Placing sexuality in health policies: feminist geographies and public health nursing

Despite the increasing public profile of same-sex issues, health policies are often shaped by heteronormative assumptions. The health concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual/transgender, two-spirit, intersex, queer and questioning (LGBTTTIQQ) people are complex and require broadening from an often exclusively sexual health and risk focus to a more holistic approach. In this context, this paper illustrates how a critical feminist geography of health, with its focus on the mutual construction of gender relations, space and place, potentially enhances and extends current understandings of public health policy and practice. Moreover, the use of a policy lens foregrounding gender and other power relations suggests that feminist research and coalitions facilitate participatory processes that address “the politics of discourse.” In particular, public health nursing practice can enhance the construction of spaces of resistance that challenge heteronormative discourse through research strategies focused on sexual minority communities’ health experiences and their visions for supportive care. In this respect, two strategies consistent with public health priorities to increase knowledge and participate in alliances are described. Ethnographic research with childbearing lesbians demonstrates that attention to institutional dynamics that foster safe spaces can facilitate access to public health services. Public health nurses’ involvement in community coalitions can enhance dissemination of community knowledges. The implications for gender inclusive and place-sensitive public health nursing practice include the development of sensitive educators, meaningful educational curriculum and related program planning, explicit policies, community partnerships and political leadership in institutional and research venues.     

Virtual vegetables and adopted sheep: ethical relation, authenticity and Internet-mediated food production technologies

Associating ideas related to cultural geographies of 'quality' food production and consumption with recent discussion of Internet technologies, virtuality and simulation, this paper examines two newly constituted Internet enterprises offering customers 'virtual' experiences of food production, and 'quality' food products in which they have invested. The paper shows how these enterprises are associated with particular types of geographical and ethical relation, and a search for 'authentic', connected, relationships with food, farming, locality and 'nature'. These relationships are constituted in an assemblage of things held together by flows of food, products, money and electronic communication. The paper ends by suggesting a number of theoretical ideas that might usefully be explored in empirical research into Internet-mediated food production.     

The conditionality of status: Experience-based reflections on the insider/outsider issue

When a researcher undertakes research into his/her own ethnic group, issues of positionality abound. These issues relate not only to the impact of inherent insider positionality when interacting with study participants but also in the interpretation and presentation of study findings. My research with contemporary Irish immigrants not only reinforced the advantages of being an insider but also highlighted the incomplete and unstable nature of insiderness. Heterogeneity within the study group, in terms of their geo-political, regional and religious origins, meant that presumptions of insiderness and outsiderness were frequently challenged. A new awareness of the conditionality of each positionality was forged from these experiences.     

彝族撒尼人原始宗教中的生态伦理观--以石林圭山海宜老寨为例

人类的生存和发展离不开自然生态环境。当今,由于人为的原因,生态危机已成为全球性的环境问题。环境保护迫在眉睫。而一些原住民族却拥有一套颇为有效的环境保护知识体系。作为传统生态伦理主要载体的神山森林,在石林圭山海宜老寨的环境保护中起着重要作用。从生态人类学的视角出发,初步探讨了彝族撒尼人原始宗教中的生态伦理观,展现了撒尼人原始宗教中所包含的丰富的环境价值观念,揭示了撒尼人生态环境保护的奥秘。     

Voluntarism,defensive localism and spaces of resistance to health care restructuring

This paper examines the evolving role of volunteers and the voluntary sector in shaping community responses to structural change in health care systems. It contributes to the emerging understanding of the different forms voluntarism can take within and among places, including as a space of resistance to contemporary restructuring initiatives such as regionalization. Within the geographies of voluntarism literature, however, little attention has been directed towards interrogating the local dynamics of such voluntarism, especially as it is reflected in public discourse. We address this deficiency through a media-based case study of public reaction to the recent implementation of Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks (a type of regional health authority). Specifically, we examine a decade of newspaper coverage in a mid-size Canadian city region to document and characterize how the activities of volunteers and voluntary sector organizations in the community are portrayed in light of the structural imperatives to integrate health care services and regionalize health care governance. The media findings reveal a suite of public concerns and related activities, with the voluntary sector called upon in various ways to defend the autonomy of the community against the perceived threats to local services, employment and vulnerable populations. We interpret the evident complexity of voluntary sector resistance as a form of ‘defensive localism’ and discuss implications for developing informed policy on health care restructuring and for advancing knowledge on the local geographies of voluntarism.     

The institutional implications of environmental ethics for fishery management in the US exclusive economic zone

The public discourse surrounding many fishery management issues suggests that ethical concerns may be an important aspect of these issues for a segment of the American public. Questions have been raised about the capacity of regional fishery management councils created under the Fishery Conservation and Management Act to be adequately responsive to different ethical values. To date, legislative efforts to broaden council membership have been unsuccessful, but pressure for institutional reform is likely to increase with the adoption of an ecosystem approach to fishery management.     

地下水有机污染的环境伦理思考

主要介绍地下水有机污染的现状和危害,并结合环境伦理的宗旨、主流和主张探讨这一问题的产生根源.结果表明,地下水有机污染是由于人类在生产实践中破坏了人与自然的协调,违背环境伦理而造成.为了重新达到人与自然的协调,保持可持续发展,人类必须对地下水有机污染进行有效治理.     

An IEEE value loop of human-technology collaboration in geospatial information science

ABSTRACT

Geosensing and social sensing as two digitalization mainstreams in big data era are increasingly converging toward an integrated system for the creation of semantically enriched digital Earth. Along with the rapid developments of AI technologies, this convergence has inevitably brought about a number of transformations. On the one hand, value-adding chains from raw data to products and services are becoming value-adding loops composed of four successive stages – Informing, Enabling, Engaging and Empowering (IEEE). Each stage is a dynamic loop for itself. On the other hand, the “human versus technology” relationship is upgraded toward a game-changing “human and technology” collaboration. The information loop is essentially shaped by the omnipresent reciprocity between humans and technologies as equal partners, co-learners and co-creators of new values.

The paper gives an analytical review on the mutually changing roles and responsibilities of humans and technologies in the individual stages of the IEEE loop, with the aim to promote a holistic understanding of the state of the art of geospatial information science. Meanwhile, the author elicits a number of challenges facing the interwoven human-technology collaboration. The transformation to a growth mind-set may take time to realize and consolidate. Research works on large-scale semantic data integration are just in the beginning. User experiences of geovisual analytic approaches are far from being systematically studied. Finally, the ethical concerns for the handling of semantically enriched digital Earth cover not only the sensitive issues related to privacy violation, copyright infringement, abuse, etc. but also the questions of how to make technologies as controllable and understandable as possible for humans and how to keep the technological ethos within its constructive sphere of societal influence.