China Bipolar Strategy: Power Projection and Strategic Interests in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Sergio M. Cesarin National Council of Technological and Scientific Research (CONICET), Argentina
Since the beginning of the economic reform policy, China political, financial and military power projection has been increasing. As rising global power during this century China aims to restart its historical central place in global affairs and secure its territorial and maritime borders. For political leaders the most important challenges in the near future will come from USA apprehensions due to a rising Chinese military power in Asia Pacific, Chinese increasing power through economic inter dependence in South East Asia and the way to secure logistical routes for food and oil supplies to its people. According to this, China´s North and South Poles (Arctic and Antarctic) main interests includes free access to circumpolar facilities like ports, reduce freight transport costs, and ensure access to natural resources in order to sustain long term development strategy. In this regard, the paper emphasizes the relevance acquired by the Arctic and Antarctic areas trough scientific, geological infrastructure facilities deployment.
Runaway Icelanders: Globalization, Collapse and Crime
Guðmundur Oddsson (Northern Michigan University, USA), Helgi Gunnlaugsson (University of Iceland) & John F. Galliher (University of Missouri, USA)
Criminologists typically study crime-ridden social contexts, but it can be argued that we learn the most by examining contexts where little crime occurs. Low-crime contexts allow us to analyze the relationship between punishment and social structure, rather than the link between punishment and crime. Iceland — one of the world’s smallest, most homogeneous and egalitarian countries — offers a particularly interesting case of a low-crime context. However, Iceland has changed significantly since the 1990s. Especially notable is that, after a period of booming economic growth characterized by neoliberal globalization, Iceland spiraled into the “greatest financial crisis ever” in 2008. This article describes the unique social context of Iceland, how it has been affected by rapid globalization, and how these social changes have impacted crime. Surprisingly, the findings show that in spite of dramatic social changes, the local crime rate did not change markedly, apart from economic crimes, which have soared.
New words for the cold world: The contribution of Louis-Edmond Hamelin to the understanding of the north, winter and the arctic
Daniel Chartier (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Louis-Edmond Hamelin must be considered one of the great thinkers of the Quiet Revolution in Québec. Centred on the word “Nordic”, his contribution goes far beyond the borders of Québec and is at the same time institutional, linguistic, and conceptual. Hamelin proposed the French equivalents of words for the cold and ice in a circumpolar context, observing once again the insufficiency of the French language to name the cold world, and thus the incapacity of French speakers to be able to fully grasp the subtlety and complexity of this universe. His main contribution was to create a vocabulary which opened up a vast site for intellectual and identity exploration: “nordicity”. Even if the myth of coldness ran through many representations, it is winterity which brought him to “the myths of the North” in Québécois thought and perceptions. The research of broad concepts like nordicity and winterity, were accompanied by the conviction, for Hamelin, that complex questions necessarily require examination by multiple disciplines. To reflect on and try to understand the “North” in all its components cannot be separated from a parallel reflection on the notion of “aboriginality.” For him Northern Studies is intimately linked to autochthonism.
The Arctic Tomato The diverse uses of geothermal water in Iceland
Örn D. Jónsson (University of Iceland) & Sveinn Agnarsson (Reykjavík School of Business & University of Iceland)
This work discusses the impact changes in geothermal utilization have had on both food production and consumption. Access to abundant geothermal water, clean air and the use of state of the art technology becomes a question of preferences rather than technological or economic limitations. Radical innovations such as LED lightning and more ecological cultivation techniques make it possible to grow local produce that can compete with imports, tomatoes, cucumbers, even strawberries in dark winter nights. Here the inexpensive access to the geothermal resource is imperative. Even the “pizza generation” is moving towards lighter and healthier fare: fresh fish, greens all year round, locally grown tomatoes, capsicum, even eggplants are becoming more Icelandic than the Nordic fare. Icelandic/Mediterranean Cuisine is a more appropriate term than the New Nordic Cuisine which has become recognized worldwide.
Environmental and Climate Change problems of the City of Buenos Aires (Theoretical considerations from a socio-cultural perspective)
Enrique del Acebo Ibáñez (Universidad del Salvador, Argentina)
Climate change and environmental problems deal with cultural, social, individual and natural causes. After several investigations on attitudes and behaviors of urban inhabitants of different cities of Argentina, we acknowledge the importance of a comprehensive theoretical approach to better understand these types of complex and multidimensional phenomena, like climate change is. A socio-cultural approach implies to consider the socio-cultural world as a total phenomenon, that is multidimensional and interdependent, which also considers that climate change not only refers to national and state policies but also to the subject’s world and its everyday life realm.