Immense beyond imagination, the untamed rainforests of western New Guinea represent a biodiversity hotspot, home to several unique species of flora and fauna. The territory’s astonishing beauty and diversity is underpinned by a stunning array of natural resources. The island is also home to many indigenous communities practicing hundreds of local languages and traditions and depending on their natural environment for maintaining their traditional livelihoods, identity and culture. The territory’s much-contested decolonization process in the 1950-60s led to widespread discontent among indigenous Papuans and gave rise to persistent dissent from Indonesian rule, routinely met with disproportionately violent action by Indonesian security forces. Adding to these longstanding colonial ills and grievances, indigenous Papuan communities also struggle to grapple with inequitable allocation of land and resources, extreme pollution and environmental degradation caused by the mining and palm oil sectors. In the meantime, climate-exacerbated weather events have become more frequent in the region creating new tensions by putting an additional strain on natural resources and thus leading to an increased level of insecurity and inequality. In particular, these challenges have a disproportionate and profound impact on indigenous Papuan women, whose native lands are deeply embedded in their cultural and ethnic identity, and who are dependent on access to land to carry out their prescribed roles. Displacement also puts women at further risk of violence. Adding to sexual violence and displacement experienced by indigenous Papuan women, the loss of traditional lands and resources has been identified as having a singularly negative impact on women as it impedes their empowerment and makes them vulnerable to continued violence. The Papuan experience thus serves as a timely illustration to exemplify how environmental factors, such as resource extraction and climate change, not only amplify vulnerabilities and exacerbate pre-existing inequalities stemming from colonial times, they also give rise to gendered consequences flowing from large-scale degradation and loss of the natural environment.
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This article presents results of a qualitative analysis based on biographic narratives of three young, well-educated women from Syria. They arrived in the Netherlands between 2015 and 2017 in the context of family reunion. The central question is how young Syrian women navigate between two major projects that ask for their agency, being family and work. It is argued that both occupational career development and the building of a family are ‘agentic projects’ that aim to contribute to the establishment of a new life and to regain continuity. The analyses demonstrate that both projects are closely intertwined. Agency emerges as highly relational and intersecting with the women’s position in the life course, timing of life events, ability to adapt career goals to the new situation, and impact of social contexts on family relations.
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Adopted on the fifteenth anniversary of resolution 1325, Security Council resolution 2242 has recognized for the first time the substantial link between climate change and the “Women, Peace and Security” (WPS) framework. Despite this landmark resolution, the intersections of environmental factors, conflict and violence against women remain largely absent from the Security Council's WPS agenda. Competition over natural resources is generally understood as a driver of conflict. The risk of insecurity and conflict are further increased by environmental degradation and climate change. It is therefore clear that the environment and natural resources must be integrated into the WPS agenda. This should necessarily include a discussion of indigenous rights to land and the gender-related dimensions of environmental factors. Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation, caused by resource extraction and increasingly compounded by climatic changes. This in turn exacerbates other vulnerabilities, including sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of marginalization. This article argues, by reference to the situation in West Papua, that unfettered resource extraction not only amplifies vulnerabilities and exacerbates preexisting inequalities stemming from colonial times, it also gives rise to gendered consequences flowing from the damage wreaked on the natural environment and thus poses a danger to international peace and security. As such, the Security Council's failure to recognize the continuous struggle of women in indigenous and rural communities against extractive economies and climate change impact as a security risk forms a serious lacuna within its WPS agenda. Originally published by Oxford University Press in Global Studies Quarterly, Volume 1, Issue 3, September 2021, ksab018, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksab018
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Indigenous Papuans on the western half of the island of New Guinea, have experienced intersecting environmental, social, and political crises, within the context of a movement seeking self-determination. These ongoing crises are exacerbated by longstanding grievances over the Grasberg mine (which contains significant reserves of copper and gold), and environmental degradation caused by the mining and palm oil sectors, as well as the legacy of colonialism on the allocation of land and resources.
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Internationalizing curricula. Needs and wishes of alumni and employers with regard to international competencies. Internationalization has become of great importance for universities acrossthe globe. The labour market is becoming international, with internationalopportunities and international competition. Emerging markets such as India, China and Russia are gaining economic power. Global challenges demand world-wide solutions. Production and marketing networks span the globe and various forms of migration have resulted in a large cultural diversity within nations. As a result, societies and labour markets are changing as well. In order to deal with these societal changes adequately and to succeed in today’s labour market, graduates need to be equipped with international competencies. In a survey among 500 chief executives, ICM Research (on behalf of Think Global and The British Council, 2011) showed that employers strongly value staff members who are able to work in an international and multicultural environment. Similar results were found in Diamond et al. (2011), in which ‘multicultural teamwork’ was considered most important. The Hague University of Applied Sciences seeks to prepare its students adequately for the world of tomorrow. The University’s development plans (e.g. HogeschoolOntwikkelingsPlan, HOP 7, 2009-2013 and HOP 8, 2014-2017) indicate that its vision is to train students to be globally-minded professionals with an international and multicultural perspective, who are world-citizens, interested in global issues and able to deal with diversity in a constructive manner. They are to be professionals, who possess the competencies to function well in an international and intercultural environment. Internationalization is therefore high on the agenda of The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) which is illustrated by the fact that, as of 2014, new students in all academies have to fill 12.5% (30 ECTS) of their four-year Bachelor program with international activities. These activities can range from an internship or semester abroad (student mobility) to participating in full programs of study or minors in which English is the medium of instruction, or an internationally themed minor (Internationalization at Home, IaH). And this is only the beginning. Internationalization is a means, not an end. All THUAS courses are looking into ways in which they can internationalize their curriculum. And in doing so, they need to be innovative (Leask, 2009) and keep in mind the specific needs and wishes of alumni and their employers with regard to international competences. The THUAS research group International Cooperation supports these internationalization policy objectives by investigating various aspects, such as: • The acquisition and development of international competencies among students. • The extent to which lecturers possess international competencies and what their needs and wishes are for further development. • The international competencies THUAS graduates have acquired as part of their degree and how THUAS has stimulated this development. • The international competencies that employers and alumni consider important. Although international competencies and employability have received growing attention in internationalization research, existing studies have mainly focused on: • The effects of study abroad on the development of international competence (cf. Hoven & Walenkamp, 2013). • The effects of an experience abroad (study, internship, voluntary work) on employability. • A more general analysis of the skills employers look for in prospective employees.
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We summarize what we assess as the past year's most important findings within climate change research: limits to adaptation, vulnerability hotspots, new threats coming from the climate–health nexus, climate (im)mobility and security, sustainable practices for land use and finance, losses and damages, inclusive societal climate decisions and ways to overcome structural barriers to accelerate mitigation and limit global warming to below 2°C.
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OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to provide a description of the language and speech (intelligibility, voice, resonance, articulation) in a 7-year-old Dutch speaking boy with Nager syndrome. To reveal these features comparison was made with an age and gender related child with a similar palatal or hearing problem. METHODS: Language was tested with an age appropriate language test namely the Dutch version of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. Regarding articulation a phonetic inventory, phonetic analysis and phonological process analysis was performed. A nominal scale with four categories was used to judge the overall speech intelligibility. A voice and resonance assessment included a videolaryngostroboscopy, a perceptual evaluation, acoustic analysis and nasometry. RESULTS: The most striking communication problems in this child were expressive and receptive language delay, moderately impaired speech intelligibility, the presence of phonetic and phonological disorders, resonance disorders and a high-pitched voice. The explanation for this pattern of communication is not completely straightforward. The language and the phonological impairment, only present in the child with the Nager syndrome, are not part of a more general developmental delay. The resonance disorders can be related to the cleft palate, but were not present in the child with the isolated cleft palate. One might assume that the cul-de-sac resonance and the much decreased mandibular movement and the restricted tongue lifting are caused by the restricted jaw mobility and micrognathia. To what extent the suggested mandibular distraction osteogenesis in early childhood allows increased mandibular movement and better speech outcome with increased oral resonance is subject for further research. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study the speech and language management must be focused on receptive and expressive language skills and linguistic conceptualization, correct phonetic placement and the modification of hypernasality and nasal emission.
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As many in society work towards global sustainability, we live at a time when efforts to conserve biodiversity and geodiversity, and combat climate change, take place simultaneously with land grabs by large corporations, food insecurity, and human displacement through an ecological breakdown. Many of us seek to reconcile more-than-human nature and human nature and to balance intrinsic value and the current human expansion phase. These and other challenges will fundamentally alter the way people, depending on their worldview and ethics, relate to communities and the environment. While environmental problems cannot be seen as purely ecological because they always involve people, who bring to the environmental table their different assumptions about nature and culture, so are social problems connected to environmental constraints. Similarly, social problems are fundamentally connected to environmental constraints and ecological health. While nonhumans cannot bring anything to this negotiating table, the distinct perspective of this book is that there is a need to consider the role of nonhumans as equally important stakeholders – albeit without a voice. This book develops an argument that human-environmental relationships are set within ecological reality and ecological ethics. Rather than being mutually constitutive processes, humans have obligate dependence on nature, not vice versa. We argue that over-arching ecological ethics is necessary to underpin conservation in the long-term. This requires a holistic ‘justice’, where both social justice (for humans) and ecological justice (for nature) are entwined. However, given the escalating environmental crisis and major extinction event we face, and given that social justice has been dominant for centuries, we believe that in many cases ecojustice will need to be prioritized. This will depend on the situation, but we feel that under ecological ethics, holistic ethics cannot always allow social justice to dominate, hence there is an urgent need to prioritize ecojustice today. Accordingly, this book will deal with questions of both social and ecological justice, putting forth the idea that justice for both humans and nonhumans and their habitats can only be achieved simultaneously. This book will explore the following questions: What is the relationship between social and ecological justice? How might we integrate social and ecological justice? What are the major barriers to achieving this simultaneous justice? How can these barriers be overcome? What are the major debates in conservation relevant to this? doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-13905-6 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Elevated plantar foot pressures during gait in diabetic patients with neuropathy have been suggested to result, among other factors, from the distal displacement of sub-metatarsal head (MTH) fat-pad cushions caused by to claw/hammer toe deformity. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively assess these associations. Thirteen neuropathic diabetic subjects with claw/hammer toe deformity, and 13 age- and gender-matched neuropathic diabetic controls without deformity, were examined. Dynamic barefoot plantar pressures were measured with an EMED pressure platform. Peak pressure and force-time integral for each of 11 foot regions were calculated. Degree of toe deformity and the ratio of sub-MTH to sub-phalangeal fat-pad thickness (indicating fat-pad displacement) were measured from sagittal plane magnetic resonance images of the foot. Peak pressures at the MTHs were significantly higher in the patients with toe deformity (mean 626 (SD 260) kPa) when compared with controls (mean 363 (SD 115) kPa, Po0.005). MTH peak pressure was significantly correlated with degree of toe deformity (r= 0.74) and with fat-pad displacement (r= 0.71) (Po0.001). The ratio of force-time integral in the toes and the MTHs (toe-loading index) was significantly lower in the group with deformity. These results show that claw/hammer toe deformity is associated with a distal-to-proximal transfer of load in the forefoot and elevated plantar pressures at the MTHs in neuropathic diabetic patients. Distal displacement of the plantar fat pad is suggested to be the underlying mechanism in this association. These conditions increase the risk for plantar ulceration in these patients.
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The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the experiences of safety and security management students, enrolled in an undergraduate course in the Netherlands, and present quantitative data from an online survey that aimed to explore the factors that have contributed to students’ satisfaction with, and engagement in, online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main findings suggest an interesting paradox of technology, which is worth further exploration in future research. Firstly, students with self perceived higher technological skill levels tend to reject online education more often as they see substantial shortcomings of classes in the way they are administered as compared to the vast available opportunities for real innovation. Secondly, as opposed to democratising education and allowing for custom-made, individualistic education schedules that help less-privileged students, online education can also lead to the displacement of education by income-generating activities altogether. Lastly, as much as technology allowed universities during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue with education, the transition to the environment, which is defined by highly interactive and engaging potential, may in fact be a net contributor to the feelings of social isolation, digital educational inequality and tension around commercialisation in higher education.
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