REFLECTION

Redefining GDP: Integrating Carbon Pricing in National Income Accounting

Alan Seemon — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has long been a key metric for assessing economic activity but falls short as a measure of social welfare and sustainability. It overlooks unpaid labor, informal sectors, and environmental costs like deforestation and carbon emissions. For instance, while India's informal sector contributes significantly to GDP, much remains unaccounted for. Moreover, global GDP growth has historically correlated with rising CO₂ emissions. This paper advocates for integrating carbon pricing into GDP calculations, assigning costs to environmental degradation and incentivizing sustainable practices. By redefining progress, nations can align economic growth with social equity and environmental sustainability, fostering holistic development.

New Nomads and Van Life: Exploring the Concepts of Identity and Mobility

Dona Maria Saju — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities argues that the 'nation' is a cultural construct rather than a tangible entity. Despite its emotional significance and socio-political importance, the concept of the 'nation' remains an imagined phenomenon. This framework offers a lens to examine the lives of new nomads. New nomads, a growing subculture in America, travel in vehicles, engaging in seasonal or digital work while embracing a lifestyle of mobility and adventure. Works like Foster Huntington's Van Life: Your Home on the Road offers personal narratives of van dwelling, which challenge traditional structures, including the concept of the 'nation,' revealing their inherent fluidity.

Power and Surveillance: The Critical Examination of the Medical Construction of Fat

Juno Jose Kunnel — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Stigmatization and discrimination against individuals with higher body weights occur in multifarious ways in different cultures. Fatness was not a medical condition or even a health issue a century before. Medical field was more concerned about slenderness. But fatness is assessed as a medical condition nowadays. Upswing in the pathologization of fatness, through which the medical industries thrive is shocking. This paper tries to analyze, with the help of the Foucauldian terminologies- power, panopticon and surveillance, how and why the medical industry medicalizes fat.

Post humanism theoretical aspects and moral implications (Malayalam)

Fr. Abhilash Dominic — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is an article about post humanism and it's moral perspectives. This article tries to discuss the age old anthropocentric concepts which discards other living creatures and non living things. The imperfections of anthropocentric ideologies are clearly discussed in this article on the basis of moral standards and elaborates the wholistic nature of post humanism basing on these concepts .