Hacia un mercado ecológico

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, complementary currencies - from local initiatives like the Brixton Pound to timebanks, business-to-business currencies and, of course, Bitcoin - have received unprecedented attention by academics, policy makers, the media and the general public. However, at close theoretic inspection money itself remains as elusive a phenomenon as water must be to fish. Economic and business disciplines commonly only describe the use and functionality of money rather than its nature. Sociology and philosophy have a more fundamental set of approaches, but remain largely unintegrated in financial policy and common perception. At the same time, new forms of currency challenge predominant definitions of money and their implementation in the law and financial regulation. Unless our understanding of money and currencies is questioned and extended to consistently reflect theory and practice, its current misalignment threatens to impede much needed reform and innovation of the financial systems towards equity, democratic participation and sustainability. After reviewing current monetary theories and their epistemological underpinning, this thesis proposes a new theoretic framework of money as a ‘discursive institution’ that can be applied coherently to all monetary phenomena, conventional and unconventional. It also allows for the empirical analysis of currencies with the methodologies of neo-institutionalism, practice theory and critical discourse analysis. This will here be demonstrated in a transdisciplinary triangulation concerning three sets of data from the diverse field of complementary currencies, the publications of the Bank of England and monetary laws from the United States. The findings do not only demonstrate the heuristic value of the theory of discursive institutionalism in regard to money and complementary currencies, but highlight how regulatory and legal definitions even of conventional money lack the coherence and clarity required to appropriately explicate monetary innovation. Accordingly, this study concludes with recommendations for monetary theory, policy and research that can address the current inconsistencies.

Abstract: The problem of poverty became a necessity faced by many countries including Indonesia. Several solutions have been implemented by the government, but only a temporary solution so it does not run in the long term. The main problem of poverty caused by the unequal wealth distribution so that the natural resources that exist only enjoyed by the majority party, while by not enjoyed by the other party. In fact the capitalist economic system can not provide a solution to the problems faced by the country. Islamic economic system felt able to overcome these problems is to set up a mechanism so that the distribution of wealth is not only accumulate wealth on the part alone. Key word : Poverty, distribution, Islamic economic system

The intellectual debate on money is often portrayed as a rather Manichean diatribe between two opposing traditions: on the one hand the orthodox, grounded in a ‘real’ analysis, and championing the primacy of a commodity-money; on the other hand the heterodox, based on a ‘nominal’ analysis, and advocating the primacy of a credit-money. Both traditions claim to know better the nature of money: whereas the orthodox envisages in the medium of exchange the ultimate essence of money, the heterodox attributes ontological primacy to the measure of value – or else the ‘money of account’. And yet, neither of the two traditions is concerned with comprehending the significance of money: why it is important to us, why we recognise it first of all as value. This work therefore tries to outline a comprehensive discourse on the significance of money as value. In particular, the first part is dedicated to a critique of heterodox and alternative theories of money, including Geoffrey Ingham’s major sociological contribution, The nature of money (2004). The second part instead engages with an ontological and epistemological problematisation of the phenomenon, coupled with a brief phenomenology of money 'out of nothing' and a genealogy of the currency.

As the world ages, the prevalence of age-related diseases like dementia will increase. In South Asia and the Western Pacific regions, particularly India and China, rates of dementia are expected to escalate by 314-336 percent in four decades (Ferri et al., 2005b). Yet there is limited work on dementia in this region – on idioms of dementia and ageing, understandings of rights and entitlements, and experiences of caregiving. In redressing this gap, this thesis adds to the current literature by examining the lives of urban Indian families who care for a person living with dementia. The main research question is: In New Delhi, India, how are people with age-related dementia cared for and what are the barriers to carers to access support? Data were gathered in Delhi, with additional work in Kolkata, Bangalore and parts of Kerala. A critical ethnographic method was used. From January to October 2008, in Delhi, 20 families caring for a person with dementia were followed to document their understanding and experiences of diagnosis and prognosis, medication management, enablers and barriers to care, and the extent to which this varied by class, gender, caste and age. This was supplemented with 21 interviews with key service providers and approximately 250 hours of observation in home, hospital and community settings. I argue that caregiving is intimate work and deeply felt but that carers also draw upon broader frameworks – medical pluralism and hope for a cure, the emotional currency of feeding and eating, and the powerful bonds of kinship and reciprocity – to make sense of their everyday worlds and practices. I describe how carers and people with dementia engage with institutions of health, law and money, which exclude and exploit them at different points but that these practices in turn are shaped by shortages in resources and capacity. Existing systems, inequities and roles are challenged as illness and loss forces changes in identity for the carer and the person with dementia. Ultimately what I will show is that care work is ambiguous; at once full of cruelty, tragedy and exploitation but also hope, kinship, and love. It is only through explicating these aspects of care, can we begin to think of culturally meaningful ways to support families and people with dementia.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established to be achieved by 2030 are an ensemble of 17 goals to address global environmental and social economic concerns [1]. SDG 15 concerns the protection of terrestrial ecosystems to halt biodiversity loss. Target 15.9 states that by 2020, ecosystem and biodiversity values should be integrated into national and local planning, and is related to Aichi Biodiversity Target 2 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which also involves integrating biodiversity values into national accounting and reporting systems [2]. The importance of maintaining ecosystem integrity is becoming widely recognized, not only to halt biodiversity loss, but also to preserve Nature’s benefits to human well-being, and has been included in many other targets such as the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy’s target 2, which requires the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems as well as the establishment of green infrastructures to enhance ecosystem services (ES) [3]. The Green Infrastructures (GI) framework is used as a policy tool and promotes the multi-functional use of landscapes to improve biodiversity conservation and benefits to society. It is formulated as a “strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas” [4] and is based on three main pillars: key habitats for target species, connectivity and ES [5]. As part of ERA-PLANET’s GEOEssential project (Essential Variables workflows for resource efficiency and environmental management), our study aims at demonstrating how the GI framework can be implemented at any geographical area or time-period through reproducible modeling workflows from field data to Essential Variables (EV) data products and policy relevant indicators to monitor and inform advances towards environmental targets. A proof of concept workflow was already set in place for computing the indicator 15.1.2: Proportion of important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity that are covered by protected areas, by ecosystem, while other workflows will follow. The execution platform is the GEOEssential Virtual Laboratory, a cloud-based virtual platform which enables access to, and execution of workflows for the ecosystem science community of practice and even more. REFERENCES: 1. UNSD, 2016. Sustainable Development Goals Report. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/ (accessed 18 May 2018). 2. CBD Secretariat, 2010. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Nagoya. 3. European Commission, 2011. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020, Brussels. 4. European Commission, 2013. Green infrastructure (GI) - Enhancing Europe’s Natural Capital, Brussels. 5. Liquete, C., Kleeschulte, S., Dige, G., Maes, J., Grizzetti, B., Olah, B., & Zulian, G., 2015. Mapping green infrastructure based on ecosystem services and ecological networks: A Pan-European case study. Environmental Science & Policy, 54, 268–280.

The aim of the study was to determine the environmental awareness of local authorities as a factor in the development of bio-economy in the natural valuable areas and the analysis of selected aspects of environmental awareness of the councilors of the Lublin voivodeship. An analysis was performed of the existing research on the environmental awareness of the inhabitants of the Lublin voivodship and the study of the environmental awareness of councilors conducted in 2013, being part of the project entitled: „Environmental conditions and factors of economic functions’ development in the areas of natural value of the Lublin voivodeship. „Analyses were performed for the following municipalities: Urszulin, Zwierzyniec, Wilków, Susiec, Sosnowica, where, in the late 90s studies were carried out of the ecological awareness of inhabitants of the natural valuable areas of the Lublin voivodship and five units of comparison – Biała Podlaska, Radzyń Podlaski, Komarówka Podlaska, Tyszowce, Wohyń. In the „green” municipalities, 70 councillors were studied - 95% of the total, and in the control ones 75 - 100% of the total. Councillors from the environmentally valuable municipalities showed their positive attitude to nature, but often had insufficient expertise on the resources, protection and sustainable use in the management processes. The condition for the development of bio-economy in the Lublin voivodship was to develop ecological awareness of local authorities.

Nestled in the Eastern Himalayas, the state of Sikkim is home to immense biological diversity and rich natural and cultural heritage. It is one of the highest regions with an area of 7096 sq. km. It is a biological hot spot with many rare, endemic varieties of flora and fauna. This bio-diversity wealth contributes significantly to the country’s natural heritage and to the nation’s ecological balance. Besides, Sikkim is a cauldron, in which the great cultures of Tibet and India have been synthesized together to evolve as a land of variegated cultures and traditions. Yet the region has tended to be left far behind in developmental needs and poverty levels are comparatively high. Current economic wisdom states that the tourism sector would constitute a keep sector in the economy of hill regions. Sikkim has great potential for the same as it has a major portion of its land comprising of the Great Himalayas, and has several trekking routes offering for attracting a growing trekking community. The tourism trends are studied to map the state of progress and prospects of tourism in the state, and for the general understanding of patterns of tourist influx. Tourism in Sikkim is predominantly domestic; foreign tourists comprise only 5.5% of the total tourist influx[1]. The trends reveal that Sikkim tourism is in the developmental stage of increasing growth of tourist influx. Simulations based on three scenarios suggest that approximately 7.6–10.4 lakhs tourists would visit Sikkim during the year 2017, which would also have Implications on the infrastructure, environment, natural resources, culture and eco-tourism of the state. The impacts are also analyzed in light of papered increase in the population and trends of livestock resources and agricultural production. A proactive planning involving optimal use of management options, therefore, is required for a viable symbiosis of tourism and environment, and sustainability of tourism in the state. Keywords: RSGIS; Sikkim; Remote; Sensing

The Ecological Footprint represents the amount needed land and water to produce the resources and assimilate the waste generated by the population. In contrast the consumption of resources with the carrying capacity of nature and showing, in the long term, these impacts will be sustainable. This article by means of a discriminant analysis in selected countries, investigates the relationship between the variables chosen, the Ecological Footprint and per capita real GDP. And although there are countries with GDP per capita Ecological Footprint up and below average in general countries with per capita GDP increased tend to have a higher environmental impact, or ecological footprint than the average. Therefore, for the year 2005, this study supports a direct relationship between per capita real GDP and Ecological Footprint.

32 мая 1773 года Герцог из любимого фильма «Тот самый Мюнхгаузен» произнес знаменательные слова: «Поразительно... Поразительно, как наш народ гармонирует с природой!» Чуть позже его почти земляк Фриденсрайх Хундертвассер заявил, что счастье – это слияние с природой. Можно счастливо жить без денег. Без природы – нельзя. Слияние с природой сыграло большую роль в жизни этого замечательного человека, и даже в его смерти. Мы уже почти научились жить без денег. Но без природы жить не хочется, да и невозможно. «Хотите об этом поговорить?» – психоаналитично спросили мы сами себя. И, как честные пациенты, ответили себе: «Да, хотим». В скудные кризисные годы наступает самое время для рефлексии, а рефлексировать лучше всего на природе. Так сложилась тема очередного фестиваля «Зодчество Восточной Сибири» (13–46, 72–81). В материалах номера продолжается сквозная тема города для людей. Не следует думать, что архитектор создает только здания. Не камень или его современные эрзацы, и даже не плющ, прикрывающий строительные неудачи, – материал зодчего. Алехандро Аравена, лауреат Притцкеровской премии за последний год (крайний, как сейчас принято говорить), утверждает: самое главное в урбанизме – общественные пространства. Переменчивые, разнообразные, наполненные смыслами и визуальными событиями, составляющие особую природу города. Как сочетать элементы этой «второй природы» с живыми биоценозами природы первой? И всегда ли можно отличить одно от другого? К 355-летию Иркутска по почетному поручению мэра ведущие иркутские архитекторы выполнили более двадцати проектов скверов, хороших и разных (92–112). Кроме будущих скверов и карманных парков Иркутска в номере представлены зеленые пространства Москвы, Токио, Лондона и Парижа, городов Германии, конкурсные проекты аквариума в Нью-Йорке и корейского конного парка. Объектом номера мы выбрали удивительный музей поля Куликова, созданный по проекту Сергея Гнедовского. Необычная архитектура роднит новый музей с тектоническим разломом земли от невыносимого напряжения в ожидании битвы (113–123). А Олег Явейн и Илья Лежава вернут нас к классику ХХ века – Мису ван дер Роэ и его уникальному диалогу с природой (162–175). Тема соотношения архитектуры и природы неисчерпаема и безгранична, как обе эти сущности. Поэтому в новом номере нашего журнала, как обычно, больше вопросов, чем ответов. Такова природа нашего журнала.

Current estimates of the number of species on Earth range from four to forty million total species. Why are there so many species? The answer must include both ecology and evolution. Ecology looks at the interactions between coexisting species, while evolution tracks them through time. Both are required to understand aspects of environments which promote speciation, and which promote species persistence in time. The explanation for this biodiversity is still not well understood. I argue that resource limitations are a major factor in the evolutionary origin of complex ecosystems with interacting and persistent species. Through experiments with digital organisms in environment with multiple limited resources, I show that these conditions alone can be sufficient to induce differentiation in a population. Moreover, the observed pattern of species number distributions match patterns observed in nature. I develop a simple metric for phenotypic distance for digital organisms, which permits quantitative analysis of similarities within, and differences between species. This enables a clear species concept for digital organisms that may also be applied to biological organisms, thus helping to clarify the biological species concept. Finally, I will use this measurement methodology to predict species and ecosystem stability.

Many of the issues relating to landscape conservation are linked to the crisis of a development model that has caused the ecological crisis that becomes increasingly serious and evident. This is the subject of this article. The author illustrates how the conservation and enhancement of the landscape in all itsmeanings requires the abandonment of the erosive, extractive, pervasive, uneven and conflictual Paleoanthropocene to enter with decision and responsibility into the «Neoanthropocene», a new era in which humanity, instead of being the problem, projects and puts into action the transition towards sustainable development, reactivating the ancient alliance between human, cultural and natural components as co-acting forces. Communities of people take care of the nature and culture of their palimpsests, which experience a new circular urban metabolism, the recovery of craftsmanship and innovative manufactures, the local rooting of sustainable mobility infrastructures and the global connectivity of digital infostructures, the interconnection between green networks, cultural frames and slow life cycles, the diffusion of technological skills and innovation within local administrations.

Ecological utopia is a subgenre in the sphere of utopian literature. Its study demonstrates a new and significant dimension in utopian scholarship. The three 1970s ecological utopias under scrutiny-Ernest Callenbach's ”Ecotopia” (1975), Marge Piercy's ”Woman on the Edge of Time” (1976), and Sally Miller Gearhart's ”The Wanderground” (1979)-share the insight of ecological critics who are centrally concerned with corporate and technological exploitation of nature and the ensuing environmental degradation and extinction of species. These utopian texts swerve from the ideal of affluence and anthropocentric assumptions and turn to embrace an alternative vision, emphasizing the interconnectedness among humans and nature and the balance between economic pursuit and ecological concern. Nevertheless, in terms of their gender / class / racial politics, some ecological utopias tend to ignore or erase cultural inscriptions. ”Ecotopia” expresses the 1970s environmental concern as filtered through the lens of a white patriarchy. ”The Wanderground” endorses biological essentialism, envisioning a narrow, biological linkage between women and nature and celebrating 'women' at the expense of their intrinsic differences in terms of race and class. ”Woman on the Edge of Time”, on the other hand, is unique in its problematization of the celebration of women per se and its understanding of the interconnectedness of gender / race / class / ecology. Against the myth of white / patriarchal / middle-class environmentalism, the work demonstrates how environmental justice may involve considerations along the axes of gender / race / class.

Abass Alavi: A giant in Nuclear Medicine turns 80 and is still going strong!

The horrors of Taiwan’s 921 Earthquake and 88 Flood undoubtedly demonstrated the power of nature, allowing us to observe the tensions between the natural environment and civilization and to understand the various imbalances in the interactive relationship between the sky, the land, and the human race encountered during urban developments. Today, the “city” has adoptedthe important role of an arena that corresponds to the governance of the environment. This contains two meanings. One is as a source of strength for the increasing collective consciousness of society; the other is as a practice field for changing the spatial environment. Previously, urban planning was established based on the “economy,”adopted actions from “space,” and determined the problems of the “environment” and “society.” However, we are currently facing a counterattack from the forces of nature, which include climate change. Thus, we must even more urgently consider the relationship between humanity and nature. Therefore, sustainable development in city planning must adjust the relationshipsamong the natural ecology, economic development, and humanistic society to facilitate a rich and diverse ecological environment, a flourishing economic environment, and a safe and peaceful life environment.Thus, an urban environment that is suitable for inhabitance can be created. This study employs three cases as subjects, using “green” and “places” as the main axes of the design mode of operation, creating feasible strategies for the ecology of “green” and “places,” and facilitating low-carbon and creative urban developments. This study realizes sustainable building concepts and practices at different levels in anticipation that the regional physical environment can satisfy users’ demands and create a safe, healthy life environment, providing another feasible reference for building strategies in the “green” and “places” of Taiwan’s urban and rural landscape. The primary research method used in this study is a review of relevant literature on sustainable urban development. This literature review is also performed to understand the concepts, meanings, and principles of “sustainability” and “sustainable cities” and the models and characteristics of sustainable urban development to provide a theoretical foundation for sustainability strategies. In addition, we analyze the conditions and structures of sustainable urban development and the bases of sustainable development models for urban space. Sustainable environmental construction, the reuse of cultural assets, and the application of green technology are applied as operating directions. Case operations of design in actual regions are used to provide rural and urban planning concepts, development principles, and building strategies under the concepts of sustainable development.

The favourable growth performance of SSA over the last 20 years (figure 15.1) has been accompanied by a modest decline in poverty, from 59 to 48 per cent over 1993-2010, i.e., much less than that recorded in South Asia (Ferreira, 2014). This aggregate trend, however, conceals substantial cross-country variations. The key question, then, is: How can such differences in poverty reduction rates be explained? The standard approach (Bourguignon, 2003) shows that a percentage change in poverty incidence can be decomposed into the percentage changes in the growth rate of GDP per capita and in the Gini coefficient, plus a small residual. In this regard, it must be noted that in SSA, the average GDP growth per capita oscillated in a narrow range, i.e., between 1.7 per cent in non-resource-rich countries and 2.6 per cent in resource-rich ones. The reason that poverty declined at different rates is, therefore, to be found in the divergence of inequality trends experienced by the SSA countries. Indeed, this chapter and Chapter 2 argue that over 1991-2011, income inequality rose in several countries but declined in a similar number.