This dissertation addresses the politics of interrelation between living beings and the natural world within Caribbean literature, and the underlying dangers inherent in modes of existence that deny such interrelation. Spiralism is a chaotic and pluralist literary movement emerging from Haiti in the 1960s, and this project features René Philoctète’s Spiralist novel Le Peuple des terres mêlées (1989) as its literary center, joined with two other Caribbean novels: Jacques Roumain’s Gouverneurs de la rosée (1944), and Mayra Montero’s Tú, la oscuridad (1995). In my comparative reading of these novels, I argue that their representations of environmental consciousness, social collaboration, and all-inclusive modes of interacting with the natural world provide models of co-existence in the context of the many socio-environmental injustices that threaten the continuation of many life forms on Earth, including humans. These novels evoke empathy and imagination, and add vital perspectives to the understudied field of environmentally conscious literature. Each of these three novels emotionally engages and reconnects humans as members of ecosystems – a move often lacking in the objective presentation of environmental studies. Given that the Earth is our only home, the continued ecological devastation caused by the human species increasingly deserves our full attention. I argue that the all-inclusive Spiralist imaginary and the related literatures are apt ideological tools to help address the cognitive dissonance currently preventing sufficient social change.

Yes / This paper seeks to contribute to the debate around sustainability by proposing the need for an ecocentric stance to sustainability that reflexively embeds humans in—rather than detached from—nature. We argue that this requires a different way of thinking about our relationship with our world, necessitating a (re)engagement with the sociomaterial world in which we live. We develop the notion of ecocentrism by drawing on insights from sociomateriality studies, and show how radical-reflexivity enables us to appreciate our embeddedness and responsibility for sustainability by bringing attention to the interrelationship between values, actions and our social and material world. We examine the implications of an ecocentric radically reflexive approach to sustainability for management education.

Environmental issues are increasingly on the agenda and education is recognised as an important part in turning the negative trend. Originally formulated in 1976, the intent of environmental education was toprotect the nature from human impact and to induce in students a sense of the natural worlds’ own values.However, this has come to change during the years and the focus now lies on the values that nature possess for humans, in the shape of education for sustainable development. Though creating a concern for the environmental issues, critics point out that the anthropocentric attitude is not as strongly committed to protecting the nature as the ecocentric attitudes are, and therefore suggest that ecocentrism should be included in the curriculums. Assuming that biology in Swedish upper secondary school is the only subject where such values may be considered this study examines whether there is a significant difference between students who undergo these classes and students who do not, in terms of their attitudes. The study was divided in two parts, where firstly a content analysis was performed to confirm that biology was indeed the only subject to include ecocentric values, and secondly a comparative study was performed with students (n=82) taking biology and students not taking biology in Swedish upper secondary school. The results imply that biology is unique in including ecocentric attitudes, however, not to the extent that was expected. Furthermore, the results reveal that there is no significant difference between students taking the biology classes and students who do not, implying that the subject biology is not successful in increasing students ecocentric attitudes.

How and why do organizations approach greening? How can we conceptualize approaches and how can we encourage reflexive dialogues on them? These are the main questions addressed in this qualitative study on organizational greening. The study sets off by discussing matters of research philosophy, arguing that our trust in science ought to be revised and that a more postmodern and constructionist philosophy might be a way to go. This is then followed by a theoretical review, showing that organizational studies have a history in environmental issues, but that it is basically technocentric in orientation. A more reflexive organizational approach is suggested. The empirical part of the study is based on qualitative research of five case studies, representing a mix of organizations situated in Sweden, all with an explicit ambition to approach greening. The analyses target the organizations' approaches from practice to assumptions, pointing at the commonalities as well as the tensions. Basically, greening was an issue for all studied organizations, but an increasing pressure to market-orient their operations in line with the business rhetoric dominated their identity construction. The environment was included if there were opportunities of win-win situations between environment and economy in sight. Once embarked upon, the organizations tended to focus on technocratic practices, developing or implementing management systems, product development indexes, life-cycle methodologies and other tools. On a more philosophical level, in the study referred to as the worldview level, the approaches were predominandy characterized by a representative epistemology and a dualistic ontology, that is, they were clearly anthropocentric. With a base in these findings, an alternative approach is discussed as a way out, or as a way of constructing a reflexive dialogue on greening. This is partly based on the tensions within and between the cases, which encouraged reflections on how greening was approached. In the alternative, organizations are seen as actors on a symbolic agora where transparency, participation and self-reflexivity are keys to organizational legitimacy. This view frames organizations in the dominating approach as agoraphobic producers of materialistically dependent satisfiers. The alternative also targets the limits of a preference and materialistically oriented view on die satisfaction of human needs. Instead, it is argued that environmental and cultural sensitivity should be acknowledged as natural parts of organizational greening. This, however, demands more room for reflexive dialogues encouraging ontological awareness and a respect for more ecocentric views. / digitalisering@umu

<p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1998</p> / digitalisering@umu

L'éthique de J. Rachels, qu'il en viendra à présenter comme un utilitarisme « à stratégies multiples », concilie la maximisation du bien-être global sur Terre avec une attention pour la variété des éléments qui le composent. De plus, le jugement moral relève des caractéristiques pertinentes des individus impliqués, eu égard au traitement envisagé, et non des espèces auxquelles ils appartiennent. Un tel Individualisme Moral fait donc dépendre le bénéfice de considérations morales, non plus seulement de facultés mentales développées, mais d'une variété de capacités, telle la sensibilité, dont sont dotés de nombreux animaux. À travers cela, l'auteur s'oppose, plus fondamentalement, à la tendance en éthique à vouloir poser des limites a priori à l'ensemble des êtres susceptibles de bénéficier de considérations morales pour eux-mêmes (les patients moraux). Ces limites sont généralement rapprochées de capacités telles que la rationalité ou la sensibilité – tout ce qui existe au-delà de cette « frontière » présentant une valeur moindre ou étant réduit à l'état de chose. Pour Rachels, en revanche, le statut moral ne dépend pas d'une caractéristique unique à portée générale : nous devrions plutôt convenir qu'il existe une variété de critères pertinents pour une variété de circonstances. C'est dans le cadre de cette réflexion autour de la considérabilité morale des objets de la nature, outre ses travaux sur l'euthanasie, que l'auteur publie Created from Animals: the Moral Implications of Darwinism (1990). « Darwinisme » s'entend ici comme une pensée tant proche de celle de C. Darwin en son temps qu'informée des derniers progrès dans notre compréhension de l'évolution des espèces, où la sélection naturelle joue un rôle clef : une pensée du changeant, du progressif et de la contingence qui succède à un monde ordonné et finalisé, où l'homme a une valeur spéciale, et à la conception essentialiste des espèces. Il ne s'agit rien plus que de s'assurer, sur le modèle d'une cohérence globale de la connaissance (naturalisme inspiré de W.O. Quine), de la compatibilité de la réflexion philosophique avec notre compréhension la plus complète des origines du vivant. Or, avec Darwin, plutôt que des ruptures brutales entre espèces, se découvre un motif complexe de similitudes et de différences qui reflète une ascendance commune. Un tel continuisme biologique, s'il n'en établit la fausseté, vient saper les bases de la « logique de frontières » sur le plan éthique, c'est-à-dire de cette stratégie consistant à justifier des régimes de traitement entièrement différents pour des individus d'espèces distinctes en arguant d'une radicale différence de nature. Cet argument essentiel consolide donc la pensée animaliste, notamment l'argument des « cas marginaux ». Mais on voit à travers lui que l'éthique animale elle-même est susceptible d'entretenir un biais anthropocentriste : étendu aux êtres sensibles, le statut moral demeure attaché à une caractéristique unique, que l'homme valorise d'autant plus volontiers qu'il en fait l'expérience intime. Cette démarche extensionniste ne ferait donc jamais que recréer de nouveaux critères d'exclusion, dont on peut désormais soupçonner le caractère arbitraire. Pour P. Taylor ou H. Rolston, en effet, une attitude de respect envers la vie en général n'a rien d'absurde. On devrait pouvoir envisager ainsi, dans le prolongement de la pensée de Rachels, de ne pas resserrer la communauté morale autour de la seule faculté sensible ; de mettre un terme au mouvement d'expansion de la communauté morale constaté à travers les siècles, non pas par une nouvelle frontière, mais en envisageant la dissolution de toute frontière. Ne rien considérer de ce qui appartient à la biosphère seulement comme une ressource, et se disposer à entretenir envers tout existant un rapport respectueux en adéquation avec ses propriétés réelles, en tenant compte de l'ensemble des circonstances : ce serait là le principe d'une « éthique de toutes choses ». / James Rachels' ethics, which he will finally present as a « multiple strategies utilitarianism », reconciles maximisation of global welfare on Earth and attention for the variety of elements which compose it. Furthermore, the moral judgement is related to the relevant characteristics of the individuals who are involved, in view of the considered treatment, not the species of which they belong. According to such Moral Individualism, the benefit of moral considerations will depend, not of developed mental faculties only, but of a variety of capacities, such as sensibility, which many animals have. Through this, the author opposes, more fundamentally, the tendency in ethics to define a priori limits to the beings which are likely to benefit from moral considerations for themselves (moral patients). These limits are generally associated with capacities such as rationality or sensibility – any existing being beyond this “frontier” having a lesser value or being reduced to a mere thing. For Rachels, however, moral status cannot depend on a unique characteristic with general scope: rather, it should be admitted that there is a variety of relevant criteria for a variety of circumstances. It is in the context of this reflection about the moral considerability of natural objects, besides his work on euthanasia, that the author publishes Created from Animals: the Moral Implications of Darwinism (1990). “Darwinism” shall be understood here both as a thought close to Darwin's in his days and informed of the last progresses in our understanding of species evolution, where natural selection plays a key role: ideas of changingness, gradualness and contingency are succeeding to an organized and finalized world where man has special value, and to the essentialist understanding of species. The point is nothing more than to ensure, on a global coherence of knowledge model (naturalism inspired by W.O. Quine), of the compatibility of the philosophical thinking with our most complete understanding of the origins of life. But now, after Darwin, rather than sharp breaks among species, we discover a complex pattern of resemblances as well as differences that reflect common ancestry. Such a biological continuism, if not proving its falsity, is undermining the basis of the “logic of frontiers” on the ethical field, that is to say, of this strategy which consists in justifying entirely different schemes of treatment for individuals belonging to distinct species by putting forward a radical difference in nature. This crucial argument makes stronger indeed the discourse in favour of animals, notably the argument from “marginal cases”. But we can see through this that animal ethics itself is likely to reproduce an anthropocentric bias: while extended to sentient beings, moral status remains associated with a unique characteristic that man is all the more likely to value since he experiences it intimately. This extensionnist approach, then, is nothing else than recreating new criteria of exclusion, which now we can suspect of being arbitrary. For P. Taylor or H. Rolston, indeed, a respectful attitude toward life in general is nothing like an absurdity. We should be able to consider then, in the wake of Rachels' thought, not to restrict the moral community to the sentient faculty only. And we should consider the possibility of putting an end to the expansion movement of the moral community observed throughout the centuries, not with another frontier, but in contemplating the dissolution of all frontiers. Do not consider anything of what belongs to the biosphere only as a resource, and be prepared to develop toward any being a respectful relationship in alignment with its real properties, taking into account the entirety of the circumstances: this would be the principle of an “everything ethics”.

This research has as its main justification the recent and major debates in the legal or socialnormative area about the recognition of nature as a subject of law, especially with the advent in 2008 of the new Ecuadorian Constitution, which was the first to assign to nature of this feature directly. The research problem sought to clarify the nature, facing the crisis and the new paradigmatic constructions and contemporary auspices, can go through a rereading sociolegal palpable. Thus, the scientific research on screen sought to identify and analyze the perspectives of characterizing and reframe the Nature, as a subject of law. Specifically, it aimed to: i) identify the values socio-legal, ethical and philosophical pertaining to new construction paradigm of Nature as Subject of law, ii) Setting up of scientific activity within the need to perform it with the fulcrum translate their bases and objectives in building a new sense environmental iii) List the legal parameters in standards and international constitutions and laws and regulations and to correlate them with the ideas of deep ecology and ecocentrism iv) analyze the role of the state, guarantor and provider rights, the enforceability of those duties to achieve with regard to the environment compared axiological content of the principles of international environmental law and the Federal Constitution. The research was exploratory and literature by emphasizing the discovery of ideas and insights as well as collecting data in written materials. Concepts and descriptions were evaluated, many of them are not in the normative text, but present in doctrine. Through deductive method-classical dialectic, but also a logical inductive conclusive, was related to the content standards in drawing a parallel study from the perspective and the basic premise ecocentrism and sustainable development as a point of equilibrium relations man - nature. Moreover, the analysis drew upon elements of legal hermeneutics without forgetting the philosophical approach and environmental ethics. The study led to the progressive concatenation and the real connotation in promoting the moral considerability and legal nature, its feasibility and principles that guarantee, given the relationship of multicultural and formative elements of the Brazilian state are not relevantly different from other states, whose already made the transition paradigm / A presente pesquisa tem como principal justificativa os recentes e vultosos debates no campo jurídico ou sócio-normativo acerca do reconhecimento da Natureza como sujeito de direito, especialmente com o advento, em 2008, da novel Constituição Equatoriana, a qual foi a primeira a atribuir à natureza essa característica de forma direta. O problema de pesquisa buscou esclarecer se a natureza, frente à crise e às novas construções paradigmáticas e auspícios contemporâneos, pode passar por uma releitura sócio-jurídica palpável. Desta forma, a investigação cientifica em tela buscou verificar e analisar as perspectivas de se caracterizar e ressignificar a Natureza, como sujeito de Direito. Especificamente, teve como objetivo: i) Identificar os valores socio-jurídicos, éticos e filosóficos atinentes à nova construção paradigmática da Natureza como Sujeito de Direito; ii) Configurar no âmbito da atividade científica a necessidade de empreendê-la com fulcro a traduzir suas bases e objetivos na construção de um novo senso ambiental; iii) Enumerar os caracteres legais presentes nas normas internacionais e Constituições e na legislação brasileira correlacionando-os com as concepções da ecologia profunda e do ecocentrismo; iv) analisar o papel do Estado, garantidor e provedor de direitos, a exigibilidade de deveres para a consecução daqueles, no tocante ao meio ambiente comparando o conteúdo axiológico dos princípios do direito ambiental internacional e a Constituição Federal Brasileira. A pesquisa teve cunho exploratório e bibliográfico, por enfatizar a descoberta de ideias e discernimentos como também a coleta de dados em materiais escritos. Foram avaliadas conceituações e descrições, as quais, muitas não se encontram no texto normativo, e sim presentes na doutrina. Através do método dedutivo-dialético clássico, como também de um raciocínio lógico indutivo conclusivo, relacionou-se o teor das normas em estudo traçando um paralelo sob a perspectiva e premissa básica do ecocentrismo e do desenvolvimento sustentável como ponto de equilíbrio das relações homem - natureza. Ademais, a análise se valeu de elementos da hermenêutica jurídica sem olvidar do enfoque filosófico e da ética ambiental. O estudo levou à concatenação progressiva e ao real conotação emergencial em se promover a considerabilidade moral e jurídica da natureza, sua exequibilidade e princípios garantidores, haja vista a relação multicultural e formativa dos elementos do Estado brasileiro não serem, relevantemente distintas de outros Estados, cuja transição já se fez paradigma

This thesis examines the EU´s framing of its climate policies before and during the Covid-19 crisis. Based on previous research concerning economic crises and climate policy in the EU, it is expected that environmental policy will be downgraded in importance or set aside during a severe crisis. The research question is analyzed through a frame analysis of official EU documents concerning climate and economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. The thesis finds that the European Union mostly frames its climate policies in terms of a ‘green transition’, by means of a ‘just transition’ and by principles of a ‘circular economy’, before and during the Covid-19 crisis. The results suggests that the Covid-19 crisis has not weakened, or substantially changed the framing of climate policies in the EU, at the time of writing. In contrast, the crisis is often framed as an opportunity to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable society. The comprehensive set of policies; the European Green Deal, the role of the Commission as a policy entrepreneur, and the increased public support for climate action are discussed as explanatory factors to why the Covid-19 crisis has not caused climate policy to be downgraded or side-lined on the political agenda.

We live in the Anthropocene – the Age of Humans – characterized by dangerous environmental degradation, demanding urgent and adequate international environmental governance (IEG). Yet, IR scholarship problematizes the shortcomings of current IEG, demonstrating its failure to fight environmental degradation. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the UNDP published the 2020 Human Development Report titled ‘The next frontier – Human Development in the Anthropocene’. A preliminary reading suggests a shift towards ecocentric governance. Inspired by this development, this study situates itself within the literature on Adaptive Governance in the Anthropocene. It explores if IEG is indeed adopting ecocentrism, thereby adapting to the conditions and demands of the 21st century. Complementing UNDP with two additional cases (UNEP and WHO), this research attempts to provide an updated understanding of the state of IEG in 2020/21 through qualitative content analysis of flagship reports. Green Theory and scholarship on IEG and the Anthropocene will be utilized to construct the research design, as well as to assess the content and meaning of the results. The research findings suggest that UNDP, UNEP, and WHO adopt ecocentrism norms, albeit with certain gradations present. This study attempts to complement the governance literature and take a stand regarding the status of IR in the Anthropocene.

In this thesis I examine the view on and relationship between nature and children that is communicated in picture books on climate change and the environment. Departing from the position that education in the Anthropocene must take a new direction in how humans view their own place in nature, I look more closely at the ideas that enter preschools in Sweden through six picture books recommended by the university library of Malmö for reading about climate and the environment with children in Early Years Education. My purpose is to analyze and understand the values that such books convey on nature and on the relationship between the human and more-than-human world. To serve this purpose I pose three research questions: In what way is nature portrayed in the books? Which role play children in relation to nature in the books? & How is the relation between humans and nature characterized in the books?I follow an ecocritical perspective and dip into ideas of the common worlds of children and nature. My methodological approach is a qualitative one, involving visual text analysis and the Nature in Culture matrix. By applying these theoretical and methodological tools I identify common ecocritical metaphors coined by Greg Garrard such as the apocalypse, pastoral, wilderness, dwelling, animals and earth, that together create an image of earth as fragile and nature as separated from humans in the examined picture books. Children are romanticized as the independent protectors of nature and saviors of the earth. While small details of entangled relations between nature and children suggest ideas of more common world perspectives, the overall values of the picture books reinforce an anthropocentric attitude towards nature. I conclude that the view of children reinstating harmony in nature places a problematic and romanticized responsibility on children in climate and environmental fiction of the Anthropocene.