Childhoodnature: Applying a Sympoietic Approach to Child-Outdoor-Nature Encounters

Childhoodnature encounters can flourish in the Anthropocene. Assembled theories supporting childhoodnature can produce sparks when knocked together. The chemical composition of all living things is composed of the shared building blocks of all life: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur. Indeed, even beyond our own planet, recent research has demonstrated that humans and our galaxy share 97% of the same atoms. Indeed, we are all merely matter circulating with and through bodies, places, and time. This entanglement of matter can be known as sympoiesis. Making together or making with, sympoiesis is a philosophical, ontological, and epistemological concept that rejects notions of human exceptionalism. Rather it supports an entangled and relational view;beings forever adapting, changing, and evolving in relation with one another. Boundaries are blurred between bodies, what is being human and what is being nonhuman is no longer clear. Applying a sympoietic approach to outdoor encounters this chapter explores the doing of childhoodnature and its relationship with outdoor environment education (OEE). Childhoodnature as a concept explicitly recognises children as ecologically congruent to all entities who are currently manifesting liveability on a dying planet. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Animals Other than Human Animals and Their Claim to Equal Consideration in Coronavirus and Criminological Study: Examining Harm to Domesticated Dogs during COVID-19 in the UK

While the financial and social support afforded to United Kingdon (UK) ‘animals other than human animals' (AOTHAs) welfare charities, such as the RSPCA and Dogs Trust, could suggest that they are valued intrinsically within Western society criminological texts largely omit them from recognition, with some important exceptions, see non-speciesist criminology. Most human animals likely do not want to directly or indirectly harm AOTHAs and even value relationships with "companion” AOTHAs. Regardless, AOTHAs have been victimized throughout history and continue to be. This article examines harm to AOTHAs in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic to argue that abuse proliferates where harmful subjectivities are generated by society's acceptance of (1) the anthropocentric culture, and (2) when humanity values their individual advancement within the competitive consumer culture. Companion dogs were specifically focused upon within this article due to their so called close emotional and physical proximity to human animals, with proximity meaning that they were directly impacted by the lockdown measures implemented. The coronavirus pandemic was addressed by governments throughout the world by initiating an array of social restrictions. Because of these social restrictions, millions of individuals within England, and in countries such as the United States of America (USA), decided to adopt or purchase dogs for a variety of reasons, including to help them mitigate feelings of isolation and loneliness and to provide them with an excuse to participate in outdoor exercise. In order to determine the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had upon the plight of domesticated companion dogs within England, semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and observation research were undertaken. The initial analysis of data presented here suggests that the coronavirus pandemic threatened the wellbeing of dogs within England, with their reproductive, physical, medical, and psychological wellbeing being put at risk.

Posthumanist stylistics

I present a posthumanist approach to literary interpretation using stylistic analysis. It is posthumanist since i) digital cameras/audio-video resources and editing applications prompt multimodal readings of literary works unlikely from human intuition alone;ii) anthropocentrism in literary texts is defamiliarised. I highlight how stylistic analysis can be used productively for developing multimodal creativity in posthumanist reading by motivating audio-video edits and effects. I model using Anne Brontë's poem ‘Home' (1846). When read only with intuition, ‘Home' communicates young Brontë's yearning for her family home. In contrast, this article has a non-intuitive digital multimodal realisation of this poem where a young Californian stuck in London because of pandemic (Covid-19) travel restrictions yearns for her home state in the aftermath of wildfires linked to anthropogenic climate change. This posthumanist transformative reading, flagging the negative repercussions of humans for their planetary home, defamiliarises the poem's anthropocentric normality. Importantly, I show how stylistic analysis of ‘Home' motivates creative use of audio-visual edits and effects in the posthumanist multimodal reading. The article makes contrast with standard interpretive practice in stylistics (‘humanist stylistics'). It also reflects on the value of posthumanist stylistics for extending students' creative thinking in an educational context. © The Author(s) 2023.

Interspecies cosmopolitanism: Non-human power and the grounds of world order in the Anthropocene

Cosmopolitanism claims to be the most just and inclusive of mainstream approaches to the ethics and practice of world order, given its commitment to human interconnection, peace, equality, diversity, and rights, and its concern with the many globalised pathologies that entrench injustice and vulnerability across borders. Yet it has largely remained oblivious to the agency, power, and value of non-human life on a turbulent and active Earth. Without rejecting its commitments to justice for human beings, the article challenges its humanism as both morally and politically inadequate to the situation of the Anthropocene, exemplified by the simultaneous crises of climate change, mass extinction, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In answer, the article develops new grounds and principles for an interspecies cosmopolitanism, exploring how we can reimagine its ontological foundations by creating new grounding images of subjectivity, existential unity, institutional organisation, and ordering purpose. These, in turn, can support political and institutional projects to secure the rights of ecosystems and people to flourish and persist through an increasingly chaotic epoch of human dominance and multispecies vulnerability across the Anthropocene Earth.

One Health, One Welfare, One Right: Introducing Animal Rights in Europe

The increasing interlinkage between humans and animals has led to the emergence of the `One Health' and `One Welfare' discourse. The covid-19 pandemic has proven the intersectionality between humans and animals and fueled these campaigns even more. The concept of One Health has in particular found its way into regulatory policy. A World Health Assembly resolution of 19 May 2020 includes a specific reference to One Health as an approach that could guide the research into the origin and transmission of covid-19 and the prevention of future pandemics. The EU also devotes attention to the One Health concept and approach, for instance with regard to its Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance and a study requested by the committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety that examines the relation between different zoonotic pandemics and the livestock sector. While we acknowledge the interwoven connection between animal and human welfare and health, a similar approach regarding legal protection has been almost totally ignored. Hence, regarding the current momentum of animal-human integration and following the example of these movements, the time has come to consider a `One Right' approach to address legal rights for (nonhuman) animals in Europe. This contribution will canvass two possibilities for legal animal rights within the framework of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (echr). Firstly, the umbrella of article 8 of the echr and the case for a human right to animal protection will be explored. Currently, it has been accepted that this right to respect for private and family life also entails the right to a healthy environment. It is contended that likewise simple animal rights can be created under Article 8 following a responsible anthropocentric angle. In contrast, a second entry-point which will be scrutinized concerns a biocentric viewpoint and departs from an extensive interpretation of Article 1 of the echr. Through a dynamic and (r)evolutionary interpretation the personal scope of the echr can be extended to include (certain) animals.

Responding to crises: rewilding accounting education for the Anthropocene

PurposeResponding to COVID-19, this conceptual paper uses rewilding to interrupt anthropocentric and human/nature dualist properties of accounting education. Through rewilding accounting education, informed by posthumanist and ecofeminist thought, this paper aims to develop an accounting pedagogy that shapes greater ecocentric narratives. Accounting educators can contribute to addressing crises by evolving new pedagogies that radically transform the education of future accounting professionals.Design/methodology/approachThe authors take a critical stance in analysing the human-centred accounting education model. They explore how this model can be reimagined through rewilding accounting education, resulting in learning interventions that foster an understanding of intrinsic value, complexity of systems and collective disposition with all species and the natural world.FindingsRewilding learning interventions embed an ecocentric approach in accounting curricula design to extend beyond a human focus. Rewilding learning interventions practically explored with application to accounting include learning with and from nature, Indigenous knowledge perspectives, play as a common language and empathy as a dialogical bridge.Social implicationsThe authors present an accounting pedagogy that fosters among accounting students and educators a relational orientation and ecological consciousness that encompasses compassion and openness to others, including non-human species and nature. This will ensure that accounting graduates are better prepared for addressing future crises that stem from our disconnect with nature.Originality/valueThis paper adds to limited research investigating accounting and the Anthropocene. Investigations into the Anthropocene's human-centred discourse in accounting education are vital to respond adequately to crises. This paper extends social and environmental accounting education literature to encompass less anthropocentric discourse and greater relational learning.

One Health, One Welfare, One Right: Introducing Animal Rights in Europe

The increasing interlinkage between humans and animals has led to the emergence of the 'One Health' and 'One Welfare' discourse. The covid-19 pandemic has proven the intersectionality between humans and animals and fueled these campaigns even more. The concept of One Health has in particular found its way into regulatory policy. A World Health Assembly resolution of 19 May 2020 includes a specific reference to One Health as an approach that could guide the research into the origin and transmission of covid-19 and the prevention of future pandemics. The EU also devotes attention to the One Health concept and approach, for instance with regard to its Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance and a study requested by the committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety that examines the relation between different zoonotic pandemics and the livestock sector. While we acknowledge the interwoven connection between animal and human welfare and health, a similar approach regarding legal protection has been almost totally ignored. Hence, regarding the current momentum of animal-human integration and following the example of these movements, the time has come to consider a 'One Right' approach to address legal rights for (nonhuman) animals in Europe. This contribution will canvass two possibilities for legal animal rights within the framework of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (echr). Firstly, the umbrella of article 8 of the echr and the case for a human right to animal protection will be explored. Currently, it has been accepted that this right to respect for private and family life also entails the right to a healthy environment. It is contended that likewise simple animal rights can be created under Article 8 following a responsible anthropocentric angle. In contrast, a second entry-point which will be scrutinized concerns a biocentric viewpoint and departs from an extensive interpretation of Article 1 of the echr. Through a dynamic and (r)evolutionary interpretation the personal scope of the echr can be extended to include (certain) animals. © 2022 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.

Paralipomena of a Pandemic

The pandemic, which has affected the whole world and has many victims, changing our lifestyle and having its own narrative structure that would be interesting to retrace. Undoubtedly, despite science fiction getting us used to dystopian and apocalyptic scenarios, the sudden epidemiological emergency caught us unprepared. We could hardly have thought of suddenly giving up habits that we considered consolidated, such as being able to travel, meet friends, gather in public places, go to a restaurant, go to school. The pandemic suddenly cancelled all of this. But what caused this pandemic? Perhaps a simple virus from an Asian wet market? Perhaps the extreme connectivity of the human network? Perhaps the ecological alterations we have caused? Or is the pandemic the result of a deeper cultural crisis?

Zoonoses and Animal Culling: The Need for One Health Policy.

One Health (OH) as a biomedical and social movement calls to reorient public health approaches toward more holistic, nonanthropocentric approaches that do not exclude the interests of animals and ecosystems. OH thus urges reexamination, from both scientific and moral perspectives, of the practice of culling pet, farm, or wild animals in the face of a zoonosis. Pandemics such as Covid and monkeypox highlight the need for more rigorous analysis of the justifications traditionally provided to back these culling practices. Such analyses should then ground reasonable OH policies and legislation that consider the rights of humans, animals, and the environment. Bill S.861, "Advancing Emergency Preparedness through One Health Act of 2021," which was introduced in the U.S. Congress, is a step in the right direction.

Editorial Introduction

What is there to say during these tumultuous times? Over the last year, in each introduction I've written for an issue of Feminist Formations, it seems there are new crises and violences to contend with. Living through a deadly global pandemic, we have sustained so many losses. At the time of this writing, COVID cases in India have overwhelmed the healthcare system, particularly in rural areas. There is a desperate shortage of hospital beds, antiviral drugs, vaccines, and even oxygen to treat the rising number of patients. In the US, anti-Asian violence has increased exponentially, evidenced by the recent shootings of six Asian American women in Atlanta. In many parts of the country, violence against Asians has specifically targeted Asian elders and women. Police violence against Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities continues, and while many felt relief over the recent guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, we also must contend with the fact that fewer than 5 percent of police who commit acts of violence against BIPOC communities are ever held responsible. And in Gaza, Palestinian people continue to experience state and settler-colonial violence from the Israeli government, with more than 145 Palestinians—including forty-one children—killed by Israeli bombing raids this month, and nearly a thousand Palestinians wounded. We are reminded that what is happening in Palestine is a feminist issue.

Counter-attacking Pollution in Three Aerial Acts

Air pollution is one of the most significant factors to confront when making connections between ecological crisis and globalization. Smog is caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the accumulation of pollutants in the troposphere or lower atmosphere. Dangerous gas emissions contribute to global warming, which in turn creates conditions to produce lung-damaging ‘ground-level ozone’. Thus, there is a direct and cyclical correlation between grounded corporeality or embodiment and the aerial. Achille Mbembe has carefully reflected on human subjectivity and an ecologically damaged planet united by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is in that spirit of agency that this article analyses three cultural experiments that investigate and interrogate atmospheric relations within the Capitalocene, an epoch in which humans and non-humans cannot be dissociated from the scalar ramifications of industrial consumerism.A theoretical framework for thinking about the performativity of polluted air can potentially be found within new materialism, a contemporary discourse in search of a practical philosophy for turbulent times. Roberdeau argues that the three artistic, sociological and architectural case studies that follow extend these practical and theoretical observations to the elusive but nevertheless real or specific materiality of the air itself in local populated zones, investigating the economic, geopolitical and anthropogenic effects on the earth’s atmosphere and, therefore, on everyday life in those communities.

Semantic Typology Pandemic Vocabulary: Covid Neologisms in English, French and German

Neologisms that appeared under the influence of the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection Covid-19 are considered, based on the material of English, French and German languages. The basis of the study is formed by neologisms collected by continuous sampling from available lexicographic sources and foreign language Internet resources. The relevance of this work is confirmed by the rapid growth of neologisms in all the languages under consideration. The novelty of the study lies in a comparative approach to the analysis of nomination processes and in determining the dominant areas of semantic attraction in these linguistic cultures. The elements that have shown the greatest productivity and stable functioning are singled out. The author's classification of covid neologisms is proposed. The question is raised about the susceptibility of these languages to new realities, their productivity in the process of responding to changes in various spheres of society. It is concluded that the number of English neologisms prevails over the corresponding units in French and German. It is confirmed that the structure of the lexico-semantic groups identified during the analysis is heterogeneous and in some cases has a lacunar character. It is suggested that the reason for this may be both the specificity of the word formation of languages, and the peculiarities of the mentality inherent in a particular linguocultural community.

State of Praxis in The Oath of Vayuputras: An Eco-Critical Perspective

-The depletion and drying of river water across India is a growing problem in the contemporary period. The ecologists have raised a huge concern regarding the depletion of river water in India. The drying, depletion, and disappearance of the rivers in India can be traced back to the Indus Valley Civilization. The ecological disturbance on land resulted in the loss of the Saraswati River. Amish Tripathi is a renowned figure in the realm of popular Indian mythological fiction. He has not only re-narrated the mythology of India but has also retold the history and geological reasons for the disappearance of the Saraswati River in his novel The Oath of Vayuputras (2013). The research article views the novel from a deep eco-critical perspective to examine the rationale behind the drying and depletion of the Saraswati River due to the destructive production and disposal of Somras and its toxic waste in the river. The article aims at showing the ecological disturbance in the biosphere which is the result of the progress of the human race towards civilization. The shunning of the eco-centric attitude and the development of a capitalistic attitude in humans towards other living beings have resulted in this disrupted eco-system in the present biosphere.

AXIOLOGICAL ASPECT OF THE CONCEPT "STRANGE" IN PUBLICISTIC ARTICLES

The article examines the axiological status of the concept "strange" in journalistic articles devoted to SARS-CoV-2. The axiological interpretation of the concept in question occurs through various subjective and objective value judgments. The purpose of the article is an axiological analysis of the concept "strange", which reveals hidden or explicit, positive, negative or neutral evaluative meanings of this concept in the modern English language picture of the world. Through the study of the axiological component of the concepts, the specificity and mental preferences are displayed not only of an individual specific linguistic personality, but also of the people as a whole in a certain period of time. Through the prism of the axiological analysis of concepts the peculiarities of the value preferences of a linguistic personality are revealed, which outside the context can acquire a different axiological status. Thus, after the study of the concept "strange" it was revealed that this concept has a negative axiological status in the axiosphere of the English language picture of the world.

Corona and the neglected critical Potential of Political Solidarity

COVID-19 and its social and political consequences have led to increased attention to the sometimes philosophically neglected concept of solidarity. This paper reflects the discourse on solidarity in times of COVID-19 from the viewpoint of the philosophical debate on solidarity. We argue that currently - regarding this debate - the critical potential of solidarity as a political concept is often undermined. Solidarity should rather be used as a social-diagnostic lens to focus on and criticise problematic exclusions caused by current political developments. This applies especially to the cross-border and transnational dimension of political solidarity, which is often neglected in the national constrictions of political COVID-19 strategies. The paper concludes with observations on which levels and in which directions the reflection on solidarity could stimulate both the political and the philosophical debate on global crises such as COVID-19.