Toward a theory of restraint

Consumption largely remains a black box in the population, environment, and global change debates. The dominant perspective takes insatiability as axiomatic and assumes that reduced consumption will only happen through scarcity or the impositions of external authority. Yet humans often exhibit resource limiting behavior that is not the result of external controls nor is it altruistic or aberrant. This article develops the concept of restraint as an evolutionarily and culturally significant behavior, yet one that in modern times has been relegated to a regressive, if not trivial, status. The article defines restraint, hypothesizes its historical and evolutionary roots, lays out the conditions under which it can occur, and develops a theoretical parallel to cooperation in international relations theory.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43491/1/11111_2005_Article_BF02208422.pd

Making Different Differences: Representation and Rights in Sexuality Activism

This paper argues that current iterations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights are limited by an overreliance on particular representations of sexuality, in which homosexuality is defined negatively through a binary of homosexual/heterosexual. The limits of these representations are explored in order to unpick the possibility of engaging in a form of sexuality politics that is grounded in difference rather than in sameness or opposition. The paper seeks to respond to Braidotti’s call for an “affirmative politics” that is open to forms of creative, future-oriented action and that might serve to answer some of the more common criticisms of current LGBTI rights activism

Constructing food for shareholder value

The application of biotechnology to agriculture is not about feeding the hungry of the world, nor is it about feeding the growing appetites of the growing global middle class. It is about making more money for corporations and increasing shareholder value

The geo-politics of Genetic Modified Organisms

The dismantling of national sovereignty and social integrity, the deliberate and systematic violation of any and all boundaries, and the systematic violation of the integrity of organisms are the hallmarks of globalization as well as genetic engineering. This is the context in which the deepening integration of Argentina and Brazil into the global corporate operations of Monsanto and Cargill, from the molecular to the national level, are analyzed here using the example of soya. After selling its global seeds business to Monsanto in 1988, the two companies then formed a joint venture, Renessen, "in the first global alliance that spans the agricultural value chain." Nature responds to such efforts to control and profit through a globalized monoculture (and oligopoly) with mutations and adaptations that produce a diversity of biological mechanisms to overcome such assaults. Therein lies our hope and example. (Article in English

Workshop on biotechnology and social issues in rural agricultural communities

Workshop discussion and recommendation

Panel dsiscussion

Panel discussion and Q&A