Sustainability

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761 KiB

Open AccessArticle

by Ellen Carm

Sustainability 2013, 5(8), 3447-3472; https://doi.org/10.3390/su5083447 - 13 Aug 2013

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 11461

The rational for this paper is contextualized within a broader national and international agenda of reaching Education for All (EFA), knowledge transformation and production with an overall focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Whose education and whose development is at issue? The [...] Read more.

The rational for this paper is contextualized within a broader national and international agenda of reaching Education for All (EFA), knowledge transformation and production with an overall focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Whose education and whose development is at issue? The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize EFA in a broader developmental context. Definitions of formal-, non-formal and informal education are applied in order to analyze the epistemological perspectives underlying the educational achievements more than two decades after Jomtien in 1990. Concepts of contextualized expansive education and object-oriented learning will be used to reveal the systemic causes of the challenges the individual actors experience in their daily learning activities. Two case studies further illustrate how a broad stakeholder involvement through collective design and implementation created innovation and educational transformation that contributed to relevant and sustained learning/knowledge and development at an individual and community level. The paper argues that in the current sociocultural context, responses to EFA need to be based on a comprehensive national education strategy, situated in the local context. By creating space for educational innovation, through interaction and negotiation, the confluence of the epistemological lenses characterizing formal, non-formal, and informal learning could ultimately be a strategy to adequately respond to the diversified learning needs of the population and sustainable developmental of the country. One expected outcome of the paper is a contribution to the future strategies of EFA beyond 2015, built on the urgent requirements for inter-professional partnership and collaboration through a multidimensional approach to education and learning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

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587 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Whose Diversity Counts? The Politics and Paradoxes of Modern Diversity

by Lauren Baker, Michael Dove, Dana Graef, Alder Keleman, David Kneas, Sarah Osterhoudt and Jeffrey Stoike

Sustainability 2013, 5(6), 2495-2518; https://doi.org/10.3390/su5062495 - 6 Jun 2013

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 9191

Abstract

Is “diversity” a modern concept, like indigeneity or biodiversity, which is conceived precisely at the time that it seems to be threatened and on the verge of disappearing? In the face of perceived threats to diversity, projects and policies have been crafted to [...] Read more.

Is “diversity” a modern concept, like indigeneity or biodiversity, which is conceived precisely at the time that it seems to be threatened and on the verge of disappearing? In the face of perceived threats to diversity, projects and policies have been crafted to protect, promote, or conserve diversity, but in doing so they have often demonstrated a paradoxical propensity toward purity and authority in representations of diversity. Perceptions of “pure” natural diversity might represent native forests comprised solely of native species; “pure” cultural diversity might represent indigenous peoples who still speak indigenous languages and wear native dress. If purity is emblematic of diversity, what, then, is the place of hybrid landscapes and peoples? In our study, we draw on a range of examples—of agrobiodiversity conservation in Bolivia, satellite mapping initiatives in Madagascar and Ecuador, scientific authority about anthropogenic climate change, indigenous language and identity in Peru, and a comparison of the Amazon and Atlantic Forest in Brazil—to demonstrate gaps between representations of diversity, and the heterogeneous local realities they obscure. We suggest that hybridity is a form of diversity unto itself—albeit a form of diversity that is more complex, and thus harder to codify and categorize. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

563 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Local Languages of Instruction as a Right in Education for Sustainable Development in Africa

by Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite

Sustainability 2013, 5(5), 1994-2017; https://doi.org/10.3390/su5051994 - 6 May 2013

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 8366

Abstract

Today’s educational challenges in Africa have their roots in the colonial education system. The article explores the consequences of linguistic choices for quality education, self-determined development and children’s rights in education. The analysis centers on a case study of a curriculum change in [...] Read more.

Today’s educational challenges in Africa have their roots in the colonial education system. The article explores the consequences of linguistic choices for quality education, self-determined development and children’s rights in education. The analysis centers on a case study of a curriculum change in Zanzibar in which English has replaced Kiswahili as the language of instruction in the last years of primary school in Mathematics and Science subjects. The case study is grounded in an extensive review of theory and practices on the relationship between language of instruction, learning and rights in education. The field study researched the reasons behind the curriculum change, the extent to which schools were prepared for the change, and the consequences of the change for the learning environment. The article, therefore suggests that for the 21st century, Africa should place emphasis on rights policies that promotes not only access, but also inclusion and quality education. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

84 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Two Rivers: The Politics of Wild Salmon, Indigenous Rights and Natural Resource Management

by Gro B. Ween and Benedict J. Colombi

Sustainability 2013, 5(2), 478-495; https://doi.org/10.3390/su5020478 - 31 Jan 2013

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 9971

Abstract

This paper compares two rivers, Tana River in Northern Norway and Columbia River on the northwest coast of the United States of America. Both rivers host indigenous populations, the Sámi and the Nez Perce, whose cultural and material existence depends upon salmon. Because [...] Read more.

This paper compares two rivers, Tana River in Northern Norway and Columbia River on the northwest coast of the United States of America. Both rivers host indigenous populations, the Sámi and the Nez Perce, whose cultural and material existence depends upon salmon. Because these people live indigenously within highly industrial, postcolonial societies, their lives have been part of larger economic, political and legal structures for substantial periods of time. In these rivers, peoples have been, and are currently dealing with the possibility of salmon extinction. This article is concerned with how such a crisis has been interpreted and acted upon within two nation’s natural-resource management regimes. We observe how the threat of extinction has initiated commotion where nature, economies, legal instruments, politics and science have come into play, in ways that reveal differences in the Norwegian and American constellations of interests and powers, manifested as differences in natural resource management regimes’ hierarchies of positions. The outcome is the protection of different entities, which could be labeled cultural and biological sustainability. In the Columbia River, cultural sustainability was promoted while in the Tana, biological sustainability became prioritized. By way of our comparison we ask if the protection of one kind of sustainability has to be to the detriment of the other. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

223 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rumors of Our Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: Archaeological Perspectives on Culture and Sustainability

by Cameron B. Wesson

Sustainability 2013, 5(1), 100-122; https://doi.org/10.3390/su5010100 - 7 Jan 2013

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 7274

Abstract

Predictions of the imminent demise of Indigenous cultures have circulated among Western intellectuals for more than two hundred years. Capitalism, Christianity, and Western civilization were thought by 19th century scholars to be on the verge of eradicating global cultural variation. Contemporary scholars have [...] Read more.

Predictions of the imminent demise of Indigenous cultures have circulated among Western intellectuals for more than two hundred years. Capitalism, Christianity, and Western civilization were thought by 19th century scholars to be on the verge of eradicating global cultural variation. Contemporary scholars have revived these views, suggesting that not only were Indigenous cultures about to succumb to Western hegemony, these forces were poised to bring about the end of history itself. What unites these perspectives are an ideology stressing asymmetrical power relations between the West and Indigenous cultures, and the proposition that only Western intervention is capable of rescuing Indigeneity. This paper examines the current crisis of Indigenous cultural sustainability, arguing that the epistemology informing many of these perspectives remain largely unchanged from their 19th century precursors. Citing case studies in archaeology and cultural heritage management, I suggest a ground-up approach to cultural sustainability in which Western institutions and individuals serve only the expressed desires and at the invitation of Indigenous peoples. Such restraint represents both recognition of Indigenous sovereignty regarding all cultural preservation efforts, as well as the dynamic, ever-changing nature of culture itself. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

333 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Monocropping Cultures into Ruin: The Loss of Food Varieties and Cultural Diversity

by Peter J. Jacques and Jessica Racine Jacques

Sustainability 2012, 4(11), 2970-2997; https://doi.org/10.3390/su4112970 - 7 Nov 2012

Cited by 62 | Viewed by 27365

Abstract

The loss of genetic diversity of thousands of plants and crops has been well documented at least since the 1970s, and has been understood as a result of epistemological and political economic conditions of the Green Revolution. The political economic arrangement of the [...] Read more.

The loss of genetic diversity of thousands of plants and crops has been well documented at least since the 1970s, and has been understood as a result of epistemological and political economic conditions of the Green Revolution. The political economic arrangement of the Green Revolution, alongside a post-war focus on economies of scale and export-oriented growth, replace high-yield single varieties of crops for a diverse array of varieties that may not have the same yield, but may be able to resist pests, disease, and changing climatic conditions. Also, the harvest does not flow in all directions equally: Whereas small holder subsistence farming uses a large variety of crops as a food source and small-scale trade, the industrial economic system requires simplified, machine harvested ship-loads of one variety of maize, for example. Diverse varieties of different crops confound the machines, whereas one variety of wheat can be harvested with one setting on a machine. However, none of this is new. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the twin concerns of lost varietals and lost cultures are bound together in the socio-political process of standardization, and to explain some areas of resistance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

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217 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“The Gong Gong Was Beaten” —Adamorobe: A “Deaf Village” in Ghana and Its Marriage Prohibition for Deaf Partners

by Annelies Kusters

Sustainability 2012, 4(10), 2765-2784; https://doi.org/10.3390/su4102765 - 22 Oct 2012

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 17733

Abstract

Adamorobe is a village in Ghana where the historical presence of a hereditary form of deafness resulted in a high number of deaf inhabitants. Over the centuries, a local sign language emerged, which is used between deaf and hearing people in everyday life, [...] Read more.

Adamorobe is a village in Ghana where the historical presence of a hereditary form of deafness resulted in a high number of deaf inhabitants. Over the centuries, a local sign language emerged, which is used between deaf and hearing people in everyday life, rendering Adamorobe into a unique place of inclusion of deaf people. However, in 1975, a law was introduced to reduce the number of deaf people in Adamorobe: deaf people cannot marry each other in order to avoid deaf offspring. In the long term, this law threatens the linguistic and cultural diversity in this village where the use of sign language is omnipresent and where deaf people are perceived as fully productive and worthy members of society. This article is structured around two sets of tensions in the village, Firstly, hearing people’s acceptance and inclusion of the deaf inhabitants, versus the wish to live in a village with no (or less) deaf people. Secondly, there is a tension between deaf people’s subjection to, and resistance against, the law, this is a tension that can be observed in the existence of relationships between deaf partners, and abortions when these unions lead to pregnancies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

180 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Globalization, Latin American Migration and Catalan: Closing the Ring

by Luis Garzón

Sustainability 2012, 4(10), 2498-2512; https://doi.org/10.3390/su4102498 - 1 Oct 2012

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 6743

Abstract

This article examines the effects of globalization dynamics on the use of Catalan among Latin American migrants living in Catalonia. The globalization process pushes towards an increasing mobility of workers and companies. Barcelona is one of the cities where this dynamic has been [...] Read more.

This article examines the effects of globalization dynamics on the use of Catalan among Latin American migrants living in Catalonia. The globalization process pushes towards an increasing mobility of workers and companies. Barcelona is one of the cities where this dynamic has been more evident in the last two decades, with big areas of the city being reshaped in order to suit the needs of global capital. At the same time, Catalonia has been receiving vast numbers of Latin American migrants who already speak Spanish, one of the official languages of the region, but not the other, Catalan. This article will examine the conflicting pressures experienced by those migrants both in the labor market and in their communities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endangered Human Diversity: Languages, Cultures, Epistemologies)

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