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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]