Topic Review
Visualize sustainability
       The debate on definitions of sustainability and sustainable development continues is alive and well after fifty years.  What the debate reveals is that there are multiple perspectives, ideologies and projections involved, and that these concepts of hybrid ones.  This hybridity is also reflected in the long tradition of representing these concepts, as triangles, circles, systems diagrams and living organisms, among others.  In the same way that the definitions of sustainability and sustainable development have been organized by typology, these representations can also be grouped according to similar features, characteristics and etiologies.  A typology of visual representations of these concepts is important for two reasons.  The first is that it supports reflexive processes in education and communication.  The second is that it reveals the complexity and hybridity of these contested concepts.
  • 748
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Visual Ageism
The concept of “visual ageism” describes the media practice of visually underrepresenting older people or misrepresenting them in a prejudiced way. Visual ageism refers to visual representations of older people being in peripheral or minor roles without positive attributes; non-realistic, exaggerated, or distorted portraits of older people, and over-homogenized characterizations of older people. 
  • 1.2K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Vestiarium Scoticum
The Vestiarium Scoticum (full title, Vestiarium Scoticum: from the Manuscript formerly in the Library of the Scots College at Douay. With an Introduction and Notes, by John Sobieski Stuart) was first published by William Tait of Edinburgh in a limited edition in 1842. John Telfer Dunbar, in his seminal work History of Highland Dress referred to it as "probably the most controversial costume book ever written." The book itself purported to be a reproduction, with color ilustrations, of an ancient manuscript on the clan tartans of Scottish families. Shortly after its publication, it was denounced as a forgery and the "Stuart" brothers who brought it forth, and who claimed to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie himself, were likewise denounced as imposters. It is generally accepted today that both the brothers and the Vestiarium are indeed inauthentic. Nevertheless, the role of the book in the history of Scottish tartans is immense, with many of the designs and patterns contained therein passing into the realm of official clan tartans.
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  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Varnam
Varnam (meaning ‘colours’) is a social enterprise that has been working with artisans in Channapatna, Karnataka in India , for over 4 years. It has produced a series of designs interpreting this 200-year-old toy-making craft in the home and lifestyle, women's accessories space, giving tradition a contemporary twist. Using traditional lac-turnery methods popularised by the traditional Channapatna toys range, the label produces home and lifestyle products, toys and jewelry.
  • 240
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Varna Necropolis
The so-called Varna Necropolis (Bulgarian: Варненски некропол) (also Varna Cemetery) is a burial site from 4569–4340 BC in the western industrial zone of Varna (approximately half a kilometre from Lake Varna and 4 km from the city centre), internationally considered one of the key archaeological sites in world prehistory. There were other necropoles dating from later Greek and Roman periods around the ancient city. The oldest gold treasure in the world, dating from this period, was discovered at the site.
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  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Value (Ethics)
In ethics, value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining what actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different actions. Value systems are prospective and prescriptive beliefs; they affect ethical behavior of a person or are the basis of their intentional activities. Often primary values are strong and secondary values are suitable for changes. What makes an action valuable may in turn depend on the ethical values of the objects it increases, decreases or alters. An object with "ethic value" may be termed an "ethic or philosophic good" (noun sense). Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of actions or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person's sense of right and wrong or what "ought" to be. "Equal rights for all", "Excellence deserves admiration", and "People should be treated with respect and dignity" are representatives of values. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior and these types include ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political) values, social values, and aesthetic values. It is debated whether some values that are not clearly physiologically determined, such as altruism, are intrinsic, and whether some, such as acquisitiveness, should be classified as vices or virtues.
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  • 06 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Value
In social sciences, value refers to a deeply held belief or principle that guides individuals' attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making processes. Values are subjective and culturally influenced, reflecting what individuals consider important, desirable, or morally significant in their lives and interactions with others. They serve as guiding principles that shape social norms, institutions, and collective identities within society.
  • 237
  • 02 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Urban Sociology
Urban sociology is the sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, environmental processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by doing so provide inputs for urban planning and policy making. In other words, it is the sociological study of cities and their role in the development of society. Like most areas of sociology, urban sociologists use statistical analysis, observation, social theory, interviews, and other methods to study a range of topics, including migration and demographic trends, economics, poverty, race relations and economic trends. Urban sociology is one of the oldest sub-disciplines of sociology dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. The philosophical foundations of modern urban sociology originate from the work of sociologists such as Karl Marx, Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber and Georg Simmel who studied and theorized the economic, social and cultural processes of urbanization and its effects on social alienation, class formation, and the production or destruction of collective and individual identities. These theoretical foundations were further expanded upon and analyzed by a group of sociologists and researchers who worked at the University of Chicago in the early twentieth century. In what became known as the Chicago School of sociology the work of Robert Park, Louis Wirth and Ernest Burgess on the inner city of Chicago revolutionized not only the purpose of urban research in sociology, but also the development of human geography through its use of quantitative and ethnographic research methods. The importance of the theories developed by the Chicago School within urban sociology have been critically sustained and critiqued but still remain one of the most significant historical advancements in understanding urbanization and the city within the social sciences. The discipline may draw from several fields, including cultural sociology, economic sociology, and political sociology.
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  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Urban Land Expansion
At the county level, this entry investigated the relationship between urban land and regional economic development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region in China. The interaction effects were quantitatively investigated. The spatial effects decomposition was used to analyze the influence of socioeconomic factors on the scales of urban land through direct effect, spillover effect and total effect. It is an important finding that average wages are the most prominent among the spatial spillovers.
  • 777
  • 01 Dec 2020
Topic Review
University Social Responsibility
University Social Responsibility (USR) enhances educational development and the impact of universities on society. As a stakeholder in USR, it is imperative to develop a comprehensive literacy scale that reflects the development of students’ citizenship in social engagement.
  • 5.3K
  • 26 Apr 2022
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