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Sustainability is one of the most pressing and general topics in todays (Western) society. How the world of sport is contributing to climate change and what that implies for the world of sport is stressed by e.g. Gammelsaeter & Loland (2022) and Goldblatt (2023). The perspective found in the work of Thomas Nail, is very much suited for the challenges of 21st century. In Theory of the Earth (2021) he presents his new materialist ontology in which the continuous flow of matter is the core principal. There is no such thing as a discrete object or fixed position, only metastable patterns of matter in motion. Building on this ontological position I am exploring the concept of bioregionalism and the sport experience in both conceptual and creative ways.
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Until the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth of tourism had confronted many destinations with policy decisions that had impacted regional ecosystems and the quality of life of their resident population. To counter the threats driven by dominant tourism growth models, a number of tourism scholars have called for revisiting the philosophical foundation upon which tourism activities are developed. Informed by debates in philosophy and the wider social sciences, including tourism scholarship, this conceptual paper, therefore, suggests an alternative governance paradigm for tourism destinations, which is articulated in four propositions that reflect a new materialist perspective. These propositions are a monist post-anthropocentric ontology, a participatory epistemology, resilient forms of tourism and participation as methodologies, and social eudaimonia as societal value. The core argument presented in this paper is that the Anthropocene requires tourism destinations to espouse alternative governance approaches drawing from ideas emerging from new materialist scholarship.
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Debates about the new welfare, and the new social policies that go (or should go) with it, share an emphasis on risk-prevention strategies and pluralistic risk management. Focusing specifically on the risk of unemployment, this article discusses the case for so-called preventive worker-directed active labour market policies as part of the new welfare architecture. These policies are aimed at preventing unemployment and promoting labour-market transitions and employability. They involve responsibilities on the part of the state, social partners and employers. First, the case for these policies is elaborated by analysing the social investment, flexicurity and transitional labour-market literature. In this context, several issues related to the feasibility of the pluralistic management of preventing unemployment, as well as the possible impact of pluralistic risk management on dualisation, are discussed. Secondly, recent policy initiatives in the Netherlands are presented as an illustration of the incremental emergence of preventive worker-directed active labour-market policies. It is argued that although these policy initiatives were initially introduced as responses to the crisis, they may eventually turn out to reflect a more fundamental reorientation in managing and dealing with the risks of unemployment. The conclusion critically reflects and argues that pluralistic risk management may exacerbate, rather than mitigate, the insecurities of flexible and non-standard workers.
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Throughout society, dialogues about Artificial Intelligence (AI) are dominated by a range of technophobic or techno-solutionist narratives. Both these narratives share a technological focus. To develop responsible AI, however, it is important to look at the systemic ecological and societal underpinnings and repercussions of this technology. These underpinnings easily go unnoticed by decision-makers because of their invisible and intangible character. In addition, a narrow focus on technology distracts from the humans who are responsible for designing AI systems and the power these AI systems have over both humans and the more-than-human. Hence, one challenge in developing AI responsibly is moving from current narratives towards relational ‘power narratives’ by reframing dialogues in a multi-stakeholder setting. Systemic Design and the research-through-design practice offer several methods for this purpose. One of them is to work with a physical boundary object (PBO). This paper describes the design and use of the PBO ‘Who pulls the strings’. The PBO was used in a quadruple-helix co-creative setting. Through intra-action, participants became aware of the influence of each stakeholder within the power system and were able to have an ongoing dialogue about existing power relations and ways to reshape these collaboratively. The contributions of this paper include creating novel insights about what design principles can be used to design a PBO when employing entanglement theory and how a PBO can invite dialogue about the invisible and intangible power relations behind AI systems.
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This research project aims to pick up where Incommunicado left off, to look past conferences organized in the West, the debates sponsored by western organizations, and to instead look through the lens of the individual end users on the ground. This project aims to embed itself amongst the people living at the ‘bottom of the ICT pyramid’ and to look at the same discussion from their perspective. It is this ‘other’ point of view that is too often missing in the ICT4D debate, otherwise a valuable voice that helps to put technologies, projects and organizations into their proper context.
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Attending to the broader wellbeing debates, this study examines the interplay between forest-based tourism practices and sustainability. It does so by building on Max Weber’s notion of disenchantment of the world to explore how planetary wellbeing can be cultivated through the commercial practice of forest bathing. In positioning the study within the Serbian context, we build on feminist new materialist ideas to explore the ways in which broken ties between postmodern humans and forests as our primordial home can be reclaimed through this tourism practice. Using the empirical data collected during two forest tours, we take the relational approach in our analysis of the meanings the forest tour attendees ascribed to their experiences. In extending scholarly understandings of the notion of sustainability, we discuss the ways of achieving planetary wellbeing through forest bathing and the potential of more-than-human entanglements to re-enchant the world. To conclude, we discreetly illuminate one way of reconceiving the idea of enchantment and encourage rethinking our everyday and tourist practices in disenchanted Anthropocene.
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The actual non-sustainable way of living has to be changed fundamentally. Despite all efforts to create a better environment, to improve building designs and to ameliorate existing buildings, often contradictory factors are faced which make it difficult to decide what the best solutions are.
The discussion around the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) house insulation is a typical example how complicated the relation between, energy efficiency, human comfort and health can be. Clearly positive effects like energy efficiency are sometimes associated with e.g. potential flaws in aesthetics caused by growth of algae, poor indoor climate, and health risks which can result in negative responses of residents when implementation of these measures is proposed. Therefore often substances are added which may cause implications with existing regulations if reused again. Smart and highly efficient products are often in contradiction with our aims to create a circular economy due to the fact that different materials are often treated with chemicals or put together in infrangible combinations. The aim of this paper is to highlight the balancing act being faced when trying to introduce new more sustainable materials and methods into the building process. Based on some examples the paper want to demonstrate that principally good intentions like improved energy savings can cause problems in other fields like environmental impact or limited re-use in a circular economy. Basic problems are described and potential approaches to minimize the risk of using building materials which might not meet the requirements for reuse in a second use phase are suggested.
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This project explores and develops methods for open archiving of socalled "new naturals". A number of tools and templates were created to facilitate collaborative, global - but context-aware and localized - documenting and archiving of "new naturals":
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The growing demand for food due to a global population increase has made the use of pesticides in agriculture unavoidable despite their various harmful side effects. Driven by stricter legislation, nations are now compelled to find alternatives. This situation led to accelerated research around the world, focusing on developing new chemistries to enhance the environmental safety of pesticides. In recent years, bioinspired strategies of pest control have emerged as alternatives to the development of new synthetic pesticides. In order to design innovative eco-friendly pest management techniques, a thorough understanding of naturally existing physical and chemical defences in plants is needed. Building upon this knowledge, material science provides innovative strategies for designing physical barriers, biomimetic adhesives, and targeted delivery systems that go beyond traditional chemical approaches. This tutorial review explores the intricate relationships between plants and insects, focusing on natural defence mechanisms such as plant cuticles, trichomes, and thigmonasty. We also review advances in synthetic pesticide use, including enhanced adhesion and controlled release formulations. In addition, we delve into advances in other integrated pest management domains, discussing the potential of bioinspired surfaces and biological control methods. This overview aims to foster comprehensive understanding and interdisciplinary approaches, highlighting the pivotal role of material science in improving sustainable pest control for the future.
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New electronic tablet devices are often referred to as either saviours of newspapers or killers of traditional print media. These crude statements are based on a naive concept of media substitution and an overestimation of the actual use of new media for news consumption. It is much more likely that substitution will be marginal, and that the potential is much more in giving existing readers more options while attacking new users. Publishers should treat tablet devices as options, concentrating on issues like business models, free, freemium, sponsored and paid content, DRM, in-app payment models, partnerships, user-generated content, design and interface options. Academic research on the use of tablets is not yet available as these devices are not available on a massive scale, only appearing on the market since the spring of 2010, but experiences by many publishers of newspapers and magazines already provide us with enough material to map possibilities and no-go areas for publishers of news content
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