المرأة في خطاب التنوير عند جابر عصفور Al-Mar’a fi khitab al-tanwir ‘ind Gaber Asfour

Women, freedom, the Renaissanc

Flaubert: from dervish to saint

Le conte incomplet de Flaubert, connu sous le sobriquet de son « conte oriental », reconte les histoires des sept fils d’un derviche. Cet article l’analyse sur les bases des schémas et des notes qu’il a laissés. Dans ce projet resté inachevé Flaubert emploie les couleurs locales afin de créer un cadre exotique pour l’exposition de la « déception », thème qui revient dans les œuvres de Flaubert. Le conte, tel qu’il est, fonctionne en tant que « négatif » (dans le sens photographique) pour La Tentation de saint Antoine, lui aussi un « conte oriental » mais plus réussi. Dans les deux textes, Flaubert s’inspire du sens du désert en tant que site de l’infini et des mirages. Dans « Les Fils du derviche » une allégorie morale assez simpliste présente des personnages qui incarnent des idées, tandis que dans La Tentation une interaction plus créatrice avec la poétique de l’Autre produit une narration symbolique et philosophique.Flaubert: from Dervish to Saint : The article analyzes Flaubert’s incomplete tale on the seven sons of the dervish, commonly known as his “oriental tale”, based on the outlines and notes he wrote. This unfinished project of Flaubert uses local color to create an exotic setting in order to present the theme of disillusionment, which recurs in the Flaubertian corpus. It functions as a “negative” (in the photographic sense of the term) to his Temptation of Saint Anthony, a more accomplished “oriental tale”. In both works, Flaubert is inspired by the significance of the desert as a site of the infinite and of mirages. In the “Sons of the Dervish”, a simplistic moral allegory presents characters standing for ideas, while in the Temptation a more creative interaction with the poetics of the Other produces a symbolic and philosophical narrative

Glocal woodlands – The rescaling of forest governance in Scotland

As a response to global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, the UN has called for restoring a billion hectares of land. In recognition, both governments and the private sector have pledged to restore landscapes through planting millions of hectares of forests. Private sector investment is to play a critical role in meeting these goals, through instruments such as biodiversity offsetting, philanthropy, voluntary carbon markets, sustainability funds, and climate bonds. Such instruments allow for the value of place-based ecosystems, such as standing forests, to be circulated globally. No longer are forests horizontal (in terms of their extent on a map); they are also vertical, in terms of their entanglements with institutions, and actors, operating at various scales. An overarching emphasis on the private sector however obscures the role of state institutions in engaging these multi-scalar institutions and actors. Bringing the dimension of scale to tree planting, we examine the ways in which woodland creation, a ‘national’ policy priority for the Scottish government, brings together actors, both ‘local’ and ‘global’, in an unequal context. Our analysis uncovers that in retreating from directly creating and managing woodlands to playing a supportive regulatory role, Scottish Government’s forest policies increasingly rescale forest and landscape governance to private and non-profit sectors, and to individual landowners and communities. These actors, who are differently endowed in terms of resources, participate in forestry developments on an uneven playing field. Moreover, questions around power and distribution of benefits arise as woodland expansion increasingly becomes part of green investment portfolios, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) commitments, offsetting, and individual philanthropy. A relational view of scale that examines prevailing relations of power and resources in given socio-political contexts can both animate and inform current discourses and policies on tree planting for climate change mitigation

Glocal woodlands – The rescaling of forest governance in Scotland

As a response to global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, the UN has called for restoring a billion hectares of land. In recognition, both governments and the private sector have pledged to restore landscapes through planting millions of hectares of forests. Private sector investment is to play a critical role in meeting these goals, through instruments such as biodiversity offsetting, philanthropy, voluntary carbon markets, sustainability funds, and climate bonds. Such instruments allow for the value of place-based ecosystems, such as standing forests, to be circulated globally. No longer are forests horizontal (in terms of their extent on a map); they are also vertical, in terms of their entanglements with institutions, and actors, operating at various scales. An overarching emphasis on the private sector however obscures the role of state institutions in engaging these multi-scalar institutions and actors. Bringing the dimension of scale to tree planting, we examine the ways in which woodland creation, a ‘national’ policy priority for the Scottish government, brings together actors, both ‘local’ and ‘global’, in an unequal context. Our analysis uncovers that in retreating from directly creating and managing woodlands to playing a supportive regulatory role, Scottish Government's forest policies increasingly rescale forest and landscape governance to private and non-profit sectors, and to individual landowners and communities. These actors, who are differently endowed in terms of resources, participate in forestry developments on an uneven playing field. Moreover, questions around power and distribution of benefits arise as woodland expansion increasingly becomes part of green investment portfolios, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) commitments, offsetting, and individual philanthropy. A relational view of scale that examines prevailing relations of power and resources in given socio-political contexts can both animate and inform current discourses and policies on tree planting for climate change mitigation.ISSN:0264-8377ISSN:1873-575

Extensive contemporary pollen-mediated gene flow in two herb species, Ranunculus bulbosus and Trifolium montanum, along an altitudinal gradient in a meadow landscape

Background and Aims Genetic connectivity between plant populations allows for exchange and dispersal of adaptive genes, which can facilitate plant population persistence particularly in rapidly changing environments. Methods Patterns of historic gene flow, flowering phenology and contemporary pollen flow were investigated in two common herbs, Ranunculus bulbosus and Trifolium montanum, along an altitudinal gradient of 1200-1800 m a.s.l. over a distance of 1 km among five alpine meadows in Switzerland. Key Results Historic gene flow was extensive, as revealed by Fst values of 0·01 and 0·007 in R. bulbosus and T. montanum, respectively, by similar levels of allelic richness among meadows and by the grouping of all individuals into one genetic cluster. Our data suggest contemporary pollen flow is not limited across altitudes in either species but is more pronounced in T. montanum, as indicated by the differential decay of among-sibships correlated paternity with increasing spatial distance. Flowering phenology among meadows was not a barrier to pollen flow in T. montanum, as the large overlap between meadow pairs was consistent with the extensive pollen flow. The smaller flowering overlap among R. bulbosus meadows might explain the slightly more limited pollen flow detected. Conclusions High levels of pollen flow among altitudes in both R. bulbosus and T. montanum should facilitate exchange of genes which may enhance adaptive responses to rapid climate chang

The use of traditional ecological knowledge in forest management: an example from India

Many forest communities possess considerable knowledge of the natural resources they use. Such knowledge can potentially inform scientific approaches to management, either as a source of baseline data to fill information gaps that cannot otherwise be addressed or to provide alternative management approaches from which scientists and managers might learn. In general, however, little attention has been given to the relevance of quantitative forms of such knowledge for resource management. Much discussion has focused on the integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into management, but less attention has been paid to identifying specific areas where it is most useful and where it may be most problematic. We contrasted scientific data with information from TEK in the context of a threat to the sustainable harvesting of a nontimber forest product (NTFP) of livelihood importance in southern India, specifically, a fruit tree infected by mistletoe. The efficiency of deriving information from NTFP harvesters compared to scientific field studies was assessed. We further evaluated the potential of TEK to provide novel solutions to the management problem in question, the degree to which TEK could provide quantitative information, and the biases that might be associated with information derived from TEK. TEK complemented previously gathered ecological data by providing concordant and additional information, but also contradicted some results obtained using a scientific approach. TEK also gave a longer-term perspective with regard to NTFP harvesting patterns. Combining information on historical and current harvesting trends for the NTFP with official data suggests that current assessments of sustainability may be inaccurate and that the use of diverse information sources may provide an effective approach to assessing the status of harvested resources

Livelihood gains and ecological costs of NTFP dependence: assessing the roles of dependence, ecological knowledge and market structure in three contrasting human and ecological settings in south India

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) constitute the single largest determinant of livelihoods for scores of forest fringe communities and poor people in the tropics. In India over 50 million people are believed to be directly dependent upon NTFPs for their subsistence. However, such human dependence on NTFPs for livelihood gains (win) has most frequently been at a certain ecological cost (lose). If livelihoods are to be maintained, the existing ‘win-lose’ settings have to be steered to a ‘win-win’ mode, otherwise, there could be severe erosion of the biological resources and loss of livelihoods (‘lose-lose’). Examining the dependence of forest fringe communities on NTFPs at three sites in south India with contrasting human and ecological settings, three key factors (extent of dependence on NTFPs, indigenous ecological knowledge and market organization) are likely to constrain reaching the win-win situation. How these factors shape the ecological cost of harvesting NTFPs at the three sites is examined. Within the parameter space of these factors, it is possible to predict outcomes and associations that will conform to win-win or win-lose situations. Empirical data derived from the three study sites demonstrate the causality of the observed associations. The key for long-term livelihood gains lies in reducing the ecological cost. Certain interventions and recommendations that could optimize the balance between livelihood gains and ecological cost are proposed