Urbanization and Feminism: Social Sustainability

Urbanization and Gender Equality: Social Sustainability

Equality is one of the most important aspects of building sustainable communities. It represents the notion that each individual should be treated equally with respect despite his/her race, gender or health. 

There has been discussions about the relationship between urbanization and gender equality. In one hand, urbanization is often associated with employment opportunities and independence for woman. However, in another hand, big cities can also cause conflicts and potential constraints for gender equality. 

Research indicates that a urban environment can both reduce and increase violence toward female gender at the same time. According to Cecilia Tacoli, in many cities, urbanization makes woman more vulnerable to assaults, both in public and at home. The large density of urban areas increases the chances of violence against woman in public spaces. A large number of the victims suffered from robbery and sexual assault are woman because they are often seen as easy targets in terms of physical strength. Also, working in certain occupations can also expose women to potential hostile behaviours. Sexual harassment is a serious issue in many countries in factories. 

However, urbanization does provides economical and social resources for women to protect themselves. Financial independence has always been an essential factor in personal freedom. And the advantage in communication and organization comparing with rural areas do give urbanized female population a edge in fighting for their rights. In fact, the awakening of modern feminism began with women participating in industrial production to fill in the gap left by men left for war in WW2. 

Overall, gender equality can be a complex issue in urban context. But in order to building a sustainable city that believes in equal human rights, each one of us must act to eliminate the wrongs and promote the rights.

Reference:

10629IIED: The benefits and constraints of urbanization for gender equality - IIED Publications Database. 2016. 10629IIED: The benefits and constraints of urbanization for gender equality - IIED Publications Database. [ONLINE] Available at: http://pubs.iied.org/10629IIED.html. [Accessed 04 June 2016].

Nuclear, NO CLEAR?

Nuclear, NO CLEAR?

Post-apocalyptic future is one of the most popular themes in pop culture right now. With movies, games and novels such as Mad Max and Fallout, one can't help  but wonder what intriguing stories the artists can create within a wild world with no civilization to speak of. Despite all the effort people put in these setting to make a post-apocalyptic world looks and feels unique and beautiful, one can still remember there was an era when the threat of nuclear winter was absolutely real, and the end of the world could happen in any second.

The Cold War strikes the fear of nuclear power into generations of people. We all have seen the destructive power of a handful of Uranium bars, in the documentaries, in the movies. So it wouldn't come to a surprise whenever a nuclear power plant is built, people will immediately start to question the necessity and safety of its exiestence. In Germany, Merkel's government made the promise in 2011 to close all nuclear power plant before 2022. After the tragic events happened in Fukushima, 8 of the 17 existing nuclear power plants were shut down permanently. 

Nuclear power provided 1/3 of the total power generation in German. The phasing out of nuclear power, some consider, will cause damage to German industry. And the price of electricity rises as nuclear plants getting shut down.

Now, the phasing out of nuclear power is not necessarily a bad thing since German plans to replace them with renewable energies, which can be fantastic in terms of sustainability. However, what worries me is the notion of  replacing a totally viable energy source based on the fear of the masses, almost an expression of anti-intellectualism. Nuclear power is a better option for power generation than fussell foil, and as in right now it is more viable in many regions than many sustainable energy solutions. A large porprotion of the population is supportive toward shutting down the plants due to the lack of knowledge about nuclear power. And one can't help but think that the decision making of Merkel is partially to please German voters.

German can afford to tear down these nuclear power plants, but some other countries can not. Phasing out nuclear power is not a bad concept in itself, but it should be a long-term process, not a sudden decision made to desperately trying to please the ignorant massess.

Reference:

http://bos.sagepub.com/content/67/4/14.abstract

http://www.uic.com.au/nip46.htm

FROG: A Tale of Chinese Single Child Policy

FROG: A Tale of Chinese Single Child Policy

MoYan is one of the most renowned contemporary Chinese novelist. Many know him from the recent Nobel prize in literature grant in 2012. As an admirer and homble student of Chinese modern literature, my encounter with Mo started with Frog, a story about a government staff whose sole life was dedicated to the enforcement of  single child policy in rural China. The name itself Frog is a symbol of maternity; bearing children of hundreds and sperm-shaped tadpoles. 

Now, the intention of single child policy was to control China's population surge in the early 1980s and to keep the overall population in China within its environmental and social capacity (which was believed to be 700 million in 1979). At the time this policy had encountered heavy resistance during its introduction to rural areas. Because at the time many areas in rural China were still relying on labour-heavy traditional agriculture and the most guranteed way to make ones familty competitve in that environment was to breed more people: especially male. The enforcement of the policy was difficult and the method used by the government can be punishing: a familty can literally lose all its property by voliating the rules to have a second/third/forth child. There were many odd stories born in that strange era. Many rural families live a life of fugitives, running away from their home just to keep their unborn male children from forced abortion. After a couples years of living on the road, they would come home, with no speakable property left in their name, no jobs, no supports, nothing but their precious male babies who didn't even have legal identities because they were not supposed to be born.

And this was very much the story of Frog, and stories of many Chinese families in a era of despair. What we can learn from this is, that when trying to resolve a social sustainability issue, any government intervention must tread extra carefully. A good intention without supervision can often cause more harm to the community than good. For example, restraining the expension of chemical plant might be a good thing for the environment, but the Union of workers will be upset due to the loss of potential employment. And immigrantion is a good thing for long term economy and diversity, but it will hurt labour intensive employment for the locals in short term. Tread carefully, for the road is long, and the dawn is far.

Reference:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1215519

Two Child policy: Social Sustainability

Two Child policy: Social Sustainability

A common misconception of people is that sustainability is just another word for protecting natural environment. In a way, this statement is not a false one? Saving the environment is a huge part of sustainable development and vast majority of our sustainable thinking have to revolve around that topic. However, one must come to realize that sustainability is more than merely planting trees and collecting garabages. Sustainable growth of a city has to take consideration of the social aspect of sustainability; a resilient society; a fit social structure; a healthy population growth and so on.

One of the biggest news happening in China in 2015-2016 is the abandonment of its sole-child policy. Now it is legal and even encouraged for young couple to have two children. This topic is a political debate as well as a sustainable one. One can write a 100-page report on the history of China's infamous single child policy and its lasting effect on Chinese population structure. Some argue that the drop in population growth over the years is a result of urbanization and education of rural population. And the policy itself did very little in shaping Chinese demographic over its duration. Others claim that the policy accelerated the aging of Chinese population structure and left a huge vacancy in young to middle-age demographic to fill in the gap in working population. Whatever the real case is, there is no doubt that single or twin children policy is a reaction or solution to a social sustainability issue, and should be treated as such.

The next blog will look into the single child policy and dig into some stories around the real life implementation of it. Stay tuned.

Reference:

http://thediplomat.com/2016/03/chinas-two-child-policy-what-next/

Image Credit:

http://thediplomat.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/thediplomat_2016-03-04_13-49-32-386x272.jpg

More Reasons to Being Lazy: Work Less Saves Environment?

More Reasons to Being Lazy: Work Less Saves Environment?

Doing researches for the blog can be exhausting at times, and rightfully so: working sucks, we all hate it. And that's why a certain insights from a certain blogger caught my attention.
So a blogger Nathalie in her article describe her 4-day a week work routine and how does it affect her mindset as a consumer. Furthermore, how does that affect the environment in a positive way.

Living in a industrialized world, most of functional members of the society works lots of hours each week to fulfill their role in the whole of the economy. There is a concept of being time-poor or time poverty when an individual feels like they don't have enough hours in a day to accomplish what they truly wanted for life because the amount of time they spend on working and staying alive. Some may call it 'getting older'.

Natalie suggested that being in constant time poverty can cause one to follow a negative consumer pattern while shopping. Less time for shopping means less time spend on researching/exploring sustainable options and alternatives; less time spend on planning; and certain more possibilities of picking the 'convenient' options (which often the less sustainable options). Living a sustainable life requires effort and time, if one become exhausting from other aspect of life, then it is likely that the individual will live a life that is considered to be in-sustainable. No time for growing own food, repairing day to day objects, recycling, and so on.

Although her theories are entirely originated from life experience and observations, I personal mostly agrees with Natalie. Living a sustainable life does require a perfect balance between work and life, and working a 9-5 routine can take away lots of options as one is constantly facing the temptation of taking the options that requires least amount of effort. But that does not necessarily mean sustainable life always have to compete with work life for time. In fact, I think as the sustainable way of thinking being planted into more and more people, living sustainable will become easier and not as time consuming.

That being said, this is one more reason to be lazy: I am not laying back. I am saving the earth!

Reference:
http://barefootearth.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/working-less-for-planet.html
Image Credit:
http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/ea715d6c-3f2b-4133-bbb8-4a7d27429b2a/1fd8edac-8027-46da-b052-0ce9ff022a1b.jpg

Let's Drive to the Park! And Ride Bicycles!

Let's Drive to the Park! And Ride Bicycles!

Bicycles! Family fun! Saturday morning! In a park! Yeahhh!

Drove there in a huge 4x landcruiser. Awww.

Cycling is a curious thing in our life. We all think it is a good sport and a sustainable mean of transport. But few of us actually do it. It has always been a case of: office is too far for cycling; street is too noisy and dangerous or just plain laziness. Yes, cycling is good for your health as a exercise. But if the road you are riding on is heavily polluted by vehicle emission , a cyclist is no different than a human vacuum machine, sucking in all the dust and SO2. 

This is a old paradox in sustainable lifestyle - it is a fine concept as a one-off thing or a leisure activity, but a difficult practice as a daily routine. Not all of us can manage a sustainable lifestyle while all other aspects of life are constantly occupying your mind. I'd like to grow some vegetables in my backyard, but I can't spend two hours everyday tend to them. 

Shifting to a sustainable lifestyle can be a slow and gradient process, and patience and support from others are much needed in order to make it work. Conflicts exist, and they will happen. So what I think needs to happen is to have a sustainable mindset, and let it affect you bit by bit.

Don't feel guilty when drive to the park, and enjoying riding bikes with your family all you want. Two years from now, you might get a job that is closer to your workplace. In that case, your bicycle skills will come in handy, won't it?

Image Credit:

http://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/bike_ride.html