Utopia-likeness that utilises the energy of true utopias activates regional development

In polyphonic regional development, it is preferrable to use utopianism as a means of challenging traditional ways of thinking rather than as design aiming for perfection

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF VAASA

 

IMAGE: MIKKO KARHU view more 

CREDIT: RIIKKA KALMI, UNIVERSITY OF VAASA

Utopia literally means an imaginary ideal place that in principle can never be realised. However, in practical regional development, utopia-likeness is needed, because it promotes, involves and inspires social reforms, says Mikko Karhu, Licentiate of Administrative Sciences, who is defending his doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa on 22 April.

Mikko Karhu’s doctoral dissertation examines the interpretation and uses of utopias in regional development. Classics of utopian and dystopian literature, such as T. More’s Utopia, A. Huxley’s Brave New World and G. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four were used as material in the dissertation, alongside expert interviews in regional development.

Regional development includes both true utopias and utopia-likeness. Both emanate from people’s need to dream of something better. Today, regions are being developed in a pluralistic and practical manner. Implementing large-scale idealism has become difficult. It has been overtaken by more practical utopia-likeness.

Utopia-likeness is idealisation included in development and control. It involves state authorities, local government organisations, businesses, organisations, residents or other operators participating in regional development conveying a desirable or avoidable vision of the future for the region.

– Utopia-like discourse may come across as strongly reliant on the ideal future. This is a good thing when various parties are encouraged to participate in the implementation of shared goals, says Karhu.

According to Karhu, visions of the future and even institutions include utopia-likeness.

– Space settlement and other ultra-futuristic visions will not be feasible for a long time on the scale that technological utopians claim. On the other hand, the ideological idea of established institutions, such as national states, of a united nation that shares the same values and goals can never be fully realised either, says Karhu.

Despite their dangers, true utopias fascinate

As a contrast to utopia-likeness, ideal utopias and ideological utopias are considered true utopias. Ideal utopia is a fictional place detached from reality that is described in utopian and dystopian literature.

Ideological utopia is an implicit and often enforced pursuit of an ideology. Ideology utopias aim at large-scale, even totalitarian changes that can lead to a great deal of misery. The current restriction of the freedom of speech and the sovereignty of the ruler in Russia bear a strikingly close resemblance to the Ministry of Truth, Thought Police and Big Brother in Orwell’s novel.

According to Mikko Karhu, true utopias will never fully disappear from regional development. Ideal utopias may be useful when speculating about distant futures and also in innovation processes. On the other hand, an unquestioned operating model enforced from above, such as blind belief in artificial intelligence or continuous economic growth as a guarantor of happiness, can be concerning if it grows into an ideological utopia.

– In polyphonic regional development, it is preferrable to use utopianism as a means of challenging traditional ways of thinking rather than as design aiming for perfection, Karhu says.

Doctoral dissertation

Karhu, Mikko (2022) Utopiat ja utopiankaltaisuus aluekehittämisessä. Acta Wasaensia 483. Väitöskirja /Doctoral dissertation. Vaasan yliopisto / University of Vaasa.

Publication pdf: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-395-016-0

Public defence

The public examination of Lic.Sc.(admin.) Mikko Karhu’s doctoral dissertation in Regional Science "Utopiat ja utopiankaltaisuus aluekehittämisessä" will be held on Friday 22.4.2022 at noon at the University of Vaasa in Tritonia building, Auditorium Nissi.

Doc., PhD Päivi Rannila (Tampere University) will act as an opponent and University Lecturer, PhD Ilkka Luoto as custos. The defence will be held in Finnish.

 

Utopias and utopia-likeness in regional development

Bear, Mikko (2022-04-12)

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Description

peer-reviewed

The aggregate thesis combining regional science and utopia research examines the interpretation and use of utopia in regional development. By looking at the classic works of utopia and dystopian literature and the discourses and narratives associated with regional development, the study examines how utopias work and behave in a multi-voiced environment of societal development. The work examines utopias or utopian-like features in regional development.

The post-structural research consists of an article on the topic, two articles on the classics of utopia and dystopian literature, and two articles on the municipal topics of the future. The starting point for the work is the traditional definition of utopia as an idealized place. Articles on literature and interview material are examined using a model that parses utopias and theories about the functions and speech patterns of utopia. The data is analysed by interpreting the universal development themes derived from utopia and dystopian literature as utopia species, as well as the ways experts speak about the regions and the municipality of the future.

Based on the data, five utopia species were discovered. The real utopias are ideal utopias and nobility utopias. In addition, utopia-like radical imagining, institutional utopianism and discourse utopia were identified as utopian species. The ideal utopias of utopia and dystopian literature and the discourse utopias of regional development speech patterns are reflected in the development of regions as alternative interpretations of places and their meanings. Utopias are instruments of hope, criticism and change that are also suitable for persuasion. Ideal utopia represents an imagined detachment from realities that fits creative thinking, representing the desired or avoidable outcome of development. Utopias bring alternatives to social debate. Extensive and influential activities can include features of nobility. Radical imagery, institutional utopianism and discourse utopias are not real utopias, but are reflected in the objectives of regional communities, regional organisations and organisations in their various forms. Radical imagery perceives bold possibilities for the distant future. Institutional utopianism meaningfuls communality with idealistic traits. Discourse utopias can be used to play down development ideas, but also to promote them and multi-voiced debate. This doctoral thesis combines regional studies and utopian studies by exploring interpretations and uses of the idea of utopia in regional development. The most well-known definition of utopia as an idealized place was selected as a starting point. By examining the classics of utopian and dystopian literature, alongside discourses on regional development policy, the study clarifies the role of utopias in today's society that is characterized by polyphony. Traits of utopias and utopia-likeness in regional development are examined.

The approach of the study is based on post-structuralism. The study consists of a summary and five articles. One article introduces the utopian perspective on regional development policy. Two articles explore the classics of utopian and dystopian literature. The other two articles deal with discourses on future municipalities based on the analysis of data gathered via themed interviews. The data are scrutinized through models and theories categorizing utopias and explaining their functionality and discursive nature. Research material is also analyzed by interpreting universal themes related to development theories and ideas derived from utopian and dystopian literature. The themes are finally defined as utopia types.

Five types of utopias were defined and the following labels applied: 1) ideal utopias and 2) ideology utopias were categorized as true utopias. 3) Radical imagination, 4) institutional utopia-likeness, and 5) discourse utopia were categorized under utopia-likeness. Ideal utopias represented in utopian and dystopian literature, and also discourse utopias, emerge in developing regions, expressing alternative interpretations on places and their meaning. Utopias are tools for hope, critiques, change activators, persuasions, and alternatives. Ideal utopias break away from reality and are intellectual tools to spur creative thinking by visualizing wished for and feared outcomes. Ideology utopias are involved in large-scale and influential activity. They are manifest in the ambitions of regional communities and organizations. Radical imagination explores the possibilities of a far distant future. Institutional utopia-likeness gives functionality and meaning to the community. Finally, discourse utopias are used to both undermine and promote ideas of development and inclusive discussions.

New PSU research predicts the disappearance of Olympic Peninsula glaciers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

By 2070, the glaciers on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington State, will have largely disappeared, said Andrew G. Fountain, professor of geology and geography at Portland State University, who led a team of researchers on the subject. Although some glaciers will probably remain — albeit as tiny shells of their former selves. 

Fountain’s study was recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Earth Surface in an article titled “Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, Washington – the past and future 100 years.” Since about 1900 the region has lost half of its glacier area and since 1980, 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields have disappeared. 

“There’s little we can do to prevent the disappearance of these glaciers,” Fountain said. “We’re on this global warming train right now. Even if we're super good citizens and stop adding carbon dioxide in the atmosphere immediately, it will still be 100 years or so before the climate responds.”

Even though preventing glacier melt at the hand of global warming isn’t in the cards, ensuring things don’t get worse is a critical goal, Fountain said.

“This is yet another tangible call out for us to take climate change seriously and take actions to minimize our climate impact,” he added.

Dan Cayan, research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, said this research reveals that glaciers are a “hydroclimate finger on the pulse of Pacific decadal climate.” The long-term loss of glacial mass found in the Olympic Peninsula is a strong indication of a warming global climate, he added.

“This is a clear and compelling signal of changes that are rolling out across many North American landscapes,” Cayan said. “It is regrettable that the Olympic glaciers are very likely to melt away as climate warming over the coming decades runs its course.”

Glacier disappearance will trigger a chain of impacts, beginning with diminishing alpine streams and species like bull trout that have adapted to the cold water streams. 

“Once you lose your seasonal snow, the only source of water in these alpine areas is glacier melt. And without the glaciers, you're not going to have that melt contributing to the stream flow, and therefore impacting the ecology in alpine areas,” Fountain said. “That's a big deal with disastrous fallout.”

U.S. Geological Survey data shows a similar decline of glacier ice in the North Cascades of Washington, farther inland in Glacier National Park, Montana and further north in Alaska, according to USGS Research Physical Scientist Caitlyn Florentine. 

“This assessment of glaciers in the Olympic Mountains underscores two key elements of glacier vulnerability. The first is warming summer temperatures, which affect the persistence of glacier ice throughout the summer melt season,” Florentine said. “The second, less obvious, is warming winter temperatures, which affect the replenishment of glacier ice during the winter snow accumulation season. This double whammy has downstream implications for glacier-adapted ecosystems in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.”

The Olympic glaciers are particularly vulnerable because of their lower elevation as compared to glaciers elsewhere at higher elevations where temperatures are significantly cooler such as the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington.

“As the temperatures warm, not only will the glaciers melt more in summer, which you'd expect, but in the wintertime, it changes the phase of the precipitation from snow to rain,” Fountain said. “So the glaciers get less nourished in the winter, more melt in the summer, and then they just fall off the map.”

With this research completed, Fountain will turn next to the entire Western U.S. to develop a comprehensive view of glaciers in Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

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JOURNAL

Earth and Space Science

DOI

10.1029/2022JF006670 

ARTICLE TITLE

Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, Washington—The Past and Future 100 Years

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Apr-2022

UTA team aims to establish health, safety measures for construction field workers

The impact of COVID, infectious diseases at construction sites

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

 

IMAGE: SHARAREH “SHERRI” KERMANSHACHI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON view more 

CREDIT: UT ARLINGTON

Sharareh “Sherri” Kermanshachi, associate professor of civil engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington, has received a $200,000 federal grant to lead an investigation into the impact of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases on field workers at construction sites.

Kermanshachi who is also the Director of the Resilient Infrastructures and Sustainable Environment (RISE) lab, and Technology Transfer Director of the Center for Transportation, Equity, Decisions and Dollars will lead the project in collaboration with co-principal investigators Kyrah Brown and Xiangli Gu, both assistant professors of kinesiology, and Yi Leaf Zhang, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies. The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is funding the project, in which the investigators will also look to establish health and safety measures for both employers and employees and to advance and implement workforce development strategies.  

Construction workers are often at risk of exposure to many infectious diseases, such as coccidioidomycosis, histoplasmosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, disseminated histoplasmosis, dengue, asbestos-related illnesses, silicosis, legionellosis, tuberculosis, bloodborne pathogens, and COVID-19.

“Due to severe working conditions and possible accidents, construction fields are high-risk zones by nature,” Kermanshachi said. “It is very important to recognize and control the preventable health and safety hazards within these environments.”

Ali Abolmaali, chair of the UT Arlington Department of Civil Engineering, said this grant has significant impact on the health and safety of the construction workforce.

“The need for identification and prevention of these diseases is urgent,” Abolmaali said. “We can be nimble and quick in illustrating to those who are exposed to theses hazards how to spot them and, hopefully, eradicate them.”

Kermanshachi was selected as a recipient of the 2022 Leaders in Diversity Award, 2021 Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award, 2020 Mark Hasso Educator of the Year and 2020 Women in Technology Award from the Dallas Business Journal. She has also received the 2021 Best Paper Award from Education Sciences and 2021 Associated Schools of Construction Teaching Award. She was named to Civil + Structural Engineer magazine’s Rising Stars list; won the 2018 Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) Distinguished Leadership Award in the faculty category; and was also the only academic recipient of the 2017 Texas and Louisiana Engineering News Record Top 20 Under 40 Award.

CAPTION

From left: Kyrah Brown, Xiangli Gu and Yi Leaf Zhang

CREDIT

UT Arlington

Kermanshachi also has received several other prestigious national and regional awards, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Professional Service Award; ASCE Excellence in Civil Engineering Education Fellowship; Utility Engineering & Surveying Institute Fellowship; ASCE Outstanding Reviewer; Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award; Open Educational Resources Research Fellowship; DBIA Owner Scholarship and the Graduate Climate Award.

In addition to supervising multiple postdoctoral fellows, doctoral candidates, and master’s students, Kermanshachi is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Transportation Research Record and ASCE Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction. She is also the founder and currently serves as the faculty adviser for UTA’s DBIA chapter and student chapters for the Associated General Contractors of America and Construction Management Association of America

She has conducted several national- and state-level research projects that were awarded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Department of Labor; Texas Department of Transportation; U.S. Department of Transportation; Transportation Cooperative Research Program; National Cooperative Highway Research Program; Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development; Construction Industry Institute; city of Arlington; Engineering Information Foundation and city of Fort Worth. She has published more than 200 books, journal articles, conference papers and research reports and served as a panel member on multiple research projects funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Disasters could disrupt care for opioid use disorder in most vulnerable communities

Medical services often don't go where they are most needed

Peer-Reviewed Publication

YALE UNIVERSITY

The COVID-19 pandemic has spiked the overdose death rate from opioid use. For people who rely on medications (buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone) to treat opioid use disorders, the pandemic and such natural disasters as tornados, hurricanes, and wildfires can disrupt access to medications. And new Yale-led research published April 19 in JAMA Network Open finds that the location of medication treatment services makes treatment interruption likely where those disruptions exist.

The research team, led by Paul Joudrey, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine (general medicine); and Yale Drug Use, Addiction, and HIV Research (DAHRS) scholar, correlated Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data on community vulnerability to natural disasters and pandemics with the locations of medications and opioid use disorder services across the continental United States. Reasons people within a community could be more vulnerable to disasters and pandemics include their age, minority race, poverty, housing, and access to transportation.

They found the availability of medication services was not matched with community vulnerability. “In plain terms, we are not placing enough services in communities that are more vulnerable to disasters and pandemics. If a disaster disrupts medication services, people living within these communities are less likely to receive treatment.” This mismatch between community vulnerability during disaster and the availability of services was the worst for vulnerable suburban communities. This was a particularly unique finding. “We also found that in rural communities, because the availability of services was just bad all around, there was no association between vulnerability and access to medications,” added Joudrey.

These findings confirm what has been reported in recent natural disasters. “Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and Hurricane Maria showed that part of the deaths that occur following disasters such as those are because people's health services were disrupted. Our results show that preparedness has too long been only a practice for the middle and upper class. We need to think more deliberately about how preparedness for hurricanes and for COVID-19 includes those placed at highest risk,” said Emily Wang, MD, professor of medicine (general medicine) and of public health (social and behavioral sciences); and director, SEICHE Center for Health and Justice at Yale.

The research is a collaboration among Yale’s Program in Addiction Medicine and SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, and the Healthy Regions & Policies Lab, Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago.

We are not placing enough services in communities that are more vulnerable to disasters and pandemics. If a disaster disrupts medication services, people living within these communities are less likely to receive treatment.

Paul Joudrey, MD, MPH

Joudrey praised the partnership with the Healthy Regions & Policies Lab. “One of my primary mentors, Dr. Emily Wang, connected me with the lab through her National Institutes of Drug Abuse’s JCOIN (Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network) work. Dr. Marynia Kolak, one of the key authors on this paper, is a wonderful health geographer and has similar interests to my own. When Emily connected us, it was really that collaboration and connection that allowed this project to come together. Her health geography lab at University of Chicago has just been a wonderful group to work with.”

Along with Joudrey and Wang from Yale School of Medicine, additional contributors include Kolak; Qinyun Lin; Susan Paykin; and Vidal Anguiano Jr. from the University of Chicago.

Read “Assessment of Community-level Vulnerability and access to medications for opioid use disorder,” in JAMA Network Open.

The Yale Program in Addiction Medicine seeks to expand access to and improve the effectiveness of prevention and treatment services for substance use. For more on their work, visit Yale Program in Addiction Medicine.

The SEICHE Center for Health and Justice’s work focuses on the health-harming impacts of mass incarceration. The Center identifies and applies strategies to improve the health of individuals, families, and communities impacted by mass incarceration both locally in Connecticut and globally. To learn more, visit SEICHE Center for Health and Justice.

Featured in this article

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  Paul Joudrey, MD, MPH

  Assistant Professor

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  Emily Wang, MD

  Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences); Co-Director, Center for Research Engagement, Internal Medicine

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7028 

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessment of Community-Level Vulnerability and Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Apr-2022

Deforestation of Indigenous lands could prevent Brazil from achieving climate change mitigation targets

The warning comes from a letter by Brazilian researchers published in the journal Science, highlighting the “dramatic increase” in deforestation in areas of the Amazon that should act as shields against such destruction.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

 

IMAGE: TO PROTECT THE AREAS OF THE AMAZON THAT ARE STILL INTACT, EFFECTIVE ACTION MUST BE TAKEN TO ENFORCE THE NATION’S ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS view more 

CREDIT: GUILHERME MATAVELI/INPE

 Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon are under constant pressure, and deforestation of these areas has accelerated in recent years. Some of them, such as Apyterewa Indigenous Territory in Pará state, are particularly affected, endangering Brazil’s ability to meet the targets to which it is committed internationally in terms of combating deforestation and mitigating the impact of climate change. To protect the areas of the Amazon that are still intact, effective action must be taken to enforce the nation’s environmental laws.

This warning is in a letter entitled “Protect the Amazon’s Indigenous lands” and published in the journal Science. The letter is signed by Guilherme Augusto Verola Mataveli, a researcher in the Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Division of Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) with a postdoctoral scholarship from FAPESP, and Gabriel de Oliveira, a professor at the University of South Alabama in the United States.

The same issue of the journal, published on January 21, features similar warnings in another letter, entitled “Mining and Brazil’s Indigenous peoples”, by two scientists affiliated with the National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA), Lucas Ferrante and Philip Fearnside.

“Brazil has good environmental laws that on paper should reduce and inhibit deforestation. However, enforcement of these laws is the big issue. It’s the first step, which should be associated with long-term measures, such as promoting environmental education, valorizing the standing forest as a source of income for the communities that live in the Amazon, and resuming and strengthening the actions called for by the PPCDAm. They proved effective in the past,” Mataveli told Agência FAPESP. 

The Action Plan to Prevent and Control Deforestation in Legal Amazonia (PPCDAm) was launched in 2003 to bring about a continuous reduction in deforestation and create conditions for a transition to a sustainable development model in the area. However, the fourth phase of the plan, which was supposed to have lasted until 2020, was starved of resources and interrupted. During last year’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, the federal government pledged to reduce illegal deforestation to zero by 2028.

Legal Amazonia is an area of more than 5 million square kilometers comprising the Brazilian states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, and Tocantins. It was created by Brazilian federal law dating back to 1953 in order to promote special protection and development policies for the area.

In their letter, Mataveli and Oliveira refer to the “dramatic increase” in deforestation rates in Legal Amazonia since 2019. The official rate for the 12 months between August 2020 and July 2021 was the highest for 15 years, reaching 13,235 sq. km., or slightly less than the area of Northern Ireland (14,130 sq. km).

This rate was also 69% higher than the average annual since 2012, according to data from INPE’s Amazon Forest Satellite Monitoring Service (PRODES). Internationally recognized as the most accurate tool for estimating annual deforestation rates in the Amazon, PRODES focuses on cut-and-burn rates and has used the same methodology since 1988.

As the letter notes, accelerating destruction of the forest affects conservation areas, including Indigenous lands, which are supposed to act as shields against deforestation. The authors stress that deforestation in Indigenous lands had an annual average of 419 sq. km. in the last three years, corresponding to a rate 80.9% higher than the annual average for the period 2012-21.

Located in the municipality of São Félix do Xingu (Pará), Apyterewa accounted for 20.7% of total deforestation in Indigenous lands in 2021. It had already lost 200 sq. km. of forest between 2016 and 2019, with deforestation rising from 4.7% of the area (362 sq. km.) to 7.4% (570 sq. km.) in the period.

This resulted in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon from burning, as noted by an article published in 2020 in the journal Forests, with Mataveli and Oliveira among its authors.

“When we studied the satellite data, we found that forest conversion is mainly to pasture and cropland, but we located mining sites inside Apyterewa,” Mataveli said. “The increase in greenhouse gas emissions didn’t continue at the same rate, since deforestation doesn’t always involve burning.” 

Mataveli is part of a Thematic Project linked to the FAPESP Research Program on Global Climate Change (RPGCC). The principal investigator is Luiz Eduardo Oliveira e Cruz de Aragão, also a researcher at INPE.

Legislation

In the letter to Science, the researchers state that “no effective law enforcement actions were taken to stop land grabbers” in Apyterewa, home to the Parakanã, after the alarm was raised in the 2020 article in Forests. The reservation was officially recognized by a federal government decree in 2007, but since then the decree has been challenged in the courts on the grounds that non-indigenous people were not given a chance to oppose it according to due process of law.

On March 9, 2022, the 2nd Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) unanimously rejected a motion by the mayor of São Félix do Xingu to revoke the decree. In a press release issued in July 2021, the mayor had justified opposition to the decree by noting that between 4,000 and 5,000 non-Indigenous people lived in the area more than a decade before it was demarcated as an Indigenous territory, arguing that they should be allowed to remain.

A study by a different group, in which Mataveli took part alongside Gilberto Câmara, also a researcher at INPE, highlighted the threat posed to Indigenous reservations by land speculation, adverse land-use change involving conversion of primary forest to pasture and cropland, and rising emissions of fine particulate matter from burning. An article on the study, which focused on Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Territory in Altamira, Pará, is published in the journal Land Use Policy. 

“The conservation of Indigenous lands is paramount for honoring Brazil’s legal commitments, maintaining Amazonian environmental stability, fighting climate change, and guaranteeing traditional peoples’ wellbeing. The existence of laws for preserving the Amazon’s remaining forests and the rights of traditional peoples is not sufficient. Effective law enforcement actions are required to protect the last intact frontiers of the Amazon,” the authors of the letter to Science conclude.

We asked FUNAI, Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, to comment on the letter, but had received no reply when the original news story in Portuguese was posted on the Agência FAPESP website (April 6, 2022). Early this year, in a report available from its website, FUNAI announced that it had invested some BRL 34 million in surveillance and inspection of Indigenous lands in 2021, and had hired temporary personnel to operate reservation sanitary checkpoints and border controls. 

A report published on March 31 by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Climate Focus says that “Indigenous peoples and other local communities are the most effective stewards and protectors of forest lands”, arguing that Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru will not be able to achieve their commitments to ending forest loss and land degradation as climate change mitigation goals by 2030 unless they protect Indigenous territories. This is because these lands in the four countries are net carbon sinks, with each hectare sequestering an average of 30 metric tons of carbon per hectare every year, or more than twice as much as non-Indigenous lands.

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About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abn4936 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Protect the Amazon’s Indigenous lands

Girls excel in language arts early, which may explain the STEM gender gap in adults

New research from UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management links parental investments in early life with long-term education impacts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

 

IMAGE: THE FINDINGS ARE BASED ON A LONGITUDINAL STUDY IN WHICH THE RESEARCHERS EXAMINED TIME PARENTS SPEND WITH THEIR CHILDREN FROM AGES THREE TO FIVE ALONGSIDE THE CHILDREN’S TEST SCORES WHEN THEY WERE AGES EIGHT TO 14. THE RESEARCHERS ALSO FIND MORE TIME PARENTS SPENT TEACHING TO CHILDREN FROM AGES THREE TO FIVE (UP TO THREE HOURS OR MORE A WEEK) CORRELATED WITH BETTER TEST SCORES WHEN THE CHILDREN ARE AGES EIGHT TO 14. FOR INSTANCE, TEACHING THREE OR MORE HOURS PREDICTED 6 PERCENT HIGHER SCORES IN ENGLISH FOR CHILDREN IN FOURTH GRADE, RELATIVE TO TEACHING ONE HOUR OR LESS. view more 

CREDIT: UC SAN DIEGO'S RADY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

For most of us, when we make major career choices, we tend to lean into what we’re good at. According to new findings from the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management, such skills may develop early in childhood and there can be significant differences depending on gender.

Researchers have long observed that fewer women than men study and work in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Now, it appears that women may self-select out of these fields partly as a result of receiving more early-childhood reinforcement in language arts, according to a new paper to be published in the journal American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings.

“We find girls are better in English than boys in grades three through seven,” said Anya Samek, an associate professor of economics at the Rady School and one of the study’s co-authors. “Because girls are more likely to do well in language fields early in life, they may find themselves more inclined to choose them for majors and careers. Thus, women may be underrepresented in STEM in part because of their cultivated talents achieved earlier in life.”

The findings are based on a longitudinal study in which the researchers examined time parents spend with their children from ages three to five alongside the children’s test scores when they were ages eight to 14. 

The researchers also find more time parents spent teaching to children from ages three to five (up to three hours or more a week) correlated with better test scores when the children are ages eight to 14. For instance, teaching three or more hours predicted 6 percent higher scores in English for children in fourth grade, relative to teaching one hour or less.

However, there’s a gender gap in parental investment in the children from ages three to five. On average, parents spent more time with girls and several factors could contribute to this disparity.  For example, compared to boys, the researchers found girls had a stronger ability to sit still and focus and parents of girls were also 18 percent more likely to report that their child liked it when they taught.

The study participants are mostly from Chicago and include 2,185 children and 953 parents who responded to surveys, 702 of whom also provided test-score data.  

Girls did substantially better in language-related studies than boys, while scores for girls and boys in mathematics were more similar. They found a stronger correlation between parental investment with language scores than they did with math.

“I think it’s surprising to see that parental investments are correlated with the test scores in English but not in math,” said Samek. “It could be because we’re told to read to our kids at least 10 minutes a day. We’re told to introduce them to books and I think we probably spend less time thinking about how to engage children in math.”

Samek added, “We show that early-life investments by parents are strongly associated with later-life language skills but only weakly associated with later life math skills. It could be that parents just do not spend as much time teaching children math as they do reading. If that is the case, the next step may be to encourage parents to teach their young children math alongside reading.”

The paper, Parental Investments in Early Childhood and the Gender Gap in Math and Literacy, was co-authored by Amanda Chuan, John A. List and Shreemayi Samujjwala.

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JOURNAL

AEA Papers and Proceedings

DOI

10.1257/pandp.20221036 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

arental Investments in Early Childhood and the Gender Gap in Math and Literacy

Paris court finds Deliveroo guilty of abusing freelance status of its riders (DRIVERS)

FRANCE 24 

Two former bosses of Deliveroo were given suspended one-year prison sentences and fined 30,000 euros ($32,380) by a French court on Tuesday for abusing the freelance status of riders working for the British takeaway delivery platform.

© Ben Stansall, AFP

The company itself was also fined the maximum penalty of 375,000 euros ($404,625), the court ruled.

The ruling against Deliveroo may reverberate outside France at a time when the gig economy, built largely upon digital apps and self-employed workers, faces a number of court challenges that may redefine working conditions.

Deliveroo said in a statement that it "categorically contests" the French court's ruling and was considering whether to appeal. It will maintain operations on the French market, it added.

Its statement said the court decision referred to an early version of its operating model and had no consequences for the way it operates today.

"Our model has since evolved in order to be more in line with the expectations of our delivery partners, who want to remain independent ... Deliveroo will continue to operate with a model that offers these independent providers a flexible and well-paid business," the company said.

Former riders have sued Deliveroo for alleged abuse of their freelance status and claim the company should have hired them as employees.

Under French law, employee status grants rights, including unemployment benefits, social security and pension contributions.

France, after Britain, is the second-largest market for Deliveroo, operating in more than 200 cities with restaurant partners.

Since its London launch in 2013, Deliveroo has expanded into towns and cities across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

But at times it has drawn criticism for its reliance on freelance couriers, with many saying the so-called "gig economy" workers should be considered employees.

Usually the couriers are freelance workers who have often battled for a guaranteed number of hours' work and other benefits.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

TORONTO

GO service could be impacted if rail workers at Union Station go on strike after midnight

Chris Fox, CP24 Web Content Writer
Published Tuesday, April 19, 2022 

Nearly 100 workers who are primarily responsible for train control and signal maintenance along the Union Station rail corridor could walk off the job just after midnight tonight.

The employees, who are all members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, submitted a 72-hour strike notice over the weekend and will be in a legal strike position as of 12:01 a.m. tomorrow.


Travellers make their way through Union Station in Toronto as the departure display for Via Rail show all trains have been cancelled on Thursday, February 13, 2020. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

A spokesperson for Toronto Terminals Railway, which is responsible for the corridor, tells CP24 that officials are meeting with union leadership today to try to “avoid a labour disruption.”

However, the spokesperson said that even if the employees do initiate a strike the impact on commuter services should be minimal.

“We can confirm that the union has issued their 72-hour notice to remove their services, however, we are prepared with a contingency plan that will ensure commuter service runs efficiently and minimize any impact on customers,” Shannon Friedrich said. “We will continue to work with the union to resolve this dispute and find a satisfactory resolution to avoid any work disruption.”

Friedrich said that the union has been without a new collective bargaining agreement since 2019. She said that Toronto Terminal Railways and union leadership did reach a tentative agreement in the summer of 2021 but it was not ultimately ratified by members.

“The current dispute is due to increased wage demands from the union for the two years of the pandemic, even though the company has kept all employees gainfully employed while commuter train service has been significantly reduced,” she said.

In an interview with CP24 on Tuesday morning, Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said that GO Transit does have contingency plans in place to ensure its trains continue to run in the event of a strike by the workers.

But she said that delays are possible.

“I would like to guarantee there won’t be and we hope to avoid them but there could be,” she said. “We will be communicating broadly if there is possible delays or cancellations and we will let customers know using all of our different channels.”