Kind Of World Research Articles

Storytelling in the Anthropocene

This article examines the 2015 book Love in the Anthropocene and storytelling in relation to ecological collapse. Climate fiction may engage elements of craft, in particular Enlightenment iterations of selfhood, that may contribute, regardless of a story’s content, to destructive dynamics of the Anthropocene. This article proposes that writing fiction is both an act of bearing witness and of creating reality. It explores how the “post-development” (Kothari et al. 2019) framework of the Pluriverse might inform the way fiction is told and consumed in the twenty-first century, and to what ends. Stories that offer humans hope and justice, and help us navigate ecological collapse, may have less to do with realistic and cautionary apocalyptic and dystopian fictional worlds than with a view of the world the Pluriverse helps describe: one that emphasizes relationality (as is fundamental among many Indigenous and Zen Buddhist worldviews, for example) and understands reality as constituted by many worlds, kinds of worlds, and ways of being.

In the Mood for Heideggerian Boredom? Film Viewership as Being-in-the-World

In this article, I engage with Shawn Loht’s argument concerning film viewing as being-in-the-world, developed in his book Phenomenology of Film: A Heideggerian Account of the Film Experience (2017), focusing on the aesthetics of mood with particular attention to boredom. I elaborate on a phenomenological ontology of the film experience and its perceptual “rules” which hinge on aesthetic choices: what kind of world does the film open up for the viewer? Loht’s account of viewing Dasein enables us to deepen phenomenological approaches regarding the relationship between (cinematic) moods and (filmic) understanding, and through his engagement with Mitsein, to expand on film spectatorship conceived as a relation with a shared film world. I look at how Heideggerian boredom can elicit spectatorial experiences and disclosure of meaning, as well as allowing characters’ being in the film world. A broader engagement with cinematic moods is also conducive to exploring limits and potentialities of a possible Heideggerian film-philosophy. To illustrate some of these points, I discuss Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car (2021), wherein boredom is consistently awakened through aesthetic strategies of dead-time, silence, slowness and repetition. In the film, the mood of boredom, but also that of love and grief as world-disclosing moods which produce a radical change in our being-in-the-world, is a way to establish a sense of our embeddedness, orient our understanding and disclose our finitude and solitude.

How to imagine a sustainable world

ABSTRACT Sustainability is about carrying life on. If it is to mean anything, it must be for everyone and everything, and not for some to the exclusion of others. What kind of world, then, has a place for everyone and everything, both now and into the future? What does it mean for such a world to carry on? And how can we make it happen? To answer these questions, I take a closer look at what we mean by ‘everything’. I argue that it is not the sum of minimally existing entities, joined into ever larger and more complex structures, but a a fluid and heterogeneous plenum from within which things emerge as folds. How, then, does such an understanding of everything affect our concept of sustainability? It can no longer be understood in terms of the numerical balance of recruitment and loss. It is rather about lifecycles, about things’ lasting. In the sustainability of everything there is no opposition between stability and change. The more that global science has committed itself to a numerical calculus of sustainability, the more it has fallen to art to present the alternative. This has crucial implications for the ways we think about democratic citizenship.

Research needs to become popular

Open access (sometimes referred to as Public Access in the US) to academic publications and FAIR research data increases public scrutiny in research, but these two directions of travel are not enough to produce a profound change for the society and the research culture itself.Let’s be frank: Research is still an elitist activity, defined by a hermetic culture. Some call it “The Ivory Tower”. Ordinary people know little about research practices and, with a few exceptions, people are not used to contributing to and consuming research. One effect of this elitist state is that Research became a small-community, well-oiled machine based on public grants and proxy-style assessments. Meanwhile, 70% of Research remains nonreplicable, and the research community continues to struggle to sink this number. This is bad. For this reason and with respect to what Research represents (hopes, needs, healthy progress and, more recently, reparations) both Research and Society need deeper scrutiny tools to understand and encourage participation in the process of creating knowledge.At the same time, we remain slow in identifying flawed research. Lives, hopes and important resources are lost that way. Too many researchers are complacent about the system. Left alone, Peer Review is not capable enough to distill good from bad research. The lack of public scrutiny into how knowledge is produced remains a cause for sideslips in research.This presentation challenges the current understanding that Research should remain an esoteric sector of our society. In a “message-from-the-future” manner, this presentation promotes the idea of open and participatory research and invites the audience to coalesce to make possible a deeper and healthier scrutiny of research activities.Starting with a declaration in Rome (2014) and continuing with theoretical frameworks, monitoring programmes, and practitioners’ networks, the EU triggered a series of actions around what is called Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). It constitutes an important building block for “aligning research and innovation to the values, needs and expectations of society”. While progress has been slow, it has the potential to improve Research and the relationship between science and society. Recognising the work surrounding RRI, this presentation invites the audience to travel beyond the RRI horizon: to imagine a world in which Society feels welcomed and invited into the researchers’ world.Through a comparison with the evolution of gastronomy, this presentation provokes the audience to imagine how the world could be changed by turning research into a popular culture, like literature, music, travel, and gastronomy turned out to be. Cultures become popular when ideas, customs, and behaviours are embraced by large parts of the population. They have the potential to become part of community identity when they are strong enough to mark with their characteristics the past, the present and the future. Literature, Gastronomy, Music, and others did it. What kind of world would we get if Research achieved the same? Setting this question in a thoughtful manner is the main novelty of this presentation.Another possible novelty could be the presentation style which will be unusual, with the presenter speaking from the year 2065 to an audience from 2025.In summary, the role of this presentation is to inspire the audience. It promotes the idea that research deserves to be a popular culture and gives a vision about a possible future for Research.

The Call to Political Geography

This essay offers a capsule memoir of a part-time Germanist. It recounts the author’s experience of coming of age in the 1990s when it was salad days for All Things German in North America and the sheen of Weimar shone. This decade was followed by the years of the global war on terror and eventually the global financial crisis, when German studies seemed to lose the plot and many historians of German quietly exited the subfield. The essay concludes with a reflection on political geography as a way to engage with German history and the German contribution to the world of ideas. German history is dense with suggestive answers to the evergreen questions of what a state should be and what kind of world it should exist in.

THE ROLE OF THE LEADER IN BUSINESS NEGOTIATION OF INVESTMENT IN COMPANIES IN KOSOVO

In what kind of world we live in, where each individual has to fight for himself, negotiation is the key to success. In some situations we will have a better starting position, but still end up as the loser in the negotiations, and sometimes we even start from the unenviable position will be able to achieve more than expected. Negotiation, both on a personal level as well as on the business, we need to improve our position. Competitive environment and constant collision with the technology require constant negotiation with customers and suppliers in the market. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the negotiation phase, and be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of negotiating style, but also of culture in which we operate. The teams coming to confusion if the leader is not doing its job if it is not ready for decision and sometimes difficult decisions at a crucial moment. Here we come to the difference between leaders and managers. Especially in smaller organizations overlap of these two positions, which is not always a winning combination.

Universities, imperialism and the collective work ahead.

Universities, imperialism and the collective work ahead.

Szkoła pracy – aktualny namysł nad teorią i praktyką Janusza Korczaka i Marii Montessori

The aim of my research is depiction of philosophical context of thought and the art of Korczak and Maria Montessori, exploring their philosophical inspirations and references. I would like to present Korczak and Montessori as critical thinkers. The main research inquiry which I formulate in this article is whether reflections of Korczak and Montessori are current today, especially those concerning education, but also widely comprehended social life. However, in the article I also ask philosophical questions: What kind of world do we wish to show those, who will be here after us, the adolescents? Why do we work and fight? What is the most important for us? What is the meaning of our lives? The method of my research is comparison and comparative analysis of texts which constitute the source of further unassisted investigation. In conclusion I state that reflections of Korczak and Maria Montessori in the matter of value and dignity of work, as well as education for peace – still frequently depicted as controversial and perceived as exaggeration or utopia – refer to our contemporary times, in which humanity struggles with the problems of war, epidemic, nationalism, violence, poverty and exclusion. In reference to those two pedagogists, doctors and thinkers, we may assume that by understanding the past we build our future, as returning to their reflections and directions is connected with the matter of the future of children around the world. Currency and scientific innovation of the article consists in, on the one hand, in-depth philosophical reflection over the thought and art of Janusz Korczak, and on the other, particularisation of philosophical reflection in the field of upbringing.

We Are All Monsters: Radical Relationality During Planetary Crisis

Earth’s climate is ever changing; yet for the first time in our planet’s history, Homo sapiens are the primary agents of this change. With this realization in mind, some geologists hope to rename our current terrestrial epoch the Anthropocene. Critical theorists have responded with alternate names – such as the Capitalocene or the Plantationocene – that point directly to the kinds of human activity that have led our planet to its current predicament. This paper begins with the premise that we are currently living through what environmental philosopher and multispecies feminist theorist Donna J. Haraway has named the Chthulucene: the age of monsters. If rationalocentric thinking of Enlightened Man helped bring about the Anthropocene, then what kind of worlds can emerge by turning away from Man and towards a radical reimagining of ourselves as monsters? What can chthonic stories teach us about how to live and die well together during a time of mass extinction? Drawing primarily from the emerging interdisciplinary field of art, science, and technology studies (ASTS), this paper offers a creatively narrated analysis of three chthonic narratives: Cold War satirical film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Octavia E. Butler’s post-nuclear-apocalyptic novel Dawn, and my own psychotic episodes involving nuclear apocalypse. These narratives, along with the Chthulucene itself, challenge the Western cultural distinction between the real and the imagined in order to make room for radical forms of relationality that can change how we Earthly beings identify, respond to, and care for each other as we collectively move through our planetary crisis and into other possible worlds.

Pluriversal Worlding: Design, Narratives, and Metaphors for Societal Transformation

This essay examines the concept of pluriversality, which refers to the human power to build worlds differently and envision different models for inhabiting the planet. The Pluriverse, ‘a world where many worlds fit’, is a decolonial vision created by the Zapatista movement that contrasts with the supposed universality of the Western Modern world. Our planet is still home to many ‘worlds’ that have resisted the cultural homogenization promoted by colonialism and imperialism. Pluriversality proposes a path for transformational world-building that begins with the belief that alternatives to capitalist modernity are possible. This essay investigates the relationship between the narratives and metaphors a society adopts and the kind of world we design. Pluriversality is focused on creating and nurturing new models of life and reweaving our reality, not on destroying the old. Recognizing and making visible and viable alternatives that enable healthier relationships with nature and each other, particularly the ones created by Indigenous and marginalized communities and peoples of color, is at the core of what pluriversality is about.

Pengaruh Skularisme Bagi Politik Indonesia

Secularism is an understanding that only prioritizes material things and separates the life of the world and the hereafter, even this understanding always fights for the right to be free from various rules of religious teachings, they believe that all decision activities which are entirely located and made by humans, are not there may be a role and interference of religion in it. Secularism is an ideology that initially developed in the Western world and then continues to spread to almost all corners of the world, including the Islamic world and Indonesia in particular. This paper examines the relationship between religion and the state from the perspective of Islamic thought. This study aims to describe how the relationship between religion and the state in the Islamic view. The method used in obtaining data is descriptive method through library research. The principle of secularism in this case is that both theism and atheism cannot be proven by experience, so that it is outside the thought of secularism. Theology provides an interpretation of an unknown world while secularism does not want this kind of world and its interpretations at all. Thus secular is the nature of releasing this world from religion. For that we need a process, and this process is called secularization. Indonesia as a pluralistic country, on the one hand has a majority Muslim population even though other religions grow and develop dynamically in this archipelago. So that in a practical order it gives birth to a secular statehood concept where Islam is not used as the main principle in structuring the life of the nation and state.
 Keywords: Secularism, Influence, Politics, and Indonesia

Ways of Reading Worlds in Chinese Poetry

Readers of Chinese poetry in English translation have long been accustomed to seeing Wang Wei's quatrain “Lu zhai” as a microcosm of the Chinese poetic tradition. Thematically, it is also a world in miniature, including an “empty mountain,” “human voices,” and “returning shadows” at the end of day. And the historical series of its English translations offers a picture of ever more condensed and stripped-down utterance, as if straining at the borders of the sayable in the effort to display an exotic worldview. But the quatrain, famous though it is in isolation, is but one in a series of forty, a moment in a dialogue that also includes scroll painting and landscape architecture. Putting the quatrain in its expanded context affords it a greater comparability with the rolling, episodic, adventuresome structure of Gary Snyder's homage to Chinese landscape painting, Mountains and Rivers without End. When dealing with worlds in art, it is important to ask what kind of world, and whether this world is self-sufficient or is part of another world, which may be part of further worlds.

Aspects of improving waste management in the European Union

A number of measures are implemented in Georgia from the perspective of waste management. Laws have been developed, including within the framework of harmonization with the European Union. Some practical steps have also taken but challenges still remain. Becoming familiar with EU practices will play a valuable role in overcoming these challenges. In this paper, some of the measures implemented and planned to improve waste management in EU are studied and analyzed. The 8th Environmental Action Program of the European Union has prioritized that by 2050 at the latest, people will live well, taking into account planetary boundaries in a welfare economy. In this kind of world, where nothing is lost, growth is regenerative, achieving climate neutrality across the Union and with significantly reduced inequality. The European experience of waste management shows that it should be developed in coordination with environmental action plans. In addition, activating the involvement of all stakeholders is a daily task to achieve the set goals of waste management. The final part of the paper presents the important aspects of the measures to be taken to increase the efficiency of waste management in the European Union, which will also be useful for overcoming the relevant challenges in Georgia. Keywords: Waste Management; EU Waste Framework Directive

The role of sustainable development of the agricultural sector in reducing the risk of environmental disasters

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the issues of sustainable development in all countries of the world. Now the world is living in an era of high speeds and rapid changes. New technologies come into our lives and change it in all spheres. New technologies provide opportunities to improve the standard of living, but it is impossible not to notice such global problems as inequality of residents of different countries and different social groups, have unequal access to natural resources and other results of civilization. The environment is experiencing a great anthropogenic load and it is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure the well-being of people whose numbers on the planet are increasing. People can't help but wonder what kind of world they will leave to future generations. The concentration of greenhouse gases is increasing, the average temperature is rising, the temperature of the world ocean continues to rise, the melting of glaciers is increasing. In such a situation, people cannot do nothing. Their inaction will contribute to the emergence of environmental disasters and social crises. Responding to these challenges requires complex and joint efforts of different countries, regions, companies and individuals in all spheres of activity. The agricultural sector occupies an important place in the economy of any country and is very resource-intensive, in this regard, it should be paid attention to first of all. The article discusses possible directions for achieving the greatest sustainability of the agricultural sector. The purpose of this article is to search for these areas and achieve sustainable development of the agricultural sector.

Plague, Nature, Planetary Future: A Posthumanist Reading of The Scarlet Plague

This article proposes a posthumanist reading of Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague, and argues that to secure a sustainable planetary future, human beings should understand the posthumanist nature of the world, and learn to respect nature. This article investigates two kinds of worlds, showing a preference for the posthumanist one after the plague over the anthropocentric one before the plague. In the anthropocentric world, the life of human beings is heavily industrialized and isolated from nature, and this causes disaster. However, in the posthumanist world, everything follows natural laws. Human beings are no longer dominators of the world, but share the planet with the nonhuman. In this way, both the human and the nonhuman survive and prosper. Thus, posthumanist thinking provides human beings with a way to make sustainable developments and to build a bright future.

Free will: Dr Johnson was right

Abstract In this attempt to deal with the problem of free will Tallis identifies intentionality as a feature of our lives that cannot be explained by deterministic, natural, physical, causal laws. Our ability to think about the world, and not merely be objects subject to it, gives us room for manoeuvre for free thought and action. Science, far from being antagonistic to the possibility of free will as it is usually presented through its deterministic explanations, is a manifestation of our freedom and could not exist without it. However, doubts arise for the argument owing to a lack of explanation as to how freedom is possible no matter how persuasively we are shown that it appears to be. That is, what kind of world would it have to be for freedom to exist and be explicable. I conclude with my own view, alluded to by Tallis, but not followed up, that the problem with the scientific worldview is that it is wedded to objectivity as the only stance deemed veridical as to the nature of reality, one which therefore cannot by necessity allow subjects or freedom. As freedom is a property of subjects, the scientific worldview cannot allow for freedom. Once the condition is dropped that only the objectively knowable can be real, freedom also may be real, defined as a knowable property of our subjectivity. There is no need to deny physicalism if the definition of it is released from the epistemic bonds of objectivity and we hold that some physical properties may be known subjectively, namely those that characterize our subjective life.

Planetary activism at the end of the world: Feminist and posthumanist imaginaries beyond Man

We are currently experiencing a planetary crisis that will lead, if worst comes to worst, to the end of the entire world as we know it. Several feminist scholars have suggested that if the Earth is to stay livable for humans and nonhumans alike, the ways in which many human beings – particularly in the wealthy parts of the world, infested with Eurocentrism, (neo)colonialism, neoliberalism, and capitalism – inhabit this planet requires radical, ethical, and political transformation. In this article, we propose that feminist theory, particularly feminist posthumanities, and Black feminist and decolonial thought, together with creative practices such as writing, have much to contribute to transformative planetary activism that imagines different and other kinds of worlds and futures based on an ethical consideration of nonhuman others and collective caring for the planet.

Geophilosophies: towards another sense of the earth

The relationship between ‘philosophy’ and the ‘geo’ has received renewed attention with the rise of the terrestrial and the planetary as leitmotifs for thinking about the collective subjectivation of particular kinds of world. In some of these conversations, this relationship is developed to consider how social collectives emerge with the production of particular kinds of territorial abstraction. Three decades since Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari published What is Philosophy?, book that has a lasting legacy in developing geophilosophy as a particular mode of transcendental empirical enquiry, this special issue revisits the relationship between geophilosophy and the production of an alternative sense of the earth. In this introduction, we approach geophilosophy in its pluralism by showing how the concept does not only concern the question of how to retain a sense of difference and contingency in thought, but also concerns a mode of enquiry that presents opportunities to experiment with alternative forms of collective subjectivation. Assaying the legacy of Deleuze and Guattari’s geophilosophy on contemporary forms of earth-thinking, the article identifies the unique demands and geophilosophical possibilities taken up by the contributors to this issue that question how to recuperate another sense of the earth.

The Russians Are Here

Russia’s war on Ukraine inaugurated the new Cold War most feared, and some wanted. It demanded that countries pick sides. African countries and their elites have been reluctant to do so, not least because for some their food or energy supplies will be affected, while for others Putin’s authoritarian governance model is seductive. Other countries and movements are reluctant to weigh in for fear of being swept up in an elite-serving great power conflict using Ukraine as its proxy and that the invasion exposes hypocrisies. More than anything, peace and a more humane future - another kind of world, underlined not by great power competition, but solidarity binding ordinary people across borders - is even more elusive.

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence