"What is it with all this | |
... what I want is for those with the power, to keep the planet cool." |
With more to follow from RCN Congress, this morning I received the agenda for next month's conference 'Ecologies of Care'. I am speaking, first session on the Thursday, which is a good to know and see the broad range of presentations.
The focus on attention, is helpful for a possible further event in October. In the meantime, the Call for Papers began:
Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House London
June 4 & 5, 2026
Keynote lecture by Professor Yves Citton
How do increasing demands on our attention influence what we know, and how we act, in response to climate change? Despite a strong scientific consensus that climate change is ongoing and anthropogenic, political and legal action remains fragmented. Ecologies of Care asks to what extent the environmental crisis is a crisis of attention. Speaking to the dynamics of the attention economy, Yves Citton notes that “the new scarcity is no longer to be situated on the side of material goods to be produced, but on the attention necessary to consume them.” The word ‘attention’ is etymologically linked to the notion of care, or that which one attends to. This relationship (of subject and object) is fundamentally collective, insofar as collective attentional regimes influence what each one of us pays attention to on a daily basis, and how we navigate the barrage of informational flows from popular media.
Terms such as "the Anthropocene" and "planetary boundaries" function both as scientific descriptors and attempts to provoke action commensurate to the urgency that scientists believe their research demonstrates. The recent decision not to formalize the Anthropocene as an official geological unit, for example, highlights growing unease concerning intensifying media attention directed at scientific expertise. Under conditions of increasing disparity between what we know, and how we act, in response to climate change, the role of scientific expertise plays an increasingly normative, and not only informative, function. Scientific expertise attempts to direct what we attend to, and consequently, how (or if) we care. This is a collective practice of narrating and internalizing mythologies, whereby informational flows draw attention to some thing that needs to be cared for: Earth, the planetary, capital, or each other.
Continued ...
c/o Law and the Environmental Humanities Network
n.b. With little time, I'm not going to transfer the pdf text, but may add here.
http://westernflag.johngerrard.net
John Gerrard - Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas), 2017
My source: Twitter
Ingela Ihrman - First Came the Landscape
Beech wood
'First Came the Landscape is a giant stick skeleton made from the trunk, limbs and branches of a single beech tree that was blown down during Storm Eunice in 2022. . . .'
https://www.edenproject.com/visit/things-to-do/first-came-the-landscape
◇
My source: Anna Souter & Ingela Ihrman. 'First came the landscape'. Resurgence & Ecologist, May/June 2023. 338: pp.44-46.
See also: https://www.edenproject.com/visit/things-to-do/first-came-the-landscape
Affordance
An affordance is a perceptual pattern with survival significance. Affordances are relational, rather than objective or subjective properties. As Gibson, who coined the term, observes, 'An important fact about the affordances of the environment is that they are in a sense objective, real, and physical, unlike values and meanings, which are often supposed to be subjective, phenomenal and mental. But, actually, an affordance is neither an objective property nor a subjective property; or it is both if you like. An affordance cuts across the dichotomy of subjective-objective and helps us to understand its inadequacy' (Gibson 1979, 129).
[Proust, Glossary, p.309.]
subjective | objective |
Re. 'Survival significance' ...
Does this make affordances relevant in clinical education, and education more generally?
What of assisted dying in theory, policy, law and practice?
Are there any implications for the models employed by artificial intelligence - LLMs, neurosymbolic reasoning / AI (wave x)?
Source: Joëlle
Proust (2013). The Philosophy of Metacognition: Mental Agency and
Self-Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN: 978-0-19-960216-2
Précis of The Philosophy of Metacognition:
https://joelleproust.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/pdf15.pdf
See also: 'subject' : 'object' : 'affordance' : 'interface'
Dear all,
The Leuven Centre for Health Humanities organises a yearly lecture series and we would love to invite you!
This year’s lecture series explores the entangled relations between nature and health. Bringing together perspectives from medical history, psychology, disability studies, colonial studies, and environmental humanities, the talks examine how ideas of nature have shaped — and have been shaped by — practices of care, control, and coexistence. Topics range from the rise of disposable medical technologies and their environmental costs, to colonial disease management at the cattle frontier, and from the ambivalent role of “nature” in the lives of people with disabilities to contemporary debates on the restorative effects of natural environments. The series also turns to the microbial world, challenging human exceptionalism and rethinking health as multispecies interdependence rather than biological mastery. Together, these lectures invite critical reflection on sustainability, vulnerability, and care, and offer new ways of imagining health in a world where human and nonhuman lives are profoundly interconnected.
Join us online and on campus, at KU Leuven, for a series of inspiring health humanities talks.
You can find more information about the lectures and how to register here:
Health Humanities Lecture Series 2025-2026 —
Leuven Centre for Health Humanities (LCH²)
Best wishes,
Lore Delahaye (she/her)
Administrative Support
KU Leuven
Doctoral School for Humanities and Social Sciences
Blijde Inkomstraat 5, box 3000
3000 Leuven
https://ghum.kuleuven.be/phd
Dear Colleagues,
We hope this correspondence finds you well.
The volume is structurally organised around three distinct, yet interconnected, thematic axes, each seeking to contribute to a deeper engagement with the marine sphere:
We sincerely hope that you find the contributions within this volume to be a compelling and theoretically relevant read that stimulates further research and critical reflection within the discipline.
Where is the Sea in International Relations?
Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos; Flávia Guerra Cavalcanti
Abstract | Full text
Table of Contents: https://www.scielo.br/j/cint/i/2025.v47n2/
Includes - Addressing 'Maritime Aphasia' in International Relations
Bruno Sowden-Carvalho; Marcelo M. Valença
Between Nuclear Tests and Rising Sea Levels
Beatriz Rodrigues Bessa Mattos
Carl Schmitt on the Move: Spatial Politics and the (political) Sacrifice of the Sea
Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos
Thinking Ontological (In)Security with Water: The Place of the Ocean in Boat Migration
Flávia Guerra Cavalcanti
What is the Place of Mar de Timor in Timorese Geopolitics, Culture and Education?
Silvia Garcia Nogueira; Betina Lopes; Ângelo Ferreira; Samuel de Souza Freitas
Fluid Boundaries: Reassessing Maritime Spaces and Nomadic Waves in International Relations Theory
Henrique Campos de Oliveira
The Third Bank of the Sea: Maritime Traces of Constitutive Outside(r)s and International Ontopolitical Lines
Roberto Vilchez Yamato; Gustavo Alvim de Góes
Ocean Governance, Maritime Security, and International Relations
Daniele Dionisio da Silva; Gilberto Carvalho Oliveira
Sailing on Waves beyond National Sovereign Land Borders: On the Crossroads between International Ocean Relations and the Blue Economy
Thauan Santos
Regards,
chico
Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos
Doutor em Relações Internacionais pelo IRI/PUC-RIO.
Pesquisador de Pós-Doutorado em Relações Internacionais no IRI/PUC-RIO pela FAPERJ.
Rede IPS Brasil - https://www.ipsbrasil.com/
Lattes: https://lattes.cnpq.br/9338374067089166
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4214-5382
My source: DOINGIPS list - https://www.doingips.org/
'If there is one product that symbolises the absurdities of the EU's single market in goods, it might be a cuddly elephant. The Djungelskog toy from Ikea may only be 12cm tall and cost less than €2, but it has a 20cm-long label protruding from its behind.
Environmental rules from France and EU textile legislation account for much of the length. But the elongated label reflects a strategic even a philosophical, problem for Europe as its companies battle to compete globally.
The single market in goods should be the EU's crowning achievement. Compared with free movement of people, services or capital, it is the area that has come furthest in more than 30 years since the common market was established.
Yet there remain small, often invisible barriers to trade that, taken together, amount to what the IMF estimates is a drag on Europe's economy equivalent to a tariff of 44 per cent.'
RICHARD MILNE - OSLO and SAM JOINER - LONDON, Elephant in the room hampers frictionless EU trade, FTWeekend, 6-7 December 2025, p.6.
Related?
Jones, P. (1996) Nursing Technology and Elephants - Part 1: Technology as a beast of burden. IT in Nursing. 8,1,4-6.
Jones, P. (1996) Nursing Technology and Elephants - Part 2: Technology as a serpent. IT in Nursing. 8,2,5-7.
Jones, P. (1996) Nursing Technology and Elephants - Part 3: Technology rope to save humanity and health care, IT in Nursing. 8,3,5-7.
'What Is a World Model?
World models are neural networks that understand the dynamics of the real world, including physics and spatial properties. They can use input data, including text, image, video, and movement, to generate videos that simulate realistic physical environments. Physical AI developers use world models to generate custom synthetic data or downstream AI models for training robots and autonomous vehicles.'
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/glossary/world-models/
WORLD MODEL | |
Normansfield Theatre in Teddington
'My favourite building is the amazing Normansfield Theatre in Teddington that John Langdon Down (1828-1896) built to provide positive and stimulating education for learning disabled people (Down syndrome is named after him). At a time when most disabled people would have been shut away in horrific asylums, Down adapted his own house as a residential home, and built a beautiful theatre for creative rehabilitation. It's one of the few surviving private theatres from the period, with original painted scenery and other ornate fixtures, recently remodelled. For me, it's also a reminder of how the wealthy often used their money for good causes, which feels less common now. Jos Boys, guest curator and co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project'
My source: The pick of London Open House. House&Home, FTWeekend. 6/7 September 2025. p.8.
Image: Langdon Down Centre
Previously: 'learning disability' : 'theatre' : 'architecture'
'Snow. A single word, for an infinite variety of water formulations, frozen in air. The study of snow is physics, chemistry, meteorology, anthropology, geography, poetry and art. It is hope – annually renewed. And it is history, too.
Earth saw its first snowfall 2.4 billion years ago. The world's oldest skis, made by hand five thousand four hundred years old, pre-date the pyramids of ancient Egypt. To humanity, snow has variously been an ally and an adversary; an inspiration to countless artists and a place of breathtaking tragedy and survival. But it’s always been there. And now it is melting.
In 1927, the snow was already more than nine metres deep on Japan's Mount Ibuki when a remarkable 230cm fell in 24 hours, bringing about the greatest depth of snow - 11.82m - ever recorded. Yet it is a fact today that, ironically not only has this mountain's resort been forced to close due to lack of snow, most people in the world have never been near snow: never felt the soft crunch of snow underfoot, never held snow to see it melt in their hands, let alone stood on a pair of skis.' continued ...
compass defined compass unified mental expanse beauty memory lived experience signature of change sadness signifier |  |
culture poetry - arts social history shared loss recreation - leisure Two kids. Uncles! In car, drenching us driving through slush in the gutter 😎 |
attitude, mindset, approach, perspective, framework, philosophy, world-view, paradigm, method, -ism 'Man' ------------------------------------------ Nature - Biosphere - Planetary Health | distance: local, glocal, global environment physical space urban, rural, remote posthuman | ||
| Policy Politics Economics Priorities Capital Power Postcolonialism Decolonial Postcolonial |
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Will post on my blog tomorrow:
— Peter Jones (@h2cm) June 3, 2025
planetaryhttps://t.co/tYRmnqcquE
frameworkshttps://t.co/mRD4yKAfAl
commshttps://t.co/35g2Gnk9MK
aihttps://t.co/ziwnIsrcqR
landscapehttps://t.co/Jq6I0y1Xuv#AI #PlanetaryHealth #Ecology #Environment pic.twitter.com/uGhZMYpj2o
supported by H-Net1. Special Issue: "Critical Green Theories and Botanical Imaginaries: Exploring Human and More-than-human World Entanglements" published in Open Cultural Studies:
2. Special Issue: "Ecologies of Life and Death in the Anthropocene" published in Lagoonscapes. The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities:
3. Special Issue: "The Digital Environmental Humanities: Towards Theory and Praxis" published in HJEAS:
4. our open access chapter titled "Toward Posthuman Aesthetics: The Flesh of the World in Auguste Rodin’s Le Penseur and The Thinking Robot" published in Nidesh Lawtoo's volume titled Mimetic Posthumanism. Homo Mimeticus 2.0 in Art, Philosophy and Technics at Brill:
5. our chapter titled “The Poetics of Zombification in Ryan Mecum’s Dawn of Zombie Haiku” In Zombie Futures in Literature, Media and Culture. Pandemics, Society and the Evolution of the Undead in the 21st Century edited by Simon Bacon, published by Bloomsbury:
'Greeno (1991) argued that students develop understanding when"a domain is thought of as an environment, with resources at various places in the domain. In this metaphor, knowing is knowing your way around ir the environment and knowing how to use its resources. This includes knowing what resources are available in the environment as well as being able to find and use those resources for understanding and reasoning. Knowing includes interactions with the environment in its own terms - exploring the territory appreciating its scenery and understanding how its various components interact. Knowing the domain also includes knowing what resources are in the environment that can be used to support your individual and social activities and the ability to recognize, find, and use those resources productively. Learning the domain, in this view, is analogous learning to to live in an environment: learning your way around, learning what resources are available, and learning how to use those resources in conducting your activities productively and enjoyably. (p. 175)"In particular, in chapter 8, Nemirovsky et al. use the metaphor of becoming familiar with a new place (e.g., a town, a train station) and the process of learning a new mathematical concept.' p.7.
Abstract
'The exciting field of human social genomics provides an evolutionarily informed, multilevel framework for understanding how positive and negative social–environmental experiences affect the genome to impact lifelong health, well-being, behavior, and longevity. In this review, we first summarize common patterns of socially influenced changes in the expression of pro-inflammatory and antiviral immune response genes (e.g., the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity), and the multilevel psychological, neural, and cell signaling pathways by which social factors regulate human gene expression. Second, we examine how these effects are moderated by genetic polymorphisms and the specific types of social–environmental experiences that most strongly affect gene expression and health. Third, we identify positive psychosocial experiences and interventions that have been found to impact gene expression. Finally, we discuss promising opportunities for future research on this topic and how health care providers can use this information to improve patient health and well-being.'
Slavich GM, Mengelkoch S, Cole SW. Human social genomics: Concepts, mechanisms, and implications for health. Lifestyle Med. 2023; 4:e75. https://doi.org/10.1002/lim2.75
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| Lifestyle Medicine |
Genomics | |
Social Genomics |
 |
| Handbook on the Ethics of AI |
'Empathy challenges the ongoing optimization of technology, because it takes time to exercise it. A person needs time to think about whatever issue, situation, thing, or person they may empathize with. In other words, empathy is essential for humans to understand and figure their relation to others and their surroundings. Empathy, if practiced reflexively, can lead to critical thinking. which may not lead to clear results but the activity may and often does end in "wasted" time if framed under the drive for efficiency, which is clearly something Al is designed to achieve. And lastly, empathy, because it has been foundational to art, is also part of art's long-term resistance against capitalism's exponential dependence on speed of production. At the core of AI ethics, then, we find speed of production and consumption coming in conflict with human existence itself. Humans are proving to be inefficient actors in the very system they built for their own benefit, which obsessively demands faster cultural activity from people, which (to be blunt) translates to an unapologetic and incessant desire for profit.' pp.179-180.
 |
| Silent Running: Film |
.jpg) |
| The Savage Mind |
cognitive - conceptual 'spaces' | distance: time, space |
| human cultures societies | difference |
'Binary-opposition' and the need to think outside of this is acknowledged. And as if (perhaps) to stress both distance and proximity, I wrote 'mobius' in the margin (p.238). Hutchings (2015) sounds a valuable reference: 'Ethical Encounters - Encountering Ethics'. The books I've read contribute to evidence to revalidate my nurse registration. I realise I've sold-myself short in listing the book's titles. Although not discussed here the remaining chapters are excellent critical reading at a time when diversity, equality and inclusion policies are being rolled-back and undone. I will highlight these:
'Forming an identity requires that "I identify something or someone beyond me" - with one or more categories persons, non-human others, acts, ideals, values, or social systems' (p.243).
 |
| Brian E. Hodges - c/o Brian's family. |
Born in Liverpool, UK.
Community Mental Health Nurse NHS, Part-time Lecturer,
Researcher Nursing & Technology Enhanced Learning
Registered Nurse - Mental Health & General
Community Psychiatric Nursing (Cert.) MMU
PG Cert. Ed.
BA(Joint Hons.) Computing and Philosophy - BIHE - Bolton
PG(Dip.) Collaboration on Psychosocial Education [COPE] Univ. Man.
MRES. e-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning, Lancaster Univ.
Live and work in NW England - seeking a global perspective.
The views expressed on W2tQ are entirely my own, unless stated otherwise.
Comments are disabled.
If you would like to get in touch please e-mail me at
h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
