bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evidence for Multiple Origins of Knockdown Resistance (kdr) in Spodoptera exigua (Hübna) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) From China
Authors: Zuo Yayun , Wang Zeyu , Ren Xuan , Pei Yakun , Aioub Ahmed A A , Hu Zhaonong
Published: April 2022

The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübna) is a serious agricultural pest that is challenging to control due to resistance to most pesticides, including pyrethroids. This resistance has previously been linked to the knockdown resistance (kdr) mutation (L1014F) of the voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) in S. exigua. To better understand the frequencies of the kdr mutation of SeVGSC and identify the evolutionary origins of kdr mutation in S. exigua, seven populations of S. exigua were collected in China, and partial SeVGSC genomic sequences for each individual were acquired. The bioassays showed that the survival rates of seven populations of S. exigua larvae exposed to the discriminating dose of beta-cypermethrin (0.05 mg/cm2) ranged from 91.66% to 100%, indicating that all seven populations had evolved resistance to beta-cypermethrin. The frequencies of kdr mutation (CTT to TTT) of SeVGSC of field populations ranged China were from 60% to 89.6%. The CTT to CAT substitution at this coding position resulting in the L1014H (kdr-H) mutation was found in only one individual from the QP18 population. Based on the phylogeny of SeVGSC alleles, it appeared that the kdr mutation in S. exigua populations had multiple origins, which has major consequences for pyrethroid effectiveness in the field. Thus, it is recommended to limit the use of pyrethroid and encourage rotation of insecticides with different modes of action for control of S. exigua to alleviate resistance development.
Indirect Investor Protection: The Investment Ecosystem and Its Legal Underpinnings
Authors: Spamann Holger
Published: April 2022

This article argues that the key mechanisms protecting portfolio investors in public corporate securities are indirect. They do not rely on actions by the investors or by any private actor charged with looking after investors’ interests. Rather, they are provided by the ecosystem that investors (are legally forced to) inhabit, as a byproduct of the self-interested, mutually and legally constrained behavior of third parties without a mandate to help the investors such as speculators, activists, and plaintiff lawyers. This elucidates key rules, resolves the mandatory versus enabling tension in corporate/securities law, and exposes the current system’s fragile reliance on trading.
Establishing the Content Validity of a Modified Bank of School Anxiety Inventory Items for Use Among Adolescents With Chronic Pain
Authors: Gibler Robert C , Abelson Elana , Williams Sara E , Lynch-Jordan Anne M , Kashikar-Zuck Susmita , Jastrowski Mano Kristen E
Published: April 2022

Objective

School anxiety is a prevalent mental health concern that drives school-related disability among youth with chronic pain. The only available measure of school anxiety—the School Anxiety Inventory, Short Version (SAI-SV)—lacks content specificity for measuring school anxiety in pediatric pain populations. We aimed to refine the SAI-SV by obtaining qualitative data about unique school situations that are anxiety-provoking for youth with pain and characterizing the nature of symptoms experienced in these situations.

Methods

Adolescents with chronic pain (n = 16) completed a semistructured interview focused on experiences with anxiety in school-related academic and social contexts. We employed thematic analysis to extend the empirical understanding of school anxiety from the perspective of patients suffering from pain and to generate new item content. The content was refined with iterative feedback from a separate group of adolescents with chronic pain (n = 5) and a team of expert pain psychologists (n = 3).

Results

We identified six themes within the data and generated new items designed to capture anxiety related to negative interactions with teachers and peers, falling behind with schoolwork, and struggles with concentration and fatigue. Participants and experts rated new item content as highly relevant for use among youth with pain. The updated item bank was named the School Anxiety Inventory for Chronic Pain.

Conclusions

Future research is needed to complete the psychometric evaluation of the item bank and finalize items to be included in a measure that can be used in research and clinical settings. Implications for treating school-related anxiety among youth with pain are also discussed.
Atomic data and opacity calculations in La v–x ions for the investigation of kilonova emission spectra
Authors: Carvajal Gallego H , Berengut J C , Palmeri P , Quinet P
Published: April 2022

A new set of radiative parameters for spectral lines in La v–x ions is reported in this paper. These data were determined through the use of a multiplatform approach involving three independent theoretical methods, i.e. the relativistic Hartree–Fock method including core-polarization corrections (HFR + CPOL), the multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock (MCDHF) method, and the particle-hole configuration-interaction (PH-CI) method implemented in the AMBiT program. Based on cross-comparisons between the results obtained with these three methods, and from comparisons with the few previously published experimental and theoretical data, the most complete and reliable set of wavelengths, transition probabilities, and oscillator strengths was then used to determine the necessary opacities for the analysis of the spectra emitted in the early phases of kilonovae following neutron star mergers, i.e. for typical conditions corresponding to temperatures $T \gt 20\,000 $ K, a density ρ = 10−10 g cm−3, and a time after the merger t = 0.1 d.
Detection of quasi-periodic micro-structure in three millisecond pulsars with the Large European Array for Pulsars
Authors: Liu K , Antoniadis J , Bassa C G , Chen S , Cognard I , Gaikwad M , Hu H , Jang J , Janssen G H , Karuppusamy R , Kramer M , Lee K J , Main R A , Mall G , McKee J W , Mickaliger M B , Perrodin D , Sanidas S A , Stappers B W , Wang L , Zhu W W , Burgay M , Concu R , Corongiu A , Melis A , Pilia M , Possenti A
Published: April 2022

We report on the detection of quasi-periodic micro-structure in three millisecond pulsars (MSPs), PSRs J1022+1001, J2145−0750, and J1744−1134, using high time resolution data acquired with the Large European Array for Pulsars at a radio frequency of 1.4 GHz. The occurrence rate of quasi-periodic micro-structure is consistent among pulses with different peak flux densities. Using an auto-correlation analysis, we measure the periodicity and width of the micro-structure in these three pulsars. The detected micro-structure from PSRs J1022+1001 and J1744−1134 is often highly linearly polarized. In PSR J1022+1001, the linear polarization position angles of micro-structure pulses are in general flat with a small degree of variation. Using these results, we further examine the frequency and rotational period dependency of micro-structure properties established in previous work, along with the angular beaming and temporal modulation models that explain the appearance of micro-structure. We also discuss a possible link of micro-structure to the properties of some of the recently discovered fast radio bursts which exhibit a very similar emission morphology.
3D intrinsic shapes of quiescent galaxies in observations and simulations
Authors: Zhang Junkai , Wuyts Stijn , Witten Callum , Avery Charlotte R , Hao Lei , Sharma Raman , Shen Juntai , Toshikawa Jun , Villforth Carolin
Published: April 2022

We study the intrinsic 3D shapes of quiescent galaxies over the last half of cosmic history based on their axial ratio distribution. To this end, we construct a sample of unprecedented size, exploiting multiwavelength u-to-Ks photometry from the deep wide-area surveys KiDS+VIKING paired with high-quality i-band imaging from HSC-SSP. The dependences of the shapes on mass, redshift, photometric bulge prominence and environment are considered. For comparison, the intrinsic shapes of quenched galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations are analysed and contrasted with their formation history. We find that over the full 0 < z < 0.9 range, and in both simulations and observations, spheroidal 3D shapes become more abundant at $M_* \gt 10^{11}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$, with the effect being most pronounced at lower redshifts. In TNG, the most massive galaxies feature the highest ex situ stellar mass fractions, pointing to violent relaxation via mergers as the mechanism responsible for their 3D shape transformation. Larger differences between observed and simulated shapes are found at low to intermediate masses. At any mass, the most spheroidal quiescent galaxies in TNG feature the highest bulge mass fractions, and, conversely, observed quiescent galaxies with the highest bulge-to-total ratios are found to be intrinsically the roundest. Finally, we detect an environmental influence on galaxy shape, at least at the highest masses, such that at fixed mass and redshift, quiescent galaxies tend to be rounder in denser environments.
On the viability of determining galaxy properties from observations – I. Star formation rates and kinematics
Authors: Grisdale Kearn , Hogan Laurence , Rigopoulou Dimitra , Thatte Niranjan , Pereira-Santaella Miguel , Devriendt Julien , Slyz Adrianne , García-Bernete Ismael , Dubois Yohan , Yi Sukyoung K , Kraljic Katarina
Published: April 2022

We explore how observations relate to the physical properties of the emitting galaxies by post-processing a pair of merging z ∼ 2 galaxies from the cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation NewHorizon, using lcars (Light from Cloudy Added to RAMSES) to encode the physical properties of the simulated galaxy into H α emission line. By carrying out mock observations and analysis on these data cubes, we ascertain which physical properties of the galaxy will be recoverable with the HARMONI spectrograph on the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). We are able to estimate the galaxy’s star formation rate and dynamical mass to a reasonable degree of accuracy, with values within a factor of 1.81 and 1.38 of the true value. The kinematic structure of the galaxy is also recovered in mock observations. Furthermore, we are able to recover radial profiles of the velocity dispersion and are therefore able to calculate how the dynamical ratio varies as a function of distance from the galaxy centre. Finally, we show that when calculated on galaxy scales the dynamical ratio does not always provide a reliable measure of a galaxy’s stability against gravity or act as an indicator of a minor merger.
Atheism and Meaning in Life
Authors: Wielenberg Erik J.
Published: April 2022

This chapter takes the case of Sisyphus as a springboard for an examination of meaning in human life under the assumptions that there is no God, there are no non-physicals souls, there is no afterlife, reincarnation never occurs, and each human being’s death marks the permanent end of his or her actions and experiences. Different types of meaning that a life might have are distinguished, most importantly intrinsic meaning and extrinsic meaning, and various sources of meaning in life in a godless universe are identified. These include love, flow, identifying with or working toward something larger than oneself, responding to unavoidable suffering in a certain way, and contributing to social or individual harmony. Following that, some prominent arguments for the view that atheism implies that all human lives are meaningless are critically examined. The conclusion of that discussion is that the claim that atheism entails meaninglessness is implausible.
Meaning and Morality
Authors: May Todd
Published: April 2022

There are different views of what makes a life meaningful and, as a result, different views of the relationship of meaningfulness to morality. After a short discussion of subjective views of meaningfulness, this chapter turns toward Susan Wolf’s view that meaningfulness arises from the coincidence of subjective engagement and objective worthwhileness. It is suggested that one strong candidate for objective worthwhileness is narrative values, values that characterize the trajectory of a life. Examples of narrative values would be intensity, spontaneity, adventurousness, spirituality, and so on. Lives, or at least large segments of them, can be characterized thematically in terms of narrative values. On this view, the relationship between meaningfulness and morality is contingent: sometimes in conflict, other times not.
Subjectivism and Objectivism about Meaning in Life
Authors: Johansson Jens , Svensson Frans
Published: April 2022

This chapter is an opinionated survey of three main views about meaning in life: objectivism, on which a component of a person’s life can contribute meaning to it even if she in no way cares about the component; pure subjectivism, on which the person’s caring about the component in some suitable way is all it takes for the component to contribute meaning to her life; and hybridism, on which whether a component of someone’s life contributes meaning to it depends both on her caring about the component in some suitable way and the objective value of the component. The authors discuss various central challenges that these three views respectively face. Among other things, they provide reasons to think that the challenges for pure subjectivism are less serious than they are ordinarily taken to be, and less serious than those that confront objectivism and hybridism.
Nature, Animals, and Meaning in Life
Authors: McShane Katie
Published: April 2022

This chapter argues against human-centredness in theorizing about meaning in life. First, it argues that the non-human natural world can be a source of meaning in human lives in ways that theorists often ignore. Second, it argues that the non-human natural world can also be a locus of meaningful lives. According to many theories of meaning in life, at least some cognitively sophisticated, emotionally complex, social non-human animals (such as elephants and wolves) are capable of leading meaningful lives. The most plausible way to rule out the possibility of meaningful animal lives would be to adopt criteria for meaning so strict that many human lives would also be prevented from having meaning.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution
Authors: Sadeghi Fatemeh
Published: April 2022

The Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran was decisive in reshaping and reframing both Iranian politics and the Middle East as we know it. This chapter investigates the historical framing of the Islamic revolution as a result of the politicization of the religious discourse in Iran from the early 1940s through the late 1970s and the steady emergence of the idea of an Islamic government as an alternative to the oppressive structure of Western modernity. The Islamic revolution marked the re-enchantment and re-mystification of politics in an allegedly disenchanted world. The chapter reveals two versions of revolutionary Islam, the clerical and the messianic, and their role in the framing of revolutionary politics. Whereas in clerical Islam the modern state was seen not as substantially corrupt but as an indispensable instrument for the establishment of the Islamic government, in messianic Islam the contemplation and reconstruction of history aimed at building a new past, hence a quite different future.
The Many Faces of Zionism
Authors: Pappé Ilan
Published: April 2022

This chapter examines the evolvement of the Zionist idea and movement over the years. It traces the etymology of the concept and its early adoption by evangelical Christianity. This is followed by an analysis of the origins of political Zionism in Europe. Both the official Israeli narrative, viewing Zionism as the Jewish national movement, and the counternarrative that depicts it as a settler-colonial phenomenon are presented. The settler-colonial paradigm explains the achievement of Zionism of building the infrastructure for a modern Jewish state, on the one hand, and the catastrophic effect it had on the indigenous people of Palestine, on the other. The depiction of the movement as a settler-colonial movement explains the ethnic cleansing it perpetrated against the Palestinian people in 1948. This paradigm also explains how Zionism informed Israel’s strategy toward the Palestinians ever since 1948. The chapter also discusses the appearance of post-Zionism and assesses its future trends.
Al-Nahda’s Local Test
Authors: Lamloum Olfa
Published: April 2022

After some 10 years in power and more than two years in control of several municipalities, the previously banned Tunisian Islamist party al-Nahda has had a unique trajectory as a Sunni Islamic political movement in the wake of the Arab uprisings. This chapter examines that trajectory from a local perspective, focusing on two popular districts of Greater Tunis, al-Tadamun and Douar Hisher, historic strongholds of al-Nahda. The aim is to understand the mutations through which this central actor has passed in Tunisia, examining the evolution of its social action and its repertoire of political legitimization. The chapter outlines the tensions marking its institutionalization in terms of generational dislocation and the alienation of its popular base. In doing so, it traces the recomposition of local power and its underlying arrangements in relegated urban margins 10 years after the fall of Ben Ali’s authoritarian regime.
Labor Migration to the Persian Gulf Monarchies
Authors: Babar Zahra R.
Published: April 2022

The six oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf together form one of the most concentrated global sites of international labor migration, with some of the highest densities of non-citizens to citizens seen anywhere in the world. A somewhat unique feature of the region is that while it hosts millions of migrants, it allows almost no access to permanent settlement. Gulf states have hosted large cohorts of migrants for more than half a century but have done so without efforts toward formal integration through citizenship. Although labor migration as a phenomenon is both permanent and prominent, the Gulf states’ mechanism for governing migration systematically reinforces the temporariness and transience of their migrant populations.
Shifting Family Patterns
Authors: Dennerlein Bettina
Published: April 2022

Based on a historically informed comparative perspective, the chapter critically reviews topics and debates in research on the issue of family with a view to the Middle East and North Africa region. It outlines different trends in the field and discusses the limits of specialized knowledge production on the topic, as well as the potential contribution of area-specific perspectives in family studies more broadly. The chapter unfolds the complexity of findings from qualitative research in history as well as the social sciences and describes its uneasy relationship with macro-perspectives on family change and demography. Special attention is paid to critical concepts and new paradigms emerging from the field that tie in with feminist and gender theories.
Ethnic Identity, Memory, and Sites of Violence
Authors: Larkin Craig
Published: April 2022

The Arab uprisings may have contributed to a newly “sectarianized” Middle East, yet more broadly this must be recognized as part of resurgent identity politics in which state exclusion, repression, and violence occur across ethnic, religious, and political divides. The mobilization of ethnic identities—the creation of distinct collectivities based on narratives of common descent—is as evident in nationalist diatribes throughout the region as it is in minority rights campaigns for equality or cultural autonomy. Ethnic identity formation requires both mnemonic discourses and specific sites in which social memories, imaginaries, and practices can be embedded and collectively performed. This chapter examines how geographies of violence—sites of historic trauma, loss, and displacement—are reappropriated through commemorative practice and martyr memorialization, which help shape contemporary ethnic narratives of identity and resistance. From Kurds in Irbil to Copts in Egypt to Palestinians inside Israel, each community attests to spatial exclusion and violence and finds ways of inhabiting and reimaging past trauma, to shape historical narratives and contemporary political expediencies. This chapter explores some of the key scholarship around this theme before examining the growing proliferation of martyr museums in the region.
Globalization and Cosmopolitanism in the Middle Eastern City
Authors: Vignal Leïla
Published: April 2022

The chapter questions the extent to which globalization has had the effect of bringing about a reassessment of urban societies and cosmopolitanism in the Middle East. It revisits orientalist urban narratives and firmly places the analysis of Middle Eastern cities within the analytical scope of contemporary global urban dynamics. It shows that these dynamics translate into the emergence of a regional space of flows and networks within which cities have a renewed role. It then discusses the tensions that exist in Middle Eastern cities between elite and non-elite practices of urban cosmopolitanism. It shows how some discourses of urban cosmopolitanism are often used to justify unequal, polarized, and segregated societies.
The Idea of the “Islamic Intellectual”
Authors: El-Affendi Abdelwahab
Published: April 2022

The concept of an “Islamic intellectual” poses many problems of intelligibility, validity and relevance. It is rejected by the secular mainstream that sees the intellectual as, by definition, secular, and by conservative and radical Islamic trends as an illegitimate usurper of religious authority. However, historical and present realities demonstrate the existence and pivotal modernizing and bridging role of this supposedly impossible figure. Leading “Islamic” intellectuals like Iqbal, Shari‘ati, Bennabi, etc., have played decisive intellectual, social, and spiritual roles, including launching revolutions or creating new countries. This chapter seeks to unravel the paradoxes of this at once impossible and indispensable figure.
A Cognitive Arab Uprising?
Authors: Hanafi Sari
Published: April 2022

This chapter is a synthetical one, drawing on previous work on knowledge production in the Arab world in the last decade. It contributes to the debate about how scholarship in the Arab region has struggled with some dichotomies before being able to partially transcend them. The author presents different research trends that have evolved from mainstream critical “glocal” (global/local) trends to the more polarized ones of postcolonial and Islamic perspectives. When analyzing the latter, the author also highlights differences between the trends that existed or evolved previous to and immediately following the 2011 Arab uprisings—cognitively inspired movements that were induced by paradigm shifts in the Arab social sciences.
Colonialism in the Region
Authors: LeVine Mark
Published: April 2022

This chapter offers a decolonial historical sociology of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), one focused on the historical as well as contemporary colonialities of power as a core discourse of governance across the region. After critiquing research grounded on subaltern and postcolonial studies for failing to capture the colonial dynamics operating in post-independence political systems across the MENA, the author explores how Timothy Mitchell’s seminal analysis of the state as an discursive effect of power relations, as well as the present-day relevance of the idea of ahl al-hall wa-l-‘aqd (“those who have binding authority”) in traditional Islamic jurisprudence, can together promote a more perceptive and illuminating discussion of the dynamics of political power across the region.
The End of the Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of Nation-States
Authors: Anscombe Frederick F.
Published: April 2022

This chapter discusses the end of the Ottoman Empire, looking at three case studies which illustrate the pattern of change seen in the transition from the Ottoman Empire to nation-states. Greece, the first Ottoman territory to gain independence (1830), set precedents in establishing government by non-natives, introducing religious and legal institutions based on European models and working single-mindedly to instill national identity in its population. Almost a century later, King Faysal I (r. 1921–1933) of Iraq followed a similar path, albeit under British direction. The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1922 and offered a slight variation on the pattern in that it built on selected legacies from the late Ottoman Empire. It was the only post-Ottoman country founded primarily by internal effort rather than by European intervention, and the national identity it worked to entrench in the population drew upon the political ideas of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which had dominated Ottoman government from 1908 to 1918. Despite that continuity, the republican government pursued the agenda of tearing down Ottoman institutions and rebuilding state and society as national projects. Such nation-building ultimately succeeded, producing its own instabilities; in new post-Ottoman countries, such as Greece, Iraq, and Turkey, social and political re-engineering aroused resistance within the population.
Disability and Human Rights
Authors: Campos Pinto Paula
Published: April 2022

Using a sociological perspective, this chapter examines the social and political conditions that have enabled the emergence and wide dissemination of the human rights model of disability. Taking the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as the hallmark of this paradigm shift, it provides an overview of the treaty and discusses the meaning and scope of the changes involved in the human rights model of disability, enshrined in this convention. Next, it highlights epistemological, theoretical, and methodological tools of the sociology of human rights and consider their potential for understanding disability rights struggles and achievements worldwide. In the final section, drawing on the experience gathered from the implementation of Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), a global initiative to monitor disability rights worldwide, the chapter discusses the opportunities and challenges facing a sociologist from the Global North conducting research on disability rights in the Global South.
Cumulative Disadvantage in Employment
Authors: Shuey Kim , Willson Andrea
Published: April 2022

Theories on the accumulative nature of disadvantage across the life course suggest that disability during the working years contributes to future disadvantage into old age. This chapter reviews theories of cumulative dis/advantage and illustrates their application using Panel Study of Income Dynamics data to examine wealth accumulation associated with longitudinal patterns of work disability across the life course beginning in early adulthood. The accumulation of economic disadvantage across the life course associated with disability can be seen in findings related to the timing and duration of work disability and its relationship with accumulated wealth approaching retirement. For example, among those with early-onset work disability, over half were in the bottom wealth quartile in their mid-60s, compared to one-fifth of those who never experienced a work disability. Individuals experiencing disability on and off over the work life course were almost three times more likely than the never work disabled to have wealth in the bottom wealth quartile, and those who never experienced a work disability were more likely to be in the top wealth quartile.
A Critical Review of Approaches to Erasing the Stigma
of Mental Illness
Authors: Sheehan Lindsay , Corrigan Patrick W.
Published: April 2022

Strategies to diminish stigma’s harm are driven by three agendas. (1) A services agenda, which seeks to decrease stigma so people better engage in care, (2) a rights agenda, which seeks to stem the injustice of stigma so people are able to meet life goals and aspirations, and (3) a self-worth agenda, which strives to replace shame with self-affirming attitudes in people impacted by stigma. With these agendas in mind, we summarize research on anti-stigma strategies in terms of public stigma and self-stigma. Two approaches have dominated efforts to lessen public stigma approaches: education and contact. Contrary to the predominance of education in public health approaches to attitude change, education effects are relatively muted, especially compared to contact. Research consistently shows that public encounters with people in recovery lead to significant improvements in stigma. Several approaches to self-stigma change have emerged, including psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral, and strategic disclosure. Psychoeducation teaches people who internalize stereotypes about how these stereotypes are false. Cognitive-behavioral strategies then guide participants in challenging the false stereotypes they have used to cause personal shame. Strategic disclosure reflects insights on how being in the stigma closet harms self-esteem and self-efficacy. People who decide to come out with their mental health experiences report less self-stigma and greater empowerment. Unlike public stigma, research is unclear about the success of these self-stigma approaches vis-à-vis the others.
The Image of God in Ecological Perspective
Authors: Middleton J. Richard
Published: April 2022

On the surface, being created in the image of God, with its concomitant idea of dominion, seems to separate humans from the rest of creation, but imago Dei texts in the Bible actually portray human interconnectedness with the non-human realm. This combination of human distinctiveness and interconnection with other creatures grounds the portrayal in the Torah and the Prophets, of human actions impacting the non-human world, whether for good or ill. And in both Testaments, human salvation is inseparable from the renewal of the heavens and the earth. A careful reading of explicit and implicit references to humanity as the image of God in the Bible thus yields a profound ecological perspective, which may provide guidance in thinking about normative relationships between humans and the earth.
Deuteronomy
Authors: Person Raymond F.
Published: April 2022

Building on the author’s monograph Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia, this chapter discusses how important remembering rightly is in the Book of Deuteronomy, so much so that we must keep this theme in mind when interpreting even those passages that do not include the verb “remember.” This is illustrated by an interpretation of Deut 6:4–9 as a Deuteronomic admonition that would have promoted to its ancient readers/hearers a remedy for their environmental amnesia by means of their constant reflection on God’s words written on human bodies, built structures (such as doorposts), and the entire landscape. The chapter then applies this remedy to our present forms of environmental amnesia, most clearly illustrated in climate change deniers’ refusal to read God’s words as revealed in natural history, the Book of Nature, and natural law.
The Book of Job
Authors: Schifferdecker Kathryn
Published: April 2022

The whirlwind speeches at the end of the book of Job (38–41) provide an essential “voice” in the conversation about Bible and ecology. Job asks the question, “What are human beings?” (Job 7:17), and the voice from the whirlwind answers the question with a resounding silence about humanity. Nevertheless, humanity (in the person of Job) plays an important role in the whirlwind speeches, as the sole passenger on God’s tour of the cosmos. Those speeches call human beings to humility—to know their place in the world but also to wonder and to justice. These biblical texts are particularly pertinent for us today, as we wrestle with the effects of human activity on the earth’s climate and ecosystems.
Attitudes to Nature in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East
Authors: Simkins Ronald A.
Published: April 2022

With the publication of Lynn White Jr.’s seminal essay, the biblical attitude to nature became a scholarly concern. Initial work had an apologetic bent, defending the Bible against misuse and misinterpretation, but more recent studies have critically assessed the role of nature in the Bible within its historical and social context. The Bible emerged out of an agrarian worldview of the ancient Near East and largely shares the same attitudes to nature as Israel’s Near Eastern neighbors. For the ancient Near Eastern peoples, there was no nature independent and separate from human beings, and the presence and will of the gods could be expressed through the material world. This worldview is expressed through three distinct attitudes to nature in the biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature: a mastery-over-nature, a harmony-with-nature, and a subjugation-to-nature attitude.
Revelation
Authors: Kiel Micah D.
Published: April 2022

With its manifold destruction of flora and fauna, the Book of Revelation may initially seem detrimental to ecological concerns. When the book is set in its ancient context and understood as a reaction against Rome’s propaganda, one can see its rejection of empire and the ecological devastation it wrought. Rome destroyed the ancient environment in myriad ways and claimed total control of the universe. For John of Patmos and his communities, Rome’s propaganda and environmental destruction were an affront to their own monotheistic belief in God as creator and sustainer of the universe. Heeding John’s message today would require a radical allegiance to God that would require a rejection of the ways empire tramples the earth. John was not consciously writing an ecological manifesto, but when read with sensitivity to ecological concerns, his Revelation has profound implications for how Christians should think about, and treat, the environment today.
The Sea and Ecology
Authors: Watson Rebecca S.
Published: April 2022

The study of the sea in the Bible has been governed by an interest in chaos; this and the dominance, until recently, of “green” over “blue” ecology means that ecological approaches to the sea in the Bible are as yet comparatively undeveloped. There are two primary areas of research focus: on the sea itself and also on the varied life it supports. Both are portrayed as creatures of God and as responding to him in praise and obedience, as well as being vulnerable to climate change and pollution. In addition, the sea may be understood both as a source of life and as an increasing threat, with rising sea levels being of particular concern to island and coastal communities. The biblical theme of “chaos” is particularly problematic for “blue” theology, yet there are fresh approaches here, too, from challenging underlying models of dominion and recovering the sea’s “voice” to questioning the applicability of this motif to a range of biblical passages or balancing it with contrasting marine images. Interest in sea creatures is brought into dialogue with biblical material especially in relation to fishing, with the ideas of “stewardship” and sabbath rest or jubilee being discussed in relation to fisheries. This chapter briefly discusses some of the key passages relating to the sea in the Bible, such as Rev 21:1; Gen 1; Ps 104:24–26 and the divine speeches of Job, and it concludes by suggesting some future avenues for research.
Literary Ecocriticism and the Bible
Authors: Burbery Timothy J.
Published: April 2022

Literary ecocriticism is an interpretive method that has been applied to the Bible and to biblically informed literary texts, though in both cases perhaps less often than might be expected. Both literary and biblical scholars stand to gain from a greater awareness of ecocritical insights and approaches. To that end, this chapter provides an overview of ecocriticism, examines critical interventions into scripturally inflected nature writing, and concludes by exploring obstacles and opportunities for religious and secular scholars who are interested in practicing literary ecocritique. Among the two challenges engaged are the discourses of postcolonialism and material ecocriticism.
What Is the Role of Ritual in Binding Communities Together?
Authors: Whitehouse Harvey , Kavanagh Christopher M.
Published: April 2022

It has long been recognized that participation in collective rituals strengthens group cohesion. In recent decades, researchers have begun to disambiguate the psychological mechanisms involved, including social synchrony, causal opacity, shared memory, and the transmission of group-identity markers. The focus here is on the ways in which the performance frequency and emotional intensity of collective rituals influence the way these mechanisms operate and what the downstream behavioral consequences of this are. Much of the research on this topic has been conducted within the conceptual framework provided by the theory of the modes of religiosity, which distinguishes two main kinds of collective rituals: high frequency and low arousal (doctrinal) and low frequency and high arousal (imagistic). We expand this framework to also incorporate theories about the role of fusion, identification, normative tightness-looseness, relational mobility, supernatural moral enforcement, and credibility-enhancing displays (CREDs) in motivating prosocial action.
The Cognitive Study of Religious Activity
Authors: Boyer Pascal
Published: April 2022

The emergence of a cognitive science of religion has revolutionized our understanding of the processes whereby humans acquire and transmit representations of gods, spirits, and other superhuman agents. To advance even further, the discipline should address the ambiguities concerning two crucial questions. One is the assimilation, under the umbrella of “religion,” of two very different sets of phenomena: the informal activities of religious practitioners (e.g., shamans) in small-scale societies and the services religious organizations provide in larger, state societies. Another difficulty stems from the fact that many evolutionary models take specific beliefs as a starting point for religious activities, when in fact, many beliefs are the possible endpoint of religious activity. A clearer understanding of these two points will provide better tools for understanding religious thought and behavior.
The Nature of Humans
Authors: Richert Rebekah A. , Lesage Kirsten A.
Published: April 2022

This chapter outlines how humans conceive of other humans and looks at the interacting roles of cognitive biases and cultural processes in the development of these conceptions. Extant prior research has argued that conceptions of other humans rely on folk theories of physics, biology, and psychology. Evidence from developmental psychology also indicates that children and adults have intuitions that individuals have a quintessence that confers a unique identity. The social and environmental context of an individual, as well as the cultural practices, become part of that individual’s quintessence. The chapter concludes by proposing that in addition to relying on folk physics, biology, and psychology, humans also employ a folk anthropology in reasoning about other humans. This folk anthropology system is dedicated to processing inferences about how an individual’s essence is maintained or altered by social, environmental, and cultural contexts and practices.
Egalitarian Justice, Population Size, and Parents’ Responsibility for the Costs of Children
Authors: Olsaretti Serena
Published: April 2022

Theorists of egalitarian justice generally assume that the principles they formulate apply to a group of individuals whose creation and size is taken as given. Yet many of the policies egalitarians favor distribute the costs and benefits of children in different ways, and, by so doing, affect people’s procreative choices and a society’s population size. How do considerations of egalitarian justice bear on how the costs and benefits of children should be distributed and on what the population size should be in a just society? This chapter argues for the importance of addressing these questions within an egalitarian theory of justice and critically examines one revisionary way of answering them.
Population Paradoxes without Transitivity
Authors: Arrhenius Gustaf
Published: April 2022

Most discussion in population ethics has concentrated on how to evaluate populations in regard to their goodness, that is, how to order populations by the relations “is better than” and “is as good as.” This field has been riddled with “paradoxes” and impossibility theorems which purport to show that our considered beliefs are inconsistent in cases where the number of people and their welfare varies. It is natural to think that the axiological impossibility results directly translates into impossibility results for normative theories since this part of our morality—our theory of beneficence—is consequentialist in nature and thus must be based on an ordering of outcomes in regard to their “welfarist” goodness. However, it is all too hasty to conclude that the axiological impossibility results directly translate into normative ones for two reasons: one can reject the transitivity of “better than” and one can reject consequentialism. The latter idea is that we should turn to theories that take welfare into account in a nonconsequentialist manner, that is, theories that take welfare into account directly on the normative level instead of taking the route over an ordering of outcomes in regard to their goodness. Since transitivity of “better than” plays an important role in the axiological paradoxes, and since there is no convincing analog to transitivity on the normative level, the paradoxes will not reappear on the normative level, or so it is claimed. This chapter shows that this claim is unfortunately false. As a corollary, it shows how we can prove the axiological impossibility theorems without an appeal to the transitivity of “better than.”
Lessons to be Learned from the Mere Addition Paradox
Authors: Temkin Larry S.
Published: April 2022

Population ethics raises many questions. Some of these concern future generations. For example, does it matter how well-off people (or sentient beings) will be in the future; does it matter how long into the future people will exist; does it matter how many people will exist in the future; and does it matter whether or not people will exist in the future? These questions can be generalized. Does it matter whether people exist at all in space and time, and if so, does it matter where they exist, when they exist, or how well they were, are, or will be when existing? These questions are interesting in their own right. But beyond that, addressing them raises a host of deep and perplexing issues about the nature of the good, moral ideals, and practical reasoning. In this chapter, I aim to present several lessons learned from thinking about population ethics, some of the implications of those lessons, and some of the problems that remain.
Evaluative Uncertainty and Population Ethics
Authors: Bykvist Krister
Published: April 2022

In the debate about population ethics, it is often assumed that we need to decide on one principle of population ethics, and then apply it to real world problems. One obvious problem with this approach is that we are not certain which principle to apply. Indeed, the many paradoxes of population ethics show that there is nothing resembling a consensus on which intuitive principle should be dropped to avoid contradictions. One possible way forward is to make trade-offs between different principles in epistemic terms. In moral decision-making, perhaps more weight should be given to principles that we are more certain of. So one thing we must investigate is whether we can indeed rank the different principles of population ethics according to how much confidence we place in them. The further crucial question is then how to translate the idea of differential weight into a set of action-guiding principles. In this chapter, I will explore both questions.
Optimum Population Size
Authors: Greaves Hilary
Published: April 2022

Recent years have seen a surge in concern about overpopulation. The basic thought is that the planet's capacity to provide food, water, energy, materials, and simple living space, in addition to current artificial infrastructure, is being stretched far beyond optimum usage by the sheer number of people currently alive. This is so to such an extent, the thought continues, that it would be better, all things considered, to reduce world population. Any argument for this conclusion, however, clearly must make some presuppositions in population axiology. But the arguments that are offered in practice tend to be naïve on these issues: typically no distinction is explicitly drawn, for instance, (1) between maximizing total versus maximizing average well-being, (2) between maximizing instantaneous versus timeless totals/averages, or (3) between any variant of total/average approach on the one hand, and a “person-affecting” approach on the other. This leaves the overpopulation/optimum-population debate in an unsatisfying state of confusion at the level of basic evaluative principles. This chapter disentangles the various arguments that have been offered in favor of population reduction according to the population-axiological commitments that each requires, and conducts a preliminary attempt to assess the question of optimum population more rigorously, against the background of (in particular) a “totalist” or “critical-level” population axiology.
Demographic Theory and Population Ethics
Authors: Kolk Martin
Published: April 2022

Demographic theory is concerned with how population systems regulate themselves given available resources and external shocks to population size. This chapter provides an overview of demographic theory, focusing specifically on relationships between population size, population growth, and welfare. It then discusses four implications of demographic theory for population ethics. Speaking broadly, these four implications concern (1) the overreliance by some population ethicists on Malthusian assumptions about the average welfare of population declining with increasing population size, (2) the likelihood of certain hypothetical scenarios that feature in thought experiments used in population ethics, (3) the prioritization of extinction risks by population ethicists, and (4) the patterns of intergenerational and intertemporal inequality that population ethicists may anticipate over the long run. The chapter closes with a discussion of demographic theory in relation to historical and future demographic change.
Hayley Mills and the Disneyfication of Childhood
Authors: Buckingham David
Published: April 2022

This chapter considers the early career of Hayley Mills, who in the early 1960s was the most popular child star in the Western world. It briefly outlines her film career and analyses her first two British-made feature films, Tiger Bay (1959) and Whistle Down the Wind (1961), alongside the first two films she made for the Disney Studios, Pollyanna (1960) and The Parent Trap (1961). These films are considered in relation to broader debates about child stardom and about the representation of childhood (and, more specifically, of girlhood); and there is also some discussion of how these films do or do not reflect the impending social changes of the time.
Changing Conceptions of Childhood in the Work of the Children’s Film Foundation
Authors: Shail Robert
Published: April 2022

This chapter outlines the history of the Children’s Film Foundation, a unique body that, for nearly thirty years, produced films specifically created for an audience of children in the United Kingdom and beyond. At the heart of the CFF’s work was a deeply held conviction that childhood was a formative stage of development that was open to external influence, which films could positively impact to help shape future citizens for the better. The chapter considers the various attempts the Foundation made to produce “improving” films and how the underpinning conceptualization of childhood constructed changed in response to changing societal trends. By the use of primary evidence, the chapter also assesses the success, and failure, of the CFF in achieving its intentions.