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In Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond asks the obvious question of a forest-dependent society: "What was the Easter Islander who cut down the last tree thinking?" For those familiar with the human tendency to habituate to virtually any conditions, the answer might very well be "nothing much". The individual who cut dow...
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... It is argued that ecovillages are largely responding to a destructive global economic model that is based in money values, rather than being life-serving (Dawson 2006;Jackson 2010), climate change and severe ecological breakdown, and breakdown of community bonds along with associated loss of social capital, increased loneliness, and a variety of other societal ills (Dawson 2006;Litfin 2014). In this way, ecovillages are part of a global cooperative movement that is challenging the 'unsustainable development' wrought by capitalist-consumer culture (Foster, York, and Clark 2010) and globalised systems of production, consumption, and distribution (Folke 2013;Foster, York, and Clark 2010;Hall 2009;Moore and Rees 2013;Pretty et al. 2007), by pursuing sustainability in a local direction, through the creation of collaborative communities and commons (Dawson 2006;Litfin 2014;Lockyer 2017;Papadimitropoulos 2018). Furthermore, as Sanford (2014) suggests, ecovillages have largely adopted Ghandian values of democracy, nonviolence, selfsufficiency, equity, and voluntary simplicity, as well as a social change strategy modelled on the mantra of 'be the change you want to see in the world' (28). ...
As experiments and models of participatory, sustainable living, ecovillages demonstrate how to enact just, cooperative, and regenerative economic and social constructs, as alternatives to ‘unsustainable’ capitalist economies and consumerist/ individualistic lifestyles. Work is central to these enactments, which provides an opportunity to examine the learning that happens in these spaces, and how that learning may be applied for broader eco-social change. This paper reports on case studies of learning through enterprise work in two ecovillages in the USA. Analysis focuses on what is learned and how it is learned, the role of the learning environment and interactions within the ecovillage on learning outcomes and processes, as well as barriers to learning, and the transferability of learning outside the ecovillage context. Findings evidence a high degree of informal ‘on the job’ learning, resulting in both job-specific skills and knowledge, and general competencies in eco/ethical business management. Furthermore, participants imbue activities with shared values of ecology and equality, while interacting with oppositional broader market logics, and thus learn to ‘trade off’ – taking on some aspects of the mainstream economy (e.g. competitiveness, profitability, (self)exploitation), in exchange for ‘the greater good.’
... Currently, mankind is consuming too many planets per year (Moore & Rees, 2013). Our way of life is not sustainable in the long run (Hoekstra & Wiedmann, 2014;Johnsen et al., 2017), although it can be argued that in many ways it has become better (Lomborg, 2003). ...
In this essay we explore some central societal and educational problems that educators ought to address in order to support sustainability and we argue the need for educating transformative entrepreneurial selves, that is, students with abilities to muster and organize resources pursuing a cause. The current situation calls for youth to develop entrepreneurial competences that will give them the means to introduce and drive change through individual action. In so doing, we put forward the concept of entrepreneurship for a cause to challenge more traditional ideas of what entrepreneurship encompasses. For education, we subsequently suggest using the concept of entrepreneurship education for a cause. We argue that entrepreneurship education has an important role to play as an enabler, but one in which individual self-interests connected to business venturing are given less attention than reflections upon how each individual through decisive action can support the creation of a more sustainable society. Central to our argument is the insight that new ideas about meaning in life that will support changing society away from consumption towards sustainability need to be added as a leading dimension in any education with the aspiration of transforming the world through the actions of its students.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
This open access book focuses on a particular but significant topic in the social sciences: the concepts of “footprint” and “trace”. It associates these concepts with hotly debated topics such as surveillance capitalism and knowledge society. The editors and authors discuss the concept footprints and traces as unintended by-products of other (differently focused and oriented) actions that remain empirically imprinted in virtual and real spaces. The volume therefore opens new scenarios for social theory and applied social research in asking what the stakes, risks and potential of this approach are. It systematically raises and addresses these questions within a consistent framework, bringing together a heterogeneous group of international social scientists. Given the multifaceted objectives involved in exploring footprints and traces, the volume discusses heuristic aspects and ethical dimensions, scientific analyses and political considerations, empirical perspectives and theoretical foundations. At the same time, it brings together perspectives from cultural analysis and social theory, communication and Internet studies, big-data informed research and computational social science.
This innovative volume is of interest to a broad interdisciplinary readership: sociologists, communication researchers, Internet scholars, anthropologists, cognitive and behavioral scientists, historians, and epistemologists, among others.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
This chapter continues the recent debate on the epistemological dimension of traces and tracing. Following our own preliminary work and in confrontation with an explicitly non-Western epistemology—namely, the case of “First Australians”—the chapter proposes the perspective of interpretive tracing. It calls for the systematic reflection of practices and underlying epistemologies of traces as objects of interpretation in a cross-cultural, i.e., cosmopolitan, perspective. It is a perspective that is sensitive to the tacit assumptions of objectivity and linear inferencing that underlie many Western approaches. Further, it is an open perspective that is sensitive to various embedded notions of time and temporality (not just time as a linear approach to the world) in particular. Furthermore, this perspective we advocate can eventually show that trace and tracing entail different social, cultural, and societal notions of social binding.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
The expanding use of algorithms in society has called for the emergence of “critical algorithm studies” across several fields, ranging from media studies to geography and from sociology to the humanities. In the past 5 years, a consistent literature on the subject has developed. Inspired by these studies, we explored the ways digital traces may be employed for auditing algorithms and find evidence about algorithmic functioning. We focus on the analysis of digital traces through search engines and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). We present four cases of how digital traces may be used for auditing algorithms and testing their quality in terms of data, model, and outcomes. The first example is taken from Noble’s (2018) book Algorithms of Oppression . The other three examples are very recent, two of them related to COVID-19 pandemic and about the most controversial type of algorithms: image recognition. Search as research and the analysis of digital traces and footprints within quasi-experimental research designs are useful methods for testing the quality of data, the codes, and the outcomes of algorithms.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
Starting from the commonly used meaning of a “human” footprint, connected to the traces that every action, product or process leaves in the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, the paper explores new perspectives for a changing social theory considering the principles of sustainability. This theoretical hypothesis stands on the necessity of a revision of the sociological principles to observe and analyse the contemporary phenomena connected to economic, political and social transformations due to environmental problems. The focus is on human action and its new role in the changing social space, time and relations. The application of these revised notions to a concrete process, such as the assessment of policies and social participation in Italian National Parks, according to the “positive thinking” model, will add some evidence about the radical transformation of cognitive paths and social dynamics.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
The right to be forgotten (RTBF) is meant to provide individuals with an actual representation of their personal identity by obtaining the erasure of their past “digital traces” left online. In 2014, the CJEU’s leading case Google Spain accorded the data subject the right to obtain the de-referencing of personal information related to past events from search engines. Consequently, the RTBF has been included in the title of Article 17 GDPR as a synonym of the right to erasure, without however being explicitly explained or regulated. Alongside this process, the ECtHR has constantly highlighted the need for fair balancing between the right to respect for private life and the right to freedom of expression, often denying the applicants the right to obtain removal or anonymization of news reports published in the past because of their permanent public interest. By stressing that Internet archives constitute an important source for education and historical research, it admitted, though, that the obligations of search engines may differ from those of the original publishers of the information. This reasoning, however, does not seem to have influenced a recent decision of the Italian Corte di Cassazione , commented in the final part of this chapter.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
In the digital era, there is an increasing number of areas where the footprints we leave behind (voluntarily or not) become relevant for the use (legitimate or not) that can be made of them, creating new broad scenarios of analysis in different fields of interest. These developments have affected a wide range of scientific fields, and social sciences have also been called upon to face major challenges from an epistemological, theoretical and methodological standpoint. In this regard, the use of research tools, such as social network analysis and sentiment analysis , poses many questions to the researcher regarding their robustness, also in comparison to traditional research methods and techniques, i.e. the two-step flow communication model . This paper will propose a theoretical and methodological comparison between the Katz-Lazarsdeldian tradition of the notion of personal influence and the one of influencer logic that is central in digital methods . Starting from this evaluation, the question is whether what is happening in the field of the analysis of the big data provided by the spread of the digital footprint is capable of adding some new element to what has already been highlighted by the “two-step communication theory”, or whether it simply represents its explication.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
From the study of semiotic paradigms in relation to the face, we focus on the traces, understanding how some flourish from the tangible but ignored signs left by humans daily, while others are totally imbricated in the face from/in which they transpire.
We typologize them in three varieties, from their multidimensional configuration, offering case studies of emanation, imbrication, and cancellation. First, between art and forensic tendencies, Dewey-Hagborg uses hair, cigarettes, and chewing gum off the streets to program and build 3D faces through the DNA found in them. Secondly, we examine the artistic work of Jorit who engraves on his face the sign that symbolizes belonging to a tribe he is working with. Name-face isomorphism emerges in the third case: Janez Janša carries out a performative sociopolitical program to test, destabilize, and reorganize cultural complexity.
All offer a syncretic situation analyzable by means of the semiotic approach and bioanthropological resources. The divergent weights of similar elements make us reflect on the relationship between the innermost meanings of our faces and their tracks in a sort of anticlockwise movement but also on the convergence between macro-cultural and techno-political orientations with intimate and located magnitude.
... Although there are now widespread smartphone apps that allow us to estimate this indicator while eating a plate of meat or more and more tickets of our travels indicate how much CO 2 our movement involves, the measurements are becoming increasingly complex, and the effectiveness of human action is limited. Carbon dioxide emissions come from the production and consumption processes of goods and services, affecting the whole chain of transformation and the use of each individual resource (Moore & Rees, 2013). 12 When the Footprint Is a Carbon One: A Sustainable Paradigm for. . . ...
Individuals and groups leave evidence of their lives when they are engaged in their activities. In this way, they create a rich amount of material that tells us about their behaviours, opinions and values. This material is not created for research purposes and is different from that solicited by researchers. In recent decades, the spread of new communication technologies has amplified the possibility of creating and disseminating this kind of data outside the research context.
In this chapter, what people leave behind (WPLB) online is studied from a strictly methodological point of view. What kind of evidence are researchers dealing with? Is it possible to reconnect it with the traditional methodological framework? We suggest that data left behind by people and groups on the Internet should be divided into three different categories: online found data ( digital traces ), online retrieved data ( web-mediated documents ) and online captured data ( online behaviours ). The phase of contextualization proves essential in understanding the very nature of (online) data.
This work leads to rediscovering the potential of classical methodological tools such as simple observation, documentary analysis and trace analysis. These practices provide methodological value to research projects that analyse WPLB in physical and web-mediated environments.
