embodied and ecological labor. Through technology and associated labor, humans can regulate and control metabolism between ourselves and nature and among ourselves, changing environments while changing ourselves.

Implementation of Architectural Ecological Concepts in Cultural Resort Design in Coastal Area A Case Study of Kubu Beach, Pangkalanbun, Kotawaringin District, West Kalimantan

AbstractThe issue of global warming and its impact on the environment requires urgent consideration from the profession of architecture. One of the ideas for using the notion of ecology as an application and reaction to the issue of environmental harm is to create tourism destination amenities in the form of resorts in coastal areas. The issue that planners face is how to keep the resort building's architecture in keeping with the site's culture. The implementation of the concept of architectural ecology was employed in the design of the resort building on Kubu beach, based on the existing challenges. The implementation is carried out by attempting to keep the place cultivated as a green space. The Resort on Kubu Beach, which is one of Kotawaringin Regency's green space areas (GSA), incorporates the notion of architectural ecology into its design, both in terms of outdoor space and residential buildings and facilities. One of the design solutions is to make use of the natural environment while still providing the modern amenities that today's society requires.Keywords: site culture resort, architecture ecology

“It Was the Stillness of an Implacable Force”: A Lyotardian Study of Ecology in Heart of Darkness

This essay examines nature in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in the light of Lyotard’s discourse of ecology and his other philosophical ideas. His postmodernist criticism of conformity and representability, as asserted in his notion of ecology and implied throughout his whole philosophy, provides a lens through which to see nature as an unruly agent that challenges Western development in epistemological and linguistic terms. Such an understanding of nature, Lyotard suggests, necessitates the deconstructive power of avant-garde art, especially literary writing, which Conrad’s 1899 text best prefigures. Set mainly in the wilderness of colonial Congo during the nineteenth century, the widely acknowledged postcolonial novella at once invites an ecocritical reading of how European developed culture struggles and eventually fails to prove mastery over African nature.

Towards an Alternative Notion of the Interface

The aim of this paper is to propose an alternative notion of the interface. While the existing notions of the interface suffice, there is a need for understanding the interface as an ecology, rather than as an object or technology. Scholars such as Branden Hookway, Alex Galloway, Nanna Verhoeff, and Heidi Rae Cooley understand the interface as "a relationship," "processes," "doing," and "habits," respectively. However, in consideration of the new and emerging social processes and transformations engendered by interfaces as platforms by which we understand and relate with the world in more specific ways, I argue that a notion of the interface as an ecology would enrich the discussion and provide an ecological boundary ‘object’ for thinking across disciplines. I examined the interface through etymological, epistemological, psychoanalytic, and artistic standpoints, as well as exploring the term's affective, material, and infrastructural dimensions. I conclude that an ecological notion of the interface would produce a more nuanced and performative understanding of the term and shift our focus away from the material form of interfaces, to the actions, intensities, and aesthetics of the interface. Ecology is critical to how we understand interfaces as it concerns the relationships between organisms and their environments, including the relationships between artists and their expressive media and installations, and the relationships between users and their interface platforms. The ecological notion of the interface refers to how we live in the networked, hypermediated space, relate with our technologies, and engage in artistic practices in all forms of interfaces.

Bec(h)oming with Simon Whitehead: Practising a Logic of Sensation

Abstract In this text and image essay, I introduce a new concept to the environmental humanities; one which seeks to trouble metaphysical notions of dwelling by combining the idea of home (the oikos in ecology) with a notion of permanent becoming. In this way, home loses its conservative and reactionary connotations with atavistic origins and identities and instead is opened up to nonhuman forces and powers. As I explain in the opening section, bec(h)oming is a matter of affect; it depends upon the capacity of bodies to move beyond themselves, to be impressed and transformed by the environments which they move through, to tap what the philosopher Gilbert Simondon might see as the “pre-individual” energy that runs through all organisms. Humans are no exception; they, too, are caught in the flux and flow. By focusing on bodies, the essay not only looks to depart from conventional narrative-based notions of ecocriticism and theatre ecology, it aims to provide a lexicon, a new idiom for thinking through corporeal ecologies that are attuned to sensations, the virtual play of a cosmic Earth. To do that, the text provides the first detailed account of the work and practices of influential UK movement artist Simon Whitehead, whose Locator workshop has proved pivotal for so many dancers, choreographers, and artists over the past few decades. Integral to the paper is a desire to experiment with alternative modes of writing, a style that would express the enthusiasms of bec(h)omings and give some sense of its somatic potential.

Pluriverse Skins DIY Bio-Production. For a Post-Anthropocentric Coexistence

By developing practice-based research, through critical and speculative design methodologies, we propose a definition of “skin” not as a univocal boundary of subjective bodies (animal, plants, or other creatures), but as a pluriverse membrane of connection across and between species. Deeply inspired by holistic and posthuman philosophical approaches (such as Braidotti, Pannikar, Escobar, Coccia), the ongoing research feeds such a definition of “pluriverse skins” by experiments on bio-media and the relative speculative scenarios. We present three aspects of the study: a) preliminary reflection about how design is affected and transformed by ecological notions; b) design experiments in bio-media to create skins that can unfold as the carrier of new forms of ecological awareness; c) discussion about the aesthetic of bioskins and implication for the notion of a new post-anthropocentrism at large. Pluriverse Skins offers an alternative look into biomaterials, by the means of practical and speculative investigation: in the paper we discuss how such an approach could contribute to reshaping the meaning of bio production, within the emerging post-anthropocentric paradigm.

Introduction

Introduction