Intergenerational Dimensions Research Articles

Public Interest Climate Litigation in Latin America Leading the Way in Addressing Climate Change? The New Focus on Ecocentric and Intergenerational Dimensions

Public Interest Climate Litigation in Latin America Leading the Way in Addressing Climate Change? The New Focus on Ecocentric and Intergenerational Dimensions

An Ecocentric Perspective on Climate Litigation: Lessons from Latin America

Abstract Based on the latest developments in ecological law in Latin America, including the recognition of the rights of nature, this article examines emerging climate-related cases that, challenging Western anthropocentric legal paradigms, address the climate crisis from an ecocentric perspective to protect both human and nature rights. Through novel arguments based on ecological law counter-narratives and a rights of nature perspective, these cases are giving way to the emergence of a new typology of climate litigation in which the intrinsic value and interests of all life forms and the legal status of nature are recognized. First, this article analyses the experience and current trends in the emerging field of ecological law in the region, including ecological and intergenerational dimensions of human rights and the legal and jurisprudential recognition of the rights of nature. Second, it reviews and compares some of the most relevant climate-related cases as well as recent, less known—some still pending—claims that incorporate an ecocentric approach, combining the protection of the rights of present and future generations and the rights of nature or exploring other arguments in the field of ecological law. These cases have the potential to contribute to the development of climate litigation with an ecocentric profile. Attention is given to the main arguments, characteristics, strengths, and shortcomings of these cases, as well as to potential barriers to the development of an ecocentric angle to climate litigation and the implementation of judicial decisions.

Specifying Interpersonal Responsibilities in Private Law: Property Perspectives

Abstract Recognizing Wrongs reflects an ongoing challenge within private law theory: once an ideal of interpersonal responsibility and accountability is recognised at private law’s centre, how are these dimensions of private law to be developed in a manner that does not unduly undermine systemic predictability and clarity? This article responds to this challenge from the perspective of property law and theory. It suggests that inspiration as to the kinds of core unifying values that could clarify private law’s obligational dimensions can be found in varied sources, including in Thomistic property thinking, with opportunities for identifying and developing interpersonal responsibilities already existing in property doctrine, for example in the law of servitudes. As we face urgent sustainability challenges, with their strong inter-generational dimensions, the article argues that scholars should think afresh about the need to clarify the moral basis of interpersonal responsibilities in respect of property, with the Thomistic focus on human sustenance providing one candidate for reasoning about ownership obligations.

The Global Challenge of Electronics: Managing the Present and Preparing the Future

AbstractHome offices, virtual meeting rooms and online training that were admittedly becoming commonplace, are now essentially inescapable. The greater reliance on electronics, and the data and energy storage, however, comes at a cost. Planned obsolescence and the lack of environmentally benign end‐of‐life scenarios, such as reuse and recycle, but also degrade or vanish for organic electronics, are at the root cause of the dramatic increase in global e‐waste. Their impact is unequally distributed with low‐ and medium‐income countries taking the brunt of the harmful environmental and health effects, on their populations. This Perspective article suggests meaningful paths to mitigate the electronics waste crisis, beyond the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), that include sustainable and eco‐designed electronics while recognizing the limitations of certain tools at the disposal. Massive paradigm shifts along with profound systemic and cultural changes need to occur for the digital revolution's benefits to outweigh its drawbacks, most important of which are its present unsustainable growth. These shifts need to occur on intersectoral, intersectional, and intergenerational dimensions to alleviate the heavily asymmetrical environmental impact (Global‐North vs Global‐South) e‐waste have. Coordinating efforts at the international level will be crucial to build capacity and make an impact.

Toward transformative climate justice: An emerging research agenda

AbstractCalls for climate justice abound as evidence accumulates of the growing social and environmental injustices aggravated or driven by climate change. There is now a considerable and diverse literature on procedural, distributional and intergenerational dimensions, including questions of recognition in climate justice. Yet its meaning, scope and practical implications are still contested. Importantly, the broader landscape within which climate justice is situated is rapidly changing, bringing new challenges to the understanding and practice of climate justice. This review takes stock of climate justice literature in view of this new context. We find several disconnects and tensions between more philosophical and academic treatments of the subject on the one hand, and “activist”‐oriented approaches to climate justice on the other. Scholarship often falls into silos around scales from global and local, between mitigation and adaptation or draws distinctions between climate justice and other forms of (in)justice. This inhibits an understanding of climate justice that can address more directly its underlying root causes in an historically constituted global economic system and intersecting set of social inequalities. We propose a research agenda centered on a transformative approach to climate justice, placing analysis of power in its various guises at the center of its enquiry, and subverting and moving beyond existing distinctions by focusing on the social and institutional relations and inequalities that both produce climate change and profoundly shape responses to it. We elaborate on three key strands of such an approach: inclusive climate justice, deepening climate justice and governance for climate justice.This article is categorized under: Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Ethics and Climate Change Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Climate Change and Global Justice

Letting Teach: Gen Z as Socio-Political Educators in an Overheated World

In this article, the author begins by grasping the present crisis through the social anthropological description ofoverheating. She then locates “Generation Z (Gen Z)” as a generation born into an overheated era and distinguishes their socio-political struggle for intergenerational climate justice from preceding generations. Following that, the author presents an analysis of the oppressive adultist dimensions of the challenges confronted by Gen Z activists like Greta Thunberg. She does so by engaging with examples from the German context. The objective of the discussion on adultism faced by Gen Z activists consequently establishes that young activists demonstrate relentless courage and hence their contribution deserves a legitimate place in rethinking socio-political “education.” Her reading reveals that young activists are simultaneously resisting adult opposition and contributing to educating older generations about the intergenerational dimensions of the climate crisis. Therefrom, the author proposes that one may re-think the matter at hand from a childist standpoint which implies a re-cognition of pupils' agency within education i.e., intergenerational relating, as something that adults can also learn from. She suggests that an integral dimension of reflexivity in further developing childist educational theory and praxis, entails a conscious commitment tolettingchildren and youth teach adult educators too.

Learning Cities in Progress

This paper analyses the influence of the rise and development of learning cities and regions in adult education research work. Comparative adult education research has got great potential to investigate the concrete mechanism of learning city-region constructions and to analyse the changing nature and structures of learning city-region models. Therefore, the paper tries to underline the impact of some relevant theoretical focuses and related models perspectives and limitations to comparative adult education research work since it is important to examine how learning city-region collaborations at local-regional levels may enhance both participation and performance in the learning of adults, but also of other age groups, and affect the intergenerational dimensions of learning as well as community development. At the same time, this contribution signals the need for interdisciplinary approaches and positions in comparative research work on local and regional citizen participation in learning programmes.

CUMULATIVE ADVANTAGE IN CHANGING ECONOMIC TIMES: STRESS, DISTRESS, AND FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR AGING COHORTS

Processes of cumulative dis/advantage operate within cohorts and across historical time. In the ongoing dance of age, cohort and period, each cohort encounters distinctive social and economic environments at particular ages that may ameliorate or exacerbate the cumulative and systemic processes of inequality production that operate over its collective life course. We explore issues of current and future late-life inequality and its consequences. As overall income inequality has grown, what are the likely consequences for late-life outcomes? How have cohorts currently in midlife been affected by the Great Recession of 2008 and subsequent recovery? What are the mental and physical consequences of these developments, and to what extent can they be ameliorated by interventions in middle and later adulthood? This symposium addresses how variation in economic circumstances and social and psychological stresses may affect outcomes over the life course, and how these complex, interacting processes can be best conceptualized and examined. One paper examines the impact of the Great Recession and subsequent events on the intracohort distribution of income, suggesting inordinate setbacks during the Recession with likely long-term effects for economically vulnerable subpopulations. Another explores the role of psychosocial stressors in the process of cumulative dis/advantage, focusing on linkages between functional limitations and psychological well-being in later life, and how these linkages are amplified by diverse dimensions of disadvantage (e.g., education, employment; coping strategies; caregiving). A third paper examines the intergenerational dimensions of cumulative advantage processes. Finally, contrasting theoretical frameworks for apprehending life-course processes and historical change will be explored.

Caring for the future: Climate change and intergenerational responsibility in China and the UK

Debates about intergenerational fairness and resource-use are prominent in diverse international contexts, with a large number of social policy and environmental concerns characterised as having intergenerational dimensions. This includes concerns relating to synchronic equity (how resources are distributed between living generations) and diachronic equity (saving resources for future generations), with climate change being a high-profile example of an issue characterised in this way. In this paper we explore how urban residents perceive their responsibilities towards future generations in two cities based in countries that are major greenhouse gas emitters. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a cross-generational sample of 190 people living in Nanjing, China, and Sheffield, UK, we consider whose future and what aspects of the future people feel responsible for and at what scale. This discussion is situated within an emerging critique of generational discourses that conflate caring for the family and one’s own children with caring for the wider society and for the future. We argue that this has far-reaching implications for how people think about intergenerational responsibility and imagine appropriate courses of action, shaping a particular ‘timescape’ that privileges living generations in close proximity. We find that people in Sheffield tend to be more concerned about social and economic aspects of sustainable development than environmental degradation. People in Nanjing more readily discuss responsibility for environmental stewardship, in the wider political context of state-led and nationalist discourses of collective responsibility, but still appear to struggle with thinking about the future beyond their lifetimes and immediate descendants. We discuss these findings and their implications through the analytical framework of geographies of responsibility, exploring possibilities for a more spatially and temporally extensive scope of care.

Theorizing Intergenerational Trauma in Tazmamart Testimonial Literature and Docu-testimonies

Drawing on testimonial writings by the wives of Tazmamart prisoners and two documentary films (docu-testimonies) about this notorious disappearance camp, I argue that Tazmamart-induced traumas are intergenerational. Approached as a continuum, Tazmamart-induced traumas reveal the intergenerational transference of trauma from mothers to children in the pre-discursive period. In this article, I specifically focus my analysis on the pre-discursive period—a time when families did not articulate their traumas in spoken words in the presence of the children and during which Tazmamart was not a matter of public discourse in Morocco. This theorization of intergenerational transference of traumatic experiences will shift scholarly attention from individual experiences to the collective memory of the “Years of Lead” in its intergenerational dimensions.

Les motivations de l’auto-expérimentation des médicaments psychotropes par le psychiatre : une note de recherche

ObjectivesAuto-experimentation, experimentation on oneself by oneself, is a relatively unknown practice, albeit one playing a central part in the origin of medical discoveries. The birth of psychopharmacology can be found within this history of auto-experimentation. Beyond the context of intermittent discoveries of chemical substance, the auto-experimentation by psychiatrists persists in an informal manner with psychotropic medications currently on the market. Nevertheless, this contemporary practice seems not to have been hitherto studied. Persons and methodTwenty-four French psychiatrists have been asked to answer a semi-structured interview, with the aim of discovering the motivations behind past auto-experimentation. This sample is not representative of the total population of French psychiatrists, but it is quite heterogeneous in age, gender and manner of practice for this exploratory research work. ResultsTwenty-three psychiatrists participated in the interview, and one refused. The various motivations leading to auto-experimentation amongst the psychiatrists are principally linked to attempts to better understand the effects of the psychotropic medications prescribed, chiefly their side effects. The usage of auto-experimentation can be facilitated by the curiosity of the psychiatrist, certain psychological functioning (“sensation-seeking” or linked to specific personality traits) and can conceal a secondary benefit attempt (an auto-therapeutic endeavour, a financial benefit during a clinical study, or even mimicking a psychic illness for a precise purpose). Fears, belief of uselessness or a denial of the question distance the psychiatrist from auto-experimentation. Lastly, collective factors such as folkloric or group elements and intergenerational dimensions influence the usage of this practice. ConclusionsDespite the variety in motivations and the obvious difference in psychotropic experience between the psychiatrists performing these experiments and the unwell patient, this practice questions our conceptions of psychotropic medications and mental illness. The epistemological foundations of our discipline are thusly tested, as is our relationship to knowledge and how we transmit it. The medical world's strong ambivalence to this relatively taboo practice deserves to be put into perspective with the current psychiatric model, which seeks to be scientific.

Teen mothers who are daughters of teen mothers: Psychological intergenerational dimensions of early motherhood

IntroductionResearchers have shown that being a daughter of a teenage mother is a risk factor regarding the possibility of having early, unprotected sexual intercourse and of falling pregnant. The experiences of young mothers in such situations and the aspects of intergenerational transmission in the mother–daughter relationship have not been well investigated. ObjectivesThis study analyses the experience of motherhood in young mothers (18–20years at the time of the interview/15–16 at the time of their pregnancy) who are daughters of teen mothers themselves from the psychodynamic perspective of intergenerational transmission. MethodsSix young mothers from Southern Italy were selected and interviewed. A semi-structured interview was used to explore the early experience of pregnancy and motherhood and their relationship with their own mothers. The interviews were analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). ResultsFive superordinate themes emerged: I didn't want, I didn't see and I didn't feel; Adolescence? I suddenly became a mother; History repeats itself again and again; Confused Spaces and How difficult is coming into the world? ConclusionAdolescent mothers, who themselves are daughters of teen mothers, seem to have difficulty in representing the meanings associated with their experience of pregnancy and motherhood. A lack of narrative transmission of the experience of pregnancy from mothers to daughters emerged. The implications for research and social policies will be discussed.

Social vulnerability to climate change: a review of concepts and evidence

This article provides a review of recent scientific literature on social vulnerability to climate change, aiming to determine which social and demographic groups, across a wide range of geographical locations, are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts within four well-being dimensions: health, safety, food security, and displacement. We analyze how vulnerability changes over time and ask whether there is evidence of critical thresholds beyond which social vulnerability drastically changes. The review finds that climate change is expected to exacerbate current vulnerabilities and inequalities. The findings confirm concerns about climate justice, especially its intergenerational dimensions. For example, deficiencies in early childhood may limit future educational and income generation opportunities. Evidence of clear thresholds is rare and is mainly related to the vulnerability of different age groups, household income level, and the impacts of different degrees of global warming.

Intergenerational Dimensions of Transnational Chinese Migrant Families in New Zealand — A Research Gap Identified (新西兰跨国华人移民家庭的代际维度研究)

With the accelerating trend toward transnational families in many parts of the world associated with globalization, coping with the demand for family reunification has become a major challenge for both migrant families and migrant-sending and -receiving societies. In July 2012, a significant policy change regarding the Family Sponsorship Stream (Parent Category) took place in New Zealand, which raised the bar for migrants’ elderly parents on entering New Zealand as permanent residents. This policy change has a significant impact on many Chinese migrant families from the People’s Republic of China (prc), where filial piety is an important part of traditional values and the state provides very limited ageing support to the elderly. In the meantime, legislation came into force in China in July 2013 that requires children to visit their* elderly parents “often” or risk being sued. This paper takes these policy and legislative changes as a starting point for an exploration of the changing dynamics of Chinese migrant families in New Zealand in a multi-generational and transnational context. It first examines the impact of the New Zealand policy and then discusses the wider implications of this policy change on migrant family dynamics as well as on New Zealand society. The second focus is on younger generations in the Chinese migrant families. Linking three generations of the Chinese migrant families together, the final part of this paper addresses a highly pertinent research area — the intergenerational dimensions of transnational migration. 全球化进程催速了跨国移民家庭现象的形成。这些身居异地的移民家庭成员对家庭团聚有着非常强烈的诉求, 但却面临来自移民源发国和接收国制度和体系造成的对家庭团聚的种种阻碍。 新西兰在 2012 年开始执行新的家庭团聚担保政策。紧缩的新政策使成年移民子女担保父母移民变得更加困难，对新西兰新华人移民家庭造成了负面影响。原因主要是子女孝顺与父母同住的华人传统理念与新西兰不欢迎移民年老父母的政策倾向形成的冲突。华人移民家庭面临的压力还来自于移民源发国—— 中国的新立法改革。2013 年 7 月中国正式立法规定成年子女必须勤力探望照顾年迈父母，否则将会面临法律指控。本文以这项新立法为着眼点，深入探究新西兰多代大陆华人新移民家庭现在面临的来自家庭内部成员间的压力和来自外部跨国移民趋势的影响。本文首先研究新西兰 2012 年家庭父母类别团聚新政策对移民社区的冲击和影响， 再深入分析该新移民政策调整对移民家庭内部关系，种族关系的引申社会含义。 本文最后一部分着重比对出一个至今还被忽略的研究领域空白—那就是跨国移民的代际维度。 This article is in English.

Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere. By Philip Smith and Nicolas Howe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. vii+242. $29.99 (paper).

Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere. By Philip Smith and Nicolas Howe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. vii+242. $29.99 (paper).

Priorities and approaches to investigating Asian youth health: perspectives of young Asian New Zealanders.

The proportion of young people in New Zealand identifying with Asian ethnicities has increased considerably. Despite some prevalent health concerns, Asian youth are less likely than non-Asian peers to seek help. As preparatory research towards a more nuanced approach to service delivery and public policy, this qualitative study aimed to identify young Asian New Zealanders' perspectives on best approaches to investigate health issues of priority concern to them. Three semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with 15 Asian youth leaders aged 18-24 years. Using an inductive approach for thematic analysis, key themes were identified and analysed. Study participants considered ethno-cultural identity, racism and challenges in integration to play significant roles influencing the health of Asian youth (especially mental health) and their access to health services. While emphasising the importance of engaging young Asians in research and service development so that their needs and aspirations are met, participants also highlighted the need for approaches that are cognisant of the cultural, contextual and intergenerational dimensions of issues involved in promoting youth participation. Research that engages Asian youth as key agents using methods that are sensitive to their cultural and sociological contexts can inform more responsive health services and public policy. This is of particular relevance in primary health care where culturally competent services can mitigate risks of unmet health needs and social isolation.

Inheritance: A Gendered and Intergenerational Dimension of Poverty

This collection of articles contains new and important findings concerning the scale and significance of asset transfers through inheritance among different populations, as well as the ways in which inheritance affects economic and social status and mobility. Evidence exists of women commonly losing access to assets when properties are redistributed following a spouse's death. This and the household effects of gaining or losing access to heritable property highlight the gendered and intergenerational dimensions of inheritance. As an introduction to the collection, this article provides an overview of how inheritance has been understood in poverty‐related policy and research up to now. We then synthesise what the new findings presented in this collection tell us about inheritance as a crucial factor in women's poverty and the intergenerational transmission of poverty, highlighting what other researchers and policy‐makers can take from this research to address the gendered and intergenerational dimensions of inheritance in different contexts.

Defining addiction, with more humanity?

Dependence on mind-altering chemicals (‘addiction’) is a common, world-wide phenomenon with a long history and implications for health, family stability, economic prosperity and public safety. Currently, a vocal group of clinicians in North America has redefined addiction just in terms of neuroscience, focusing on disordered brain circuitry. Over the centuries, various narrow ‘definitions’ of addiction have not helped save lives or made humanity saner or more resilient. This paper challenges the reduction of a multi-faceted phenomenon to some microscopic pathology in individual addicts. The dependence syndrome combines biological, inter-personal and societal dimensions. Many people affected personally would add trans-personal (e.g. spiritual) and inter-generational (e.g. family system) dimensions to that syndrome. Addiction appears either to grow or to recover within the whole complex milieu that links individuals and their society.

The social pillar of sustainable development: a literature review and framework for policy analysis

There is a need to develop a clearer understanding of what the social pillar of sustainable development means and how it relates to the environmental pillar. This article contributes to this process by presenting a conceptual framework that identifies four overarching social concepts and links them to environmental imperatives. These concepts are: public awareness, equity, participation, and social cohesion. The framework builds on concepts and policy objectives outlined in research on international sustainable development indicators and the social sustainability literature. The social pillar can be expanded to include environmental, international, and intergenerational dimensions. This framework can then be used to examine how states and organizations understand the social pillar and its environmental links.

Financial Sustainability, Accounting and Society

This paper develops the concept of generational imbalance within a broader framework of financial sustainability in the public sector, by evaluating the inter-generational financial dimensions and management performance and control implications of long-term societal demographic trends. We argue that a financial sustainability framework identifies material generational accounting imbalances that will empower stakeholders to better evaluate the currently hidden inequities and resource allocation problems afflicting organizations whose services, funding and resource allocations are particularly sensitive to the effects of long-term societal demographic shifts. Our analysis focuses on reporting practices of two UK health-care provider trusts, developing statements of financial sustainability and comparing performance measures based on the existing accrual measurement basis with our proposed framework. We propose an alternative conceptual framework to the currently adopted resource accounting model in order to more equitably evaluate the long term financial sustainability of public sector entities subject to financial sustainability constraints in their quality of service delivery; and identify an agenda for research which can usefully further apply the proposed framework to other contexts.