Whale Wars and the Axiomatization of Image Events on the Public Screen

The essay interrogates Animal Planet's television show Whale Wars, and the use of footage from that show in a commercial for one of the network's other shows, How Stuff Works, to examine the way these texts interact within the public screen. I argue that the (re)presentation of whale kill footage further instantiates an image event as a commodity and rhetorically reconciles the image event into a capitalist ideology counter to the social movement message constructed on Whale Wars—and by proxy allows the image event to play out only via a profit-motive tied to the death of the whale.     

Communicating in Germany about the Fukushima Accident: How Direct Encounter Beat Media Representations

The Fukushima nuclear accident revived the question of whether current practices of technical communication can fulfill the needs of various audiences during a complex global crisis. In that context, the Institute of Nuclear Technology and Energy Systems in Stuttgart organized a public presentation on the technical aspects of the Fukushima nuclear accident. Its success indicates that direct encounter was preferred to media representations of the accident by Stuttgart's citizens. This event demonstrated that public presentation can provide a successful model for technical communication in situations of global sociotechnical crisis.     

Community participation in international projects: an analytical perspective from the Russian Far East

International projects frequently struggle with the dilemmas of community participation, whether the community in question is the object of a development or aid intervention, or is to be persuaded to cooperate on a conservation project. This paper discusses the challenges facing interventionists and the obstacles and opportunities that local people encounter as they come into contact with exogenous conservation and development projects. The key issues presented can be summarized as legacy, legitimacy, agency and communication. We argue that project planners need to understand the history of past interventions in order to respond appropriately to local expectations. At the same time, the complexity of community leadership and representation complicates the sometimes conflicting agendas of project developers and communities. Much depends on personal relations, individual agency, and initiative. Finally, the physical means of communication—language, print and broadcast media, transport and telecommunications—are important aspects to consider when assessing the limitations to community participation. Although there have been valuable successes in international projects in Russia, as in other regions of the world, a better understanding of community participation is needed to ensure more effective and sustainable means for engaging communities in project development and implementation. This paper explores these questions through a locally-grounded analysis based on the academic research and practitioner experience of the two authors in the remote home of a World Heritage site—the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the Russian Far East.     

浅析物联网技术在“蓝天保卫战”中的应用

大气污染防治工作事关民生和发展，打赢“蓝天保卫战”离不开物联网技术的应用。本文根据笔者对物联网技术的学习与理解，结合生活中观察引发的思考，以及相关文献资料检索，提出了自己对于物联网技术在“蓝天保卫战”中应用的构思。研究结果表明，运用物联网技术作为工具，构建大气污染的防控体系，国家层面与全民参与双管齐下，能够实现对污染要素的感知、监控和治理。物联网技术在控制大气污染方面有着非常好的前景，如果将物联网技术应用得当，能够对整个生态环境事业起到非常积极的作用。     

创新型社会生活噪声污染防治体系构建研究

社会生活噪声具有量大、面广、分散、影响不持续、监管难度大等特点，本文以现代化环境治理视角和社会治理视角深入剖析了我国当前社会生活噪声污染防治存在的问题，结合社会生活噪声污染防治的特殊属性及其防治的有效实践，分析2021年新修订的《中华人民共和国噪声污染防治法》中防治措施的内在联系，提出构建创新型社会生活噪声污染防治体系。该体系要求在政府主导的环境治理领域充分发挥社会各界的力量，强化社会共治，新增公众自治，将环境治理同社会治理有机结合，既强调公众参与到政府主导的环境治理工作中，又强调社会各主体多元共治和自我管理，是社会生活噪声领域公众参与的升级版。最后，本文建议以宁静区域创建为切入点，通过有关监管部门联合发布宁静区域创建指导意见；地方政府落地实施，完善管理和技术指标体系；加大宣传教育，提高德治和自治水平，以点带面逐步拓展宁静区域范围，实现创新型社会生活噪声污染防治体系的实质有效性。