Technological and medical advancements have led to a steady increase in the life expectancy and in the size of the older adult population. Consequently, the number of age-related ailments, such as Alzheimer’s disease, is on the rise. In addition to the emotional and psychological struggle experienced by patients and their families, Alzheimer’s disease poses a [...]

Touch is now recognized as a stand alone contributor to a young child’s healthy development. Aside from providing comfort and security, touch has also proven to be fundamental to the social and physical development of the infant. Such findings have wide implications for health-promotion programs and for managing costs of early infant care.

Marco Fedele, [...]

Ray Hsu reflects on his experience teaching incarcerated writers in a Wisconsin prison and on how his work foregrounds the politics of funding in education.  As a poet and student, he explores how authorship amounts to a form of privilege in some publics and not others, divisions produced and exacerbated by funding bodies.

Nico Hogg, [...]

Artists Damien Hirst and Tobias Wong recently unveiled controversial pieces that, in contrast with the anti-commercial work of their contemporaries, celebrate the luxury object. Do these artists represent a conservative strain in contemporary art that makes art complicit with commodity culture? Or is their work on luxury a modern expression of art-for-art’s sake, an aesthetic [...]

Since the 1980s we have seen the rise of forensic-based human rights organizations working to scientifically document crimes against humanity on an international scale. It is perhaps too early to tell what effect the conjunction of scientific data and eyewitness testimony will have on historical writing. However, discernible changes are already apparent with regard to [...]

Last February Al Gore and British billionaire Richard Branson presented the Virgin Earth Challenge. It operates on the assumption that there is a technological solution to the climate change crisis. Technology materializes a particular relationship to the world. Does modifying our technology change this relationship? And how do technological innovations help or hinder our attempts [...]

The Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) is being touted by industrialized nations as a way to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 25 percent within the span of the next decade, with the added benefits of forest conservation and capacity building in the developing world. Among the serious [...]

New York is set to become the first North American city to levy fees on drivers accessing downtown streets. Promoted originally by a business think tank and later championed by New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, the plan would charge private motorists $8 and truck drivers $21 to access Manhattan south of 86th Street from [...]

Exploitative violence – the brand depicted in many popular films, including Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s recent release, Grindhouse –is a prevalent fixture of the media landscape. Violence figures differently in various societies. For some, violence, or the threat of violence, is a daily terror. For others, violence is predominantly entertainment. Popular culture’s portrayal of [...]

Claiming land was one of the central motivations for European settlement of Canada. For centuries, Europeans took possession of territory occupied by First Nations under the pretext of possessing superior cultural institutions. Recently, an Algonquin First Nations cultural centre in Quebec was vandalized with white supremacist insignia. The act, as well as societal reaction to [...]

Despite their explosive commercial and popular success, video games continue to be limited in their ability to convey messages outside of their purposes of entertainment. This essay looks at the example of the game Super Columbine Massacre RPG (SCMRPG) and explores what its rejection from an independent games festival means for the potential of the [...]

Following a decade of failed peacekeeping endeavours across Africa at the end of last century, the United Nations (UN) was forced to re-evaluate its role as a global institution for conflict resolution. In the newly reformulated African Union (AU), the UN seems to have found a reliable regional ally to help share the burden of [...]

Large foreign aid commitments garner good publicity. Pledges are generally viewed positively and are not considered further. In turbulent situations, though, one must ask whether these financial commitments translate into positive changes on the ground. Unfortunately, there is not always a clear relationship between aid and peace. Drawing heavily on Mary Anderson, this article will [...]

The European Community (EC) has come a long way since its initial attempts at merger control under provisions which were only tangentially applicable. Merger legislation of the 1980s enabled the European Commission to develop a test of market dominance for the assessment of transactions between undertakings. However, this test did not allow for the consideration [...]

Micro-credit revolutionized rural economic development. While micro-credit institutions such as the Grameen Bank were heavily subsidized in the past, the current view among policy makers is that self-sustainability is needed to add to the impact of these institutions. However, some of Grameen Bank’s goals, such as fighting poverty and increasing the standard of living of [...]

What are we to make of the existing coverage of international current affairs? Analogously, we may ask ourselves whether the present mediascape adequately reflects the effects international issues have on our daily lives. Though a handful of publications cover international issues exclusively, national coverage and public relations are generally the priority. The status quo thus [...]

L’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) a vu le jour il y a de cela 12 années dans un contexte où la méfiance et la fascination semblaient réunir les tenants et les opposants du libre-échange. Dès lors, l’OMC s’était imposée comme étant une promesse de la continuité, mais aussi une annonce de changement. En théorie, dans [...]

«Ils ont les mains blanches mais ils n’ont pas de mains»
- Charles Péguy
Le 22 avril dernier, les Français et les Françaises ont provoqué la tenue d’un deuxième tour pour les présidentielles. Après le camouflet d’avril 2002, qui nous a fait voir Jean-Marie Le Pen là où nous attendions le candidat socialiste Lionel Jospin, le Parti [...]

Les citoyens sont de plus en plus nombreux à descendre dans la rue pour revendiquer l’adoption de lois et de conventions internationales pour assurer la protection de l’environnement. Les manifestations qu’a entraînées le Protocole de Kyoto en sont une illustration éloquente. Or, malgré ces efforts, les bilans de l’état de notre planète sont toujours aussi [...]

Tradition iconoclaste ayant connu ses heures de gloire au cours des années 1970 et 1980, la projection de films à minuit demeure un phénomène assez peu connu. Les œuvres  présentées, réalisées avec peu de moyens et loin de constituer ce qu’on pourrait appeler du cinéma«grand public», sont pourtant devenues, pour la plupart, des «classiques» du [...]

Depuis les attentats du 11 septembre 2001, la question de la torture fait régulièrement les manchettes. Le 20 juillet dernier, Georges W. Bush en a condamné l’usage, dans un texte pour le moins ambigu(1). Lentement, des voix s’élèvent et exigent des autorités qu’elles rendent des comptes à la population. Si l’existence de la torture ne [...]

Le 26 novembre 2006, la première usine marémotrice au monde fêtait ses 40 ans. Cette centrale de Rance, en France, produit 500 millions de kWh chaque jour et fournit à elle seule 90% de la production électrique de la Bretagne(1). Cette infrastructure, qui a nécessité trois années de travail, illustre une fois de plus l’ingéniosité humaine [...]

L’objet de cet article est d’étudier les liens entre la mise en discours politique des sans-abri, en France, à la fin des XIXe et XXe siècles, et les pratiques juridiques dont ils sont l’objet aux deux époques. Il s’agit de mettre en évidence, à l’aide d’une étude historique comparée des peines et sanctions juridiques établies [...]

Jardim Vitória est le nom d’un quartier situé en périphérie de la ville de Cuiabá, capitale du Mato Grosso au Brésil. Sa croissance rapide et désordonnée, l’important niveau de violence et de chômage ainsi que le manque d’infrastructures sanitaires affectent la qualité de vie des habitants. La situation socio-économique du quartier est une fenêtre sur [...]

Noam Chomsky et Gilbert Achcar sont deux intellectuels dont la réputation n’est plus à faire. Dans La poudrière du Moyen-Orient: Washington joue avec le feu(1), leurs réponses aux questions de Stephen Shalom offrent un point de vue holistique sur la situation au Moyen-Orient, ainsi qu’un examen des principales questions qui s’avère également [...]

Le premier ministre japonais, Shinzo Abe, fait face à une constante baisse de popularité depuis son accession au poste il y a près d’un an. En témoigne la récente déconvenue du Parti libéral démocratique (LPD) aux élections de la chambre haute, où il a perdu sa majorité. Produit de la frange conservatrice du LPD, Abe [...]

Il n’y a pas que les techniques de surveillance utilisées par les agences de renseignement américaines qui soulèvent des questions de légalité. Les façons dont ces techniques sont approuvées aux plus hauts échelons de l’administration sont aussi, d’un point de vue légal, contestées. Est-ce que les conceptions de «l’État de droit» se révèlent être de [...]