Stakeholder expectations for environmental assurance in agriculture: Lessons from the pastoral industry

This paper outlines the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders for environmental assurance in the pastoral industries and agriculture generally. Stakeholders consulted were domestic consumers, rangeland graziers, members of environmental groups, companies within meat and wool supply chains, and agricultural industry, environmental and consumer groups. Most stakeholders were in favour of the application of environmental assurance to agriculture, although supply chains and consumers had less enthusiasm for this than environmental and consumer groups. General public good benefits were more important to environmental and consumer groups, while private benefits were more important to consumers and supply chains. The 'ideal' form of environmental assurance appears to be a management system that provides for continuous improvement in environmental, quality and food safety outcomes, combined with elements of ISO 14024 eco-labelling such as life-cycle assessment, environmental performance criteria, third-party certification, labelling and multi-stakeholder involvement. However, market failure prevents this from being implemented and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In the short term, members of supply chains (the people that must implement and fund environmental assurance) want this to be kept simple and low cost, to be built into their existing industry standards and to add value to their businesses. As a starting point, several agricultural industry organisations favour the use of a basic management system, combining continuous improvement, risk assessment and industry best management practice programs, which can be built on over time to meet regulator, market and community expectations.

EMS in the pastoral industries of western Queensland: From customisation to implementation

This paper outlines the customisation of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) for the pastoral industry of western Queensland, the recruitment and training of pastoral producers, and their development and implementation of EMS. EMS was simplified to a 7-step process and producers were recruited to trial this customised EMS. Producers from 40 properties received EMS training, either as groups or individually. Of these, 37 commenced Pastoral EMS development through a facilitated approach that allowed them to learn about EMS while developing an EMS for their property. EMS implementation has been more effective with producers who were trained in groups. At this stage, however, most producers do not see value in EMS as there are currently no strong drivers to warrant continued development and implementation. Key findings resulting from this work were that personal contact and assistance is vital to encourage producers to trial EMS, and that a staged approach to EMS implementation, commencing with a self-assessment, is recommended. EMS training is most successful in a group situation; however, an alternative method of delivery should be provided for those producers who, either by choice or isolation, have to work alone. A support network is also necessary to encourage and maintain progress with EMS development and implementation, particularly where no strong drivers exist.

Harbouring dissent: Greek independent and social media and the antifascist movement

This article examines Greek activists’ use of a range of communication technologies, including social media, blogs, citizen journalism sites, Web radio, and anonymous networks. Drawing on Anna Tsing’s theoretical model, the article examines key frictions around digital technologies that emerged within a case study of the antifascist movement in Athens, focusing on the period around the 2013 shutdown of Athens Indymedia. Drawing on interviews with activists and analysis of online communications, including issue networks and social media activity, we find that the antifascist movement itself is created and recreated through a process of productive friction, as different groups and individuals with varying ideologies and experiences work together.

Pilgrimage as a Lifestyle : A Contemporary Greek Nunnery as a Pilgrimage Site

The aim of this research is to present, interpret and analyze the phenomenon of pilgrimage in a contemporary, suburban Greek nunnery, and to elucidate the different functions that the present-day convent has for its pilgrims. The scope of the study is limited to a case nunnery, the convent of the Dormition of the Virgin, which is situated in Northern Greece. The main corpus of data utilized for this work consists of 25 interviews and field diary material, which was collected in the convent mainly during the academic year 2002-2003 and summer 2005 by means of participant observation and unstructured thematic interviewing. It must be noted that most Greek nunneries are not really communities of hermits but institutions that operate in complex interaction with the surrounding society. Thus, the main interest in this study is in the interaction between pilgrims and nuns. Pilgrimage is seen here as a significant and concrete form of interaction, which in fact makes the contemporary nunneries dynamic scenes of religious, social and sometimes even political life. The focus of the analysis is on the pilgrims’ experiences, reflected upon on the levels of the individual, the Church institution, and society in general. This study shows that pilgrimage in a suburban nunnery, such as the convent of the Dormition, can be seen as part of everyday religiosity. Many pilgrims visit the convent regularly and the visitation is a lifestyle the pilgrims have chosen and wish to maintain. Pilgrimage to a contemporary Greek nunnery should not be ennobled, but seen as part of a popular religious sentiment. The visits offer pilgrims various tools for reflecting on their personal life situations and on questions of identity. For them the full round of liturgical worship is a very good reason for going to the convent, and many see it as a way of maintaining their faith and of feeling close to God. Despite cultural developments such as secularization and globalization, pilgrims are quite loyal to the convent they visit. It represents the positive values of ‘Greekness’ and therefore they also trust the nuns’ approach to various matters, both personal and political. The coalition of Orthodoxy and nationalism is also visible in their attitudes towards the convent, which they see as a guardian of Hellenism and as nurturing Greek values both now and in the future.

Pastoral care in times of high stakes testing and accountability

The unknown future is a challenge to educators in preparing young people for life post school. While history can be said to repeat itself, the reality is that each generation is faced with new challenges and threats. Therefore, the challenge for contemporary schooling is to prepare students to live in a fast paced, complex world where threats such as terrorism, cyberbullying and depleted resources are juggled with high stakes testing and curriculum accountability. This presentation draws on the notion of a future of supercomplexity while critically examining current pastoral care delivery in schools to develop a new model of practice in preparing students for an unknown future.

Representations of the Natural World in Old English Poetry

Review of Representations of the Natural World in Old English Poetry, by Jennifer Neville (Cambridge UP, 1999).

Structural Integrity of the Greek Key Motif in beta gamma-Crystallins Is Vital for Central Eye Lens Transparency

Background: We highlight an unrecognized physiological role for the Greek key motif, an evolutionarily conserved super-secondary structural topology of the beta gamma-crystallins. These proteins constitute the bulk of the human eye lens, packed at very high concentrations in a compact, globular, short-range order, generating transparency. Congenital cataract (affecting 400,000 newborns yearly worldwide), associated with 54 mutations in beta gamma-crystallins, occurs in two major phenotypes nuclear cataract, which blocks the central visual axis, hampering the development of the growing eye and demanding earliest intervention, and the milder peripheral progressive cataract where surgery can wait. In order to understand this phenotypic dichotomy at the molecular level, we have studied the structural and aggregation features of representative mutations. Methods: Wild type and several representative mutant proteins were cloned, expressed and purified and their secondary and tertiary structural details, as well as structural stability, were compared in solution, using spectroscopy. Their tendencies to aggregate in vitro and in cellulo were also compared. In addition, we analyzed their structural differences by molecular modeling in silico. Results: Based on their properties, mutants are seen to fall into two classes. Mutants A36P, L45PL54P, R140X, and G165fs display lowered solubility and structural stability, expose several buried residues to the surface, aggregate in vitro and in cellulo, and disturb/distort the Greek key motif. And they are associated with nuclear cataract. In contrast, mutants P24T and R77S, associated with peripheral cataract, behave quite similar to the wild type molecule, and do not affect the Greek key topology. Conclusion: When a mutation distorts even one of the four Greek key motifs, the protein readily self-aggregates and precipitates, consistent with the phenotype of nuclear cataract, while mutations not affecting the motif display `native state aggregation', leading to peripheral cataract, thus offering a protein structural rationale for the cataract phenotypic dichotomy ``distort motif, lose central vision''.

La teología pastoral de Evangelii Gaudium en el proyecto misionero de Francisco

Resumen: Este ensayo teológico comprende y expone el pensamiento pastoral del Papa Francisco, primer obispo de Roma y Papa latinoamericano, elegido desde las periferias del orbe para guiar al Pueblo de Dios en el corazón de la urbe. Francisco es un pastor misionero y un pastoralista lúcido, que ha enseñado teología pastoral y, lo sigue haciendo, de otra forma, desde el ministerio petrino. La exhortación Evangelii gaudium (2013) condensa de una forma orgánica su mirada a la evangelización en la huella de la exhortación Evangelii nuntiandi de Pablo VI (1975) y del Documento Conclusivo de Aparecida del Episcopado latinoamericano y caribeño (2007). La novedad de su pontificado reformador y misionero hunde sus raíces en la figura singular del jesuita argentino Jorge Mario Bergoglio; en su arraigo en la Iglesia latinoamericana y en el proyecto misionero de Aparecida; y en la incipiente pero promisoria teología argentina postconciliar. El autor hace un pormenorizado estudio sistemático y contextualizado de la exhortación La alegría del Evangelio desde el propio documento y en relación a otros textos de Jorge Bergoglio y, ahora, del Papa Francisco. Articula su discurso en dos momentos mostrando sus interrelaciones. El primero, breve, presenta al sucesor de Pedro como un icono de la fisonomía regional y la reflexión pastoral de la Iglesia latinoamericana. El segundo analiza nueve claves de la Evangelii gaudium: la alegría de evangelizar, síntesis de la mística misionera; la figura de la Iglesia centrada en la misión; la influencia del proyecto misionero de Aparecida; la conversión misionera para la reforma eclesial desde el Concilio Vaticano II; la Iglesia, Pueblo de Dios y Madre de los pueblos, como sujeto de la misión; la fuerza evangelizadora de la piedad católica popular; la revolución de la ternura comunicada en el Evangelio de la misericordia; la dimensión social del Evangelio y de la evangelización; la opción por los pobres desde el corazón de Dios.

El discernimiento teológico-pastoral de los signos de los tiempos en Medellín

Resumen: El proceso eclesial y teológico que llevó a la temática de la II Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano de Medellín se alimentó de diversas fuentes y constituyó un ejercicio de discernimiento teológico-pastoral de los signos de los tiempos latinoamericanos. La proximidad de los 50 años de la inauguración del Concilio Vaticano II ofrece una ocasión particular para hacer memoria y reflexionar sobre Medellín como un hito fundamental de la recepción conciliar en América Latina. El propósito de este estudio es realizar un recorrido histórico-genético del camino temático hacia la II Conferencia y presentar, a partir de él, una lectura interpretativa de los grandes temas de Medellín en la perspectiva de los signos de los tiempos. Como toda recepción es inacabada, queda abierta la tarea para reapropiarla y profundizarla.

“Evangelización con espíritu” (EG 261) : la unidad de la teología, la espiritualidad y la pastoral al servicio del anuncio del evangelio: una lectura de la exhortación pastoral Evangelii Gaudium desde la Teología Espiritual

Resumen: Uno de los grandes “maestros en teología” en la Argentina de los últimos tiempos, Lucio Gera (+07.08.2012), cuyo segundo aniversario de fallecido honramos en este número de la revista Teología, hablaba de la ineludible exigencia posconciliar de integrar teología, espiritualidad y pastoral. El capítulo V de Evangelii gaudium, “Evangelizadores con Espíritu” (cf. EG 259ss), se ubica especialmente en este horizonte de convicciones porque tiene un inconfundible contenido teológico, un marcado acento espiritual y una clara orientación y lenguaje pastoral, pero sobre todo en razón de expresar una íntima compenetración entre estas tres dimensiones. En este artículo, que reelabora y amplía una presentación oral en la Jornada Evangelii gaudium, organizada por la Facultad de Teología de la UCA el pasado 5 de junio, se asume el vigor de la propuesta de una “evangelización con espíritu” (EG 261) y se reflexiona, en diálogo con nuestra iglesia local, sobre cuatro aspectos relacionados con ella: 1. una teología de la “evangelización con espíritu”, es decir, “con Espíritu Santo”; 2. una espiritualidad contemplativa: amar la Palabra y gustar ser pueblo; 3. el estilo pastoral mariano de la evangelización; y 4. la danza de la teología, la espiritualidad y la pastoral al servicio de la alegría de evangelizar.

Desde el símbolo guadalupano : algunos criterios para el momento pastoral

Resumen: El autor de esta colaboración profundiza en una posibilidad que nos orienta a ser protagonistas en la construcción compartida de un presente más fraterno y auténticamente plural. El símbolo guadalupano se ofrece como un modelo que puede ayudar a mejor vivir el momento pastoral de la Teología. El suceso guadalupano sigue acaeciendo y analógicamente nos abre y propone una serie de fecundas precisiones, sugerencias e interrogantes. En tanto símbolo, del cual la Imagen de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe es su elemento nuclear, plasma e incentiva a encarnar una pragmática evangelizadora. Una dinámica de diálogo, inculturante e inculturador, que anima a dejar empapar lo propio por el Amor Salvador; y a compartirlo, como pueblo, con una actitud cordial y misericordiosa, y dando lugar a lo ajeno y al mestizaje.

Teología pastoral Inter Loci : una disciplina teológica ante el aporte de las experiencias creyentes en escenarios sociales contemporáneos

Resumen: El texto realiza una relectura del método Ver-Juzgar-Actuar teniendo en cuenta el acercamiento biográfico que ofrecen las ciencias sociales. Propone considerar que la Teología Pastoral desarrolla así un discurso sobre la Iglesia, la Academia y la Plaza Pública en el cruce que estos ámbitos tienen en las mismas prácticas cristianas, dando lugar a una Teología Inter Loci. Y describe el perfil teológico emergente en dicha experiencia utilizando el marco de las inteligencias múltiples.

Fe, cristianismo y humildad: núcleos teologales de la pastoral popular del padre Rafael Tello

Resumen: Sin pretender “espiritualizar” la teología del padre Rafael Tello, este artículo ofrece algunas de las vertientes en las que abreva la espiritualidad de la pastoral popular de la que el teólogo argentino es uno de sus más originales representantes. Indagaremos en ciertos núcleos teologales y teológicos que nos permitirán registrar una continuidad entre teología y vida, al tiempo que nos dejarán en el umbral de una propuesta evangelizadora que no es posible comprender sin esta manera de vivir la fe cristiana. De la mano de figuras tradicionales de la mística y de la teología como san Juan de la Cruz y santo Tomás de Aquino, el padre Tello nos propone recrear la vivencia del evangelio para los tiempos actuales.