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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Life And Times Of Landfills, Joshua O. Reno Oct 2016

The Life And Times Of Landfills, Joshua O. Reno

Joshua Reno

American landfills are primarily understood as distinctly human and spatial creations, when in practice they are as much temporal as spatial and as much non-human as human. Based on a large landfill on the rural periphery of Detroit, this paper explores the emergent and polychronic forms of life fostered by controlled dumping. Landfill employees work with their ecological surroundings to satisfy regulatory directives and assemble ever-growing mountains of waste. The paper introduces the complex, practical negotiations that result by isolating and diagraming the distinct temporal scales at which nonhuman beings and powers aid in and disrupt the process of landfilling.


The Life And Times Of Landfills, Joshua O. Reno Aug 2016

The Life And Times Of Landfills, Joshua O. Reno

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

American landfills are primarily understood as distinctly human and spatial creations, when in practice they are as much temporal as spatial and as much non-human as human. Based on a large landfill on the rural periphery of Detroit, this paper explores the emergent and polychronic forms of life fostered by controlled dumping. Landfill employees work with their ecological surroundings to satisfy regulatory directives and assemble ever-growing mountains of waste. The paper introduces the complex, practical negotiations that result by isolating and diagraming the distinct temporal scales at which nonhuman beings and powers aid in and disrupt the process of landfilling.


"Discursion And Excursion:" Poetry Of Bodies, Place, And Landscape In The Ecocritical Movement, Haley N. Littleton Jan 2016

"Discursion And Excursion:" Poetry Of Bodies, Place, And Landscape In The Ecocritical Movement, Haley N. Littleton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis project focuses on the current literary field of Ecocriticism, its historical transmutations, and the correlation of the pastoral genre, as one begins to understand current human understandings of "nature." By applying a deeper understanding of the Deep Ecology movement, along with shifting understandings of the human and the non-human, specifically in our usage and attention to landscape and wilderness, I hope to explore the role that the aesthetic, and the function of the poem, can play a crucial role in the environmental movement. By building a foundational understanding of our cultural context and critical theories of Environmental criticism, …


The Language Of Sustainability, Maija Ploof Jan 2016

The Language Of Sustainability, Maija Ploof

Student Showcase

This paper seeks to address the importance of understanding the ambiguous term "sustainability" through the study of humanities, chiefly literature. Additionally, the paper explores the emerging genre of climate change fiction, or "cli-fi" and its potential role in presenting the issues of both ecological and human sustainability to a global audience, using Amitav Ghosh's novel The Hungry Tide as a primary example. As a basis for the theory that literature can affect a sustainable future, I also examine the importance of language in shaping both perception and protection of the environment. Language creates familiarity, which in turn creates consciousness. Literature …


"One Narrow Thread Of Green": The Vision Of May Theilgaard Watts, The Creation Of The Illinois Prairie Path, And A Community's Crusade For Open Space In Chicago's Suburbs, Anne M. Keller Jan 2016

"One Narrow Thread Of Green": The Vision Of May Theilgaard Watts, The Creation Of The Illinois Prairie Path, And A Community's Crusade For Open Space In Chicago's Suburbs, Anne M. Keller

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Women's environmental activism prior to the early 1960s in America focused on women's roles as municipal housekeepers or emphasized wilderness conservation. I offer in this dissertation the story of the Illinois Prairie Path, the country's first rails-to-trails conversion to apply for National Recreation Trail status, and the innovative women who fought for nature preservation in a suburban setting rather than in a wilderness area. Led by renowned writer and naturalist, May Theilgaard Watts, these women built support for the public footpath project by fostering an ecological awareness throughout their region. I place them in the tradition of Chicago female reformers …