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This article departs from the hypothesis that Alexander von Humboldt used ‘Big Data’ in order to bring new scientific evidence into the open. His method of measuring and combining temperature, humidity, altitude and magnetism in a geographical environment must be regarded as innovative, indeed, as the foundation of modern science. Although Humboldt lived in an analogue world and used the instruments of his time, his way of assembling information was not so different from what we are seeing in today's digitalised world. Information has no value unless it is shared. It does not say anything unless it is linked with other data. It cannot remain isolated but must be compared and interpreted. The generation of ʻBig Dataʼ was a pathway to Humboldt's concept of ʻKosmosʼ in much the same way as ʻBig Dataʼ today is the pathway to a virtual world. In this sense, Humboldt not only laid the foundation of modern science but anticipated the existence of a world where data and information are the source of everything when it comes to understanding the interconnectivity of the physical and the virtual world.
Tigers are indisputably in danger of extinction due to habitat loss and demand for their parts. Tigers are extirpated in the wild from every country bar one in mainland East and Southeast Asia. Although consumption of tiger products is known to be established in China, less is known about demand for tiger products in Southeast Asia. In this study, we investigate tiger product demand in Vietnam, a major illegal wildlife consumer country. There has been little research into consumption, in particular the level of use, the products being consumed, variation in use of products between areas, and the motivations of consuming tiger products. Through a quantitative survey of 1120 individuals, we show that use of tiger products could be as high as ~11% of the sample in both urban centers of Vietnam, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Tiger bone glue is the predominant product used, for medicinal purposes. In Hanoi, it is generally purchased by the individual for self-use, while in Ho Chi Minh City it is generally purchased as a gift. In both cities, individuals were generally highly satisfied with the product, indicating entrenched belief in efficacy among consumers. Ultimately, our results show that tiger product use is relatively pervasive. We suggest that conservation organizations should focus on behavior change campaigns that are informed by the results here, and that are specific to each area and to the specific use of tiger product glue for medicine. By reducing demand, beleaguered tiger populations will have a greater chance of stabilization and eventual growth.
Memoirs by women (from the Global North) who have employed a gestational host (from the Global South) to become mothers are situated in a force field of intersecting discourses about gender, race and class. The article sheds light on the characteristic dynamics of this special sub-genre of ‘mommy lit’ (Hewett), labelled ‘IP memoirs,’ with a special emphasis on memoirs featuring transnational cross-racial gestational surrogacy arrangements in India. These texts do not only present narratives of painful infertility experiences, autopathographic self-blame, and scriptotherapeutic quests towards happiness, i.e. (a) child(ren), but also speak back to knotty issues such as potential exploitation, commodification, colonisation and disenfranchisement, as well as genetic essentialism in the context of systemic inequities.
Canada’s geographic centre lies in the Territory Nunavut. From here the distance to the geographic North Pole is as far as to the US border. Nunavut takes up about 1/5 of the Canadian land mass but has by far the smallest population with currently about 38,000 residents. 85% of its population are Inuit whose culture dramatically changed within the last 70 years.
As a result, the territory is dealing with several generations of Inuit that are traumatized or at least severely affected by cultural and economic changes that started after World War 2 with the resettlement from the land into permanent communities. No matter if we are talking about the actual elders, mid-age adults or pre-teenagers, each of this generation experienced and still experiences various personal and cultural challenges of identity, financial and housing insecurity, food insecurity, substance abuse education, change of social values ranging from inter-generational and gender relationships to the introduction of a foreign political and legal system.
On the other side, a lot of the traditional societal values are still being practiced in Inuit families. Despite all the tragedies that several generations of Inuit have experienced by now, the society keeps generating the strength and cultural pride that allows many Inuit both, as individuals and as a collective under the umbrella of either Inuit Land Claims or not for profit organizations to advocate on behalf of Inuit culture, to fight for more acknowledgement of Inuit culture and to enhance pride in the historic and present day cultural achievements of Nunavut’s indigenous population.
The social issues, inter- and intra-cultural processes described in my thesis are not exclusive to the situation in Nunavut or to Inuit. Studies from other regions, in Canada or from around the world (LaPrairie 1987; Jensen 1986; Nunatsiaq News 6/30/2010) reveal similar challenges.
Though many structural similarities can be identified by comparing these studies with each other, e.g. marginalization of the indigenous local population, colonization, paternalism and resulting issues like personal and cultural identity loss, it is important to have a more in depth look into the single cases to determine which individual events and developments causes and maybe still cause such a devastating social situation as it is found among many indigenous peoples across the world. From my perspective effective improvements of the situation of a group, a respective community or region can only happen when particularities of socialization, communication and philosophy in the single cultural entities are being considered.
That is why my thesis will exclusively focus on developments in Nunavut and use various case studies of communities. The case studies shall help to identify local differences in historic and recent developments and thus provide starting points for explanations of different developments in different Nunavut communities.
The thesis is looking at both, historic and recent root causes for the many issues in Nunavut.
The data that my my thesis is based on are a combination of literature and about 60 formal and informal interviews that I conducted in three Nunavut communities (Iqaluit, Whale Cove, Kugluktuk) during my 18 months of field work between October 2008 and March 2010. Many more spontaneous unstructured conversations between me and community members added to the pool of first-hand information that I gathered.
Since my field work is limited to those three communities it has a very strong qualitative character. The quantitative side, which allows me to confidently apply my research analyses to entire Nunavut, comes from literature research as well as many informal conversations and a few formal interviews that I conducted with people who had some experience in other communities than Iqaluit, Kugluktuk and Whale Cove.
Furthermore, while I was living at the old residence of the Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, I spend time with college students from across Nunavut. Through them, I obtained „case studies “from following communities: Iqaluit, Qikiqtarjuaq, Kimmirut, Pangnirtung, Clyde River, Pond Inlet, Igloolik, Repulse Bay, Cape Dorset, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Whale Cove, Arviat, Taloyoak, Kugluktuk.
My general categorization of “early contact period”, “contact”, “1st generation” and “2nd generation” is very similar to Damas’ terms of “early contact phase”, “contact – traditional”, “resettlement” that he uses to create a timeline that describes the major phases of impact for Inuit society (Damas 2002: 7, 17).
Chapters 2 is meant to provide an inventory of the key aspects of current social issues in Nunavut. In this context I am looking at the four major aspects that in my opinion shape Nunavut’s society:
1) violence and other forms of social dysfunctions
2) the associated services and delivering agencies that try to address those matters
3) Education
4) Inuit cultural particularities in communication and socialization
Those four areas are forming the foundation for the rest of my work. The following chapters will guide the reader through the historic transformation process of Inuit pre-colonial semi-nomadic society to a society that is living in permanent settlements, strongly influenced if not in many ways dominated by Euro-Canadian culture. Each of those chapters will be referring to the social and cultural changes that happened in the different time periods that I labeled with “Pre-settlement, First, Second, and Third Generation”. The relevance of violence and other social dysfunctions, their context and strategies how each generation dealt with those matters will be analyzed while I will be also referring to the impacts that non-Inuit, primarily Euro-Canadians and Euro-Americans had and have on Inuit society.
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This special issue explores how finance deploys time, structures the future, and interacts with actors and institutions that sometimes function according to very different temporal regimes. Finance capitalism’s logic of recurrence, repetitive cycles, and successive ruptures has long been with us, but the essays in this special issue are particularly interested in how recent decades of intensified financialization have restructured temporal experience. They interrogate the production and dissemination of agency in an age of acceleration, risk, and uncertainty, asking how the temporality inscribed in financial transactions emerges from and simultaneously shapes individual and social practice. Topics covered range from the logic of finance and foundational concepts of financial theory to the intersection between objective structures and social practice, the role of literature, and finally questions of social insecurity, political action, and the possibility of resistance within a context of competing temporalities. In this introduction, the editors delineate some fundamental concepts and questions for our financial times.