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Although 'Anthropocene' is a relatively new term, the idea of anthropogenic environmental change has a long, rich and underappreciated history. This study traces the development of a narrative of human-caused climate change in southern France in the first half of the nineteenth century that mirrored today's rhetoric of the Anthropocene, and it exposes the interplay of social and environmental forces in the establishment of this narrative. Drawing on natural archives and instrumental data as well as traditional archival sources and contrasting these indices with literature on Alpine flooding from the period, it maps French intellectual environmental perceptions against the realities of climate and weather in early nineteenth-century Provence. In this context, concerns about human influence on the climate stemmed less from actual climate change than from major social transformations, which made inhabitants of Provence increasingly aware of and susceptible to environmental forces, and flooding in particular. Through this case study, the paper exposes the importance of recognising and accounting for human perceptions in charting environmental change. It also contributes to environmental history by identifying late Little Ice Age conditions in Mediterranean France, and it reaffirms the value of an interdisciplinary, integrative approach to the study of climate change.

While it is frequently invoked, the archipelago is such a vague concept that its deployment in fields such as island studies is only productive when the contingency of its use is specified. In this article, we examine the concept itself and then consider the use of the archipelago as a metaphor and/or model for a future Palestinian state. The creation of the modern nation-state of Israel in Palestine in 1948, various Israeli military actions, and (often related) public and private developments of former Palestinian lands has resulted in a substantial proportion of Palestinians fleeing to neighbouring countries (chiefly Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria). Those Palestinians who have remained have largely been confined to territorial isolates within the Jewish state. These isolates have frequently been understood and analogised as ‘islands’ within Israel, and the aggregation of these isolates has been variously referred to and/or represented as an archipelago. This article examines the development of this metaphoric interpretation of the Palestinian community within Israel in Anglophone, Arabic, and Francophone discourse, and characterises the contortions necessary to imagine Palestinian territories as archipelagic. The conclusion returns to consideration of the notion of the archipelago itself and of its usefulness in island studies and other contexts.

Since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, historians have been frequent commentators, searching high and low through their research files, scholarly articles, and books to find the closest analogs in the history of past pandemics to the current crisis Over recent decades, the field of public health history has been transformed as it has addressed the history of pandemics, centering attention on powerful social and structural forces that create unequal vulnerabilities to death and disease, as well as greater attention to the significant obstacles that stand in the way of effective responses 2 In the current issue, Navarro and Markel dive back into the 1918 pandemic in their article "Politics, Pushback, and Pandemics: Challenges to Public Health Orders in the 1918 Influenza Pandemic" (p 416) [ ]nihilistic views of public health are familiar to historians who are well versed in the arguments and rationalizations that disease and disparities are but an aspect of natural selection and biological determinism 6 The historian's responsibility is to draw attention to these specious and historically situated arguments and to demonstrate how they reflect the particular social, cultural, and political forces oftheirtime

Long term and bulk patterns in both the accessioning and deaccessioning of the Science and Technology collections of National Museums Scotland were revealed within their digital database records. This makes use of bulk analysis of records to show historic patterns which can inform current activities. The current and recent selection of collections for display is analysed to reveal patterns in when these objects came into the collection. The research confirms the value of both past collecting and disposal in the development of strong collections of present and future utility. It shows that both recent displays and a major mid-twentieth century re-assessment of the collection were most likely to value material which had been recently collected. It also reveals a potential tendency for less significant material to be acquired by gift than by purchase.

The practices of intangible cultural heritage are central to the cultural heritage of humanity, which comprises practices from a plethora of different cultures as well as monuments listed as world cultural heritage. These oeuvres and practices play an important role in the cultural identity of human beings. They are an expression of cultural diversity; they can promote inter-human processes of mediation and initiate educational development on many levels that conveys cultural heritage to the next generation. Engaging with these practices under the conditions of globalisation permits us to make important experiences of heterogeneity and otherness. The importance of the monuments listed by UNESCO as world cultural heritage for the cultural self-understanding of man is undisputed. By contrast, the role of the practices of intangible cultural heritage is subject to more controversial debate. This is all the more surprising given that the monuments have arisen out of man’s intangible cultural practices. In the context of the growing influence in modern societies of individualisation and personal autonomy, we are at times confronted with the view that many practices of intangible cultural heritage have become superfluous and could be replaced by other practices. Just like in the old days, however, communal life is impossible without the practices of intangible cultural heritage. They are historical and cultural products, and in studying them, the cultural determination of the phenomena themselves and the culturally determined character of the research perspectives brought to them come to be superimposed upon one another. This article in turn discusses seven aspects highlighting the specific character and relevance of practices of intangible cultural heritage: the human body as medium, practices of communication and interaction, mimetic learning and practical knowledge, the performativity of cultural practices, central structural and functional elements, difference and otherness, and inter-cultural learning.

The stories we tell about the world, through worlding practices such as films, open the possibilities of certain futures, while foreclosing other imaginable ones. Attuned to recent work on politica...

What kinds of issues does the global crisis of climate change present to aesthetics, and how will they challenge the field to respond? This paper argues that a new research agenda is needed for aesthetics with respect to global climate change (GCC) and outlines a set of foundational issues which are especially pressing: (1) attention to environments that have been neglected by philosophers, for example, the cryosphere and aerosphere; (2) negative aesthetics of environment, in order to grasp aesthetic experiences, meanings, and dis/values in light of the catastrophic effects of GCC; (3) bringing intergenerational thinking into aesthetics through concepts of temporality and 'future aesthetics' (4) understanding the relationship between aesthetic and ethical values as they arise in regard to GCC.

This article discusses the use of the 'natural archive' (for instance, ice cores, pollen samples, dendrochronology) to supplement historians' traditional, documentary sources. It first explores the way insights from the archival turn have forced historians to interrogate not only their sources' provenance, but also the sources of those sources: the origins of the archives themselves. This critical approach to archives - looking at archives as objects of analysis - can be applied to archives assembled from natural specimens as well. I examine two examples of natural archives (herbaria and ice core collections) and show that they have subjectivities and social mediation similar to archives that contain paper records. The archival processes of acquisition, appraisal, ordering, and description (as well as deaccessioning) are all mediated by cultural concepts. I examine both herbarium specimens and ice cores to see how their creation and assembly into archives results not in an objective reflection of natural phenomena but rather in subjective assemblages. I conclude by appealing to historians to draw on these sources in an era in which the distinction between human history and natural history is collapsing, but to treat the provenance of 'natural' sources just as critically as that of documentary ones. By broadening the sources they use and thinking archivally about all of them, historians can avoid reifying the distinction between the natural and human worlds and confront the challenges of writing history in the Anthropocene.

Since the main interest of ecocriticism is to focus on the strong bond between literature and Nature generally, and environment particularly; it is good to use an Ecocritic approach for analyzing Earthquakes in London by Mike Bartlett. This play that was first introduced in London in 2010 tells the story of a family that consists of four members: a father who is introduced as an environmentalist and his three daughters. Every one of them has a certain problem that spoils her ease. Their sufferings are closely related to both climatic and ecological rapid changes. Thus, this paper will try to discuss through this play how ecology expresses both natural and constructed elements. It also will discuss the representation of environment through this play showing how Bartlett manipulates both stage and language to give a full representation of ecology and makes an attractive ecological atmosphere. It also will shed ample light on the relation between Man and environment through the variant relations between the characters in this play and the environment around them. One of the most important points in this paper will be the exposure of the mutual apocalyptic influences of Man’s misuse of the environment. Finally, this paper will rely on The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination by Lawrence Bullas a base of standing on the ecological functions in Earthquakes in London.

Christopher Nolan’s seems a spy thriller in which a government operative saves the world. As others have noted, it is in a larger sense about climate change—even though it mentions it but once. Where the film has been dismissed as not saying anything substantial, or even read as promoting an activist message, I argue it is most coherently interpreted as a reactionary defense of the status quo. The film is about a war between the present and future, its heroes those who beat back time travelers trying to prevent us from destroying the planet. If audiences are not passive recipients of propaganda, but critical and cognitive, then blockbusters need to distract them from unavowable larger meanings by redirecting interpretive energies into the details; plot holes are not a bug, but a feature. The meticulous, puzzle-box construction of Nolan’s films, which encourages elaborate fan theorizing, distracts both viewers and Nolan himself from their ideological content.

Die heersende debat oor die postkoloniale teologie is vir die sending van groot belang. Die groot sendingprojek van die negentiende en twintigste eeue het dikwels ten nouste met kolonialisme, wat tans sterk gekritiseer word, saamgeloop. Alle vorme van magsoorheersing moet volgens verskeie denkers dus afgewys word. Die teologie sluit hierby aan deur aan te toon dat vorme van oorheersing en mag wat in die teologie voorkom, ook afgewys moet word. Eurosentrisme was essensieel deel van kolonialisme en daarmee is die eie stem van die kultuur van byvoorbeeld Afrika misken, word gereken. Die bydrae van Afrika-kognisie en -denke is veral misken. Postkoloniale teologie beteken dat die globale juis te vinde is in die ooreenkomste wat gevind word tussen Jesus Christus en byvoorbeeld die oortuigings van die Afrika Tradisionele Godsdienste. 'n Reformatoriese benadering sal egter krities wees teenoor die postkoloniale teologie en juis 'n teologie van die respek van God beklemtoon, en ook mense oproep tot bekering en die erkenning van Jesus as enigste Here. Daar kan geen twyfel bestaan dat die sending op die voorpunt moet wees om diskriminasie, uitbuiting en miskenning teen te gaan nie, maar dan ook om te bely dat Jesus waarlik EEN met God is.

Philosophers of science continue to elaborate our understanding of the roles that values play in scientific reasoning, practice, and institutions. This special issue focuses on the environmental sciences, a mosaic of fields ranging from restoration ecology to forestry to climatology, unified by its attention to the relationships between humans and their habitats. It is a field that revolves around ameliorating environmental problems, aiming to support the provision of social goods and provide guidance to policymakers about how to regulate individuals and industries. Values abound in such judgments as setting the boundaries of an ecosystem, integrating the human dimensions of social-ecological systems, and collaborating with stakeholders. Since few in the field are likely to insist that these judgments can be made without reference to social values, environmental science can serve as fertile ground for exploring the ethical, social, and political terrain at the frontier of the science and values discourse.

The purpose of this article is to elaborate on the concept of prefiguration by outlining the necessity of its contribution to a progressive public philosophy for the 2020s. In the introduction, I explain how the object of critique for many social theorists has shifted over the course of the last decade from neoliberal globalization to capitalism understood as an encompassing form of life. In light of this, I enumerate the features that should define a progressive public philosophy: radical, emancipatory, and decolonized. The introduction is followed by an overview of the academic debates emerging after the North Atlantic financial crisis of 2007–8. Among these, accelerationism fundamentally rejects the incorporation of prefigurative politics in any emancipatory political agenda. To better understand this position, I examine the origin and meaning of prefiguration and prefigurative practices in more detail in Section III. In it, I argue that prefigurative politics entails a holistic approach to social change that digs its roots in feminist and ecological thought and focuses on social reproduction and the preservation of life rather than solely economic production. Subsequently, I deploy the case of Occupy Wall Street to show that a growing number of contemporary social movements are implementing a dualistic strategy that simultaneously combines repertoires of action typical of protest movements with prefigurative practices focused on the embodiment of alternatives. This dualism, along with the limited success of Occupy Wall Street in concretizing its claims and goals, has led prefigurative politics to being labelled as incompatible with, if not even hindering, any emancipatory strategy. My argument instead is that prefigurative politics constitutes a fundamental and necessary component of any political strategy aimed at transcending contemporary capitalism since it conceives progressive social change in an ontologically and epistemologically different way with respect to political parties and protest movements. Taking this into consideration, I conclude that conventional politics and prefigurative politics can be seen as having the potential to mutually reinforce each other and that prefigurative politics should be acknowledged as a pivotal concept in establishing a progressive public philosophy for the 2020s. Only by doing so, will this philosophy be truly radical, emancipatory, and decolonial.

Scholarship on voluminous geographies not only takes seriously geopolitics’ three-dimensionality, but also the ways bodies experience the diverse materialities and vulnerabilities of volumetric infrastructures on the one hand, and the earth and its dynamic ecosystems, on the other. Focusing on the relational sociality among bodies—or rather, beings—as they explore and map caves, I emphasize the shared quality of how voluminous—and in particular, subterranean—geographies are created, experienced, and represented. The history of collaboration between Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces and Cuban speleologists dedicated to the exploration, study, and conservation of the country’s thousands of caves, illustrates the geopolitical implications of this focus. Based on interview and ethnographic data, this paper examines the varied perspectives on the relationship between speleology and defense, beginning with an institutional history, and then shifting to the affective relational qualities of speleological practice, which I argue constitute a shared intimate geopolitics. These relational qualities manifest themselves in forms of relatedness among speleologists and places, some of which structure the organizational (including spatial) features of their practices and their resulting knowledge. Viewed through this lens, cave maps assume an intimate quality as well: as substances that bind, as heirlooms, and as tokens of reciprocity. This perspective challenges approaches to caves as disconnected voids empty of life and sociality. Indeed, caves not only amplify the social, they gather. To speak of caves as only geological phenomena is inaccurate and actually limits scholarly appreciation of their geopolitical transformative potential. In the case of Cuba, this paper makes an important contribution by accounting for intimate encounters with the earth and its representations as key players in geopolitics.

The geopolitical - or more specifically pyropolitical – crisis triggered by combusting fossilized hydrocarbons can be viewed in the context of a much longer human history of utilising fire as a means of traversing and utilising the Earth's subsurface. The paper develops a conceptual framework to show how the developing fire-subsurface nexus advances through a succession of different human enfoldings or ‘involutions' of fire that serve to intensify its force. This is explored at three critical junctures: the earliest hominin uses of fire in the geologically active landscape of the Great Rift Valley, the chambering of fire by ancient artisans and the material and political significance of its products in emergent city-states, and the role of explosive weapons in gunpowder empires. Finally, the paper circles back on the question of how revisiting the longue duree of human fire-subsurface entanglements might help us conceive of alternative pyropolitical realities.

This position paper aims to frame and supplement other papers in this special issue on subterranean geopolitics. We trace the research genealogy that brings together the subterranean with the geopolitical before accounting for the state-of-play in the subfield of subterranean geopolitics. Six research themes and foci that can connect to and enrich the study of subterranean geopolitics are being highlighted and proposed: (i) the three-dimensional conceptualisation of territory, (ii) the political geographies of the environmental, marine and earth sciences, (iii) Anthropocene geopolitics, (iv) lived experiences and intersectional encounters, (v) popular cultures and imaginative possibilities and (vi) moral geographies. These intersect and overlap in complex ways and none are exhaustive. Indeed, along with the collection of papers in the special issue, they serve as invitations to further scholarly reflections and cross-cultural research into understanding the designing, digging, excavating and living of subterranean geopolitics.

This essay examines the provenance of a single, curious term that William James often used in connection with his own pragmatism. The term is Denkmittel, an uncommon German contraction of Denk (thought) and Mittel (instrument). James’s Central European sources for this now forgotten bit of philosophical jargon provide a small illustration of a bigger historical point that too often gets obscured. Pragmatism—James’s pragmatism, at least—was both allied with and inspired by a broader sweep of scientific instrumentalism that was already flourishing in fin de siècle European philosophy.

Natural experiments are examinations of spontaneous and often transformative acts of nature, including artistic expression. The empirical research produces generalizable outcomes as documented during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. This article discusses how the unplanned nature of natural experiments is contrary to the pervasive practice of research in higher education, including the author’s personal experience as a research advisor. It is suggested that in the future, art-based natural experiments will enable research to correspond to life processes more fully.

This paper discusses the thought of Fukuzawa Yukichi, probably the most influential Japanese intellectual of the late nineteenth century, with particular reference to his attempt to develop a theory of civilization. For him, the civilizational approach was a framework for reflection on Japan’s situation in the world after the great changes of the 1850s and 1860s. He saw the preservation of national independence and the reform of Japanese society as primary goals, but they necessitated extensive learning from the experience and achievements of more advanced societies, especially those of Western Europe and the United States. However, he did not advocate a purely imitative Westernization. Japan’s distinctive identity and autonomous international stance were to be maintained. To clarify the reasons for transforming Japan in light of Western models without capitulating to them, he outlined an evolutionary conception of social change, understood in terms of an advance towards civilization. That kind of progress was not only a matter of technical and organizational development; it also involved the mobilization of whole peoples. On this basis, Fukuzawa articulated a more democratic vision of Japan’s future than the road subsequently taken by the Meiji government.

The present essay seeks to offer a conceptual framework for grappling with climate change from within the sources of Jewish law (halakhah), a discourse rooted in the Hebrew Bible but developed in the rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity and then in medieval and modern codes and commentaries. Halakhah reflects deeply-held intellectual, theological, ontological, and sociological values. As a modus vivendi, rabbinic law—variously interpreted by Jews of different stripes—remains a vital force that shapes the life of contemporary practitioners. We are interested in how a variety of contemporary scholars, theologians, and activists might use the full range of rabbinic legal sources—and their philosophical, jurisprudential, and moral values—to construct an alternative environmental ethic founded in a worldview rooted in obligation and a matrix of kinship relationships. Our essay is thus an exercise in decolonizing knowledge by moving beyond the search for environmental keywords or ready analogies to contemporary western discourse. We join the voices of recent scholars who have sought to revise regnant assumptions about how religious traditions should be read and interpreted with an eye to formulating constructive ethics.

This article analyses clusters of Muslim responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a theoretical framework provided by the cognitive science of religion. The responses include theological reflections on the origin, nature, and religious significance of the disease, religious justifications for restrictions on communal worship, apologetics in the light of COVID-19, and how aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic relate to issues of purity, impurity, and contagion. This article places the responses in a wider theoretical context that contributes to explaining their emergence as cultural representations, and, as a consequence, may promote further comparative research into responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in other religious traditions.

The pandemic is creating the conditions for a new telos of globalisation to emerge in humanity’s historical consciousness, which is not expressed in ideological terms, but is instead rendered as a ...

Sufism refers to the mystical dimension of Islam, which, moving away from its rigid doctrinal form, speaks of self-realization, love, submission, and intense personal devotion as being the path to reach God. This paper attempts to understand Sufism and its essential principles, proceeding to trace its establishment and evolution in the Indian subcontinent, with a special focus on Bengal and Assam. The paper discusses the development of Sufism in the regions of Bengal and Assam by situating it in its precise historical and cultural context, exploring at length its interactions with the Bhakti movement and Buddhist Sahajiya tantrism, its impact on the folk art, culture and literature of the regions, and its role in shaping the socio-political climate of the regions over the ages. Lastly, the paper attempts to comment upon how Sufism, with its inherent variations and contradictions, survives in these regions today, and the significance that it holds for the people in contemporary times. In doing so, the paper attempts to understand whether Sufism and its ideals can become useful in promulgating a culture of peace and tolerance in an increasingly polarized and divided society.

Ethnic groups are known as minorities in any society. However, the richness of their culture can never be undermined, rather, it serves as defining stuff of history that is worthy of being upheld and preserved. This ethnographic study was specifically designed to investigate how the Panay Bukidnon-Halawodnons in barangay Agcalaga, Calinog, Iloilo, Philippines upheld their cultural society amidst the influence of the mainstream institutions in their community during the 1st quarter of 2019. The informants were chosen through purposive sampling on the basis of the inclusion criteria set before them. Permission from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the cultural community was secured prior to the conduct of fieldwork in the said area. The researchers performed data triangulation and ground truths for the validity of data and observed data saturation for the reliability of the gathered data. NVivo 12 Plus was used for conceptual analysis while the researchers themselves did the analytic analysis. Barangay Agcalaga is generally on its midway progress. Being a cultural community, the Panay Bukidnon-Halawodnons in this place maintain their cultures such as Council of Elders, "binanog" dance, rituals in farming, house construction, circumcision, dagaan, luy-a luy-a, and batak-dungan; bayanihan; babaylan; and love of nature while their lost cultures include binukot; serenade (harana); traditional IP house; burial rites (embalming); dowry system; primitive costumes (bahag and patadyong). The Philippine government is called to ratify the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169 or Convention 169 to fortify the cultures of the Indigenous Peoples not only in Calinog, Iloilo but also in the entire country.

“This Is the End” presents findings from research in which the authors asked survivors of Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes to describe what they know about earthquakes based on their lifelong cultural and environmental experiences, how they responded to the devastating events, and how they view these earthquakes and their aftermath in terms of cause and consequence. The research settings of Tsum, Nubri, Manang, and Mustang were in the midst of rapid socioeconomic transformations and environmental disruptions when the earthquakes struck. Interviews shortly after the event reveal that many people are familiar with scientific concepts like the movement of tectonic plates, yet they attribute the earthquake’s ultimate cause to human activities that disturb autochthonous deities. Their interpretations suggest parallels with signs of impending doom contained within written prophesies, including a decline in religious devotion, the fraying of social cohesion, and environmental disruptions. The linking of written prophesies with lived experiences points toward a Buddhist understanding of conventional and ultimate realities in which people discuss the material and geophysical causes and consequences of earthquakes while also considering moral and cosmological understandings stemming from socially and environmentally destructive behaviors. This article contributes to a growing literature on the intersections of religion and natural disasters.

Pandemic literature (and there is a sprawling canon of it) tells us much about the past so that we can learn for our future, but we have been poor students. We should have been better prepared for Covid-19, and even merely scratching the surface of pandemic literature by examining Albert Camus’s The Plague and Phillip Roth’s Nemesis is very revealing. Despite the remarkable heterogeneity of our world, there are some things about disease that are shared globally, and many things that are recorded in literature are pertinent to the current pandemic situation. Remembering past pandemics is vital to dealing with future ones. This article argues that documentation of pandemics offers important reminders of epidemiology but also about how race, class, gender, and sexuality are involved both in the representation and in the movement of disease. Fiction gives us the chance to revise our thinking both about our relationship with microbes and about how we imagine a balance between individual liberties and social responsibility. These matters seemed to many of us entirely novel concerns brought out by the novel coronavirus. In reality, they are not novel and have long been the concerns of pandemic literature. There are great dangers in forgetting this.

Amidst so many recent contemplations of the end of life as we know it—from climate change to biopolitics to the ongoing pandemic—I would like to pursue not final, but unfinished thought. I do so by...

The aim of this paper is to present a specific literary evolution in the context of catastrophes brought by war, revolutions, pandemics, and natural disaster. Discussing works by Daniel Defoe and the Byron–Shelley circle, we will observe how traumatic events influenced literary and artistic expression, reflecting the social, political, and historical context of the authors’ lives. People tend to relate to heroes and myths more easily in times of crisis, hoping to find force and motivation in their fight for survival and improvement. The myth of Prometheus as a benefactor of mankind was one of the most influential for romantics, with Byron and Shelley casting him as a revolutionary hero that helps man combat the tyranny of his oppressors. Mythopoeic romantic poets such as Blake, Byron, and Shelley hoped to animate their fellows with their revolutionary creation into fighting against autocracy and for their liberties. Mary Shelley, on the other hand, turned Prometheus from the mythical ancient hero of humanity into the modern romantic anti-hero, creating in the process the first modern work of science-fiction.

This commentary will outline the circumstances leading to the destruction of the Juukan Caves by Rio Tinto in May 2020. Secondly, it explains how the existing complexities of the legal framework de...

The sanitary bin and warnings such as 'Do Not Flush Feminine Products!' have become a feature of women's public bathrooms throughout Britain. Begun in the 1950s by family-owned companies such as Personnel Hygiene Services and Cannon Hygiene, and developed into large corporate systems, these items and their cleaning structures have expanded into nearly every university, hospital, office, café, school and gym in the country. This article examines the three historical phases of sanitary bin technology and its meanings. First, the pioneering phase when the bin was needed to tackle the problems of flushing menstrual products and unpopular incinerators, and was developed and popularised by creative entrepreneurs. Second, the environmental phase when campaigners, especially the Women's Environmental Network, boosted the industry as they called for more regulations regarding menstrual product waste in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to the popularisation of the bin exchange and cleaning services now commonplace throughout the UK. Third, the high-tech phase of the 2000s, when the industry sought to reinvent the object by adding no-touch technology, more chemicals and aesthetic innovations. This article thus presents the sanitary bin in its historical context for the first time, and argues that it reveals changing attitudes towards menstruation, the environment and bathroom politics.

For decades, researchers have examined people’s beliefs across countries and over time using national samples of citizens. Yet, in an era when economies, societies, and policymaking have become increasingly interconnected, nation-states may no longer be the only or most relevant units of analysis for studying public opinion. To examine what people think about politics on a global scale, we develop tools for measuring public opinion that allow us to transcend national and regional boundaries. Starting with the world as the unit of analysis and humans as the relevant population, we measure and then explore patterns and trends in human preferences for democratic government and political leaders with the help of surveys collected around the world since 1994.

No matter what the different cultural backgrounds are, they will always collide and generate divergence on the same point of intersection and then continue moving forward in the direction of collective cognition. At present, the global world is facing severe pestilence disasters; China Art Circle made many responses immediately at the beginning of the epidemic situation and tried to fight the epidemic situation, encourage the front-line medical staff and provide energy for them. However, when the epidemic situation in China trends to calm, the art theme about the epidemic situation also suddenly keeps silent. It looks like calm without great waves; however, through investigating Western art, it is found that the Western Art Circle has different orientations on the attitude to disasters; considering its inner core, it maps the further understanding of groups with different cultural backgrounds on the cognition of other shores of life- different life and death idea influence the social outlook, view of life and expectation of life fate of different groups. Meanwhile, they also promote the society to show different introspection paths while facing disasters. The study uses empirical analysis to identify and collect the image information from classical paintings of the East and the West. The results show that compared with Western art, Chinese art conveys a message that focuses more on maintaining the country's stability.

Anthropologist, Tim Ingold, recounts that humans inhabit a familiar, yet evolving world – stretched between ‘the happened’ and ‘the not yet’. Despite efforts to the contrary, we can never fully be ...

The community with a shared future for mankind is taken from one of the theoretical sources, which is the innovative development of global history theory in contemporary times, which is Marx’s world history theory. A community with a shared future for humanity, on the other hand, is not the end shape of world history, but it is an important link in its growth. World history, on the other hand, being the theoretical source of a community with a shared future for mankind, includes logical stipulations on such a society. Clarifying the relationship between a community with a common future for mankind and global history, as well as accurately grasping the community’s transitional position in world history, is beneficial to better encouraging the development of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Critical urban thinkers often imagine urbanisation and the Anthropocene as inevitably being companion processes. But is planetary urbanisation the necessary telos and spatial limit of life in the Anthropocene? Is urban resilience the final form of urban responses to climate change? Will (or should) the urban (as either spatial form or process) survive the upending impacts of climate change or adaptation? Or, if the Anthropocene is a time of deep environmental and epistemological upheaval without historical precedent, might even more recently created spatial concepts of the planetary urban condition themselves soon be out of date? This article raises these questions for urban scholars via critical engagement with a proposal to retire Miami – considered climate change ‘ground zero’ in the US and doomed by rising seas – and repurpose it as fill for ‘The Islands of South Florida’: a self-sufficient territory of artificial high-rises delinked from global infrastructural networks. This vision of an ‘urbicidal Anthropocene’, the article argues, suggests that the injunction subtending planetary urbanisation work – to relentlessly question inherited spatial frameworks – has not been taken far enough. Still needed is Anthropocene critical urban theory, to consider urban forms and processes emerging via climate change and adaptation, but also how such mutations may point beyond the theoretical and spatial bounds of the contemporary urban condition itself.

This article draws on interview data and insights from environmental studies and somatic therapy to argue for the significance of thinking ‘with rivers’ in order to reaffirm human and nonhuman entanglements in the current challenges presented by anthropogenic devastation. River microbial communities are unintelligible and complex entities due to their unclear origin and continuous flow downstream. The account of one environmental scientist is presented to consider how the metaphors of movement used in the riverine context assist in exploring the complicated dynamics of fluid communities facing constantly changing environments I call ‘microbial rivers’. A pollution incident affecting a UK river, where microbial communities responded by growing in number and activity, further illustrates the intersection of communities and ecosystems in their adaptation to troubling human interventions. Engaging with somatic understandings of trauma, this article proposes thinking with flow as a possibility to reimagine the capacity for renewal when experiencing debilitating adversities, thus countering apocalyptic responses of immobility in the face of environmental destruction and inviting novel opportunities for growth for human and nonhuman communities.

Research into Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) has criticised the process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a tool for protecting cultural heritage, claiming that assessments of impacts o...