policies

The study analyzes the political equity in fisherfolk organizations of Beach Management Units (BMUs) in Lake Victoria (Kenya). It uses this as a case study to investigate the issue of decentralization of resource management through co-management, and its relationship with political power.

Vasundhara Jairath reviews the book Life in Oil: Cofán Survival in the Petroleum Fields of Amazonia by Michael L. Cepek.

Amanda Poole reviews Sara Wylie’s Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds.

Xenia Cherkaev and Elena Tipikina examine the institutions of the Stalinist state that planned the distribution, raising, and breeding of family dogs for military service. The investigate how the program affected human-dog relations.

This study focuses on the social conflict arisen from the use of camera traps for conservation practices and the “human bycatch,” namely captured images of people occurring mostly unintentionally. The authors argue for the necessity of policy guidelines to counter possible repercussion on the use of the camera trap, which is recognized as a resourceful tool for wildlife monitoring and photography.

In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism warns the reader about the possibility that we have already entered a catastrophic time, determined by the apparently uncontrollable impact of anthropogenic activities and the incapability of governments and authorities to respond effectively.

In Minimal Ethics for the Anthropocene, Joanna Zylinska outlies an ethical framework that could help humans assume responsibility for various occurrences in the universe across different scales. Her goal is not so much to tell us how to live but rather to allow us to rethink “life” and what we can do with it, in whatever time we have left. The book embraces a speculative mode of thinking that is more akin to the artist’s method; it also includes a photographic project by the author.

Alternative Futures brings together 35 essays on India’s future, written by a diverse set of authors: activists, researchers, media persons, those who have influenced policies, and those working at the grassroots. Divided into four sections—Ecological Futures, Political Futures, Economic Futures, and Socio-Cultural Futures—the book covers a wide range of issues including environmental governance, biodiversity, democracy and power, law, agriculture, pastoralism, industry, languages, learning and education, knowledge, health and sexuality among others.