Showing papers on "Sustenance published in 1999"

Business, Consumers and Sustainable Living in an Interconnected World: A Multilateral Ecocentric Approach

Abstract: Current conceptualizations of environmental responsibility follow a human-centered approach wherein the natural environment is seen as instrumental to human ends Environmental responsibility, in this context, emerges primarily as the preservation and sustenance of nature in a manner that would limit waste, enhance the aesthetic and spiritual value of nature, and confer psychological and economic rewards upon individuals and businesses that follow a sustainable course of interaction with nature In contrast, this paper advances an ecocentric approach to sustainable living that ensures the dialectic between human systems and natural and technical systems by explicitly recognizing nature as central to survival and progress Environmental responsibility within this approach is viewed to be multilateral and institutional rather than merely as moral responsibility of business or of governments

Coping with mother nature: Households' Livelihood Security and Coping Strategies in a Situation of a Continuing Disaster in Tarlac, Philippines

Abstract: Several studies on households and individuals coping with disasters have been made. The Philippines, being a disaster prone area, has to grapple with the yearly damage caused by deluge or drought. The eruption of the Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 has the greatest toll to the country's economy because it did not only claim lives, properties, and resources at that time, but continues to do so up to the present day, which is why the disaster has been characterised as a lingering disaster. This study provides insight into the behaviour of individuals in a household faced with a disaster whose effects may carry through an indefinite period. The two major activities conducted to describe the effects of the disaster on household livelihood are the general household survey and the case study analysis. The former was done to obtain an understanding of the disaster situation. The micro but in-depth perspective was provided by case study analysis. In both activities, information of the 'before' and 'after' situations were the basis of observations. As the study shows, the disaster significantly affected the major livelihood sources of the households.Lahar-laden fields made rice farming difficult because of poor soil structure. It made aquaculture and sustenance fishing impractical because of too much deposition of lahar, and livestock raising unfeasible because of lack of pasture. The change in cropping calendar and ecology indicate the changed situation. The changed natural resource base has a corresponding implications for the socio-cultural resources of the households. When households are under stress, negotiation becomes all the more important. The moral dimension of the household economy and kinship relations becomes more prominent and transcends kinship relationships. The social network of an individual or household becomes the source of support, while reciprocity being in the hub of this support system. Households beset by a disaster are eclectic. As the case studies show, household respond to the changed situation through several mechanisms that are honed through time making these adaptive. Households cope by altering their production management like adjusting their cropping calendar and diversifying crops and mobilising available resources like the forest and other traditional forms of livelihood/food system. Household membership tends to become very loose in a situation of a crisis. The manipulation of social relations and household membership has become a significant form of coping. Negotiations over work and other domestic responsibilities and migration of household members appeared to be part of the available coping strategies. These strategies to attain a secure livelihood do not always represent clear-cut,mutually exclusive alternatives. Outside intervention like government support in crisis situations should not just contend with emergency relief. Because disasters result in entitlement destruction, an intervention that allows for 'entitlement protection' is essential in the case of a continuing type of a disaster. Responsive disaster management articulates the need to know and understand the situation, and a genuine support programme is sensitive to the plight of vulnerable groups like women and the elderly.

Sustaining the Institutional Environment

Abstract: Sustaining the physical environment requires sustenance of the associated institutional environment. Questions are raised about this, based on the observation of a day in each of the lives of two headquarters managers at Greenpeace, the Executive Director and a Director of certain of the central units. In our analysis, we look beyond the obvious doing and the obvious planning, beyond the obvious acting and the obvious politicking.

Bró, caxixe e ouricuri estratégias de sobrevivência no semi-árido baiano

Abstract: This study was developed within the context of the project Cansancao - PROCAN- developed by the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. The study analyzed information concerning cultural patterns which surround the eating habits of the social groups which live in the semi-arid region of Bahia. It is an ethnographic study carried out over the period of 1987 to 1990. The subject of the investigation was the cultural aspect of eating habits of female rural workers, observing the strategies of eating survival as concrete actions to ensure the reproduction of the family unit. The fear of imminent illness and death proves to be fundamental references as ways of conceiving life and of defining food habits, supported by their own understanding of their worlds. The food habits in Cansancao reveal a relationship between the body survival and the reproduction of the family unit, permeated by the daily life in a drought-stricken region. The main activity, the work in the fields, subordinated to precarious living conditions, allows the production and reproduction of ways of interpreting life and, in particular, defines various concepts and classifications about the need to provide sustenance to the body. In some areas of Cansancao food is considered linked to its commercial value; however, the phenomenon of drought still remains the determining factor in the food culture of the population and in its concrete actions to solve the lack of food within the family group.

Political Parties Under the Abubakar Transition Program and Democratic Stability in Nigeria

Abstract: Nigeria has witnessed civilian rule for just over eight of nearly 39 years of self-rule. Incessant military incursions into the political terrain have led to several transition programs aimed at instituting democracy. This article focuses on the nature and operations of political parties in the recent transition and their implications for a stable democratic polity. The purpose of this focus is to recognize the enormous potential with which political parties are endowed for fostering or impeding the creation and sustenance of a cohesive, stable democratic system.

Edinburgh: a sustainable city?

Abstract: SUMMARY Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, is unique in that it has established the Lord Provost's Commission on Sustainable Development to advise on the ways in which the city can contribute to sustainable development. This paper briefly considers the sustenance space and the problems of unsustainability for cities. Section two then describes the growth of Edinburgh and emphasises weak and strong measures of sustainability for cities. The third section then considers some of the problems of unsustainability faced by the citizens of Edinburgh. Some of these problems are bequeathed by earlier periods of urban development and others are contemporary in nature. These problems include social exclusion and poverty; economic development problems associated with housing, employment and related transport congestion and land uses; and ecological problems concerned with maintaining natural capital and human capital in a changing urban milieu. Whilst many of the social, economic and ecological problems are spe...

Diversity and democracy: resisting the global economy.

Abstract: This article presents the intimate connection of freedom nonviolence and diversity with regard to the global economy. "Not taking more than you need" ensures that enough resources are left to allow diverse livelihoods so that people can derive their sustenance and meet their needs. Diversity is intimately linked to the possibility of self-organization. Globalization is a cosmological project through which the world order and place are being rewritten. It is also the establishment of rule by/of corporations based on the rule of fictions created by influential and powerful men. Absolutely corporations rule over food and money. Compared to citizens corporations have absolute rights but no responsibilities. Thus in reclaiming freedom people should be placed before the capital. Furthermore engaging satyagrahas as an alternative to globalization is needed to protect the diversity of life survival and freedom.

Voluntary Retirement and Workers' Welfare

Abstract: The anxiety to modernise, restructure and globalise Indian industry is often leading to unnecessary retrenchment of workers. This is waste of precious labour force that could have been modernised through retraining. This article examines the voluntary retirement scheme and the national renewal fund which are designed to provide minimum sustenance security to the retired individual and his family.

Water, Food and Population

Abstract: Unique among strategic resources and commodities, fresh water has no substitutes for most of its uses. It is essential to food production, a key ingredient in most industrial operations, and a prerequisite for human health and for life itself. Fresh water systems also provide vital ecological services that, while often hidden and easy to take for granted, are worth hundreds of billions of dollars — services that include flood protection, water purification, habitat maintenance and sustenance of fisheries.2

Guidelines for Agricultural Policy Making in Ukraine: What Can and Should the State Be Doing?

Abstract: The performance of Ukraine’s agricultural sector in the seven years since Independence has been very disappointing. As agricultural production continues to fall year after year, references to Europe’s ‘bread basket’ are beginning to sound like little more than wishful thinking. Of course, neither Ukraine’s economy nor its rural population can derive much sustenance from wishes.

Economic practices of Jesus movement groups

Abstract: This paper examines in detail the multitude of ways used by Jesus Movement organizations to raise money to fund their many activities. The research was provoked by sharp differences between fund‐raising methods used by the two largest and well known JM organizations—the Children of God (now called The Family) and Christ Communal Organization (a pseudonym for a group called Shiloh). The COG mainly relied on various forms of public solicitation, while Shiloh depended on working for others and themselves in an effort to become self‐supporting. Seven other JM groups were examined to find out what patterns of support were most prevalent, and to examine possible relationships between sustenance activities and theological developments within the groups. A large number of experimental approaches were taken by JM groups trying to sustain themselves during their sometimes tumultuous histories, leading to a number of general conclusions.