Networks in nature: applying cultural ecology for stewardship

The purpose of this research is to describe the historical context and systemic structure of the Western agrarian estate model to locate opportunities for strategic solutions to environmental degradation in a way that balances cultivated and conserved natural resources. In part 1, landholders are identified as a point of leverage in the agrarian system. Part 2 goes over the historical development of the Western estate and state traditions, which support landholders by having instituted land administration and information systems to enfranchise their activity. The systemic theory that underlies the Western model is outlined in part 3, describing how social and ecological arrangements are within a biophysical context. Part 4 discusses how information about interactive social and biophysical contexts can be applied to support environmental management as a cultural activity. Such an understanding focuses attention to natural resources and community as a singular system. To illustrate, part 5 is a case study that profiles a unique company, Iroquois Valley Farmland Real Estate Investment Trust, whose activities and way of thinking are reflective of the need suggested by the research: their activities enfranchise land managers in a way that balances the needs of natural resource ecosystems, specifically soil, and the needs of the communities who rely on the productivity of those resources, specifically agricultural produce. As a whole, the thesis engages in a pragmatic inquiry to describe the fundamental and reciprocal interconnectedness of human society, culture, and the natural environment in an effort to show the foundational importance of considering these as a complete system, an understanding which can guide refinement and evolution of economic and livelihood managerial practices in an effective, respectful, and generative way

HUMAN NATURE OR HUMANITY: BETWEEN GENES AND VALUES

We are within nature and culture, conditioned simultaneously by genes and meanings. This form of our self-understanding is the result of fundamental modifications that happened in modern philosophical anthropology and of the impact of the natural Science. In modern philosophy three types of approaches to the human situation were constituted at different times: the idealist, the naturalist, and the culturalist, and the problem of whether humanity is natural (biological) or cultural has begun to take precedence over the issue of human supernatural roots. Both approaches are presented, their presuppositions discussed, and arguments in favor of a version of the culturalist approach. Only the culturalist approach allows us to understand our own self-constitution and, in particular, our self-reflectivity, as well as the naturalist attempts to ignore them and immerse ourselves in nature

Transcending Knowledge Management, Shaping Knowledge Governance

Reflecting a new normative push towards conceptual innovation, knowledge governance has emerged as a new paradigm to describe, understand, and analyze the expanding “knowledge domain” in a holistic and comprehensive way. Knowledge governance involves the design of structures and mechanisms to support the processes of sharing and creating knowledge in the (almost) exclusive frame of strategic management. In this chapter we try to draw the portrait of this pretender theory and practice with deep case studies

Ontology of human rights in today's globalized world: the philosophical dimension

The ontology of human rights forms new features in today's globalized world. Civilizational advancement has modified the interpretation of both fundamental ontological legal concepts in general and human rights in particular. The scientific exploration aims to correlate the gnoseological and axiological aspects with the ontological manifestations of human rights in the modern sociocultural space. The objectives of the study are to determine the essential components of human rights and their interconnection with global processes. The methodological arsenal for achieving the goal of work is general scientific methods (analysis, systematization) and scientific and practical methods of legal regulation (imperative and dispositive). The problem of human rights in the dichotomous section of ontological legal concepts remains a debatable issue. The essence of the right acts as a fundamental dimension in the analysis of human dimension legal aspects. Thus, the ontology of human rights has been repositioned in the modern worldview paradigm and aligns its principles with the trends of globalization. Under the influence of modern socio-cultural factors, the nature of human rights is undergoing significant transformations, not only in the value dimension but also in the existential and semantic dimension. Prospects for further research should be considered new interpretations of ontological legal concepts - legist, natural law, and libertarian - and the development on their basis of a synergistic ontological model of human rights

Friends in the Orchid Room: An Inquiry into Value-Creative Dialogue

This study asked, what value is created by two education practitioner-scholars who engage in a years-long sustained dialogue about value-creating, or Soka, education inspired by Daisaku Ikeda’s ethos of value-creative dialogue? The purpose of this study was to analyze Ikeda’s philosophical perspectives and practice of value-creative dialogue and to use this analysis as a framework for analyzing the author’s own inner transformation and value creation through dialogue with her friend and interlocutor for the study. The study empirically evaluated the content of Ikeda’s dialogues as the theme of dialogue emerged and evolved over time in Ikeda’s discourse by using thematic analysis. In order to conduct the dialogues, we employed a method of dialogic inquiry that evolved organically and aligned with a participatory inquiry paradigm. Findings focused on purposes and types of value-creative dialogue, influences on and processes of value-creative dialogue, and outcomes of value-creative dialogue, and highlighted the power of dialogue for inner transformation toward value creation. This study is the first to empirically analyze the practice of value-creating dialogue in the emerging field of Ikeda/Soka Studies in Education. Implications for teacher practice and for dialogic research design include the use of dialogue for teacher professional development, practical applications of value-creating education, and the use of dialogic inquiry in qualitative research

Neoliberal Civilization: Definition, Evaluation and Trends

This master’s thesis is about neoliberal civilization – a complex and comprehensive social phenomenon that appears to be able to spread its influence all over the world, and that effectively monopolizes the right to define social relations and transformations in most areas of social life. This is a theoretical study which includes a definition, an evaluation, and a discussion of neoliberal civilization and its future trends. It provides an interpretation of the financial and debt crisis, and the solutions employed to manage the crisis. It provides an evaluation of the epistemological foundations of this system, on its nature and purposes. As a conceptualization, neoliberal civilization refers to the discursive practices of neoliberal international political economy (IPE). It refers to a system that is being represented as an ideal, and which forms a set of discursive rules and practices that define most areas of social life and that subject most people to roles defined by it. It is an attempt to dominate social relations and the destiny of the world from a particular perspective of vested interests. Globalization, interdependences, democracy, and economy are concepts set up from the perspective of dominant market actors, and that serve the dominant interest of the global market place. In order to be free individuals, we need to rethink freedom, individualism and political economy with other tools than those of neoliberal civilization. Major sources of neoliberal theory include Friedrich von Hayek’sRoad to Serfdom(1956 [1944]), Constitution of Liberty(2006 [1960]),Fatal Conceit(1988), Ludwig von Mises’Theory and History(1957), and Milton and Rose Friedman’sFree to Choose(1979). Other sources for neoliberal IPE include the internet pages of IMF, WTO, World Bank, policy agency groups, and major corporate interest groups. I have approached the analytical conceptualization of neoliberal civilization from a normative perspective, based on a theocentric cognitive systematization, the Universal System of Love, and an interpretation of Adam Smith’s System of Natural Liberty. The first of the two perspectives is based on Emanuel Swedenborg'sDivine Love and Wisdom(2009a [1763]), the second on Smith’sTheory of Moral Sentiments(2006 [1759]), andWealth of Nations(2005, [1776]). Both perspectives led to a rejection of neoliberal epistemology, and a reformulation of the concept of freedom. Neoliberal civilization appears to have perverted the ideas of freedom, individualism and markets to a form that is inimical to freedom, not coherent with the natural laws, and that deprives self-interest its materially progressive and morally beneficial features exposed by Adam Smith. The purposes of this study required only an outline of these two perspectives, to be used for evaluative analysis. I find that the Swedenborgian  perspective can be used for transforming the philosophy of science, and the Smithian perspective for uniting the liberal and Marxist traditions, and the movement of another and better world. I ground this claim on the ability to unthink, rethink, systematize and unite that these perspective seem to offer. Asiasanat:neoliberalism, civilization, international political economy, discourse, epistemology, morality, freedom, liberty, Smith, Hayek, crisis, deb

Indigenous Philosophy and World Politics: Cosmopolitical Contributions from across the Americas

abstract: The call for an Inter-Civilizational Dialogue informed by cosmopolitical forms of Comparative Political Theory as a way to address our unprecedented global challenges is among the most laudable projects that students of politics and related fields across the world have put forth in centuries. Unfortunately, however, up until this point the actual and potential contributions of the Indigenous or 'Fourth' World and its civilizational manifestations have been largely ignored. This has clearly been the case in what refers to Indigenous American or Abya-Yalan cultures and civilizations. The purpose of this dissertation is to acknowledge, add to, and further foster the contributions of Indigenous American cultures and civilizations to the emerging fields of Comparative Political Theory and Inter-Civilizational Relations. Guided by a cosmopolitical concern for social and environmental justice, this work adds to the transcontinental and transdisciplinary effort to decolonize knowledges and practices by offering socio-ecologically balanced alternatives beyond the crisis of globalized Western modernity. This work draws on three broad Indigenous traditions, Mesoamerican, Andean, and Native North American, to offer some historical and contemporary examples of the many possible ways in which the recovery, revalorization, and revitalization of Indigenous modes of thought, practice, organization and planning can contribute to foster forms of comparative political theorizing that address the challenges of a global age bedeviled by the confluence of social and environmental crises of an unprecedented scale and scope. The dissertation first introduces comparative political theory as a framework for the inter-civilizational dialogue, arguing that Indigenous contributions have been marginalized and must be considered. Part I then focuses and elaborates on specifically Mesoamerican contributions; Part II is dedicated to Andean contributions; and Part III to Native North American contributions. The dissertation closes with a brief reflection of how Indigenous American contributions can help us address some of our most crucial contemporary global challenges, especially in what concerns the construction of cosmopolitical alternatives built on post-anthropocentric forms of socio-ecological justice.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Political Science 201

Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Machinocene: Illusions of instrumental reason

In their seminal work, Dialectics of Enlightenment, Horkheimer and Adorno interpreted capitalism as the irrational monetization of nature. In the present work, I analyze three 21st century concepts, Anthropocene, Capitalocene and Machinocene, in light of Horkheimer and Adorno’s arguments and recent arguments from the philosophy of biology. The analysis reveals a remarkable prescience of the term “instrumental reason”, which is present in each of the three concepts in a profound and cryptic way. In my interpretation, the term describes the propensity of science based on the notion of physicalism to interpret nature as the machine analyzable and programmable by the human reason. As a result, the Anthropocene concept is built around the mechanicist model, which may be presented as the metaphor of the car without brakes. In a similar fashion, the Machinocene concept predicts the emergence of the mechanical mind, which will dominate nature in the near future. Finally, the Capitalocene concept turns a perfectly rational ambition to expand knowledge into an irrational obsession with over-knowledge, by employing the institutionalized science as the engine of capitalism without brakes. The common denominator of all three concepts is the irrational propensity to legitimize self-destruction. Potential avenues for countering the effects of “instrumental reason” are suggested

Bombazo Epistemology a Syllabus of Survival: Dismantling Settler Colonialism\u27s Philosophy in the Stolen Land

Eurocentric educational philosophy has functioned as an anticipatory regime creating racial, economic, historical, sociopolitical, and intellectual separation and imposing dominant knowledge systems. In 2021, American and Hispanic empires rejected organic movements from scholars and academic activists for embracing a vision of the world outside the boundaries of Eurocentrism. A trend that has shaken the foundations of Eurocentric Academia. More than ever, the Bomba Ceremony has emerged as a tradition that substantiates Puerto Rico\u27s identity, awakening the consciousness of TransIndigenous and Transcolonialism intersubjectivities. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I conceptualize the logic of white supremacy through the lenses of white settler colonialism, which I theorize how, as a way of survival, the cultural interpretation of Puerto Rican identity navigated the epistemic, ontological, and axiological boundaries of Transcolonialism. Secondly, I contextualize how Puerto Ricans resisted Eurocentrism, revealing the traditions of the Bomba ceremony connecting the Islanders with the Diaspora that was forced to migrate. The collective memory of Bombazo, which was clandestine and considered rebellious for centuries, constructed strong alliances between Taínos and Indigenous peoples of Africa within the boundaries of an imagined free Puerto Rico and the one colonized. But nowadays, Bombazo\u27s epistemology is leading Puerto Ricans to a decolonizing path connecting Puerto Ricans from the Caribbean to all Diaspora worldwide