Promise Of Opening Research Articles

Opportunities and challenges of food policy councils in pursuit of food system sustainability and food democracy–a comparative case study from the Upper-Rhine region

Conventional food systems continue to jeopardize the health and well-being of people and the environment, with a number of related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still far from being reached. Food Policy Councils (FPCs)—since several decades in North America, and more recently in Europe—have begun to facilitate sustainable food system governance activities among various stakeholders as an explicit alternative to the shaping of food systems by multinational food corporations and their governmental allies. In contrast to the former, FPCs pursue the goals of food system sustainability through broad democratic processes. Yet, at least in Europe, the agenda of FPCs is more an open promise than a firm reality (yet); and thus, it is widely unknown to what extent FPCs actually contribute to food system sustainability and do so with democratic processes. At this early stage, we offer a comparative case study across four FPCs from the Upper-Rhine Region (Freiburg, Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg)—all formed and founded within the past 5 years—to explore how successful different types of FPCs are in terms of contributing to food system sustainability and adhering to democratic and good governance principles. Our findings indicate mixed results, with the FPCs mostly preparing the ground for more significant efforts at later stages and struggling with a number of challenges in adhering to principles of democracy and good governance. Our study contributes to the theory of sustainable food systems and food democracy with the focus on the role of FPCs, and offers procedural insights on how to evaluate them regarding sustainable outcomes and democratic processes. The study also offers practical insights relevant to these four and other FPCs in Europe, supporting their efforts to achieve food system sustainability with democratic processes.

Nietzsche and Political Thought

Nietzsche and Political Thought

Pluralism to-come and the debates on Islam and secularism

The article seeks to advance the debate on Islam and secularism, not by thinking of secularism in terms of whether there is or should be state neutrality toward religion, but rather by proposing that we think in terms of a state neutrality that is anchored in pluralism to-come. The latter is not a future pluralism that will one day arrive but is rather characterized by a structural promise of openness to futurity which thus exposes us to absolute surprise simultaneously of the best and the worst in plurality, the one never coming without opening the possibility of the other. The analysis is developed via a critical examination of the presuppositions of Abdullahi A. An-Na‘im’s book, Islam and the Secular State, supplemented with key ideas from Jacques Derrida’s political philosophy. I specifically propose to shift the debate on the question of Islam and state neutrality in two ways. First, I propose that instead of thinking in terms of secularism and its mechanism – civic reason – for sustaining pluralism in heterogeneous societies, we think in terms of a secularity and a civic reason, both of which presuppose a pluralism to-come. Second, I propose that we think not simply in terms of actual pluralism but rather in terms of an autoimmune pluralism.

Australia's lost children at play: the films of Baz Luhrmann

This article examines the body of locally and internationally produced cinema by Australian director Baz Luhrmann. A filmmaker who in the past has struggled to achieve critical credibility in the mainstream press, Luhrmann is consistently supported by multinationals like 20th Century Fox for his mass domestic and global appeal. Of interest in this analysis is the way in which each film plays with the dominant Australian cultural complex of the ‘lost child’. Rather than repeating the themes of helplessness and abandonment central to much Australian storytelling, Luhrmann invites us to play with the concept of being ‘lost’ – exploring it with childlike wonder and awe. His work has the promise of opening up a (Winnicottian)potential spaceof exploration, where we are invited to embrace being lost as way of entering into self and cultural discovery. It is likely that thisreturnto play and creativity, in the extreme style that has become synonymous with Luhrmann, is the source of his audience loyalty.

Marketing information technology to the bottom of the pyramid market case study: the Aakash tablet

This research case paper applies blue ocean strategy (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005) and bottom of the pyramid (BOP) (Prahalad, 2005) marketing concepts to evaluate the unique positioning and branding of the Aakash Android-based tablet computer. The case reviews the challenges and strategic opportunities for developing, marketing and distributing the Aakash tablet as an information technology to serve bottom of the pyramid (BOP) households. The Aakash tablet offers the promise of opening up a world of new technology to millions of individuals in India and other emerging markets around the world that comprise the BOP. Building on the experience of other IT companies in effectively using intermediaries to help overcome production and distribution hurdles in BOP markets (Heeks, 2012), the authors suggest developing new strategic alliances in rolling out this unique value proposition.

The role of Helicobacter pylori infection in the development of allergic asthma

Asthma is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in developed countries, with steady increases in asthma prevalence evident, particularly in the last few decades. As genetic factors are unlikely to contribute to the rise in asthma prevalence, changes in lifestyle and exposure to environmental stimuli have been proposed to account for this trend. The ‘disappearing microbiota’ hypothesis postulates that major shifts in the human microbiome, resulting from dramatic lifestyle changes, account for the increase in asthma prevalence. In this context, persistent gastric colonization with the human-specific pathogen Helicobacter pylori has been negatively associated with the occurrence of asthma in epidemiological studies. In addition, experimental models of allergic airway disease revealed a direct link between infection with H. pylori and suppression of allergic airway disease through the induction of regulatory T cells. These and other new insights hold the promise of opening up new avenues toward the development of innovative, new strategies directed at asthma treatment and prevention.

Editorial: The Emergence of the Global Science System and the Promise of Openness

(2011). Editorial: The Emergence of the Global Science System and the Promise of Openness. Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol. 43, No. 10, pp. 1013-1019.

A Discussion with D.M. Armstrong about the Nexus between Philosophy and Psychiatry

Objective: To explore practical issues in the Mind-Body Problem through a discussion with philosopher D.M. Armstrong.Conclusions: Debate about the Mind-Body Problem stretches from the Ancient Greeks to the present time. Thanks to philosophers such as Armstrong and Smart, Australia has played a pivotal role in modern developments. Dialogues involving clinicians and philosophers hold the promise of opening up new fields of intersection.

Freedom of information: The Internet as harbinger of the new Dark Ages

There's a common presumption that the Internet has brought with it the promise of openness, democracy, the end of inequities in the distribution of information, and human self-fulfillment. Any such conclusion would be premature. The digital era has amused and beguiled us all. Its first-order impacts are being assimilated, but its second-order implications are not. Powerful institutions perceive their interests to be severely threatened by the last decade of technological change and by the shape of the emergent 'information economy'. Elements of their fight back are identified, particularly extensions to legal protectionism, and the active development and application of technologies that protect data from prying eyes. Many of the features that have ensured a progressive balance between data protection and freedom of access to data have already been seriously eroded. The new balance that emerges from the current period of turmoil may be far less friendly to public access and more like a New Dark Ages.

Openness, Sustainability, and Public Participation: New Designs for Transboundary River Basin Institutions

The world's transboundary environmental institutions typically are driven from the top, function behind closed doors, disregard sustainability, and rely on technical fixes or regulatory mechanisms. This article compares those approaches, as manifested in various river basin commissions, to a new, more democratic model being tested in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Water factors into many transboundary environmental problems. More than 300 river basins are shared by two or more countries. The authors examine seven international river basin compacts, sketch four common conceptual paradigms, and argue that these models mostly ignore local needs and public inputs and sometimes also fail in their explicit objectives. The border between the United States and Mexico offers a more promising design. There, as a result of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, a new, innovative authority, the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC), has emerged. This institution has been fashioned to protect local interests and to sustain its activities environmentally and financially. We examine how well the BECC has fulfilled its promise of openness, transparency, and binationality, and conclude that properly adapted, the model's roots—openness, transparency, capacity building, bottom-up design, and sustainability—could take hold in other transboundary areas.

Molecular-Dynamics Simulations Of Fracture: An Overview Of System Size And Other Effects

AbstractWe have studied brittle and ductile behavior and their dependence on system size and interaction potentials, using molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations. By carefully embedding a single sharp crack in two- and three-dimensional crystals, and using a variant of the efficient sound-absorbing reservoir of Holian and Ravelo [Phys. Rev. B 51, 11275 (1995)], we have been able to probe both the static and dynamic crack regimes. Our treatment of boundary and initial conditions allows us to elucidate early crack propagation mechanisms under delicate overloading, all the way up to the more extreme dynamic crack-propagation regime, for much longer times than has been possible heretofore (before unwanted boundary effects predominate). For example, we have used graphical display of atomic velocities, forces, and potential energies to expose the presence of localized phonon-like modes near the moving crack tip, just prior to dislocation emission and crack-branching events. We find that our careful MD method is able to reproduce the ZCT brittle-ductile criterion for short-range pair potentials [static lattice Green's function calculations of Zhou, Carlsson, and Thomson, Phys. Rev. Letters 72, 852 (1994)].We report on progress we have made in large-scale 3D simulations in samples that are thick enough to display realistic behavior at the crack tip, including emission of dislocation loops. Such. calculations, using our careful treatment of boundary and initial conditions - especially important in 3D - have the promise of opening up new vistas in fracture research.

Lidar in Space

The lidar (laser radar) technique of remotely observing atmospheric structure and composition is now ready for use on a space vehicle. Progress in lidar technology has led to the development of high performance, light-weight, compact and highly reliable basic systems. These could ensure successful mapping of clouds and aerosols by elastic backscattering and offer high promise of opening up a range of more sophisticated observations using wavelength-specific techniques (resonant scattering, differential absorption and Doppler). The Spacelab program provides an ideal facility for initiating and exploring this concept, since it makes possible development on a short-trip, minimum-investment basis. The goals, philosophy and rationale of a proposed program to accomplish the first use of lidar in space are described, and details are provided of the specific observations proposed and of the necessary instrumentation. Using a solid-state neodymium laser, frequency doubled to drive a tunable, doubled dye laser, energy could be transmitted at a range of wavelengths (1060 nm, 589 nm, 530 nm and 279.6 nm). With simple wavelength-discriminating photometric detectors the system could be used to detect returns from particles (cloud and dust) or Na atoms or Mg+ ions. The value of a capability to make such observations is noted in terms of their meteorological and aeronomical significance.

A small‐group approach for microteaching programmes

The questions that are raised by microteaching, at least at this point in its evolution, far exceed the answers it has been able to supply. Microteaching currently has the same promise, and the same danger, that newly devised research and training techniques have always had : the promise of opening entirely new avenues, perspectives, and alternatives to human exploration ; the danger of locking in too early on a first alternative which arose purely out of chance and convenience. [Allen and Ryan, 1969, p. iii.]