Place and Environment Commons^™

Ai Fetishism And Perverse Climate Disavowal: Why Denying Destructiveness Facilitates Our Ecological Collapse, Alexander M. Stoner, Alexander M. Stoner, Anthony J. Knowles

Journal Articles

As ecological crises intensify, scholars and activists increasingly question the sustainability of economic growth. Yet, the dominant growth-oriented paradigm remains foundational to advanced capitalist societies and cannot be altered without significant social disruption. The resulting tension between ecological limits and the imperative for continuous growth generates “climate anxiety.” This article advances the concept of perverse climate disavowal: a mode of climate denial that acknowledges climate threats while maintaining faith in the illusion of infinite economic expansion. This disavowal functions as a psychological defense mechanism, enabling individuals and institutions to avoid confronting structural contradictions. The article examines the increasing use of …

40 Years Passing By In (A) “Heartbeat”, Christopher Janney

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This article outlines the forty-year history go Christopher Janney’s iconic performance work “HeartBeat.” Trained as an architect and jazz musician, Janney combines these two disciplines to create large interactive light/sound installations and performances. On the one hand, he attempts to make architecture more like music, more “alive” using real-time sensing devices as on his “Harmonic Convergence” installation on the Miami International Airport. On the other hand, he attempts to make music more like architecture, more physical more visual. In his “HeartBeat” performance, a dancer wears a heartbeat device that amplifies his/her heartbeat in “real time.” Over this pulse, live musicians …

Yoga Sūtra Book Four And The Yogabindu, Christopher Key Chapple

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Four themes from the fourth pāda of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra are examined here: karma (IV:2-13), individuality (IV:16), humility (IV:20-22), and freedom (IV:29-34). Affirmations and variant interpretations of these four are provided from Haribhadra Virahāṅka’s Yogabindu, most likely composed a century or two later.

Collective Karma: From The Yogasūtra To Taylor Swift, Zoë Slatoff

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The Indian knowledge traditions speak at length about karma, which is divided into three categories—accumulated (saṃcita), ripe (prārabdha), and future (kriyamāṇa). While much is said about our individual karma and how it affects our repeated reincarnation in cyclic existence, how does this affect others and how do others affect us? In other words, as this paper explores, what is our reciprocal and collective karma?

Painting Liberation: A Visual Ontology Of The Interplay Of Mind And Consciousness In Book Four Of The Yoga Sūtras, Melissa Townsend

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This presentation explores how artistic practice can illuminate philosophical questions about the nature of mind, consciousness, and liberation as articulated in Book Four of the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. Through a series of paintings that visually translate these sūtras, I propose that art offers a unique, experiential means of engaging with the complex relationship between citta (mind) and puruṣa (consciousness).

The paintings function as a form of “visual ontology,” inviting viewers to engage with abstract philosophical concepts in a sensory, tangible way. By depicting the interplay between the mutable processes of the mind and the unchanging awareness of consciousness, these …

Echoes Of Play: Traditional Outdoor Games Of Chitral`S Mountain Communities, Rubina Nawab, Fozia Parveen

Institute for Educational Development Pakistan (IED-PK) Archives

No abstract provided.

Booklet Of Green Prompts, Fatima Iqbal, Ali Fayyaz

Institute for Educational Development Pakistan (IED-PK) Archives

This short stories book is an outcome of the Climate Action Fellowship carried out by the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) and funded by the U.S. Mission in Pakistan.

Leaden Circles, Eternal Springs, And Rusty Pumps: Time, Nature, And Industry In Mrs. Dalloway, Katherine Evans

Anthós

This article explores often-overlooked ecocritical aspects in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, analyzing Woolf’s literary intersection of time, nature, and industry as a precursor to contemporary Anthropocene discourse. Acknowledging prevailing interpretations of Mrs. Dalloway through social lenses of trauma, class, and gender, Evans reveals how Woolf’s exploration of human-environment relationships is not only present but integral to interpreting the text fully. Drawing from textual close readings, scholarship on Woolf, and environmental humanities frameworks, Evans demonstrates how Woolf utilizes the Big Ben and a beggar woman to symbolize human-nature relationships. Evans’ ecocritical reading of Mrs. Dalloway repositions the 1925 novel within contemporary …

Community Belonging: Experiences Of Outsiderness In Appalachia, Erin Hudnall

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study demonstrates the potential long standing social impacts of extractive industries in Appalachia, supported by historical data and literature that defines the region as a sacrifice zone or as resource cursed. As represented by key informants and the communities under observational study, West Virginia communities can exhibit dynamics indicative of collective trauma that is emplaced and complex in nature, given a historical high level of industrial intervention and social control that induced precarious economic, environmental, and social circumstances. Some of the main “symptoms” of this collective trauma are an aversion to outsider intervention and nostalgia about the past that …

Animating Soil: Cultivating Young Children's Soil Relations, Jane Merewether, Mindy Blaise, Stefania Giamminuti

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article explores young children's relations with soil, drawing on research that positioned soil as animate, lively and interconnected. The paper investigates how animist approaches offered a mode of encounter for children and their teachers, encouraging them to see themselves as part of a larger ecological community. The research began with a "soil biome immersion"experience where teachers engaged with soil through sensory and arts-based experiences. These initial encounters led to further exploration of child-soil relations through experiential learning and storytelling. Children, as active meaning-makers, co-constructed the inquiry through imaginative and sensory engagements. Findings suggest animism cultivates soil relations, challenging traditional …

More Than Players, More Than Coaches: Institutional Agents And Youth Development In Urban And Suburban Minority-Majority Neighborhoods, Rainah N. Folk

Theses and Dissertations

Institutional agents play a crucial role in shaping youth development. While the institutional agent framework is well established in postsecondary research, less is known about its role during mid-adolescence. Using relational ethnography and responsive interviewing, this study compares an urban and a suburban high school in minority-majority neighborhoods in Cook County, Illinois, to explore how development is influenced through relationships between sport coaches and high school athletes. Athletes in both contexts face significant challenges tied to neighborhood conditions and socioeconomic status. In response, coaches form deeply caring and supportive relationships, though their roles diverge in ways shaped by their urban …

Investigating The Environmental Awareness And Attitudes Among Fisher Folks In Ghana: A Sustainability Threat, Nana Akua Okyerewa Djandoh, Enock Swanzy-Impraim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Environmental concerns, such as human alteration, pollution, and the effects of climate change, have had a significant impact on the survival of beaches worldwide. In Ghana, beaches face numerous threats stemming from human activities, such as deforestation, construction, sand mining, open defecation, and disposal of waste into the sea. Moreover, other factors such as strong winds, high waves, and the effects of climate change contribute to beach vulnerability. This paper is part of a broader study that investigated the environmental attitude and behavior of the Fisher Folks along coastal beaches in the Winneba Municipality in Ghana. Although the broader study …

Maboo Liyan Boorroo–Good Spirit Country: Using Participatory Research Frameworks To Manage Indigenous Cultural Landscapes In A Time Of Environmental And Political Uncertainty, Martuwarra Riveroflife, Anne Poelina, Martuwarra River Keepers, Sven Ouzman, Tod Jones, Naomi Joy Godden, Martin Brueckner

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Management of cultural landscapes has struggled to understand and adapt to Indigenous ways of managing heritage through a reciprocal duty of care. We argue that barriers to Indigenous cultural landscapes are threefold. First, conceptual barriers exist due to the prevalence of inappropriate heritage concepts and frameworks from the Global North. Second are relational barriers in the form of asymmetrical relationships of power between non-Indigenous heritage ‘experts’ and Indigenous individuals and communities. Third, political barriers present in neo-colonial politics are at odds with the goals of Indigenous movements. After introducing Martuwarra RiverOfLife and her co-authors, we review these barriers within a …

A Climate Justice Analysis Of Western Australian Government Funding For Collie’S Transition From Coal, 2019-2024, Emma O’Donovan, Naomi Joy Godden

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The WA Government will close its State owned coal-fired power stations in Collie by 2030, and has committed AU$692 million for Collie’s energy transition. At the request of Wilman and Kaneang Elders and community members, Edith Cowan University’s Centre for People, Place and Planet conducted desktop research about how Collie’s transition funding was allocated between January 2019 and July 2024. This report is a climate justice analysis of publicly-available funding announcements for Collie’s transition during this period to assess whether the distribution of transition resources is equitable and just.

Ecological Grief: How Can We Bear This Together?, Susan Bailey, Nicholas Gerrish

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The impacts of human activity on ecosystems are increasingly evident through ecological degradation and climate change. Despite this, in many jurisdictions across the world, action to address and curtail destructive human activities is slow and resisted at all levels. In this article, we suggest that this resistance is connected to deep ecological grief. We introduce a dual approach to understanding ecological grief, using concepts of unprecedented and unacknowledged grief. Unprecedented grief is felt in response to the loss of our ecosystems and unacknowledged grief connected to the anticipated loss of lifestyle necessary to curtail destructive human behaviour. Drawing upon an …