The Pioneers of Biodynamics in Great Britain: From Anthroposophic Farming to Organic Agriculture (1924-1940)

Organic agriculture is the direct descendent of biodynamic agriculture; and biodynamic agriculture is the child of Dr Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course presented at Koberwitz (now Kobierzyce, Poland) in 1924. Rudolf Steiner founded the Experimental Circle of Anthroposophic Farmers and Gardeners towards the end of that course. The task of the Experimental Circle was to test Steiner’s ‘hints’ for a new and sustainable agriculture, to find out what works, to publish the results, and to tell the world. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer published his book Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening in 1938, thereby fulfilling Steiner’s directive. Two years later, from Steiner’s characterisation of ‘the farm as an organism’, the British biodynamic farmer Lord Northbourne coined the term ‘organic farming’ and published his manifesto of organic agriculture, Look to the Land (1940). In the gestational period of biodynamics, 1924-1938, 43 individual Britons joined the Experimental Circle. Each received a copy of the Agriculture Course. Copies were numbered individually and inscribed with the name of the recipient. These 43 members were the pioneers of biodynamics and organics in Britain, and finally their names and locations are revealed. Of the 43 individuals, 11 received their Agricultural Course in German, 27 in English, and five received copies in both German and English; one couple shared a single copy. Of the 50 Agriculture Course copies supplied to Experimental Circle members in Britain, 17 copies were in German, while 33 were in English. The membership of the Experimental Circle comprised both men (n=21) and women (n=22). Members were domiciled in England (n=39), Scotland (n=3) and Wales (n=1) (Dr Lili Kolisko received her Agriculture Course in Stuttgart, Germany, migrated to England in 1936, and is tallied here as ‘England’). The revelation of the earliest pioneers of biodynamics, and thus organics, in Britain provides 43 starting points for further research

Early Sámi visual artists - Western fine art meets Sámi culture

Johan Turi (1854–1936), Nils Nilsson Skum (1872–1951) and John Savio (1902–1938) were among the first Sámi visual artists. The production of their art work occurred between the 1910s and the early 1950s. Sámi aesthetics had its basis in folklore, i.e., handicraft or duodji, which did not follow the principle of art for art’s sake but combined beauty and practicality. Art was part of community life. Not until the 1970s was the word daidda, which is Finnish in origin and which means “art”, adopted into the Sámi language. Turi and Skum became famous through their books. They drew and wrote in order to pass the traditional knowledge of their people on to succeeding generations. They also wanted to introduce Sámi life and culture to non-Sámi people. One typical feature of their work is that they depicted Sáminess in a realistic way and sought to strengthen and preserve the Sámi identity through their art. In Turi and Skum’s work, both the documentation of community life and their own personal expression were strongly present and equally important; for this reason their pictures and texts have both practical and aesthetic dimensions. They did not attend school and were self-taught artists. The third pioneer of Sámi visual arts was John Savio, who, unlike the other two, attended secondary school and studied visual arts both independently and under the guidance of a mentor. He expressively combined Western ways of depiction with Sámi subjects. My article examines what made these early Sámi artists change over from Sámi handicraft, duodji, to Western visual arts, how they used Western pictorial conventions in dealing with their Sámi subjects, and the significance of their art for Sámi identity and culture. They lived and worked under cross pressure: the first few decades of the 20th century were characterized by racial theories that denigrated Sámi people, and the period following World War II was marked by demands for modernization and assimilation. Therefore, I also discuss how the conflicts of the time influenced the art of these three early Sámi artists

Voting with the Wallet

The vote with the wallet is a new, emerging feature of economic participation and democracy in the globally-integrated market economy. This expression identifies the pivotal role that responsible consumption and investment can play in addressing social and environmental emergencies which have been aggravated by the asymmetry of power between domestic institutions and global corporations. In this paper, we examine (both in general and by using examples drawn from the financial and non-financial sectors) how ÒvotingÓ for producers which are at the forefront of a three-sided efficiency which reconciles the creation of economic value with social and environmental responsibility, may generate contagion effects by triggering ethical imitation of traditional profit-maximizing actors, thereby enhancing the production of positive social and environmental externalities. Within this new framework policies which reduce the search and information costs of voting with the wallet may help socioeconomic systems to exploit the bottom-up market forces of other-regarding preferences, thereby enhancing opportunities to achieve well-being with reduced top-down government interventionsocial responsibility, other regarding preferences.

The desire to blame Greece for the eurocrisis ensures that the Greek people pay the price, while the elites responsible get away free

In the first of two articles on the Greek crisis as a ‘trope’, Daniel M. Knight writes that Greece now finds itself subject to a narrative of blame from the countries of the European north, with the Greek people portrayed as the cause of the eurozone crisis, rather than as victims. He argues that this narrative, alongside new waves of austerity, is helping to create a tangible sense of destitution and persecution among the Greek people

The Triple Crisis: What Development Prospects for Africa?

Africa, Triple Crisis, Development, WIDER 25 Anniversary

The Power of Primary Schools to Change and Sustain Handwashing with Soap among Children: The Cases of Vietnam and Peru

World Bank Water and Sanitation Program's Global Scaling up Handwashing Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is an effort to expand handwashing among women and children by using innovative promotional approaches. This working paper provides case studies of the project in Vietnam and Peru. Both used entertainment education and teacher capacity building, but as a result of differences in government and education contexts, as well as child-focused research that revealed important cultural differences, programs varied substantially among the two locations. In both cases, the primary school setting was found to be an effective site for improving handwashing

Five-country Study on Service and Volunteering in Southern Africa Malawi Country Report

This study on the nature and form of civic service and volunteering in Malawi followed a qualitative, descriptive research approach, drawing on information from an extensive document search, interviews with key informants responsible for supporting and/or implementing service and volunteering programmes and a focus group discussion with representatives of national and international organisations running structured service programmes, as well as those involved in district and community-based activities

Studying International Migration in the Long(er) and Short(er) Duree: Contesting Some and Reconciling Other Disagreements Between the Structuration and Morphogenetic Approaches

The essay contests some and reconciles other disagreements between the structuration and morphogenesis approaches?the two models in present-day sociology which aim at bridging the macro-micro gap in social theorizing, but whose advocates have been either indifferent to or at open odds which each other instead of engaging in a close intellectual collaboration. The empirical illustrations of my arguments come from local statistical surveys and ethnographic studies conducted in Polish villages from the onset to the decline of mass transatlantic migration in the period 1870s-1930s

Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 2, no. 1

A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. This issue focuses on: 1. Kimbangu, Malula, and Bokeleale: Fathers of Congolese Christianities. 2. Simon Kimabngu. 3. Joseph Malula. 4. Jean Bokeleale. 5. Recent Print and Digital Resources Related to Christianity in Africa