Climate fiction and the ethics of existentialism: an econarratological analysis of lyra Koli's "Allting Växer"

The purpose of this article is twofold: Existentialism as a philosophical discipline and ethical reference point seems to be a rare guest in ecocriticism. Based on an analysis of Lyra Koli's climate fiction "Allting Växer" (2018) this article argues that existentialism has something to offer to the ecocritical field. I make use of an econarratological approach, drawing on James Phelan's narrative ethics. Thus, I emphasize the article's second purpose, as narrative ethics is about reconstructing narratives own ethical standards rather than the reader bringing a prefabricated ethical system to the narrative. This reading practice can help to question the idea that some ethical and philosophical standards are better than others within ecocriticism—by encouraging scholars in ecocriticism to relate to what existentialism has to do with climate change in this specific case. In continuation of my analysis, I argue that "Allting Växer" is pointing at a positive side of existentialist concepts such as anxiety or anguish, that is, that there is a reflecting and changing potential in these moods or experiences. This existentialist framework contrasts with the interpretation of “Anthropocene disorder” (Timothy Clark) as the only outcome when confronting the complexity of the Anthropocene.Este artículo tiene dos propósitos: el existencialismo como disciplina filosófica y punto de referencia ético parece ser un invitado raro en la ecocrítica. Basado en un análisis de la ficción climática de Lyra Koli "Altting Växer" (2018), este artículo pretende mostrar que el existencialismo tiene algo que ofrecer en el campo ecocrítico. Se aplica un enfoque econarratológico recurriendo a la ética narrativa de James Phelan como punto de partida. Por lo tanto, se enfatiza el segundo propósito del artículo, ya que la ética narrativa aborda la reconstrucción de los propios estándares éticos de las narrativas en lugar de que el lector traiga un sistema ético prefabricado a la narrativa. Esta práctica de lectura puede ayudar a cuestionar la idea de que algunos estándares éticos y filosóficos son mejores que otros dentro de la ecocrítica, para alentar a los investigadores de la ecocrítica a relacionarse con lo que el existencialismo tiene que ver con el cambio climático en este caso específico. Para continuar este análisis, se sostiene que "Allting Växer" apunta a un lado positivo de conceptos existencialistas como la ansiedad o la angustia, es decir, que existe un potencial reflectante y cambiante en estos estados de ánimo o experiencias. Este marco de referencia existencialista contrasta con la interpretación del «Anthropocene disorder» (trastorno del Antropoceno), de Timothy Clark, como el único resultado al enfrentarse a la complejidad del Antropoceno

New Villages: Planning and Design of Compact Growth Centers Shaped by Natural, Cultural and Recreational Greenways

The last several decades have seen the emergence of numerous planning strategies and implementation techniques to preserve open space and promote Smart Growth and Sustainable Development at the local level: Greenway networks that preserve intact ecosystems. Green Infrastructure systems that protect floodplains, water supplies and other assets. Recreational greenways that link key locations with hiking, biking and other trail networks. Agricultural preserves that protect local food supplies. Cultural landscape protection that preserves visual and historic character. Revitalization of Main Streets and suburban commercial strips. Open Space Subdivisions/ Conservation Development. Masterplanned Growth Centers implemented with Form-Based Codes While many cities and towns have adopted these strategies as part of their community plans, implementation is often haphazard and uncoordinated. Usually the Conservation Commission or local land trust pursues conservation of farmland and wildlife habitat – sometimes with reference to a town or regional plan, but often simply in response to the opportunities (or threats) of the moment. The local economic development office, meanwhile, is busy trying to fill up the local industrial park and support existing businesses. The Planning Board is reacting to whatever development proposals happen to come before it. The story continues with transportation improvements, provision of affordable housing, and planning for schools and other public facilities. In recent years, however, as creative conservation and development strategies become more widely adopted, cities and towns are starting to explore how they can be combined into a more comprehensive and coordinated approach. The goal of this study is to explore an emerging Village Planning Paradigm that forges a direct link between greenway planning and the creation of compact growth centers. Its objectives include: Identifying case study precedents that show how creative development and conservation can go together at the scale of an entire community. Understanding how greenway planning can be used to identify natural, cultural and recreational systems that can be used to shape future growth and conservation Proposing a community and regional scale planning method for using greenways to shape growth centers

A cortical network processes auditory error signals during human speech production to maintain fluency

Hearing one’s own voice is critical for fluent speech production as it allows for the detection and correction of vocalization errors in real time. This behavior known as the auditory feedback control of speech is impaired in various neurological disorders ranging from stuttering to aphasia; however, the underlying neural mechanisms are still poorly understood. Computational models of speech motor control suggest that, during speech production, the brain uses an efference copy of the motor command to generate an internal estimate of the speech output. When actual feedback differs from this internal estimate, an error signal is generated to correct the internal estimate and update necessary motor commands to produce intended speech. We were able to localize the auditory error signal using electrocorticographic recordings from neurosurgical participants during a delayed auditory feedback (DAF) paradigm. In this task, participants hear their voice with a time delay as they produced words and sentences (similar to an echo on a conference call), which is well known to disrupt fluency by causing slow and stutter-like speech in humans. We observed a significant response enhancement in auditory cortex that scaled with the duration of feedback delay, indicating an auditory speech error signal. Immediately following auditory cortex, dorsal precentral gyrus (dPreCG), a region that has not been implicated in auditory feedback processing before, exhibited a markedly similar response enhancement, suggesting a tight coupling between the 2 regions. Critically, response enhancement in dPreCG occurred only during articulation of long utterances due to a continuous mismatch between produced speech and reafferent feedback. These results suggest that dPreCG plays an essential role in processing auditory error signals during speech production to maintain fluency