26 pages, This research is intended to initiate understanding of how obesity in the South persists even though the majority of inhabitants subscribe to a faith that discourages unhealthy lifestyles. Grounded in the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, this study examined Protestant evangelical Christians in the South (N = 11), who participated in semi-structured interviews. The first emergent theme was that, to these Southerners, the purpose of food is for sustenance and survival, as well as for bringing people together. Most participants reported having an average level of knowledge of nutrition and health. Furthermore, participants generally agreed that marketing or educational efforts had little effect on their understanding of nutrition. Another theme emerged when participants provided Biblical references to food or health. “The Body is a Temple” and “gluttony” were the most common Biblical concepts. All participants referred to taste or desirability as the driver of their food selections. Furthermore, most participants claimed habitual gluttony as a personal experience in their lives. This study concluded that subjects employed two modes of “trivializing” as a way of resolving dissonance. Some participants justified their eating habits based on Southern culture, while others explained that their church culture supported unhealthy eating as a means of gathering in fellowship.
16 pages, There is growing evidence that religiosity affects important socio-economic outcomes. A potential channel through which religiosity affects these outcomes is by shaping individuals’ risk preferences. We combine a lab-in-the-field experiment, survey, and focus-group discussions to investigate the effect of religiosity on risk-taking among rural people in Ethiopia. We find evidence that religious farmers are more risk-taking. The effect is likely driven by the trust/belief in God as the omniscient and just power in determining outcomes under uncertainty. This is further corroborated by results from follow-up focus-group discussions.
15 pages, via Online journal, Critical food scholars have argued that activists’ political ideologies and environmental values are important influences on their food justice projects. However, this body of work has given little attention to religion and spirituality even though religious studies scholars maintain that religious values affect environmental and social action. Bringing together these perspectives considers the way religious values and meaning making intersect with actions toward food justice outside of traditionally religious spaces. This paper draws on qualitative research, including a dozen interviews and 11 months of participant observation, at Franklinton Farms, a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio. I demonstrate that Franklinton Farms team members reference diverse religious values and practices when explaining the meaning and significance of their farming. In addition, I argue that they renegotiate their religious values in light of the injustices they see in the food system. By examining religion and spirituality within a secular food space, this paper sheds light on an underexplored influence on whether and how alternative food spaces realize food justice.
Via online., "This research project aimed at identifying a new network of routes and historical itineraries for the development and promotion of rural tourism in the Tuscany Region, by promoting forms of sustainable mobility in rural areas, particularly marginal ones." Examples: shrines, churches, abbeys, hermitages and sacred places.
17 pages., Print ISSN: 0889-048X
Online ISSN: 1572-8366, Via online journal., Almost one-third of all U.S. Americans believe that Jesus Christ will return to Earth in the next 40 years, thereby signaling the end of the world. The prevalence of this end-times theology has meant that sustainability initiatives are often met with indifference, resistance, or even hostility from a significant portion of the American population. One of the ways that the scientific community can respond to this is by making scientific discourse, particularly as related to sustainability, more palatable to end-times believers. In this paper, I apply a historical–ecological framework, which emphasizes the interdisciplinary study of landscapes to understand long-term human–environment interactions, to three millennial religious groups that formed communes in nineteenth century America. The Shakers, Inspirationalists, and Mormons all blended deep beliefs in end-times theology with agricultural practices that were arguably more sustainable than those in use in the mainstream, and their ability to reconcile eschatology with sustainability provides us with potential lessons. By examining the history, doctrines, and agroecology of these nineteenth century communes, I propose communication strategies based in autonomy, institutional support, multigenerational narratives, and anthropocentricism as potential pathways for a more productive dialogue between advocates of sustainability initiatives and end-times believers in the modern United States.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 130 Document Number: D11276
Notes:
19 pages., Online from FAIR website., Addresses issues in media coverage in the Oregon standoff between federal authorities and a Patriot/Militia alliance of building occupiers and, more generally, anti-government protests and standoffs.
Hall, Clare (author), Toma, Luiza (author), Costa Madureira, Livia Maria (author), Barnes, Andrew (author), and Renwick, Alan (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2012-09-18
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 186 Document Number: D00922
Notes:
Paper presented at the 131st EAAE (European Association of Agricultural Economists) seminar, "Innovation for agricultural competitiveness and sustainability of rural areas," Prague, Czech Republic, September 18-19, 2012. 17 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D07334
Notes:
Pages 145-183 in Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Christoph Antweiler (eds.), Environmental uncertainty and local knowledge: Southeast Asia as a laboratory of global ecological change. Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany. 284 pages., Calls for sensitivity to local conditions, issues, uncertainties and knowledge. Notes loss in local knowledge. "Agencies need to realise that cultural diversity and local people's knowledge and practices should contribute significantly to our understanding and protection of natural environments."
Via Eighteenth Century Studies., Review of John Fea's The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America. Reviewer notes Fea's primary claim that the Enlightenment was about self-improvement. "This gives an entirely different focus from those studies of rural American Enlightenment that address the question of modernity through agricultural improvement."
Muturi, Nancy (author) and International Association for Media and Communication Research, London, UK.
Format:
Abstract
Publication Date:
2010-07-18
Published:
Kenya
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 180 Document Number: C36237
Notes:
Retrieved 03/22/2011, Via online. Page 15 in Book of Abstracts: Health Communication and Change of the IAMCR Conference, Braga, Portugal, July 18-22, 2010.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 176 Document Number: C30262
Notes:
7 pages., "If more of our news is going to be produced by non-traditional sources - like NGOs who have an interest in promoting their own agenda - how can news consumers sort through their sources and figure out who to believe?"
Via online issue. 1 page., Includes AgriTalk audio interview with Prof. Wes Jamison of Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida. Interviewed by Mike Adams.
Frandsen, Finn (author) and Johansen, Winni (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
Denmark: Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C36168
Notes:
Pages 425-448 in W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. Halladay (eds.), The handbook of crisis communication. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, U.K. 737 pages., Case study of responses by a Danish-Swedish dairy product marketer swept up in a controversy about Muhammed-related cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. How the marketer responded to negative Middle East reactions, including boycotts of Danish goods.
Via online UI subscription, Recent research suggests that Internet usage can positively influence social capital in
rural communities by fostering avenues for voluntary participation and creating social
networks. Most of this research has examined whether Internet use is associated
with participation in local organizations and social networks but not the means by
which residents use the technology to learn about local activities. To address this
gap in the literature, the authors use a mixed-methods approach in an isolated rural
region of the western United States to evaluate how residents use their connections
to maintain local social networks and learn about local community events and
organizations. The authors show that Internet usage can play an important role in
building social capital in rural communities, thus extending the systemic model of rural
voluntary participation and community attachment. Implications for rural community
development are addressed.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08685
Notes:
Pages 25-41 in William Ascher and John M. Heffron (eds.), Cultural change and persistence: new perspectives on development. Palgrave McMillan, New YorkCity, New York. 263 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 175 Document Number: C29956
Notes:
Presented at the European Science Foundation Seminar, "Quality and comparativity of measures for constructs in comparative research: methods and applications," Bolzano, Italy, June 12, 2009. 20 pages.
