989 research outputs found
Asian Futures, Old and New
In this keynote address to the York Centre for Asian Researchâs (YCAR) 2013 international graduate student conference, Tania Murray Li tackled a number of entrenched ideas about âAsiaâ as the shining future, which underpin the ânewâ discourses motivating and shaping many contemporary engagements with and analyses of the region. Her reflections on the implications for Asian studies of this âoldâ often orientalist discourse in the guise of the ânew,â contributed to the conferenceâs theme, (Re) Constructions: Researching and Rethinking Asia. It also sparked the kind of critical, multidisciplinary discussion envisioned by the organizers, which aimed to rethink what it means to study Asia and Asian diaspora, especially by reconstructing existing conceptual frameworks
Gamification approaches for education and engagement on pro-environmental behaviors: searching for best practices
Education is a key factor to respond to the threat of climate change, increasing not only knowledge but also encouraging changes in attitudes and behaviors to adopt sustainable lifestyles. Scholars and practitioners in the field of education call for innovative ways of engaging youthâa reason why gamification has gained more attention in recent years. This paper aims at exploring the role of gamification in aecting pro-environmental behavioral change and searching for best practices for educational purposes. For that aim, pro-environmental gamification platforms are identified and analyzed by applying two dierent frameworks: the Octalysis Framework and the Climate Change Engagement through Games Framework. After scanning 181 cases, a final sample of six is analyzed and two of them are selected as best practices with higher potential to engage users in pro-environmental behavioral change: SaveOhno and JouleBug. Meaning, ownership, and social influence, as well as achievability, challenge, and credibility, are seen as core elements that can increase the success of gamification platforms. In conclusion, the more attributes are enclosed in the gamification design, the stronger physical and mental connections it builds up with participants. Insights from this study can help educators to select best practices and gamification designers to better influence behavioral change through game mechanics
Social impacts of oil palm in Indonesia: A gendered perspective from West Kalimantan
CIFOR Occasional Paper no. 124Oil palm plantations and smallholdings are expanding massively in Indonesia. Proponents highlight the potential for job creation and poverty alleviation, but scholars are more cautious, noting that social impacts of oil palm are not well understood. This report draws upon primary research in West Kalimantan to explore the gendered dynamics of oil palm among smallholders and plantation workers. It concludes that the social and economic benefits of oil palm are real, but restricted to particular social groups. Among smallholders in the research area, couples who were able to sustain diverse farming systems and add oil palm to their repertoire benefited more than transmigrants, who had to survive on limited incomes from a 2-ha plot. Over time, plantations that monopolized large areas of land constrained smallholder options and limited opportunities to prosper from oil palm or other crops, such as rubber. Among plantation workers, who were initially recruited as couples, privileged positions in the plantation core deteriorated; plantations began to employ more casual workers and recruit men and women from distinct labor pools. Situating this particular, site-specific trajectory in the context of broad historical trends and spatial dynamics indicates that further expansion of plantation-based oil palm poses a serious risk of impoverishment, especially for women. Conversely, support for independent oil palm smallholding offers good prospects for empowering both women and men, and enhancing their prosperity. Investment in oil palm processing would be especially beneficial for young women
Fixing Non-market Subjects: Governing Land and Population in the Global South
Expert knowledge about society and human nature is essential to governing human conduct. It figures in the formulation of the liberal and neoliberal rationalities of government that Foucault analyzed in his later work. It also figures in particular assemblages in which a governmental rationality is brought to bear on the definition of problems and the formulation of solutions. This article explores the use of expert knowledge in governmental assemblages directed towards optimizing relations between people and land in the global south. Since colonial times liberal versions of these assemblages have highlighted cultural difference, and attempted to fix particular populations into non-market niches. Elements from liberal assemblages have been grafted into neoliberal ones, producing the curious figure of homo economicus minus the market, the collectivized and arborealized subject of contemporary conservation initiatives
Les engagements anthropologiques vis-à -vis du développement
Je propose de distinguer 3 types dâengagements anthropologiques face au dĂ©veloppement, chacun dâentre eux Ă©tant accompagnĂ© dâun ensemble particulier de relations sur le terrain et de tensions caractĂ©ristiques. Pour moi, ces trois types dâengagements ne sont pas compatibles - ils ne sont pas connectĂ©s sĂ©quentiellement et ne sont habituellement pas conduits simultanĂ©ment. DâoĂč lâimportance de nous situer, nous et nos pratiques, par rapport Ă eux. Ces trois types sont : Lâanthropologie au servi..
A Mock Data Challenge for the Einstein Gravitational-Wave Telescope
Einstein Telescope (ET) is conceived to be a third generation
gravitational-wave observatory. Its amplitude sensitivity would be a factor ten
better than advanced LIGO and Virgo and it could also extend the low-frequency
sensitivity down to 1--3 Hz, compared to the 10--20 Hz of advanced detectors.
Such an observatory will have the potential to observe a variety of different
GW sources, including compact binary systems at cosmological distances. ET's
expected reach for binary neutron star (BNS) coalescences is out to redshift
and the rate of detectable BNS coalescences could be as high as one
every few tens or hundreds of seconds, each lasting up to several days. %in the
sensitive frequency band of ET. With such a signal-rich environment, a key
question in data analysis is whether overlapping signals can be discriminated.
In this paper we simulate the GW signals from a cosmological population of BNS
and ask the following questions: Does this population create a confusion
background that limits ET's ability to detect foreground sources? How efficient
are current algorithms in discriminating overlapping BNS signals? Is it
possible to discern the presence of a population of signals in the data by
cross-correlating data from different detectors in the ET observatory? We find
that algorithms currently used to analyze LIGO and Virgo data are already
powerful enough to detect the sources expected in ET, but new algorithms are
required to fully exploit ET data.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review D -- 18 pages, 8 figure
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